Customer Reviews

Before the Storm

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This CD, anchored by two major hits "Sandstorm" and "Feel the Beat", is a perfect example of popular electronic synthesizer produced club music. There are three times and places that this CD is perfect.

First,this is sexual night-club music, with a repetitive driving beat that young'uns will groove to on the nasty sweaty dance floor.

Second, this is good driving music for long highway rides. Just be careful that the beat doesn't influence you to put a little too much pressure on the accelerator. The composition of most of the songs on the CD do not have complex movements, rather they are somewhat directionless, which makes them perfect for driving in boring landscapes. However they also are 'trance-like' so they could make you snooze unless you crank up the volume and roll down the windows and freeze your rear *** as you speed down the highway.

Third, and this is most relevant to an old fellow like me, the CD helps me get up and go when I have to sweep, mop, wash dishes, or fold laundry. It is amazing how the sexual driving-beat night-club music that kids in their 20's convulse to can make old dudes get up and go when there are household chores to get done.

So next time you have to dust the furniture or iron your laundry, put "Before the Storm" into your CD player, crank up the volume, and clean like a maniac!

Walking into a local CD store the other day, I found a used copy of Darude "Before the Storm" on a clearance rack for $4.99. I hesitantly shelled over my five dollars and purchased my first Darude CD. Having once spent over $17 on Ian Van Dahl's CD "Ace", I am now terrified to buy DJ's with one outstanding track. More often than not in the electronica community, a DJ with a single will have about one good song, that being the single. I figured worst-case scenario, at least I would have Sandstorm on CD version.

How wrong I was. Putting on "Before The Storm" was trance bliss for over an hour. In fact, after several listening I would end up skipping Sandstorm and start the CD at "Burning", a track that outshines the first song quite a bit, in my opinion. Darude uses fast-paced, multilayered synthesized beats creating a very trance-y, overall hyped sound that really gets you moving or keeps you moving from Sandstorm.

Following "Burning," "Feel the Beat" resorts back to more of a Sandstorm-y sound. It's as if Darude is using his massive single as a template for this song. Nonetheless, it still is an awesome track and is unique in its own way. "Before The Storm" tops off with "Out of Control", my personal favorite track on the CD. "Out of Control" is the type of song that makes serotonin be secreted in trance lovers. It is hands down not only a better song than Sandstorm, but also a much more artistic and deep song. It is tied with my favorite songs in all of trance. Absolutely Amazing.

After OC, a fast paced song, Darude shows us his ambient side with "Touch Me Feel Me". Relatively speaking, this track is slow and chill, but fits into the CD nicely. Calm Before the Storm segues nicely starting slow and gradually speeding up to a danceable level.

Certain criticisms come with the next three tracks, "Let the Music Take Control", "Drums of New York" and "The Flow". All three tracks although do have some cool mixing, just aren't nearly as catchy as the rest of the CD. "LMTC" I particularly disliked, for its attempt to be almost a hip-hop song. I just wasn't feeling it.

Darude is a talented DJ and this CD shows it. He is capable of many different forms of electronica from trance to drum and bass to ambient. He created Sandstorm, a dance music classic at this point. And in all fairness, other songs very worthy of becoming classics one day.

Overall, "Before the Storm" is well worth the five dollars I spent on it. And even if you don't see it on a clearance rack, I would still say get it.

It took me awhile to let "Sandstorm" grow on me. When I first heard that song I thought it was your stereotypical, cheesy trance song but the more I heard it the more I liked the song. Granted "Sandstorm" is cheesy and offers nothing new to trance junkies like me however it is one of those songs you just can't resist. The female vocals really a nice touch, especially on "Calm Before the Storm" which is one of my favorite songs off the cd. Now while I wouldn't rank Darude up there with say Paul Van Dyk, he certainly can hold his own and he certainly is a lot better than ATB. I certainly in the future he starts drifting away from the cheesy synth beats that gives trance music a bad name 'cause the music has a tendency to start sounding like one long continuous song.

Darude's Before the Storm is perhaps one of the greatest CD's I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. I had heard Sandstorm in clubs around my college, and decided to purchase the album hoping it wasn't just a one-hit wonder. Upon receiving it, this CD blew my mind with the songs Darude had compiled. This is an absolutely awesome CD with its collection of songs. All the songs are awesome, but especially 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and 10. This is an awesome CD for people who like to get up and dance. Trust me, take this to a party and have them play this, and everyone will be out on the floor dancing.

Darude's got a magic touch! Sandstorm sounds still very fresh even thought i've heard it thousand times... And Feel the beat, also a great tune...even better (if that is possible)?. The rest of the album is more typical dream trance techno... like van dyk. But still a solid album, worth checking, definitely. (This is better than van dyk's out there and back, my opinion.)

Everyone has heard Sandstorm; to be honest, that song is the reason I bought the album. However, once I got it, I was amazed at the other tracks. Never before have I listened to an album whose title fit the mood of the songs perfectly. Tracks four through six all build and the overall mood is in fact a calm before the storm. Track seven has the most excellent "reverse bass" sound (where they sampled a bass beat, then played it backwards). Better yet, the album is as dance floor friendly (as seen by the club play Sandstorm and Feel the Beat have seen) as it is down-tempo-ear-drum-friendly listening. Definitely a good buy.

I went to Europe in October 2000 and Darude was everywhere. His music was played in the best Discos in Budapest and Amsterdam. Even MTV Europe had is videos on all the time. But, what do they know. You've got to listen to this CD to trully appreciate Darude's musical talents. If you like Techno, then you have to add this CD to you collection.

First thing to know about this album - this album is pure mindless fun. Musically it's not very interesting after repeated listens - there just isn't any depth to the songs. The songs, however, remain very fun to listen to. The first three songs "Sandstorm", "Burning" and "Feel The Heat" are my favorites (though as a guilty pleasure), with the rest being good but easily forgettable. If you want mindless rave music I definitely recommend this album, but if you want dance music with depth and longevity then definitely pick up The Prodigy's "Experience" or "Music For The Jilted Generation". All in all a (sort of) satisfying purchase.

Highlights include:
"Sandstorm"
"Burning"
"Feel The Beat"
"Out Of Control"
"Touch Me Feel Me"
"Calm Before The Storm"
"Let The Music Take Control"
"Drums Of New York"

I really love the songs: Sandstorm, Feel The Beat, and Out Of Control. This CD contains a bunch of great remixes. The vocal remixes of 'Out Of Control' are especially great. The remix of 'Feel The Beat' is also really good. 'Sandstorm' is my number 5 favorite song of all time. I was disapointed with it's remixes on this CD. I think Sandstorm is one of those songs where it just shouldn't be remixed. The original version is the best. The reason I give this album 4/5 stars is because some of the songs are very repetitive, but tha's OK. This CD is especially good when your zooming down the highway with your windows down and your system up. 'Out Of Conrtrol' is out of control. It is one of the best club songs i've ever heard. However, it is nothing compared to the high-speed 'Sandstorm.'
I've heard 4 differnt versions of ' Feel the beat,' and they are all good. To bad only 2 versions are on this CD. Buy it.

Yes, "Sandstorm" and "Feel The Beat" have been overplayed to no ends all over TV music stations and radio, but that doesn't mean Before The Storm doesn't still have something good to offer. The two singles are dance-worthy, but as the complaints go, produce only the usual beats standard to trance music these days, offering nothing new or exciting. What the album does have that won't tire you after several listens are tracks such as "Burning", "Touch Me Feel Me", "Calm Before The Storm", and "Drums Of New York", all of which are instantly more listenable and won't grow as tiring as "Sandstorm" and "Feel The Beat".

The female vocals do add a nice touch which is actually something good about the typical trance sound, but Darude does a better job when the music is mostly instrumental or with sparse vocal lines, "Burning" being the best example.

And, although the synthing shows some decent programming, the sampled effects as well as the drum beats themselves need some work in diversity as too often the beats sound generically manufactured and too similar to each other, pounding out a lot of the same rhythms, building up very quickly, and then dropping back again. If these few small edges can be polished when it's time for the sophomore release to come around, Darude could have quite an album on his hands. However, he is still not as amazingly mind-blowing as Paul Oakenfold, Paul Van Dyk, John Digweed, or Sasha. Look into those artists before Darude, but still grab a copy of this if you want instantly more accessible trance. Reccommended depending on how much of a fan of the genre you are.