Maybe it's not from your time, and it's certainly not your parents' music, but you could consider Robert Miles' Dreamland your older brother's techno. Sure, there's the cutting edge of electronic music, but the previous generation (surprise, surprise) thought of some pretty good things, too. Miles released this album in 1996, and while it's not in the same style as modern DJs and electronic artists, it deserves a spot alongside them.
Whatever happens to techno in the US always seems to have happened first in Europe (making import CDs hot items here), and Robert Miles, born in Switzerland and raised in Italy, is no exception. And he did beat the American scene: when grunge had essentially died, Tupac Shakur was still alive, and the popularity of dance music hadn't been realized, Miles had already released Dreamland and found a niche audience. The single "Children" made it into the club scene and brought Miles recognition that continues even now as one of dance's most popular artists. You may not know his name, but if dance is your thing, you'll recognize "Children" right away.
You like drum-and-bass? You like hardcore? That's too bad, because Dreamland will leave you out in the cold. The album's first track, "Children [Dream Version]," starts off with a rainstorm and segues into a piano introduction: not quite the furious mood many clubgoers look for. Fans of house and trance music, however - especially the gentler, less progressive sides of them - will find this album much to their liking.
Moreover, the album is "gateway" techno in the sense of a "gateway" drug: it isn't intimidating and it's easy to get into. It's also easy on the bass, remarkable for a time when subtlety in dance music was not asked for. Miles may not used real instruments on Dreamland (unlike on his most recent release, Organik), but he certainly likes to make it sound like he is. The introductions, the melodies, and the musical flourishes that recur throughout all are imitative of real instruments, from the piano solo and rich strings of "Children" to the... well, piano and strings of "In My Dreams."
Miles certainly has favorite sounds, but this isn't one muddy, homogenous leviathan; each track has its own distinctive air. "Children" builds slowly to lush, gentle climaxes, while "In My Dreams" focuses more on intense rhythm, quickly bringing in a faster beat.
Dreamland is largely instrumental, but three of its tracks - "One and One," "Fantasya," and "Fable" - incorporate the kind of sweet and ethereal (not to mention pretentious and emotional) female voice that are a standard turn in modern techno. The vocals heard here are often long, melismatic crescendos, sometimes without any discernable words at all.
It's hard to say whether Miles is better at the instrumental or the vocal tracks; the album flows through its 70-minute run without ever encouraging you to stop, despite its long and exhausting songs (most of them are over six minutes long, and "One and One" is the shortest by far at four minutes). One track may bring your energy up and pass you to the next to bring you back down. By incorporating two versions each of "Children" and "Fable," Miles returns the listener to a previous theme in the manner of a large-scale classical fugue. This isn't just a DJ mix; this is 100 percent original music, and the overall effect is wondrous.
The high melodies, floating over the thick, serious beats - with punctuating sections without any background rhythm at all - give Dreamland its taste of futuristic spiritualism; picture long robes, crystals, alien landscapes, and you'll have the idea. There is a sense of soaring through wide-open skies, or of fantastic, magical adventures. That may sound unbearably cheesy for music (five-year-old techno music at that), but within the context of the album, you'll buy into it and love it.
Modern techno has become so much more complex since the mid-'90s that in comparison Dreamland can sound like a simple exercise with its many realistic instruments and its happy, other-worldly feel. Writing off Robert Miles' first album, though, can't be justified. The modern sound of trance owes much to his example, but even without the historical backdrop, Dreamland deserves a place in any techno devotee's collection.
