Eddie Halliwell - Neon

[Aza]

So, I must say that I have long awaited for such an offering, but given all we've discussed on here, my time for enthusiastic following has dropped. I remember speaking to Jules about Eddie and whilst Jules was hammering his own productions and also 'bigging up' Eddie, Jules said Eddie was still "finding his feet".

That said, Eddie still ceases to amaze me when watching his sets live and he almost need not produce his own track since his sets and new Pioneer technology (Eddie Digital Integrated Technology (ED-IT) demonstrate his ability to almost produce/remix live.

His first track has been exclusively released on BeatPort and the following comes from his website:

25th JULY 2011 saw the much-anticipated release of Eddie’s debut single ‘NEON’. Over the coming months Eddie will be introducing triumphs from his new ‘ELEMENTS’ series. Following shortly after ‘NEON’ will be the second element, ‘AETHER’, both set to blow up into this summers biggest anthems!

Already smashing dance-floors since this summer, ‘NEON’ has been providing many a ‘hands-in-the-air’ moment that Eddie’s sets are famed for.

I do really like the philosophy and background to his tracks something similar to which I kind of used for titling my own mix sets.

Anyhow, here is short preview on youtube.

Or, you check out a sample on BeatPort.

I don't think it quite packs the energy as reflected in his sets. It's on FIUR, which I guess is Eddie's own label and is probably 'Fire It Up Records'.

Thoughts!?

[Max Kane]

Awful with a capital A!

Seriously terrible and a waste of time. If this popped up by a new unknown artist no-one would give it the time of day - pathetic excuse for dance music from a guy I used to have so much respect for!

His three debut tracks are all knock offs of popular producers/productions with so little originality.

The amount of time he has had to invest in learning to produce you would have thought he could do better than listen to other producers and flagrantly steal their ideas.

Seems to me like he has finally seen that his popularity is diminishing and this is his effort to get back to the top, why else has he delayed production for so many years? (and I do not buy the whole "I was always off DJing and couldn't learn to produce" nonsense)

[milkybarkid]

Really not impressed. More generic sounding, produced by numbers stuff, that as Tom says, had it been produced by some lad in his bedroom, no-one would bat an eye-lid. After all these years, and the fact that he was the last dj (to my mind anyway) to make a name for himself soley on his dj'ing alone, I'm sure he's had a lot of time and thinking to mull over this, and make sure it was something really worthwhile, or just don't bother simply because he didn't need to. Maybe he felt he needed to start releasing to stay current, I dunno.

I mean, why bother with that though? I haven't seen him live in a while now, but any recent clips I've seen,it was still the harder edge, tech trance stuff he was playing, so why release that slower paced, lighter stuff? Is he playing that stuff now? I'm sure there can't have been that much pressure on him to put a track out, considering he lasted this many years and was still very successful. Puzzling and disappointing if I'm honest.

[Max Kane]

He's been playing much slower for some time now

[jaylo]

he's been playing slower for the last 2 years but i think neon sounds like something funkagenda would produce very very similer but i like it ,

[Max Kane]

he's been playing slower for the last 2 years but i think neon sounds like something funkagenda would produce very very similer but i like it ,

That's the problem though - he's just listened to a few Pryda and Funkagenda tracks and put out an attempted carbon copy - only the production values in it suck

[Aza]

I haven't heard the other traks Tom, where can I take a look!?

Yeah, I tend to agree with you all here, and as Milkybarkid put, you'd certainly be expecting a harder style track at least. I really think his live ED-ITs serve as awesome offerings and this is quite a let down for me personally as this offering doesn't do it for me.

I follow his Fire It Up radio show and he certainly has changed his style over the past year or so. I would describe it as almost 'electro funk trace' now. The tempo has dropped and his end of show mixes aren't like the stuff we are so used to hearing.

I think this goes back to some of the posts we've all been discussing about how the music scene is changing and I think this may also be down to the actual DJ's. I mean, for me, I can't say for sure since you never know how you feel in the future, but if I am know for a certain style, I would stick to it. Maybe adapt it based on venue or time of set, but these big DJ's can almost play what they like without worrying about what the crowd want.

Edited August 3, 2011 by Aza

[Max Kane]

Changing your style is fine - as long as you're really into the new style and go full-on with it.

Look at Fergie - he has changed so much and is as good as he ever was - he really went for it with the techno stuff and he's brilliant. It just seems like Eddie is following trends and not actively immersing himself in his new chosen direction. He just plays the big hits over and over.

His other tracks are available on youtune somewhere mate - have seen them posted around and about. One is called "Ed-It 1" or something similar, the other track is just a blatant rip-off of Joris Voorn 'The Secret'

[Briggsy]

Not a fan at all

Eddie used to be my favourite DJ - but then he took a 6 month break, hyped up his "Ed-It" concept as being something new and never seen before - but after all that, it was just him, on a laptop, playing shit music.

Eddie was great until his numpty of a brother took over from Serious/Integrity to become his manager. He seems to have a lot of control over Eddie, and i'm sure he's brainwashed him into thinking he's bigger than he actually is.

If the rumours are true, then someone with the initials 'JS' produced these tracks for him.

I lost respect for Eddie when I saw him play at the Ministry of Sound after Sean Tyas had smashed it out playing full-on Discover-esque Trance at a fair pace - and then Eddie came on, played a really long drawn out intro for about 5 minutes before plodding along at around 128bpm. The chants of "Eddie, Eddie, Eddie" turned into boo's and the room started emptying and everyone went into the 2nd room (the bar). Abysmal!

I know the Eddie of old wasn't everyones cup of tea - he was a "love him or hate him DJ" because the Trance "purists" didn't want scratching over Trance, and breakdowns looping and chopped up - but I liked him simply because he was the one DJ that stuck 2 fingers up to the "Trance textbook" - there were no rules. He wasn't afraid to drop a Techno bassline over a Trance tune. He wasn't afraid to scratch over a 'hands-in-the-air' breakdown. He didn't wave his headphones in the air or do gay hand-hearts - he'd rather dive into the crowd or rip a tune to shreds on an EFX unit. Oh how times change

[Marty Mayes]

I download all eddie's FIU Podcasts and i gotta say there amazing hess my fav dj at the min im a trance head but im actually really getting into this slower housey sound almost every track eddie plays is good imo

[Tremor]

This track does nothing for me at all. There is no point in Eddie producing if he's gonna churn out run of the mill stuff like this. I agree with other comments that no one would even pay this the slightest bit of notice except for the fact its by a well known DJ. An unknown producer submitting this would surely get nowhere with it. Or maybe they would which just highlights how stale the sound is getting. Eddie should have stuck to what he did well... proper banging boshy tech-trance.

[Aza]

True on the loop scratching front, but I guess we all know that he can do it and it was awesome with vinyl back in the day!