Column | POTN: How Hype Became Hatred

 

It must be a year by now, since the debut album from AN21 and Max Vangeli was announced. The hype that was generated then exceeded healthy standards. I could simply not wait when it was announced, I could simply not wait when I heard the first few samples and I could simply not wait after seeing them playing those tracks. As I'm writing this many months later, things changed radically.

The Hype 

Now, it's important to know that around the year 2010, I had these guys on a pretty high pillar after stellar releases like "Swedish Beauty" and "Gama". That pillar rose over the years after brilliant remixes for Gorillaz and Ellie Goulding, that set the scene on high alert: This was the future, and the future looked pretty damn bright! I even assembled a mixtape, collecting my personal rising stars at the time. AN21 and Vangeli were featured twice. A glimpse of the past:



Studio Time

The announcement where I was waiting for...it came. The album was finally getting shape after what must be a million "studio updates".  The most annoying thing about following next gen artist, must be to hear about studio time tweets at least twice a week, when there are no signs of new tracks. It's like a bakery constantly posting pictures of ovens baking your favorite cakes but never actually puts them in sale. You're like: Where are all the other cakes? Why bake new cakes if you already have so many cakes baked and ready to be sold? Why wait so long releasing the old cakes? Did you just threw away the old cakes? Are you teasing us on purpose? Just stop posting pictures of ovens, and focus on giving the old cakes before they spoil! Well, the above happened with this album. The cake spoiled.

All those ID's I've been chasing and waiting for, lost their magic after so much waiting-tension. They spent so much time sitting in it and tweeting about frivolous things, that POTN became a thing of the past without actually revealing itself. It's sad really. It's not just me, but I feel an overall disinterst in everything about it. I think a majority of my generation who enjoyed AN21/Vangeli at the time, moved on to other genres just like me, because of the Ash/Avicii/Alesso - cheese travisty. The cheese fans on the other hand, have no interest in this style of music. There myst be a handfull of POTN fans left. I think AN21, Max, Steve and SIZE in general must have figured the same, since there have been added a lot of cheese to the POTN burger. Especially "Glow" could fit as a poster-track for the simplified taste of nowadays generation. The album was slipping out of AN21 & Vangeli's hands in my eyes. Out of nowhere, the first single emerged under the ridiculous childish name "H8TRS". Not surprisingly, labelboss Steve"Cannot-deal-with-critisizm" Angello was involved. Apart from the track being poor, the fact that Angello's anti-critisism statement is featured on the album is a fact that didn't set well with me. AN21 and Vangeli have never had problems with any form of opinion, unlike Angello. Why would you let such a childish frustration from someone else, be featured on your album?

The Hatred

It must be a most odd coincidence, but on the day I started listening the freshly released single "People Of The Night" , I found this in a local store: 

Why on earth would you allow a standard "hot babe" image print on your debut album title single? Why anyone wants their album title track to be a collab is one thing, but you would expect that AN21 and Vangeli would want to see everything being in perfect harmony with their ideas, right?

It's their album, their personification in music on a CD. Is SIZE really allowed to influence the album into an extent that POTN will lose it's message.

Or, maybe there is no message and Antoine and Max just made a bundle of cheesy dance music? That last thing is getting more and more plausible. As if all the above wasn't enough, they did the unthinkable. I've been waiting on a certain ID from this album. That ID is collaboration with Mau5trap's Moguai. I was too happy for words it finally had a excess point. All I had to do was playing the waiting game. The hype for this was unimaginable. Unfortunately, this track will function as the embodiment of the rise and fall of the album. To my horror, they changed the tune I loved so dearly into the a mainstream monstrosity that will fit the current disgusting musical generation. I will not take a shot at describing this new version since emotions will make it impossible for me to behave.

 It's fitting for this ill world I'm finding myself in today full off nostalgia being stepped upon. This...murder is probably the final blow to my anticipation and buzzed feelings for POTN. I never expected this cheap manoeuvre of a duo I expected so insanely much off.  This album made me hype intensely, since it would have been my first House album of a duo I learnt to know from the start. Excitement flows away with every preview. The hype has become hatred. Hatred that's aimed at the current dumbed down Big Room House scene that I respected so much once. That this album is now aligned with that negativity is something I truly did not see coming. This used to be a dim light in the growing shadow of the U.S. that's been hovering over my beloved scene and it's artist. It seems it's only getting darker. 

It sure fits the title.