Review
Genre and Mood
Stereoclip’s Shivering Sense is electronic music from the slower, chillout end of the spectrum: in 2014 Armada placed it on Armada Chill 001, a compilation made for that mood. The feelings named here, melancholic and introspective, are this page’s reading of a song with a shiver in its title, not a critic’s verdict; no published review describes the track.
Song Summary
Shivering Sense is a vocal song that exists in two releases from the same year. Stereoclip first posted it in March 2013, with a music video and a voice credited to Josephine Cray, and the video runs 5:38. When the debut album Hometown came out on Délicieuse Records later in 2013, the track sat seventh of ten, in a version the label lists at 4:55. Délicieuse described the album as made with many musician friends and reaching from drum and bass to deep Berlin electronic music, with pop and rock samples.
Musical Breakdown
No source walks through Shivering Sense part by part, and this page will not invent one. What can be said is how it is laid out around you, and what to listen for.
Intro
On the album the track follows Lunar and comes before Cohiba Smoker. Listen to how it sets itself apart from its neighbours in its first seconds.
Main Section
This is a song with a singer rather than an instrumental. Listen for how much room the production leaves around the voice.
Outro
No source describes how the track ends. Compare the close of the album version with that of the longer first version.
Concepts in Focus
Shivering Sense comes in two versions from the artist himself, the territory of the alternate version. Stereoclip’s SoundCloud calls the March 2013 upload the first version (1ere version), and the album version is over half a minute shorter than the video; no source says whether it is a new recording or an edit of the first. Playing them one after the other is the best way to hear what changed between a single and an album track.
The first version came with a music video, directed by Joachim Weissmann for Bang Bang Films with Colin Lévêque as director of photography, according to its credits. For a producer whose first tracks were made in his bedroom, a video gave the music a face and a place.
Artistic Context
Stereoclip is the Brussels producer Maxime (Max) Merkpoel. He started out making hip-hop instrumentals, released tracks made in his bedroom in 2011, including Easy Field, and a year later his first EP, It’s About the Time, on Délicieuse Musique; the label’s announcement described a project with Joséphine singing and Tom Goris playing the riffs. He told Paris Match Belgique that he called the album Hometown because he made it at home, intuitively and without much technical knowledge. Later albums came out on Armada, and Mixmag described his way of working as trying not to think while creating.
Impact and Reception
Shivering Sense was never a hit, and no review of it could be found. It is here because it is one of the owner’s songs, and because it shows where a producer starts. Listen to the album version first, then the video.
