His music is “headphone sex”! His biography goes way back, its first steps as early as 1989 began. He is a DJ and producer under the stage name of Samarkand, both as a Innocent Lovers known. Numerous projects with producers, labels and releases in Holland, Germany and Belgium, as eg. Bonzai Records, Dessous Recordings, Exquisit Records and many more adorn his career to date. His newest Project “Fairy Tales Part 1″ can once again relish, deep insights into his talents, hear better before then.

In 1994 German act Samarkande released on Mayflower Records a vinyl titled "Vol 1" that included two tracks: Blue Sky and Day Dream. More than 15 years have slipped by since then and Marc Puchta rarely used this alias again to release new tracks, more focused on his tech/deep house project Innocent Lovers. This however changed at the end of 2009 when a 4 track EP titled Fairytales (Part 1) was released on Decksharks records.

We have to admit that if John 00 Fleming wouldn't have included the track Samba in his February 2010 Essential Mix on Radio 1 we probably wouldn't be here today reviewing this EP, but this is unfortunately how this industry works now. Quality trance music can get easily overlooked buried under the countless of garbage tracks that every day get released in digital music stores.

Samarkande -- Fairytales (Part 1) (Decksharks)

1. Feenstaub
The EP kicks off with a progressive track by the tribalistic groove. A dreamy atmosphere characterizes the whole track as different sounds kick in and blend together very effectively. Only complaint is that the track length is too short, we feel like the second part of the track could have been extended without the track losing his power and charm.

2. Timeless
Timeless switches to a far different tone as we move into darker territories. We are not a fan of electroish sounds at Trance Alert, so it probably come to no surprise that we think this is the weakest track of the EP. The two buildups in the background of the track are effective, but there is not enough progression in general and the track doesn't seem to go anywhere.

3. Samba
In track 3 we return to more tribalistic progressive territories, particularly in the track intro. Samba however really comes to life at minute 2.20 and you understand this is not going to be a common track. The combination of the continuously evolving percussion with the dreamy atmospheric pad works wonders. This track has a fairly simple structure and evolution and yet its so effective in doing what it is supposed to do: make you dance. A real gem!

4. Le Comprimate
The EP closes with Le Comprimate, the track with the heaviest kick of the bunch. Noisy tech tranceish sounds are introduced on top of the usual atmospheric pad used in the background. This track uses a more standardized Trance break in the middle compared to the other tracks, but doesn't use any cheap Trance trick to raise your hands in the air. Quite the opposite since the second part of the track is a truly mesmerizing experience of entrancing sounds. Another must have!

Released by: Decksharks
Release date: Dec 29, 2010