Ace

by

Ian Van Dahl

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Ian Van Dahl's music is high bpm electronic trance with soothing female vocals. Annemie Coenen's voice is perfect for the soft yet uplifting pace of the songs. The music itself is rather simple in composition, consisting only of a few layers, but the formula works and is still addictive (this CD is best enjoyed played loud on a good sound system). Truthfully, there is not much about Ian Van Dahl to seperate them from other bands/artists in the genre. It seems as though most of the female vocal-laden trance music these days sounds very much the same. Just listen to the Trance Party compilations and you will see what I mean. But hey...if it sounds good, listen to it. Aside from sounding a little generic, Ian Van Dahl's Ace is an worthy entry for the ears of any electronic music listener. The extra CD is nothing to get excited about (it's just one slightly different version of Castles In The Sky and the video for Will I?), but it's a welcome bonus.

"Castles in the Sky" is a truly brilliant song: a sublime piece of ambient trance music. It is true that no other track comes close to being as good; however, "Will I" and "Nights on Java" are interesting variations.

Songs like "Reason" and "Lonely" are, admittedly, quite tedious. It is on those songs where the vocalist tries to dominate the music that this is most prominent - an all too common fault within the genre. However, to their credit, this problem does not occur as much as with, say, the likes of DJ Encore.

The second disc of remixes is very good indeed, and provides another reason why this album should be purchased as one of the better modern trance CDs available.