Hollow World Album Review

Truth, an Electronic production-duo from the lands of Christchurch. With their new album, Hollow World. Truth is comprised of two producers who go by the names of Tristan Roake & Andre Fernandez. Including Hollow World they have about 4 full length albums behind their name and a large number of singles they have released since first release in 2009.

So by the time the album finished, One of the things that were very clear to me is that is was… really easy to listen to, not a lot of my effort had to go into listening to this album, Maybe it was too simple? I do like my fair share of electronic let alone some dubstep but I felt this album had most of the elements that create a great electronic album but being honest I felt a bit bored. From the point that the first track started and the last track finished the dynamic range didn’t shift much at all. I appreciate that there were some mildly interesting features in the album as a whole but from the beginning of a song till the end it was pretty much the same story, if you didn’t like the first track you probably will find the feeling is mutual with the rest of the tracks.

There are a few things that I appreciate about this album, I felt it’s the kind of album you’d listen to in the background of what ever your doing, most of the music has some sweet chill beats, laid-back melodies with a few ‘wub wubs’ in there. Nothing too gripping. A song I enjoyed on the album was Evil Eye ft Joker, Taso and Lelijveld. It started with sub drop and some distant stomping and clapping that was just sitting behind the mix, then the beat kicked in with a sampled drum beat and as that happened some nice vocals lightly took the spot light. The whole mix started sounding really intimate and constant. I like how the drums vary too… the drums aren’t in some loop for 32 bars, it’s changed up a bit which is something I like. While this is happening I hear a gradual build with some synth-like waves with the rumble of the bass mirroring it. 

Another song I did like was Madman ft Flowdan. The song starts with what kinda sounds like a submarine sonar ping and then a rapper comes in and starts rapping an intro then pauses. Then comes back in with the full mix with an unexpected awesome rap. I hear some sort of harmonic chord being played in the background which give the song a bit of a mysterious feel. I think this is definitely the strongest song in the album although when the beat kicks in the energy of the song stays the same till it’s finished

In General. The music is nice to listen to in the background if you enjoy the whole subby, sampled beats, synthy waves kind of thing. As a whole I couldn’t quite grasp the concept of the album. Looking at the album cover the image I get is that it’s going to be epic, Huge and Massive, and I felt a little disappointed in the general sense. Production wise… it sounds great and is really well mixed; Everything is sitting in the mix nicely and it sounds as professional as I could imagine it can get. 

I love my electronically produced music, but I just didn’t feel this was one of the strongest albums of the year… Just being honest. If you like some chilled, dark dubstep with some nice ideas inputed into it then you should totally give this album a good listen.

-Rodrigo