Pearsall's Tunes

More Finnish madness.

Carbon Based & DJ Rx - Reptile - A Lahti hometown heroes showdown as Carbon Based hook up with DJ Rx (left), one of Finland's most popular hard dance dj's. Rock-solid kick-drummed intro with the spiraling synths starting early. The Finns are experts at the use of a particular style of synth riffs; they use this arpeggiated synth noise that seems to skitter over the rhythm like a horde of digital spiders across a floor. They are also big fans of the traditional 303/acid sound, which they use to particularly diseased effect in the intro here. That's no problem for me, because there is, for me, no noise like it. It draws out powerful, powerful emotions within me. After a couple bars of distorted breaks right at the start of the break, the main riff drops and it's a nicely filtered trance effort. Then, you know, a snare roll, massive massive build in intensity, then the drop into silence, a little rising acid line and BAM! Back into the beat. Textbook stuff, but always a beautiful and powerful thing.

Carbon Based - Underworld Species - Epic opening, like the winter sun rising over one of the thousands of Finnish lakes. A slow, stuttering rhythm creaks into action beneath the sweeping pads; the quiet before the storm. Then suddenly that drops out and, unprepared by the calm of before, the kick and twirling bass launch into action. Soon they are joined by an insistent one-note riff, that one ray of light, the tip of a lit cigarette waving in the corner of a dark room. Then a classic spider-riff rifles snarlingly in, leering over the beat with the knowledge that, when if you're there when it's 170 bpm, you are one of the committed. Then, of course, the breakdown, which sees the reprise of the intro, but with the addition of a couple more layers of riffology. The ticking sound of a night winding down, the sound of an early morning, dancing in the rising light, forcing yourself through a wall of exhaustion to keep moving. Epic and beautiful, this track, perhaps more than anything else they've done, expertly balances the light and dark within the Finnish sound.