ATLAS DIGITAL Diamond is a great dance album but with a thoughtful dimension, showcasing the more contemplative aspects of the genre. This album provides an engaging thinking space and could be the soundtrack for the launching of a new enterprise, an affirmation of your own unique consciousness, or a step back to look at where you’ve been and where you’re headed.
The Album begins with U.K. producer Twisted Phono’s #1 ‘Patience’, a striking work whose layered elements and dissonant chord progressions create a mounting tension. The intensity of this piece hints at producer Simon Baugh’s broad tastes and influences, and it sets the tone (and the standard) for the remaining tracks.
The Album begins with U.K. producer Twisted Phono’s #1 ‘Patience’, a striking work whose layered elements and dissonant chord progressions create a mounting tension. The intensity of this piece hints at producer Simon Baugh’s broad tastes and influences, and it sets the tone (and the standard) for the remaining tracks.
Release Date: Jan 15th, 2011
» Minimal / Techno
» Rating: 4.3 / 5 
» Score: 8.5
» Score: 8.5
Find on 
#2 ‘Oasis’ by Jacob First (the originator of “darkroom” music, a dusky version of Detroit techno) is a weird journey that starts in a space age airport with cryptic announcements issuing from a loudspeaker. A cello ensemble in one corner spurs you on toward customs. There’s contraband in your luggage. Then the flying saucer lands. What to do? Allow yourself to be probed and then proceed to customs, where you’ll climb onto the conveyor and dance like a maniac.
If leprachauns were techno wizards they might generate the kinds of sounds issuing from the highly danceable #3 ‘The Hague’ by Ireland’s Sean Odhran. Lots of bass synth, edgy synth, sweeps, and industrial percussion, all heavy on the offbeat.
#4 ‘What Feelings Sound Like’ is an intriguing concept and a question often addressed musically in electronica but seldom expressed verbally. If this feeling of mine were a sound what sound would it be? Hail on a tin roof = paranoia. Minor chords = loneliness. Electronic vibraphone = courage. Swelling synth strings = the ecstasy of triumph. And who better qualified to make such musical statements than the Serotonin Drops?
#5 ‘Gallo 24’ by Don Goio of Mexico begins with a pulsing synth sweep joined by minor chords and a pounding dance bass synth with accent stabs and some moody guitar. Interjected attempts at conversation are quickly silenced; a cryptic reference to a desert execution is smothered in beats, accents, and more verbal snippets. What can you say? Feels like life.
#6 ‘Alternation of Sound’ by Maltese Jib Rafill is bursting with tubular bells and tinny industrial beats. It starts out with a great bongo beat that moves into a synth sweep and a rocking organ that merges into space sounds. Tension is added with crashing cymbals and an anthemic crescendo that introduces some thrilling dance music.
#7 ‘Distancia’ by Andre Rigg, who was born in France but who now lives in Mexico, starts out with hollow-tin-can accents and moves into a winning funk rhythm. The track is fun and engaging, with an underlying modal riff that starts simple but hides a slow rise to complexity and then completely morphs out.
Germany’s Demimuta brings us #8 ‘Dance Nights in Berlin’ a tribute (to one of the most creatively stimulating cities in the world) and a mesmerizing call to boogey. Space synth, pulsing synth sweeps, hand clapping, and shifts in dynamics make this piece a slow evolve to a hymn of triumph.
#9 ‘Agartha’, by the illustrious Julio Largente of Argentina, is an intense thrill ride starting with a driving percussive synth bass that merges with a polyphony of thought-provoking (and sometimes ominous) modal phrases including what sounds like tropical birds, star songs, whale songs, pulp mills, and morse code. Let it guide your through your technicolour dreams.
Jellesound from the Netherlands brings us #10 ‘Water Leaps to Low Ground’ (another intriguing concept), blending syncopated slow synth stabs with four-on the-four drums, dissonant chords, and rhythms, an echoing male vocal, and a simple, evocative modal phrase. This is a thoughtful, meditative piece whose name suggests a preoccupation with the genius that can emerge during the dark night of the soul.
The album ends with #11 ‘Tiersen’ by Mate Tollner of Budapest. This is another pensive electronic piece punctuated by multiple staccato rhythms, a minimal but effective bass line, and deceptively simple loop. Puts you in a surreal Pentecostal church where the singers are mute and all you can hear is a space-age organ and a precise robotic hand clapping. The Church of What’s Happening Now.
If leprachauns were techno wizards they might generate the kinds of sounds issuing from the highly danceable #3 ‘The Hague’ by Ireland’s Sean Odhran. Lots of bass synth, edgy synth, sweeps, and industrial percussion, all heavy on the offbeat.
#4 ‘What Feelings Sound Like’ is an intriguing concept and a question often addressed musically in electronica but seldom expressed verbally. If this feeling of mine were a sound what sound would it be? Hail on a tin roof = paranoia. Minor chords = loneliness. Electronic vibraphone = courage. Swelling synth strings = the ecstasy of triumph. And who better qualified to make such musical statements than the Serotonin Drops?
#5 ‘Gallo 24’ by Don Goio of Mexico begins with a pulsing synth sweep joined by minor chords and a pounding dance bass synth with accent stabs and some moody guitar. Interjected attempts at conversation are quickly silenced; a cryptic reference to a desert execution is smothered in beats, accents, and more verbal snippets. What can you say? Feels like life.
#6 ‘Alternation of Sound’ by Maltese Jib Rafill is bursting with tubular bells and tinny industrial beats. It starts out with a great bongo beat that moves into a synth sweep and a rocking organ that merges into space sounds. Tension is added with crashing cymbals and an anthemic crescendo that introduces some thrilling dance music.
#7 ‘Distancia’ by Andre Rigg, who was born in France but who now lives in Mexico, starts out with hollow-tin-can accents and moves into a winning funk rhythm. The track is fun and engaging, with an underlying modal riff that starts simple but hides a slow rise to complexity and then completely morphs out.
Germany’s Demimuta brings us #8 ‘Dance Nights in Berlin’ a tribute (to one of the most creatively stimulating cities in the world) and a mesmerizing call to boogey. Space synth, pulsing synth sweeps, hand clapping, and shifts in dynamics make this piece a slow evolve to a hymn of triumph.
#9 ‘Agartha’, by the illustrious Julio Largente of Argentina, is an intense thrill ride starting with a driving percussive synth bass that merges with a polyphony of thought-provoking (and sometimes ominous) modal phrases including what sounds like tropical birds, star songs, whale songs, pulp mills, and morse code. Let it guide your through your technicolour dreams.
Jellesound from the Netherlands brings us #10 ‘Water Leaps to Low Ground’ (another intriguing concept), blending syncopated slow synth stabs with four-on the-four drums, dissonant chords, and rhythms, an echoing male vocal, and a simple, evocative modal phrase. This is a thoughtful, meditative piece whose name suggests a preoccupation with the genius that can emerge during the dark night of the soul.
The album ends with #11 ‘Tiersen’ by Mate Tollner of Budapest. This is another pensive electronic piece punctuated by multiple staccato rhythms, a minimal but effective bass line, and deceptively simple loop. Puts you in a surreal Pentecostal church where the singers are mute and all you can hear is a space-age organ and a precise robotic hand clapping. The Church of What’s Happening Now.
Tracklist :
1) TWISTED PHONO patience (7:03 / 320 kbps)
2) JACOB FIRST oasis (8:17 / 320 kbps)
3) SEAN ODHRAN the hague (6:12 / 320 kbps)
4) DON GOIO gallo 24 (8:38 / 320 kbps)
5) SEROTONIN DROPS what feelings sound like (6:58 / 320 kbps)
6) JIB RAFILL alternation of sound master (11:11 / 320 kbps)
7) ANDRE RIGG distancia (8:40 / 320 kbps)
8) DEMIMUTA dance nights in berlin (6:13 / 320 kbps)
9) JULIO LARGENTE agartha (7:30 / 320 kbps)
10) JELLESOUND water leaps to low ground (8:05 / 320 kbps)
11) MATE TOLLNER tiersen (6:49 / 320 kbps)
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