In all the years that Mr. M.O.R.P.H has been a DJ, one thing is for sure: He has mastered the high-energy build! I don’t often have the energy to keep up with M.O.R.P.H, but I cannot deny his talent as an artist. He has the warm and down to earth presence of a DJ that has fought his way down the long, tough path that one must take to establishing themselves within the EDM community. When I think of Alex M.O.R.P.H, I think high-energy, steady drive, and M.O.R.P.H’s CD definitely lives up to this expectation.
Prime Mover starts with the track Eternal Flame which is a very uplifting track with a breakbeat throughout. I can’t think of anything that I love more than trance with a breakbeat, so my interest was instantly peaked. Next up is the track For The Love of an Angel. I won’t lie to you, I don’t want to like this track. It sounds like typical, generic uplifting trance to me, borderline overdone. For some reason, however, I can’t seem to resist listening to it and singing along with it. It might be typical, but it is irresistibly catchy. Then the third track, Sucker Punch, comes in. Finally, M.O.R.P.H gets dirty. Hearing this in a club would make me want to put my serious face on and grab onto my closest dancing partner. Following Sucker Punch is Monday Morning Madness a song with a mellow vibe supported by the warm lyrics of vocal artist Shannon Hurley. This song is like the trance version of the Bangles track Manic Monday, but in a good way. I loved that song when I was a little girl, and sang it all the time. Now I have a new Monday song, in trance, to love and sing, and I’m quite excited about it.
So, as I’m reminiscing in my childhood, Waking Up The Stars fades in, and it’s one of those spiritual tracks that inspires my after-party attempts at poetry. Not to mention that M.O.R.P.H teams up with Protoculture for this one, which makes it that much more awesome. Luckily for M.O.R.P.H (and you), I resisted the poetry urge this time around, but, if you like tracks like Neptune Project‘s Aztec or Aly and Fila‘s Breeze, you will probably like this track. Track 6, Jawa, is followed by Secret Universe featuring Christian Burns! I love Christian Burns! He never disappoints with his plummy voice, and this track is no exception. I barely got to the chorus before I was hunting for the lyrics. Unfortunately, a few sets of ears were broken, and I kept reading easily audible mistakes, so I listened to this track enough to learn them for myself. Lesson of the day, trance-family: trust your own listening ears!
Track 8, Bay of Bengal, ties with Eternal Flame as my farvourite track. I am kindred with the part of M.O.R.P.H’s soul that this track came out of. It has a mellow and steady groove that I didn’t expect to find on this CD. I’m so pleasantly surprised. Tracks 9 and 10 are alright but, Prime Mover, the track that shares the album’s title, stands out, in my opinion. It has a steady, repetitive, hypnotic drive that calls to my mind some 1970s psychedelic tracks I love, with the addition, of course, of an extremely high-energy “M.O.R.P.H build”. This track has a vibe of it’s own. It sucks me in.
From the Universe With Love Feat. Sue McLaren, track 12, is really beautiful, but why wouldn’t it be with a vocal artist like McLaren and a title like that? This track is followed with 2 non-lyrical, uplifting tracks before Tiff Lacey jumps into the trance-stew. Her voice is rich and has a breathy quality that adds just the right spice to this track. On top of female vocals, we also get Claudia Cazacu! I was anxious to get to track 16 when I saw her name on the track list. This track maintains a high lever of energy, but it distinguishes itself from the others through the rough/tech sounds that give this track a distinctive edginess. Maybe this will be the first of several collaborations between the 2 of them? I hope so! I really want to see more female contribution/presence in the EDM scene.
Finally, the CD comes to an end with the blow you away vocals of Hannah, accompanied with piano and strings, singing When I Close My Eyes. As I rub out the goosebumps, I encourage you to listen to this track for yourself because I might not do Hannah justice in explaining her timbre/tonality in words. This track just needs to be heard and felt.
So, I went into this review thinking I would be critiquing a CD that I wouldn’t truly be able to bond with. These days I don’t have the levels of energy left in me to keep up with intense build after intense build. I have, however, bonded with quite a few of the tracks on Prime Mover. Listening to them repeatedly wasn’t at all like I had imagined it would be. It was refreshing and uplifting. I didn’t have to drink a pot of coffee or half a bottle of wine. M.O.R.P.H didn’t overkill it. I have bonded with this CD in a way that I hadn’t thought possible. Hats off to Mr. M.O.R.P.H!
Tracklist:
1. Eternal Flame
2. An Angel’s Love – feat. Sylvia Tosun
3. Sucker Punch
4. Monday Morning Madness – feat. Shannon Hurley
5. Waking Up The Stars – with Protoculture
6. Jawa
7. Secret Universe – feat. Christian Burns
8. Bay Of Bengal
9. Connected
10. Antara (The Circle) – feat. Sylvia Tosun
11. Prime Mover
12. From The Universe With Love – feat. Sue McLaren
13. Sun Of Ilena
14. Tales Of The Black Panther, Pt.1
15. I See You – with Woody van Eyden and Tiff Lacey
16. Exstatic Avenger – with Claudia Cazacu
17. When I Close My Eyes – with Hannah
Lindsey Lou – EDM TOR
ALEX M.O.R.P.H:
As one of the leading DJs/producers in the global dance music scene, Alex M.O.R.P.H.’s popularity is on the rise like never before! With outstanding releases like “An Angel’s Love”, “Life Less Ordinary” or “Sunset Boulevard” and remixes/co-ops with and for artists like Armin van Buuren, Paul van Dyk, Within Temptation, Faithless, Gareth Emery, Dash Berlin, Protoculture and many more, he’s always one step ahead in quality and energetic like no one else!
In 2009, as he entered the DJ Mag Top100 again, it was finally time to unleash his highly awaited debut artist album ‘Purple Audio’ which included club smashers like ‘Sunset Boulevard’, ‘Photograph’ and ‘Purple Audio’. The album resulted in an overwhelming success and the ‘Purple Audio Worldtour’ went really fantastic. The remixed version of his debut album, called ‘Purple Audio Reloaded’, featuring remixes of the original album tracks by high-profile artists like Menno de Jong, Estiva, Signum, Woody van Eyden and many more found its way to the record stores in the mid of 2010.
In the summer of 2012, the charismatic DJ and producer proudly presents the long-awaited follow-up to his debut album ‘Purple Audio’. Including 17 brand new M.O.R.P.H. originals it is ‘Prime Mover’ that’ll mark another successful year for the German master. Showing all facades of his palette of sounds, he colors the night and brightens the day with a forward-thinking mix of ambient, warm progressive, uplifting trance and wild, loud tech-trance. He unleashes the M.O.R.P.H., collaborating with the likes of Protoculture, Woody van Eyden, Claudia Cazacu and singers Christian Burns, Sylvia Tosun, Tiff Lacey and many more.
‘Prime Mover’ is Alex M.O.R.P.H.’s audio translation of taking the next step. And it’s a big one.
