All too often, dance music producers engage in collaborations that doesn’t make sense. There is always intrigue when two artists with different styles attempt to meet in the middle, and create a mixture of their sounds. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work. On the other hand, partnerships will occasionally arise that seem almost too perfect. Take the recent alliance of the California-based Seven Lions and the Polish-bred Xilent for example. The two feature incredibly similar sounds and both have appeared to realize that their melodic dubstep styles would mesh flawlessly. With rumors of a Seven Lions and Xilent collaboration floating around for months, the duo finally decided to release their track The Fall on Seven Lion’s native OWSLA.
Seven Lions, born Jeff Montalvo, had quite the eventful 2014. The Santa Barbara local gave us the awesomely spaced out Worlds Apart EP, weirded us out with the ominous and trippy psy trance track Lucy and even delivered a breathtaking set at Paradiso’s Digital Oasis tent. Seven Lions has only improved his cutting edge sound over the past year and also expanded his immensely loyal fan base.
Xilent, also known as Eryk Kowalczyk, spent 2014 continuing to do what he has been doing so well over the past two years: make speaker blasting dubstep with no shortage of euphoric vibes. Xilent’s track Falling Apart made our 10 Must See New Music Videos and the producer continued his solid rapport with UKF by doing a bass heavy mix for the YouTube channel’s podcast. Xilent also tried his hand at drum and bass for Reality and electro house for Free Me.
The Fall is a surprise for many fans of Seven Lions and Xilent, as the track did not turn into the melodic dubstep many expected. The euphoric and dreamy melodies are still present for the builds but the drop features an electro house pace that we were not predicting prior to the song’s release. The superbly ambient supersaw builds are are entrancing to say the least and scream Seven Lions. The chopped vocal sample adds a nice touch, but the song actually could have been improved with soft, extended vocals layered over the build. The kicks sound to mostly be the work of Xilent and the offer a thumping bass that is easy to groove to. One of the best parts of The Fall is the flute and vocaloid combination at the beginning of the second build up. It is simply stunning sound design. Even though The Fall might be a bit of a surprise for listeners, the track is still an absolute win for Seven Lions and Xilent.
To listen to The Fall, click on the SoundCloud link below or buy the track from iTunes here. Let us know what you think of The Fall by sharing your opinion on Dance Music Northwest’s Twitter or Facebook page.
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