Throughout the course of this Canadian’s long and decorated career, the consistently reliable aptitude of Trance’s own Solid Stone has shown us an incredible journey through Progressive, Trance and more as his fluid sound has constantly evolved throughout time, (more so than many other artists that we know of). He is a special artist who initially fell in love with a particular genre of music before tumbling down the rabbit hole into the deep and mysterious genres of Deep House, Deep Progressive and Techno and has been following the manifest of Max Graham‘s similar transformation through the Cycles brand, (which focuses on the more unusual styles of dance music with an emphasis on groove, exploration and forward driven dance music that’s mainly within the underground side of EDM). While he still produces Trance within his main alias of Solid Stone, his sound is continuously going deeper and deeper, with his supposed main moniker crafting a ‘Deep Trance’ mix of Tim Penner‘s Forgive Me into an extension of Penner‘s unique, Deep Progressive style. Additionally, his Refresh Radio series now solely focuses on Deep Progressive and Techno instead of Trance, and his deeper, more experimental side has gained traction through a new alias with Diversion; and his cushy residency with Enhanced Recordings‘ Colorize gives him all the freedom to sustain his unusual experiments into the Deep with a number of subversive singles and remixes. While we have covered him before with his fantastic Underworld EP and It Is What It Is/Gold EP, he has continued to craft incredibly dark and peculiar music since then, (including singles such as Output, Resistance, Absolut, If Not, Red Alert and more), and he continues this cumulative hot streak with his latest project aptly entitled Perfect Stranger, which promises to delve deeper than before into the murky realms of Deep House and beyond.
The more time he spends underneath his Diversion guise, the slower the tempo gets, as the curious notion that serious underground producers tend to get slower with age flutters through one’s thoughts. Indeed, this tempo is well below 128BPM within his normal producing range, and the more he continues to slow down, the more sonic possibilities become available for him to exploit and to take advantage of without disrupting the sanctity of the very genre that he is trying to develop. While his other releases were primarily focused on that deceptive Deep Progressive sound, this single is a pure and simple Deep House track that is a true representation of what the genre truly entails, instead of what many listeners think Deep House is. The genre is supposed to be relaxed, chill and melancholic in nature, with an emphasis on simplistic, yet inviting timbres that entice listeners to relax and to sway with the constant beat that is put forth in front of you within the smoky, dimly light confines that we call the dance floor, (with the DJ neatly tucked away in the corner to concentrate, of course). Diversion does a fantastic job of emulating this specific feel and does his best handiwork through the usage of smooth, yet consistent groove and flowing, ageless basslines that instantly set the tone towards a calmer, more reserved type of feel, much like slowly acquiring a certain taste of something over time and fully appreciating the subtle nuances that wasn’t apparent before.
Diversion‘s newest single of Perfect Pleasure will be out tomorrow on Colorize via Beatport, so make sure you purchase a copy and support real talent!
Keep the music alive. -Q
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