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X-Dream - Remixed Flying Rhino Records July 2017 One of the most anticipated releases of 2017, remixing old tracks has been a trend lately it seems. Does it live up to the hype? My personal thoughts. Radio (Eat Static Remix) The album starts with a forgettable remix, good thing it is the opener I guess (and it is not too long). I love the original and this remix is bland in comparison (does not have anything in common, except for the vocal sample). Too bad. Out Here We Are Stoned (Shpongle Remix) Problem here, I never liked the original... Never understood why so many remixes of it, and we have two more in this album! Regardless, Shpongle did a decent job I think but nothing too special either, and (obviously) far from being their best work (uptempo unlike most Shpongle tracks). Was expecting something more creative and psychedelic from these legendary artists. Our Own Happiness (Dickster Remix) It is quite close to the original, the structure is very similar. To be honest I don't think this remix brings anything new to the table. The sounds is a bit more progressive and modern though. Decent but not really necessary IMO (maybe it is just me). Parent Plant (Sybarite Remix) Don't think I ever listened to the original, so can't compare. The style reminds me Cosma with some extra energy, and we are again in progressive psy territory. Acid lines hitting in the middle of the track. The melodic ending is brilliant. Overall a track I enjoy! Eleven (Atmos Remix) Very nice one! A progressive track again, quite different to the original, remixed by one of the masters in the genre! I believe this will be played a lot at festivals. The most demanding listeners could find it a bit repetitive but I personally don't mind. Some goaish sounds too (listen @ 2:35). Do You Believe (Astral Projection Remix) The original is my favorite X-dream track, it has such a mysterious, darkish atmosphere coupled with melodic power. This remix holds up to the expectations, very clean and professional sound, in the same style as Goa-Classics-Remixed released in 2014. Great attention to details too (this is Astral Projection after all!). While I don't necessarily think it tops the original, it is excellent regardless and I feel many goa fans will prefer it over the original. The AP guys know what they are doing, no doubt! Children Of The Last Generation (4D Remix) This track is quite slow to start and is nothing too interesting until the break down in the middle. But while I was expecting it to turn into something more psytrance, it gets more and more techno (housey) towards the end. I am not a fan of this style, and didn't like the original much, but this remix bores me even more. Next. Psychomachine (Midimiliz Remix) Big task ahead for Midimiliz, Psychomachine is one of the best works from X-dream. This remix has the typical "dirty" techno sound we know from Midimiliz. The melody of the original is developed in a very interesting way here. This is how good techno sounds like! Excellent track! Freak (Saafi Brothers Remix) Ending track of the first disc, a remix of Freak at 118 BPM. Not much in common with the original track, but the entrancing feel of this remix is very pleasant. Should work great at festivals on the chill floor! Out Here We Are Stoned (Mad Tribe Remix) Full-on remix, IMO better than the Shpongle one. Convincing effort, but again did we need two more remixes of this track? Psychoactivity (Joujouka Remix) Very solid remix by the Japanese crew. The guitars together with these metallic and acidic sounds make a really cool trip. Good material for psytrance DJs. Panic In Paradise (ManMadeMan Remix) Rolling bassline here... not too familiar with ManMadeMan but both artists sure know how to create music that moves the dance-floor. Catchy and dynamic remix all around, the vibe in this one just progresses and impresses while taking you through fun rising sections. I find it more catchy than the original. Freak (G.M.S. Remix) Powerful right from the start, a fast full-on track again. While it is a remix of Freak, a melody from Our Own Happiness steps in early, followed by the signature melody of Freak, and Panic in paradise is invited too! = Circus detected! Talamasca making babies? My attention went down quickly. Telegram (Loud Remix) A laid back and progressive version of the original. If you disliked 5 billion stars, I recommend you skip this. But even as a big fan of their last album, I was expecting more and felt the inspiration was short on this one. A major disappointment considering how interesting 5 billion stars was. Pacemaker (Deedrah Remix) The original (with Tim Schuldt) is superb! This version of Deedrah is more dance-floor friendly and certainly does the job! Stunning bassline, reminds me the golden era of South-African psytrance. New melody around the 4th minute mark, what the fuck out of tune sounds at 4:45 (or is it just me?), but overall a brilliant remix, one of my favorites here. Surprising outro too. I had not heard anything from Deedrah for a very long time but this is a proof he can still produce some great stuff. Well done! The Second Room (A-Trip) (Man With No Name Remix) A solid upgrade of the original. While I can enjoy the latter, it sounds a bit old today, this remix is good news and does it justice, it stays close enough to the good parts (the unique melody) and gives it a nice refresh. Nothing bad to say about this, one of the highlights of this album. Intercorporal Stimulator (Midimiliz Remix) A short track (under 6 minutes) by Midimiliz again, in the same style as Psychomachine remix. I find the first three minutes quite dull but the melodic parts are well executed and caught me by surprise! Not too memorable though. Clone III (Blue Planet Corporation Remix) The journey ends at 126 BPM. Very slow to build, progressive, trance inducing, almost tribal territory. While I was not expecting this style from BPC, he managed to produce something full of delicate and subtle emotions. An amazing pad hits around the 9th minute mark. The last two minutes are superb. Interesting exploration of minimalistic trance in this remix. Nice finish. For me, this release was a hit-and-miss at first listen but I liked it more the second time, so there is a good chance it could be a grower. It covers several styles of psytrance (modern psy, progressive, techno, a bit of goa). While it misses a few extra monster tracks to be considered super good, the top moments are enough for me to recommend this double CD album. Rating: 6.5/10. To buy: https://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/fly/fly2cd201.html https://boshkebeatsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/x-dream-remixed-2xcd-ltd-digipack-flying-rhino-2017

This is a really cool initiative and I was happy to snap up (and promote) the Prana singles collection! One thing I'm curious about is the sourcing for some of these releases... for full albums or compilations I'd assume it came from the original files, but for some of the collections (Athena, M.O.S., etc.) the material might come from all over the place, but I seem to recall seeing no mention of remastering or any other special treatment. Even if it's just some tracks collected from various commercial releases it would be cool to explicitly state as much, so us collectors have some idea of whether we already have the exact same file prior to purchase.

Wanna something to be done, do it yourself

what a surprising release. the remixes i was looking forward to the most turned out to be the worst, while others turned out great. the great exception here is the gms remix which is exactly as bad as i expected. a mixture between the weird technoid style of eat static and the heavy industrial technoid style of x-dream could have turned out great but with this not-uptempo-but-also-not-downtempo track that's neither exciting nor pleasant they totally missed the mark. also this remix sounds nothing at all like the original. it's as if eat static took one random track that didn't fit anywhere else and labelled it as x-dream remix. i'm not a big fan of shpongle but their remix of out here we're stoned is quite good. not great but good. next is dickster's remix of our own happiness. it's a fullon remix of the classic track. there's nothing more to say about it. dickster can do much better. the sybarite remix of parent plant on the other hand combines modern and original elements with the x-dream track. the result is a track that not only sounds up to date and energetic but perfectly captures the spirit of the original. the atmos remix didn't catch my attention at all. boring. astral did a remix of do you believe and it's one of the rare tracks that are just as expected on here. if you liked their recent goa classics remixed album you'll like this (i do). it's exactly in the same style. 4d is a collaboration between darshan and james monro. these two have put out some hard hitting repetitive technoid psytrance lately on flying rhino. their remix of children of the last generation is much softer and more melodic than their other work. the track is quite ok, but not spectacular. i was really looking forward to midi miliz remixing psychomachine. the track that served as prototype for psytek remixed by a german duo that has brought us hard psy-flavoured techno before. but any such music is totally in the background behind an extra-loud hat with an extremely unnerving swing-rhytm that immediately makes the gorillas of louds "why psytrance has become shit" video appear in my mind. the saafi brothers remix is not as smooth and dubby as their usual stuff, and also not as good. next we see an energetic remix of out here we're stoned by mad tribe (whoever that is). professionally executed, but nothing spectacular. surely great on the dancefloor but not ideal for home listening. then psychoactivity is remixed by joujouka (never heard of them before). not too exciting but with lots of acid. so i'm fine here. manmademan's remix of panic in paradise adds some extra effects to the iconic melody of the track and adds a heavy bassline underneath. a good effort but i still prefer logic bomb's neighbour of the beast (also when compared to x-dream's original) the gms remix isn't a remix of freat but the melodies of different x-dream track thrown mindlessly after one another. worthless. we have a remix of telegram by loud, that takes all the eerie atmosphere and drive out and leaves us with a bland, dry-clean and boring offbeat track. deedrah's remix starts great. lots of movement and energy but the acidline of the second half is horribly out of tune and doesn't fit at all. it could have been great but since the acidline is a prominent element the track is not enjoyable. mwnn rarely makes music that's bad (or just average). so what can we expect of his remix of the second room? this track is pretty melodic retaining most of the original melodies, it contains an updates kick and bassline, there are some original elements but there is pretty much no trace of mwnn's signature sound. it's a good track, but if you told me this is a remix by some previously unknown artist i'd believe it. the second to last track is a remix of intercorporeal stimulator again by midi miliz. again the element that totally dominates this track is a horribly unnerving swing "hat". not only that! it's exactly the same one we saw earlier with psychomachine. unlike psychomachine, this track also doesn't contain any of the elements that made the original track so good (not that intercorporeal stimulator would be as good as psychomachine). i'd rather listen to the remix by gms than this crap. the closing track is bpc remixing clone III. i imagined that bpc would turn this into an ethereal, soft but acidic track. but we rather see a slowed down version that seems to focus on one rather irrelevant melody of the original and repeats it ad nauseum. certainly not the best i've heard of bpc. all in all there are a few good tracks, a few ok tracks and 1-3 awful ones. none are spectacular or groundbreaking. i expect that a few of these tracks will revive some old x-dream tracks for modern dancefloors. if you like x-dream it's a nice addition to your music collection by if you skip this album you won't miss out too much.