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4 Voice - AW 010 (also PK 08/79) Release Date: 27 May 1996 Limitation: none 4VI Intro 2.14 Music Hypnotizes (Hypnotizing Mix) 5.22 Catching The Scent Of Mystery 6.49 Light 11.00 Eternal Spirit (Northern Mix) 6.27 Move 5.52 Fairlight 1 6.04 The Mystery 5.24 Join Us On Our Way To The Final Frontier 8.16 Move #2 6.59 The Final Frontier 7.22 4VI Outro 2.32 all tracks written by Pete Namlook except 2, 3 by Pete Namlook and Maik Maurice (arrangement assistant)
When I think of classic trance, Frankfurt or otherwise, I think of 4Voice. It was a 4Voice track, "Eternal Spirit", that provided one of my earliest introductions to the world of Fax, when I heard it on a mate's copy of The Secret Life Of Trance 2 on Rising High (Thanks be to licensing!) I had to wait years to own the release itself, and admirably resisted the temptation to buy the Ambient World version, and I'm happy to say it was well worth the wait.
For me, "Music Hypnotizes" is the quintessential Namlook trance, and still lifts my spirits every bit as high today as when it first permeated my consciousness. There are other high points on the disc, as well as the occasional bit of ambience, which may possibly irk purists of either genre, but then again purists may possibly only exist to be irked by the rest of us, so that's as it should be :-)
Namlook wisely "retired" from this genre before his offerings became stale or jaded, but I feel this CD belies the hackneyed cliche that jacks of all trades are masters of none. Some of us are just outrageously talented...and some write reviews :-)
Verdict 8/10, as not everything on the disc is as perfect as the best two tracks, and the "Move"s sound a bit too much like early Prodigy...which just proves no-one's perfect, right?
(review by Martin Jones)
Like the 4 Voice Vinyl-Releases, the first Album is mainly dedicated to the typical frankfurt-rave sound back in 1993. While the whole german electronic music scene was doing stupid rave-sounds, Pete created a perfect mixture between some kind of rave, his explanation of Trance Music and his typical ambient and downbeat sounds. This album is influencing the Frankfurt Trance Scene until today, as you can see on the massive numbers of re-works of the albums main ideas.
(Intro) Two Minutes of light Namlook-typical strings directly lead us to...
(Music Hypnotizes) ..the first uplifting Rave-Like Track. This one was quite a big club hit here in Frankfurt. Typical rave sounds combined with an ear-catching lead-melody made it very popular just until today! (By the way, sooner this year (2000) it was re-released as "8 Voice - Music Hypnotizes 2000" on the german dance-label "go for it!", together with "Anemra" (4 Voice II) on the B-Side.)
(Catching the Scent) A typical 93-frankfurt-rave-track. This time with a quite easy melody, partly played with a TB 303 (it just sounds like a real one, I think!).
(Light) The first typical Namlook-Track on this album, very quiet, downbeat. A deep bassline underlines the outstanding melody, introduced to this track step by step until it's fully played in later parts of the track. A fine, straight building-up groovy track introducing one of the main melodies of this album.
(Eternal Spirit) Another Rave-Trance-Track, this time the most famous out of the whole 4 voice series. The groovy bassline combined with the brilliant lead-melody made this one the most-covered namlook-track ever. You surely know the lead-sound from tracks like "Prezioso - Raise your power (Bonzai / Tetsuo Records,1995) or finally "Kaycee - Escape (Go for It! 1997 & 2000)", but Eternal Spirit is the one and only original, never reached in my opinion! A classic, best dance track on the album!
(Move) Just another uplifting "hands up"-ravetrack, a mix between "Light" and "Music Hypnotizes", some kind of "Light for dancefloors".
(Fairlight I) Continuing the main sounds and atmosphere, this one is a fine 6:04 Outro of the last track "Move". Sweeping strings and sounds take this part of the album to a relaxed end.
(Join us to the way to the final frontier) Similar to "Eternal Spirit", this one comes along with a phatt and groovy bassline, typical rave sounds and catchy melody-parts. This time more dancefloor-compatible than the rest of the album (hihat and percussion fill-ins and a hard 4/4 kick-break combined with the title-sample)
(Move #2) Pete's going Gabba I think. Some kind of Namlook-Thunderdome. Fast 4/4 techno with lots of samples and a rotterdam-typical lead-melody. I don't like it (I never liked Thunderdome or something like that) but it seems like Pete had a lot of fun doing this one! :)
(The Final Frontier) Finally we reached it, the final frontier! The first minutes sound like the borgs' encountering the enterprise. Deep and dark sounds keep crawling in, strange noise is appearing and disappearing in tons of reverb. Pete creates a very special science fiction atmosphere, if listening to this one alone in your room in total darkness, it feels like being put into an old spaceship captured by ugly aliens. If this is the final frontier, I better stay at home! :) Very nice ambient track.
(Outro) Similar to the intro, bright sounds bring the album to an end.
This Album is a milestone in early Frankfurt trance-music, often copied, never reached.
(review by Sven Kössler)
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