Review Summary: A constant struggle. A silver lining. And your resolve.
Drum & Bass is well known to be explosive and in your face dance music. Some of the great contemporaries such as Noisia, Dom and Roland, and Evol Intent prove this. Often times Drum & Bass can also be moody and contemplative, some examples from 2013 would be Samurai Music - Scope also Homemade Weapons & Gremlinz - After Dark. And how does Dj Hidden fair in this mix? Well, mostly this album can seem aggressive but there are those beautiful and melodic moments in this album that keeps the music interesting.
Overall this album can be looked at as a triumph. As one track pours into the next it is easy to note that there is a story being told. The story doesn't jump out and explain it self but its hard to shake the fact that the story is familiar, we know this story and we are living this story. This album seems to be about overcoming tribulation, before the brutality of a song storms in we get a breath of fresh air but we know the world will soon drop its weight upon us.
There is definitely experimentation brought into this album it just does not stick to drum & bass. We get an exquisite piece of ambience on 'Solipsism' and also the beautiful mixture of techno and drum & bass at the 25 minute closing track 'Reverse Psychology'. All the songs are well arranged and mixed to perfection. The only small fault lies in little drum & bass cliche moments, make a good atmosphere, put in ominous sample of a speech from a movie, drop the bass. But for the most part Dj Hidden doesn't continue to use the same trick but finds a way to experiment with other genres to add personality to the music.
Enclosed will take the listener through an ongoing journey. It is something that we all are connected to, our fears, our struggle, our resolve. Dj Hidden makes sure he lets the music do the talking for us so that every drum beat, synthesizer, and bass wave finds their way to the listeners heart.
