• Industrial and mainstage!
• Techno leaning structure
• Measured usage of old-school elements
At last, the unprecedented Dutch titan Armin Van Buuren has finally unveiled his much-anticipated intro of his 2020 sets, “Punisher”. A thing worth noticing is that this song has been the second track, which he has been playing after the earlier intro with Shapov “La Resistance De L’Amour“. It gets even more interesting when the history of this track weighs more, as the unfinished version which has the first climax was played by Fatum during their ASOT 900. The label-head is taking a hiatus from the music scene right now after 25 years as Ruben De Ronde confirmed on ASOT, which explains why the latest episodes have been hosted by native heavyweight Ferry Corsten, amidst the current situations. However, he did stack up on ASOT’s 2020 compilation, and has been consistently releasing producer synergies along with the likes of Super8 & Tab, MaRLo and Tom Staar.
A few noteworthy things, firstly, is that Fatum have still kept their electro sounds alive even when trying out something more geared towards the “Tech” sound in their recent productions, like “All Of Me” or “Bloodlust” akin to Genix’s latest direction in trance. Second of all, Armin Van Buuren has also shown equal inclinations to this style, with his previous release with Tom Staar & Mosimann “Still Better Off“. The chemistry between this creative pair remain intact, but also because of how much Armin has heavily supported Fatum in the past, playing “All In” in all his major gigs, his mashup of “Heading Up High” with Fatum’s “Violet” and more!
Diving into the production, we get an intro which builds around the monolithic sound incorporated with an anthemic melody. Perhaps a better version was the cinematic intro played live in his recent sets, made by another duo called Side-And-Chain. Entering the climax, it draws parallel with the intro and is an absolute floorfiller, combined with busty cadences to build things up seamlessly. As we progress to the breakdown, that is when the vibes hit the right spot and I heavily suspect this as Armin’s contribution to this collab, a melody like that can be a great kickstarter. The one note build-up after the breakdown, is backed up by energetic pads & stabs to give it the much needed power spikes, which in turn leads to very unexpected yet coherent moments in the rest of the song. A secondary climax with an rhythmic segment following the first one. Also noticeable is the influence here lies here was also present in “All Of Me”, a nice throwback to the electro groove back in 2014-16, while maintaining with the contemporary sounds. While I am a Trance fan per se, I really did miss the high energy which are rare these days and “Punisher” upholds that tonality.
Concluding, this production has been cut adeptly for both underground and mainstage purposes, as I hope that more such collaborations will be revealed!
What do you think?
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