Ferry Corsten's latest artist album, L.E.F. (shorthand for Loud, Electronic, Ferocious), finds the Dutch DJ and producer building upon the styles he experimented with on his (at least namesake) debut, 2004's Right Of Way, while expanding and hopefully clarifying his direction for future work. It's an album that can be hit-or-miss depending on the context in which it is placed.
Although he is perhaps best known for helping to pioneer the modern trance music sound, the past few years have seen a stylistic shift in Corsten's outpout, both as a producer and in his DJ sets. Right Of Way introduced a strong influence of harder and grittier tech-house into his productions. Characterized best by the club hit "Punk", this new Ferry Corsten seemed to be more interested in experimenting with a darker club ethos, and less interested with maintaining his almost synonymous association with trance. In fact, it was almost as if he wanted to swing the pendulum as far in the other direction as he could (within the broader genre, that is) in order to push both himself and his audience into a less restricted appreciation of dance music.
Unfortunately, it fell short of his forte, and produced a record of mixed results. There were some singles, such as the aforementioned "Punk", as well as "Rock Your Body Rock", that lit up the clubs and proved successful ventures for this newer sound. And then there were a few tracks that hearkened back to a more classic trance sound. But the rest of the record seemed cobbled together in search of direction, and feeling more out of sorts than innovative.
L.E.F. seems interested in catching the pendulum as it swings back more to the middle. There are still elements of the ROW style, but more generous nods and updates are given to Ferry's "other side" as a trance stalwart. However, the execution of that balance still leaves a little something to be desired.
The album starts off with a "suite" of more electro-sounding tracks, from the energetic "Are You Ready", on into the first single "Fire", and finally to the title track. The pace is kept fast and energy is high, but we start to see some warning signs for the rest of the album. "Fire", although popular (so I'm assuming the kids dig it) is a repetitive track featuring a sample from Duran Duran's Simon LeBon (two lines of lyric repeated is not sufficient enough to denote anything more than the level of "sample"), but it also includes some trace elements of "Rock Your Body Rock." "L.E.F." on its own is a good enough track, but at its close comes a drastic style shift to the second suite of tracks.
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