Three BC — In a Trance is The Reds eccentric, reclusive keyboardist Bruce Cohen’s third solo album in his continuing series of instrumental ventures. His earlier albums, One BC and Two BC, both explored the various genres of electronic music with every track inspired by a story or theme.
Cohen’s inspiration for this album surfaced after his record label suggested he create a couple of EDM tracks for his next project and he agreed to explore the idea. The result was Cohen enjoyed writing the material so much that before he realized it he had enough songs to present an entire album to the label. Even though Three BC has twelve stand-alone tracks, the album plays like a twelve-song suite. His approach to composing on Three BC is much different than his earlier albums where his love of film comes through with an almost cinematic quality with a lush, ambient theme behind each song. Three BC focuses on the popular, and somewhat controversial, EDM genre that’s all about the beat. Cohen’s quirky stamp of electronic keyboard scrapes and grooves, combined with his rubbery bass playing, gives the genre a unique twist.
On tracks Blue Stomp, Shoot First, and Dead On the keyboards and sounds set the tone, but the beat and bass provide the anchor creating some pure danceable pleasure. Happy Dog, Witches Brew and Just Be Boom are tracks where the beats and drums start the song, while the keyboards and those Cohen noises sweep in and out along with the big bass. To add something diverse on This Is The One Cohen brought in Peter Lucas, the guitarist from Big Fun 3, to play some vicious metal chords, knowing that Lucas’s imitable thrashing style would compliment the bass and drums. Cohen provides the experience of one relentless groove on the other tracks with the common thread throughout being his technique of layering and building the keyboards on top of keyboards that meld into one spacial sound. With an array of synths both hard and soft he auditioned hundreds of sounds until he found just the right ones to perfectly fit within each song. His approach to the beats and bass were worked through the same way until he found exactly what he wanted to hear.
While most EDM artists are DJ’s or producers, Cohen attacked the genre from a keyboardist’s perspective, and he found it fascinating to create in a new way. Recording in a genre outside his comfort zone was challenging, but ultimately very rewarding. The album has become his best work yet, and make no mistake about it, Three BC is an EDM party album, so put on your earbuds and dancing shoes because it’s Cohen’s party and everyone is invited.
■ Tarock Music, November 11, 2015
