Is this album creeping up on you?

My expectations for 2am weren’t huge. In fact it took me two months to order! From psynews I’d heard Ticon desribed as having gone complete haywire commercial electro house. Have they sold out?

Still, the opener 1987 suited me freaking good. Electro House? Uh, maybe, but, damn, it’s freaking rocking! And follow up Zebra Beat’s got a pretty strong catchiness to it too! I mean, what the fuck. If that is what is getting bashed I’m still glad I bought the album. The groove is wonderful. The sections without vocals are my favorite parts but in between daft vocals it’s pretty strong. The coming single (?) Models On Cocaine unleashes its’ power. Wizzy Noise full on founded it has a Shakespeare speech in vocode mode going on. Motherfucking goat, you are testing me! Could this be the Ticon addition that has psytrance circles bashing this album. Those vocals certainly ensures that that these tracks never go *all the way up there* but they weren’t that bad either. But could it be going downhill from here?

Weekend Warriors next. What?! This aint electro House, ladies and gentlemen. And this ain’t full on either. That was shere listening enjoyment. 5/5.

This is where the creepy part comes up. Spitfire is pretty electro house. What Trentemøller's club music could be if dared going further. You could call this hard electro house but you cann’t call it 23pm mainstream! In The Box takes over.

Oh, this is where the Electro House goes haywire. WTF are those vocals doing?! Are we setting ourselves up for a Kylie Minogue remix job? Which makes this track difficult. The parts without vocals are corny as a fucker but the parts with vocals challenges me like a motherfucker! An who gave Ticon the idea to put Filip Mårdberg on on We’re Shining?

At this point I’m thinking this album could go either way. There’s been some great tracks but is it still a let down? Rest assured 2am give me faith. The vocals are off and it’s a long chiller. Closing track Less Is More takes over and you get the best of what made Ticon Ticon from early on. The surfing full on bass from Zero Six After, the hard line from Aero, the spine from Rewind. Ticon almost end up biting off more than they can chew. After a 3 minutes killargh entry they leave you with Sash advanced and you’re thinking I wanna be a little bit more tough than that. California reefer anyone? Fuck it, count me in. Sure, they’re as close to German hard core without leather pants as you can get but the deep parts can take me for a ride when I let them :o)

Alas, with the last two minutes of Less Is More sending me out I need to reach my verdict. Is this a new Aero? No. Is this recommended? Yes. Hell, yes! There’s hoops of good songs. Sure, Ticon is more crowd-pleased than they have ever been but that ain’t bad now and then either. I’m a fan of Ticon and I’m still with them. They have been meaner. Much meaner. But they’re a happy acquiantance and if they let out the vocals next time I’m with them all the way. 4/5.

The Swedish duo Filip Mårdberg and Fredrik Gilenholt are back with a 4th album on their regular Digital Structures label. It's been over 2 years since their previous hit release "Zero Six After" and the anticipation (by me anyway) was pretty immense. In this period the guys didn't release any new material besides one track under their NDSA alias with Emok in 2006 (Harbour Candy) which was quite a big hit and received a fat remix by Solead.
So is this one any good you ask? The answers right after the commercials...

1987 Starts the album with big epic a-la Jean Michel Jarre feeling all over. This is a track that will light up many sunrises for a few good parties in the near future. Very high on the cheese factor, true, but sounds like it was made with pure intentions. So I'll let it slide, with the knobs all the way right.
Zebra Beat takes into somewhat minimal'ish territory with some corny male chanting in the background "This is in your noise, this in your sound". Sounds a bit like what Ticon would do if Trentemoller was around the block. Fat crunchy tune. Another sure hit.
Models on Cocaine I first heard almost a year ago when the guys performed live in Israel. Already there it sounded like a sure hit. A bit like Beckers' Switch but with Kraftwerk influenced computer vocals. This one I try to listen as less as possible so it won't hunt me too much at parties when the season returns. "Sniffing at the Catwalk"!
Weekend Warriors is this album's heavyweight champion in my opinion. It has some of that "In the dirt" vibe from their previous album with precise circular layer upon layer buildup that just makes deep holes in the dancefloors. In my opinion, and I've heard it only around 50 times so far it's almost as nearly as great as Extrawelt's Soopertrack and that's says plenty. Best track of the album.
Spitfire goes further into the dirty minimal techno regions. Very German sound in this one. Almost D-Nox & Beckers like in the beginning but towards the end it becomes a bit insane with some crazy scratchy sounds. Demented tune.
In the Box is the first letdown of this album. It's downright cheese-fest powered by uber silly female vocals that just don't pass the test. Skip
We're Shining is another vocals heavy tune. Although this time it's almost bearable and the distorted Bass Guitar sounds so fucking great. The climax is going to be probably the biggest hands in the air point of this album but hell it's not that bad.
2 AM, the title track is slow building tribal electro number with deep and subtle melodies. The track has a very special atmosphere that reminds me a bit some old Sasha and Digweed material for some unknown reason. Very nice set filler i guess.
Less is More, the closing number reminds me a lot the first track. Although not nearly as big but has that same positivity charge. A great example of a track with a rolling bassline that just does the job without falling into all sorts of genre cliches. Perfect way to close the album.


Conclusion: All in all the Swedish boys has done it again, for the 4th time. Although this time they let inside what is arguably their worst track ever (in the box) but also some of their best ever. If you loved their previous work and if you love melodic morning sound and don't get rash from words like electro and minimal techno than get this ASAP.