Lemmiwinks

how can you not be good at reviewing??? What's so hard to say if you like or dislike a particular release?

dude, keep in mind that we all have to start sometime. And then you don't need a "good knowledge in this scene"... what matters is what your heart likes and dislikes. I didn't know squat about goatrance in 1996 but found AP - People Can Fly to be the best track I've EVER heard and it's still one of my top 10 tracks today!

well the thing is that anyone who's reviewed a LOT of new stuff in a short time will agree that at one moment it just feels too "industrial": get CD, listen to it a few times, comment on it, discard, get next CD, listen to it, comment, discard, get new CD, etc. etc. Personally I used to "work" that way and realized months if not years later that some reviews I wrote were plain stupid simply because I didn't give an album enough time to "sink in". My resolution for 2005 was to listen to far less stuff and to spend more time with each album rather than be superficial about it. Can't speak for DP but I think that he had a similar aproach... and when you look at it... basically ALL the new reviews are posted by 4-5 users so if they all went through the same phase then this explains that... But I think that there are a LOT of people who NEVER write a single line!! Come on people, at least write a 2-3 line review, it's better than nothing!!

ah you should listen to his new album, it's 100 times better than the last

total number of new review topics started by Basilisk in 2005... 0... hmmmm

well I happen to know quite a few people who also loved the 1200 mics album... but I know of none who gave 10/10 to Creation Myth... but of course, taste is taste and you can't argue with that... I'm glad at least SOMEONE out there liked it

full-on = something that uses the formula invented by GMS... namely a huge rolling bassline and sounds being thrown here and there + a climax near the end of the track. Just listen to any album by GMS and/ or Alien Project and see how it all started...

You must be the ONLY person on the planet who thinks that... for me that album was a digrace compared with their oldschool work... Only ONE good track on it: Program Reality and even that one got old fast for me.

well to tell you the truth I'm not a big fan of full-on either BUT when looking back, out of all the psy subgenres out there (namely compared to progressive and "dark trance"), it is still full-on that gave me the most thrills and highs (except Filteria and hopefully the upcoming Ka-Sol album )

dude, Ferry Corsten simply took a formula that had already been used and abused for years! Uplifting trance with catchy melodies exists since the beginning of the 90s and a certain Energy 52 - Café Del Mar released in 1993... thus 5 years before your Ferry Corsten made his music... (not saying he isn't good, just that you can't call someone influential when he copied a formula that has been around for at least 5 years already...)

what you mean this isn't a poor release or that EP doesn't think he is into progressive?

yo spacemunchi, let me know about that Aspsara CD!!

Ah yes, the final Shpongle album. First of all there is one thing that caught my attention: when seeing the tracklist you might think that Shpongle outdid themselves and made a double album... that isn't the case... then you wonder how could they squeeze in so many different tracks on one CD. Here's how: instead of having "long" tracks that take you on a journey, each "normal" track is actually split up into 2-3 smaller tracks (kindof like KLF - Chill Out which was at first one big 30 minute track and then was re-released as an album where in fact it was the same track but split up). This has advantages and disatvantages: the main strong point is that now it is possible to skip directly to the 2-3 mintues you like in the track instead of listening through the whole 7-8 mintues to get there. The disatvantage is that for me, a good ambient track is supposed to take you on a long journey, it's supposed to have a lot of different parts in it, otherwise, well, it just sounds like a pop song with a catchy melody played in a loop for 3 minutes... chill-out is chill-out and pop is pop. Of course, you can listen to the whole CD like one big 67 minute track but then you feel that parts have different "individualities", it's not like, say, Juno's Luci-ana which was clearly intended to be a 60+ minute track in the first place. So basically, your best try is to guess which small tracks correspond to a "big" track and regroup them by yourself... Anyway, technicalities put aside, this is one pretty damn good album. Like others said before me, 2 things strike me music-wise: it is more uptempo than "usual" Shpongle (but no it's no full-on, rest assured ) and Raja's magic flute is missing almost completely!! I thought that Raja's flute WAS part of what made Shpongle what it was... ah well... Also, since Dorset Perception and Beija Floor were basically the 2 most commercially succesfull tracks by Shpongle you can imagine that they make once again massive use of salsa... you also get the trademark stuttering and the Terence McKenna samples as well as Michele Adamson's voice ran through a vocoder. Well all these elements have become trademarks of the "Shpongle sound"... but they also have become a bit (too) stereotypical for the group IMO. Oh and since I mentioned Beija Floor, don't be surprised if you recognized it on the CD although it isn't in the tracklist. Actually the first 3 tracks are nothing else than Beija Floor split up into smaller tracks. I must say it feels a bit like a scam to make people believe that there are only new tracks when in fact there are 3 disguised under a different name... My highlight of the album is definatley track 9 When Shall I Be Free? (which is part of a "bigger track" with track 10). There's a REALLY catchy guitar melody, I must admit that I've listened to this album for about a week now and about 80% of the playtime was dedicated to this track Conclusion Bottom line: this is Shpongle... if you liked the first 2 albums you'll more than surely like this one as well Yes, fans will find that some "Shponlge formulas" (salsa crossovers, vocoders, stuttering, McKenna samples...) are used one too often but hey, if the formulas weren't there, it wouldn't be Shpongle any more, would it? And there still are enough creative ideas in there to make this sound like something new and not just a remake of the first 2 albums. Personally I enjoyed this very much although I could've done with a bit less uptemo "dancy" salsa and more of Raja's magical flute on top of downtepo tracks. And no, in spite of their HUGE success in the "normal" trance world with Beija Floor I don't find they became sell-outs. Sure, a bit more commercial, but definatley not sell-outs... 9/10

well the movie itself is pretty crap though... 6/10 at best anyway, maybe you people can resolve my life-long mystery: anyone noticed how similar that sample from Kalifornia is to the one in the Matrix? (Ever have that feeling where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming? It's called Mescaline. It's the only way to fly.). That and the fact that the dialogue itself doesn't fit at ALL in the movie... why talk about mescaline when it's a movie about virtual reality?

When's the last time you heard of anything released by Aurinko??

but the year is not even half-way through...

Yes the UK is in Western Europe... but it's also a country that is active enough to deserve it's own section (weren't you paying attention to what I said? )

ahhh... I'll finally be able to listen to some of Ka-Sol's killer stuff he played live PLEASE release that new album already!!!

well as long as they stop sounding like some GMS clone...

that's probably due to all the layers and delays... and after all, REAL goatrance was meant to be listened to outdoors, not in clubs

totally agree with you!! Chi AD if you ever read this: keep it true dude, that's how goa became the great genre it was: because artists decided to keep it real rather than go for the $$$!!! Too bad that the new generation artists failed to realize that and let their creativity be overruled by greed I simply cannot believe that such mindblowing and innovative artists like Chi AD and Ka Sol can't find lables to release their stuff while some teen who makes mediocre stuff with a full-on bassline imediatley gets a record deal... what's this world becoming??? Anyway, I guess that someone who might know of Chi AD's whereabouts could be Basilisk? After all, his last single to date was released on Basilisk's label so...

will you people make up your minds already? OK, I agree that now it's a bit messy again (do I put Greece in Western or Eastern Europe???) I'm thinking about making sections for the most active countries (like I did for the UK)... not much use in having a whole section for a country with 2 parties posted in total IMO... So if people are searching for parties in say The Netherlands then they won't find much even if there was a Netherlands section. Hope we'll be able to reach full balance someday

oh I'd say that has more to do with the fanaticism of british drunken football supporters... Why do you think that Underworld's biggest hit was one were they shouted "Lager Lager Lager!!!" Now I'm not saying that those bands aren't good, just that Brit fanaticism take "normal" bands and put them way up there as if they were half-gods... That and Man U and Liverpool footbal teams I mean fucking hell, there was a time when if you walked into a British pub and said "Oasis sucks!" out loud, you'd probably never make it out of there with all your teeth...

you have a point there dude, I'll give it a shot and see how it works out

daim I was just about to say that one