Music Review: Kaskade - Love Mysterious

The house scene is full of DJs trying to make it big by remixing someone else's music. Those sort of DJs eventually fall into the good old trap of overusing one or two synthesizer effects, as anyone who knows more than one Tonite Only remix will already be unsteadily familiar with. That's why it is extremely comforting when a house artist comes along who can actually write songs. Ryan Raddon is just that.

Fans of his music will know him by his stage name, Kaskade, the house artist who made it big with "Steppin' Out" in 2004. Two years later, and he has released his third original album, Love Mysterious, a further exploration into the chilled side of house, though the first track wouldn't lead you to believe that.

Were it not for the strong dance beat, the opening track "Stars Align" could easily be mistaken simply for a pop song. The vocals and instrumentation have an almost 21st century Sting sensibility to it, before he fell in love with Elizabethan lute music, of course. The beginning of "All You" sounds like an Imogen Heap song, characterized by slightly distorted harmonies along a melancholy melody. That is until it breaks into the familiar sounds of a repeated synthesizer loop, high-pitched and built for dancing if nothing else.

The album follows a very unpredictable path through various forms of house music, from traditional house music built around a heavy beat and female vocals, to the tracks that follow in the strain of Scottish electronic musician, Mylo. "Be Still," the first single to be lifted off the album, is the typical material for dance compilations everywhere, and has already begun to appear on the various Ministry of Sound Annuals, however it works so much better within the context of the album, creating a pathway between the heavier "All You" and the extremely mellow "Distance."

Article Author: James Hutchinson

Uni student, aspiring film editor, and blogger at Music Times

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