Markus Schulz - Without You Near

Genre electronica Publisher Armada External Links Official Markus Schulz Website Official Armada Website

Markus Schulz's star is rising among aficionados of the world-spanning progressive-trance scene. He released the critically acclaimed DJ mix Miami '05 last year after first appearing on the scene with remixes of two Jewel songs in 2003. His latest effort, Without You Near, is not really a mix CD (though the tracks do tend to slide into one another), these are mostly Schulz's own compositions, including two versions of his 2005 hit "Without You Near."

Schulz deals in the mellow, lubricated sounds of progressive trance, a genre so smooth it calls to mind the late 70s/early 80s soft rock of Kenny Loggins, Michael McDonald, Christopher Cross and friends, dubbed "yacht rock" by the recent internet parody TV series of the same name. Perhaps prog-trance is this generation's equivalent. The production values on yacht rock records like Cross' "Sailing" were very high, yielding a polished sound not unlike the impossibly vast soundscapes of prog-trance records. In addition, the demographic seems to be similar: unaccountably fanatic yuppies who don't want to dirty their hands by digging into the underground. But enough conspiracy-theorizing; what about this particular record?

Schulz's music constantly has me trying to define the line between tranquil and tranquilized. It's hard to see how anyone can get really excited about this stuff. It feel like at any moment my living room lights will all go too-white-bright and a choir of tacky plastic angels will descend and try to lull me to sleep. One point on which Schulz differs from other trance populists like, say, Tiesto is that he avoids the constant buildup-from-ground to overamped, megapumped climax that dominates every second of their mixes. Tracks like "Arial" and "Never Be The Same" take their time to unfold, and don't go for the oh-so-easy synth-horn breakdown-pinnacles.

One thing that separates trance from other electronic dance music genres is texture. The texture here is like the translucent cerulean sea found at Caribbean resort in commercials like those Corona ads (the first track is even named "Clear Blue!"). I've never experienced the tropic Mediterranean climate of Ibiza but it seems somehow appropriate that it is now and has been for almost two decades the spiritual homebase of the trance scene. All music can be escapist but many other electronic genres tend to value balancing elements by including rough samples, sharp squarewave edges, and dirty, wet, messed-up 808 beats to balance out the sheen that synthesizer technology brings. For me, smooth textures have value to the extent that they are contrasted with harder, rougher textures -- not as end in and of themselves, which seems to be the goal of contemporary trance.

OK, onto the music of Without You Near, for real this time: "Clear Blue" sounds like the soundtrack for a Travel Channel HD documentary about an exotic resort on the African shore that mere mortals cannot afford, with tribal drums and washes of sound and strings. "First Time" sparks some interest as it begins with mysterious squiggles and a building, filtered beat, but as with all the other tracks here, the drum programming that finally breaks in is insipid and uninspiring. It's the first track to feature the ethereal, angelic female vocals that appear on many subsequent tracks. "Without You Near (Coldharbour Mix)" features work from world-trance super-producers Gabriel & Dresden, who give it a driving beat and delicate gossamer webs of sweet, shimmery synths. They also lend their touch to the album-closing reprise of the same track, which uses guitars and male vocals for a more grounded version. "Once Again" introduces the vocals of Carrie Skipper, who seems right at home doing the voice-from-on-high over xylophonic synthesizers, singing "I could run away / but I would come crawling back / to face the music once again." "Ballymena" gets huge with the pounding kick drum and a powerful riff, exemplifying the potentials of soundspace that are too often ignored on this record. Without You Near is so wide open it's impossible not to get lost inside it and so smooth it's impossible to get a grip on it.