ATTLAS's EP trilogy is a breath of fresh air

One thing I always enjoyed about electronic music was the diversity that the scene held. There’s Dubstep, House, Techno, Chiptune, etc.

And then of course there’s EDM, the pop-electronic phenomenon that’s undoubtedly taken the world by storm with the rise of artists like Calvin Harris and David Guetta, not to mention pop artists like Justin Bieber and Ariana Grande enlisting the help of EDM artists to create world anthems.

The rise of this subgenre leaves the rest untouched, and widely unrecognized. But there’s still gems hidden in the shadows that is the Electronic music genre. ATTLAS is one of them.

ATTLAS (real name Jeff Hartford) was originally believed to be an alias of Joel Zimmerman, also known as Deadmau5. This was because Hartford’s work closely resembled Zimmerman’s newer tech-house style.

What I like most about ATTLAS is that it’s hard to describe his sound. It’s funky, deep, but not close enough to be considered instrumental R&B.

ATTLAS was first introduced to listeners on the third volume of We Are Your Friends released by Deadmau5’s label. The track, “Sabs” opened the album.

But I feel as though ATTLAS shines further on his EPs rather than his album appearances. There have been 3 six-song EPs released since spring. These, in order of release, are titled, Siren, Scene and Sin, which was released in the fall.

All in all, there are 18 songs to digest from these albums, so I’m only going to focus on the highlights of each.

The Siren EP has the most distinct tracklist of the three, as all 6 songs are named after women. However, the opening song, ‘Kayla’ has the distinction of being the only track with vocals. ‘Kayla’ is slow, funky, and mysterious; a nice way to open an album.

The closing track, ‘Luna’ sounds like background music ripped straight out of Minecraft. It’s very soothing and to me, sounds like space if space had it’s own soundtrack.

The second of the three EPs, Scene, starts out with ‘Batch,’ another song with vocals. And just like ‘Kayla’ it’s a very good way to open the album. Another song on the album, ‘Beside’, also features vocals. Both songs seem to feature the same vocalist, as they seem to sound the same. However, ‘Batch’ is more or less just vocals hiding behind a beat.

‘Beside’ seems to evoke some emotion in the way that it’s structured, as it has parts where the song appears less orchestral, and parts where the melodies become more distinct. The instrumental tracks that cover the rest of the album, such as ‘Lighthouse’ and the closing track, ‘Crane’ prove this a little better.

Finally, the trilogy ends with the Sin. I believe that this is the best of the three albums, as it seems to have the more-extensive songs than Siren and Scene. And once again, the album starts off with a bang.

‘Parallel Lines’, the opening song on the album, is probably the best song that ATTLAS has made. Originally released as an instrumental titled ‘Taylor’ on his first album, the song now features vocals sung by Chelsea Jade.

The song, without clearly stating, it’s a song about distant love. This is evident by two lines in the song: “We were parallel lines, running through the whole sky” and “separate the whole time.”

It’s pretty relatable for math scholars as well, considering it’s a song about parallel lines that never touch.

The second song I want to talk from Sin is titled ‘Jagged’, and it’s yet another song about love that isn’t clearly stated. This song is a little less enjoyable to me than ‘Parallel Lines’ because it sounds a bit darker.

The rest of Sin is instrumental, which doesn’t surprise me at all. The closing track, ‘Beginning’, starts out somber, similar to ‘Crane’ from Scene and ‘Luna’ from Siren. However, as the beat picks up, it’s clear as daylight that this is Hartford’s attempt at progressive house.

It seems contradictory that a song called ‘Beginning’ would be at the end of the album. It sounds like it should be the first song on the album, as the entire song is essentially a build-up into nothing but a piano track and background noise.

I certainly don’t think all of Hartford’s songs are perfect, as most of the instrumental tracks are repetitive, but still vary in some ways such as tone and speed. This being said, I think ATTLAS is capable of releasing a full-length album, and I really hope he does.

I think that these three EPs are indicative of where ATTLAS is heading in regards to electronic music. I truly think that ATTLAS is going to become big in 2016.