Dreamchild Album

Following a string of seismic releases this year, including the official Dance Valley Festival Anthem ‘Intuition’ (feat. Anna Yvette), and the first of his Nino Lucarelli collabs ‘I Should Have Walked Away’ clocking in at 7 million streams and counting, the now prolific Revealed Recordings resident DJ/producer KAAZE announces his debut album ‘Dreamchild’, out October 4th. Always one to embrace external influences, the record features collabs from electronic outliers Maddix and KSHMR, to vocal duties from rising stars Elle Vee, Johnathon Mendelsohn, KARRA, NEEN, and Nino, whilst championing and challenging KAAZE’s signature melodic progressive sound.

The ‘Dreamchild Interlude’, sets the tone for a record audibly built upon KAAZE’s divergent childhood influences. The guitar-driven ascent accompanied by Nino’s powerful rhetoric is in places, more reminiscent of an 80s glam-rock arrangement than a typical Revealed release. However, as the track seamlessly leads in to ‘Chain Me Up’, the harmony of these two unlikely houses becomes absolutely apparent. Syncopated kick drums carry a string melody over understated synths, creating a finished article appropriate for the kind of progressive dancefloors associated with the Revealed roster, and the thrilling live sets synonymous with KAAZE. For those a little more geared towards a big room hit, KARRA’s 24 karat performance on ‘California Gold’, and NEEN’s ‘Up In Smoke’ duly accommodate; uplifting synths drive formidable vocals towards the tracks’ conclusion, and as they break into pulsing bass and hard-hitting melody you can almost hear the confetti cannons.

The electric guitar returns to introduce Jonathan Mendelsohn’s haunting vocals on ‘Poison Lips’, while overdriven kickdrums and oscillating synths remind us why KAAZE is becoming so synonymous with festival anthems. ‘People Are Strange’ then takes a step back into 60s psychedelia, while Nino’s rendition of The Doors’ classic together with some of Maddix’s signature big-build, hard-hitting crescendo delivers the kind of pyretic energy an onstage Jim Morrison would be proud of. Maintaining the floor, Nino then ushers in ‘Eye of The Storm’, while swirling clouds of piercing synth once again remind us of KAAZE’s more electronic nature.

Taking a short detour from the dancefloor, the staccato strumming on ‘My Favourite Enemy’ behind Nino’s smooth delivery and pop-infused soundscape on Elle Vee’s ‘This Is Our Kingdom’ showcase the record’s radio-ready side, as the synths recede to compliment the stunning vocal performances. KSHMR then makes an appearance on ‘Devil Inside Me’ (feat. KARRA); the standout single released earlier this year, whose assertive, powerful arrangement bears a nod to the harder style we might expect from label boss Hardwell.

A second nod to bygone eras come from Nino’s ‘I Should Have Walked Away’, as KAAZE employs pulsing bass and trance-like synths over the Cutting Crew’s 80s floor-filler. Elle Vee returns for vocal duties on the record’s swan song, ‘Dark Angel’, whose delayed synths and shifting tides serve as the final refrain for an album full of twists and turns, but always maintaining a unison between KAAZE’S childhood influences of alternative and electronica.

With a body of work already inundated with accolades, from his 2017 Miami ID of The Year ‘Triplet’, to high-profile collab with label boss and long-time supporter Hardwell in the suitably-title, multi-million streamed ‘We Are Legends’, ‘Dreamchild’ marks a milestone in the eminent career of a progressive pioneer truly at the top of his game.