The Evolution of Flight: Birds of Paradise “Flight Patterns (Re-Routed)” Review

Tapping into a spectrum of instrumental and electronic music styles, producer duo Birds of Paradise has carved out a unique niche for themselves in the realms of world music and modern bass culture in recent years. Fusing heavy-hitting tech and trance elements with far-drawn world instrumentation and organic audio samplings, Torin Goodnight (Bird of Prey) and Tyler Gibson (Gibson) have offered a symbiotic union of synthetic and natural soundscapes in their collaborations, breathing new light into the depths of psychedelic bass and redefining the limits of high-vibration dance music.

Flight Patterns (Re-Routed) takes the duo’s 2013 studio album Flight Patterns on a panoramic journey across the progressive electronica landscape in a hyper-modern showcase of the best of what today’s festival-steeped producers have to offer. With beat-driven tastes of indulgent trance and liquidy techno, dreamy explorations of tropical fusion and textural psychedelia, rapid-fire pulses of drumstep and funky leaps of progressive glitch, this release has something to offer to everyone’s inner audiophile.

Following the original track order of Flight Patterns, the remix album opens with a voyage into the world of tropical downtempo and shamanic sound kicked off by a tribal-instrumental remix of “Wingspan” from Kaya Project. This continues into a dualistic twist on “Invincible Love Song” by seasoned electro philanderer Eat Static that brings two disparate styles together in a gleeful merger of uplifting melody and warped drum-and-bass beats.

Nanda’s illumination of the deep jungle-tech scenery of “Urge to Purge” stands out as an exciting contrast to the source track, beginning in dreamy downtempo before spiking it with an extra-positive charge of rich synth and raw energy. Add to this the grooving bassline of Luke Mandala’s uplifting “Focal Point” remix and it’s clear that downtempo tracks still carry big weight in this realm.

Moving into more psychedelic territory, Land Switcher brings his swampy edge to the album with a remix of “Skyward Eye” that oozes with crown-chakra pulsations and root-driven beats that flow like quicksilver over the landscape of the original track. Retaining a strong breath of vibrant energy but shedding its brilliance for something darker and more tactile, this track marries synthetic and fluid sound in a harmonious showcase of what it means to “remix” a track.

Occupying the energetic highlands of the album are Hedflux’s brilliant and technical re-exploration of the trance-fueled “Tunnel Visions,” Morhpatrix’s head-bumping “Soulgasm” remix and the barrage of digital textures that make up Push/Pull’s take of “Mirage.” Fit for techno junkies and trance addicts and bolstered by Yuli Fershtat’s psy-tech twist on 4/4 track “High Tide,” these songs will churn up dance floors far and wide while catapulting existing Birds of Paradise fans into the next tier of ecstasy.

Bringing an energy-driven funk element to the album, mid-tempo bass provocateur Goosebumpz’s “Lucid Dream” remix adds a welcome blast of vigorous psychedelic breaks and warm glitch tones that will surely find a place in a swath of style-hopping DJ sets and mixes.

Koan’s floating metropolis of ephemeral effects and dreamy house beats takes the high-vibrational atmosphere of “Ocean Minded” to new depths in what may stand out as the most blissful remix of the album. Keeping the title track at a relative distance and allowing individual effects to chime in when they shine at their best, this track fuses the warmth of tropical tech house with Koan’s melodic psychill identity to offer a sensual dance floor beauty demanding repeat listens.

Re-Routed finishes with Symbolico’s “Bird Song” remix, depositing us back into the bio-digital realm and retaining the spirited, tropical bass tone that so vividly embodies Birds of Paradise’s sound. But is not until we explore SIXIS’s cerebral bonus track—a darkly textured, psychedelic drum-and-bass revision of Goodnight and Gibson’s early collaboration track “Sonic Bloom” —that the journey of Flight Patterns (Re-Routed) truly comes to a close.

Whether you find the originals or remixes more resonant with your sonic desires, there can be no question that Birds of Paradise and their remixers have created something truly unique in the era of dance floor bumpers and beat drop addiction. While the popularity of electronic music continues to snowball, there is still a pervading sense of “playing it safe” in an effort to appeal to commercial audiences, genre expectations and dance party atmospheres constraining the sense of adventure so central to the artistic spirit.

Flight Patterns (Re-Routed) does not fall prey to this peril and instead pushes in the opposite direction to showcase the dynamic potential of style-fusion and the shapeshifting abilities of psychedelic electronica. Equally mental and heartfelt as it is physical and surreal, this visionary collection of sounds will undoubtedly deliver fresh inspiration and energy to today’s artists, dancers and sonic freethinkers while opening portals to new aural styles we never thought to explore.

Purchase and download Birds of Paradise’s new album:

Flight Patterns (Re-Routed) on Addictech.com

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.

-->