It's been a long time coming - and since their first
published track (a gem on Playground called "Goose
Bump") the artist tandem "Behind Blue Eyes" have had
their forthcoming album on everyone's minds. Finally,
almost an entire year and *countless* studio hours
later, the album - a self titled masterpiece - is
finally ready for global distribution starting
November 23rd of this year. Nine tracks and cover art
by Hayden Strom of Antix - this in not a release to
sleep on!

As if the two geniuses behind the project need any
introduction, "Behind Blue Eyes" is a combination of
Michael Banel (aka DJ Banel and co-head of Denmark's
premiere record label, IBOGA Records) and Rene Nielsen
who everyone knows as one-half the global phenomenon,
"Beat Bizarre." Those two, with major support from the
entire Iboga family, have put forth a 9-track album
which will not only quench everyone's thirst for more,
but will also establish "Behind Blue Eyes" as yet
another superior trance artist on Iboga's roster - a
label which already features the likes of Phony
Orphants, Antix, Freq, Oryx, Beat Bizarre, and many
others.

The album was originally due out on November 9th, but
by late September and a mini-tour of Portugal; it was
clear that the album was not quite ready for mass
distribution. If anything, the delay was expected.
Iboga has taught us a lot through the years; nothing
more important than "good things take time." Iboga
albums (save a few) that come out "on time" usually
pale in comparison to the ones that are delayed so the
production artists can take "extra days" to make it
perfect. I need only call Phony Orphant's latest
release "ETC" or Frogacult's gem "Something for
Sundays" to mind to make my point. Later, when I
learned Hayden Strom from Antix, Martin Zimmerman from
Beat Bizarre, Mikael and Jeppe from Phony Orphants and
many other reknown Iboga minds would be working on the
album in the "perfecting" process, I knew it would be
a hit.

And let me tell you: it is! Anyone who has come to
know and love the music of Beat Bizarre will
immediatley recognize some of the kick drums and
basslines in this beauty. Ominous, massaging, and at
times down right stomping; the kick drums in this
album drive the tracks forward - sometimes playing the
lead role and at others submerging in the background
while pristine melodies and uplifting synth stabs take
control. What seperates this album from those made
exclusively by Beat Bizarre, however, is a newer focus
on... how do you say?... the kinder and the gentler.
:-) The tracks themselves still have a deep, funky,
and zoological feel - but that atmosphere is now
coupled beautifully - *brilliantly even*- with higher pitched and slighltly
more uplifting sounds and samples. The tracks have
gone from existing deep in the earth's core - to
existing somewhere closer to ground level - maybe
even one meter above sea level. :-) One needs only
listen as far as TRACK 1 ("Excerpts from Dreams") to
hear this.

The track begins with a driving, chugging,
"bizarre-esque" bassline - and then is complemented in
the 2nd and 3rd minutes by eerie piano samples, a
groovy ?banjo? line, and an array of synth lines that
keep the track deep but remove anything scary, eerie
or ominous from it. In fact, by the time the first
breakdown ends and the bassline kicks back in,
"Excerpts From Dreams" has become a funky head-shaker
that will certainly move you from wherever you may be
at the time.

I credit much of this to to Banel's influence on the
project. If we learned anything from the brilliance of
Beat Bizarre (and Martin's original solo project "The
Martian" before that) it's the fact that these two
guys have an affinity towards the deep-end of an
ecclectic pool of sounds -all which seem to mimick
sounds you may hear at a zoo or in some New Dehli
marketplace. Cows wander by in the streets of Marakesh
- stray cats scurry around the dumpsters in Cape Town
- a child walks for the first time into the "fun
house" in a west-Texas carnival. Those are the ideas
(along with so many others) that Beat Bizarre captured
in their hit releases "Lewd," "Pandora's Groovebox"
and "Somersault Industries." "Behind Blue Eyes" takes
the sounds of those ideas and gives them a slightly
more uplifting and slightly less edgy feel - all
without removing an ounce of authenticity from them.
And this, as aforementioned, is, in my theory, thanks
to Banel.

As Iboga has slowly and steadily become the hallmark
of global progressive trance; Banel has been the
quiet, steady, and stable force behind the closed
doors of the label. While the mastermind artists of
the collective Iboga mind (and there are many) slaved
away in the studios week after week, month after
month; it was Banel who calmly made sure the albums
were ready for distribution on time, the booking
schedules were in order, and the correct contacts were
in place to ensure the Iboga family cound remain on
top of things. He became an amazing DJ in th process,
published a mix-CD on Iboga and now, some eight years
since the label's first release, is part of one of the
newest artists on the already-outstanding Iboga
roster. His mellow yet serious and calm yet stern
demeanor - differing so much from the extroverted and
social folks he works with - is easily heard and
appreciated in these tracks!

Track 5, a little ditty called "Brumbasse" is yet
another example of BBE's fine blending of styles. Like
Track 1, it starts with a hard-driving kick/bassline.
Soon, a couple hard cavernous stabs enter the picture,
followed by a series of eerie horn sounds. The stabs
continue to enter and exit as they see fit, while more
structured entries come into the picture. While the
depth remains in these patterns, some of the stabs
become lighter and more lifted. High pitched chimes,
strings, and what sounds like the gun sounds from a GI
JOE cartoon enter. Wispy violins make an appearance
for a few beats, followed by a piano for a few more -
all the while, that driving Beat Bizarre Bassline
chugs underneath it all. Then, the breakdown - the
locomotiove stops for a moment, and a child-like piano
plays with more wispy and atmospheric samples.

When the bass kicks again, it is soon followed by
melodic synth patterns
that are uplifting - more piano passages bringing
forth a feeling of human longing. Like a big human
"SIGH" - the track takes on new life with the entry of
more airy and stratoshperic samples. Where the stabs
were once the gentle sounds - now, they take the lead
patterns. And where the subterranean grime once held
the lead patterns, those sounds are now the stabs. And
again, the kick/bassline we heard during the first
three seconds of the track keeps on chugging
underneath. When the "switch" is finally complete -
the track simply comes to an end. It has said what it
wants and only a few piano notes seperate the final
kick strike and the end of the track.

Like so much we've heard from this label in the past
years, this album is trance that GOES SOMEWHERE! I'll
admit, I'm a HUGE fan of trance that starts at point
A, crosses a long and desolate plateau, and then ends
back at point A.. Though that trance may not "go
anywhere" in the ears of its critics, it is those
tracks which leave the most room for the listener to
fill in with his or her own imagination. Like stick
figure drawings, the minimal and linear trance track
allows us to fill in all the details and subtlties
with our own minds. Such tracks are the very reason
Progressive trance is a global genre full of humble,
and - for lack of a better word - "human" artists. The
tracks need the audience as much as the audience needs
the tracks. And, being some of the most intelligent
and aware people I know, it is often the musical
genius who realizes this fact in the deepest part of
his or her psyche.

What, in my mind, makes "Brumbasse" such an amazing
track is the fact that the whole transformation is
done with a minimum of sounds and done with the same
bassline playing throughout the entire song. It's a
track that "goes somewhere without really going
anywhere." Its "fights without fighting." It "drives
without changing location." All the travelling is done
in the stabs and the patterns which enter, fall out,
and then give thier place to the next one in line.
Like Banel and Rene themselves, it is a modest,
humble, and appreciative track. It allows for the
listener to fill in the details, but allows them to do
it in the confines of two polar opposite feelings
which trade places between the start and finish of the
track. The overall import of the track is one of
transformation and growth - and, in hearing it over a
large system - it is possible to listen to that growth
happen without ever getting the feeling of going
anywhere. It's like going on a trip, but staying in
your living room. It's like growing old, but never
feeling old. It's like going to your best friends
funeral, but living the rest of your life feeling he's
right by your side. It's like living through your
parents divorce but never losing and ounce of love or
respect for either one of them. And its all done at
that magical number... 133.

What makes this album all the more appealing is the
fact that Emok wrote a remix of Brumbasse, which
appears as TRACK 9. And, just as Emok has done with
so many albums, so many tracks, and so many events
as a whole - he takes something seemingly perfect and
makes it EVEN BETTER! A few soulful vocal samples,
that electro-orientation that envelops the new Phony
Orphants album, the trademark Phony Orphants grinding
and gritty breath injects new life into the track and
a whole new emotion is captured without losing the
grounds of the original import. A catchy and
repetitive dance hook for the first few minutes, an
organic and orphant-esque middle structure, a
breakdown featuring an IDENTICAL piano sample as the
original, and then a big re-entry of the Phony
Orphants funk! A building electro line welcomes a big
disco kick/hi-hat rhythm and the soulful vocal returns
with a new vengaence! Soon, the electro-groove and the
piano are in control and all you wanna do is dance!
The hook from the first minute returns and its like
the whole family meeting up after a long few years
apart! If this track is all about transformation and
change - then Emok uses it to show the change he and
the Phony Orphants project have underwent over the
past few years as well. In the start, we have funky,
ecclectic, and dance-friendly trance. By the end, we
have a symphony of vocals, electro rythms, and a
soul-driving organization of sounds that drive us all
to want "JUST ONE MORE TRACK!! ONE MORE TRACK"

Obvioulsy, I can't say enough about the new "Behind
Blue Eyes" album. Every so often, I'll get an album
and long-winded rants and raves like this one will be
the result. Give it a listen - I can assure that you
will NOT be disappointed!!