(Deep House, Techno, Tech House, Indie Dance) Douglas Greed - Driven (Bpitch Control[BPC288]) WEB - 2014, MP3, 320 kbps

How do you stay true to your own sound without repeating yourself? How do you free yourself from the burden of wild expectations? Ultimately, how do you create a difficult second album that bucks the trend and sounds at least as fresh and enduring as the first? Rather than searching for answers to all these questions, Douglas Greed ploughs headlong into his second BPitch Control LP Driven, leaving needless doubts for dust in his rear-view mirror. Just keep on going! Someone else can do the soul-searching, he prefers to dedicate his heart and mind to new tracks.In any case, he was never short of passion or ideas. Douglas Greed has always been driven, and his nature rarely allows him to remain in one place on the genre map for too long. With a musical upbringing ranging from hip hop jams and drum'n'bass parties to the darker avenues of pop à la Joy Division, Depeche Mode or Radiohead, his recent years as a producer and live act have always involved thinking far beyond the usual framework of techno and house. The results of these thought processes, always incorporating the hours away from the dance floor, have already been laid bare on his debut album KRL (Freude am Tanzen) and singles for labels including Infiné, Acker and Gigolo.Driven continues seamlessly in this vein with eleven tracks as rich in variety as they are in detail. The format offers plenty of room to cover a broad stylistic range, always driven by the search for new musical possibilities: from the boisterous peak-time hit Summerless to dance floor gems like Hush Hush and B12. From the yearning pulse of Further to the galloping UK patterns of Fire 5. The featured vocals are another stand-out element of the album: Long Distance Swimmer is arranged around Anna Müller's dreamy voice, My Mind is a Monkey has support from Delhia, the previously released single This Time feat. Kuss and the title track Driven feature the unmistakable voice of his Eating Snow colleague Mooryc.Throughout the album, Douglas Greed plays with changing moods and tempos, always retaining the perfect balance between track and song, playing equally to his strengths as a euphoric stage performer and a sensitive soul. The exhilarating depth and maturity of his sound and his independent production process mean that all these elements combine on Driven to whisk the listener away on a grand journey. This is a journey driven by the desire for new horizons that effortlessly opens our eyes and ears, revealing that the heart of electronic music still beats loud enough to pump endorphins through our veins. It reveals the road ahead for anyone who, like Douglas Greed, likes to throw themselves wholeheartedly into each new venture. And those who are open to the challenge are likely to complete even mammoth tasks like the dreaded second album with great aplomb.