Our Picks: Ter live version and Rak Gun Laew live version(Ice Angel)
Na Garg ,Ter live version and Wad Sood Tai live version(Kamiya Kaoru)

Thailand's hottest male artist threads new musical grounds and involvement with this release of rock-techno-dance album backed with creative DJ scratching

*Note: References to Ter and Wad Sood Tair, the author refers to the live version of the songs.

I first heard of Dome's newest album through the television. It was on the show of jedsee called "The 7 Club". I was literally and metaphorically thrown out of my seat upon hearing and seeing his first single, "Nar Gark". First, their was a short rap opening flavored with what seems to be creatively placed DJ scratching and electronica. I have seen Dome since he started back in 1996 and I wasn't exactly appealing to me then. Looking at this new release, boy was I proven wrong.

Dome? was a leap from Dome's techno-dance and pop-ballad beginnings to a more electronica and rockish musical style. Going back to "Nar Gark", what seems to be synthesizer rendered sounds at the start was suddenly accompanied by explosive guitars and loud drums. Although traversing these new musical influences, Dome's music has not lost the techno-dance feel. It was still there but now has less musical sounds, being less of a smorgasbord as seen in "Kaw Daw Lei Rei", which sounds more like adult-contemporary electronic music; if there was such a thing: (

Another surprise in this album is that he wrote 5 of the ten tracks and co-produced almost all the songs. This album is the closes the listener would get to his persona, his thoughts, his fears and his questions.

Why do I put in the adult-contemporary reference? Dome usually has slow pop-ballad songs in any album he makes. As I try to find them here, the closest I got to were "Ter", "Gnom Kem nai ta lae" "Wan hang kuam ruk". Both lacked the strong transition points (courtesy of good old drums or the synthesizer drums) but replaced by some DJ scratching and strong bass music. These two instruments become the elemental backbone of most of Dome's songs in this album. The slow songs could pass for an adult-contemporary electronic music like Savage Garden.

Also present is the variability of Dome's singing style which blends (intertwines) perfectly with the music and the theme of the song. In "Ter", he is monotonous and incredibly gloomy, the listener would be able to be face to face with the pain (or maybe anguish) the persona in the song feels. "Gnom Kem nai ta lae", "Wan hang kuam ruk", "Nor Gord" and "Tao Pom" challenges Dome vocally because the first two require lots of control while the latter two requires well-placed force.

You might think that this is a sad, gloomy, angst-filled album but some tracks provide a little humor and energy to a rather hopeless melancholy offering. "Rak Gun Laew" with Dome's slurry and teasing voice beckons to the listener (the female listener most likely) and the well-placed drum sequence made it a fun ride. "Nor Gord" and "Tao Pom" however might sound too aggressive for fans of soft music but it shows Dome's progression to more techno-rock-electronic (the live versions of the two are more techno-rock than techno-electronica) reminiscent of Prodigy and Chemical Brothers.