Search - Above & Beyond :: Tri-State

An ethereal trance experience. 'Can't Sleep' is an absolute

Doctor Trance | MA, United States | 05/04/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Above & Beyond put out their first artist album, and it's a donwtempo, chill type atmosphere, with a few upbeat tracks, like their smash hit, Air For Life, and the instrumental World on Fire. You get about 4 female vocal tracks, 3 male vocal tracks, and the rest instrumentals. ALL the instrumentals are very good tracks, with a wide range of melodic sounds, and for the most part, are the best part of this album. The standouts include Indonesia and World On Fire.



Air For Life, not really a vocal track with verses and a chorus, just some ethereal vocals, is a great track, but I am not to pleased with Zoe Johnston's track or the final female vocal track, Home. They're a little too slow with less than exciting lyrics. However, the absolute best track on this entire CD, and one of the top trance tracks I've EVER heard, is Can't Sleep, sung beautifully by Ashley Tomberlin of Luminary. All the Luminary tracks, including their most recent Amsterdam, are all exceptional vocal tracks, and Above & Beyond certainly picked one of the classiest vocalists in trance right now for this one. The only other question mark is why isn't Justine Suissa back for at least one track? They've had so much success with her in the past (as Oceanlab), not to mention she is arguably the best trance vocalist of all time, you wonder why she wasn't asked to do something on here. Anyway, Ashley more than makes up for Justine's absence and appears on what I consider to currently be the best vocal trance track of the year thus far.



As for the male vocal tracks, I believe they are all by the same guy who sings on Alone Tonight. I don't care for his voice at all, which makes me not like any of these tracks.



For the most part, a very good artist album, which seems to be hard to come by lately in trance. Just don't expect an upbeat dance floor type mix, because you'd have to go to their previous mix CD's for that. This is something very different, but very good."

Tri-State reminds us what trance music is meant to be

Peter Rieke | Tacoma, WA | 05/14/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As a person who listens to electronic music mostly for the vocals, this album was a hard sell. Regardless, I have found that Tri-State is the best trance album I have heard in a very long time. This is the kind of mind-soothing music that you can't help but become addicted to.



Above & Beyond, whatever names they have adopted over the years, have always been true to the meaning of trance music. This is as true as ever in Tri-State, which has rekindled in me the mesmerizing feeling from which the genre derives its name. A truly exceptional work."

An Outstanding Example of the Genre

J. Marranca | Brooklyn, NY, USA | 11/27/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It was Above & Beyond, both directly through their various projects, and indirectly through the Anjunabeats label, that first introduced me to trance, and they remain in my eyes one of the most consistently high-quality artists of the genre.



There is a lot of attention given to composition and songwriting here, as is typical of anything carried on Anjunabeats. Gimmicks and image engineering are completely absent, a stark contrast with the surprisingly pervasive dance music with which many Americans are familiar. Compared to that category, Tri-State is awash with emotion, subtle effects, and a careful application of symmetry and music theory.



"Can't Sleep" might as well be the best representation of this flavor of trance this year (at least since Max Graham's remix of the Jessica Jacobs song "I Know You're Gone"). A poignant, throbbing masterpiece that could almost carry the weight of the album on its own, it is among the trio's best work.



Contrasting with the emotional, vocally intoxicating sound of "Can't Sleep" is "Indonesia" - a purely instrumental piece that could best be described as "intriquing." Together with other tracks that introduce vocals in different techniques, the result is a varied landscape of sound that nonetheless remains stylistically cohesive.



There is just a bit of filler on here that prevents me from giving the CD a cup-runneth-over raving. Also, "Air For Life" is a great song, but was released so far in advance of this album that it feels like old music to me. Granted, if you don't haunt the Anjunabeats web site for new releases as I do, you are unlikely to have noticed this. It's just that my opinion of Above & Beyond is so high that I don't hold them to the same standard as many other artists. If you have even the slightest appreciation of trance, it's hard to imagine being disappointed in this album."