Shampoo-Girl's Full Review: Dreamland by Robert Miles
Dream music ( a.k.a Dream House ) is a relatively unknown ( in the US that is ) branch of New Age that grew out of the European dance scene during the early 90s. Despite its limited popularity in North America, the genre did manage to leave its mark with the success of such artists as Robert Miles & DJ Dado. Though there were a handful of other DJ Dado wannabes ( mostly originating out of Italy ), it's a pity that they never quite made it big due to the style's limited audience. With most young people preferring to fork out their hard earned moolah over the bubble-gum pop style of Britney Spears & Christina Aguilera, it's perfectly understandable why Dream Music is pretty much extinct here in North America.
Newbies to the Euro music scene often mistake Dream Music for other somewhat similar styles as Trance, however there is a significant difference between the two. Dream Music, unlike Trance has a softer, more mellow overall effect. Background piano arrangements often accompany the predominant synthesizer effects coupled with a euro style beat, resulting in a sensual, dream-like effect, hence the name 'Dream Music'. Perhaps the most well known of all Dream Music artists is none other than Robert Miles whose single titled 'Children' made him a household name among us New Age fans.
The abovementioned single can of course be found on Miles' Dreamland album along with 9 other equally deserving tracks. The tracks in Dreamland are arranged in a way that they blend perfectly into one another, much like Enigma's MCMXC a.D. The music flows from one track to the next with a level of continuity that would make it difficult to tell where the new track actually began. The entire Dreamland CD is like a giant 70 minute long fairy tale themed mega-mix aimed at of whisking us listeners to dreamland without us even realizing it. With the exception of Fable ( vocals: Fiorella Quinn ) & One and One ( vocals: Maria Nayler ), all other tracks on Dreamland are purely instrumental. Dreamland is exactly what Miles had intended it to be as mentioned on his second page CD booklet dedication. It is truly a masterpiece aimed at 'People who seek emotion, reflection & peace in music' ( as written on the CD booklet ).
First released in June of 1996, Dreamland would later serve as a virtual benchmark to which all others in the Dream House genre were measured. Beginning with his trademark 'Children' & ending with a track called 'Red Zone', the experience you get while listening to Dreamland is a lot like the one with Enigma's MCMXC a.D, despite the latter being of a completely different style. There were several versions of the album released. I was fortunate enough to have bought the one that came with a limited edition bonus disc which included 4 remixes of One and One ( track #6 on the US version ).
The 1996 original European version contained only 10 tracks & did not include One and One, which was released as a separate single. Arista had somehow managed to squeeze it into their US release, giving the American version a total of 11 tracks altogether. There is also a Winter Edition version of Dreamland released in 1997 featuring 2 remixes of Miles' One and One single plus a previously unrelased number called 4us. Despite fully recommending this album, Dream House style of music is not for everyone. You'd either love it or hate it, depending on personal preferance. If you're one of those who happen to enjoy the work of DJ Dado or Gigi d'Agostino, then this album is for you, otherwise you'd be better off bobbing your head to Britney or Christina.
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