Retro Review: Nu-NRG - Freefall (Album)

Back in 1999 Giuseppe Ottaviani and Andrea Ribeca founded the legendary “Nu-NRG” project. The success of their single “Dreamland” lead them towards Paul van Dyk’s Vandit Records, on which they later released their album “Freefall".
Check out the review inside...



Once the deep pads of “Elcisse” reach your brains you will slowly start floating away from your hectic life into another world, the world of Nu-NRG. After two minutes some percussion and small melodies are added in this ambient intro track and the intensity increases.
It ends right before it gets boring fading smoothly into “Visual Sonar”, a collaboration with Rob Aker, the man behind the Jose Amnesia alias. This is where the actual fun starts with a wide-ranging palette of background sounds building up towards the first real Nu-NRG melodies. It all stays in the calmer regions of trance for now which puts you in the right mood for what’s coming.

The pace is increased rapidly with “Supersonic Way”, a track with big old-school sounding beats. Halfway through the main melody comes out with a heavily detuned saw sound clearly designed to drive you insane…
After the peaceful flute melodies in the fine “Bonsai” it’s time for “Freefall”, the absolute headliner of the disc. At first, the track may seem to lack a bit of attitude when the main melody is revealed during the breakbeats. It seems to be a bit too simple, but your patience will be rewarded as the synth sound gets more powerful as the track progresses. In the breakdown this synthsound keeps growing and growing and the amount of energy being released when the beat kicks back in after the breakdown is truly immense. The picture used for the album cover describes the adrenaline rush that this track gives you perfectly.

Warm and emotional strings are used in “Connective” and they create a pleasant change after the banging sounds of the previous track. The bassline and beats are still highly energetic though, so it’s not like your given a moment of rest.
The legendary “Butterfly” is a favorite amongst lots of Nu-NRG fans. The main melody and especially the chord progression on the strings are really addictive. Peak time stuff!
When the happy butterfly has flown out of our sights “Astralis” presents a bit of a darker mood. The collaboration with the Italian producer Gate 4 builds up slowly with sad sounds and the main melody is just as melancholic giving the album a nice change in direction. “Tommotor” takes this even further with aggressive tech-trance. It’s almost like an oldschool version of Klauss Goulart’s ‘Turbulence’, but without the pitchbend-effect. The breakdown feature some sweet Nu-NRG sounds forming a big contrast with the intro before diving into the tech-trance bit again.
“The Shadow” continues to be in similar style but the aggressiveness is slightly decreased. The build-up doesn’t really feature a lot of interesting sounds and it takes a big four minutes before we reach an actual synth melody. It’s not really worth the wait though…

The next track “Aloa P” heavily reminds of Mauro Picotto’s ‘Komodo’ with a similar beat and bassline, as well as a similar reversed-beats effect. After a minute of introducing new sounds the track leaves you with the kick and bass again in true ‘Lizard’ style, but thankfully this isn’t all just yet. In the breakdown the big Nu-NRG sounds are introduced and they don’t disappoint, making it a worthy track after all.
The album finishes with their first big hit single “Dreamland”. It takes you back to the cheerful side of our musical journey. A perfect choice to end the disc with as the happy melodies in Dreamland leave you behind with a smile on your face.

Verdict:
The Nu-NRG boys definitely focused on a good flow with their album as the track order is thought-out well. Fortunately there aren’t any vocal ‘fillers’ or sudden ‘experiments’ that today’s albums always seem to include.
The tracks are faded into each other with no gasps in between (the word ‘mixed’ isn’t appropriate though). The tracks are still pretty much DJ friendly with intro’s and outro’s on most of the tracks.
If you like energetic trance with big banging melodies, this is simply a must for you.

Score: 8.7/10

Album Tracklist
01 // Nu-NRG - Eclisse
02 // Nu-NRG vs Rob Aker - Visual Sonar
03 // Nu-NRG - Supersonik Way
04 // Nu-NRG - Bonsai
05 // Nu-NRG - Freefall
06 // Nu-NRG - Connective
07 // Nu-NRG - Butterfly
08 // Nu-NRG vs Gate 4 - Astralis
09 // Nu-NRG - Tommotor
10 // Nu-NRG - The Shadow
11 // Nu-NRG - Aloa P
12 // Nu-NRG - Dreamland

Preview samples
http://soundcloud.com/trancefix-reviews/nu-nrg-freefall-album-previews

Purchase

Nu-NRG - Freefall (Album) @ JunoDownload
Nu-NRG - Freefall (Album) @ Beatport