Setup LTD Reviews

• Excellent, Memorable CD

  
  By A3VTQ5N3O2J32E on 2007-06-29
  I was very pleasantly surprised by this new CD from Virtual Server. It has several outstanding tracks and most of the rest of the album is good as well. I listen to a ton of synthpop / ebm / electronic music, so when a CD almost instantly stands out and grabs my attention I'm impressed.
  
  My favorite tracks are:
  
  2. The Earth (featuring Iris): The vocals are incredible in this mid-tempo track. Interesting lyrics and good synth work make for one of my new favorites. 5 stars
  
  6. I Will Fly (featuring Colony 5): Catchy tune and lyrics. Fast tempo. 5 stars
  
  12. In A Hour From Now (featuring Color Theory): Amazing vocals from Color Theory, and beautiful synth to match. Another favorite new song of mine. 5 stars
  
  4. Desperate Man (featuring Echo Image): Good to hear something new from Echo Image. Catchy and memorable as always. 5 stars
  
  7. It's in All of Us (featuring Perfidious Words): Another excellent track. Sounds like recent Depeche Mode to me. 5 stars
  
  8. Kept You (featuring Wave In Head): A beautiful and catchy song. 5 stars
  
  Most of the rest of the songs are enjoyable but don't quite match the excellence of the above tracks. The best of the rest include:
  
  1. My Preservation (featuring Psyche): I've never been a Psyche fan, but this one is good. 4 stars
  
  3. My Inner Peace (featuring Rename): In my opinion, Rename can do no wrong, and this song, while not their best, is still very enjoyable. 3.5 stars
  
  11. Tropfen Im Ozean (featuring P24): I'd rank this one higher, but it's a foreign language track, and I like to be able to understand the lyrics. 3 stars
  
  The only song that I don't enjoy is Razor (featuring Assemblage 23). It just doesn't measure up to the quality of the rest of the album, nor does it match the quality I'm used to hearing from Assemblage 23's latest CDs.
  
  I hope you buy this one, for your sake. The LTD edition comes with a second disc with excellent alternate versions of the songs. The version of "The Earth" that's on the bonus CD is actually better than the original song and makes the extra cost more than worth it.
  
  

• Synthpop visionaries

  
  By A1X0YN7OWC69QQ on 2007-11-05
  Here is a nice collection of different synthpop visions and styles. Depending on whether you like ballads, trance or upbeat tunes, there is a wide variety of emotions represented here, and the added bonus of a remix CD takes each song to further extremes. Some cool sounds, and interesting vocalists are presented outside of their known bands. Assemblage 23, Psyche, Iris, distain! and Echo Image all make contributions. DJ Ram is always on the pulse of the times with his Virtual Server.
  
  Some related releases:
  
  Psyche Unveiling The Secret 2.0
  Assemblage 23 Storm
  Perfidious Words Breaking The Silence
  Rename Energize LTD
  distain! Raise The Level
  
  

• A mixed bag

  
  By A1PDLVY093HNAM on 2007-02-19
  Virtual Server's second album of artistic collaboration is a mixed bag. Some of the collaborations, such as "It's In All Of Us" with Perfidious Words and "Kept You" with Wave In Head, are excellent. However, several of the more prominent 'name artist' collaborations are really quite disappointing. The Assemblage23 collaboration track sounds like a jumbled mess, and the remixes on the second disc don't improve on the song much either. In fact, in several instances, the remixes on the second disc make a marked improvement on the original versions on disc one. Other notable disappointments: Echo Image's "Desperate Man" can't seem to figure out what it wants to be musically, Rename with "My Inner Peace" get very annoying with speaking the lyrics before singing them, and "Hopes" seems to be a rock song trapped in a electropop body. After more than three years, my expectations were very high for this album. Sadly, it doesn't meet them.
  
  

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