Basilisk

Once again you are assuming that these ratings represent objective values, that a releases IS a 3/5 or a 1/5 for example. But there isn't one correct answer when it comes to making a value judgement about music. We aren't solving equations here! Ratings are for fun; they are something to talk about, they are a rough guideline to how influential, inspiring, or interesting a release is, or perhaps something else entirely given how the system works. That's your logic, not mine. I've already stated that I feel that voting for your own stuff is not at all like trashing the work of your "competitors." On one hand we have enthusiasm... and on the other, vindictiveness. But I can see why a jaded old sod like yourself might confuse the two.

Sure, but it isn't at the expense of anyone else--that's the critical difference. Look at what ratings are for: they give you an idea of how well people like a release and how much support it has. Anyone involved in the production of a release is probably going to be quite enthusiastic about it... why put a damper on that? You think there is some hope that publicly-accessible ratings systems on the web can be an accurate scientific measure of something? That would be absurd.

Rating is not a science. For me, the only etiquette that really applies is this: rate your own stuff up if you want, but don't go and rate everything else down just to make your stuff look better. Luckily there has only been one guy that has crossed this line (on my site at least). Anyhow, let's not lose sight of the fact that these ratings don't really mean all that much. More ratings equals more enthusiasm for a release, either positive or negative. A higher rating may mean that a release is widely loved or merely fits a niche interest. Low ratings, who the hell knows? Maybe the release is crap, or the artist has offended some people, or something else is at work. The point is: you don't know. These five star ratings are just a rough guide. I mean, is a release rated 4.67/5 objectively better than one rated 4.13/5? Who can say? All these numbers tell you is that there are some people that liked the release and maybe there is something about it worth checking out.

I noticed you mastered Plasmotek's album and I wondered: where'd he disappear to? But it looks like you are back in action! Excellent.

Awesome news! :posford:

I wrote an entry about Cytopia that includes a number of recommendations... find it here: http://www.ektoplazm.com/journal/10-essent...s-from-cytopia/

I say let Suntrip chart whatever course they want to take. They've got plenty of fans, myself included, so they're obviously doing a lot of things right. If Goa trance were dead or if the material that Suntrip is releasing had absolutely nothing new to offer then this wouldn't be the case...

There are sometimes Suntrip topics on Isratrance... some praise, some appreciation, some weird nonsense about loving old school but disliking Suntrip since the sound is TOO old school or something... the usual mix of opinion but a lot of support too. I've noticed you and Mars haven't used Psynews to hype Suntrip at all... must be tempting, but you've let people here do it for you. A good move

:wank: MASSIVE irony alert.

This week I am proud to present one of our own... EKOPLEX - JOURNEY OF THE TURTLE 01 :: Into The Unknown (7:13) 02 :: Fizzgig (6:57) 03 :: Graxon (7:06) 04 :: We've Been Watching You (6:51) 05 :: Druid Walker (7:10) 06 :: Modoc (6:52) 07 :: Quantillion X (6:58) 08 :: Journey Of The Turtle (6:43) 09 :: Mount At-Ak (7:04) 10 :: Beautiful Rainbow (6:48) Journey Of The Turtle is the full-length debut from Ekoplex (Ray Vincent), one of Canada’s most well-respected psytrance producers. Infused with an original style and unmistakable energy, this album flows through dark and driving techtrance, quirky melodic full-on, and richly atmospheric progressive to arrive at an inspiring downtempo finale. Versatile and unconventional, Journey Of The Turtle is designed to flourish in a wide variety of settings, from the festival dance floor to your home stereo. To ensure the best possible sound quality, this album has been mastered by Tim Schuldt at 4CN Studios, Germany. Journey Of The Turtle is released under a Creative Commons licence for noncommercial usage. This is the third official release on the Ektoplazm new media label. Both the MP3 and lossless packages are available for free download—and for those who still make use of physical media there is a CD version for sale as well! If you like this, be sure to check out Ekoplex’s Enter The Dragon EP, also available from Ektoplazm. Download it for free in MP3/WAV or purchase the CD direct from Ektoplazm: http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/ekople...-of-the-turtle/

It isn't entirely consistent but this CD has a number of the finest darkpsy productions of 2005 all in one place... the first and last songs are particularly exceptional.

This guy has been selling overstock from Nova-Tekk and other distributors for some years now... perhaps there is some business reason for this. Otherwise, I don't know... you have to remember that Discogs ratings don't mean much of anything; I've had people rate some releases I've been involved in at 1/5 simply because they had a personal problem with me. That's how it goes.

This sure looks interesting... viva Mesmobeat!

I'd also love to see some reviews of Ekoplex's debut album http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/ekople...-of-the-turtle/

RE2 stores information in an XML document... that has to be good for something!

EKOPLEX - JOURNEY OF THE TURTLE 01 :: Into The Unknown (7:13) 02 :: Fizzgig (6:57) 03 :: Graxon (7:06) 04 :: We've Been Watching You (6:51) 05 :: Druid Walker (7:10) 06 :: Modoc (6:52) 07 :: Quantillion X (6:58) 08 :: Journey Of The Turtle (6:43) 09 :: Mount At-Ak (7:04) 10 :: Beautiful Rainbow (6:48) Journey Of The Turtle is the full-length debut from Ekoplex (Ray Vincent), one of Canada’s most well-respected psytrance producers. Infused with an original style and unmistakable energy, this album flows through dark and driving techtrance, quirky melodic full-on, and richly atmospheric progressive to arrive at an inspiring downtempo finale. Versatile and unconventional, Journey Of The Turtle is designed to flourish in a wide variety of settings, from the festival dance floor to your home stereo. To ensure the best possible sound quality, this album has been mastered by Tim Schuldt at 4CN Studios, Germany. Journey Of The Turtle is released under a Creative Commons licence for noncommercial usage. This is the third official release on the Ektoplazm new media label. Both the MP3 and lossless packages are available for free download—and for those who still make use of physical media there is a CD version for sale as well! If you like this, be sure to check out Ekoplex’s Enter The Dragon EP, also available from Ektoplazm. Download it for free in MP3/WAV or purchase the CD direct from Ektoplazm: http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/ekople...-of-the-turtle/

This is unfortunate news... a lot of people enjoy your music!

It has been a long time coming... but I finally had the chance to see Simon perform as Shpongle (DJ set) and Hallucinogen (live, or something like it). I am told his live sets seldom vary--due, no doubt, to the lack of new material... but both sets blew me away just the same. An hour and a half of Shpongle, Younger Brother, and various other side projects (plus a few remixes--probably the ones now available on the Twisted download site) were awesome to hear at sundown. As Hallucinogen he played a ton of material from The Lone Deranger, some of which was remade, tuned up, or somehow altered. I heard Jiggle Of The Sphinx, Deranger, and Gamma Goblins--this last one many times, as the eminently recognizable melody served as the leitmotif for his set. Toward dawn he threw down a few golden oldies like Shamanix. New material included Long Long Arms and Big Tits. The rest--well, it is a bit of a blur... I haven't danced that hard in a long while! Anyhow, it was great. Quite a change from the usual live set from one of the all-time greats, all of whom focus so heavily on their latest and greatest that you have to wonder if they've forgotten that people like hearing tracks they recognize and even love. He is just a man... but what a musical mind this man has--and I was very glad to hear him lay down hours of his own productions out at Eclipse 2008.

I keep track of my collection in a database using Rapid Evolution 2: http://www.mixshare.com/ It is very useful to have key and BPM information for all tracks. Using the 5-star rating system is also very helpful; I work it like this: 5: all-time classic, 4: excellent, 3: in the pool, 2: common track, 1: ignore. Then when it comes time to play a set I can use the database to pick out all full-on tracks between 140 and 144 BPM with a rating of 4 or 5, for example. This would give me hundreds of songs to choose from (I have a large collection) but it makes it much easier to sort from there. A note about key: you can't rely on a program to get it right all the time (although RE2 is often very good). What I do is scan through my rated collection and start verifying the 5-star and 4-star tracks with the built-in piano. In this way I have been increasing the accuracy of the key information in the database. Another sorting task I perform is recompiling. When I've gone through and rated a whole bunch of CDs I turn to the ones that have one or two highly-rated tracks in amongst a lot of commons--then I rip those out, meld them with tracks of a similar style, burn a new CD, and input that back into the database. This has the effect of refining what ends up in my CD binder. Of course, such a step would be unnecessary for those who are playing from a laptop or external hard drive...

Yeah but they weren't "self-made" or homemade or anything but professional-grade... and while I respect your right to be persnickety, the image you have of some guy in his basement with a desktop computer and a CD burner is just false.

In my experience it is often the long sets from world-class DJs that provide some of the best music at festivals... I am thinking of guys like James Monro, D-Nox, Peter Didgital, Emok, and so on. Edit: oh, I see here on page two that our taste coincides

Crappy MP3s or the real deal?

Would anyone like to review Entheos Audio Archive 2.0? Download it here: http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/entheo...dio-archive-20/

I only really use the Savage Scream and Ghreg On Earth tracks in my sets but the compilation is pretty good if you like darkpsy.

Hopefully they will decide to go lossless soon... how about we all contact them about it to provide a bit of feedback?