Sunday 8 March 2015

Electric Glow (Tritonal)

If you enjoy this song, please be respectful of its creators by buying it on Google Play or iTunes.

I would be the first to say that ‘Electric Glow’ does not have a great deal in the way of lyrics, but what it lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality. Beauty is, of course, in the eye of the beholder, but the imagery of a higher intelligence ascending from the base, animalistic flocking of the first line makes a powerful impression.

The overall sentiment is one I identify with very deeply indeed: it hinges on the idea of finding iridescent traces that someone has left behind, drifting in their wake like stray photons from a distant star, and following that glowing trail with great determination. It could even be said that seeking such a luminescence has been the most meaningful quest underpinning the journey of my life, and the one pursuit that has contributed more profoundly to my evolution as a human being than any other.

I love the allusions to optics, physics, quantum phenomena and nuclear interactions. These are very sophisticated themes in the spectrum of my own emotional palette, and the elemental vision of lovers who “come alive in the moment we collide” is replete with powerful symbolism.

My visualisation of the way in which people’s ghosts interact is equal parts mystical, atomic and digital, and to me, this song seems to portray spirits as having properties of both matter and energy. The fluid and seamless transcendence of physically “pushing through oceans” to reach “the beautiful trace I was imagining” also represents an effortless comingling of the Newtonian world, and the invisible world in which I imagine most of this song takes place.

The very texture of the music -- and not just the melody and instrumentation -- melds with the lyrics in the same way, creating an exquisitely cohesive work of art. This is one of my most practical arguments when rationalising my enjoyment of trance and other electronic genres to people who are prejudiced against music that is not recorded using physical instruments: it is true that many musicians have painted astounding vistas of sound using exclusively analogue means and their imagination. But the ability to craft sounds completely from scratch -- right down to the very shape of the waveform -- opens up even greater possibilities for creating a musical experience that has never before been heard.

‘Electric Glow’ is at once uplifting, soothing, and mesmerising -- while also being a valuable reminder of all the opalescent brilliance that awaits, glimmering, on a plane which is beyond ordinary reach and experience. It is a place I look forward to visiting again soon.

Check it out on YouTube