Voyager (3) – Beatnik / Apollo

I love how Voyager uses a sample from an instrumental piece by The Alan Parsons Project called "Voyager" to open his track Beatnik. Nice reference there...
And although I really like Beatnik, it's obviously Apollo which steals the show. Classic 12", get it if you can!

Just scored this for a tenner off the bay in the UK. These records do turn up for cheap, you just have to be patient! don't pay these shark prices.....

Quite simply one of the most immersive and wonderful releases. Up there with Seba & Lotek's Track 'So long'. When the beats kicks in on this tune, it feels like the planets have aligned and all is well in the universe.

I just want to say that the musical melodies in Apollo are breathtaking (hard to follow the in-depth review below!) Ethereal stuff
Check out his other track 'Voyager' on Lucky Spin. Precious, precious music from way back when.

If there is a record from this not so well known producer (not as he should be) still to be amazed by, this is the one !!!
If you don't have it, search it by any means !!!!!
And if music can really have an influence on life, then, for me, there is before and after the "Apollo" tune ...
I , tear in my eyes, nearly falling on my knee when I listened this kind of cosmic musical prayer for the very first time.
This track is not only an underground anthem of the GLO events circa 1997/98.
It's much much more than that.

A sweet yet solemn melody of choirs emerges from limbo of discreet fx, slowly opening "Apollo" in the low , bringing the impression of some religious ceremonial.
Introduced by a floating cymbal, a little piano motif in minor tonality gets in, repeated from one bar to another, becoming a key-element that will punctuate the whole track.
Soon, sublime orchestral strings take place in the high range like bows of unknown light under a starry sky along with a deep new layer rising for a celestial dawn and being incidentaly like a sound test for your loudspeakers !!!
There VOYAGER takes advantage of the intermixed resonances to add other elements and effects :
a vocal extension from the first choirs that will interact with the piano, that one being amplified through a pinch of delay.
With another generous touch of cymbal, the full drums enter for a ionate rush, dauntless and haunting.
The first part sees the epic strings surrounding the kind of dialogue between the choirs and the piano which plays a second little pattern, like an echo in adjunction to each appearence of the first.
...And then, after the first 3 minutes of the track, this instrumental glee suddenly finds itself pushed into one of the more dazzling moments of d'n'b short history ...
As if an invisible hand was turning a page of the book of Universe, all frequencies turn to high , a plain-chant of transcendent chorus coming out of the throats of unknown celestial beings invades the sonic space, now wide open on musical images of the infinite, causing cinematic illusion of zero gravity, "suspended in time" as Mc CONRAD & DRS once dropped over it ...
At that point, the piano signal has muted, firing flashes after flashes of intense emotion, like distress calls that would have cross millions of light years to reach us.
Well... Peak of the drama isn't far now ...
Just wait and see for the lonesome murdering melody of symphonic strings dropping their hymn to space age heroes, past, present and future
...and you'll have an idea of what once made my eyes wet.
To say it's essential doesn't pay half the homage this heavenly emotional elevator deserves.
It's more than music as it tells ultimately a story of beauty, hope and sacrifice.

Not to be forgotten, on the other side is "Beatnik", a solid jazzstep affair.
The first sound to be heard is an interrogative key pattern, waiting for something, soon sustained by loops of Rhodes chords, with delay on in the low and arranged in continuous "walkin'" style in the medium, reinforcing the latent blue mood in the air while a percussive snare drum begins to beat, intertwined with tambourine's quiverings and occasional other drums.
When the full rhythm comes in, fierce and wild, there is no compromise : the first bitterness gives way to angry urgency as a dramatic string layer soars up briefly in the high .
Soon the bass s the game with its jumpin' figures.
It's not until the translucent filtered piano chords glittering in low range like heavy drops, that we hear the first quiet notes of this tormented tune in which a disillusion vibe predominates.
Further sound to soften a bit the precise breaks and rugged syncopes of the breathless drums' flow (litteraly delivering a "wall" of flying cymbals !!!) is the soprano sax.
Born from light touches of short notes, we don't wait long before it blooms into more lyrical phrases over a muted bass too, now sounding warm and jazzy ...
And so on... The soaring yet desperate string returns in the break till the wavering first mood worms its way again, leaving the end open, between doubt and tranquillity...
Captivating !!!!