Basilisk

V/A - Ryonic Spaces [PsyTropic 2007] Written By: DJ Basilisk / http://www.ektoplazm.com Track Listing: 01 :: PsyNina - Silence (1:52) 02 :: PsyNina - Level Of Creation (8:42) 03 :: Rumble Pack - Dream Vision (7:34) 04 :: Cycle Sphere - Enzyme (7:25) 05 :: Miraculix vs Trinodia - Half Past Dead (8:13) 06 :: Slug - I Believe (6:24) 07 :: Luckyy Seven - Crypton #7 (8:07) 08 :: Perplex vs Michele Adamson - Meltdown (Indra Remix) (7:54) 09 :: Miditec - Galaxy Wave (7:49) 10 :: Galactica vs PsyNina - Cocaine Serotonine (7:48) 11 :: Tron - Hostage (6:45) Full review copied from: http://www.ektoplazm.com/reviews/ryonic-spaces/ Ryonic Spaces is the latest compilation from PsyTropic Records, a German label that has weathered a storm of criticism in recent months. Compiled by DJ Chemicus, it features a long personal message on the inside cover expressing positivity in the face of adversity. It would be easy to write pages about the scandal PsyTropic has been involved in—the question of whether the label’s leading lady really exists—but that is not the subject of this review. To be fair, I will be assessing the music, leaving the tabloid-style speculation to the international psytrance message board regulars. The template for Ryonic Spaces remains similar to other releases from the label: a hodgepodge blend of in-house productions, European and Israeli full-on, and a couple of artists from further afield. The sound is generally very melodic, rich in samples, and aimed at DJs playing the morning hours. With mastering by Triptych and some reasonable artwork, the presentation is decent by psytrance industry standards. Ryonic Spaces opens with a two minute spoken word introduction by none other than PsyNina herself. The subject is silence, and the content is, shall we say, very fluffy. Take this, for example: “a mind cannot know what life is like when life is not lived according to the mind. The only thing that mind can know is life lived according to mind.” Yes, there is two minutes of this—and the words can be found in the liner notes, for those that want to play along. Make of this what you will. PsyNina formally kicks off the compilation with Level Of Creation, a rumbling track that defies many of the conventions of modern full-on. Bubbling leads and snarling effects whip across the sound field as a steady bass line pulses underneath. The occasional hint of light melody provides an intriguing counterpoint to the otherwise gritty production style of this piece. The somewhat amateur arrangement and questionable sound quality hold this one back, but at least it isn’t completely formulaic. Fresh from the release of Rumble Pack’s debut album Packed And Ready, Philip Guillaume drops in to provide Dream Vision, a highly polished full-on stomper rich in distinct melodies and smoothly layered atmospheric sounds. After building in strength for five minutes, the breakdown ushers in a strong mid-range synth line that carries the remainder of the track. This is nothing you haven’t heard before, but Rumble Pack have accomplished it with a confident ease. Nice one. Cycle Sphere comes from a family of full-on artists that includes Bliss, Zmachine, and Eskimo. Enzyme is an exercise in extreme exuberance, joyously romping through a bewildering assortment of glittering melodies, hyperactive bass lines, and explosive “rocket launch” crescendos. Particularly notable is the uncompromisingly rapid way in which it develops; nothing seems to stand still for more than a measure or two. If you can get past all the frantic stop/start activity, and the lamentable use of samples about date rape drugs, then this cheeky slice of popular full-on isn’t bad. Miraculix and Trinodia are two Swedish producers well-matched for the proceedings of Half Past Dead, a rollicking peak-time full-on anthem loaded with amusing samples from a movie named Thirteen Ghosts. Sure, I might not be the biggest fan of mining Hollywood for intellectual content, but I can’t help but be amused with ironic declarations like “you stole people’s souls for money, how depraved is that?” As for the track itself—bubbling bass lines and somewhat sinister melodies make it a fun ride. Slug’s I Believe is an electric example of South African psytrance, Nexus Media style. Scorching synthetic beats and snarling acid lines combine with rolling bass lines to deliver an energetic dance floor work-out. Not being too much of a fan of Slug, I couldn’t rate this highly—but at least this tough track provides a bit of backbone to this compilation. Luckyy Seven (Tanya Kret from Germany) is a fresh face on the PsyTropic roster that is sure to have some of the aforementioned message board regulars firing theories this way and that. Crypton #7 is a rather standard affair: pumping bass lines, scratchy sounds, and a motley collection of forgettable samples. Unsurprisingly, the style is very similar to that of PsyNina. Meltdown is a rather standard slice of commercial Israeli trance featuring Indra remixing Perplex and a bunch of cringe-worthy vocals from Michele Adamson. As if that weren’t enough to dissuade anyone, how about yet another appearance of the hackneyed “we are experiencing technical difficulties” sample? No thanks. Miditec (Miki Bibas, formerly a member of Beat Hackers) provides another offering of melodic Israeli full-on with Galaxy Wave. There is nothing remarkable about this track—with a straight-forward lead and an ill-fitting Hollywood movie sample, this bland production is par for the course. Cocaine Serotonine is a joint production between Galactika and PsyNina. After opening with a long excerpt from Pearl Jam’s Better Man, the steady barrage of movie samples soon floods this otherwise unremarkable full-on song with frivolous babble. Poorly conceived, and you have to wonder about the lawyers finding out. Tron is a Mexican producer that became known after the well-received release of his debut album Existence on Liquid Records in 2006. Hostage begins with a fitting sample: “words are cheap; words come and go.” This piece has a different flavour from the rest; the rhythms and melodies are more elastic, and the sonic depth of field has a broader reach. It is not a bad effort; morning-time DJs could put this to good use. PsyTropic Records has come a long way, but Ryonic Spaces does not offer much of interest to the discerning full-on fan. DJs with a particular interest in the fluffy sample-laden side of Israeli-style full-on may find some material to enjoy, but for those of us less enraptured by the style, this CD comes up short. Rumble Pack, Cycle Sphere, Miraculix vs Trinodia, and Tron provide the better moments, but the rest are marred by bad sample usage or a lack of genuine inspiration. As a result, I find this release to be slightly less than average in terms of quality—but as I mentioned, this is a big improvement on previous releases I have heard from this label. Check out Ryonic Spaces if you’re a DJ seeking another CD to add to your morning-time sets; it probably holds little appeal for anyone else. Full review copied from: http://www.ektoplazm.com/reviews/ryonic-spaces/

Technically you might need more resources to play a WAV but it doesn't really matter. I briefly looked into hard drive bandwidth to see how practical playing WAVs is and really, at any given second, you're not really transferring that much information. With MP3s you need to decompress on the fly, so who knows? Maybe playing MP3s eats up more CPU. Either way, it doesn't matter much. When I move on to laptop DJing or other software controller setups I'll be playing WAVs. In fact, over the last four months a rather major undertaking of mine has involved the purchase of over 1TB in additional hard drive space and the ripping of absolutely every CD in my collection... and it's pretty much done! I still think its a tad crazy to open up a directory and have like 600+ CDs sitting there in WAV-quality. Massive! The next step is to archive the backups and smash the individual CDs to bits. Basically I need to organize 12,000+ songs into different categories based on style and how well I like them. Now that's a task. When I'm done, maybe I'll pick up some kind of controller and finally start fussing around. I have my eye on the Xponent but don't like that it has all these custom features designed for Torq (I don't approve of hardware dependent on a particular type of software). I tried the Vestax VRC-100 or whatever it is in the store and it felt like too much of a toy for me to go with it. I figure that since DJ midi controllers are essentially still first generation, waiting out the next development cycle will really pay off in terms of features and usability.

Persistence 2.0 is about to pass the 1,500 download mark :posford:

The trick with Horrorgram is to set the cue point at the beginning of the 4/4 sequence. It can be tricky to pick it out from the rest, but it's certainly possible.

Motion Drive - Deception EP [iboga 2007] Review by: DJ Basilisk / ektoplazm.com 01 :: Motion Drive - Deception (8:23) 02 :: Motion Drive & Jetlag - Balanced Cargo (7:10) 03 :: Motion Drive - Borderline (7:09) Motion Drive is the new project of Swiss producer Philip Guillaume, already known from his work with Andreas Märki as Rumble Pack, Natural Flow, and Blue Vortex. Guillaume’s previous efforts explored clean driving rhythms and subtle melodic themes, drawing influence from the morning-friendly style of progressive psytrance artists like FREq, Andromeda, and Zen Mechanics. Motion Drive’s first solo release is the Deception EP, a three track digital single released with Iboga Digital. The Deception EP is available from Beatport, where it recently achieved the #1 sales position, as well as Iboga’s own web shop Progressive Tunes. Deception immediately establishes the tone for the release with an elegant combination of fat tribal grooves and smooth swirling melodies. The arrangement flows like quicksilver, effortlessly gliding through glimmering moments of reflective equipose and unforced emotion. In addition to appearing here, Deception is soon to be released with DJ Emok’s new 2CD compilation on the Japanese label Wakyo Records, Crossing Borders. Balanced Cargo, composed alongside a producer named Jetlag, charts a course deep into mystic morning trance territory. Highly polished rhythms sprinkled with light tribal drums provide a solid foundation for the captivating interplay of melodic themes and luscious atmospheres. This is another solid piece of work. Borderliner cruises along with greater restraint than the previous two, casting little more than residual hints of melody into the space above the steady flow of blissful beats. This calming production is composed as if it were seeking to suggest there is beauty in simplicity. The mood is captured in the warm reassurance of the vocal sample: “Yes I will.” The Deception EP is a substantial digital release from Iboga Records, one of the leading labels in the field of progressive psytrance. Although these tracks may sound quite similar at first, repeat listening will expose the subtle differences that set them apart. Anyone who has heard and enjoyed the work of Natural Flow will enjoy this as well; this first offering from Motion Drive represents a step forward in terms of quality and style. DJs and listeners interested in the smooth side of deep and melodic progressive psytrance are likely to enjoy this satisfying release. Full review: http://www.ektoplazm.com/reviews/motion-drive-deception-ep/

As a Swedish trance fan, this older compilation really appeals to me. They've dredged some gems from USTA's otherwise dreary back catalogue.

Some of it is art. Most of it is just dance music. And I am not much of a drug user. I listen to psychedelic trance because it fires up my imagination naturally. I review and critique psychedelic trance because it develops my way of understanding and interacting with music. I publish my opinions because some people appreciate reading what I have to say. Listening to music is a subjective experience, so I don't think its something you can be "right" about... but there is value in having a guide to this vast labyrinthine world of sound, and it sure helps if you have a finely honed ability to express yourself... in some small way, writing a good review could be seen as an act of second creation.

Working on it, as a matter of fact... but it will be, first and foremost, a free-to-download netlabel release in MP3 and WAV. Making a CD available through on-demand printing is a sort of side project I am exploring, and in this case, will only happen with the consent of the artists involved.

Same. I find their work quite enjoyable these days (one has to leave aside preconceptions of Etnica's sound from the nineties). The remixes look good, and I am intrigued about Etnica trying electro!

So it seems as if there are two main points of discussion developing from this poll: 1) CD-R quality. Is this a matter of the disc longevity or the surrounding packaging? In both regards, the automated factory I'm investigating is said to be equivalent to a traditional CD manufacturing process. Essentially, the on-demand feature that would permit this to happen is reliant on the ability to duplicate as opposed to using a glass master (which incurs a significant one-time cost). Printing several hundred copies of a freely distributed release and then hoping to sell them all to cover costs is in no way economically feasible. After all, even labels dealing exclusively with physical products have a difficult time making ends meet these days! Luckily, with no setup costs, this idea can be tried and tested either way. 2) Making money. Never have I thought this might be a good way to make some coin; in fact, money hasn't even been in the picture except to figure what to do with the small profits that could be made from individual on-demand CD sales. The purpose of the initiative (as I see it) is to provide fans and listeners who enjoy a freely distributed netlabel/independent release with a means of purchasing a physical product. After all, some people keep saying "where can I buy this on CD?" This sort of comment is exactly what caused me to investigate what could be done! Anything else is merely a bonus at this stage. A few other thoughts, while I'm on the subject: It is possible on-demand CD sales could provide a bit of support to the artist(s) and/or label involved in producing, packaging, promoting, and distributing the free release in the first place, but before this idea is tried, no one can forecast what the numbers will look like. The purpose as I see it is to provide the option to purchase a physical copy. This goes not only for listeners and fans, but also the artist(s) and/or labels involved. The ability to print professional-looking physical copies of a freely distributed release at cost is sure to have its advantages. One could easily sell or give away copies of a release at events, for instance. Many free releases are made with a promotional intent, and of course, the value of an impressive looking product sent by mail far exceeds what a bland CD-R in an envelope can do for an artist! Anyhow, it looks like I may get a chance to try this out. I've been asking the artists involved in the first Ektoplazm netlabel release if they are interested in the idea, and so far the response has been quite positive. If everyone agrees then I'll fit it into the release plan! Otherwise, I'll wait for another chance to give it a go. To me, this seems like such a fine way to address one glaring limitation of digital releases: the inability to hold something in your hands. But, as always, this is all part of a work-in-progress, and I greatly appreciate feedback from the psytrance community-at-large! Thanks

I have no idea what this might be like, but I'll find out soon enough when it arrives I'm looking forward to hearing what the old Helix protagonists are up to these days!

Here are a few from my "research log" (raw quotations I've compiled for future articles): Music is an ocean and you can not swim in all the world's seas at the same time... - Gabriel of BPC (PKS interview) "We're interested in information, we're not interested in music as such. And we believe that the whole battlefield, if there is one in the human situation, is about information." - Genesis P'Orridge (1982) "Counterculture blooms wherever and whenever a few members of a society choose lifestyles, artistic expressions, and ways of thinking and being that wholeheartedly embrace the ancient axiom that the only true constant is change itself. The mark of counterculture is not a particular social form or structure, but rather the evanescence of forms and structures, the dazzling rapidity and flexibility with which they appear, mutate, and morph into one another and disappear. Counterculture is the moving crest of a wave, a zone of uncertainty where culture goes quantum. To borrow the language of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Ilya Prigogine, counterculture is the cultural equivalent of the "third thermodynamic state," the "nonlinear region" where equilibrium and symmetry have given way to a complexity so intense as to appear to the eye as chaos." - Timothy Leary (from the introduction to Counterculture Through The Ages, Ken Goffman & Dan Joy) "On a personal level, Freaking Out is a process whereby an individual casts off outmoded and restricting standards of thinking, dress, and social etiquette in order to express creatively his relationship to his immediate environment and the social structure as a whole." - Frank Zappa's liner notes for Freak Out "These people were surfing the psychedelic bardo, that liminal zone that variously evokes dreamtime and death, primal rites and apocalypse. My own limbs had first plumbed that zone during Grateful Dead shows in California in the early 1980s, especially during the legendary second sets. But in contrast to the Dead's notoriously loose if often resplendent noodling, Goan trance seemed more economically engineered for psychedelic journeying. Let's be clear: most of the psychedelic characteristics of psy-trance are functional rather than simply representational. That is, they trigger and extend psychedelic perception as much as they signify it with characteristically "trippy" cues. Just as the combination of Flouro-lite dyes and black lights seems to virtualize visible objects to a suitably tweaked visual systems, the music's sonic afterimages and timbre trails disintegrate conventional spacetime and allow shimmering micro-perceptions to emerge on the melting border between soundwaves and internal sensations. Portals appear, resonating geometries that seed further cognitive and somatic shifts, while the relentless and essentially invariant rhythm--what the Australian-Goan DJ Ray Castle calls "quantum quick step"--at once anchors and fuels the voyage. Repetition becomes a carrier wave, the audible beats seemingly dissolving into pusling nervous systems whose mutual entrainment brings on a collective intensity which transcends--yes, transcends--the usual dance floor heat." - Hedonistic Tantra, Erik Davis http://www.techgnosis.com/hedonic.html "I can't say I have one particular favorite recording artist. To make a top 10, is too limiting. Its constantly changing. For sure there are always pieces being made that are stunning and very contemporary and speak of the spirit of the time. But it is hard for any one artist or group to stay vitally hot on the vibe, consistently. Artists tend to peak. Mostly, if they have some commercial success, they tend to cling on to the formulas that gave them visibility. Fashion is an undulating tide, and the more enduring creative innovators can interpret the constant shifts, reinventing themselves, as they rock with the waves. The job of a DJ is to take individual tunes out of the collective whirlpool, data flow, and create an information chain-reaction-statement out of it. And when the artists hear their music reinterpreted in a mix, their tunes take on a life of their own. One tune can have magnificent bearing and influence upon the direction of a collective movement. Then other tunes come which mirror that one back, which creates the evolution. Its more than any one artist. Its greater than one. All we really can be is a clear vehicle, or channel, to allow something much greater and universal to flow thru, without attaching too much personality or ego identification to it. Then it comes down to the fundamental role--pop, fashion, art, culture or spirituality--serves for society's psychic health." - Ray Castle, from AN EVOLVING ECOLOGY OF INTUITIVE CIRCUITS (August 1997) "It's hardly disputed that, even in a tangible, cultural sense, the introduction of psychedelics into our society in the 1960s altered the sensibilities of users and nonusers alike. The trickle-down effect through the arts, media, and even big business created what can be called a postpsychedelic climate, in which everything from women's rights, civil rights, and peace activism to spirituality and the computer revolution found suitable conditions for growth. As these psychoactive plants and chemicals once again see the light of day, an even more self-consciously creative community is finding out about designer reality." - Douglas Rushkoff, Cyberia "The persistence of psychedelia as both a tool and a motif in rock culture is hard to ignore when you look around at the mass Techno gatherings of the Nineties. When British writer Jon Savage went to a rave at London's Brixton Academy in the summer of 1993, he noted that "the whole scene reminds me of the place I wanted to be when I was 18: San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom... the sound is Techno, but psychedelic references abound in the light shows, the fashions, the T-shirts reading 'Feed Your Head,' the polydrug use..." The entranced and Ecstatic dancers who lose themselves in the pulsing synthetic rhythms of Orbital and the Chemical Brothers are chasing exactly the same state of bliss or kairos that drew the first Deadheads in the San Francisco ballrooms of the mid-Sixties. Mind expansion is clearly not something that's going to go away. Was it all just about drugs, then? Or is that the wrong question? Surely the drugs and the music were symbiotically twinned, part and parcel of the same trip, a dual means of breaking down the barriers which had blocked the psyche of American youth for so long. What happened in San Francisco was a grand experiment in quasi-communal living, an attempt to break away from mainstream America--from conformity to capitalist consumerism, from the rigidity of sexual roles, from the violence of the Vietnam War--and create a new tribe of "beautiful dropouts." Hallucinogenics simply served as the gateway to a new paradise in which the world could be apprehended mystically as a cosmic web rather than as an atomistic rat race." - Barney Hoskyns, Beneath the Diamond Sky (a history of Haight-Ashbury, 1997) "...the fizzing electronic sounds all too accurately reproduce the snap of synapses forced to process a relentless, swelling flood of electronic information. If there is one central idea in techno, it is of the harmony between man and machine. As Juan Atkins puts it: 'You gotta look at it like, techno is technological. It's an attitude to making music that sounds futuristic: something that hasn't been done before.'" - http://music.hyperreal.org/library/machine_soul.html "Melt in the music of the drums! For I am you and you are I." -- Third Solidarity Hymn from Aldous Huxley's Brave New World (This is just a sampling.)

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Great news! I also missed it the first time around...

These are netlabel releases... mods might wish to move this to the Music Promotion forum

More Antiscarp madness is out! Anyone have some new favourites?

Incidentally, this sounds like an awesome release.

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There is nothing quite like compiling your own custom CD from digital downloads this one is all full-on, but each track really stands out in some way... Tranan - Into Paradise Tranan - Mental Expedition Midival Punditz - Dark Age (Audialize Remix) Talamasca - Groovy Pygmees (Tikal Remix) Overlap - Electricity Alien Project vs Space Cat Cosma - Moon Is A God (Basic Remix) Tranan - Preacher Boy (Silicon Sound Remix) Triptych - Electrology (John 00 Fleming Remix)

I picked up a bunch of Y2K-era techtrance from Beatport (most of which I already had on vinyl)... crackling stuff! Tortured Brain - Signed For Life Synthetic - The Mummy Organic Noise - Factor-X Authentik - Vampires X-Dream - Coming Soon

Check out the Fat Data track on Get Wet Go... great tune!

Have a look into Noah Pred's Ecocosm. I was at the launch party and it sounded quite similar to what you're looking for... There's a bit more on it here: http://www.eyeweekly.com/eye/issue/issue_0...xtendedplay.php

Let's hone in on the CD-R issue... the main reason CD manufacturers have 500 or 1,000 unit minimums is the fact that traditional CD manufacturing processes require the production of a master disc, as outlined here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CD_manufacturing This imposes an unavoidable minimum cost on the procedure that is the source of the problems I'm looking to tackle. One of the digital manufacturers I've been looking into has the following claim: I am still researching the veracity of this statement, but it seems sensible to me (technology does move ahead). We're not talking a home-burnt CD-R here; this is a major manufacturing plant with professional-grade equipment using duplication as opposed to replication to eliminate the minimums. I think there may be two challenges to address here: the perception of CD-R media, and the actual physical quality of modern CD-R manufacturing processes. If the quality is good, then it's just a matter of how it looks, right? CD-R carries the stigma of poor presentation (no case, no cover, just some marker on a consumer-grade disc). I've not been looking into that kind of thing... only professional-quality duplication. Along the way I've wondered if there are any labels already using such techniques... for instance, if no one told you, could you tell the difference between a CD manufactured using traditional glass master replication and one made using modern CD duplication processes?

One comment that comes up quite regularly as I post and promote free music is "I'd buy that if it were released it on CD!" You can see similar sentiments expressed here on Psynews any time people are posting free music for download (or even selling digitally). As I see it, the potential of online distribution (whether free or paid) is immense, but there are always going to be fans and listeners out there who cherish the physical product. It seems the question to ask is: why not find a way to do both? My vision is one where industry forces no longer inhibit the creative drive of the musicians creating the music we love. As sales have declined and options (more artists, more labels, more niche styles) have increased, commercial activity is increasingly compartmentalized. By that I mean most of the music that is released must fit one or another niche to have a hope of being licensed by a label for physical manufacturing and eventual distribution. I think we can break this pattern by changing the rules... and I think it is an important step forward to develop the technology to simultaneously release free/independent/underground music physically as well as online. I've researched a way to make it happen. I have even shopped the idea around to a few of the netlabels and other free music providers I work with through my site. The reaction has been mixed (some are for it, some don't see the point). What I'd like to know is what the Psynews community thinks of it... say you could download an album for free, but also show your support for the artist(s) and label by ordering a reasonably priced CD version. If you enjoyed the music, would you go for it? P.S. - I am starting this poll to develop a little traction with the artists/labels I've been speaking to... so, show your support one way or another, and of course I'd love to hear what you think of the basic idea this is very much a project in the early stages of development!

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