Jeff

Do you mean my proposition should be reversed to more accurately reflect the downfall of Psy since the glorious heydays ? Well, anyway, from a more down-to-earth point of view it is also linked to my personal money income... And I did succeed in finding 8 germs in the albums I mentioned. I know lots of people found those three pure crap, but hey, personal tastes... J.

I've become quite a finicky customer over the years. Back in 1995 / 1997, I'd buy a CD with 3/10 good tracks, but now I only open my wallet for a minimum of 8/10 outstanding tunes. But don't forget that there were much less releases in the mid-90's ! Which leads to very few records for this year : - Infected Mushroom : IM the supervisor - The Misted Muppet : From the Legend - Synsun : Symphonic Adventures And planned before the end of the year : - Talpa : The Art of being Non - Filteria : Sky input J.

May be or not. It depends on the focus you put on the music, as you pointed out lately in your post : Personally I deeply appreciate the sharp contrast emanating from spacey sound effects colliding with a standard human voice. In those cases, I must admit that my attention is absolutely not drawn by the meaning of the vocals, but entirely by this phenomenon. Intertwining real and surreal elements is an exercice Infected Mushroom are particularly good at by the way (I wouldn't say that they lately succeeded in it with their use of vocals though...). I do think this mixture is extremely powerful as far as psychedelia is concerned. As long as it is well made of course... J.

That was the original purpose of "Goa Trance" indeed, that you can still find vivid today (fortunately !). Even though, I'd like to make some restrictions : - the mystic flavour you mention is fading away nowadays. Lots of kids just wanna freak out to the max on crazy beats, and couldn't care less about "expanding their consciousness through the trance dance experience". - there's definitely a line which can be drawn between party music and home-listening music in Psy. I'd say this line was less obvious a few years back. Personally I like both, but I agree with you that vocals on the dancefloor may be a bit disturbing, though perfectly fitting for a home experience. So... I'd add, as you imply : for the dancefloor. J.

Indeed. Involved in the scene since early 90's, they were THE act around 1994-1995 in Europe. But for some obscure reasons, they are seldom mentioned as a key influence on the scene. Back to the point : I don't appreciate Atmos, Hux Flux, Planet BEN and Cosma's music that much. From a more general point of view, I have a hard time with any music deprived of melodies (like Techtrance or the noisy Scando sound) and Full-on which I find overall pretty boring (with lots of exceptions of course). J.

Sorry for stating the obvious, but human voice is a very powerful instrument to convey so many feelings, I can't figure out why it bothers so many people when it is used in Psy Trance which IMO is precisely a very emotionally dense music ! I'm talking in general of course, but that is the perspective many use pertaining to that subject : "I don't like vocals in my Psy, period". A bit radical for me... If it was made in a more specific way, like : "I don't like Duvdev singing in IM tracks, his voice doesn't fit with the songs", then I'd understand better. Let the artists use every instrument they have at their disposal, no ? J.

+1

To turn toward new horizons I guess : Carlo got invested in a Lounge album (Shambala Daedalus) with the bassist Saturnino. As for Andrea, he is said to have definitely left the (electronic) music world. J.

First off, I never sit at the table with those Fab Four. Anyway, from what I understood, reading here and there, they all had a more or less specific role in the band : Max was/is the leader, deciding in which direction the band should go. Carlo and Andrea were reportedly the melodic brains of the band, Carlo for the melodies and Andrea for the scales. As for Maurizio, he was in charge of arrangements. J.

The latest piece of news (well, rather rumor) I heard was that Max and Maurizio definitely gave up the Pleiadians project. Some say that Andrea and Carlo were responsible for the groundbreaking music Pleiadians produced on IFO and FOL, and that the project was condemned from the day both left the band anyway. That said, they however made a track under the Pleiadians alias for the recently published "Fairy Tales" compilation, "Photonik Part 2". If someone has sound news, I'd be interested. J.

I bought it, and I'm listening to it in loop. And I still can't figure out why people keep saying this is pop music ! It's pure infected sound to my ears... I'm wondering : is it all because of this clip story on Israel MTV ? Hey, a track is pop because it sounds pop, not because it appears on a pop channel, at least for me. J.

Couldn't agree more. And it's a common feature for such "anniversary" comp, whatever the musical genre, to appear without the key figures. I wonder why : are the promising titles just a way of attracting customers ? Do the ol' masters refuse to appear on it ? J.

Brainman - Brain Food (1995) Never met anyone who likes this album, except supposedly the guy who exchanged it to me for Dementertainment ! J.

Well, well, well... I feel a bit annoyed here... To me, 3 or 4 tracks on this comp sound much more Electronic World Music than Psy Ambient. I know guys, we don't care about labelling music, but still... Anyway, two tracks stand out : the GMS & 1300Mics, very varied, and the Shpongle one, which, as many comment, sounds like a mix between Hallucinogen and Shpongle usual stuff. And the last one : the Absolum track. I didn't like minimal style sofar, and this "fifth Revelation" didn't make me change my mind... Psy Rating : 7/10. World Music Rating : 9/10.

Less minimal than Pigs in Space. I particularly like Outer Conception and Why not on Mars ? The rest of the songs is okay, not brilliant. 7/10

The three songs I like here : Subsonic Overdrive, Casio Paya and Deeper and Deeper. The point is that they aren't typical of their style, they sound very old school. But I hate the guitar part on 380 Volt, doesn't sound Psychedelic at all ! Nice use of guitar sounds can be found in Infected Mushroom or The Delta. But here, yurk ! The other songs are a bit boring. 4/10

The second best Psy album I own with IFO. I bought it one year ago and it still sounds so moving. I can understand some people said it's not pure Psy because for instance you don't find those acid sounds (that I can't stand anymore BTW) so common in other Psy releases. Instead, you have other instruments being introduced. But for me, this is an excellent attempt to define a new Psy sound by mixing musics that normally don't fit. And they made that perfectly. The Gathering was much more Psy mainstream, even with some nice innovations. This one is something completely different. And the cover art is probably the most original I've seen on a Psy album, with a wonderful 3D texture. 9.5/10

A great dark yet-not-too-much album. One of my first buy in the Psyshops. Best tracks for me : Labyrinth, Phenomena and Concorde. hmm, only 8/10 because of tracks 2 and 3 that I don't like at all.

Distorted melodies, powerful and dark sound, that's why I love Psy Trance ! No invention here, that's right, but what a trip if you want to freak out to full throttle ! 8/10.

Great album, I realise I only bought reference releases by chance when I discovered the Psy scene. Best tracks : 4,5,6,8 and 10, the ambient version of Micronesia. 8/10

Oh yeah ! 1,2,5 and 9 sound soooooooooo dark ! Very good stuff !! Very nice melodies ! 7.5/10

I bought this one after Classical, because I read all the wonderful reviews here. And as usual when you do this, I was disappointed. This album is okay, but not so innovative as Classical IMO. It's hard to find it interesting when you have tasted their new sounds. Don't get me wrong : I'm not saying it's a bad album, but I find it difficult to appreciate when you have heard Classical. ?/10

I like the first two songs pretty much, the rest is average, not uplifting enough for me. 5/10

Sorry, I TOTALLY fucked up !!! I wrote the above review whereas I hadn't listened to the album for more than a year, what a mistake !! It sounds great, I don't know where I found the production problem, it's nonsense. Compared to all the minimal stuff you find nowadays, it's so refreshing to listen to so good old school tracks. 8/10 for the whole album, definitively !

I'm not used to saying this kind of word, but the production sucks big time here ! I bought it because I loved the Silence version on Travelling 1 : the song loses all of its uplifting power here !! Very disappointing... Cthulhu, Cosmic Ripple and Herbs and Spices would sound pretty great with a better sound for sure. 1/10 for the sound quality, 8/10 for the composition of these 4 tracks.