Max Graham – Cycles 3
Pin ItDisc 1
Starting off the first CD, we found ourselves in a proggy mood, thanks to Soundprank (incredible piano parts in his tracks). This Canadian artist sure brought a smile on my face, from the first moments of this compilation. I kept my smile up and running, and slowly the second track started getting into my ears. Deep bass lines, a gentle and sweet melody, "Sky Drops" by Stannis kept me nodging my head too, closing my eyes as I got carried away by this wave of progressiveness.
Max kept this tempo up for a couple of minutes more, keeping me deeply under the musical spell, very satisfied by these "Anjuna" styled tracks. When "Marsh" by my favorite Solarity got into the mix, I was getting seriously high on that track, unbelieveable what these guys can create! Deep melody, background bass lines, calm claps, yet when the break down comes to an end, it makes you jump off from your chair and start dancing.
I really didn’t expect to be so satisfied so far. My favorite names like Audien, DNS Project, Heatbeat got into the mix, not so long after Solarity and my progressive, smile-full mood was still keeping me chair-raving. That type of trance music, when deep progressive gets mixed together with nice massive beats and fat bass lines? For example Heatbeat’s track "Roses Never Cry" or Norin & Rad vs. Audien’s collaboration called "Thrust"? The best type of trance for my ears!
Unfortunately, the rest of the first disc, started to get pretty uplifty, when it hit track #10. From that moment on, I didn’t like the rest of the CD, it kind of lost it’s soul somewhere in those moments.
Disc 2
As we get ourselves into Disc 2, you’ll catch yourself turning up the volume. It speeds up and takes us into the more big room sounds, starting off by a new tune by BT & Adam K called "Tomahawk". Nice tune to start off a set, gets you moving and the BT experimental sounds can never fail your ears.
Fat beats coming up after this track, as D-Mad from Russia is making his way into the mix with his track "Blaze Away!", made under his Yummy L.Y. artist name. This Russian guy surely got me with this production – massive beats, big room melody and juicy bass lines go all the way throughout the track; an energetic break down too, very nicely done! Following up, few similliar tracks, everything very energetic, this disc started to remind me of the way Markus Schulz plays his live sets, nothing too "hands-uping", just pure party energy. In about 30 minutes from the start of the second disc, something very originaly sounding gets dropped into the mix – deep sound, pretty clappy, but yet companied by sick beats, my mind knew that it knows this type of sound, yet it can’t remember it! (Worst feeling, when listening to a new mix.) Found the track list before the break down came up, and I was like "of course!". This producer is really making his fanbase wider everyday. His style reminds me of Markus Schulz in some way and he’s surely the next big thing for the darker side of trance. Khomha made his way into the mix with "507" and this disc was getting better and better by the moment.
This disc kept beating heavy beats from that moment on, keeping my mood at a very good point. I haven’t really expected something like this from Max Graham, I got really suprised, some of his own remixes or singles got into the track list too of course. For example his collaborative remix with Protoculture on Grace’s "Not Over Yet" got a really nice break down for the vocal part, bringing emotions into a typically sounding trance party track, exactly what I like!
Verdict
I kept this disc on repeat since I heard it for the first time. Max Graham surely got a few posts up in my ranks, by creating this compilation + starting it and ending it, by tracks from my favorite progressive artist Soundprank! Definitely something that pleases the heart.
This whole compilation of tracks is something very interesting, not many are like this. Some of the tracks aren’t that great when they are played alone, but in this collab? Mesmerising!
8/10
For more info related to Max Graham check out the following links:
www.maxgraham.com
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www.facebook.com/djmaxgraham
