Customer Reviews

Monument

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm a Blank and Jones fun from thier CD "In Da Mix" '99. Hits like Cream and After Love chenged trance music. After that all other CD's were OK. But MONUMENT is THE BEST B&J CD EVER. I'm sorry I didn't go live show of Monument on the promo tour.

Once again they did it: (re)create the most fabulous synth songs in their famous intense dance rhythm. Having the chance to own this Limited Edition adds even more fun to the already complete musical pleasure Monument has to offer. "This music was been mixed to be played loud. So turn it up.", it reads on the booklet inside. Blank & Jones know their fans, I do it all the time. Having listened to the introsong 'Monument' I want to go back in time: it's very similar to what Trevor Horn used to produce back in the eighties: small bits of digital distorted effects in between computergenerated electronic music. Sometimes it's uptempo, then again it's slow, but it always get's you right in your gutts. On this album Piet Blank & Jaspa Jones have joined forces once again with Elles De Graaf, who we know from an earlier B&J-song called 'Flaming June' which is a track from Relax, last years ambient masterpiece. The song is called 'Mind of the wonderful' and is just released as their new single. A true jewel which lasts a full 9 minutes and 19 seconds. On the bonus-cd you can hear the Martin Roth Remix of the same song for another 8 minutes and 33 seconds. The second collaboration on Monument is with Robert Smith, leadsinger of The Cure. Their new interpretation of 'A Forest' is well worth listening, as well as the remix of it on the 2nd disk. I bet you'll turn up the volume, and can't sit still once you own this very well-composed treasure.

Germany's hot trance duo Blank and Jones is here with an "artist" album, and compared to many, many DJ's who come out with sub par artist attempts, this one comes through with 9 strong tracks out of the 14 on the US version (the import has a few variances with A Forest vocal mix and some other remixes not included on this one).

I think there was something up with securing the rights to the Cure's lead singer who sings on A Forest, as only 3 instrumental remixes are on here and not the actual original track featuring his vocals, which does appear on the import. That's quite alright with me, because I think the track works much better as an instrumental as Ron Van Den Beuken proves this with one of his trademark high energy trance remixes of the track. It just might be the best track on the album. There's a shorter edit of his remix too. Then there is the Exor remix of A Forest which starts out very slow, but picks up nicely.

Another stunner is the awesome trance vocal Perfect Silence with Bobo on vocals. This is one of my favorite vocal trance tracks for the end of '04/start of '05 and the album version is excellent, but even better is the super fast club mix found on the CD single (along with a sexy video). Mind of the Wonderful is the only other vocal track on here and it's a smooth flowing, long (9:00+) track that really puts you in a groove.

Zero Gravity is standard catchy trance instrumental that we've come to expect from B&J and it is very good. It can also be found on ATB's DJ in the Mix 2 in the form of a super remix by Envio. Flowtation is a sweet melodic track with some bouncy synths and a female voice whispering "flowtation". Waiting For The Light is another melodic track sounding somewhat similiar to Flowtation, but with an ecclectic twist. Stars Shine Bright is another above average instrumental with a smidgen of female vocal, and also check out the Sam Sharp remix of it found on Trance Mixed Anthems Vol. 1.

The downside to this CD is that tracks 1-3 (1 is only an intro) and tracks 10 & 11 are all pretty lousy. Other than that, it would be a 5 star rating; nonetheless, this album is well worth it for the trance fan and it's high above many other DJ attempts at artist albums.

First off, Blank & Jones are my all time favorite trance artist. Additionally I believe this is their best album to date.

It was released at a time when the Trance/Techno community in Germany was losing steam. The popular Berlin techno festival, "The Love Parade" was cancelled in 2004, 2005 and attendance in previous years was down. This album reflects this with an overall darker sound than previous releases.

Personally I also like Blank & Jones earlier stuff, but it was not until this album that I truely appreciated the great work of Piet Blank and Jaspa Jones.

I believe the standout track on this album would have to be "Mind of the Wonderful", which I heard for the first time in 2004 on a Lufthansa flight from Hamburg, Germany to the United States. During the 12 hour flight the onboard radio station repeated every 2 hours or so and I just couldn't get enough of the track. Inspired by this record, I have since seen Blank & Jones perform live in the United States.

"Monument" is the fourth debut studio release from Germany uplifting trance duo BLANK & JONES. I happened to purchase the 2-CD limited edition. The second disc basically contains the remixes of some of the main tracks. Although, with the exception of the "Intro" and the last track on the first cd, which kind of thru Blank and Jones in another direction musically speaking,( more of a breakbeat style), the rest of the album was flawless...and had an uplifting feel...!

If you feel like just cuttin' loose and having a good time this is the ALBUM for you! Blank & Jones do some good mixes and they will keep ya on your feet all night, just great music to have a good time to.

I'm very disappointed with this CD. Several tracks on here are rip-offs/derivatives/spins of tracks on BT's "Emotional Technology" album.

1. The intro track that has seemingly random noises and music clips directly parallels BT's intro track.

2. If you compare "What You Need" with BT's "Knowledge of Self," that just so happens to be track 2 on BT's album as well, the comparisons are obvious: bass lines are similar, the timing of the beats, the tempo, similar sounding vocal samples, etc.

3. Other tracks on here are also sound vaguely similar to BT and other popular artists like Above & Beyond, etc.

If you were thinking that this CD sounded different than Blank & Jones' normal stuff, you're right..

Blank & Jones has always been one of my favorites, but I have to say this new cd was a definite disappointment. Everything before has been quality work - music art that I can appreciate. DJ Culture is probably my favorite cd I own, and Nightclubbing is also well-used. Monument, however, makes it seem like it's less about the music, and more about a strong name. Tracks are dull and repetitive, and the mixing between tracks is only good because all the tracks sound the same. Blank & Jones is still good music, but go for the older cds like DJ Culture, Nightclubbing, and Relax