pedro

This is indeed Kino Oko's best effort so far. The CD starts off slowly and I dont care for the first couple of tracks, but then it really does become fun. Favourite part are tracks 6-9. The last track (11) is also interesting - it is a version of David McWilliams classic Days of Pearly Dancer. I feared the worst, but actually Kino Oko's version is enjoyable enough. Definitely recommended! Pedro

I do think Leaving Home is indeed better than Movements (but I would comfortably recommend both). However, I think Interloper is as good as Hydroponic Garden. The CBL boys are still doing things in style. Hopefully they will keep it up. Certainly Interloper is the best downtempo psytrance release so far this year. Recommended. Pedro

A very worthy album of remixes. Favourite tracks were 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9. The Kiwa remix (track 7) really doesn't work, though. One of the more enjoyable releases in 2009. Recommended. Pedro

My favourites for 2009 (in no particular order). It was a great year for non-psy trance music. Total 10 (Kompakt) Solomun - Dance Baby Max Essa - Continental Drift Bodycode - Immune Silicone Soul Modeselektor - Body Language vol. 8 Joris Voorn - Balance 14 Holger Ziksje - Holz Tirk 02 Claro Intelecto - Warehouse Sessions Matias Aguayo - Ay, ay, ay Mihalis Safras - Cry For the Last Dance Monolake - Silence Pixel - The Drive Alva Noto - Xerox vol 2 Phantom Ghost - Thrown Out of Drama School Martyn Great Lengths Kompact Pop Ambient 2009 Lawrence - Until then, good bye Neil Landstrumm -Bambaattaa Eats His Breakfast Todd Bodine - Forms Will Saul - All Night Long My favourite things vol. 2 Enjoy the Silence (Mule) Yagya - Rigning 5 Years of Hyperdub

Schizm is indeed a great release. Certainly destined to be a true psy trance classic.

I think this CD is really good. It is quite better than their previous one. I also rate it higher than Solar Field's latest solo (which is also has some quality tracks). The first two tracks are perhaps the weakest, but then it really does pick up. Highly recommended. This deserves more attention than I believe it is getting. Pedro

There have always been people who decide to join these forums and who most probably are not quite fully paid-up members of the human race. Some might say it is inevitable that they should occasionally stray into these forums - and I do agree. The vast majority of the time I do my best to ignore them. And it is easy to do so. There are other (rare) times that one is moved to be less civil with them. This Sneila reincarnation is a perfect example of the latter. Incidentally, in my view Radi or Cinos were both little better - perhaps less insistingly fatuous than Sneila and his variations, but nevertheless still impossibly puerile and bothersome. Pedro PS I would also imagine that since young kids have access to internet, that some of the people on this board could well be people to whom puberty is still a long awaited promise. Not suggesting that any of the aforementioned clowns are nine year olds, but I am sure that we get our fair share of young ones. The fact that we do not notice them is perhaps because they probably behave better than some of their older (and putative more mature) forum members.

It is not because he does not like Koxbox. And it is not about tastes. It is how Sneila goes about this. Does remind of some other/previous unsavoury characters in these forums. I do hope I am wrong. Pedro

And here we have it, boys and girls! It is Sneila, our brand new little troll, freshly arrived on our forums! Or maybe it is not really such a new troll after all....

Errr...there might be some element of dub in some of their tracks (but dub influence is everywhere in techno and dance music in general), but it is certainly not dub techno per se. Compare it with the Chain Reaction releases and Basic Channel, to start off with the oldies. Pedro

You are really a laugh. The things you say....

Yes, I am afraid that Murphythecat is our new puerile troll (although to be fair to the kid, I have seen much worse). Hopefully, he will eventually get bored and seek other places in cyberspace to be annoying... Pedro

Good for you.

Yes, Martin is quite under-rated. Pedro

My favourite headphone is Sennheiser HD 600 (I find the slightly more expensive HD 650 not worth the extra money). To make them sing properly I use a headphone amp: the Graham Slee Solo with external power supply is a match made in heaven. The headphone amp is more expensive than the headphones, but is worth the price. For a cheap solution: Sennheiser EH 350 has an amazing classy sound for the price. You can get them as low as £38 - nothing at this price point can beat them in my experience. Pedro

Quite agree. This belongs in the "other electronica" forum. As for the album itself: I think it is sublime. It is also a return to form for Yagya. His "Rhythm of Snow" release in 2002 was an impressive piece of work in a great label (Force Inc, now sadly demised). I found his second release "Will I Dream During The Process?" clearly not as good and not worthy of a purchase. However, Rigning is a very tasty album which shows Yagya has a really good handle on the dub techno infused ambient aesthetic. Recommended. Pedro

It is interesting that, with a few inevitable exceptions, I tend to agree with so many of the disappointments already mentioned in this thread. So I won't repeat names. I would like to add another one, though: Shpongle: Tales Of The Inexpressible. After the magnificent "Are You Shpongled", this was really quite a letdown of a boring album. I can only imagine that the kids that were raving about Tales don't really have much breadth in their music listening/knowledge. Of the names mentioned in this thread, the one I would disagree strongly is Hol Baumann's Human. This is a very good piece of work, easily above average even for Ultimae. I do note that the poster had already heard 1/3 of the album before... Pedro

Bwhale, What a silly and asinine thing for you to say. Why would you assume that a significant amount of people would bother to "pretend" to like Ultimae? Pedro

I really don't understand the fuss with Filteria and some (most?) of the other Suntrip artists. Filteria's sound seems to me as being old, dated and neither fresh nor interesting. It is all very regressive. Thankfully the scene here in London has given this type of music a wide berth. Pedro

Respectable compilation from the reliable Interchill people. Nothing in "Future Memories" is amazing (extremely little in trance downtempo really is, anyway), but it does has several very good tracks and is one of the better trance downtempo releases in 2008 in my view. Starts of with a boring Eat Static track but then improves. Favourite tracks were 3, 6, 7, 9, 10. Recommended. Pedro

It was well known. Richard James decided to do make fun of the Firestarter track which was quite popular at the time. Brilliant!

I am down with OPP!!

I do think Aphex Twin does deserve the accolades, although some of the adulation may be blown out of proportion (we all need a hero). While some may not have enjoyed the drill 'n' bass from Richard James Album nor the Firestarter piss-take which the Come To Daddy track was, Aphex's entire body of work as a whole is still impressive. And 26 Mixes For Cash is the best remix album I have heard so far (although several of the remixes are so different from the originals that they are really new tracks). Pedro

I was responding to your comment that "Rephlex defined the 'genre' ". There might some semantic confusion here. One thing is to say that Rephlex made music that people would define as IDM. Which I have no issue with (although I hate the IDM term which I find lazy, inaccurate and pretentious). But I am reading your comment as saying that Rephlex was the label that defined the genre - which I disagree. Pedro

Both terms are off-target and really not needed. IDM is more of an American expression anyway. Pedro