Customer Reviews

Wide Angle

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

One the first disc of this two disc set, you are taken on an incredible ride... the first track titled "Opening Credits" is a lush orchestration performed by an 80 piece Russian Orchestra (whose talents are showcased throughout the album)which segues into the pulsepounding twister "If I Survive", which features the vocals dramatics of Julee Cruise (who is also featured on 3 other tracks). One of my favorites is definetly track 8 "Sine Qua Non", features FRENCH RAP ARTIST Soon MC. Yes I said FRENCH RAP, it's a fairly down tempo groove that relaxes with it's melodies and soothing vocals. The Highlight TRANCE ANTHEMS are track 7 "Theme from Wide Angle", and Track 9 "High Life". Also featured on disc one is the gorgeous sonic embodiement of energized peace, titled "Finished Symphony". If you can purchase the single for this song GO ahead, and DO it. The Echoplex mix is well worth your money. The second disc is a 5 track live CD witch features a couple non album tracks, including Kill City, and Altitude). For this price, YOU MUST BUY THIS CD RIGHT THIS MINUTE. Enjoy. 12 tracks on disc one include: 1. Opening Credits, 2. If I Survive 3. I Know, 4. Beachcoma, 5. Dreaming Your Dreams, 6. Snyper, 7. Theme from Wide Angle, 8. Sine Qua Non, 9. High Life, 10. Fatal Beating, 11. Finished Symphony, 12. Altitude (Red Square Reprise)

And about time too! Just when we thought the teabag had been left too long in the trance teapot and was beginning to stew, along comes a group that actually tries to push the genre. Hybrid, a group of lads (and a lady) harking from Swansea, (in Wales - you know Wales? That place west of Hereford, England?), come along with a truly classic album.

Wide Angle is an excellent mix of breakbeat and trance that really tries to do something with the songs. Not one song on this album sounds as if it depends on one trance line hook or one sample - all the songs are pieces of music in their own right.

One of my favourites has to be Finished Symphony, where the physical presence or an orchestra is pitted against an involved breakbeat to create a song that will give you that little tingling feeling towards the back of the head right through until the climax. It doesn't feel contrived, or awkward - the orchestra fits in perfectly with the synth stabs and the percussion. And it actually sounds like a piece of music!

Another is the Theme From Wide Angle, which is a superlative piece of trance engineering that just keeps the tension going all the way through. And without using the de facto trance kit sounds too - the beat is pounding and energetic - you literally have to get up and do something when this song is on. This is excellent dancefloor trance - just turn it up until you can't hear next door banging on the wall.

OF the 200 Trance CDs I own...this is the best CD I have ever heard..this is the best trance band I have ever heard..there is nothing else to say.

Usually, I tend to write long reviews that people probably don't read and don't find useful. But there's nothing I can say about this CD other then ...

The absolute best electronic album ever made. If you like electric music, you will love this CD. Period. There's no going around it. Every song is godly. Every song.

Hybrid have gone all out on this album to provide the listner with an aural soundscape that really does justify the title. Neo-classical strings colide and merge with trance and breakbeats, with elements of jazz and downbeat surfacing from time to time, accompanied by passionate lyrics from Julie Cruise (of Twin Peaks 'Falling' fame). Though I won't dispute that she's a talented artist, I feel that one or two of the tracks, such as 'High Life' could have perhaps done without her contribution and instead developed into fully-fleged trance stompers. I would have given a 4.5 if I could, but it slips into '5' territory on the creative genre-merging they've tried to achive. But even then, the odd slip that Hybrid make hardly spoils what is otherwise unique album, and even an 'off' track by them can still wipe the floor with some of the comercial drivel that's suffocating the airwaves at the moment.

'If I Survive', 'Dreaming Your Dreams', 'Finished Symphony' and 'Sinequanon' in paticular, showcase Hybrid's remarkable direction. Mainstream 'chart' dance music has sometimes managed to 'brainwash' the public into thinking that the Chemical Brothers & Fatboy Slim is all there is to the genre. Then, occasionally, artits such as Hybrid rear their creative heads and throw an album such as this out to the maddening crowds, showing that true tallent is still in there somewhere. A great album from one of dance music's most promising new acts.

This album is a definition of synergy. It is a well orchestrated fusion of sound that stays true to the emotion and force of the music. Simply put, it is a revolution in sound. This is on my top-10 albums of all time.

Hybrid, perhaps the finest breakbeat production team around, were supposed to smash into the U.S. market with their first album WIDE ANGLE in 2000. As can be seen from this listing it made it to Japan, but sadly due to distribution problems the album was delayed in the US and so much well-placed advertising went to waste. Happily, Hybrid succeeded in releasing the album, renaming it WIDER ANGLE because of the inclusion of a second disc chronicling the Hybrid live experience. If this album appeals to you, the two-disc set is very recommended.

Sometimes a reviewer has no choice but to repeat blurbs. On the slipcase Ed Potton of The Times/Metro calls WIDE ANGLE "one of the most moving pieces of electronic music ever." He's totally right. Hybrid began by using traditional breakbeat production but transformed it into something totally original and novel by bringing in strings, here provided by the Russian Federal Orchestra conducted by Sacha Pullman. The vibrant sonorities of something rarely hear in breakbeat add colour and cinematic grandeur to the album that brings it to greater heights than any electronica album I had heard before.

WIDE ANGLE from a production viewpoint is wonderfully consistent and not a single track fails to entertain. The high points of the album, however, are pure emotion. "If I Survive" is sweeping with its breaks and perfectly placed strings. "Theme from Wide Angle" is a non-stop electronic parade. Perhaps the most spiritual experience on WIDE ANGLE is "Finished Symphony." It will sound familiar to those who had heard Hybrid's "Symphony" on the East Coast disc of Sasha and John Digweed's NORTHERN EXPOSURE II mix, but this version is performed with a real orchestra and has combined the best of live recording and studio editing.

WIDE ANGLE is such an original and polished release that I would recommend it to any fan of electronic music. It's been over five years now since I encountered this album, and in the time since I've lost interest in most electronic music I was once passionate about, but WIDE ANGLE continues to impress me as much as it ever did.

I have been a fan of electronica for a while, but Hybrid without a doubt is my favorite of all time. They do something that I rarely find in electronica and that is to find a certain perfect harmony with their music. The orchestra fits in amazingly well with both fast and slow tempo's, and their song "Unfinished Symphony" is the best example of what orchestra and electronica should sound like. There isn't much more that can be said, as this is one album you have to hear to believe how amazing it is. If you are a fan of Electronica, don't even think about buying this album....just do it. You won't regret it, I guarantee.

On the cd cover, Ed Potton of The Times/Metro says, "...one of the most moving pieces of electronic music ever." This is true and I cannot believe this sells at such a cheap price. I bought it for $5.99 and it has turned out to be priceless in my opinion. Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders arranged an electronic piece for the second disc, Live Angle, called Kid 2000. It is the first track and one of my favorites on the whole 2 disc set. Hybrid uses an orchestra beautifully throughout the whole album and it is very different and interesting. It is hard to characterize this music into any sub category of electronic. I would say breakbeat and techno. You must have this album if you enjoy any kind of electronic music. It is very well done and Hybrid should be proud. The future of electronic music is safe as long as they are around to keep making music like this.

This album does seem to mark the next step in electronic music, like many of the other reviewers have pointed out. It would definitely have a great appeal to fans of already famous DJ's and projects such as BT, Way Out West, Oakenfold and Orbital, but there's also an interesting gimmick that works it's way into the album: the orchestral sound. Ok actually it's not much of a gimmick, because it fits in amazingly. Any DJ/artist who is confident enough in their music to fly over to Russia and hire a 90 piece symphonic orchestra to accompany their break-beats should deserve a listen from anyone, and trust me, that's all it's going to take. Fast tracks: "Beachcoma", "Theme from Wide Angle", "Snyper". "Sinequanon", the French rapping track did rub me the wrong way for about a year, but now I've learned to live with it. Pick up this album or even better, "Wider Angle", the extended US version, and you'll love this band. Also, get a hold of their remixes, especially FSOL's classic "Papua New Guinea" and Sasha's "Xpander". This is what the new electronic music should sound like... go out and get this.