Customer Reviews

Smile?

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What's fresh, a little bit edgy, makes you wanna grin, or maybe even...Smile? from Divided By Night, the newest from The Crystal Method. New and yet richly familiar with synth voicing and soloist playing styles that Ken and Scott have put their own stamp on, it has the kind of exciting, driving frenzy to it that I've come to expect from TCM. A smooth pattern of electric-piano style keyboard notes moves you along at the beginning. Then the slammin' bass-line kicks in, with a very minor harmony setting for the chilled out background choral pads, and the beat takes over with a set of syncopated bass solos. The focus takes a sudden turn in the bridge, where an amazingly complex series of suspended chords over tonic harmony grabs a hold of your ear and your heart at the same time. Catchy hooks combine with breaks of blaringly distorted electronica, and groovy portamentos flow into acid-trance swoops that bring you up to a buzzed out climax and take you back out to the main theme. It will make you want to bounce...it will make you want to Smile!

This album was released today, and I downloaded it here. Longtime TCM fan... I must say, this track surprised me. It's obviously TCM when you hear it, but much deeper and more emotional than most of their previous work. I absolutely love it!

The sounds they use are like old school, but hi-fi at the same time. Same big-beat style drums that grace every TCM track, and some wild acidic pads, all while a soft melody plays in the background. Just awesome texture.

This song starts with a synthesized zinger and some piano notes soon joined by a pulsing synthesizer bass melody. At 1:10 an alto synth line emerges and intertwines with driving drums. At 3:15 the more bass oriented synthesizer returns with some bell-like synths accentuating what becomes a complex rhythmical tune. At 3:40 the song slows down but returns to its more driving beat at 4:20. It finishes up in driving-beat mode with a wildly sliding synthesizer fading out at 5:10 to complete silence at 5:35.

Overall a great example of this band's style.