In early November Grum dropped Deep State, a full-length album on Anjunabeats featuring ten amazing Trance tracks. Grum has brought us almost an hour of delicious trance. I’ve listened through a good four times by now and I’m a big fan of what he put together for us. Earlier in the year, the very first single off this album “Stay” was featured on Anjunabeats Volume 14. It fit perfectly with its hard-hitting bassline and anthem-like lyrics. This single was heavily featured across the Anjuna label and was mixed into a lot of Anjuna sets over the past summer. To stir up more buzz for his coming album before the November 8th release date, he gave us a second single, “Tomorrow”. I’ve had this song on repeat since its release, I absolutely love it! It feels like the perfect song to put on when you’re trying to give yourself a power pep talk, “Taste the high, feel the low, live tonight, lose the low”. I think that’s something I’ve always loved about trance music, it promotes acceptance of the good and the bad and pushing forward anyway.
The title track “Deep State” was the perfect tune to start off this album. With a slow-building energy, it’s a very calming track. It provides the perfect contrast as it seamlessly transitions into the second track which is the single “Stay”. As mentioned previously, “Stay” features a prominent bassline and that was just the type of transition Grum needed to start building up the energy from the calm of the first track. Grum is a master of pairing upbeat basslines with slow and emotion-driven breakdowns in his songs.
The second half of this album gave me early 2000s trance vibes and I LOVED it!! The fast bpm and uplifting energy that Grum has through a lot of these songs were very on-brand for him. “Running” is a joint effort between himself and Jinadu and this was such a power track! People tend to think trance is only slow and calming music but I think Grum shows how dynamic it really can be. There is so much emotion and power that can be packed into a trance album and Deep State is an excellent example of just that.
By the end of this album, I’m left with a feeling that Grum is trying to encourage us to look inside ourselves and find our own Deep State. Trance music has always felt transformative for me and I feel Deep State is no exception. You can tell Grum put a lot of time and effort into delivering a true trance album and I think he totally hit the mark. I would highly recommend you take the time to listen through his album. I’m sure a track or two will jump out as something special!
Grum just kicked off his Deep State tour at the very beginning of November and he has plans to go all across the US, a handful of shows in the UK and even a stop in Canada! I was lucky enough to catch him at his Phoenix stop where he delivered a KILLER show! Do yourself a favor and check out his tour schedule and snag some tickets to the closest stop. Anjunabeats has always created excellent albums and Deep State is no exception to that!
*Featured Images via GRUM FB
