Ivory – 93 Style Chop w/ Retro “a distinct level of character to it”
The track has a dark and fairly haunting yet epic vibe to it. There’s a powerful contrast in the opening few moments between the slowly descending musical backdrop, the fall of the strings, and the manic energy and angst of that leading vocal. The pace of the vocal performance gives off a feeling of intense rising energy, from this comes notable anticipation of what will follow. If at first the set-up and overall sound comes through as fairly classic, the vintage sound of the UK in the 90’s in some ways, what evolves later on has a fresh touch of electronica with a much more striking high end than anything on the bass side of things.
The weight of the bass and the beat increases as things move along, but that leading, industrial sounding synth riff is definitely the driving force. The intensity remains and rises from there on in, though the leading vocal that introduced the piece doesn’t return until almost three minutes later.
The track reaches out to a pretty varied audience, the heaviness and manic energy of it would go down well in the club, the performance aspect would go down well at a stage-based gig or festival. The last couple of minutes showcase further creativity in terms of how varied and consistently evolving the track is. The instrumentation and samples become familiar, but structurally the producer has made sure every moment hits with impact.
The return to the performance is a welcome change again and brings back that sense of realness and humanity, that powerful energy, that passion and power. The whole thing has a distinct level of character to it and is unquestionably original sounding among today’s music. It’s been well crafted in every way, really well performed.
By Rebecca Cullen
Rebecca is a Musician and writer from Manchester, UK, with an MA in Song Writing
