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Great electronic music is very hard to find. To me, at least. There is lots of it, but it is seldom mainstream, which makes it hard to get exposed to and even harder to sort through the vast selection. Though far from an expert in this field, The Last Resort from 2006 by Trentmøller is an extraordinary album.
Often, electronic music falls into one of two categories: either too monotonous or too annoying. The Danish DJ Trentmøller has managed to avoid both of those categories on most of the tracks on The Last Resort.
So the album is not entirely electronic; bass and guitars were used on some of the tracks, and while you sometimes might hear what could sound like static and/or distortion, it is simply part of the soundscape that Trentmøller lays out for us. And except for a few spoken phrases in one or two tracks, there are no vocals.
For listeners who need a label to define it, the closest would probably be a mix of many electronics genres, from Minimal and Ambient techno to Progressive House. Most of the tracks are long, over five minutes and some close to ten minutes, sonically waxing and waning and lots of time for the track to evolve.
The album opens with one of the best tracks on the album, ‘Take Me Into Your Skin’. It’s undoubtedly the most energetic, with many ebbs and flows in the music and significant tempo changes. Like on the whole album, this track features fantastic bass. This is a must-have album if you want to hear great deep bass or test how well a particular DAC or speakers can reproduce bass. Editor Alan Sircom uses ‘Chameleon’ from this album to evaluate gear. The tracks also feature high-frequency ambient pings, eloquently echoing back and forth between the channels – all these features make for a great dance track.
‘Evil Dub’ is another great track from the album. It is slightly darker and more subdued, with a low pounding bass line interspersed with various higher-frequency sounds. ‘Nightwalker’ is another track similar to ‘Evil Dub’; it is subdued, dark, melodic, and hypnotic, as if you’re in a trance while listening. ‘Miss You’, the final track, is probably the most easily accessible for people who are not well versed in this genre. It is melodic, low-key, and enjoyable, with a cool vibe.
‘Into The Trees’ is one of the only tracks where you feel like real drumming is involved, that is to say, where the drums stand out and almost dominate the bass. The aforementioned ‘Chameleon’ is probably the best track on the album and suitable for illustrating Trentmøller’s excellent way of constructing a track. He claims to have Depeche Mode as one of his inspirations, and ‘Chameleon’ (and several other tracks) share some traits in melody escalation that Depeche Mode often used on their 12-inch singles in the 1980s. It starts with a simple bass rhythm; Trentmøller then lets ambient sounds drip in and continues to add and escalate the bass and small ambient sounds on top of this essential rhythm. He then adds layers of sounds to underscore the growing intensity while keeping the original basic rhythm.
I imagine a high-end private lounge where this album plays in the VIP section. You chill and sip fancy cocktails while watching a glorious sunset over a suave metropolitan city’s skyline.
This album can certainly be enjoyed as excellent background music for hanging out, but it shines when you punch it! Viscerally feeling all that incredible deep bass moving through your body. As with most electronic music, you can certainly dance to most of the tracks on this album. But it also has a very mellow side, making it much more melodic than most electronic music I’ve heard. This album is recorded very well and has excellent sound quality. I’ve heard it both on vinyl and digital, and both sound great.
Highly recommended and the best electronic album I’ve heard!
By Michael Vámos
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