Lemmiwinks

ah come on mate a little constructive criticism never hurt anyone... and although Oppie's choice of words might not be the best I can get what he's saying: before (mostly on the Cosmology album) tracks would cause you a constant adrenaline rush, from minute 1 to the last. Now it seems that producers (I say that in general cause like you pointed out I haven't heard YOUR track so I can't comment on it) put random stuff in their tracks for the first 4 minutes leaving you think it's just there for beatmatching purposes and concentrate on making a killer last 1:30- 2 minutes... and yes, if I had the choice I'd prefer having the constant adrenaline rush rather than having to fast forward through the first 2/3s of the track to get there. Don't take this bad, I'm just saying my 2 cents

funny, so much enthusiasm about Psykovsky's debut album in the general section yet once you get to the reviews section there's a quite different story...

what?? this guy still makes music? I haven't heard of him in ages... should be interesting to see what he has to offer

but we all know that NOTHING will beat the upcoming GMS

alright but what do you do when a chick asks you for some of your pubes...?

of course it is and I'm not complaining... as long as people here don't start saying that EVERY new release is the new killarrgggghhh like on isratrance I mean after all, one of the main reasons for bringing back the reviews section on psynews was because we were tired of all those pseudo-reviews promo threads on isratrance, right? [EDIT: ok, after reading all my posts again, I can see how some might think I'm spreading around some negative prejudice against this album... that's NOT the case since I actually love Ka-Sol, I've listened to most of his older stuff and some live sets and totally love his style, I was just complaining about the recent trend here on psynews of labeling all new releases as "the best album of 06"... not saying that THIS album in particular doesn't have the potential to actually be the best ]

ok as long as you don't say the same thing next week with yet another album...

1. Save yourselves 2. For the future of mankind 3. Shining faces 4. Positive energy 5. In search of truth 6. The world is a narrow bridge 7. Enlightment 8. Life is a strange journey 9. Shma Israel So here are psytrance veterans MFG with their long awated comeback album... first of all, FORGET everything you knew about MFG's old style or else you'll be VERY dissapointed here. A part from a few trademark synthlines here and there, this sounds like a different (full-on...) project all together. This is a pretty odd album to rate since most of the tracks are made up of some very nice parts and also some very bad (stupid/ random) ones. For example track no. 1 starts with a very stupid melody and some sounds sampled from Microsoft's Pinball game you get standard with Windows... WTF??? BUT starting from 4:30 the whole feeling of the track changes, giving us THEEE best 303 melody I've heard in years and some nice atmospheres. Then it all breaks up into some african tribe chanting, then it all comes back (including the 303 melody), the end result is dreamy! Tribal full-on... sounds like one of those "how come noone has thought of this before??" ideas, but it's very effective. I would've hoped to have the whole album to be in the same style but alas it's the only track like this one here Then track no. 2 starts off with a nice filtered djembé line but then all the "tribalism" is sucked out of the track and we're left with some pretty boring conventional full-on... ok, the djembé comes back around the end of the track but it's not enough for my taste. Shining Faces has a bit more "old" MFG elements, kindof sounds like old MFG with a full-on bassline. One of the better tracks on this album Now again with the "really bad part mixed with a really good part" thing in Positive Energy . It starts out sounding as just another generic, interchangeable full-on track but then at 3:40 there's a KILLER catchy tune that just makes you turn up the volume and nod you head to the music... but then the melody is gone and replaced with this totally random synthline starting from around 5:00 leaving you wonder what the hell were they thinking... In Search for the Truth is the most oldschoolish track on the album (of course we're still miles away from THE oldschool MFG sound but anyway...). Then in the end we get one of those melodies reminding of 70s' alien invasion movies. The World is a Narrow Bridge is a pretty nice track and the climax around 7:10 makes you think it's one of those tracks specifically made for the dancefloors. You can just close your eyes and imagine everyone dancing faster one that part comes. Enlightment is yet another example of the good part followed by a really crappy part: KILLER melody starting around 2:10, followed by some really random stuff... interestingly enough the end tune sounds like some old Dark Soho Life is a Strange Journey is full-on bordering on eurotrance... yes it has on of those sugar-coated melodies in the end. I don't like it much but can imagine it can do wonders on the dancefloors. Shma Israel is a pretty mediocre tune... again, there are some interesing parts (especially the dreamy slowed-down part in the middle) followed by some pretty random stuff. Conclusion I said it before and I'll say it again: do NOT buy this expecting to find some good ol' oldschool cause you'll be utterly dissapointed. Now if you're looking for some interesting crossblend between full-on and tribal and some oldschoolish elements here and there this might be the one for you As I said, this is hard to rate cause some parts are very good and some are very bad (within the same track). So if you focus on the bad parts it's not worth more than 6/10, if you focus only on the good it's like 9/10. So maybe I'll make an average of both grades and give this a 7,5/10?

well... after a few years complaining, minimal was dead so I wouldn't say that complaining is that useless

ah well I guess that's better than nothing

but I thought that God Save the Machine was "da shid!"...?

by you maybe but ask most teens into full-on these days if they've ever heard of him

hehe Lemmiwinks 1 - Cosmosis 0... I like being childish but on a more serious note, can't you at least use more 303s in your tracks like you did in the good ol' days?

funny how you can complain about full-on and praise S-Range's new album at the same time...

Talking Souls - Karma 209 Mama Indica - Radioactive Rain (but those are actually Tim Schuldt in disguise so... ) Distortion Orchestra - Nuclear Tide Torakka - Dead and 74 UX - Masters of the Universe Psygone - whole Optimystique album

uh oh... IMO clubby-progressive is the LEAST interesting sub-genre of psy And I could've used some new tribal goa releases in my collection but aparently that won't be the case here

lemme guess... the bottom line will be that it's one of the best albums of the year and that we should all rush to the shops and get a copy...?

LOL yeah sure sure... he just jumped in the full-on bandwagon when oldschool was running out of steam because he LIKES it *wink wink* I wonder when will fans stop making up excuses for their idols... reminds me of that time when Hallucinogen could've released the worse piece of crap ever yet his fans were so loyal they would never had dared to say it wasn't "the next best thing". PS I happen to know that Cosmosis was one of the main promoters of "neo full-on" when it was out... so don't start with the "I don't know where you can hear full-on on his album" crap with me...

how bout a petition asking him to make good music again and abandon that stupid neo full-on fad...?

HAHAHAHAHA!!!! nice and subtle

I-N-C-R-E-D-I-B-L-E stuff!!! I can't imagine how I could miss out on this one like that (am only hearing it in 2006). Like most people said above, this has the merit of being melodic psy all while being innovative (and by innovative I don't mean just making different stuff for the sake of being different like Kino Oko or Artifakt). Here all the melodies and ideas stand together in perfectly coherent tracks. Definatley THE most underestimated album of 04!!!! 10/10

well he did quite a few collaborations on Unusual Suspects II

thanks for the info dude. And I can understand why people wouldn't like it cause it was really slow stuff whereas people want 150+ BPM tracks during the night but I digged it PS for the info: I was going to the bar and on the dancefloor there were 3 happy dudes smiling and dancing and saying "we're going back to our roots", so that makes at least 4 people who liked his set

yep... also if you do a bit of digging in you'll see that the Sex Pistols' track was sarcastic and was in fact an open criticism to Queen Elisabeth II and the monarchy... Also it was released around the Queen's silver jubilee date (27th may which is more or less when the TIP comp is released as well) to further provoke and an attempt was made to play it out loud from a boat sailing on the river Thames in front of the Palace of Westminster during the celebration day of the Jubilee resulting in the band getting arested for it. Hehe that's British anarchism for you anyway, as you can see, the idea behind the concept is the exact opposite as to racism and shit...

Hey I was just thinking, you know all those perfect tracks that you just loved but somehow just stopped listening to them for a few years... then you think "hey, it's been a while, what if I played that track again", you put it and and you're like "WOWWW how could I have stopped listening to this jewel?" I had such an episode today with Talking Souls - Karma 209 so any other pics?