Customer Reviews

Balance 007

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

There's a lot of 'love it or hate' reviews on this album, a lot of grandstanding about what progressive is, or should be, who's stuck in the past, who's moving thing forward, blah blah.

But, Balance 007 seems (to me at least) to have incorporated the better elements of new and old, progressive, house, trance, and techno. Alot of the rythms are nu skool infused and conjure up names like Chable, Habersham, Meat Katie, Coombs, Phil K, and others. Unlike Chable's recent addition to Seaman's Rennaisance series and Phil K's Y4k, though, Fortier actually incoporates melody and harmony, you know, the pretty stuff. But, it's done with a driving, darker edge that digs deeper than your last generation progressive and yet retains the forward momentum and contextual 'whole' that lacks in a lot of the empty sounding Y4k's and Alive's(Zabiela) of the world. No disprespect to those sounds live - Zabiela may be my top 5 live acts - but this is an album and should be judge as such.

CD 2 and 3 are probably my favorites. Three just gets me moving and its energy is subtle but so powerful - the best kind!

All in all a great fresh sound that, as with any decent new material, retains the better elements of the foundation upon which it is allowed to flourish.

To all the nay sayers of this genre defying electronic soundscape, insidiously crafted by Chris Fortier - it's called PROGRESSIVE house for a reason... Expand your minds, welcome challenging, experimental sounds and immerse yourself in this nuclear reactor of electronic body music.

Granted, the 1st disc is a bit a-melodic as Fortier truly creates an experiment in sound. The grooves are driving and the cheez mercilessly obliterated by the grinding, teched-out, low-slung aural arsenal. Disc 2 is suffused with a sort of tech-trance (gasp!) hybrid with the storming 'Fan Dancing Vampires' mix of Floppy Sounds "Open the Door"; one of the most cerebral, pummeling stealth weapons in progressive house to date. The dizzying mix culminates with the blissed out, string drenched yearnings of Bent's "As You Fall", gorgeously remixed by Micah.

This 3 disc progressive house juggernaut orbits light years beyond Fortier's Bedrock masterpiece, crosses unknown thresholds within the genre and takes electronica to the next level, all in one fell swoop...

This takes the cake when referring to the balance series. Bye bye Holden. Fortier really delivers some great tracks here with many different sounds. Granted I thought the second and third cds were easier to listen to, the first cd was so damn interesting. I can't wait to hear Sasha's new cd Fundacion, because I'm sure he will claim the mountain again. The whole ending to Fortier's second disc is just great, with tribal, techy, and euphoric sounds all mixed in. The whole cd makes you want to dance to some of these dirty beats. This is raw. Buy it.

I've seen Chris more than Once and heard most of his albums.

U can tell that this Balance Album its the result of a great research and his ability to mix NON COMMERCIAL TRACKS from UNDERGROUND PRODUCERS.

Chris not only recorded 3 amazing discs with an IMPECABLE mix, he also re arranged and re edited all the tracks.

This guy worked really REALLY HARD.

When I listened to the 3 discs I was really taken away.

This is PURE Underground Music fellas.

Pure Electro, Techno & some Proggresive house not for everybody.

Chris was interviewed by digweed in the transitions podcast and told him that this was his best album ever.

I totally agree.

what a TRIP!!

He believed in making something extraordinary, giving birth to a special life, the kind that comes from the divinely beautiful, and still untouched clubs of the world. The bass that makes you stop your car in the middle of the street, the melodies that make you weightless. And most of all, how invincible we feel when dancing, or just listening to all of this. And it's here, every bit of it, the tech, the prog, the ACID, melted into one burning bath of sound.

The first and the second discs do not vary in the structures of mixing, as much as they are different at the core of the tunes. The first disc being the techier one has a more reserved sound with the advantage of a groovier flow while the second is a little more 'open' (for lack of a better expression), however not any heavier or more intense. The structure, and by that I mean the mixing and placement, and most importantly the choice of tracks is unbelievably complex and exciting.

The third disc is the after-hours mix. This is the one that jumps from one time period to the next, the effect is impressive. Not tame enough to be called ambient, more an IDMish, 1950s-1970s acid break-beat mix that you can play if everything else fails you at a very late hour.

To wrap it up, I must say that this one is another gem. His 'Bedrock' mix was superb, this is even better. Up there with Holdens'-'Balance 005', Superpitchers'-'Today', Digweeds'-'G.U. Los Angeles', Michael Mayers' - 'Fabric 13', Warrens' - 'GU Reykjavik'...etc. So if you know what I am talking about, you will go and buy this with utmost confidence.

I agree with some of these reviewers in the sense that this compilation is fairly experimental and wouldn't appeal to your run of the mill clubber type. Personally, I like it and think it deserves 4.5 stars. It is forward thinking and quite unique. I also think it is important to listen with a nice set of cans(Grados work for me) that way you catch all the subtlety that Fortier intended for you to hear...This comp. would fit perfect in a small dark club at 4 in the morning. So, for those of you that like your techno served up light and accessible then skip this. If you are like me and enjoy things a little deeper..darker..technical then buy it...If you enjoyed Fortier's Bedrock Comp. then I'd say it's fair to say that you will like this...

Not so long ago, the elaborate progressive house empire began to sputter, as evidenced by the extent, to which the vinyl crates labeled "prog" were filled with the same "intro-first verse-breakdown-second verse-outro" material. It was the sign of crisis, and the time to move forward - by deconstructing the sound, rediscovering the roots, and planting new seeds.

So it is great to hear what Chris Fortier has to offer on this mix - strange, techy, not "user-friendly". The perfect examples are the weirdly atmospheric tech house GU "The Deep", or the sample-heavy click-and-noise techno Alex Smoke "Pingu". Even the tunes on a more traditional progressive end have something different about them, like the Connors & Klingler feat. Fay Sephirah "Usage".

The first disc is more tech house oriented - minimal, loopy (check out the jazz-like hook of Agoria "Klub" going on for what seems like eternity). The second disc combines the tech trance bliss with clever, groovy ambient (Vector Lovers "Futures in Plastic", Floppy Sounds "Open the Door"). The third bonus disc is cool collection of electroid and house breaks.

It's good to see such an famous prog DJ be willing to free himself from the formula and depart for progress.

this has got to be one of the best mixes in a long time. compared to this everyone else chickens out when it comes to going experimental. it's like aphex twin infected this mix in a very good way. i don't understand how people don't like it. i guess it just shows how the majority of this genre is somewhat low on the artistic scale. sure, dance music is all about fun and "phat jamz", but it can be mind-candy too. i ate this up from the very beginning. i understood it perfectly from the very beginning. if you like any Ghostly Records or more experimental music you will like this. if you only like music that allows you to zone out and "partay all night lawng" you might not like it. try some random prog-trance thing instead. like nick warren's new global underground mix.

This is going to be a very long review so you can simply take the summary and click away. I have given this review some thought and this is pretty much what it boils down to: If this is where prog and dance music for the head, heart and soul is going then God help us.

Now wait a minute. Who am I to be judging Fortier anyway? He is a uber dj of almost legendary status with an impossible to imitate mixing style that sets him high among his peers. I dare say he is one of the best DJs the U.S. His bedrock installment was insane his trance America (don't joke about the title, that stuff gets old quick) was truly monumental so what gives me the right to call what he believes to be his best works to date his dullest to date.

It is simple really. The same circumstance is merely repeating itself. The cogs of the wheels may be moving in a different direction (I won't say if it is for better or worse) but they spin in the same fashion as the end of the 90's.

Unless you have been living under a rock you cannot deny that the scene is changing. What was once a rebellious, inspired, controversial genre is now the most commercialized? This is not a bad thing. Yes, you heard me it is not. Hey, a guy's gotta eat right? Spinning at least two hundred hours every night screws up your ears whether it is great music or not. I don't like the way a scene which was once almost hippyish (forgive the malapropos; it works here) is now primarily populated by the upper class privileged who see it as a new medium to promote a sort of fraternal exclusivity. These days the only way you can see the world is now longer by using the hippie trail. The wars and circumstances in our world today won't allow for that. You have to either produce a club hit, dj your ears off, or be filthy rich. Chris Fortier is a DJ and in my books a seriously one of a kind talented one at that. I could gush about the guy for hours but I won't.

The reason why you won't like this mix is because it is dull. The reason why it is dull is not because of the track selection which is obscure but excellent. It is not the mixing which is superb. It is not even the length which is too much for even the most patient of ears. It is the execution, the destination it is headed for and its dismal point of departure.

The departure point you ask? It is precisely what I mentioned above. The scene is and has changed. When dance music (I use this term loosely to encompass all that is electronica and hope I am not offending) turned poppy, DJs moved to a darker melodless sound that had literally no tell tale signs of transitions and really put the whole wait for it..... Mentality. The grayish dead land that was S&D's Communicate attests to this. Eventually the sound became more melodic again, but the approach was more diverse, more sophisticated. This sound is what I like to call experimental prog. It is gorgeous stuff that you can't really label but know has not been used like that before because it gives truly limitless rein to the imagination in a genre nefariously popular for being formulaic. A friend just lent me Cattaneo and the South American Waxmaster personifies this. Holden and Apparat, Fake and Kosmas as well. Even Infusion. So do 2 dollar egg, kiki, vector lovers and so on. Sasha tried on Fundacion but in my opinion did not quite pull this off. The success of this sound must have led Fortier to believe that the less accessible a mix is the better it is and this is why it fails. I like the tracks in this mix. I even love some of the mixes but conceptually it drips off narcissism, and egomania. I mean you must really hate what is out there to want to make something like this and to be honest with you that is the only conclusion I can draw. Indeed I thought it was just me but I have given it about 12-15hrs of trial and when I was in my 15th hour going into the second disc for yet another round I decided fu-k it! and switched to Nick Warren's Shanghai and the difference was so fantastically apparent I knew I had no choice but to give this review what it deserves rather than risking a high recommendation since someone may pick this up as their first balance trial or, even worse, their first peek into the endless myriads of worlds, dreams and experiences that make up electronica and become irreversibly disillusioned.

For hardcore electronica enthusiasts I can't sing its praises. The tracks are great individually but strung together they (for lack of a more apt word) suck.

If you are new to Fortier stay away from this, at least for now.

This was not easy. The truth really is bitter sometimes.

As I wrote earlier about the Balance series - the main reason I totally love this series is that they try to come with something new with every new edition. For me it is not to buy or not, I just buy automatically just to let myself be surprised....or disapointed. But that's life. By Chris Forties I was not dissapointed at all but very surprised!!!

I do not want to describe how good the music is or what are you going to hear, but if you look for something unusual, progressive, not mind numbing at all, something what takes you deeply into the set, so this is it.

My favourite is 3rd CD, definatelly, this is a masterpiece. Fist one is good as well. Enjoy and remember, you have to let yourself surprise :)

Btw, the other of my favourite from Balance series is (of course) James Holden, Will Saul, Joris Voorn and SOS. The rest is just good or worth to remember, but these are outstanding!