Wednesday, May 28, 2008

1st Best of CD review


4 out of 5 stars!!!

Published today on www.musician.ie

Digital Dreams - The Very Best Of

This CD is a potted history of the musical career of Thomas “TJ” Janak from 1988 to 1996, with some new bonus tracks bolted on. It’s an electro pop production containing 18 tracks and spanning the entire lifecycle of the Digital Dreams project. The albums themselves had top 10 success in the DRMV charts. TJ notes on the sleeve that there are some quality issues with some of the songs, and made the decision not to re-master so as to keep the authentic sound of the original tracks. I’ll mention a little about the recording of the tracks on the album later.

The album itself is beautifully presented, with a collage of press cutting adorning the insert and a proper full-size jewel case.

Vesicula opens the album, with a driving rhythm and hints of the riff from the Knight Rider T.V. show. There is some German spoken word on the track, which I was completely unable to decipher, so I’m sure I didn’t get the full effect of the song. The whole track is based on a descending four chord pattern, but there is enough variation in the arrangement to keep it from getting stale.

“Der Teufel” is a hoot – Imagine Kraftwerk covering the Shamen’s “Ebeneezer Goode” after ingesting some very strong hallucinogens. “Ich bin Der Teufel” (“I am The Devil”), TJ cackles manically over a burbling techno arp line, with satanic synth choirs belting out in the background. Musically, it is a little sparse, but it is a very interesting experimental piece. I only wish I understood more of the dialogue.

Murder Mystery samples the narrative from a Sherlock Holmes interactive DVD – I hope he got clearance for the samples!

Free Your Mind is possibly the most overtly commercial track on the album. A stop-start arrangement utilises some luscious pads and bell sounds in the slow sections which contrast with the hardcore beats and super saw lead of the up-tempo section. TJ struggles with the vocal line here, and I’d have pictured a female vocal smothered in reverb to mesh with the music.

Take Me Higher sees Digital Dreams carving a typical slice of 90s euro pop, in the mode of Army of Lovers, and is again very commercial. The male and female vocals overpower the music a little, and the male and female tracks aren’t always exactly in sync, but the arrangement is satisfying and it would have been quite at home in the charts of the early to mid 90s.

Heaven is TJ’s take on the Robert Miles sound, complete with the offbeat bass and the piano melody. He uses a phasey modulation on the drum track to create movement, and this takes me back to happy times in the chill out room of my favourite club in the early 90s.

Con Course Theme is an ambitious attempt at a movie soundtrack which then segues into a rhythm which is almost Bollywood-esque, and then the track morphs to a 140bpm dance track. Remarkably the track never feels schizophrenic and the metamorphosis of the track is very fluid. It’s got the big string sections, solo woodwinds and explosions of timpanis. The solo instruments reveal their synthetic origin, but in general the track is very well implemented, and possibly my favourite on the album.

Stylistically and sonically, the album meanders quite a bit, from the experimental outtakes like Hi-tech Hero (a hip-hop idea complete with funky drummer loop and that Insane in the Membrane sample) to Dicke Backe (a techno track with some sort of circus music as a melody, which made my ears bleed). It’s a good retrospective of the sonic palette of dance music in the 90s. Much of the material is a little light in the high frequencies, in an audio-cassette kind of way. Perhaps some of it was recorded on an 8-track? I decided to investigate, and asked TJ to explain the process behind the recording.

It turns out that the earliest Digital Dreams release was recorded from a Korg M-1 and Commodore Amiga straight to 4-track. I’m betting these are the tracks lacking in high end. After that, the project upgraded to 8-track recording before graduating to using professional studios. These days TJ is primarily using analog synths and recording them to a dedicated 12-track digital recorder, using a PC only for the mastering stage.

It will be interesting to see where the next album takes TJ. I would like to see him collaborate with a female vocalist. Coincidentally, when I browsed my way to http://www.myspace.com/digitaldreams2008 to check out his online presence, it appears he has teamed up with Caitriona Moran, who appears (I assume) on a track featured there called “Can’t Help Myself”. She has a great soulful voice and is the perfect foil to TJ’s understated musical accompaniment. More of this please!

It would also be interesting to see where he could go if he added some guitars to the equation. As a member of the small but elite club of hardware synth aficionados, he’s probably aghast at the idea!

Squibs, www.musician.ie
The review will also be up on www.wusikmagazine.com shortly.

Charity gigs ...

... bands playing charity gigs to support that or the other has come under fire and bands have been abused to do "anything" to increase sales.

Digital Dreams members Caitriona Moran and Thomas "TJ" Janak are individually supporting numerous causes out of the goodness of their hearts. Since DD hasn't sold high volumes of their work we feel that we are not doing anything out of selfishness and we want to highlight what we're doing in the hope to inspire some of you to do the same.

Digital Dreams as a band has supported Artists against Terror (2001), Concert against poverty (1995 & 1996), Help save our pizzeria (1996,)HIV/AIDS help (1999) and Caitriona travels abroad this summer to build houses/schools for AIDS orphans, while TJ continues to support animal welfare and rights both as a volunteer in shelters and by giving free talks as well as via his radioshow.

Many artists do and have done a lot in the past and even if that helped to increase sales and raised their profiles - they still supported those who have less and we feel it is worth doing it.

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

PODCAST

See the box on the right hand side? That's a podcast that contains of some of the songs we've recorded recently. Please DO NOT download them.

Monday, May 19, 2008

LUNAR ECLIPSE CD - 1/4 recorded

The next Digital Dreams CD "Lunar Eclipse" is in progress. Due to illness and work related delays the album is only finished to approximately 1/4 as we are aiming for a full blast, full-length 70 minutes release to offer our listeners an album that's worth listening to over and over again.

We are still aiming for a release in October this year. So far, TJ has composed and recorded well over 60 songs for Caitriona to choose from and to write musical melody and lyrics to.

The setup has never been better and the recording will be fully digital.

This being the first Digital Dreams CD in 12 years and also the debut album for "the new Digital Dreams" TJ and Caitriona, we want this album to be more than anyone could ever expect - something we can be really proud of and something we fully believe in.

TJ's unique approach to writing songs and Caitriona's hauntingly beautiful vocals have been described as "stunning" (George Mulcahy, Radio DJ) and we hope the album will be equally as stunning.

So please bare with us while we're finding our feet. We have scheduled to meet and (hopefully)record together again in early June.

Problems with MYSPACE


www.myspace.com/digitaldreams2008 - the official DD myspace site

We are currently experiencing major technical difficulties. While anyone can still access and view our myspace page, we cannot access our HOME site at all, meaning that we can't answer emails, approve friends or write blogs etc. - myspace has been informed via email.

No idea how long it'll take to get that sorted.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Check out the pics on our myspace page

Check out newly uploaded pictures on our myspace page.

Especially the ones in the "Live in the 90's" folder, where you will find never before released pics of Digital Dreams' very first gig at the F63 in Offenbach, January 1994 as well as shots from a performance at the Musikmesse Frankfurt (1994).

Saturday, May 10, 2008

Releases

Thomas "TJ" Janak's career is now in its 28th year and this year's "BEST OF Digital Dreams" CD has brought new interest to all past releases. Now you can check them out one by one:

01. Digital Dreams - German Groove (1990)
02. Exzess - Technological Age (1992)
03. Digital Dreams - Hitech Systems (1994)
04. Digital Dreams - Vesicula (1996)
05. TJ - Pure Love (1997)
06. TJ - Darker Than Black (1999)
07. TJ - Midnight Dreamer (2000)
08. TJ - Eternity (2002)
09. TJ - Sensitivity, The Very Best Of (2005)
10. Digital Dreams - The Very Best Of (2008)

Saturday, May 03, 2008

On E-WAVE on May 2nd


The show in full swing

Answering Questions

E-Wave host George Mulcahy (right) with "Mr. Digital Dreams" Thomas Janak

Before the show. TJ checks the Internet for updates

Caitriona was out sick and TJ had to go it alone. The show went very well. The new track "Never Enough" went down a storm and lots of people were trying to win one of two BEST OF albums that were raffled off during the show.

More pics up on our myspace site