Trollheart

Not quite the Russian winter but...


Artiste: Sawmail
Nationality: Russian?
Album: Autumn
Year: 2014
Label: Moscow City Records
Genre: Electronica/Trance
Tracks:
Clear sky
Gibraltar
Castle by the sea
Leaves
Robin Hood
Sunrise
Winter holydays
Wonderful morning
Illusion
Say
Chronological position: Second album
Familiarity: Zero
Interesting factoid:
Initial impression: Get me out of this club!
Best track(s): Gibraltar, Leaves, Say
Worst track(s): Clear sky, Robin Hood, Illusion, Say
Comments: I can find out absolutely nothing about this band. When I input the word “Sawmail” into Google it helpfully asked me if I meant “Shawmail”? What? No, fuck you Google I did not! From the very little I can discover though I think they may be a trance band, and that’s not good for me. I’m assuming they’re Russian though they *may not be. And it does not start off well for me, with a fast pounding trance beat, the kind of thing I hate. Oh well. Thumpity-thump it goes, and I shake my head, not in time to the music but in despair that I somehow managed to buy this. What was I thinking? Oh I know now what it was: I have an idea to, at some point, feature a whole pile of different albums that are either by artistes who have Autumn in their name or whose albums have. Sigh. Well I may as well let it run now that I have it. Don’t expect too much from me though; I hate this kind of music.

I think it’s all likely to be instrumental --- isn’t most trance?--- certainly the first track is. Well at least there’s a nice sequence there where the percussion drops out and a nice lush keyboard line takes the tune, then some nice piano too. Ah but then the drum machines pound back in and we're off again. Still, it's not too terrible I must admit. “Gibraltar” has a nice sort of warbly synth line running it, and the percussion isn't too much to the forefront, so again I can stand this. Nice little dancing piano arpeggios, and I like the way the bass makes its way back into the tune late on. They call this “uplifting trance” apparently, and I can see why: it's very uptempo but generally not what I'd call harsh. It's still principally music for dancing though; if you're in a club this probably sounds great (if you care) but outside of that isolated environment it's a little hard to judge the music on its own merits.

Oh right: it's moved into “Castle by the sea” now. Didn't notice. Nice sort of phased synth line which gives way to some clear piano then some stabbing bass chords as it bops along, then there's an interesting start to “Leaves”, almost New Romantic in a sort of Human League “Open your heart” way before it slides more into a JMJ sort of thing. “Robin Hood” then returns to that thump-thump-thump sort of thing I hate, like someone's trying to stamp down the walls or something. Lots of squiggly squeaky synth makes this easily the most hated track on the album for me. “Sunrise” doesn't do much for my mood either, although it does slow down and calm down nicely in the middle, while “Winter holydays” is okay I guess, but nothing that great. “Wonderful morning” isn't wonderful, not to me anyway, just more generic trance, although it has some interesting warbly keys on it and some nice bass synth too, but still, meh.

That leaves us with two tracks before this is over, and they are both have vocals! Ah that's it: I'm done with this now. Trance is not for me, nor is this album. Boo. Actually, hold the phone: the last track is pretty damn good. But overall this is not the kind of music I want to be listening to. Just not my scene.
Overall impression: Probably great to dance to but not something I want to listen to, on balance
Hum Factor: 2
Surprise Factor: 1
Intention: Not going to listen to trance again if I can help it.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018