The main ingredients on 'Liven' are soundscapes, beats and energy, initially pushing this album into the techno-scene. But there seems to be a lot more to this album. I have absolutely no idea who or what influenced Vitolo so for me it's difficult to add names to the whole thing. All I can think of are industrial and IDM acts like Imminent, Antigen Shift and perhaps even Blackfilm or Autechre. Perhaps I can add some of those strange EDM acts on alternative festivals like Pukkelpop, but again, I don't know any of their names.
What I do know, is this: when I walk around on a festival and I hear these nervous and dynamic pieces of music coming from one of the tents, I'm going in. Opener 'Liven' is an awesome alternative dance tune. I can see a lot of people shaking to this one. Most of the other tracks can do pretty much the same. Yet, my personal favorite is the gloomy, almost eerie 'Shove', thriving on broken beats and otherworldly soundscapes. 'Sweep' is another one of my favorites, a dubby IDM track to chill and relax after all the heavy dancing.
People might still frown upon electronic dance music but albums like this one show that the genre has its place in the world of art and music, and quite rightfully too. Therefore, it has its place on Merchants Of Air as well. Well, everything I like has its place on Merchants Of Air, that's basically our whole philosophy on genre-restrictions. So yes, I like this album and, as soon as possible, I might check out Vitolo's other music too. You should too, like now.
Serge