Buzzin Music

Trace aka Dave Impey

Mike Oldfield’s symphonic folk rock classic Tubular Bells gets some twenty first century treatment from the successful soundtrack producer and composer David Impey, under the guise of Trace, on his new album Under Cover.

The track undergoes electronic treatment from Trace, as the familiar chimes are re-imagined using the electronic palette, through genres like minimalistic, techno and psychedelia, even tripping out on a funk rock excursion along the way.

Tubular Bells remains recognisable throughout its transformation, but the track somehow seems more accessible in its electronic reworking, possibly because it is brought bang up to date in this latest version.

Perhaps best known as the soundtrack from The Exorcist, Tubular Bells is an amazingly popular mobile phone ring tone these days, so this version should catch the imagination of the record buying public.

Tubular Bells, Part 1, to give its proper title is just one of three tracks that feature on the new album from Trace, the second is another classic but from a completely different era, George Winston’s piano piece September – Colors/Dance.

Whilst the Trace version starts off from the point of the original concept, it develops the piece using dance and musique concrete to give the new version something of a widescreen feel, this is my favourite of the three tracks presented on the album.

The final track ‘The Neighbours Complain’ (written by David’s father Norman Impey) was originally a showpiece for the drummer of the 1940s big band ‘The Skyrockets Orchestra’ to ‘give it some’. The original genre was big band swing and the new version is somewhat funkier.

Trace is chiefly oriented towards the chill-out end of the electronic spectrum. The tracks are blends of texture, soundscape and ethnicity taking inspiration from a number of different musical genres. Two new Trace projects are currently in the pipeline; ‘Fun’ – a dance-oriented album which becomes progressively darker and more ethereal and ‘Five Lines’ – a minimalist album in which each track has no more than five overdubs. The concept is inspired by the staves of a music manuscript. Another Trace project is already produced and will be available as a download before the end of 2010, entitled ‘Music for Yoga’.

His favourite project was recording the backing music for a documentary on brain surgery where the brief was to write ‘the world’s most depressing music’. The programme, aired by the BBC, attracted over 5.4 million viewers received positive comments from the Daily Telegraph.

This video was shot in London to accompany the track Tubular Bells Part 1 by Trace.

The album Under Cover is released on June 14th on Crash records, available from all major download sites. For more information visit the Trace website.