Alex O'Rion - The Bigger Room Label: Black Hole Cat.#: BHCD81 Style: Trance Date: 30-05-2011 Quality: 320kbps Tracks: 15 Size: ~420Mb
It’s only four months into the year, but 2011 has already marked a revolutionary epoch in the career of Holland’s Alex O’Rion. In that time it’s seen him sign with one of the UK’s foremost DJ agencies, successfully initiate his new radio show/podcast and become head of A&R for Black Hole’s Terminal 4 label. He’s also turned loose the Green and Blue EPs, which form the leading edge of his impressive, wide-scope debut album, ‘The Bigger Room’.
O’Rion’s unique audio equation first caught the attention of the world’s top-tier of DJs through early audio like ‘Release the Beast’ and ‘A Box of Fluffy Ducks’. Encouraged from the start by the musically likeminded Richard Durand, he began to lay the foundations for his first long-player and the end result of that building process is released on the 30th of May. Alex has created 15 tracks to form ‘The Bigger Room’. Using complex, cutting edge sounds, FX and arrangements, the album is a dynamic longplayer and one that belies his tenderfoot tag. Knowingly multi-toned, O’Rion’s music vibrantly crossbreeds progressive, tech and melodic trance with shades of house, electro and other EDM variants. “The title is my ‘statement of intent’”, says Alex. “I want to make music that’ll really find its place in larger and larger spaces. To achieve this I concentrate on condensing as many effects as possible, into the audio. I think they combine to ‘fill’ every corner of dance space that they’re played in - all in order to create the ‘bigger room’ effect. The album starts in the progressive foothills with the cool-heeled ‘Dragons for Breakfast’, the moody, atmosphere-packed ‘Jabberwocky’ and the evocative, chiming, almost fairytale-like ‘Changing Pace’. ‘Craters of the Moon’, ‘Jellyfish’, Stargeezer’, ‘Gobsmacked’ and ‘Jumper’ start to progressively squeeze on the accelerator pedal. Charting a melodic and then euphoric style curve, it adds harmonic sequences, higher paced tempos and ultimately soaring aerodynamic chords and synths to ‘The Bigger Room’s sound cache.
For his first album Alex has made a point of collaborating with other artists in various different capacities. While not a mainstay, when vocals emerge on ‘Bigger Room’, they carry heavy impact. ‘Who I Am Today’ (featuring the moody, captivating vocals of Cornelis van Dijk) is purpose-built for radio and hints heavy at crossover potential. ‘Crystal’ meanwhile sees him team up with Richard Durand for a track that plays off tech and house themes, while his remixes of Phunklife’s ‘Maniac Psycho’ and Tempo Giusto’s ‘Metropolitan’ tread even further still down those paths. ‘The Bigger Room’ is a polished, accomplished debut album from a new, exciting and ready-to-break trance artist. It’s out on the 30th of May.
Tracklist:
01. Introduction 02. Dragons For Breakfast 03. Phunklife - Maniac Psycho (Alex O’Rion Prog Mix) 04. The Jabberwocky 05. Craters of the Moon 06. Jellyfish (Alex O'Rion Bigger Room Mix) 07. Inside The Music Box (Album Version) 08. Who I Am Today 09. Changing Pace 10. Gobsmacked 11. Stargeezer (Alex O'Rion Bigger Room Mix) 12. Rise Up Again (Alex O'Rion Bigger Room Mix) 13. Crystal (vs. Richard Durand) 14. Jumper 15. Tempo Giusto - Metropolitan (Alex O’Rion Remix)
