Hora - domiNATE reception and thoughts

Daedolon

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Since most of the people seem to have gotten the album, let's discuss it here.

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Tracklist:
01. THE LAW
02. INSANITY
03. domiNATE
04. MAGNIFICENT
05. 128
06. INFUSE
07. THE OTHER A.I.
08. INWARD
09. SIRIUS
10. DEVOTION

I've only listened through it a couple of times and I can't really say what I think of it properly yet. I have to say that I fell in love with INWARD immediately though, it feels so 80's that I can't see how anyone would not love, or at least like it.

THE OTHER A.I. is apparently the new L.E.M. :lol:

So far the rest of the tracks give a way more darker feel than his other works, which I think brought Schwarz Stein to their end. Hora's music is getting darker by each album and Kaya is going more popish by the minute.

The album art is printed on a sleek foil paper that looks semi-metallic which looks really sweet.
 

Dostovei

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Damn, hope I'll get it tomorrow...
So, no vocals at all on this one?
 

Daedolon

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No vocals, but at least two songs have vocal melodies, INSANITY and I forgot the other one ::erm::
 

Dostovei

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That's a pity, apart from Another Cell and remixes, we haven't had any since The World...
 

Dostovei

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Got it in the mail this morning!

It's cool... a typical Hora album...

I like it, but it has nothing special...

Hora should hire a vocalist or something, or just use his vocoder, or anything to make his project evolve...
 

BoOH

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I'm extremely in love with domiNATE, the song. What a marvellous song; so far, for me, the best of the album.
 

Garnet

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I really like this album, while I also liked Reign I think this album’s better (reminds me of Venom). So many climatic songs. INSANITY, domiNATE, 128 (really interesting song, begins slowly then comes this beat), INWARD are currently my favs.
I hope next album’ll be also so good.

“Recorded, mixed & mastered at CHAMBER OF FEAR” :>
 

flowersofnight

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I did my usual tradition of writing the review in real-time while doing my first listen XD

THE LAW: Our intro starts in Hora's trademark mood with just a bit more hi-tech trimming.

INSANITY: Reminds me of something off of INNER UNIVERSE. Not bad but a bit spare. We seem to be back in that original vein of "extended meditations".

domiNATE: And from there we swing all the way over to "New Hora" with a sort of Mortal Kombat/Sega-esque lead-in (a good thing in my book, for those following along at home). The main melody line in this part is a bit blunt and unengaging, though I give him credit for trying out some more creative instrumentation and FX. The little "breakout" part at the 1:30 mark was promising but unfortunately the whole song didn't go down this route. Again: not a bad song but I can't quite call it an unmitigated success.

MAGNIFICENT: "INNER UNIVERSE" vibe coming on strong again (with the same sort of chords going on as "HAZE"), but Hora pulls out a melody lead to hold this one together. This is perhaps the first song on the disc to have any "spirit" of its own. I can't say I'm a huge fan of the drum track in this one, but that's a minor quibble.

128: Long electronic atmospheric intro, but one that works. Nice "buzzy" backwork in there. After a somewhat ineffectual drum bridge, we transition into a more plucky sort of segment that doesn't do it for me, followed by a rather nice elaboration of the original bit. With a heavy editing hand cutting bits out, this song could have been quite good as a short "instrumental". I just don't like those drums, they don't go.

INFUSE: Bold synth trumpets and organs? Now what is this? And then Hora breaks out the glass - this is good. Yes sir. Again, a little judicious use of the editor's shears could have tightened this one up a little. Still, I like what I heard.

THE OTHER A.I.: Yeah, as a previous commenter said, the start reminds heavily of "L.E.M". This one isn't quite as pungent at least. In fact, there is a bit of genuine sophistication to it this time around. I'm not a fan of the whole "dance" format so I'll leave it at that. If nothing else it's a better piece of craft than his previous efforts along this line - quite passable.

INWARD: My first reaction: "Bold, but this has about 5 seconds to shape up". The direction it took was... interesting. Sort of reminds me of "Street Fighter II meets Malice Mizer's Ju te veux" XD Odd, odd, odd.

SIRIUS: Hora goes experimental with a "twinkly" piece? Commendable, but the song doesn't really do it for me.

DEVOTION: Continuing (and concluding) this disc's line of experiments, we have a piece much moodier than we usually see from Hora. Just a short outro here, but in that role it works fine. You can tell he's so devoted (to his kitties XD)


The Bottom Line: Last time, with Hora's handful of innovative tracks on "REIGN", I had hoped he'd continue down that line. Instead he pulled a 180 and wrote songs that often remind me of his first disc, as well as more experiments than he'd ever put on one disc before. I'd say we heard the "Voice of Hora" best on "MAGNIFICENT" and "INFUSE". The rest of your mileage will vary depending on how much you like Hora's usual deal. Another mixed bag of the type I've come to expect from Hora, but there's some quality stuff to be found here. Nothing quite on the same level as the best of REIGN, but we have some material here that rings true.
 

a-amanitin

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I listened to the full album once through earlier today and the only track I took a liking to immediately was 128. Hora managed to follow the prototypical blueprint of something akin to a trancey style superbly, yet I still found it agreeable despite its predictability. But it totally could've been augmented nicely with an actual vocal melody. Or two. Who's to say he can't throw in some polyphony every now and shake things up by drastically changing the tempo mid-way through a song? At least he really played up the extended layering, and in a way I'm glad he chose to avoid over-complicating (and risk rupturing) the framework by only subtly tweaking, adding, and removing individual layers. Heavier elements (strong bass... *tear*) would've only tipped the entire thing out of balance.

Edit: The constant "weeeeeeeeaaaaooooooohhhhwwww"'ing in the background does get annoying after a while, though. x_x

(Obscure GBA game alert! 128 reminds me a bit of the first song in Sound Voyager.)

DomiNATE was kinda fun, too, but most of the other tracks didn't feel as satisfying as some of his earlier works.
 

flowersofnight

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Red Scarf wrote:
Who's to say he can't throw in some polyphony every now
Yeah, that's what I liked about the better tracks on REIGN. Too bad he didn't go that route this time.


Oh, AND: his recording venue, the "CHAMBER OF FEAR", it's actually a Nike reference... we should have guessed ::meev::
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q22VEviS-Os
 

Demanufacturer

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this is just rubbish
more silly 80's loops made for a fashion show.

Hora should stop playing around with the 80's presets on his synthesizer and start making darkwave/darktrance like he used to.

I will not buy this abomination
 

oasis19

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The has to be the first release by Hora I was unimpressed by. I liked (but not loved) a few of the songs. Though, I though it was funny he named one of his songs after my apartment building number xD
 

Moizer

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you guys, he writes like.. weird ambient space electronic dance music. hora is like his own genre. i fear you guys expect something new and CRAZY, where he just kind of does his own thing and watches all his copies sell out.

that being said this album is sweet. has some sweet tracks. i dig itt
 

Elec

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THE LAW is the type of intro that doesn't even work as an intro; just sort of feels like a waste.

INSANITY: I like that sparse intro, but I feel like the big sound he uses in the full section doesn't work, or is mixed poorly, or something. It totally dominates (har) the sonic landscape and really gets underfoot.

domiNATE: I don't know why it took me a jillion albums to realize it, but Hora is very good at beating you over the head over and over again with boring and uninspired too-short melodies. 1:30-ish is really, really great though. I like all the stuff going on with the rhythmic sounds. I would listen to 5 minutes of that cool breakdown section instead. Half-poopy, half-cool. It's almost more disappointing.

MAGNIFICENT: This works. Every layer is the right tint. The drum pattern Flowers didn't like is actually what I think brings this whole thing together. Without it it might veer toward typical Hora sparseness.

128: I like the extended intro thing, he builds it up all right. Over the throb of the constant dance beat there are different layers climbing up and down with the phasing and the arpeggiation which give it a sense of movement and this is actually not a letdown.

INFUSE: sorta floats by as dark dance music; i get a 'heaven or hell' feel from this as it plays in the background. Hora works best as background music and since I can't think of much else to say about it, it works.

THE OTHER A.I.: Song title of the year. Adore it. Couldn't tell you why. The song fails to live up to its accidental cleverness, and it lacks inertia. A bit disappointing.

INWARD: Hahaha. I think he borrowed the strings pad from Kalm or something. This is about the point where I realize that he can. not. write. a melody. to save his life. I've skipped willy-nilly through about three songs already, not good.

SIRIUS: I like it. The name is very fitting. Evening winter sky in the Arctic circle.

DEVOTION: Moody, great atmosphere, nice.


For an album called domiNATE, I think I was expecting a bit more hard-hitting stuff. That is not what is disappointing: when The World came out, I remember saying that Hora needs to be approached differently from other artists, as he is entirely self-produced, just a dude makin' some music in his apartment.

As his releases came out, I grew weary of that model, and thought perhaps it was because he has no one to quality check him anymore.

But no. In this day and age, with tons of totally amateur independent musicians making truly amazing music and giving it away for pennies or free, I wonder why I thought it should be okay to lower my standards for Hora. I have a hard time believing that he would be completely satisfied with the tracks he's been putting on disc.

For some reason I attribute this epiphany to when 'another cell' came out, and it was just so, so, so terrible. That really highlighted the flaws of both parties there.
 

Duality

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Elec wrote:
But no. In this day and age, with tons of totally amateur independent musicians making truly amazing music and giving it away for pennies or free, I wonder why I thought it should be okay to lower my standards for Hora. I have a hard time believing that he would be completely satisfied with the tracks he's been putting on disc.

Gurl...you need to introduce me to these people. /offtopic]
 

Demanufacturer

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ya know, after a while this album has grown a little on me.

I find myself listening quite a lot to Magnificent, Insanity and domiNATE.

The rest is forgetable though
 
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