Let me introduce: Yal!X — Sand Dunes.
It feels like a small postcard from a foreign city — cool at first, but with a secret hidden inside. The American producer, who has already caught my ear in the future garage scene, hides a pearl inside a hard shell — and I’m carefully opening it.
The beginning feels familiar: vocal phrases, a gentle build-up of synths — yet there’s an immediate absence of deep bass. It’s like a desert before a storm — something quietly gathering underneath. And then, after the 26th second, the arpeggio bursts in like a whirlpool of memory: a pure nod to trance culture, not as a clone, but as the embodiment of two worlds meeting. The rhythms repeat, weaving into the pulse’s strength, and I feel a wave of euphoria as I listen.
I imagine Chicane or ATB walking into the studio, smiling: “We’re here to lift this up.” But all the courage belongs to Yal!X. He doesn’t copy — he integrates, making trance the body of future garage. After the midpoint, the track slows down: piano and percussion appear subtly, the arp returns like an old friend, and everything blends into a curious weave of elevated mood.
The texture of the synths doesn’t clash — their spectrum unfolds into transparent layers, like thin sheets of sand shimmering with light. At certain moments, the track becomes softer, when the rhythm leans closer to the drums, yet it never slips into excess drama.
Sand Dunes isn’t just another release in the feed. There’s something experimental in it, yet completely natural — as if two parallel worlds finally touched. Yal!X has woven trance into future garage so effortlessly that the genres no longer argue; they breathe in unison. In this fusion, there’s a sense of something new — perhaps even the birth of a future sound we haven’t heard yet. And if this is only the beginning, then I want more experiments like this: honest, tangible, alive. Because it’s from tracks like this that new chapters in music begin.
For those who felt that same quiet energy of forward motion in Sand Dunes, I recommend listening to Ecepta – Solstice — a track that speaks the same language of subtle progression and emotional depth.
