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Release Information
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Artist: Solarstone
Title: Touchstone
Label: Solaris Recordings
Cat. No.: SLRSCDLP007
Tracks: 12
Size: 121.57 MB
Quality: 203kbps / 4410Khz / Joint Stereo
Genre: Electronic
Street date: 2010-06-28
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Tracklisting
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1. Is There Anyone Out There 5:39
2. Ultraviolet 8:28
3. Night Signals 7:06
4. Touchstone 8:54
5. Electric Love 6:04
6. Intravenous 4:59
7. Twisted Wing 7:45
8. Slowmotion 5:14
9. The Best Way To Make Your Dreams Come True Is To Wake Up 5:56
10.Zeitgeist 6:14
11.The Last Defeat (Part Two) 9:03
12.There's A Universe 4:24
Total Track Time 79:46
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Release Notes
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"In 2008 he produced Rain Stars Eternal, his rebirth 2.0 artist album
and in 2009 he imagined and created Electronic Architecture - his
IDMA-nominated concept compilation vision. Now, for a new decade,
Solarstone returns withà Touchstone.
In ways big and small, conscious or otherwise, inspiration happens to
everyone, everyday of their lives. Musicians are perhaps intrinsically
even more open to it. Lines thick, thin, straight and curved are drawn
to productions that span back over many decades... In his own production
work, identifying these inspirations, down to their smallest fraction is
something that Solarstone (composer, producer, singer & DJ Richard
Mowatt) has long been captivated by.
Touchstone, his new artist album, brings these inspirations out of the
cortex and into the light, æmusically mappingÆ, for the first time, an
artist that has at every turn sought to redefine the word trance.
As with every album ever produced, influences are there to be picked up
on by the listener. On Touchstone though they are first illuminated,
clarified and examined by the artist himself. Richard goes on to
explain: "To me musical inspiration comes in many forms. It can be
artists that IÆve fallen in love with wholesale and still venerate to
this day, or simply fragments of music that made a lasting impression at
arbitrary points in my lifeö.
'Touchstone' is a culmination of all those inspirations." As the
producer of the first æBalearic tranceÆ track - Rich has, himself, has
had first-link-in-the-chain experience of this. Giving an instant
musical definition to the albumÆs theme, the epic guitars of the title
track (played by Richard himself) will resonate immediately with fans of
æSeven CitiesÆ. ItÆs SolarstoneÆs own touchstone.
Those expecting æ11 more of the sameÆ by now should probably know
better!
The album opens up cavernously in the most unrestricted manner
imaginable. With its Bowie-ish undertones, opening track æIs There
Anyone Out ThereÆ - vocalled by Bill McGruddy, formerly of arch-indie
agitators The Southern Electrics - focuses on the darker side of
progressive trance. Melodic, and with a Jon Marsh/Beloved-like lament to
the vocals, æElectric LoveÆ (also McGruddy) builds minute on minute into
a floor-devouring colossus. With its slo-mo, beatless chillout factor
set æhighÆ, the Pink Floyd/Led Zep leanings of æIntravenousÆ are
unmistakably worn on its sleeve. To the same extent (but in an entirely
different style) so is æThe Best WayÆs dawn-of-synth-pop partiality.
Back at the higher end of TouchstoneÆs tempo-scale, æSlowmotionÆ
(featuring FinlandÆs Orkidea) is quite possibly the ultimate classic
Sasha/Digweed Renaissance track for a post-millennial audience. Creating
an authenticity to the sound (one that, pre-listen, is impossible to
envisage), it perfectly captures the deep, throbbing subterranean
progressive of the early Nineties.
Breaks (as ever on a Solarstone album) are fully represented by the
plucked string majesty of æUltravioletÆ and the orchestral hit of
æTwisted WingÆ - both ready to keep the broken-beats contingent well-fed
& watered.
Fans will no doubt remember that the original mix of æThe Last DefeatÆ
featured as æRain Stars EternalÆs dΘnouement. Last year Solarstone
decided that the track could be further developed and added to it with
major new Namlook & Primal Scream influenced sequences. He then pulled
off a collaboration coup of quite some magnitude by tracking down
electronic music doyenne Lucia Holmes. After some degree of coaxing, the
legendary singer agreed to a return and has delivered an enthralling
vocal aspect to create æThe Last Defeat Pt 2Æ. In doing she has given
the track that organic decade-hopping Sunscreem touchstone, and an
increasingly meditative edge.
Much is likely to be said about æTouchstoneÆs parting shot - a ædown the
rabbit-holeÆ moment if ever an album had one, æThereÆs A UniverseÆ
throws a warm backwards glance at British guitar bands past. Albarn
meets Anderson, Blur meets Suede (albeit for a new generation) it will
create many a sun-splashed mindÆs-eye picture of anyone age enough to
have gone through a festival turnstile in the 90s.
æTouchstoneÆ is an eyes-wide-open reaction against the disposable nature
of digital-only electronic music and one that is designed to live a
long, healthy life in the CD collections of open-minded music lovers
around the world."