Welcome to the wonderful and boundary-defying world of Magdi Aboul-Kheir. Living in Germany, Aboul-Kheir has always demonstrated his true ability to be an alchemist of sound through his unique ability to blend different and conflicting types of music to create one amazing sound. He seamlessly blends the complexity and counterpoint of Baroque music with the intense heavy metal and the electrifying beats of electronic music. In the journey of his creativity, you will witness a true shapeshifter of a musician, one who does not allow himself to be restricted by man-made barriers of genre. If the music requires a calm and elegant chamber string quartet or a peak-time trance club with all the lights and lasers, Aboul-Kheir masters both. Given the strong roots he has established within the discipline of classical piano, it is safe to say that Aboul-Kheir is much more than a highly talented artist. He is, in fact, a master of emotions and a true romantic at heart, someone who lives only to pursue one goal – his unending love for melodies that stick with you forever. There is something very mesmerizing about the way he plays with emotions, effortlessly moving from the wide color palette of an orchestral symphony to the warmth and nostalgia of old-school analog synthesizers. Having been lucky enough to witness his development through all the major stages of his career, I have never failed to be impressed by what I saw – from the slow burn and intoxication of “Slow Heat” to the poetry of “The Weaving of Human Nature,” “The Piano Has Been Dreaming,” “One Last Dance,” and, finally, the futuristic grandeur of “Yesterday’s Future.” It is now time for this legendary artist to make a comeback with an incredible work that is most likely going to be his most captivating and epic creation, “Replicant Dreams,” an amazing nine-track album. Merging his classical expertise and vast knowledge of film music with old-school electronic wizardry, he yet again creates something incredible. It is now time for us to walk into the world of this remarkable album.
The record starts off with “Vector Drive”, where instead of ambient space sounds, the first thing that hits the ear is a single low-pass filtered sub-bass LFO pulsing slowly from the left to the right channel. Over the course of eight measures, the filter opens up enough to allow an exact, fast-paced 124 bpm hi-hat rhythm, followed by the sharp punch of a sidechained analog kick drum. As the track picks up speed, precise sawtooth arpeggiators are heard in the lower range, along with a lead synth melody that moves in human-like expression of vocal lines. Instruments are carefully layered with razor-sharp precision, combining retro-futuristic percussion of synthwave music with rich pads. All of this results in an immediate feeling of propulsion that draws the listener into a high-speed, high-stakes race through neon-lit city streets.
The transition to “Orbital Beauty” is graceful, as the intro starts with soft and glacial synth sounds of the crystalline nature, accompanied by a wide ambient pad sounding slowly growing up from absolute silence. Dry electric piano plays a riff of the main theme, followed by a descending and ascending synth bassline and clear woodblock drums, which give the rhythm of the track. This track features a lot of atmosphere as the airy vocoder pads are imitating slow breathing of a man throughout the harmonic progressions of the music. It sounds light and subliminal; sounds get louder as the song continues, and it gives the listener an impression of floating over the earth and looking at the glowing horizon under total silence.
Disrupting the tranquil mood of the moment, “Cyborg Legion begins with a menacing beat of industrial music that is combined with a dry and bit-crushed snare sound. Alongside comes a rhythmic robot voice chanting in a stuttering manner from the background. Soon enough, the track turns into an aggressive tune with the use of harsh basslines and distorted percussion, alongside metallic beats and synth brass. This robotic vocoder singing in the background serves as the main vocal of the song in a way. This would be a very high-intensity track where the listeners would imagine a scene of a mechanical army walking in unison through industrial corridors like that one scene from the movie I-Robot, starring Will Smith.
The emotional center of the piece is realized in “Replicant Dreams”, where the opening sound of the tape saturation effect from an analog recording is added to the reverberated three-note piano arpeggio. The piano continues to play for three times and then an analog synthesizer pad and a soft, mid-tempo kick drum complete the composition. The instrumentation of this track comes to life with the help of the lead synthesizer, whose patch was created in order to imitate the vocals of the piano player or even a soulful singer in an intimate setting.
Launching the middle section of the album, the track “Leaving Earth” opens up with an intense sub-bass drop in the low end, which is immediately followed by a complex 16th note synth pattern. With the build-up of the synth pattern reaching its climax, loud electronic tom fills explode, ushering in a high, soaring interval-based synth melody laden with vibrato, which forms the voice of the track. Chord progressions with rich synth-brass form the background to the melody, with shimmering bell patches in the high-end completing the track. The effect created is simply astonishing and bittersweet in nature, giving rise to feelings of triumph along with the emotional weight of leaving one’s home for the endless cosmos.
In a more reflective direction, the music “Stardust Drift”, begins with a polyrhythmic synth pad that is slowly coming in, accompanied by dry, detuned synth plucks which slowly fade away into big delay tails. Subtle and dark basslines come in to create a foundation for the music as the brushed electronic shakers and beats develop in the background. Warm synthesizer tones are used as the voices, which switch between major and minor extensions. The song makes you feel like you are floating effortlessly and acts as an ideal breather song on the album, which promotes passive dreaming.
Energy flows in again on “Stellar Metamorphosis” as the track opens up instantly with a dry synth stab followed by an intense filter sweep to reveal a fast oscillating arpeggio over the rhythmically steady four-on-the-floor kick drums. The construction becomes more layered as two lead synths join vocally, singing to each other over a heavy bass line. The music remains energetic as fast chords and rolling hi-hats are played all through. The musicality of the track transforms one into a completely new person as he gets the same energy as seeing a star reborn.
Moving into a more ominous sound world, the track entitled “Deep Space Departure” begins with an extremely spartan audio landscape that comprises a sub-bass beat and finger snap echo. After several seconds of silence, a melody played by what sounds like a cello synthesizer is introduced, gliding smoothly between legato notes in order to present a lead vocal line. Hi-hats and low-end swells are used sparingly to maintain a slow tempo, along with pitched-down vocal pads that provide texture to the background. This track evokes a deep feeling of isolation and expansiveness, as if one were exploring the depths of outer space.
As the album closes, “Lunar Meditation” opens with a soft organic white noise rainfall sound effect combined with an equally soft sine wave drone sound effect. This is followed by a synth chord progression that slowly builds but lacks any sort of drums or harsh bass sounds. Soft vocals with breath sound effects combine with slow ambient chord progressions that slowly ascend and descend like tides. There is a very calm and soothing quality to the music, which ends the album on a very calm, cathartic note.
Hop aboard the spaceships, activate your Light Cycles, and dive into the neon-colored glow of the horizons! Let your cyber soldiers march in their majestic synchrony, and let’s see how these heartless artificial androids learn about the immense beauty of true human love. Replicant Dreams is a film that truly deserves all praise as well as an unparalleled musical adventure of the most remarkable kind. It invites us to put reality aside and dive deep into the world of science fiction in the golden age of the 1980s, an amazing journey through unknown space worlds full of beautiful tunes, exciting rhythms, fun, and emotion.
Any less skilled producer would easily lose their way in the midst of a work this complicated, far-reaching, and conceptual in scope and allow the entire project to devolve into nothing but a messy jumble of compressed noise. However, Magdi Aboul-Kheir is anything but your average producer; he is an artist and a master of sound who is simply unparalleled among contemporary electronic musicians in his artistic intuition and skill. While many might find clutter, Aboul-Kheir crafts nothing but pure, unalloyed magic, managing to create an impressive balance between weighty analog sounds and vocal-like warmth and rhythmic depth. Long live the undisputed king of instrumental and experimental music! Those of us who have been along for the ride since the beginning will tell you how inspiring it is to witness this kind of artistic development. Replicant Dreams remains an eternal masterpiece, raising the bar ever higher for the genre, and confirming once more that the best instrumental storytelling requires no words because it reaches right into the soul of man. Congratulations, Mr. Magdi Aboul-Kheir, on an album release of unparalleled quality, the gift of the age, and we are all holding our breath in anticipation of what comes next!
Stream the “Replicant Dreams” album on Spotify.
Follow Magdi Aboul-Kheir on his socials: Facebook, Instagram, Bandcamp
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