AIRWOLF ONE

Owes its energy to accomplished live drums, driving basslines and tight guitar riffs. Airwolf One´s typical multi-layered production of beats, melodies, harmonies and noises let you discover more and more every time you listen to it... just make sure you listen to it with proper speakers or headphones!
A weaving tapestry of aural imagery that lends itself well to synchronization for film, advertising, gaming and music video...but still, head bobbing and booty shaking ! Big beat is not dead, it´s just evolved!
- Tim Alexanders

RELATED TO: "Brake or Accelerate" (Album 2008)

I was introduced to this album and I had to own it straight away....so I opted for the instant download here on Amazon...Having been able to listen to the album a good few times I feel as though Airwolf One is leading me on this intriguing odyssey of winding roads and complex landscapes. The more I listen the more I hear and experience...I really enjoy the intricate layers of sound that are molded into music. I strongly recommend this album to those who are looking for something that wasn't manufactured from a large label and are searching for music that delivers artistic integrity.

- J. J. Becker "SAS is SASSY" (Minneapolis, MN) (amazon.com) - J. J. Becker "SAS is SASSY"

RELATED TO: "Brake or Accelerate" (Album 2008)

Wow! This album rocks! Totally in the sweet spot. It's always interesting & energetic - never a dull moment.
Airwolf One made a great fusion of rock and electronic that feels like a new way forward in music, but also pays respect to its roots. Sometimes a bit retro, but more often than not, just straight-ahead funky beats and bass lines that keep your head bobbing and booty shaking. I never once reached for the "forward" button on my iPod. In fact, I put this one on "repeat," because with the interesting composition and tight production, I don't think I'll ever get tired of this album. The faster tracks remind me of the Chemical Brothers or Moby's harder stuff. And like them, Airwolf One doesn't load up the album with a bunch of filler. Kudos to those guys. They are destined for bigger things.

PS: That James Bond remix deserves some sort of tie-in to the films.

- Thomas "Thomas" (New York) (amazon.com) - Thomas "Thomas"

RELATED TO: "Touch The Core of The Beat"

"Kicking off the podcast with the first track is this brilliant fresh new big beat track.
A new style which hasn't been featured by us yet.
Airwolf One is run by Alberto Trevisan and features live sounding rock sounds blended ever so smoothly with electro and breakbeat madness to create what is known as "Big Beat". This style is also popular with the likes of Fatboy Slim.
The thing that makes this track work well is the right blend of organic vs electronic content. The track features a female vocalist with a hard distorted edge to it. You get the feeling of power and dirtyness when listening to this one. It doesn't for one minute get repetitive or boring and as a whole gels together well.
It works even better as an opening track to the podcast.
Part way through the song there is an Indian vibe with chanting vocals along with Indian style tabla percussion which works a treat as a bridge part to the track adding yet more variation and unexpectedness to the whole fusion.
If you like what you hear then you can find out more about Airwolf One at the following links : www.myspace.com/airwolfone, www.airwolfone.com
...In addition to this though, I liked Airwolf One's track Touch the Core of the Beat mainly because of the Organic feel to it. I think it stems from the fact that I like organic sounds in house these days as well as electro house. Big beat is like these elements, but with a break beat style and a little rock in there as well. The vocals suit the track well with the distortions. I'm also keen on the main bassline.
I think that is what made me get into it the first place.
Then the bridge part which includes the indian vibe also adds a twist."

- DJ Solstice (Aftershock Promotions)
- DJ Solstice (Aftershock Promotions)

From the first track "Lullaby - Airwolf One cover" (the Cure) Alberto Trevisan starts out strong and doesn’t slack off (except where he means to give the listener a taste of atmosphere; no mistakes here, nothing where it shouldn’t be). “Lullaby” has a quick tempo that wakes you up. He varies the pace with strings, a soaring synth, a nice heavy beat, fades and then, surprise, another speed-up, dancing in the streets, and a beautiful fade like an afterglow that he allows to linger this time.

“Catwalk Appetizer” the second track, is funky, fast-paced, funny (the whole album is laced with cleverly apt voiceovers from movies – I’m sure I heard Leonard Nimoy). A lot of instruments (and effects) all foreground with no sense of crowding but a strong musical presence all across the board, ending with a sultry whisper in your ear.

“Choose to Love” starts out with a soulful swinging guitar. (Swing it man. Does she have a sister?) This is Trevisan really showing out on guitar and drums, inimitably pure. This part is followed by a love song that’s more like a paean to love itself, romance for its own sake (as it always should be), making the roof ring before meditating on love itself again.

I love “I Can’t Wait” featuring Mona Ibellini. It’s a short, sweet, sexy summons to passion and perfumed nights. No arguments from me.

“Travel Symphony” – great effects here. Not spooky, exactly, but the texture of existence isn’t ordinary, like an improbable adventure with risks that are not (perhaps) beyond overcoming. Great effects also in “A New Star Is Born,” joyous, jaunty, triumphant and justly proud. I think I hear her strutting. Perky and sprightly, then lush as the promise matures.

“The Freak Out Track” – that’s the whole title all right, a fine little jam around a central idea that helps mix up the album. At this point I became conscious that the whole album is a display of Trevisan’s versatility as an artist. I’m not referring to the range of instruments but entire styles and arrangements. A LOT of influences are fused together here, and turned to present one facet after another track by track. “Drop the Beat” is pretty lively and highlights Alberto’s talents with guitar and drum again. “On My Way” leads in with intriguing Bladerunner gadgetry followed by excitement, anticipation, gratification. Then it really gets down and sweats up the sheets, with a beautiful coda at the end. “The Loose Cannon of Evolution” (which sums up the process really well) starts out with a Bondish fanfare of horns and leads into a mordant reflection on the raging tempest of life itself – love it or hate it, there will be no middle ground. “Take a Walk in the Suburbia” isn’t like any neighborhood from 1950s TV; it’s one besieged by a patternless vitality whose signs appear in this island of comparative order.

It’s hard to pick the high points from Fashion Rocks! There are too many. “Tu Vuoi Me”, for instance, features excellent guitar and drums again with a lot of electro zowie used effectively. I expect to wake up in a hotel room after clubbing in Tokyo, out of money but full of memories. BTW the lady does strut in “Get Ready”, to a rendezvous. You’ll learn why when you hear the lyrics. The album winds up with the closing-credits track of “Choose to Love”. I missed this at the movies. Arghh!

- George Miler - George Miler

I know I’ll get in trouble over this title. Let me explain. Airwolf One’s “Thunderstruck” isn’t the first cover version of AC/DC’s famous metal classic. Angus Young and Ministry did a commendable job. The Kings of High Voltage remained true to the original. Hellsongs’ lounge version will have to be classified as a curiosity or a failed experiment. If you disagree, I’m open to persuasion because I have a soft spot for folksy singing, and Harriet and Siri sure qualify. This brings me to the subject of female vocalists. I’m not thinking of the all-female AC/DC tribute band that goes by the name Thunderstruck. No, some popular female singer did a remake of the song. I saw it on YouTube at one time but now I can't seem to find it at all.

No loss there since I doubt if it can compare to the breathy, throaty vocals on Airwolf One’s track. They really stand out from their male counterparts. It was as though Alberto Trevisan had smuggled Joan Jett or Chrissie Hind into the studio. Ideal for the hard-driving beat that puts this synth version of “Thunderstruck” squarely in the headbanger category. (Yes, I’m partial to synthesizers.) But the instrumental purists will have little to complain about. Alberto is a drummer but also a superb guitarist (among many other things) and you can hear ample evidence for it here.

- George Miler (November, 2012) - George Miler (November, 2012)

Related to album "Go Big or Go Bust" (2013)

As this album's first track "Morning Jam" suggests, prepare to relinquish control of your night life to a professional. After gettin' down (with Alberto on every instrument), the next track, the title track "Go Big or Go Bust" hits the ground running with the welcome return of Geoff Pinckney (aka Tenek) in the lead vocals. It's a pounding big beat sound with a take-no-prisoners attitude. A couple of surprising changes in mood are in store which turn out to be RIGHT. Its message ain't bad either. Alberto sets the example.

"Thunderstruck" is on here! I'll repeat what I said earlier and elsewhere: Airwolf One's cover of the AC/DC classic is better than the original. I know this will start an argument all over again. OK. The delayed spring weather was making the season a bore anyway.

"Higgs Boson Rocks" Yep! Pure fun as a supercollider from 1950's sci-fi phases up via sparking bass riffs past a series of step potentials to swelling Bond brass and a burst of pizzicato particles. Police siren whoops and wails support a rapid energetic guitar, tight and dazzling, and the track finishes with a cool fade.

Airwolf One doesn't waste a note or a beat, but don't think these tracks are over-engineered or overcalculated... pausing to listen to this vocal on "Hearts Up" ... but finely crafted as though by... wait while I lean back to immerse myself in this next sequence... a Renaissance composer with sylphs ready to call from a book of pacts (or his sampler). Alberto's mind-meld with every instrument at his command has not prevented him from calling on the talents of Antonino Stella and Gianfilippo Innocenti, either. Release of this album was delayed by Airwolf One's perfectionism, and the extra days taken with it show.

Track 6 for instance - "Big Beat is Coming Back" - maintains a sense of expectancy and a fine state of tension that never sags. As for the seventh, "Minimalist vs Maximalist", studio effects and simply outstanding music make this another fun track. The lyrics, too, a credo Airwolf One lives by. From "Minimalist's" philosophic vein we enter the mysterious realm of "Insight" 's off-beat coffeehouse ambience, where Morgan le Fay (or any spooky chick of your choice) dons a black beret and goes beatnik on you. It's a distinctive ambiguous mood that proves again that Airwolf One isn't looking for the same sound every time but can aim at the wistful and meditative. And strike home. For a track that ends too soon, I sure can go on and on about it.

"Whatz Next". What's next is that you're starting at 60 mph and speeding toward the horizon with a rich range of instruments and a male chorale in support. Then come the drums and guitars for an interval that's entirely satisfying before the tempo picks up again. Once again the extra effort shows; there isn't an idle measure in the whole track and it's all quality. There's no object other than pleasing the listener. Again, this one ends with me wanting more. "The Noise of Silence - Blue" is a stompin' one-man show that will empty the chairs and fill the dance floor. This is serving notice to club DJ's who want to keep the party alive.

"Reborn From the Ashes" - Here's another example of what I call taking a good time seriously, with nice dramatic flourishes and a direct appeal to the emotions. The excellent guitar work does that job for you. There's a lot to be said for letting your nervous system get played like an instrument in its own right. Well worth it.
"Big Bada Boom" goes retro with a hint of crackling vinyl and Paleolithic percussion, then follows into funky guitar, as if the cream of the '60s crop had hitched a ride on the TARDIS to predict the apocalypse. The guest lead guitarists are featured here (plus Andeas Stickel on bass). This one's a real joy to sit and listen to and relive the truly great times before your first love broke your heart. (I still have the scar.)

"State of the Market" - this got a laugh out of me considering recent events in the economy. Financial news reports lace this track with mordant humor while the music lays down an anthem for the ending of the Second Gilded Age. The bonus is a no-nonsense instrumental track that is. really. good. This is going to become my new favorite.

Overall Go Big or Go Bust is good adrenalin injected into your personal warp drive. At the same time it deserves pure music appreciation. Especially if your ear is as sensitive as an electron microscope.


- George Miler (May, 2013) - George Miler (May, 2013)