Search - Lsg :: Hive

Lush, Sweet, Great

upyerdotcom | 07/11/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This is Oliver Lieb's sixth album recorded under his LSG pseudonym: he records under more different titles than any other producer/musician you could care to mention - Spicelab and Paragliders are probably the best known. Recently he's remixed for Carl Cox, Faithless & DJ Tiesto.Amongst his other work (and there is a lot, I mean a LOT) LSG stands out as being the best stuff - purely because it's so goddam tuneful! Tuneful and weird! This isn't your everyday trance, this is like a Cyborg Elgar on E. Despite all the critical acclaim from other DJs I'm amazed that Lieb hasn't hit the bigtime proper. Maybe because he's not one of those 'bang-em-out for the radio' techno producers.Like I said, LSG is NOT DJ Armin van Buuren, Ferry Corsten or Art of Trance. Most of the 'normal' techno/trance producers clearly use cubase in a very obvious way, and get very obvious results (i.e. chart pap!!). Lieb creates an almost organic sound using his vast array of synths and analogue sequencers. The sound is crisp and fresh, deep basses and kick drums, awash with gorgeous sounding synths and distorted synth samples. And all wrapped up in hauntingly beautiful melodies.The tracks are all 'segued' which means that they seamlessly link or fade into one another - something Lieb has done with all his CD releases.1) Loose Ends - Weird synth noises, then big phat bassey synths, drums - the club track begins! Half the way through this nine minute track you'll have a big grin! Tech-trance heaven!2) Down to Earth - starts with a massively funky techno groove, then come in with a tune that sounds anything but earthly: Close Encounters meets Tron! It reminds me a little of the early (fantastic) techno releases on Harthouse Records - Sequential (Prophet), Pulsation (Transpulsation) and of course, Spicelab.I would have to say that this is my favorite track on the album.3) Saviour - I'd heard the remix on the Hive EP released earlier this year - this is better, crispy drums and bass that starts very clubby and then the tune hits - a swirling trancer.(?!)4) Black Currant - rhythms break out where you thought there were melodies and vice-versa. Lush.5) Goddess - clubby with breathy atmospheres and cool drums.6) The Hive - simple bassline opens followed by sweeping synths and an almost 80's inspired tune.7) Infectious#1 - clubby and comes in with some short weird synth noises stuccatoing out a tune - and then.. in come the Jarresque synths! then a PHAT bass! I'm in heaven already!8) Infectious#2 - er, more of before!9) Brainwash - hard synth notes ad repetae ascend into an uplifting wash of ... more synths!10) Everon - follows on from Brainwash into a tasty club track with a patchwork of different synth noises, hard, grungy and sexy. 11) Chieftain - big, trancey and baaaad in equal measures!12) Liquid - spacey ambientness to end the album, like a deep gulp of clean fresh air after a night in a hot sweaty club!Having listened to this album many (many) times already it is emerging as Liebs best and most sophisticated (and by that I don't mean clever or tricky) work to date. Up till now my favorite album was 'Rendezvous in Outer Space' purely for the tracks 'Lonely Casseopaya' and 'Sweet Gravity'; all I can say is, thankyou Herr Lieb for creating something even more beautiful!Anyone who considers themselves techno/trance fans should get this album (or indeed, anyone who enjoys electronic music) - it's unlike anything you'll hear by any other DJ/producer this or any other year. It's the aural equivalent of seeing the sun rise over some techno-industrial city, suddenly finding yourself cruising through some beautiful countryside on a Star Wars Speeder with the wind rushing past you, to then watching the sun set on a deserted wave-swept beach (so it's great, okay?! you get the message!)."

Out of nowhere - my Album of the Year

Anand Subramaniam | Chennai, INDIA | 05/28/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Everyone wants to spin progressive house - or so it seems, with the glut of housey-trancey-breakbeaty mix compilations hitting shelves today. The sheen's off the big labels a little bit, and there's a very real danger of people getting - for lack of a better word - tired. Tired of listening to CD after CD that plays like a commercial compilation of "The Biggest House/Trance Tunes To Hit The Charts This Summer".Enter LSG - The Hive.This isn't a new release by any means. But I got to listen to it only a couple of days ago, and it made me remember a few things about dance music that I was maybe beginning to forget. Number 1 - Sometimes, to explore the various NEW ways in which even a tried-and-tested genre of sound can move you, you need to go to the source. Producers & their full length compositions, not mix CDs. Number 2 - The bass may make you groove to it, the beat may get you hopping... but no matter how cheesy you think it may be, melody made you call it music in the first place. When a composer treats the melody with respect, and gives it the necessary treatment by layering it over synths, draping it along dark, percussive basslines and giving it that occasional anabolic steroid boost of dancefloor mania, the melody WORKS. Period.This particular composer is perhaps one of the most consistent of his breed, and The Hive adds to that reputation in no small measure. Yes, it's trance - trance that rolls over you in magnificient, thunderous tidal waves. Yes, it's danceable - I can easily see individual tracks from this CD making it on to hardcore dancefloor focused mix albums. Yes, it's mixed - and sequenced so beautifully to form a flowing, one-hour soundscape that I'm not going to try to pick stand-out tracks. Yes, it's dark - dark enough to satisfy even tastes that have been seasoned by Digweed-ian extremes. It is still melodious. It is still musical. It's still trancey. And even though all of this may seem like an instant recipe for cheese, the end result is one of the best compilations ever created by Oliver Lieb, using a sound that many have proclaimed dead. Interesting, how a "dead" sound can form an album of the year. Tragic, how easily it can be overlooked simply because it doesn't have the brand name backing of a Boxed release or the superstar DJ credits of an Airdrawndagger. Don't let that happen to you. "The Hive" is one of the finest dance music creations in circulation now. Buy it & listen through. Then bow to the man who made it, because with this one, ladies & gentlemen, Oliver Lieb has blown away the competition without even making a big deal about it. 5 stars, and a place on my CD collection for life."

Absölütely Wunderbar!

John | Canada | 08/30/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Deeeelicious. Original and purist Oliver Lieb sound. He delivers the entire album onto a 134bpm plate worthy listening to over and over again. His sounds are very unique and vivid with the right weight in building the tracks. The tracks are also perfect in length to set the mood and subsequently meshed together delicatly. Evolutionary, rather than revolutionary the Hive is worthy of much proper attention compared to many cookie-cutter heavy progressive juggernauts out there stealing the spotlight. I was looking for originality and it seems that Mr. Lieb has his own drum beat ;) 5 stars, no doubt!"