Maestro succeeds

Senior International Affairs and Modern Languages major Bill Shillito, an undergraduate at Tech and a brother at Phi Kappa Theta, recently released an album of techno music. Going by the name DM Ashura, his first album, Digital Maestro, spans a few subgenres but mostly focuses on the trance style. Despite Shillito's being an amateur, his music is passable for professional quality, and despite the repetitive nature of the music, it is still very interesting to hear. His music has been featured in a few video games, some of which are included in this album.

The album opens with "Psychosis," a nice sort of warm-up song to get the listener into the album. It is trance with a fairly standard form, not too complicated, but a good indicator of things to come. Ambient and energetic themes mix and play off each other, a quality which almost all the songs in the album seem to share.

Shillito then explores several variations and intensities of the trance genre. "Astral" is a beautiful, uplifting trance song with a long build-up. "Snowblind" similarly uses an energizing build-up and also features some very cool instrumental effects.

The more aggressive nature of the music slowly comes into play with "Nautilus," mixing a foreboding drum n' bass rhythm with ambient trance synths; then, "Z" brings it to a rolling boil with hard and fast techno rhythms with a few trance-influenced parts in between.

Songs like "Go!," "Obelisk" and "Anubis (Black Land Remix)" demonstrate Shillito's appreciation for ethnic music in his own unique style. "Go!" is a Japanese-inspired song that uses an unusual but effective 5/4 time. There is also a shorter edit with rearranged percussion that was featured in the Xbox and Xbox 360 versions of Dance Dance Revolution. Egyptian-style droning and melodies throughout "Obelisk" coupled with Shillito's trance makes for a very nice track, and "Anubis," a remix of the original found in the game In The Groove, features his take on the song.

Shillito also has an appreciation for more traditional, orchestra-style music. "Euphorium" sounds like what a piano concerto would perform in Ibiza, with beautiful, sweeping melodies and a very catchy piano part.

However, since this was also written for a music game, it is painfully short, and leaves you wanting more.

Fortunately, Shillito's friend, Ren, has made a remix, "Euphorium (Ren's Ethereal Mix)," which revisits the original with many different musical styles expanding upon and transitioning through the song's orchestral nature. Ren also lends his talent for "Return of Neon," a reinterpretation of the original, with a fast drum n' bass track with trance influences.

Overall, this is an excellent album, showcasing a lot of talent despite being confined to a genre known for its repetitiveness. Anyone who has an appreciation for synthesized music in general should check out this album.

It is also fairly accessible to those unfamiliar to this style of music and is a good entry point into the genre. The album is only available through the website www.mydjsobad.com or through Bill Shillito himself.