Artist: Arado & Marco Faraone Title: Hard Time to Travel EP Label: Dame Music Catalog #: DAME002 Genre: Tech-house Release Date: July 7, 2010 Rating: 6
"Hard Time to Travel EP" is the second release on Bloody Mary's new label, Dame Music, bringing together two producers on the rise. Arado had a big debut on Desolat with "Uganda Express" in 2009 and 22 year old Marco Faraone began releasing tracks in 2008. Both have had their music played by Loco Dice, with whom their sound is very compatible. Arado and Faraone have a solid grip on production techniques but their use of sampled speech is uninspired.
"Hard Time to Travel" is standard Euro "deep house". Crisp swinging drums and a subtle bass move the track forward but the bible study vocal sample loops in an unsatisfying way, distracting from the groove.
"Don't Touch My Stereo" involves another lame vocal clip, a son's mumblings about his father's rules regarding the family sound system. Fortunately, the vocals are used in a more dynamic, musical way, especially in the moments leading up to the break. Overall, a decent pastiche of Chicago house tracks with clean, modern production.
"Hard Travel to Weeze" is the best of the bunch, the shorter (and better placed) vocal samples advance the movement instead of suffocating it. There's a definite throwback vibe, the smooth sub bassline and filtered, delayed vocals are reminiscent of Lil' Mo' Yin Yang's '95 classic "Reach" but it rises above filler-grade, something I can't say for the first two tracks of the EP.
Arado and Faraone are promising, but "Hard Time to Travel EP" is too derivative to stand out from the legions of producers aping classic house. However, its unoriginality doesn't change the fact that the tracks are perfectly functional and fairly groovy.
great job