W&W – ‘Impact’
Back in the day if you formed a trance production group, chances are it came about by bumping into someone at a studio, sharing a class at university or a chance meet in a record label office. It’s very much a sign of latter times that – as is well documented now – W&W ran into each other at that church of the masses, 2007′s Trance Energy. Immense in every sense, anyone who ever went knows (and those that didn’t can easily imagine) that a couple of metres to the left or right and who knows, W&W could have gone down as a king-sized near miss! Serendipity shone though and they became the first of the nu (nu!) skool to go stellar. Likely enshrined in the mind of every bedroom trance-producing-studio-head out there, W&W are (in trance terms at least) ultimate wish fulfilment.
Just 4 years on from that incredible fortuitous bump-into, they’ve arrived at their first album. In order to ensure ‘Impact’ lands the necessary punches, Willem and Ward have boxed clever to create a knockout 2-disc’er. The first one kicks of with ‘Do Not Skip’ – a message-in-a-title if ever there was one. Its fizzing, contemporary electro-lined theme is probably designed to shake up a few W&W perceptions good and early in the game. From there the album locks and loads with the likes of ‘Impact’, ‘Phantom’, ‘Cookie Jar’ & (literally!) ‘AK47′. Club amunition of the heaviest calibre, they’re probably as clear a representation of the known W&W sound as you can get. How about some collabs you (likely) cry?! Well there are a fair fewalong for the ride… Staying in-country with an all Dutch line-up, ‘Twist’ sees them back in the studio with M6, Leon Bolier’s in for a round 2 too (after ‘Saturn’) with ‘Treasure Chest’ and the Ummet Ozcan team-up ‘Velicity’ is a floor firebrand. The vocals flow good and early too with the enigmatic, tones of Ana Criado (on ‘Three O’Clock’) and ‘Nowhere To Go’ (described as an “eargasm” by one effusive YouTube commentator) featuring the searching, utterly sensational vocals of Bree.
The Ws have long applied something of a release-now, remix-later methodology to their tracks. That policy comes into its own on ‘Impact’. The second disc declares open season on their past, present and future catalogue. A host of up-and-comers – Tenishia, MaRLo, Wezz Devall and Taylor and Close among them – have gone hard at it re-crafting tracks like ‘Alpha’, ‘Impact’, ‘Dome’ and (the one that started it all) ‘Mustang’. In an amongst this new panoramic remixverse, its hard to pick an all-out winner. Russia’s Craving could be in with a shout though, having done an almighty job of infusing ‘Manhattan’ with a type of skyscraping sweep the titular metropolis would be proud of.
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Debut in the bag, Willem and Ward have been good enough to furnish Trance International with 10 copies (count ‘em!), which are currently stacked up high on the office desk. We’re longing to despatch them to far-flung corners so 10 of you are gonna get lucky and win one! To get your name in that particular hat, tell us the name of your own favourite W&W collaboration!
You can get W&W’s ‘Impact’ now thru the following links:
iTunes // Beatport // Amazon // Armada //
Audiojelly // Trackitdown // Juno Download