Culture Beat – Horizon

A non-negligible first album before the big throw Serenity, then still with Lana Earl instead of Tania Evans. Stylistically, in the period before Euro Dance, there are mostly House tracks coupled with some ambient influences. The potential of Fenslau shines here already several times.

Track by Track Review

Horizon: A very relaxing New Age / trance instrumental written by Fenslau and Zimmermann. Has virtually nothing to do basically with the rest of the album but is surprisingly good. 5/5

It's Too Late: A House cover of a eponymous Carole King track. Although sung passable it's already clear that Lana Earl (the then Culture Beat singer) was not the ideal person to achieve even greater success. Overall a bit unspectacular, but I like the chilling ambient house atmo with bell sounds in it. 3.5/5

The Hyped Affect: A pretty energetic house track with an already excellent rapping Jay Supreme. There is somewhat too much echo on the vocal for my taste. Synth riff sounds a little like Kraftwerk - Heimcomputer. Good song. 4/5

Tell Me That You Wait: Although I appreciate very much Katzmann I think his processing with a special melody along with "Leaving on a Jetplane" here rather failed. The instrumentation is mostly too shallow with a Milli Vanilli style. Not one of my favorites on the album, even though I like the interludes with piano pretty much. 3/5

Black Flowers: Whoever the one might be that is mentioned in the credits as Reginald van Reese, not too overwhelmed with this track. Not bad, but for me at best an above-average house track. 3/5

I Like You: Strong Deep House track that I like a little better than the slower "Erdbeermund". Although partly a little repetitive, the track is surrounded with a wonderfully engaging atmosphere. The vocals are a huge success here. In addition to the opener "Horizon" for me the best track on the first Culture Beat album. 4.5/5

No Deeper Meaning: Highlights are the chorus and the integration of the "Change" sample by Tears for Fears. The rest is pretty good, but the screaming might go on your nerves. 4/5

Serious: Kind of Soul II Soul oriented. A mixture of RnB, House and Downtempo. 3.5/5

Der Erdbeermund: A nicely chilled ambient house track, the start of the long journey of the Culture Beat Project - and then still unpredictable. To recite the vocals as a kind of poem is already rather unusual, but this performance by Joe Van Nelsen is something really special. One shouldn't make the mistake to just dismiss it as "effeminate" or "gay" because it definitely takes a lot of histrionic power to recite the poem in this way. 4/5

One Good Reason: Although nicely chilled held concerning the sound, this track seems a bit too uninspired with no real melody. 2.5/5

Tell Me That You Wait (Airdrome Club - Mix): This more dance oriented mix shows a different approach towards this song, which personally I like more than the normal version. 4/5

Horizon (Reprise): The reprise being very similar to the opener but again filled with great atmosphere. 4.5/5