Darren Tate – Horizons 01 (Album)
Mondo Recordings
Tracklisting
1) Now We Are Free
2) Horizons
3) Venus
4) Nocturnal Creatures
5) Dawn
6) All That I Am
7) Let the Light Shine In
8) Deliverence
9) Now Is The Time
10) The Other Love
11) Prayer For God
Darren Tate has been involved in producing Citizen Caned, Angelic, Orion, Jurgen Vries and
more recently DT8 Project tracks. He is also the owner of Mondo Records which is consistently
churning out quality trance tracks. Darren brings his debut artist album, which is 11 tracks
from the past, present & future.
The album starts off with ‘Now We Are Free’ – the clever people among you will work out the
track idea was taken from the film ‘Gladiator’!! This was massive in 2003/2004 and had remixes
from the Lost Brothers and B’Jammin. Darren’s version is a really nice way to start the
album as the start uses a really nice peaceful riff and it sets the tone perfectly for him
to showcase his productions.
The second track on the album brings a new production in ‘Horizons’, which is more mellow
and includes a breaks section during the main build up. This uses some really floaty riffs
and the chord changes work really well.
For thirds we have Venus which starts off with some very emotional chord changes. There is a
mini build up which is used to introduced the baseline. The riffs used in the build up act
as teasers for the main melody, which comes after the track is reduced to a very very quite
riff. The main melody is a very powerful version of the ones used in the build up and works
really well and would create a loud atmosphere in a club.
Next up we have the absolute classic that is ‘Nocturnal Creatures’, which was a collaboration
with Jono Grant and was one of my favourite tracks of 2003. It still sounds really fresh and
different to a lot of trance that is coming out these days. The drums make you feel like the
track is constantly building up to something. They actually remind me of Healy & Amos –
Stamp, as do some of the male vocals. Some tracks have a bar break before they drop and don’t
sound right, however it works really well with this track.
The 5th track is called ‘Dawn’. It works really well because it follows on from two very
powerful tracks and gives the audience a small reprieve. One of the ripply riffs is very
similar to the kind he used in ‘Take My Hand’. I really enjoyed this track because it again
showcases a slightly different side of Darren’s productions skills.
Track 6 is a nice emotional trancer called ‘All That I Am’. I don’t think it’s the strongest
track on the album and probably never was intended to be in the first place! However it’s a
very nice typical trance tune. I would love to get a dub of this as I find the vocals a
little bit cheesy for my liking!
Track 7 is the classic ‘Let the Light Shine In’. Scumel & Choopie must have got the idea
for ‘Sunrising’ from this track as a lot of the elements sound very similar. Build up is
very nice and I love the way it quietened right down and then brought back up again to a
massive crescendo.
Deliverance is something a little bit different and I can imagine it going off big time in
a club. Recognise the main riff and I think it works really well in conjunction with the
bassline. It makes a positive change in the album as we’ve just heard two rather big room
trancers and this is definitely a little techier.
Now Is the Time is another techier track, but with more trance elements added in the form of
the main melody. The vocals are well used and kept minimal. Not really my thing this one,
but it works nicely before the final few tracks.
The Other Love is another classic trancer and has a wonderfully distinctive baseline and
lush melodies throughout. Lovely piano riffs and vocals are used during the breakdown.
The whole song just works a treat and would have been a perfect alternative track to end
the album I feel.
But the track Darren has chosen to end the album on is ‘Prayer For God’. Being a massive psy
trance fan, I love some of the more acidy riffs and a gorgeous lush riff introduced in the
build up. There is also another riff in there which reminds me of Liquid Child – Diving Faces
a lot as well! The breakdown is something very different and refreshing
I really enjoyed this album. Its provided all sorts of different styles of trance and it has
been put together very well indeed. Definitely well a worth while purchase for any trance
fan. If you want to purchase this album, you can do directly from the Mondo Records Website
(link above).
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Serenity : 
Review by Tom Yelland
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