BT – ESCM

Those expecting a bouncy trance escapade will be disappointed, but those who like variety will enjoy BT's foray into genre hopping. DnB, breakbeat, his attempt at NIN with Solar Plexus...hell, it's got a little bit of everything. Sure there's still great trance anthems (Flaming June, Remember and Nectar) and the production sounds top notch. Love, Peace, and Grease is a breakbeat bonanza filled with lush atmospheres and doesn't forget that it's a big beat track. Speaking of big beat, Content seemed to be naught but a generic closer, but the second half became a huge breakbeat and trance monster.

Just like his R&R album this one still holds up well due to the variety exhibited within.

Up until including track 5 this feels like a contender for best album of the '90s, songs flowing together become bigger than their own parts, BT already in 1997 showcasing his stutter technique on Orbitus Teranium, an awesome piece of music, fusing breaks and trance foreseeing how big that sound would become later in the 90's. But then as the genius l'enfant terrible BT is, he hits me in the veritable solar plexus as he intended with "Solar Plexus", and later "Remember" heading into vocal valley seems to be looking to proghouse of the past rather than the future. As a whole a very good album, but not perfect.

Most peculiar, but Road to Lostwithel seems to be a vinyl rip. At first I thought it was a "bad" mastering and was just clipping from distortion in places, but turns out not to be the case. It happens during the quiet breakdown at the 5:30 - 6:00 mark, there are crackles and pops clear as day if you load up the waveform in audition/favourite DAW. you can see/hear them quite clearly. Weird.

I gonna say that this album is Extraordinary, Sublime, Classic and Magnificent. From start to finish, it's all about trance melodies and solid breakbeats.
"Flaming June" is a superb trance classic, with the outro "Content" being in the same vein. The intro "Firewater" and "Memories in a Sea of Forgerfulness" got some arab chorus which fit perfectly with the airy notes, while "The Road to Lostwithiel" has a drum and bass tempo and this song sums up the meaning of "feeling good" pretty well. At last, "Love, Peace And Grease" is the sole big beat piece of the CD.
It is impossible to feel anything but satisfaction while listening. Happy 20th birthday "ESCM" !

Nectar is worth a listen - there is something special there

I just put this on after not listening to it for many years. Man, I don't remember the last time I danced that hard without being drunk.

Despite BT being a trance pioneer, ESCM is almost anything but trance. Only 3 tracks (Flaming June, Nectar & Content) are trance, while the rest is a mix of Drum 'n Bass (The Road To Lostwithiel, Memories in a Sea of Forgetfulness), breakbeats (almost everything else). Even rock gets a show case here (Solar Plexus). I don't mind though, because most of the tunes are pretty good.

The album isn't perfect. "Solar Plexus" feels out of place. It's also disjointed, ending abrubtly with piano and soft vocals dor the second half of the track. Some tracks, strangely enough, also builds up for something and never quite follows up on it. Everyone knows "Flaming June", but for whatever reason it ends with a very small drum 'n bass version. It sounds pretty good, but it's just sad that the album doesn't follow up on it. "Memories in a Sea of Forgetfulness" starts building up with live drums and rock guitars, then goes over to a drum 'n bass beat (that is a bit more relaxed than what the track build itself up too), and middle eastern vocals.

Those complaints aside, it is a pretty good album, and a nice follow up to Ima. Today, it may seem a bit outdated (less than Ima however). The live drums sounds a bit weird at times, and the production valves, while good, seems a bit weird too. Especially Solar Plexus where I could hardly make out the lyrics, among other things. The usual BT production style (time stretching and all that) isn't present either, though that's not a bad thing, nessecairly. One thing does become aparrent though. It's a shame that BT today, isn't as experimental and genre threading as he used to be. What's presented here may sound a bit outdated, but it's 10 times more interesting than almost anything he has done in the 2000's (save aside This Binary Universe)

To end this review. It's a great album, with a few flaws, that shouldn't ruin the album over all.