abasio

Glad to hear it Glad someones making money somewhere out of CDs & Vinyl

I need to stop again. I am happy with those though

nice

Damn fine stuff

The difference in shipping prices is a dirty profit making scheme! There is no reason that the shipping price from the same place should be different but it is in so many cases. I've bought things off of ebay in the past not noticing that some git is charging $15 for shipping Dirty disgusting bastards trying to make an extra buck Jikkenteki ships free to worldwide but some people see the cheap price tag & automatically assume it's shit. They can't believe that someone would sell anything good so cheaply. Yes people are cynical as fuck these days and that's probably why you only find shit in the sale bin in psy shop. If they put a new album in there a lot of people would just assume WOW!!! That must be so goddamn shite, I'm not bothering with that and it could actually have a negative affect on sales. About the £10.00 price tag on OOOD - Free Range, well that's the strength of the Pound at the moment. When I was in England 5 years ago a CD would cost between £14 & £18 in the shops and it's the same here in Japan. I buy off Saiko Sounds because even with the shipping it works out much cheaper, but I'm closer to Hong Kong than you are in America so the postage would be cheaper. I must note that on orders over 2 or 3 CDs I find it cheaper to have it shipped via courier but I don't know what it's like in the US. I also find the shipping lightening fast too What you really need is for the US$ to recover soon or maybe you could start your own business importing. You said there were many people at parties so there is a fan base in the US & probably everyone is sick & tired of shipping costs on imports. If you buy in bulk from the labels you could probably get cheaper shipping & maybe a discount on what you buy then you could sell them for a small profit to others in the US. Start small & build it up so you could be the North American Equivalent of Saiko Sounds

Cool! This is the first year in ages that I'm actually struggling to narrow it down

Solar Fields - Small Little Green Cubes

Some Christmas presents. Mainly from myself...

Trentmoller - The Last Resort

Various Artists Twist Dreams Suntrip Records 2007 Tracklist 1 Cosmic Silence - Psy Spirit (8:01) 2 Aerosis - Contorsion (9:04) 3 Red Gravity - Momentary 29 (7:28) 4 Talpa - Till We Meet Again (7:52) 5 Merr0w - Utopian Society (7:54) 6 Khetzal - Trancefuzion (8:32) 7 K.O.B. - Weight Of Oblivion (7:08) 8 Afgin - Dimensional (8:48) 9 Ra - Gates Of Tiphareth (6:04) Suntrip, a record label dedicated to bringing us New Goa music with the feel of the (g)old days of Goa with the fresh sound brought by modern production. This compilation I think really has accomplished that lofty goal. A lot of the tracks make me feel like I'm back in my teens listening to the same kind of music that first brought me to this genre while still sounding up to date & modern. 1. Cosmic Silence - Psy Spirit Straight away into a banging goa track. Even after just a few minutes you can feel like you are listening to something that could take you on a journey in your mind. The melody, the atmospheric synths all sounding a little acidic and all of high quality. The only thing I don't like it is when it kicks off, it seems just a little badly timed. The sample ends half way through a roll & the energy I was expecting to be produced is somehow missed. Shame because everything else is top drawer stuff. 2. Aerosis - Contorsion A harder track by Aerosis with darker sounding synths and a more subdued melody. The melody becomes more prominent later on coming to the front to show off it's high pitch eastern technological sound more clearly. It seems to move back and forth between the background & the foreground of the music. Sometimes very noticeable sometimes less so. The music twists & turns a lot with a very enjoyable progression. Good track. 3. Red Gravity - Momentary 29 A very trancey track. Incorporates elements of goa, psy & trance into a pretty nice track. Then melody is reminiscent of the olden day s of goa while the beat is more trancey & the production very psychedelic. When the melody shifts around the 4 minute mark my jaw drops in awe. I'm happy there is still music being made that can change direction so sharply yet naturally. 4. Talpa - Till We Meet Again A typical Talpa track. Very psychedelic fairy tale stuff with a hint of goa thrown in. Talpa has always made good music but for me often ruins tracks with poor samples. This track though is unblemished, the beat is a driving force & the string like synth drones in the background like a summer evening in a mansion by the sea. Lots going on in the background & if you sit back & focus you can hear a lot more than on a casual listen. Much better than I first thought. 5. Merrow - Utopian Society This track is the complete opposite though. On first listen I thought wow what an amazing track & yeah it remains pretty good but it's more more shallow. What you see is what you get & after repeat listens it doesn't grow or evolve. It's a very static track. What I have always loved about goa is that so many tracks sound different when you listen to them at different times & in different moods. This though always sounds the same to me. Not bad but not great either. 6. Khetzal - Trancefuzion Now here is an artist whose music has never ever sounded the same to me. I've listened to his album Corolle so many times but it sounds new each time with lots to discover. This track has a sample I'm not so keen on, a bit cheesy but it's just at the start & gives way to a thumping good track. The beat is a little too hard for my taste but it's the female vocal that subtly morphs in & out of the track sometimes quite prominent more often almost unnoticeable. The melody does the same thing but is more progressive in it's aggression. It starts of small but grows & grows into the focal point of the whole track making the beat I thought was to heavy unimportant. Very nice stuff as you'd expect from Kehtzal. 7. K.O.B. - Weight Of Oblivion Featuring Klara Steiner on vocals that are pretty subtle like the Khetzal track. Background wails adding atmosphere to the track and making it sound very psychedelic. More prominent is the melody which seems to have little in the way of structure & manages to sound like an old computer game, but not in such a great way like others have managed. I think because this has accidentally ended up sounding like something else I can't help feeling it's ripped off another track. No idea what it is though & it might be in my imagination. Gets a lot better towards the end with a lot more feeling in the music. 8. Afgin - Dimensional Starts of a bit boring with the kick dominating everything but the it comes good after a few minutes with the melody sounding stronger. Not quite as intricate as it could have been but deep enough to keep me happy on repeated listens. The nicest times of the track are when the beat leaves & I'm left with the impression that it would sound better with the foot taken off the pedal a little bit. 9. Ra - Gates of Tiphareth A downbeat track to close the compilation with and for me this is the best so far. I always enjoyed the ambient side of Goa & with the new style which often goes a little faster than is ideal for me, the more relaxed stuff these days sounds every bit as good as the good old days. This is no exception. It's detailed & dreamy with a melody that coils around my brain after it's been blasted by the preceding trance and kisses it better. The flute gives it a sense of mysticism & in the background the warm drone adds a lot of atmosphere. Very nice stuff. I'd like a lot more like this. As a whole this is a very nice compilation. There are a few tracks that don't seem to have reached the high standards of the rest. My criticism of them comes mainly from the disappointment that they don't compare well to the great tracks here. As a compilation this is definitely a safe buy for anyone that knows & likes Suntrip's earlier stuff. If you don't but you are a fan of Goa then you should check it out anyway, along with Suntrip's other releases.

Tea Chairs Tea Chairs Demon Tea Recordings 2007 Tracklist Disc 1 1 MentalMetalSnakeSnack 2 O Kiinni 3 Light Utility Vehicle 4 Chillingham Cheese 5 Lankey Love Herz 6 Mondo Suzuki Omnigod 7 Eye Shit On Acid 8 Mondo Suzuki Omnigod (TazManiac Rmx) 9 Mt. Wellington Rock 10 Aishtemas Disc 2 1 Demon Tree 2 Pandanus Spiralis 3 Fuckin’ Alien 4 Playing With Colour 5 Beverages 6 Silver Wasp 7 BUST (find the drugz) 8 Bargrynder 9 Tzump-In (Chairs Rmx) 10 Cruise Wide Open 11 Friend Til’ The End 12 Chapora Sunrise 13 The Spice Deep-end-dance 14 20000 Camel Bride Disc 3 1 Microscopic Retails 2 Tube U Want Tube U Get 3 Returnofthepaluu 4 Type Of Cheese in Your Bum 5 Weak Structures 6 Daves JewJew 7 Perhosiamaksassa 8 Listen Tomy Hooves 9 Sorry Reptoid 10 Weather Control 11 Turrikaner 12 Aamutakki [With the Flying Scorpians] 13 Tri You Oli 14 Heavenly Fruits 15 Untitled (Hidden Track) A 3CD release is quite a gutsy move. Especially when you are talking about a style of music that is pretty insane. Listening to all 3 CDs in a row might make your brain go all funny. This was the first & only thing I have heard from Tea Chairs but I thought I'd buy it as it had a great cover making me think the music would be fucked up weirdness. Which it is An epic journey into madness is what we've got here & if you are not strong in the head you might regret listening to all 3 CDs in a row. Disc 1 We start this epic journey with MentalMetalSnakeSnack an acidic track that really makes your brain want to explode with it's craziness. Really weird experiMENTAL stuff with a warbling sound that attacks the senses. This is really out there in the insanity stakes. Not for the weak headed people of the world. The sample at the start of O Kiinni reverberates through my mind and makes space for the crunchy beat, a little slower than the previous track. Not quite as fucked up as MentalMetalSnakeSnack but it has a weird suomi feel to the nutiness. And that sample is well trippy. Light Utility Vehicle starts with a pretty annoying druggie sample that grates a little on repeated listens but it's pretty reflective of the rest of the track. Not as crazy as most of the other tracks with a really annoying bleepy sound in the first half. When that goes though we get more interesting & deep atmosphere. A few sci fi noises try & give it a weird edge but it's a little too normal in the end. A more structured track in Chillingham Cheese with a great melody that just oozes the seratonin out of my glands & into my head. The spacey sci fi B-movie sounds add a tripped out weirdness of it. The melody in the final run is so mind blowing, sound like something played on an old Atari but the tune is really beautiful. Very nostalgic and the the weirdness level is kept up with the twisted moans calling through the edge of reality trying to drag you deep down into their dimension. Trippy! Lankey Love Herz is more energetic with an OLD SFX style sample that sounds like it's trying to be from Star Wars. Not the best sample I've heard, a little on the dark cheesy side. The rest of the track is pretty good though with what sound like harpsichord & nice beats. Back with the weirdness, Mondo Suzuki Omnigod is high octane mental craziness from the dimension of pure chaos. Great sounds, great beats. The sort of track I'd probably have to leave the dancefloor when it comes on due to my brain melting. Eye Shit On Acid sees the foot eased off the pedal in the energy stakes but the mentality is kept at the I've taken too much acid level. Unfortunately the breakdown is not to my liking with some annoying sound leading in to extremely broken beats. One thing I am not a fan of is broken beats, they hurt my head as does the 2nd half of this track. The strings at the start of Mondo Suzuki Omnigod (TazManiac Rmx) make me think it's going to be a melancholic track. It does feel more asian than the original 2 tracks earlier with a more dreamy feel to it. When the strings come back they are twisted as is every other element her. The song moves around the room like a headless chicken. No idea where it's going but fun to watch. Especially the melody at the end. Weird nonsensical madness. Mt. Wellington Rock has a melody that runs up & down the stairwells of my mind. Up & Down, Up & Down but on the apex of one trip the sample pushes me down the stairs cracking my head open & letting the monsters creep in. CD1 ends with Aishtemas which sounds like it's ready to explode. This acidic reactor core that is reaching critical mass. The beats are slow but I get the feeling it's going to kick of at any time. It never does kick off beat wise though but the fucked up sounds just keep building & building until my brain can't take anymore & just lets out one big brain fart of happiness. Disc 2 Demon Tree kicks off the second disc in fine style. Reminiscent of Luomuhappo's style in Pog-o-matic Pogomen 3000000. Nice pace & the melody could have been on that album. i half expect the madness can be the greatest of blessings sample to come in at any moment. Pandanus Spiralis picks up the pace with a nice squelchy beat, crunchy synths & another familiar melody. Pretty nice but It's missing the craziness. The spacey atmosphere attempted on Fuckin’ Alien is pretty good. Imagine a party on a distant world with aliens trippin' out to this. The sample is shit & I'd rather not have it. I wonder if non-native English speakers understand how swear words sound in the native English ear. Cringeworthy. Maybe they don't care. The sample is only in it twice though so overall it's a pretty good track Playing With Colour is a quality track through and through. Good melodies, great old school synth lines & a bassline that hums a happy tune. One of the best on the whole 3 disc album in my humble opinion, just a shame it's so short. I like Beverages, it has lots of acid running through it. The main melody is drippy with it. It has a soft metallic edge to it & the beats work well to hide the sample so your brain has to strain a little to hear it leaving a gap in your defenses for the music to invade & make you mind go bonkers. The bassline in Silver Wasp is the best yet on the album. It really drives the track & with a parallel synth line it creates a lot of energy. No real melody but melodious sounds play over & over again & due to the bassline sound like they have formed a melody your brain can mong a long to. BUST (find the drugz) has a twisted vocal that runs through the track. It brings the insanity level back up where I want. Cool freaky fucked experiMENTAL music. The keyboard melody also adds a normal touch to the festivities. Bargrynder starts with a big atmospheric synth drone moving up & up like a melody but when the main melody comes in it manages to feel like medieval England. The beats are tribal & the sounds are sci fi weirdness. All combine to make no sense at all. I love it. Tzump-In (Chairs Rmx) is a remix of a Weird Alchemy track which I have never heard so I can not compare the two. This one though is a dark fucked up track. Well structured & driving with an edge of Necromantic psychedelia. A very strong track all round with the melody trying to counter the darker more twisted sounds & the hints of strings at some parts. Back to the nice fluffy tripping style with Cruise Wide Open. Light sounds & an old school rave melody. This really sounds like it belongs in the early 1990's but with the ever present Tea Chairs weirdness giving it that extra something to distinguish itself from the that time, oh & the modern production. The melodies are light a bouncy in Friend Til’ The End and the whole track just makes me want to move. Add some chunky psychedelia, stir, wait for minutes & serve. Chapora Sunrise is a funkier piece with a melody that feels like I should be riding down a highway following the coast at top speed on a motorbike with some hottie clinging to the back. The Dune sample talking about the spice navigators is a bit weird & being that the track names all seem fucked up on the CD label I would guess the second half of this track is The Spice Deep-end-dance as the style is very different, crazier & spacier than the start. Not sure but it would leave way for the final track actually being 20000 Camel Bride which is halfway between the rave scene & our modern fucked up psy. The melody & beat dribble psychedelic goodness into my ear. Disc 3 Steven Hawkins starts us off with a sample at the start of Microscopic Retails which is a harder track than anything on the 1st 2 CDs. Harder sounds & a stronger beat but with some nice touches of melody in it. High octane racing music for drugged up racers Sticking with the harder feel Tube U Want Tube U Get is a bouncier track with slick beats and dropping acid lines all over the place. A subtle melody gives a dark edge of mystery making this track pretty damn nice. Returnofthepaluuis a little more breaksy with some vocals that I can't quite make out. Something power. Not sure what the paluu is or why it has returned or why that is important. It is a decent enough track but nothing special. The prize for stupidest track name of the year could be going to Type Of Cheese in Your Bum which turns out to be a sample ridden track which is really really annoying. Sounds of a guy screaming are too loud & unnecessary. The twisted sounds behind the samples & the melody though are really good. But samples have never been my favourite thing in Psy. Weak Structures doesn't seem to have control of itself. It gets louder & softer throughout the track without anyone pissing about with the volume. Other EQ levels seem to be a bit messed up & it all leads to it often sounding a little unpleasant. I like weird & messed up music but experimental just for the sake of it I don't. Experiment but through the rejects away. Daves JewJew has a bizarre name & a guy hiccups through it which is pretty strange but then that is the name of the game. As strange goes though it works pretty well making me smile rather than cringe. It actually sounds like 2 tracks mixed together with the second half sounding little like the first & the transition being quite noticeable. The second half is just as bonkers as the first with a bassline grounding it in normality rather letting it fly away into the immaterial universe. Perhosiamaksassa is a little more normal but then that's not hard following from Daves JewJew A steady beat & random background noises is pretty much all you get until the last 2 and a half minutes where we get some nice melody & the track just kicks off in alienesque spacey weirdness. The fucked up samples in Listen Tomy Hooves is meant to be a horse I take it. But this is one brain fuck of a horse. The sort that will take you to candy mountain & let you be eaten by the trolls guarding the bridge. Wait...what? Nice synth line. This is some messed us stuff, I mean real fucking brain mashing stuff. It grabs your cerebrum & mashes it into a little pulp. I like it but am quite glad when it's over. Thankfully short. Going into Sorry Reptoid I breathe a sigh of relieve as the insanity level is brought back to manageable levels. As I attempt to find the remnants of my brain now in a puddle on the floor to disect this track. Nice melodies, strong beats, lots of energy & psychedelic but not overly strange. Weather Control actually manages to sound like weather. I can here precipitation, clouds & sunshine in there as well as wind. Non of these are sampled it's just the feeling I get from the melody, atmosphere, bassline & beats respectively. Oddness. Turrikaner has a melody from an old computer game I had on the Amiga. Turrican I think the game was & I remember many a day playing that & hearing that melody. A gutsy move indeed as anything so old in a 2007 track has the danger of just sounding shit but it works here. Very cool, makes me want to play video games. Especially this one Aamutakki with the Flying Scorpians is a decent enough piece of music but nothing special. Nice melodies & overall feel but a little on the boring side. The crazy level seems to have dropped too much. Tri You Oli has dropped the pace a bit more to a nice bouncy pace, enjoyable acidic melodies & weird twisted vocals sound halfway between song and painful screaming. Heavenly Fruits The acid riffs in this are indeed heavenly & the melody is fruity. A nice track with some different sounds coming from all directions. It at once sounds medieval & modern as well as alien & future Terran. Odd ending to the album. Oh but wait, the is a hidden track. Well not particularly well hidden just untitled & not included on the tracklist. A good ending though. Very chunky beats & the melody is really cool. I may be writing this over Christmas but the melody does have a festive feel to it. That with lots of spacey sounds make a great track. Top notch ending. Well, there is a lot of music here & with so much there are always going to be tracks that people don't like. There are much more good or better tracks though than the weak ones so if you are a fan of crazy experimental psy that sounds like you are quickly going insane then pick this up.

Some fucked up christmas tunes from Tea Chairs

Eat Static De-Classified Solstice Music 2007 Tracklist 1 Invasion (7:48) 2 Sucker Unit (7:22) 3 Trantaloid (7:41) 4 Deadly Amphibian (7:21) 5 Sin-Quest (8:06) 6 Tractor Beam (7:21) 7 Pachama (7:28) 8 Visitors (6:50) 9 Brassneck (8:35) 10 De-Classified (6:23) Eat Static!! Joie Hinton & Merv Pepler have entertained us for years with their twisted sci fi trance. Each album they produce is in the Eat Static genre mixed with something else. Be it psy trance, lounge, techno or whatever it is always eat static. One of my favourite groups ever. Everything from Eat Static oozes geeky class. True pioneers of trance like these guys have a lot to live up to when they release an album so each time there is the risk that they'll release something not up to their high standards or in a style that doesn't fit my tastes. I was for some reason expecting this album to be like that so I was then blown away when I finally got this extremely varied & well made album. 1. Invasion A downbeat intro in typical Eat Static Sci Fi fashion. A sample that sounds like it's from a 1960's B-Movie and strong slowish beats. The melody is trippy & spacey with a slight acidic touch to it. Rather experimental sounds sometime sound like a trapped alien screaming. A great intro. 2. Sucker Unit Take an atmosphere of dark alien sci fi & add to it a pulsating beat & you have this intro. The sounds are noisy & twisted like on some violent alien world somewhere in your nightmares. The beat is a strong kick. Add high pitched computer sounds & more twists & turns than an American soap opera and you have Sucker Unit. Interesting track but not the strongest here. 3. Trantaloid Fantastic Eat Static beats right from the start with a twisted alienesque voice. The beats steady out into a 4-4 shortly but are joined by more interesting sub beats to let this track bounce. Crazy sounds fly around as you'd expect with a melody that sounds like it's trying to escape the confines of melody & burst into something entirely new. The utterly out of place sample doesn't detract but adds to the weirdness on show. A very weird track, I love it The crazy bleepy melody in the final act is out of this world!! 4. Deadly Amphibian Just as weird! The sounds used as melodies are fantastic. Think twisted alien communications on sub space but fucked up as they are translated into Terran & giving an intense panicky feel. Great stuff again, all the elements come together. The beat, the bass & the crazy ass sounds while seeming random as hell work as a team to create some fucked up weirdness. 5. Sin Quest The eat Static full on track. It has that rolling bassline so many people despise! So is it a big bag of crap? Well no not really. It's far from the best on the album but it's just as fucked up in many respects. The structure is more conventional but the sounds used are twisted alien nonsense. It's cool & doesn't let either the beat or the bassline to dominate so you can really appreciate the rest. 6. Tractor Beam The breakbeat track is pretty damn good. The beats are so reminiscent of my original sojourns into the world of electronic club music. A very nostalgic track with an excellent 90's bassline and beat. Under all this of course is Eat Static's style of atmosphere. Spacey & weird as you'd expect. Very cool track 7. Pachama The pace seems to have dropped a little & the music seems cooler. A little less fucked up. The alien feel seems closer to home. This seems more loungey & I can imagine sitting on a big sofa in some underground lounge in Shinjuku while some tall alien woman services me. An interesting track, the sudden shift of momentum in the latter half is damn nice. The cool crunchy bass at the end mixes in well with the dark alienesque screams softly floating through the wall & the melody that just drips acid over hard steel. A very interesting track. 8. Visitors Another B-Movie type sample to start off the track. The beats start of quite tribal but are over powered by a thudding trance beat. At first the beats sound like they could be from any rubbish trance track but soon morph into some unique & amazing beats. The track moves & develops quite randomly & the weirdness factor while toned down from the insanity showed before is still pretty high. 9. Brassneck The sample seems to describe Eat Static well, if you listen to the static then it fucks you up. Truer words have never been sampled. Another high octane track full of trippy alien weirdness with melodies that really take my brain to other dimensions. Dimensions of pure light, dimensions of energy & sound & back again. One of the best tracks released this year. 10. De-Classified What a fantastic way to close the album, a lovely melodic downbeat track. Nice crisp beats, atmospheric rushes & a female vocal that just fits into the brain sends it away to whatever planet the lady comes from. Great atmosphere all around. How Eat Static manage to keep such sounds from beyond our galaxy is really impressive. So Eat Static have created such a crazy album mixing in loads of different styles into their own Eat Static style. The sounds throughout are very fucked up alien sci fi. From out of this world beauty to violent war in the far future. Definitely one of the top albums of 2007.

Zero Cult Ikebana Cosmic Leaf Records 2007 Tracklist 1 Nitrogen (7:59) 2 Part Of Rapture (7:54) 3 Violet Room (7:05) 4 Echoes (Cydelix Remix) (7:23) 5 Z-51 (7:05) 6 Utopia Train (Side Liner Remix) (5:42) 7 Chemicalove (8:23) 8 Serenity (7:57) 9 Rainspotting (7:33) 10 Monolife (D. Batistatos Remix) (4:41) I remember someone recommending this to me but I have no idea what it was referred to & after listening to it I can't place my finger on what it was. This is different enough to most chill releases I have heard this year to make it worthwhile. The production is clean & at times cold. Crisp sounds with some melancholic touches. A few tracks err on the side of being too cheesy but somehow work. Some are decent without being mind blowing while others feel like they have been ruined by just one or two elements. 1. Nitrogen A great opener to this album. It has a kind of dark mechanical feel to the intro but this is overpowered by the beginning of the melody that just seems to come out of the starry sky. Combine that with the little Sci Fi noises floating about gives a really spacey atmosphere. A nice slow beat is very crisp. The sci fi comes to a head when it feels like electronic water floating through my brain. Very nice opener. 2. Part of Rapture The intro to this track contains a sample done just the way I like it. Distorted enough so I can't make out more than the initial work. For me this always makes it trippier, deeper with more mystery. A little acidic melody just precedes a clear slow beat. The background ambience really makes the melody stand out in a futuristic spacey way. I imagine impossibly tall buildings side my side for miles & miles when I listen to this. The melody that comes in at the end is what escalates this track from good to excellent. With the same atmosphere it creates a more melancholic feel. Really beautiful. 3. Violet Room This doesn't quite reach the rapture of the last track but it's an enjoyable little number. Interesting beats and a slow bassline that hums through the background. A melody that is subtle & spacey. Strings that come in over a female vocal stabbing in & out. Lots of cool little sounds, very nice for Christmas time (in my twisted little brain at least). Overall it's a pretty good track but just lacks something to make it stand out more. 4. Echoes (Cydelix Remix) A very cheesy but enjoyable vocal (still) dominates the track. It's fun if not very good. Like a guilty pleasure. I have no idea why I like it, it should by my own reasoning ruin the track which besides from this does everything right without blowing my socks off. Rather than destroying a perfectly nice piece of music it actually fits in well & give it a quirky feeling. I'll see how it holds up after the many listens I plan to give this track. 5. Z-51 This has a military feel to it. The beats & the bass all sound like they are marching forwards in an orderly fashion. The dark voice sample repeats give it an iron curtain air & when the longs synth drones come in the music really feels very cold, dark & soulful. An excellent edge of melancholy mixed in with the sounds of the process. 6. Utopia Train (Side Liner Remix) This has a very nice bassline. The beats are crisp & clear as well as intricate & the acid line in the beginning is triiiiiiiiipy!!! That makes way for a melody though which to begin with sounds like a mistake but it evolves into a very nice dreamy track. Just when you think it's gone on long enough it changes it's momentum & direction. This doesn't knock my brain out of whack but it's a decent track. 7. Chemicalove A simple melody stands out from the rushing spaciness of the background. It sounds a bit weird until the bassline comes which compliments it perfectly. Trippy little beats & a more subtle melody which seems to oscillate in and out of this dimension could have made this track great but the later melody is a bit annoying and is so prominent that it can't be ignored. I would have stuck with the subtle melody that feels like it's taking me between realities but he sticks with the other one & while it progresses into a nicer sound I could have been happier. 8. Serenity A serene sound indeed. Melody coming from piano & electronica twisting round each other perfectly. The beats are quite prominent & while standing out still manage to give this a very relaxed feeling. While very peaceful throughout some of the sounds that fly through it do not sound great when listening in headphones. The final melodic run while led into very well is exactly the same as at the start of the track. It sounds like it's going to be different but isn't. Damn tease. 9. Rainspotting More good sample work & cool strings, he should try strings more he's good with them. It all sounds very deep & with a slow plodding beat I get the feeling that I'm floating away. The first time I've had that floaty feeling on the album. Nice melodic touches here & there without any real melody. The bassline fills in here to keep it interesting. Not a melodic track but a subtle melody comes in towards the end briefly but fades out pretty quickly. The main problem is that it continues along the same lines for too long. It should either be shorter or change more in the latter stages. 10. Monolife (D. Batistatos Remix) A short punchy number to end on. The beats are strong & take over the track entirely. The seems to be some good stuff in the background but it's drowned out by the beats & the melody. Takes those out & I think you'd have a great little ambient piece. I wonder which way the remix has gone. All in all this is about half a great album. There is some good stuff & the tracks Part of Rapture, Z-51 & Nitrogen are excellent tracks but the remixes included are a let down. My main problem with the album is that non of the tracks flow into each other, when one track finishes the start of the next does not sound very good. To sudden, especially the ones that start quickly after an ambient outro. It either needs more space between the tracks ore to have light mixing to make this sound more than just a collection of tracks. It's a nice enough album without being a masterpiece. There is definitely potential for this guy to make a great album in the future.

I always mix these two up as well

Zero Cult - Ikebana

That's not bad Lu Bu, pretty good in fact! It lacks depth & I don't like the sample but the crunchy beats are nice.

Spielerei & Mantacoup - Cold War

Damn I hope so.

Sienis - Form Another Perspective

Various Artists Wabi Flying Rhino Records 2001 Tracklist 1 Healer - Ultrarapid (1:35) 2 Doof - Grantchester Meadows Remembered (7:28) 3 Gus Till - Bermuda (4:25) 4 Ivor Guest - Escapology (5:01) 5 Igneous Sauria - Momentary Distraction (8:30) 6 4D - Slivva (9:41) 7 Western Rebel Alliance - Medetity (5:58) 8 Healer - Halo (5:34) 9 Solar Quest - Trisine (14:04) A complete ambient compilation from the legendary labels Flying Rhino Records. Some artists I grew to love later appear here, both trance & ambient artists making some nice subtle ambient with very soft beats hidden beneath. 1 Healer - Ultrarapid ] We start of with a soft dreamy intro with a warm drone in the background & a pulsating sound. Little bells & a brief melody on the piano make up this mini intro. 2 Doof - Grantchester Meadows Remembered Nick Barber, better known for his trance has always made fantastic ambient in my book. From his track on MOTY2 to the end of his album It's About Time his ambient is soft dreamy & very psychedelic. This track is up there his best. Maybe the softest I've heard from him being quite minimal as well. A couple of cords repeat through the entire track and are briefly joined by other sounds that come & go. Some very soft guitar, some distortion and an oscillating sound like relaxed hyperspace which comes & goes & shifts pitch each time. Very nice stuff from Doof. 3 Gus Till - Bermuda Gus Till has mastered both upbeat & ambient music so it's always a treat to hear some of his work. I for one especially like his more relaxed stuff like this here. Bermuda is beatless melody & drones. A double drone in the background. One under the other so it sounds at once like an underwater track and an outside night time track at the same time. Lots of space with a soft, slow tune which sounds like it's floating on the wind or the current. 4 Ivor Guest - Escapology With the droning of the wind enhanced into a more solar feel we get a more spacey track here. Imagine flying high above the atmosphere around the Earth and out into the solar system. Through the vacuum encountering only the light of distance stars & the dark matter seeping through the walls of this reality. That is the genious of this track. In the midsts of all this beauty is a cold dark sound that seems to break through the music like it is coming from another dimension. Very trippy stuff. 5 Igneous Sauria - Momentary Distraction We are brought back down to Earth with the sounds of crickets on a summer evening. The drone comes up from nowhere and brings with it a very Earthy, tribal call and a lonely melody with our first hints of rhythm. No beats but a very ambient synth acts as percussion and gives this a bit of energy. Beats do follow & they are very tribal in nature. Slow beats like the steady drumming of a ceremony. Dark atmospheric sounds push this deeper into the night while the drumming seems to bring forth an almost menacing melody. The main melody is actually quite sci fi which amongst all this nature makes me feel like I'm staring up at the night sky from deep in the jungle marveling at the at the vastness of the universe. I love the subtlety of all the sounds used and the majesty of how they are brought together. Brilliant. 6 4D - Slivva Well that Earth brilliance did seem to be just a temporary distraction as Slivva seems to be back in outer space. Soft beats again are hardly noticeable yet integral. The beats seem to act like a gravitational force trying to ground the track while the rest of the sounds are trying to force the music deeper into space. The result is a track that orbits around our blue/green planet. Very spacey but with a constant reminder of home. The beats are just how I like them, there but very subtle. The melodies are fantastic especially the more prominent one which flows in regularly, eventually morphing into a more intricate one & on each pass I expect a beat to kick in but only after a minute or so does a beat arise and it does not kick but just flows naturally. 7 Western Rebel Alliance - Medetity Ahhhhh, Western Rebel Alliance with one of there best tracks. This was one of the tracks that made me anticipate their album so much. Shame that never really worked out.　Anyway, Medetity is a soft lush piece of work. Very natural from the start with birdsong & the drone manages to feel like the light cast by a setting sun on a warm winter evening. The atmosphere is definitely back on Earth with some watery sounds & summery sounds in the air. Nice beats too give this real life. I always feel like I'm in an orchard on a summer evening, watching the sun set. 8 Healer - Halo Some piano & lots of spacious sounds. The drones don't so much drone as they do play melody. That gives this track a fantastic feel like it's being played between realities. The beats act as a bridge for us to return but the mind stays trapped in the dimension beyond our rational thought. 9 Solar Quest - Trisine We end on an Epic note. Solar Quests 14 minute Trisine isn't so much a tune as it is a trippy journey through the the inner reaches of your mind & coming out the other side into the space beyond the universe. A place where there is no up or down, good or bad, warm or cold. Everything just feels beautifully right. The soft drips which initially sounded like water ring clearly in my mind & end up sounding like the ideas dripping through the fabric of space & into my thoughts. The thoughts are given space to move & evolve into ideas & finally fly away as theories into the ether beyond my cranium. A quality pure ambient number to end a great compilation. I have only one problem with this compilation & that is that the tracks do not flow into each other so when it is really focused upon it kind of breaks the flow of the music just a little bit. That is a minor gripe though & every track on here is beyond very good & they make a top notch journey somewhere between here & outer space finally going so far that it reaches our inner most thoughts. Almost beatless throughout with just a few tracks having very subtle beats. All in all a worthy purchase should you get it. So good I bought it twice. One is sitting in my parents house in England but I liked this so much that I had to get another copy to listen to here in Japan.

Cymphonic - Strataradialis http://www.discogs.com/release/1072889