Dragan Roganovic, a.k.a. Dirty South, has been out and about in the EDM scene collaborating with many artists and showcasing his fantastic Djing skills for the world. With remixes and collaborations abound, this native Serbian’s first album Speed of Life is finally upon us.
In typical dance fashion, this album will certainly get you moving. A lot of the tracks are quite uplifting and can be used as a nice pick me up before your next big game or even on your commute to work. Until the End has an excellent lead synth selection along with beautiful piano and string parts sprinkled around for good measure. Your Heart also fits into the “uplifting” category on this album featuring Joe Gil’s wonderfully balanced vocals. Joe Gil has a very controlled voice that is both full and comforting. I hope every producer out there is paying attention, because this guy is going to be huge with his an incredible voice like this.
As much as I like Something Like You, Rudy’s vocals are drowned out in the mix and sound very subdued. While the filter effects are a nice touch, his voice simply does not stand out in this track. I really enjoyed Ruben Haze’s imput on Gods and Joe Gil’s stellar performance, but I actually prefer the instrumental tracks on this album. They certainly have more feeling and expression when compared to the album’s vocal counterparts.
Super Sounds gets your body girating early on in the album and constantly demands your attention. The track Champion’s frantic pace keeps even the most avid EDM listener on edge. Reset has an excellent melody that would go along with any set in the concert season with its rave-tastic dance line. Being one of my favorites on the album, Sunrise certainly slows everything down and is a welcome change of pace. The warm bass surrounds the listener and arpeggios galore really brighten this song. Sunset is the sibling to Sunrise and I really enjoy the chill vibe it brings to the table. The piano is used very well to drive the melody along and all of the synths echo about creating this wonderful environment for the listener’s imagination.
One thing that I noticed throughout this entire album is Dirty South’s selection of bass instruments; it’s not in your face like some of the electro anthems as of late. It surrounds you and wraps around you like a warm blanket with your significant other who is there to comfort you. I commend Dirty South on his first album venture despite a couple of lackluster vocal songs. As much as I enjoyed his selection of singers, the arrangements and creativity on the instrumental tracks were just that much better! Overall, this is a great first outing and I’m sure this Dj extraordinaire will be playing many of these new tracks to his grinning fans at Ultra and beyond.
For more tracks and full sets by Dirty South, click here to go to his Soundcloud page.
As an added bonus, the album cover I used in this review is in 1920 x 1080 format so enjoy your new wallpaper!