• Ecstatic crossover of Modern and Old-school sounds
• 1500th Armada release!
• Complexity in minimalism
A State Of Trance – Lifting You Higher (ASOT 900), which took place during the end of February at Utrecht, witnessed tons of surprises, from massive IDs like MaRLo & Feenixpawl’s “Lighter Than Air”, Vigel’s remix of Limelght’s “Canis Major“, Armin’s fourth collaboration with Shapov, to name a few. Unexpectedly, another great highlight of this festival was the particular tech-lifting ID, now known as “Stickup”. After the première, this track (also known as the PUT YOUR FACKING HANDS UP ID) was suspected by his fans to be an ID by Gaia. Nobody, including myself, thought that this would be from the label-boss himself. It’s been years since Armin released a solo that suits the general Trance audience, and what’s more interesting is that it’s neither a joint-effort or designated to be an “Anthem” for a festival like ASOT or UNTOLD. This single is another regular production made for his upcoming studio album.
Moving on to the instrumental, the introductory, compared to Armin’s earlier discography, is lesser as compared to his recent ones. It leans more towards “Shivers” (Armin’s 2nd Studio Album), which had Tech Trance works like “Control Freak” or “This World Is Watching Me”. As this lingers in the Tech-y domain, the intro along with the climax, revolves around a single note in the D Major key. Now, this often leads to criticism for less experimentation, but in this case, that is the creative offset with the sound design. In “”Stickup, there is a powerful synth, a plucky synth and a vox synth, all operating on the same key, which essentially makes this a complex pattern. Increasing the stamina with time, the buildup brings in the featuring vocal snippet, which appears just as the drop segment hits. Modulation of vocal sample is a very recent concept in Armin’s discography, but nonetheless appealing.
Speaking of recent aspects, after having an attentive listen to the breakdown, I realized how nostalgic it is. Bringing back the “76” era, it shares a small resemblance to classics like “Slipstream” and “Sunburn”. The execution follows the contemporary schematics of his music, similar to that of “I Live For The Energy” and “Lifting You Higher”. If we move over to the next section, it’s basically the first drop intensified. However, this does not signal the end, and further two more climactic parts play out before interlude.
An uplifting crescendo strikes to keep the crowd rolling, moving out to the finishing elegantly!
Overall, as simple as it might sound, “Stickup” builds up distinctively, making it “simplistically complex”. This year has been yet another apex for Armin’s Trance direction, and the way he’s been balancing his styles is absolutely classy. His forthcoming album is already guaranteeing to be a treasure trove of hits!
What do you think?
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