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FERRY CORSTEN - L.E.F. (LOUD ELECTRONIC FEROCIOUS) (ULTRA) |
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Ferry Corsten returns to light up dance floors with "L.E.F. (Loud Electronic Ferocious)", attacking with emotionally elevational music that is both light and substantial (light=not cumbersome). The music kicks in post-intro with "Are You Ready,' a tasty blast of electro stylings. Following that is the blazing hot single "Fire," which puts a dirtyfuzz distortion over 80s-esque melodies topped by vox from Simon LeBon of Duran Duran, with all coming together into uplifting pop energy. The title track bursts with infectiousness and answers the question of what the love child of synth pop and electro would sound like. "Into the Dark" truly does bring a more nighttimey mood to the music and ups the atmospheric ante with a track that is more subtle and sublime but every bit as emotive as what's gone before or what follows and whose vocals are truly poignant. Touching ... Then it's on to "Galaxia," with Corsten moving into the trance territory with which he's so familiar; and he's still got his touch, with "Beautiful" continuing the trance audio narrative. "Possession" shows that Corsten is clinging to the trance motif as the disc reaches midpoint, with some tingling textures and slices of electro and a vocal line. Uber-minimalist whispertrance serves as the backbone of "On My Mind" as it builds its progressive textures and layers in the pretty singing. "Down on Love" picks the energy back up with epic, ethereal references to new wave style melodies and personality-infused vocals. "Forever" pumps it up to some tunage that is muscular in its electroness and very feminine (in an empowered sort of way) with its retrofunkishness. The abrupt beginning and aggressive attitude of "Watch Out" suit its heavy, lush electropunch and pseudoindustrial vocal approach. "Junk" continues in a heavier vein with hip-hop stylings informing the vox, and "Cubikated" uses huge, intimidating electro melody lines and grabs a bit of gabber but without sandblasting the hell out of you; a huge track. We reach the end with "Freefalling", whose soft beauty stands out in sharp relief against the two previous aggro tracks. Corsten has evolved as an artist, not abandoning trance but expanding his repertoire considerably, ably bringing a batch of tracks that are varied but which work well together. (Vocalists and collaborators here include Howard Jones, Guru, Debra Andrew, Oz, Denise Stahlie and LeBon.) -- review by Kristofer Upjohn
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