Charlie

It's called freedom of speech and should be exercised at all times. It's all very well you saying people should leave it alone and move on yet you're not leaving the criticism alone and moving on; your're criticising the criticism. A strong case of hypocrisy I feel.

A fair answer... but you have to appreciate if you release a piece of art to the public it will receive both praise and criticism. Have you never criticised a piece of music?

You're an expert?

What does that mean, that only a handful of listeners should hear the music, that only a handful should voice their opinion?

Astral Projection - Liquid Sun (one of their best tracks I feel)

Does anybody find the Pleiadians' Family of Light album really dull? I recently bought it expecting something similar to IFO but was severely disappointed. To my ears it sounds thin, flat and lacklustre. The sounds used on any given track are too similar, there's just not enough tonal seperation between the main instruments, the background instruments, the swirls, the bleeps and the hi hats. It's as if every sound was developed within a very narrow frequency. Very tedious.

Astral Projection - Dancing Galaxy

Sacrilege!

Yeah, it does seem rather dear.

The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work

Soluna - Dancing Spirit

2005, you time-traveller.

I find Labyrinth superb, maybe not my favourite Juno Reactor album but certainly their most accomplished. It's dark, powerful, at times almost religious, and fuses the best aspects from various styles to produce a soul-felt album.

You went a full year without buying any music for yourself? I don't know whether to feel proud or disappointed in you.

I suspect because all artists, even artists we greatly respect and admire, are capable of releasing crap. I'm not saying the new MFG album is crap (I've not heard it) but there's a chance it might be.

Amanite FX - Secret of Mana

Green Nuns of the Revolution - Cor

Getting back on track... 1. CDs that spinned in your CD-player the most (artist albums). Shpongle - Nothing Lasts, Prometheus - Robot-o-chan, Ott - Blumenkraft 2. CDs that spinned in your CD-player the most (compilations). Unusual Suspects 2 (Twisted Records), Pulse 1 (Sub Terranean), Twelve (Tip Records) 3. Best label. Twisted Records 4. Live acts that impressed you the most. Didn't see any live trance in 2005. 5. Live acts that disapointed you. - 6. DJs sets that rocked your dancefloor. - 7. DJs sets that made you leave the dancefloor. - 8. Best party. I only went to one, didn't like it. 9. Best festival. Didn't go to any in 2005. 10. Best deco. - 11. Best drink/beverage. Gin 12. Best drug/trip. Mushrooms 13. Best moment/experience. Finally getting my wife to agree to our seperation. 14. Worst moment/experience. Discovering an old friend I frequently took drugs with commited suicide. 15. Best non-psy. Gillian Welch (folk)

I think between 100 - 150 but only a quarter of those were trance albums, mainly folk, rock and blues. Oh, and classical.

I promise to post such a thread in the untimely event of your death.

What about Hemingway, Van Gogh, Sylvia Plath and Marilyn Monroe to name a few? They all commited suicide, are they not worthy of a salute?

Bob Dylan - Tangled Up and Blue

I know what you mean, I get entire years like that.

Agreed. If the trance community keeps lapping up shit then artists will continue to produce shit. It's cause and effect. If everyone was a bit more selective about what they bought I feel artists would work harder at producing original trance lovingly crafted with passion and verve.