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MUSIC REVIEW: Global warming is taking over disco

Ray A-J November 26, 2018

Get ready to catch some rays of beauty from Sam Dickinson’s latest track Wild Sun. Be sure to wear some sun screen though – you don’t want to burn.

Image edited by Ray A-J

 

FOGGY. Everywhere is foggy. A thick smog suphocates the innocent land, steeling an essence of life from the air. Desperate rain drops plummet to the dreary ground below, with every splash offering small pockets of hope to the tired grass. But it’s not enough. Each humble tear of rain erupts into a fierce fire, as a burning heat starts to overtake the sky. Instantly the land is engulfed in amber, killing everything in its path. But nature fights back. Across the way, beams a delicate little house of glass. And From The Glass House shine rays of glittery synths and mechanical automated beats, taking the heat and reversing its power to breath pure life into the dying plane.

With his latest track Wild Sun, synth guru Sam Dickinson paints a glorious picture of bright modern disco, in amongst the often suphocating landscape of inauthentic pop. Throughout the follow up to 2014’s When you left me, ring gleefully light sounds of string choruses and bright synth chords, adding a comfortable familiarity to the bouncy club track.

Steering the somewhat distant melodies are the Pride radio DJ’s delicately sweet vocals, that are oddly reminiscent of our Brighton favourite Liam Doherty’s. Like sunlight suddenly bursting through a dull morning sky, Sam breaks into falsetto, opening the landscape to its dancing chorus with the words “Set me free.” The Gateshead native keeps to the pitter pattering beats of the electronic drums, fusing the rhythmic tap-dance with his own breezy vocals. Each line of bright vocal is lightly decorated in a spacious amount of reverb and delay, adding a slight sense of depth to the otherwise thinning sounds.

The story of self empowerment continues through a charging chorus into a calm, perhaps less enthused, verse until it meets its orchestral cadence.

Sam has created a wonderfully sweet club banger, with this light and playful start to his latest From the Glass House E.P. But, at times, the otherwise delightful blend of wistful vocals and tip tapping beats becomes rather stagnant of energy; the verses desperately need some occasional dynamic shade to contrast the wonderful beaming light that is the chorus, just to stop us from being burnt to a crisp by the repetitivity of it all.

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