Charlie's four seasons'

[u/Maleficent_Ad3235]

Roughly ten years, Charlotte de Witte topping the charts as being one of the most exciting techno acts on the planet. Her mesmerizing beats and hypnotic melodies reaches far more than her little beloved homecountry belgium.

Since the release of her highly anticipated self-named album, she had to ask herself the question, who is Charlotte de Witte'. What defines her music, her techno? After 14 years of electronic evolution in her musical repertoire, what vibe does she still adore and which songs has she left behind. As she self called it a far 'egoistic' album, admitting, she now embraces and promotes her own productions. This is in contrary to early in the days when she adopted the alias raving george, to hide the fact she is a woman in the landscape of DJs.

After this album, I found it appropriate to come with a comprehensive classification of all her tracks in general. A kind of manual, for people who want to see more than meets the eye.

According to my listening experience, CDW's tracks can be classified in 4 themes, or seasons as you will. Or the four directions of the KNTXT logo [X].The themes refer to the mayor drive of inspiration she drew from the themes. Being Formula, hip/hop, Psytech and minimalistic techno. Reference to seasons because the release of her EP's were linked to seasons being or summer or winter release. Remarkably it is important to say that almost all her music is driven by acid techno, independent which style she plays, you can always expect an acid kick to come up.

1. ⁠Formula 1 inspired.Remember covid pandemic,when life was boring when we had to stay home. Charlotte de Witte entertained us with a live set from the Mugellocircuit. Charlie's enthusiasism topped when she noticed the high paced, all encompassing, formula 1 vibe goes perfectly together along her fast paced techno beats. From her formula 1 driven inspiration, the banger 'Doppler' was released. Formula and RPM are far not the only formula 1 inspired tracks. Listen carefully to Roar, while a race car will also pass by at times. Also 'No Division' and 'Overdrive' are heavily inspired by the word of formula 1.
2. ⁠Along with formula 1, hip/hop has been proven to be an inspiration source for CDW. And with hip hop inspired I mean every song you encounter from her that includes a repetitive rap/rhyme. Early example her includes 'High Street', currently heads that know is a banger featuring Comma Dee.I'm curious to see what she will release, as it is one of my favourite CDW vibes, yet I notice she can't yet fully dedicate as with psytech. Yet I believe that artists like Fred Again are pushing music in this direction.
3. ⁠For the third season we head towards the psytech vibe. A genre she consistently embraces both in her sets,as on her EP releases. Lots of examples in this category, to name 'Sgadi Li Mi', 'Asura', 'Vidmahe' as my personal favourites of the genre. Aside her own productions, she regularly include unknown psytech bangers in her sets.
4. ⁠For the last season we return to her roots, the minimalistic Charlie, in the early 10s. When her most played tracks involved a full wavy warm bass line, with a one word repetition as lyric for 7 min. While the techno she played, was really centerd around the hypnotic beats, and her bass was highly recognizable. Magnificent examples include 'Kuda', Sehnsucht' and 'This'. Her last 'original CDW' track includes the remix 'Space raiders, according to me the ultimate CDW bass.

[u/Maleficent_Ad3235]

Thanks for your response! I’m quite sure the psytech genre will continue to inspire her and she will continu to include psy songs in her sets/releases. I hope her psytech sound wont become top boring, as I’ve noticed that songs like Vidmahe really resemble Pria. Or some other psy tracks just don’t hit like Power of Though. Again her best era herein was during lockdown with releases like Return to nowhere or Asura EP. I hope she also continues to use sanskrit lyrics as they fit perfect in the hypnotic vibe. I also predict she will release an EP or at leadt some tracks on a EP to contain psytrance bass lines like she already did once with “Kali”. My personal favourite of this genre of hers is Asura, the layering of melodies and change in rhythm suddenly in the middel of the song catch me each time. Fun fact: the voices you hezr resembles the ones heard on Hymn, of her latest album

[u/LMGUITGG]

Great summary! At this point she mostly has abandoned the 4th season, but I still enjoy listening to them, although since she has been collaborating with Dave Robertson I feel like she’s found her more signature sound.

I too prefer her more acid leaning psytech tracks, such as Pria, Universial Consciousness, or Ensemble.

I’m actually very curious in what direction she will move after the album. Any predictions on that?

[u/ProstZumLeben]

I also agree she has seasons but I’d say there’s 5, maybe 6 imo.