Lemmiwinks

aaaahhhh... nothing works better when I'm stuck in front of my computer than morning trance!! And this one is my best pick together with Feuerhake!! Who said germans only make harsh music? The only regret I have is that some samples are just too loud!! I mean you're just sitting, enjoying the music and suddenly you hear some monkey scream like crazy!! Maybe it's supposed to freak you out while dancing on a beach in the morning while tripping, but for home-listeining it's just annoying... So 8/10 from me... would've been more if it weren't for the production...

hmm... hate to say this, but whereas Transwave clearly stood out of the crowd, this doesn't!! Recovery has some pretty insane stuff going on, I like it a lot and Ultimatum 138 is pretty good too... but the rest simply don't do it for me... 4/10 because someone who was into Transwave owes it to his roots to make great original music not mediocre 3D rip-offs!!!!

nicey nice album from Boris Blenn... Unlike most (oldschool) goa, instead of having a lot of leads, Boris likes putting just one or 2 leads and repeating them over and over and over again... which was what early pre-goa trance was all about!! Bad part is that he STILL does this 7 years later!! (listen to EU - Unify and see for yourself...), but strangely enough, I never heard anyone complain about him never changing his style whereas groups like AP and Asia 2001 are constantly criticized for it. Ah well, I like it anyway!! One track I'd recomend all goa-historians who want to see how it all began is 111 Beltrees... it shows the transition from newbeat industrial to goatrance wonderfully!! Listen to it and you'll see what I mean!! ALL tracks here are good IMO, only Electrogarden has some bell-chimes repeated all along the track which really get on my nerves. Great last track, I'm a BIG BIG fan of intricate more than 20-minute tracks and this one delivers quite nicely (and is more or less the ONLY track that has many leads... which is good since listening to the same lead for 20 minutes would bore me out of my skull!!). My personal favourite is Longbaceglider On Solstice !!! Great slow and trancey track that just goes on and on and on!! You don't even notice when the 10 minutes are gone!! 9/10 for this history masterpiece!!

Woah!!! They did stuff like this back in 1995??? I got this album a month ago and I'm stunned!!! It seems very very hard to find a track that is melodic AND dark at the same time, usually it's either dark and minimal or full-on and uplifting. But these guys manage to do this and do it quite well!! Ok, some 303s sound pretty old today (especially in A Flyby) but all the tracks, even the techno-oriented ones have this cool slow progression producing sound "landscapes", you can just close you eyes and "see" the music. VERY VERY few artists manage to do this (especially these days...), and even less manage to produce "drak" landscapes... So for that I give this a 9/10!!!

I'll just say this to all those oldschoolers out there which are not happy with most recent (minimal...) releases: your prayers have been answered!!! Of course, since it's EU, you can expect, as usual, 1 or 2 KILLER tracks (track 7 and 8 -- yeah Anoebis, I remember that track from when they where in Belgium too!! all the memories...) and the rest "average"... Although by "average" I mean compared to 96-97 standards, cause compared to 02 standards, they're ALL great!! This is(I'm writing this in may) the best 02 release so far IMO!! 10/10!!!

Hmm... interesting stuff here... whereas I guess most goaheads will call this "minimal psy" I'd rather call it "full-on techno"!! Here's why: minimal usually means there are not much sounds going on at the same time, but here there are TONS of sounds being throwed out to your ears every second!! And second, by "psy" usually one means a certain progression in the music (climaxes, different leads as the track unfolds...), whereas techno designates a more "loopish" monotonic unfolding. I've been following quite a few electronic music scenes during the years and I can tell you these guys were acid techno pioneers whay back when they were called Spect-r (check out the EP review section on this site). And this music is EXACTLY how new "acid"-techno (don't know why they still call it acid since there aren't any 303s anymore...) sounds like these days!! So for me, these guys always were and still are into acid techno... The moral of the story? Well, I'm not very keen of minimal psy, it sounds too "whimpy" for me, but this is great!! The harsh sounds and powerfull kick just seem to explode into your face!! Problem with techno is that it's not really designed to be listened to on an album, it's supposed to be mixed so you don't get too bored of the same loop over and over again... So these tracks would've been more effective if they were released on EP vinyls rather than as a big album on CDs. Anyway, as long as the music's good... Favorite tracks here: monocain, monokiller, ganga and elektro mechanic!! 8/10 for me

he he... finally some oldschool acid techno on this site!!! I've been repeating this for about 2 years now: oldschool acid techno and oldschool goa are basically the same thing!!! And yes, This is Acid is a must-have for all the 303 enthuisasts out there!!

Hmm... I don't know if it's Wizzy's style that's become better or me getting used to their style, but whereas I found Cybermancy pretty mediocre, I find Cyclotron one of the best '02 releases!! You have the typical "funky" basslines we're all getting since X-Dream's Radio, but for some reason, I actually like it here!! Especially track 1. There's also a change in style in the last 3 trcks, a LOT less typical to what we're used to our days, especially from Wizzy!! Track 8 is my best pick, there are some discrete acid lines, but the whole song is VERY well made, IMO. Track 9 has more acid, and the last part is a real stormer!! And then track 10 comes in with even more acid and finishes this album pretty nicely 8-D The other tracks are quite good, but don't stand up from the crowd IMO, so I guess I'll give this a 8/10

Yep, this must be one of the most underrated goa artists out there... I mean, if you don't buy goa CDs or vinyls and listen to them for a living, there's a pretty good chance you never (or very rarely) heard of a certain "Doof"... So I guess most people just walk away from this album thinking it's not worth the cash... How wrong they are cause this is one of THE goa albums EVERYONE must have!! I'll just tell you that my top 3 tracks ever are Double Dragons by Doof, Kaballah by AP and Maya by Pleiadians... Need I say more? 10/10!!!

Banco de Gaia - Maya Artist: Banco de Gaia Title: Maya Label: Planet Dog Date: 1994 Track listing: 01. 7'24" Heliopolis 02. 8'02" Mafich Arabi 03. 6'59" Sunspot 04. 6'37" Gamelah (DUB 3) 05. 9'16" Qurna (Mister Christian On The Decks) 06. 7'45" Sheesha 07. 7'31" Lai Lah 08. 11'13" Shanti (Red With White Spots Edit) Review: I can't believe how come no one reviewed any Banco de Gaia here yet!! These guys were amogst the inventors of morning trance and (post 90s) ambient psy!! This is one of those albums which flow nicely and calmely from beginning to end, nice and a bit psycedellic and nice female voices with effects and, of course, oriental and tribal influences. It's mostly chill-out, only 2 tracks (Heliopolis and Gamelah) have a higher BPM and could be described as morning trance. IMO, this isn't really the type of album that could be described track by track. It's just nice to listen to the whole album and feel the trip... This is quality stuff and most tracks are still good by today's standards!!! My favorites are Gamelah, Qurna and Shanti, although some parts of Shanti remind me of Enigma (NOT cool!!) So I give this an 8/10 since it's one of those pioneer albums that everybody got inspired from afterwards.

Banco de Gaia - Igizeh Artist: Banco de Gaia Title: Igizeh Label: Hyper Date: 2000 Track listing: 01. 8'42" Seti 1 02. 7'06" Obsidian 03. 5'49" Creme Egg 04. 4'12" Glove Puppet (Vocal Version) 05. 9'22" Gizeh 06. 6'56" How Much Reality Can You Take 07. 6'11" B2 08. 11'47" Fake It Till You Make It 09. 6'40" Sixty Sixteen Review: Let me start by saying that Seti 1 fucking RULEZ!!! It became my absolute top ambient track!!!! This must be the most energy someone has ever put into a chill-out track!! If you're playing a chill-out set and see that everyone's falling to sleep, put this one and you'll see everybody getting up and starting to nod their heads to the rythm of the song!! Well, other than that Banco do Gaia remained faithfull to their roots with this one: one song that has a higher BPM level that can be described as morning trance (Obsidian) and the rest pure ambient, some with some D&B influeces and some a bit trip-hoppy, but all filled with tribal and oriental influences!! again, this isn't really the kind of album that could be described track by track, they all form a story and the CD is best listened from start to finish. 9/10 for this one... still the same style, but that Seti track drives me wild!!!

Banco de Gaia - Last Train to Lhasa Artist: Banco de Gaia Title: Last Train to Lhasa Label: Ultimate Date: 1995 Track listing: CD 1 01. Last Train To Lhasa 02. Kuos 03. China (Clouds Not Mountains) 04. Amber 05. Kincajou 06. White Paint 07. 887 (Structure) CD 2 01. Kuos (Gnomes Mix) 02. Kincajou (Duck! Asteroid) 03. Eagle (Small Steppa Mix) Review: Again a VERY nice Banco De Gaia album full of mellow beats and tribal/oriental influences!! It just flows nicely from start to finish and put's you into a trip!! The first 2 tracks and Kincajou have a higher BPM and could be considered as morning trance, but the rest of the album is some very good chill-out. Some tracks have an ambient D&B influence (sorta like Blunt Instruments from Deviant Electronics or Acid Rockers), but with a lot more tribal sounds. All the tracks are nice, but Kuos (Gnomes Mix) is EXCELLENT!!! It's full of tribal beats and it just hypnotises you!! This is top-notch material!! Another one I like very much is White Paint. 9/10

YIIIIIIIIIIIIHAAAAAAAAA!!! This is EXACTLY how I like 'em!!! Superfast ultra-melodic with 1000 different layers at the same time!!! I know y'all is gonna say that this is "outdated", "not minimal enough", "not progressive enough" yadda yadda yadda, but if there are any people out there who want to remeber the feeling of the true goa experience, this is a must-have!! The trip starts at track 1 and you're hypnotised untill last track... I think this says it all... 10/10 from me!!

ahem... whoever says that this is original is forgetting that a certain Aphex Twin released Selected Ambient Works Vol. 2 a few years ago... This is EXACTLY how it sounds: arythmic ambiant with very "spooky" noises BUT IMO this is better than master Richard D. James!! I say this maily because the songs, although composed of a lot of loops have more progression and are more complex than most of the tracks on Selcted Ambient Works. So bottom line: if you liked SAW vol.2 by Aphex Twin, this is a must for you, if you never really digged Richard James, then you'd better stay away from this one as well... I give it 6/10: better than SAW 2, but not really my cup of tea...

I highly doubt any compilation containing Necton - Beverly Hills Cop could be considered as good... That must be the WORST psy track in history of psytrance!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.... First Etnica/ Pleiadians and now this... Why oh why follow the minimalistic trend instead of doing those such wonderfull and emotional full-on tracks? Only 3 tracks I like a bit: Telepathy, Kinda Wierda and The Spirit World... Roswell too, but that's ambient. The only track that's REALLY good is the hidden one after Roswell. Kinda like Cosmosis' way of saying "You may think my original style is gone, but you're wrong...". Too bad this track doesn't even have a name... PLEASE come back with another full-on album!!!!!! I won't even rate this, cause it's just too dissapointing!!!

Tarsis - Broken is a killer!

i smoke dmt sometimes and i find this cd is brilliant.

Kode IV - Best Of ... Compilation Artist: Kode IV Title: Best Of ... Compilation Label: KK Date: 1996 Track listing: 01. Fearless (Original Mix) 02. Dissolve (Vapour Space Mix) 03. Possessed (Voodoo Mix) 04. Disobey (Vagator Mix) 05. Scratch Attack (Final Cut) 06. Accelerate (Anjuna Mix) 07. Faust (Erster Teil) 08. Utilize (Hidden Powers Mix) 09. The Ultimate Goal (Silicon Civilisation Mix) 10. Near To The Divine (Official Doof Mix) Review: First of all, let's start with a little history. Kode IV was initially an industrial band in the late 80's, and industrial was pretty much what was listened to in Goa before goatrance hit the scene... So Goa Gill himself made some remixes for the band and then, but then one of the original members died. And the remaining memeber, P. Ziegelmeier, asked Goa Gill to be officially part of the band. They made an album together, Silicone Civilisation in 1994 and then they released this "Best of" in 1996. OK, enough with the history and let's see how this actually sounds... Well, Kode IV was initially an industrial band like I said, so don't be surprised some of the songs over here are pure industrial (track 2, 3, 4 and 5), with the usual industrial sound: BPM under 120, rather dark sounding. So I suppose that unless you're an industrial nostalgic, you won't like those very much... But the other tracks are goatrance, still a bit industrial influenced, but still more on the trance side... Goa Gil keeps his usual structuring: more easy tracks in the beginning, then dark in the midlle, which become more and more uplifting towards the end. The trance tracks are good, but not excellent... but there is one exception: Near to the Divine wich is EXCELLENT! I don't know if I should give this a rating since Kode IV was initially an industrial band, so it's only natural for a best of compilation not to be 100% goatrance. Well, 7/10 for the goatrance part.

i agree with cyko00 and DeathPosture...this is so bad...i can't believe it...don't buy it!

Total Conciousness is a real killer!!! It's one of my favorite track ever!!! But the other tracks on this album are just good, not great. Now, I usually only pop this CD into my Hi-Fi just for Total Conciousness, and don't even listen to the other tracks anymore. Too bad... 7/10

Hmmm... another minimalistic album out there... But wait, this one has one song that absolutely drived me crazy!! Black Beauty is absolutely awesome!!! It's the very first time that I actually prefer a minimalistic track to full-on!! And the progression in minute 5 is great. At 5:24 you have some djembés kicking in and then the full power of the song unleashes. It's a shame that that track is the only one on the CD that's really good IMO. The rest sound all the same, a little jazzy, but really not my thing... 5/10 Like I said, Black Beauty is an excellent track, but if it weren't for that one I wouldn't care less for this album.

Now here's the wierdest goa CD I've ever listened to. I like the idea of making real rock beats instead of your typical 4/4 rythm... but putting that in each track makes it become boring. It seems to me that the artists wanted to make some tribute to the late 60's psy, and it works very well. Some tracks are too wierd for me, but there are 3 I really like. Brother Ray is like a trip back to 60's psychedellic music. You could just lay there and smoke weed and just feel the music going through you. Very good. Galactic is the only really uplifting track out there. Beautifull. Almost brings tears to my eyes. And the there is the last track They Creep Like Dot Coms... Well, nothing much happens in the first 4 minutes, but then... some bee swirl samples and loads and loads of drums and djembés put one on top of the other and in the end you can actually hear some jamaican steal drums!! Wierd, but great!! 8/10

Very very good album. Very dark and rockish too... But I must say I agree that the NIN remix doesn't seem to fit in there. While the other tracks have at least something to do with trance, that one is pure industrial rock and there's even a hardcore beat! Not that I don't like it, but it's just not trance. For the other tracks: Savage Freedom, Black Moon and Intellect are awesome!!! The Hallucinogen remixes are good too... 9/10

It all depends on how you look at this CD. If you want to buy it to hear some ass-kicking goa, then don't!!! But if, like me, you want to hear how it all started out, how the vibe was before goatrance or very early goatrance, than this is a must have!!!! I can't believe people judge this like it was the latest AP release. IT'S NOT!!! Sure, it sounds dated now, but remember some of the tracks were made more than 10 years ago! A little reminder: back then it was cool to listen to Technotronic "Pump the Jam" and Black Box, so compared to that this was excellent! The thing I like most is that this CD shows you the transition between dark, slow industrial (which was pretty much the vibe in Goa parties in the 80's) with tracks like Techno Terror or H2H3 to sunny above 120 BPM goatrance. And "We Are Controlling Transmission"... BEAUTIFUL! I think this track practically invented the morning trance concept... and the AP sound. So, 3/10 for listening to it at parties or at home (and if you buy this only for that purpose, you're missing the whole meaning of this CD!), but 10/10 as a historical value!