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Trance World
By “Earth Trybe” (David and Diane Arkenstone) Paras Records, 2001 http://www.parasrecordings.com With the name Arkenstone, you know you are going to get professional quality, and this his ‘n’ hers recording is just that. The pop ambient veteran David Arkenstone teams with his multi-instrumentalist (and bright-toned vocalist) wife Diane, along with some other fine players, to create a rocking album of world-inspired dance music some might call it “world techno.”Usually, I complain when “world” elements are used in pop music, since I am concerned with cultural exploitation, but in this case, the elements are carefully selected to be “universal” involved not with Aboriginal ideas or beliefs, but with pure melody, rhythm, and tone texture, so I am happy to just enjoy this happiness-inducing album with no qualms about anything inappropriate.
The flute playing (by George Tortorelli) is enchanting, especially on track 3, “Constellation Communication,” which is a bubbling fountain of charm, and the sensuous track 4, “Freedom of Movement.” David’s synthesizer playing is, as usual, right on target harmonically, neither dissonant nor dull, but concise and un-confused. The harmonies throughout follow the modal standard of much modern world-popular music. An added bit of “Orb” like technoseasoning is the inclusion of voice samples, some of them from historic spaceflight (as in track 5, “Telemetry”), others from Diane’s seductive spoken voice (telling us about undersea glow-creatures in “Illuminescence,” track 7).
This slick and colorful album combines all the good things about techno-pop without bogging down in pretentious “save-the-planet” or “world peace” propaganda. It’s light and airy, unashamed to be entertaining, and so far one of my favorite albums of the big millennium year 2001. HMGS rating: 9 out of 10 7/29/01
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