Oliver Lieb is responsible for an enormous amount of extremely high quality techno/trance, and his Spicelab album A Day On Our Planet, is up there as one of his best and most ingenious. Released in 1994, a year even before his groundbreaking Rendezvous In Outer Space, this second Spicelab album A Day On Our Planet sounds just as good today as when it was released.
Spacey is a word used to describe several different types of techno. I’ve heard it used to describe the material on Model 500′s Deep Space, which is not really spacey at all. A Day On Our Planet however… now this is spacey.
I love how Lieb approached A Day On Our Planet. He kept the tracks very long (there are only 4 tracks each averaging around 17 minutes long), but what Lieb lacks in quantity here he makes up for with quality and diversity, and each track is quite a journey.
Another aspect of this album that is so incredible is the sound quality. The winding acid synth sounds are pristine. I read somewhere that Lieb’s older material wouldn’t go up on Beatport before he had mastered it again; honestly I don’t know how he could have made it sound much better than it does now.
“Falling”, the first track on the album, begins with spacey sounds more suited to a sci-fi soundtrack than a trance album. From there “Falling” slowly, quietly builds the melody with a cosmic twinkling that evolves into awesome, undulating acid synth sound. The acid melody found on “Falling” is one of the best ever.
Spicelab – “Falling”
The next track “We Got Spice” sees similar spacey sounds come out to play, albeit with more of a soft humming pulse. It doesn’t take long to explode with a mix of acid, muffled, distorted bass and even a hint of tribal percussion. However, just when you think you have it figured out, “We Got Spice” loses these harder sounds and becomes an classic trance track, which, like “Falling” is both incredibly simple but extraordinarily good.
The acidic, semi-aggressive approach that kicked off “We Got Spice” return with a vengeance on “A Day On Our Planet” as Lieb employs a fierce bassline which behaves like a drum n bass or jungle beat, but with an acid techno sound. While “A Day On Our Planet” also segues into something more melodic, similarities with the first two tracks end there. “A Day On Our Planet” is more eerie and dark, and it welcomes back that hard acid bass line, using it to punctuate the minor melodic peak.
Spicelab – “A Day On Our Planet”
The album’s dominant, spaced-out atmosphere also pervades the final track “Planet Spice”, with a few key differences. For starters, the initial segment (which lasts for about 9 minutes) of “Planet Spice” is driven by what is best described as a steady, undulating rhythm, lacking a discernible melody. At this point, the melody drifts away with cinematic intensity. Lieb references this by using a very cool effect, which sounds exactly like an old analogue camera flashing and recharging with an electric whine. ”Planet Spice” eventually reverts to a final synth-led melody, which veers away from traditional trance sound, making it much less tangible and much more abstract than any of the other three. It is a different, interesting addition to this great album.
“A Day On Our Planet” is a must have for anyone who is a true trance fan. A complete, unique listen from beginning to end and definitely one of Lieb’s most consistent and brilliant albums.
