REVIEW: Tritonal Boat Cruise 08-11-12 by Sarah Chiu

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My first encounter with Tritonal was, by no means, anything extraordinary. I was listening to one of the many weekly podcasts I follow (my best guess is the Gareth Emery Podcast) when the Tritonal & Ben Gold Club Dub mix of Tritonal’s Slave came on. My first thought: *clap clap clap clap clap clap*. My second: “Who is this Tritonal and where did they come from?”

To answer my own question, Tritonal is a trance duo hailing from Austin, Texas. DJ/Producers Chad Cisneros and Dave Reed started producing together in 2007 after becoming internet friends in a sound production forum. What piqued my interested in them was not their boyish good looks or the fact that they call their fan following “Tritonians”; instead, it was their unique sound – one that I still cannot describe with my limited knowledge in music production – that left a lasting impression on me and that allows me to “just know” when I’m listening to a Tritonal track.

So, naturally, when I found out that the boys over at Envy Productions were bringing Tritonal to Toronto for the first time (and on a boat), I was stoked. The energy that these guys brought to the ASOT stage at EDC had me doing jumping jacks and I couldn’t wait to do it all over again. Although the boat had originally been scheduled to leave at 1PM, I found myself at the dock by 10:30AM as forecasted thunderstorms had forced organizers to push the event forward. It seemed like another unfortunate hiccup for Envy who had, earlier in the summer, overcome the last minute cancellation of Orjan Nilsen with an event headlined by Shogun, Mark Sherry, and Carlo Lio. Nevertheless, major props to the boys as they always manage to throw a dirty party anyways.

Once I got on the boat, I headed to the upper deck to enjoy what I could of the cloudy, but otherwise dry, weather. Envy artist, Casualties of Sound was already playing to an energetic sprinkle of people, many of whom were rocking Tritonal shirts. The abundance of fan gear excited me as I knew that it meant the crowd was more-so actual fans of Tritonal and their music rather than the “Where’s Molly?” kids that seem to be filling out a lot of the Toronto EDM shows lately. This theory was later verified by the entire upper deck singing to just about any track played. Meanwhile, Veiga was playing some nice techy beats downstairs to keep bodies moving and warm.

Just around 11:30AM, we pushed out from the harbor and set sail. Shortly after, Kurtbradd took over on the decks and continued with some nice deep trance. The two openers played shorter sets than normal, as Tritonal had agreed to play an extended 3-hour set and were, thus, scheduled to start around noon. As the pair came up the stairs, the crowd cheered and the front of the booth immediately got more crowded. For the next three hours, Tritonal played a great set (partial tracklist below) fueled by their high-energy karate-chops and air-piano theatrics. They also have a contagious tendency to jump non-stop from start to finish where if you don’t follow suit (no matter how hard you’re cramping), it can get pretty awkward.

A large portion of their set was reminiscent of the one played at EDC, but with an extra 2-hours at their disposal, they were able to include much, much more. A highlight for me was when they dropped their new collaboration with BT, which features some beautiful synths and buildups as well as a slowed down break with dubby wobbles. Mixed in with a great selection of trance such as their own Can’t Keep it In with Jeza, W&W’s Moscow, and Above & Beyond‘s iconic Sun & Moon, were some housier tracks like Alesso’s Years, Calling (Lose My Mind), and Swedish House Mafia’s remix of Every Teardrop is a Waterfall. Personally, I’m not a “purist” for any genre so I don’t mind when DJ(s)/producers mix it up from time to time but I know that some people in the crowd would have preferred more trance all the way through.

I did notice a few things that didn’t work so well: (1) the music cutting out suddenly and having to be restarted; and (2) the mids/highs weren’t clear enough or, at least, loud enough relative to the bass coming from the speakers. I’m not sure if the former issue was a function of some slip-ups behind the booth or just people in front bumping their equipment. Either way, Tritonal recovered quite quickly.

In the end, the weather held out for us and it was a great event to round out Envy’s annual boat cruise season. Judging from the amount of fans that hung around for the meet & greet afterwards too, I’d say that Tritonal killed their Toronto debut.

If you’re a fan or simply want to learn more, check these out:
https://www.facebook.com/tritonalmusic
Tritonal’s official Facebook page:
Tritonal Fans Unite Facebook page (a fan-made page): https://www.facebook.com/groups/171988022860092/

On to the next one!

Sarah Chiu – EDM TOR

    Partial Tracklist:

1. Porter Robinson feat. Heather Bright vs. Sultan & Ned Shepard – Language Walls (Tritonal Mashup)
2. Cosmic Gate – Wake Your Mind
3. Martin Solveig & Madeon vs. John Dahlback – The Night Out Life (Gareth Emery Mashup)
4. Tritonal – Let Solitude
5. Tom Fall –iRok
6. Tritonal feat. Jeza – Can’t Keep it In
7. Above & Beyond feat. Richard Bedford vs. Omnia & Ira – The Fusion Tonight (Chris Schweizer Mashup)
8. Alesso – Years
9. Tritonal feat. Jenry R – Something New (Rafael Frost Remix)
10. Tritonal – Forgive Me, Forget You (Original, Ashley Wallbridge and Cressida triple mashup)
11. EDX feat. Nadia Ali – This Is Your Life (Leventina Remix)
12. W&W – Moscow
13. Sebastian Ingrosso & Alesso – Calling (Lose My Mind)
14. Tritonal & BT – ID
15. Tritonal feat. Cristina Soto – Lifted (Mat Zo Remix)
16. Armin van Buuren – We Are Here to Make Some Noise
17. Arty & Paul Van Dyk – The Ocean
18. Tritonal – Piercing Quiet (Super8 & Tab remix)
19. Tritonal feat. Cristina Soto – Everafter (Club Mix)
20. Tritonal – Broken Down
21. Coldplay – Every Teardrop is a Waterfall (Swedish House Mafia Remix)
22. Zedd – Spectrum
23. Tritonal – Azuca
24. Adrian Lux feat. Dante – Burning (Ivan Gough & Feenixpawl remix)
25. Tritonal – Suzu
26. Ferry Corsten – Punk (Art Rock ‘N’ Rolla remix)
27. Oceanlab vs. Eric Prydz – Breaking 2night (Maor Levi Mash Up)
28. Wippenberg vs Art of Trance (Richard Durand remix) vs Gabriel & Dresden – Tracking Chakalaka Down In Madagascar (Tritonal Mashup)
28. Above & Beyond feat. Richard Bedford – Sun & Moon
30. M83 – Midnight City (Eric Prydz Private Mix)
31. LTN – Never Let Me Go (Beat Service Remix)
32. Sunlounger – Lost
33. Tritonal feat. Cristina Soto – Still With Me (Seven Lions Remix)

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Adele is the owner of Tranceported. She manages and maintains the social media and the photo and video teams, and has been shooting our event photos since 2011. She has been a fan of Trance music since the mid-90s and started this website (formerly called EDM TOR) in 2012.

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