Search - Airlock :: Drystar

Chill side-project of a truly skilled pro studio team!

Andrew J. Klimek | South Plainfield, NJ | 09/14/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Airlock is NOT just another electronic/trip-hop outfit with a female vocal! Airlock is a side project of a state of the art studio in Brussels named Musicom. They produce music for a living, scoring ads, shows, films, documentaries, and events. This explains both the STELLAR production quality and the diverse styles on Drystar. True, it is their debut, but half of the tracks (4, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, and 14) were underscores pulled from other projects. They teamed up with vocalist/lyricist Esra Tasasiz for the remaining 7 tracks as "Airlock."

Esra is also not the typical lounge vocalist. This is her only work other than singing in her local church in Scotland. Her voice is not really anything amazing, but she sings well and into beautiful Neumann mic. What I appreciate most about her singing is the lyrics. She is a Christian and it comes through in some of her lyrics. (Oddly, the most christian-sounding lyrics were paired with the darkest-sounding instrumentations.)



Now for some listener notes:



The overall tone of this album is pretty grungy, yet the production quality is very transparent. This combo makes for some really crushing tracks!



Tracks 9-11 have absolutely killer intros that I always play to test new stereo equipment.



Tracks 1, 5, and 11 have truly lovely orchestral intros, thanks to their day job of scoring productions.



Tracks 7 and 10 are very slick chilled instrumentals, but the other five instrumentals are fairly bland, as they are underscores.



Even if you don't like the music, if you think you have a good system, you really ought to hear the noted tracks in full quality! :)"

THE LOW DOWN.....

Daly Mavorneen | Los Angeles, CA | 07/11/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The lead singer of this band, despite what the other reviewers have written, sounds NOTHING like the nasal drone of Madonna. Nor, is the music exactly triphop.What we have here is another Belgian electronica band that plays it a little safter than their country-folk, Hooverphonic. Airlock takes its lead from Bjork's cafeteria-style music experience, throws in a dash of Zero 7's laconic female vocals, takes a run around the instrumental-funk track of Thunderball, and mashes up Morcheeba's DJ spins and crunchy samples to reveal a shiny new disc of airy tunes and some surprisingly muscular techno-trance numbers!Get it? Got it? Good!One interesting note, the song "Alpha" sample the strings from the Neneh Cherry song, "Woman," the title song to Renny Harlin's action film, "The Long Kiss Goodnight." Talk about obscure!"

User friendly triphop.

Joseph Martin Cappadona Jr. | Orlando | 11/07/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've read so many postive reviews for works not even close to the talent I hear on this cd. sweet vocals, intelligent electronica!
I would like to bring Madonna into this, because I'm tired of reading the review that compares this to Madonna. I have Madonna's cd American Life its nice pop and to me a little ugly at that but so is American Life... However, at night I prefer something unWINEding and relaxing for my experience... This cd is a wonderful night time bliss... Yours, Babbes..."