Andy Caldwell - Universal Truth mp3 download

Nikok

Andy Caldwell's first full-length, UNIVERSAL TRUTH, certainly starts off with a bang: grinding rock guitars and a house beat of "Runaway" promise an exciting time ahead. Sadly, though, the album quickly shifts into good, if uninspiring, mid-tempo house. The electro grooves on "Warrior" help it stick out among the pack, but much of the rest of the album passes by without leaving much of a mark. That's too bad, as you can see glimpses of potential in these tracks that's not quite realized: "Don't You Love Me" has some fun with its syncopation during the chorus, but it's not enough. Some of the ballads go way over the top, like "The Question," which could have come off of a bad episode of American Idol. "Don't Hold Back" helps mitigate that track, and the acoustic version of "I Can't Wait" gives that track new life, even if I do prefer the dancefloor version. So while this album isn't a failure, I hope that Caldwell's next album will have a little more spark and ingenuity.

Vareyma

This is the first full–length solo release from Andy Caldwell, who is perhaps one of the finest exponents of mellow West Coast House Music, at least if his unparalleled access to a succession of top–notch West Coast divas is any evidence of his clout (these include Gina René, Omega, Lisa Shaw, Amma, and Latrice Barnett, all of whom make appearances on this album). His musical career reached a watershed point of sorts in 2003/4 with a pair of back–to–back DJ mixes, InSoul Sessions Vol. 1 (2003) and InHouse Perspectives 02 (2004). The former probably represents the high point of the "old" Andy Caldwell sound — deep, lush chords, engaging drum tracks, and sumptuous female vocals — and easily finds its place among the ten best West Coast House Music mixes in the marketplace. In the latter release, however, he expressly signaled a change in direction, noting that the assimilation of Electro elements into Deep House represented the future both of this genre and of his musical career. It's not clear whether he felt that West Coast/Deep House was running out of ideas, or merely that the genre and his career badly needed an injection of Electro–tinged masculinity in order to appeal to a wider audience in underground dance music. If machismo was his objective, then he needed to have looked no further than his own collaboration with Progressive House maestro Behrouz, with whom he released "Be Free" (feat. Omega on vocals) in 2003, along with a number of choice remixes of various Progressive House tracks. "Be Free" is perhaps the finest exposition of what I would term Deep Progressive House, a fundamental synthesis of the two genres that leaves fans in both camps hankering for more. Alas, it turned out to be a one–off, and Andy appears to have decided that synthesizing Deep and Electro sounds would bear more fruit. The present album, though not disastrous, is the disappointing result of these career decisions that have seen Andy Caldwell apply a limited set of ideas drawn from rudimentary Electro House to give an edge to his Deep House sound of old. The minor tragedy here is that, whereas the lush, pleasing sounds of the old Andy would cover for his weaknesses vis à vis lyrical content, the harsher Electro–tinged sound fully exposes his shortcomings almost immediately. The soft romanticism of Gina René, Latrice Barnett, and their ilk simply cuts no ice in the very different milieu of Electro House, where grittiness, sarcasm, and vitriol are de rigueur. As for his Deep House fans of yore, I suspect that the darker, charged–up sounds of the new Andy will either be offputting or come across as hopelessly contrived. Changing musical direction, looking for greener pastures, etc. can be for the better, but "Universal Truth" amply demonstrates the pitfalls of trying to cross over from one audience to another and ending up losing both. The sad thing is that Andy Caldwell had a proven basis in "Be Free" for expanding his musical horizons while bolstering his macho credentials, but he chose to sideline it. What's more, Progressive House is itself badly in need of fresh ideas: having flirted in the past decade with Tribal, Breakbeat, Acid, Electro, and mainstream Rock, there really can't be much downside in taking the cue from the work of Behrouz & Andy and seeing where that leads.