30 May 2017 
Posted by Jonathan Harr
The duality of right and wrong – Wavolizer offers ‘A Matter of Perspective’ [REVIEW]
Hardcore music stands at a crossroad. To the left we see a blurring out of the border towards some of the rougher Hard Dance sub-genres, such as Raw Hardstyle. Whilst to our right we see more of its roots, higher tempos, sharp howling screeches and of course, heavy kicks. The commonality between these two paths is that they both focus on heavy kicks with screeches.
In an age where speed and tempo is everything, something out of the ordinary may prove to be a daring step to take for artists within the scene. One artist that dares challenge these standards is Wavolizer; an artist that has been releasing Drum ‘N’ Bass influenced Hardcore for the past two years.
To some, Drum ‘N’ Bass may come off as too random or flimsy. To others, it’s a genre that welcomes in the emergence of heavy pounding bassdrums of Hardcore music. This sound is often referred to as Crossbreed and it’s a style that’s been making waves for quite some time.
Wavolizer recently released his first solo album ‘A Matter Of Perspective’, a concept album consisting of 12 tracks. Released on The Third Movement, this album is an electronic journey into the aspects of ‘good’ and ‘bad’. Let’s get on it and dissect this voyage of dualism!
#1. “The Protagonist”
I never really thought electronic music could make me reminisce of fabled legends of heroes, but this track does. This track is a solid definition of Hardcore that is good without focussing on the rough edges – this is Hardcore with a special feeling to it.
#2. “Brotherhood”
To me, a lot of feelings strike me upon listening to this track. I felt a similar sensation from “The Protagonist”, except, in my opinion this track contains more of a ‘communal’ friendship vibe. In fact, I picture an after party, where I’m with my best friends and we’re all chilling out around a campfire. I’m getting carried away, but the track also has a bit of a devious touch to it, thus adding another mesmerising dimension.
In my opinion, guitar riffs accompanied by Hardcore music is highly overdone, however I don’t really feel that it’s much of an issue with this track – in fact, it sounds really good.
#7. “The Internet” (With Geck-o)
What you’d expect to hear if you dare crawl into the PRSPCT Bunker at Q-BASE or the Silver Stage at Defqon.1. A collaborative track produced with Mr. Funky Cat, aka Geck-o. In my opinion, this track is a homage to Wavolizer’s past; the heavy wobbles remind me vividly of the old Theracords sound that Geck-o and many other artists within the label used to produce. This works really well with the crunchy hard kicks and this track in particular is one of my personal favourites of the album.
They actually made another collaborative effort for Geck-o’s album ‘A New Wave’, which I highly recommend giving a listen to as well if you’ve come to like what you’re hearing this far.
#9. “Heroes & Villains”
“My experience? There are no heroes, no villains. Just people with different agendas” – The Daredevil (Netflix 2015)
The theme of the album becomes incredibly apparent here. The track itself has a lot of elements to it aside from its ghost-like melody and distorted kicks. In a way, it’s incredibly raw and hard, which kind of resembles Wavolizer’s old roots. However it still has that atmospheric style that Wavolizer has managed to establish within his music. I like it.
#12. “The Showdown”
You’ve done a speed run at an adventure game, you’re on the final boss and having the game in speed run mode left you with music pounding through your speakers at a fast and heavy rhythm… Yeah, that’s the feeling I got when I heard this track and I still can’t shake it off! This tune is absolutely amazing; the speed and the energy is a real kick in the throat for anyone too tired to keep on going in the wee hours of a late night rave.
What I like in particular is that this track’s tempo is that of Uptempo and Frenchcore, except it doesn’t incorporate screeches or Peruvian flute bands into its melody. Not saying that there’s anything wrong with that either, but rather that it is becoming highly overdone.
How did Wavolizer shed his perspective to the world?
To be honest, I personally didn’t hear much about the album’s release announcement. As a matter of fact, I feel as if a lot of the productions that have come from Wavolizer passes us by unnoticed. I have no idea if this is because of poor marketing or just incredibly tough traffic to advertise in.
Pre-orders ran out one week before the release, which became one of the heavier marketing tricks for the album. The tracks of the album were previewed on Facebook and Soundcloud, with the bomb tracks spread out through mini-mixes and podcasts which to me was a great idea. ‘Cause nothing works better in this industry than a friend sending you a mix in the middle of the night saying “Dude, check the track out at 42:30, holy shitballs”.
Although as I mentioned earlier, a lot of Wavolizer’s music passes through the scene without gaining the recognition it deserves. We still want to see more of you Wavolizer; get on that horse and do a Europe tour! Oh, and while you’re at it, make sure that you swing by Sweden too.
Overall
This album comes as a breath of fresh air. With great variety (and the fact that I love concept albums in general) makes it into a personal favourite. The only downside to this album is that some of the tracks do not reach the same levels of excitement as the others; of course this is a matter of taste and it must be incredibly hard for an artist to release an album with only 10 out of 10 rated tracks. This is, of course, a matter of taste. The album and its journey questions what we really consider holy and evil, whilst bringing something new to the table.
We rate it: 8/10
We’ll be catching up with Wavolizer in an interview very soon – so for fans of his music, you’d better keep your eyes peeled on our site! To stay up to date on Wavolizer, be sure to follow him at the social media links below.
