It is always interesting to see how new age music is being reviewed in main stream media. Since many so called “serious” music critics don’t think highly of our genre, it is not a very good way to measure what people generally think – but it is of course an indication.

Steven Halpern recently released an album called Drive Time Rx which contains especially composed music to help drivers get through the motoring mayhem and thereby reduce road rage. And where in the world right now would be a better place to find heavy traffic than in the Olympic town of Vancouver?

Music reviewer Keith Morgan in the Vancouver Sun writes:

Not looking forward to facing the Olympic traffic? Maybe this album can help you make it through the trip. According to a press release from musician’s publicist “Halpern’s Auto(matic) Audio Additive is series of suggestions that are encoded so softly in the music that the listener can’t hear them, but their subconscious mind does, and responds automatically.” Examples of the embedded messages include “I am relaxed and alert at all times … I check my rear view mirror frequently … I am in control of my emotional response to considerate actions of other drivers.”

And more:

Surely, the drive would be plain sailing and I would have no need of Halpern’s calming chords. Wrong. By 41st. I had been given the finger twice for sticking to the speed limit, in a Porsche no less. The nerve. Maybe the embedded messages were truly having an impression on my subconscious as I mentally brushed off the abuse.

Read the whole review here - and sample the album on Steven Halpern’s homepage.