After following this music so fanatically and enthusiastically for years, I had to take a break from it in the mid-2010s. That was the only way to properly understand the meaning of compositions like Afternoon Owl. I can in fact say I indulged this music to the point of disgust. That said, I still consider Alek Száhala nothing less than a musical genius. His music is incredibly logical and streamlined, and consequently incredibly powerful (and therefore also quite dangerous…). Of course, he also made average, if not outright bad, tracks, but when adhering to such an extreme style of music, the risk of producing comedy is very high. It is not easy to make adult and tasteful 180 BPM four-to-the-floor music, is what I’m saying, and this is why most tracks in this music style (the so-called “freeform”, which is in reality very well structured and not freeform at all…) are far from stunning. But by the same token, when they hit this style’s very narrow sweet spot, they can reach outright brilliance. I rank Száhala very high in the hierarchy of modern electronic music (right at the top, along with Infected Mushroom).
So allow me to post my all-time top 10 freeform tracks:
- Alek Száhala – Afternoon Owl
- Alek Száhala – Iron Squid
- Alek Száhala – Anmitzcuaca
- Alek Száhala – Freezing Clouds
- Alek Száhala – Puzur-Inshushinak
- Alek Száhala – Tides
- Alek Száhala – Aurinko
- Alek Száhala – Starfall
- Alek Száhala – Comet Catcher
- Carbon Based – Cyclone
I am still not 100% sure about this list, but for now I’ll leave it like this. It’s tough picking 10 tracks out of so many great ones. And then ranking them accordingly makes it harder, of course. Still, I believe Afternoon Owl is the quintessential Száhala-style piece of music. Iron Squid is awesome, but I feel the transition to its final climax was perhaps too hasty. You are served this orgy of happiness and euphoria almost out of the blue—and stuff coming out of the blue is almost always by definition silly. I’d say the reason for this was that the first 5 minutes of the track progressed very logically, with each part taking its time to fully develop into the next part (giving thus a calm and secure vibe) but then, as good as that one-minute breakdown was, the sudden climax still kind of feels forced and histrionic. That said, Iron Squid is still a masterpiece and a supreme example of the Száhala-style. As for a track like Enuma Elish, after the initial enthusiasm, I’ve since looked at it more objectively and decided to leave it out of my top 10. I really appreciate Sahala’s courage to be repetitive. His disdain for little nuances and his commanding compositions are a big part of what defines his music, but I feel he went a little too far with this one. You’ll see from previous versions of this track that he ended up scrapping many details, even going as far as deleting full parts of the track. This streamlining is a good thing, but is it not possible to overdo it? Because after a point, the music will just start sounding autistic.
On another note, I placed Aurinko above Starfall. Like I said, it’s tough ranking these tracks. I have no doubt about the first two spots, but after that it’s difficult. Anmitzcuaca is powerful, but how can I seriously compare it with Aurinko? The former is pure rage, nonstop energy building on itself, while the latter is pure bliss, with a simple yet powerful melody. Saying Anmitzcuaca is better than Aurinko is ultimately saying pure rage is better than pure bliss, since both these tracks are near perfect representations of these feelings.
So, take my ranking from the 3rd place onward with a grain of salt. I just placed Starfall below Aurinko, because I prefer Aurinko‘s main melody. Aurinko might be simpler, but it does not get boring, whereas Starfall‘s 2:50 melody verges on the annoying after a not-so-distant point. The 4:27 transition is a terrific touch, a little bit of fresh air, some distraction from the main melody that leads to another powerful melody at 5:15. But then at 5:45 we’re back to that first melody that was already verging on the annoying when it left and… it takes a special kind of person to want to endure this kind of discomfort. This, however, is practically what defines Száhala’s music. These persistent feelings and this painful pursuit of delayed gratification (the gratification we feel when a melody finally advances to a different stage, or a new note appears, or some gimmick messes around with the tempo, etc.) can be found pretty much in all of his tracks if you bother to take a closer look. Even Aurinko‘s final exploding melody persists far longer than your random MTV teenage pop song. And that’s a good thing.
Another thing is that Starfall clearly gives a much more contemplative vibe than Aurinko. Aurinko is happiness full stop. But Starfall has a clear dreamy vibe, so ranking one above the other would once more be equivalent to ranking feelings and emotions and saying happiness > contemplation. But since I feel Aurinko is a more perfect representation of happiness than Starfall is a representation of contemplation, I decided to change their relative positions. Starfall is more complex, in a way, just as Sunray is more complex but at the same time is still not good enough for me to consider placing it on a top 10.
I should add that Száhala’s sound design is very characteristic and that’s obviously a good thing. Some of the timbres you hear in his music seem to come from some alien civilization! I mean, why do you think I rank Freezing Clouds so high, even though it’s pretty much an unfinished sketch?
I know what you guys are thinking btw. “This dude sure loves Száhala lol”. And you can bet your ass I do. His best music is indeed orders of magnitude above his competition.
Finally, I had to include Cyclone in my top 10 because this was the track that got me into this genre and ultimately even got me to discover Száhala. This track still holds up very well nowadays, with a great breakdown and melodic climax.
The Stillest 