Tristraum is a three-piece act from San Francisco. Though they have been active as remixers and producers (Twitch Remix Service) for quite a while, this single is their first release. It precedes an album announced for winter 2004. The music falls somewhere in the synthpop / future pop category.
A rather straightforward poppy beat, melodic synth lines, trancy sounds and soft, rather quaint female vocals by Krystyna. It’s rather cheerful, uptempo dance music. More at its place in a club than at home. Basically ‘there’s nothing wrong, I want to dance music’. A bit too poppy and smooth for my personal taste. But it sounds professional and I’m sure there are enough people who like to dance to this.
If you like remixes, Tristraum serves you well. On the mcd no less than 9 mixes of ‘Shiver’ are to be found, including versions by Assemblage 23, Infam and Echo Image, some are better than others, without any revolutionary results. Some sound faster and more danceable (Assemblage 23), others go in a dub or chill-out direction (Invisible ASPS).
There are two bonus tracks. The instrumental ‘Brilliant’ continues in a danceable synthpop direction and is quite enjoyable, with a retro feel, which is not strange, since it’s a cover from Boytronic. ‘I’m under no one’ is a restrained, midtempo piece, which i find not so convincing.
If you want more of this stuff, you could go for the vinyl 12″, released by Mile High House. This contains three additional remixes, which are more in a trance / house direction. The quite diverse and interesting mixes are done by Therm (house), Satori C (progressive dance with breaks) and Trippy (drum ‘n bass). The original track is almost unrecognizable in the mixes on this piece of vinyl, which also could do well on the dancefloor, though not the same one as where the synthpop single would be played.
