abasio

Younger Brother The Last Days of Gravity Twisted Records 2007 Tracklist 1 Happy Pills (8:48) 2 All I Want (9:04) 3 Elephant Machine (6:19) 4 Your Friends Are Scary (6:38) 5 I Am A Freak (8:58) 6 Ribbon On A Branch (7:46) 7 Sleepwalker Part One (6:16) 8 Sleepwalker Part Two (5:59) 9 Psychic Gibbon (7:30) Well, I didn't really like the first younger brother album. There was nothing in it that grabbed my attention. People described it as halfway between Hallucinogen & Shpongle but all I got from it was Simon Posford's disappointing recent output, boring with little real psychedelica just pseudo psy for kids. So my hope for this one were not too high, to be honest I've no idea why I bought it but I'm glad I did. This is more interesting than flock of crap but that's not saying much. There's some psychedelia but I'm surprised these two guys couldn't do better. Then again, in my opinion they haven't made much decent stuff in the last 10 years (except Prometheus' chilled stuff). This has some nice moments but too much of it sounds like rehashed stuff from yesteryear & I for one was not impressed. 1 Happy Pills What a great start. A nice chilled out melodic piece dripping with lovely psychedelic nuances. The beats are big but relaxed. Lots of space to move. The more intricate sub beats are nicer & an Indian melody gives way to a really nice 60's lounge melody. The whole track has the feel of a 60's smokers lounge just not crap. Good & well produced. Unfortunately I think they started the album to well & it might be all downhill from here. 2 All I Want Only the second track & it's started. A sample that really doesn't need to be there. Simon Posford's trade mark stamp is crap samples & right from the start of this we have one. Something about Paranoiacs but it's something that probably sound pretty cool when on acid or something but after a few sober listens just sounds annoyingly childish. The track itself is quite good. The singing is competent if not great & again it gives the atmosphere of 60's rock just more modern. 3 Elephant Machine Round & round, round & round the samples goes, at first I thought this was the shittiest thing I had ever heard. Ultra cheesy, samples that don't really add much & basically pretty much a pop track from yesteryear given a new coat of paint. But it grew on me, there are some nice touches in there. I think this fills the desire for pop music I have after starving myself of anything mainstream. Good pop! 4 Your Friends Are Scary Nice start kind of ambientish then with a melody thatcould be played on anything electronic. Good sounds that feel like they are building to something. The chords played give a melancholic feel which is continued with the guitars & odd psychedelic rain. It slowly builds a bit of energy but never does anything with it 5 I Am A Freak This track would be nice if it didn't repeat the sample I am a freak I am uniqueso much. The rest of the track is really good. Nice soft trippy weirdness with enough melody & structure to keep me happy but that crap sample (I guess Simon wanted that) fucks it all up. Even the use of guitars is great, the structure's great, the beats are nice & crunchy too. I think my memory of this track is worse than it actually is because I always remember the shit samples but they are not there that much, just the beginning and the end so the middle is pretty good. 6 Ribbon On A Branch What on Earth is this? Folk rock? For your average EDM listener this may be out there & innovative but for someone brought up on folk this is tired old stuff. It's not bad but still, there is nothing innovative about this, it's just introducing old folk music to new people in a less scary way. Fair enough I suppose but there is better stuff than this released all through the 60's. This reminds me of the pop covers in th 1990's when every song that sounded half decent was a cover from the 60's. I wouldn't be surprised if this was too. 7 Sleepwalker Part One This is very average mid BPM psytrance with a few influences from a few years ago. There is nothing really to report, nothing particularly good & nothing horrible. Pretty Pedestrian stuff. 8 Sleepwalker Part Two So why was this worth 2 tracks? Oh it wasn't. Once again this is okay I have no real problem with it but after it's over I can never remember it of have the desire to listen to it again. Dull! Is this really the best they could do? 9 Psychic Gibbon Finally a great track. After the greatness of the first track then the disappointment that followed I wasn't expecting this. This is exactly what I would have liked the whole album to be. Interesting & psychedelic without relying on crap samples from past movies. Instead it relies on melodies & structure. It builds it's way up to the vocal which (is not a sample) fits in naturally to the track. Very good stuff, the sort of track I replay after it's finished. Well, this album is not that good I'm afraid. Typical posford stuff. I wish Benji had put his foot down & said "NO Simon! There will be no crap samples from the TV show you watched last night, it just doesn't go" but he didn't. The samples ruin most of the tracks they are in. and I have no idea what the idea with the sleepwalkers are. Most of this album seems like it's going to reach a wider audience. It seems they have gone the same way as Infected Mushroom but without the horrible vocals from Dudev people haven't got the same scorn. Okay it's a little better done than IM did but still, it's the same direction. Happy pills & Psychic Gibbon are both fantastic tunes. The rest are not so good & sleepwalker 1 & 2 is a yawn fest.

younger brother - the last days of gravity I like this so much more than flock of beeps. So much more interesting.

Isn't pandemonium an american guy living in Yokosuka, Japan who visits this forum & has a passion for fun energetic music? I can't imagine him in this whole debacle! Or has someone stolen his name?

Artist either 1. get better 2. stay the same 3. get worse so when an artist who was shot years ago gets better, nobody checks out his music when an artist stays the same people say they have stagnated when an artist gets worse, everyone checks out there music hoping they can relive past glories. So the way to go is to check out artists you don't know or who you used to think were shit

-1 I'd have to put that in the worst covers thread

Sienis From A Nutter Perspective Gi'iwa Productions 2007 Tracklist 1 Nuttin' (0:59) (2) Sum=thing (7:08) 3 Watt Duh Hekk ?! (6:46) 4 Friggin' Box | Outside The... (6:29) 5 Phinary (7:06) 6 Memory Mechanix (3:44) 7 Digital Dealer (6:45) 8 Triangle Eye, Sir ? (5:07) 9 Re..member (7:21) 10 Me Against My Self (6:33) 11 Form Another Perspective (5:20) 12 Eye See The I Sea (7:45) 13 Earth Womb (7:12) Okay I only bought this album recently but it had an instant effect on me. This has reignited my love of high tempo music. I have focused more & more on chillout over the last year as there has been very few trance releases that have attracted my interest. This one however blew my socks off. The craziness, the randomness nicely ordered & the fantastic use of baselines. I wish all upbeat music was this good. Really this is my favourite up tempo release this year. It makes no sense & I have no idea if in the future it will get annoying but at the moment I just don't see that happening. All the weird crazy samples are fun yes but manage to not be annoying unlike a lot of releases have been. This guy must be a sample master. 1 Nuttin' A short intro with a big classical piano melody & a crazy cartoon vocal Sweet Freedom here I a..a.wa.wa..... Boy it's a good thing I'm leaving before I went nuts, goodbye sparkly elves (owls?) goodbyeeeeeeeeee A perfect sample summing up what you can expect from the rest of the album (2) Sum=thing Nuttin' was just the intro to this track. A nice melody played by the bassline, weird twisted & scratched vocals & a sci fi lady speaks of our entrapment in this small space. Crazy weirdness for sure. I love it. The other melody too played on what could be a harpsichord adds a middle age adventure feel to the track. hey, it's just weird enough to work perfectly. 3 Watt Duh Hekk?! The bom bom bom seems to have a resonance echo & the sounds shift from left to right in an off putting random way that makes you think your headphones are broken until the sounds fly around so much that they fill both sides. An incredibly infectious bassline which has made me look stupid at the train station trying to hold my desire to dance while waiting for the train. It's a small world after world is butchered by some weirdo freak in the breakdown before kicking back in with a completely different track. What the Hell happened? The Bizarreness is compounded by the return of the oscillating sounds from the right to the left randomly. Oh well 16% of the time it works everytime 4 Friggin' Box | Outside The... An anomalous violin melody starts us off before the beat smashes in & weird acidic sounds fly at us from every direction. Somehow the girl answering the phone is the perfect sample brilliantly timed. A nice squelchy synth plays well over the beat with little squelchy sounds underneath driving us somewhere. Not sure where we are going it's just nice to be insane. The natty little vocal towards the end feels like tiny little elves up to no good on a midsummer night's eve. 5 Phinary Another infectious melodious bassline which has made people stare at me on the train. I just can't help myself, I must dance even if it's just slight head nodding. The beats are crunchy too & the track screams for your potential energy to be released. This is a mix between normality & the craziness of Sienis with Sienis winning out in the end, as you would expect. As the track goes on it builds more energy & yu might get carried away with the dance but listen carefully while you dance & you mind will be separated from you body as you lose yourself in the building oddness. 6 Memory Mechanix Glitchy start with a strange feeling of running & when it out runs the glitch & enters the deep dark forest I think it's going to kick off at any moment everytime but then the long synth drones come in giving this a fucked up dark ambient on speed feel. Just as you're expecting them, the beats come in slowly & it really feels lost. I'm lost & the track has obviously lost it's mind. 7 Digital Dealer No idea. Another very up tempo track but this time the bassline is much more pedestrian & although I could dance to this on the dancefloor. It wouldn't make me dance. The best thing about this track is definitely the sample. Calm down, I didn't mean to scare you, why are we whispering, I wanted to see if you would whisper because I whispered, I think I would In my mind this sample sums up Sienis's sound. Completely & totally fucked up nonsense. The track picks up after the sample to but never really draws me in like the others. Gets better & better towards the end but just doesn't seem to stand out among the brilliance around it until the squeaky melody played in the last 2 minutes. That was pure genious. So it comes good in the end & has you looking forward in the build up on repeat listens. 8 Triangle Eye, Sir? Woooooo!!!! The start of this is....damn I don't know. Feels like something trying to escape some terrible hell! When it finally claws it's way out it encounters denial & logic (brilliant sample by the way) as well as mental incarceration & candy girl pop. Possibly the weirdest track on the album. Not sure but it is definitely up there in the what the hell is going on (?) stakes. 9 Re...member This is all so very ordinary, for a few minutes you can't help but feel disappointed that nothing has happened yet to make you say what the fuck? But after a few minutes the synths come in & they are fast & compliment the weird melody pretty well so before you even realise it, is crazy. The craziness though has been toned down a little in favour of trippiness that draws you in & takes you away. 10 Me Against My Self So....back to the crazy off the wall, what is going on sort of stuff but with the foot off the pedal. The pace is not so fast & there is more space for the music to breathe. The weirdness is here in spades & lots of samples like the angry at god sample is so out there it just makes so much sense. 11 Form Another Perspective Best track on the whole album. It all comes together. The grim fairy tale feel, the nuttiness, the ambience in the background & yes yes yes the bassline is so amazingly fantastic that when it comes in I can do anything else, I can't talk I can't walk straight I can't see. All I can do is smile & dance. Every part of me wants to move. Even when I'm sat down I can feel myself dancing! I think this is probably my favourite track of 2007. It's so infectious. I just want to listen to it again & again & again. I could probably have this on repeat at a party & be happy for hours I only wish it was longer. 12 Eye See The I Sea After the brilliance of Form Another Perspective this only very good track is disappointing. It's extremely trippy but lacks the craziness & the energy of the rest of the album. Nice melody that's subtle & refined & if you listen to this on it's own you'll thing it is weird but it just doesn't compare 13 Earth Womb We finish with a downbeat Indian themed number. It is a good track don't get me wrong but it is really out of place with the rest of the album. There is non of the crazy weirdness that came before it. It's a little clichéd and doesn't follow on from the think outside the box stuff that makes up this album. All in all this is one of the best albums I've heard in years. It's fun has lots of energy, crunches & is soooo psychedelic it makes my mind flip everytime I hear it. It has been a long time since I've heard anything that is so fucked up yet still musical. And yes so much of it makes me move. I haven't wanted to dance in ages but with this makes it impossible not to.

Blue Planet Corporation Blue Planet Flying Rhino Records 1999 Tracklist 1 Apex (7:30) 2 Crystal (8:43) 3 Alidade (10:48) 4 Micromega (6:56) 5 Atoll (7:33) 6 Dialect (6:47) 7 Open Sea (9:14) 8 Roma (6:39) 9 Arcana (10:28) I had heard a lot about this album a few years after it's release & really really wanted to here it. However I couldn't get my hands on it. I heard Micromega a number of times on various compilations & it just increased my desire to hear this album all the more. Still though, it was a bugger to get hold of. Finally I paid a lot of my hard earned for it but I never regretted it due to the pure quality of the tracks displayed here. I've heard many people call this unpsychedelic & I think this goes to show how subjective the term is. This might not be as melodic as old goa or as crazy as psy around this time but it creates beautiful soundscapes in my head & each track takes me on a miniature journey which is part of the long journey represented by the full album. It starts slow gets faster & faster then drops down again finally ending in an ambient masterpiece. 1 Apex A slow glitchy start leads into a trippy sci fi sample about mankind's unsuitability to handle an alien power source. The beats are crunchy & the sounds are laced with metallic spacey nuances. Melody comes in very slightly towards the end but it's subtle & hidden for the most part. Stick on a pair of headphones to hear it for the minute before the beats stop. 2 Crystal A crystalline melody carries between the two tracks, joining the 2 into one long track, carries on after the light pounding beat, the same sample from Apex & a deliciously delicate baseline. The simple repetitive melody is infectious & I like how it's played in different keys using different sounds. My favourite being the synth like melody falling in key like cascading waterfall. It amazing manages to twist & turn a lot while staying very focused. Great track. 3 Alidade A more obvious transition to this track with a sudden increase in BPM. Suddenly into more pounding driving music but this is probably the reason I can't drive. I would be unable to focus on the road while listening to the intricate layers beneath the beat. This is a perfect example of how good music can build & build & build. The increase is not obvious but but gradual. At over 10 minutes the smooth gentle build takes this up to the sky into hyperspace round the Pleiades a few times then back to Earth. My only gripe would be the slightly out of place vocals that come in in the last couple of minutes. They are quite subtle & almost unnoticeable when not paying close attention but when you are spending your time listening to the music instead of merely hearing it I feel they would have been left out. A minor floor though as they are brief. 4 Micromega This is the track that made it onto all those compilations. I heard it on Slipstream & Re:evolution & it just made me so angry that I didn't own this album. Another track that builds & builds into a journey. The turns are more obvious though with melodies coming & going & slight pitch changes. The Trance Dance sample may be a bit cheesy & I don't know what it's doing there but while not adding anything it doesn't detract either. 5 Atoll Bom Bom Bom right from the start with loads of acidic sounds dropping down. After a quick breakdown comes a driving synthline making this a very danceable track. But that's not all, this is not just a body track it still has all the brain food as a few layers down is a softer synth melody, lush female vocals, flutes and a light fluffy melody. When the beat leaves for a while you can suddenly hear these all a lot more prominently & when it pounds back in they are still there in the 1st layer. Very nice structure 6 Dialect Another high tempo track with lots of shuffling under-beats. A short but atmospheric drone comes in & out & I'm left waiting for it to reemerge. While I'm waiting I'm treated to nice soft oscillating synth work. The shuffles come back with a sample "we are out of control" that I'm not to sure about but I forgive it's presence as the rest of the track is sooooo good. That drone never came back though. 7 Open Sea A messy start clears when the synth line comes in. A nice one, not so driving but still energetic enough to make me want to dance. Another danceable track with a fantastic melody that once again manages to feel like a sky blue cascade of sound flowing all over me like a sonic waterfall. All the sounds here are much more in your face than any of the other tracks & there are a lot of sounds. It could have sounded cluttered but they have been expertly ordered by BPC with just a few slips where it sounds odd. Other than that it's a great crazy maximal track. 8 Roma A noticeable drop in pace from full on craziness of sound to this nice relaxed proggy number. The synths are more relaxed, the beat feels like it can breathe again and the melody dances in your head rather than your limbs. There is more ambience in the background that lift this track a lot and it really comes off as a treat for the mind. 9 Arcana We finish with a much more downbeat number. The beats while still quite hefty are slower. A melodious sound repeats through the start and the end of the track. It's definitely a focal point as it fills my head when it's there & when it's not. I wait for it to come back as I know it will. While I'm waiting though as I'm listening for it I pick up the other sounds all the more. I focus harder when I expect it to return. When it does it's just building to one of the nicest synths I've heard at one point they seem to fill my entire life. There is just the one sound but it feels like a million of them at once. Finally a sample that fits. It's just a drawn out male vocal but it goes in to the rest of the track very nicely. Well, this album could have been perfect. The only problem is that some of the samples are a little out of place & sound a bit too cheesy. Without them this would be a sublime journey into heaven with no bumps along the way but as it stands it's a sublime flight into the joyous afterlife but having to fly past dark clouds & mourning relatives. Not unpleasant, I'd just rather have the simpler ride. Quite rare right now so if you see this you should definitely buy it because it's not only rare it's also bloody good

It's monday I have the day off & this arrived

Bamboo Forest Revival MP Records 2005 Shite Tracklist 1 Voyager 7.19 2 Revival 6.33 3 Syncopations 7.16 4 Soft Limit 7.20 5 MP 7.13 6 Ipanema 6.54 7 Techno Logic 8.17 8 Simonal 6.38 9 Karmatic 7.02 How good was Bamboo Forest - Bamboo Forest ay? One of my favourite artists out with a new album. I didn't hear any hype about this so didn't have my hopes up. I just found it in a shop & instantly bought it. I thought this couldn't be bad. How wrong I was. This is probably the worst Psy-Trance album I have ever heard. Well it shouldn't be called Psy-Trance, this is cheesy eurobeat crap. Some advice, read this then don't buy this god awful garbage. 1 Voyager (Full on opener, Crap) Starts off with with an accented english sample which doesnt seem to offensive but has in the back ground a really irritating high pitch whining noise, urgh. The beat kicks in just after a minute and there are synth cords all over the place. It has set the tone for a full on album. The beat is very generic and you feel glad when it fades out at the end. Not the best opener for such a highly anticipated album. I'm feeling a little disappointed that I parted with my hard earned (well earned anyway) cash for full on. 2 Revival (Same as track 1) Starts with a much better beat which would have been cool if the track had continued in the same vien but instead of progressing the beat into something nice on 41 seconds the same full on beat as track 1 comes in and this track does have a very similar feel to the first. on 2 minutes the decent beat comes back but just for a few seconds, replaced swiftly by full on. There are some vocal samples but I cant quite make them out but it really does sound like "sell out sell out sell out". Some nice synths come in around 4 minutes which sound promising at first but aren't. The track ends in exactly the same way as the first. Better than the first track but marginally. 3 Syncopations (Good sample ruined) Starts off with a deep forest sample but it is slightly more distorted and in the back of you mind you can feel the full on beat coming which fades in after 50 seconds and the full on kicks in on 71. A spacey (well it wants to be) vocal sample says something about the cosmos and the Africany deep forest sample threads back in but even though you can tell it's the same sample (which I loved on deep forest's work (I'm pretty sure it's deep forest but if it not sorry)) it just sound tacky on this. This track sums up my feelings for the album so far, which is this - There are some nice ideas but the pretty poorly put together in full on style. 4 Soft Limit (better but boring) Starts with euro pop singing, a slightly better fullon beat kicks in on 40 seconds which is joined by a much nicer sub beat and bit later. Apart from the awful vocals this is a much better track than the previous 3. More subtle (not subtle but more subtle) sounds in it but there is just that f**king vocal that ruins everything. Well the track just keeps on going, no real progression and after five minutes starting to something would change but the whole tracks on a loop it seems. Slight cord changes don't cut it bamboo forest. Around 7 minutes a really nice floaty sound gives me a little hope but then the track ends. 5 MP (I make kiddie trance) Starts with a more tribal beat for the intro but you know whats coming yes on 40 seconds you have that full on beat again. A vocal that sounded okay the first time got irritating after 4 or 5 times and them some really awful kiddie trance vocals. This sounds like Sash or ATB or something your teenage sister listens to and thinks she's really cool because she doesn't listen to Britney Spears like all those sad c*nts at school. Sorry sister but this is just as bad. Quite nice industrial sounds which you can hear when the beat stops briefly but its not good enough to make up for the rest of the song (there are so many vocals I feel I can call it a song) 6 Ipanema (Cheesy gay Shit!) It has the best start to any track on the album, a slightly ethereal voice (SLIGHTLY) but soon a strange techhy sound comes in and 50 seconds in comes the same fullon beat. One and a half minutes in and you'll be pissing yourself laughing. The cheesiest sample I have heard since my university flatmates took me to saturday night at student union (it was actually advertised as more cheese than a safeway deli counter). It goes (imagine 80's boy band trying to sound really sexy to 12 year old girls) "wont you touch me touch me touch me". Really made me laugh in an oh my god what can come next kind of way. I had to ask, a slightly less gay voice but ultimately gayer (is that a word or is it more gay?) sample which goes something like "Take a look inside, Magic in your eyes" 7 Techno Logic (Complete rip off) Starts of kind of well with slow keyboard chords but the techno logic vocal comes in, I've heard that somewhere before. But where...? Bugger me with a fish fork this track is technologic by daft punk. Is this the same guy as in daft punk? if not can you just rip off a song that much? Now I know nystagmus' consciousness sounds 90% like Infected mushroom's Shen (I think Shen) but that's just the melody. This is almost an exact copy of daft punk just put into a really gay full on style (I thought the daft punk one was okay apart from the words). It even has the same name it just not one word, it's 2. That will keep the copyright laws at bay and Mr Bamboo forest if you are Daft Punk you should stick to that project. All that aside this is a bloody annoying tune. It was the worst on Human after all and amazingly the worst on this album too. Feeling pissed off that I own that track twice. 8 Simonal (Thank god it wasn't as bad as 7) Once again starts off fine and the beat this time kicks in deeper which a decent sub beat. Decent sounds and a sample actually complement this tune quite well. A few industrial/techhy sounds are quite good and a attempt a melody. This tarck is sounding okay but maybe Im just relieved it wasn't as bad as the previous track, oh god I'm reliving it, close to tears just thinking of it. No this is easily the best track on the album so far. It has better sounds and the arrangement if not good is not complete, total and utter crap. If I heard this on it's own I would just think generic and harmless but overall pretty shit. It keeps saying FUCKERS for no reason. 9 Karmatic (I wish the rest of the album was only this shit) Last track Hurray! Starts of saying T minus 1 minute and continues with a countdown. No this isn't a countdown to the end of the album (I'm not that lucky). No full on beat kicks in and I have to admit I'm kind of relieved. Finishing an album with a downbeat track may not be everyone's cup of tea but it's the only thing done even close to right on the whole album. I actually don't mind this track. Floaty lady voices, nice ethereal sounds in the background, a nicer beat. It is actually quite a pleasant end to the album but it gets you wondering why the rest of the album is such boring generic fullon or kiddie trance. To sum up the album then. Bamboo Forest - Revival has some nice ideas in it but the production is crap and for every nice idea there are 5 realllllllly bad ideas thrown on top of it. The last track is fine, track 7 is one of the most god awful things I've ever heard. Track 6 is one of the cheesiest things I have ever heard. The rest is just crap! You know how sometimes a movie is so bad it's good. This is not like that It's just bad. If you like cheesy euro pop then give this a sniff if not, don't bother. Even if you like fullon you probably wont like this. I like fullon myself I just hate generic shit fullon like most stuff so I'm not just saying this is bad because I don't like the style, it really is bad. I wont be playing this again. 7/10 hahahahaha just kidding 1/10 that's one for the last track and making me piss myself laughing.

Chances are nothing will go wrong & it'll all be fine but Psyshop just isn't good when something does go wrong!

3 of my all time favourites are from 2005

This is why I never use psyshop! They were crap when they fucked my order, never got it sorted out after months of trying. Maybe they thought they could fuck me over 'cause I was far away. But I tell you, the Japanese postal system is fantastic so it wasn't them that fucked is up no matter how much crapshop wanted to believe they did! Good luck

So does your hair np Jason Corder & Opium - Autunno

IMO the second one is much better than the first. More varied & much more interesting.

Twist Dreams Talpa - The art of being Non Jaia - Blue Energy / Blue Synergy Loud - Some Kind of Creativity Suntrip Releases

no any genre I just find beats in more relaxed music more intricate with a nicer feel

Various Oxycanta Ultimae 2006 Tracklist 01. Ghostfriend - Moist 02. Solar Fields – Detection (Partially Detected) 03. Between Interval - Aerolith 04. Aes Dana – Mineral Lights (Submerge Edit) 05. Cell – Floatation Retention 06. Asura – Galaxies Part 1 07. Sync24 - Source 08. Hybrid Leisureland – Trampoline Hotel 09. Subgardens – Listen To The Flowers Grow (Aes Dana Remix) 10. Omnimotion – Magic Tree This is the compilation that got me into Ultimae's sound. I am one of the biggest Ultimae whores around, I love everything they have put out so far so as you can imagine the compilation that introduced me too it is held in high esteem. My first from my favourite record label. This though is not a usual Ultimae release of ambient leading into some trance beats & back again into ambient. This is super relaxed chill, there are beats there but they are more subtle than usual Ultimae. 1. Ghostfriend - Moist A soft atmospheric intro with beats that are obviously there yet very subtle. They are soft beats that make you think they will get harder but they never do. The beauty in this track is the tease, the unfulfilled promises. The slight melody hints at something brighter but it's all subdued in a bed of rose coloured linen that just begs sleep. 2. Solar Fields - Detection (Partially Detected) This is on a Solar Fields album in it's entirety but I'll try & review this as part of this journey here. It is quite a journey unto itself managing to fit in & stand out. The beat is heavy while being soft, prominent while subtle. It is the beats that drive the track & although they don't change they seem to gradually increase in energy & it's this that creates an atmosphere that is more than the sum of it's parts. 3. Between Interval - Aerolith It all seems to drone. A few drones shifting from high pitch to lower frequencies in a way that sounds like they're falling from grace. Amazing how a fall from grace can sound so beautiful. This makes me feel like grace is not all it's cracked up to be & that a fall might be a good idea. 4. Aes Dana - Mineral Lights (Submerge Edit) The sparkly start with sci fi sounds & rushes of melody give way to a much earthier monster. Like an alien menace has crash landed on earth & is slowly starting to spread among the local population. This track has the alien stealth & human mistrust to make it a sure fire paranoid winner! 5. Cell - Floating Retention As the title suggests, this track floats. It manages to fly through your mind unaided allowing other sounds to add to it but never to detract from it. So much so that when all the other spacey sounds go & we are left with just the bare bones, floating retention seems to fly above the rest & even the celestial sounds seem to appear to come from underneath proving that this is higher than everything else. No matter how much it tries, in the alien forest. 6. Asura - Galaxies Part 1 Soft steady beats & an atmospheric spacial drone add up to a nice starry eyed surprise. This is definitely based on the experience of outer space. It's a spacey number given energy by beats that permeate halfway through & it sounds like a desperate rush to get nowhere. The vocal cry really make this a sci fi classic. 7. Sync 24 - Source I feel like a familiar darkness has surrounded me. A slight melody from the darkness brings with it a baseline. The familiarity comes from recognising this track from elsewhere. Although I heard it here first I've heard it in different surroundings. It's nostalgic even if that nostalgia is just a few years it feels quite real. 8. Hybrid Leisureland - Trampoline Hotel Amazingly this does feel like a trampoline at the start. it tries to build it into a hotel but realises the folly of this goal & gives up. It really doesn't try to be anything & I guess that is the point, although I never was good at getting the point. When listening to this in headphones, if I take them off all I hear is the rabble of other people. Putting them back on is a joy, a return to ordered nonsense. 9. Subgardens - Listen to the Flowers Grow (Aes Dana Rmx) Suddenly we are definitely in a garden. Be it a human or an alien garden is debatable but it's an interesting garden. The atmosphere in this garden is late evening & the flowers you thought might never grow are given the chance to shine now. But it's not just the flowers that grow, it's the whole movement of the track where everything grows from the acorn to the mind to the birds & the bees, but most of all the flowers. Love the beats in this track too, lush reverse trips. 10. Omnimotion - Magic Tree Great creaks ripple through this giving it a nice woody feel than even other forest tracks don't often manage. Each sound feels like the creaking of a tree coming down but there is never any almighty crash. It just gets softer & softer until the beat that was heroic ends up ordinary & reflective of it's past glory. A lot of people might find this boring, even some ultimae fans may think this is too relaxed. Oxycanta is closer to real ambient than most other Ultimae releases with the beats being much more subtle giving the music a lot of space to work with, room to breathe.

Aes Dana Memory Shell Ultimae 2004 Tracklist 01. Chernozem 02. Iris Rotation 03. Dusts 04. Opalin 05. Memory Shell (Lost Radio E-dit) 06. Haze 07. Shouting Valley 08. Cities Update 09. Sub Morphing 10. Grounds Around 11. Exposure (Aes Dana Rmx) 12. Chernozem (Closing) The 3rd album from Aes Dana & the only one still available (at the time of writing) at a decent price. After hearing Season 5 at a friends house I really wanted to own it but I couldn't manage to get my hands on it so instead I bought Memory Shell & I was definitely not disappointed, I think it is Aes Dana's best album to date but it has to be said that it is the only one I own on CD so I have given it a lot of time to be heard. 1. Chernozem A short soft ambient opener. A purple drone in the background & a muttered vocal over the top. Slight acid rain & underwater melodies give this a dark wet feel. 2. Iris Rotation A beat starts us off but is quickly replaced by an irregular rain and a baseline or two. The 1st is melodious while the second one is more subtle & rhythmic albeit brief. The melody is fantastic & really builds the atmosphere. It's a semi dark semi sci fi atmosphere with beats that give energy but don't detract from the spaciness. Ambient trance with the best of ambient and the best of trance. 3. Dusts Weird bits of sci fi melody come & go & it's a relief when something bigger comes. The drone is pretty minimal but it manages to fill the space & widen it before & oscillating cry comes out of the abyss & into the track. The beats themselves feel like they are coming out & returning to a vacuum. The baseline melody turns the ambience into a tune & the beat drives it into a foot tapper. Very nice dreamy track. 4. Opalin The word Opalin makes me think of opium & mescaline. The track is far from the atmosphere of an opium den but the does manage to combine the trippiness of opium with the melody & the weird background blips & the slow floatiness of mescaline with the steady but slow 4-4 & the very subtle rushing synths. I don't know if that was the intention but that's definitely the result in my mind. 5. Memory Shell (Lost Radio E-Dit) I wear your body, I'm still your memory! This is the end of the opening sample. A lovely sounding lady is quite psychedelic but it's the lonely wind that swirls around that gives the atmosphere to this track. By the time the baseline comes in shortly followed by the beat I've already been transported to the fields of my past, standing in my memories turned into night. Everything I remember is darker & different, like my past should or shouldn't have been. 6. Haze The vocals are really beautiful here. They seem to come out of the ether & into my soul. The beats are very tribal adding an earthy touch to the goddess like vocals. An earth goddess loves me & wants me to know. She embraces me while keeping me distant 7. Shouting Valley Supposedly recorded in the Shouting Valley of the Golan Heights in Syria, this track does exactly what it says in the title. The sounds is like some big vocal opera singer giving it their all from the bottom of the valley. I guess the opening murmurs are the actual recordings but it's the main female vocal that is so haunting. It so real & yet so unreal at the same time. 8. Cities Update A sudden change from natural phenomena to man made structures. Another 4-4 beat feels artificial in a machine like way with the baseline as the electricity feeding it. The vocal jargon only adds to the engineer make up of this city. Industrial beauty is strange but apparent, must be alien because humans can't do this. 9. Sub Morphing The melody straight away is played by the baseline. This plus the weird metallic sounds add up to one metallic sounding track. The robotic artificialness continues but evolves into more natural cyborg sounds. The late melody hints at humanity but the rest only portray industry 10. Grounds Around A much more earthy track sounds like a grounded spacecraft. It's like it wants to fly but can't find the right sequence. voices call out instructions & it starts to run but it's running across the ground & not flying. A strange earth like space. 11. Exposure (Aes Dana Rmx) This track cries out to be heard. From the escaping vocal in the intro to the baseline & the beats this screams notice me in really subtle & reserved way like an emo that craves but doesn't want attention. Beautiful yet strangely dark. So there we are an ambient emo anthem. 12. Chernozem (Closing) To close we have the mirror of the opening. An oceanic feel with a dark underwater vocal & a pseudo melody. By the vocals & the sounds I'm not sure if this is supposed to be deep ocean or nuclear winter. The track title's proximity to Chernoble makes me think the latter but being inexperienced I always feel the former. So all in all Aes Dana has produced a stunning album that's still available now (Dec 2007). So if you like this sound buy it before it's too late

H.U.V.A. Network Distances Ultimae April 2004 Ambient Tracklist 1 Distances (8:39) 2 Access To The Long Fiels (7:40) 3 Rain Geometries (5:52) 4 Symetric Lifes (7:11) 5 Processing Lights (3:29) 6 Indigo Room (6:46) 7 Time Circles (8:28) 8 Overload (Putput Mix) (10:24) 9 Moon Town (5:45) 10 Morning Call (Dawn Remix) (7:37) 11 Sunday Barbecue With The Neighbours (3:30) When Aes Dana meets Solar Fields, in my opinion 2 of the best ambient/ambient trance producers since the turn of the century. Teaming up to create an album combining both men's skills & ideas. So do these 2 ambient maestros compliment each other or did they conflict too much. Let's take a look!! 1. Distances We kick off with the title track. A soft dreamy track with an oscillating synth, right from the start. Soft voices are barely audible early on, unless you listen in headphones. If you listen carefully though it becomes more noticeable later in the track. The beat & the baseline are quite subtle & this creates a dark evening atmosphere. I feel like a small insignificant creature, lying in a field of black gold watching a UFO with mild interest. 2. Access To The Long Fields A bit more melodious here but with a slightly alien feel. Long drawn out sci fi drones with high & low pitch form the intro before a slow heavy baseline played on a double bass brings us down to Earth after the intro. Little high hats build energy as a break beat teases in. The beat never becomes steady though & after a short time is gone leaving only the spacey sounds as an outro. We were flying, crashed down back to Earth & started running before realising we were still in the air. 3. Rain Geometries More melodious still with an actual melody from the start then a heavy (sounding) base melody over the top. Some minimal acoustic guitar & the beat kicks in at the same time. The beat is steady but very spacious & slow. It seems initially to add very little to the track until it leaves & comes back which is when you realise it is timing your thoughts so you can understand every little addition. As all the sounds have arrived a break beat flutters through an infectious if simple melody. 4. Symmetric Lines This this track has a really spacious feel to it. Big orchestral droning synths in the background feel like a solar wind pushing us through space. The most percussive track so far is the most spacey & trancey. Bits of melody come at us but they feel distant as if they are moving away from us. The vocal that comes in later is a nice touch but it seems like a humanly alien landing in a parallel universe. 5. Processing Lights The sound of waves can be heard under a strange sounding drone. Light rushes from under the sea as we are shown the wonders of the deep. This track has a very wet feel like the sea. The little electronic twinkles even manage to sound like sea gulls. Albeit twisted alien ones. 6. Indigo Room If water was made up of colour & lights then this track would be the rain. I never got this track on the stereo as the baseline is very prominent and can take over an unfocused mind but listen carefully beneath the base & you can hear a colourful rain & a sonic wind lightening things up. Even the middle section with no baseline seems to have hidden depths. Listen to this track. Focus on it's beauty. 7. Time Circles A very difficult track to describe. Errrr..... the start is like many a dark ambient album. Long dark synths, no melody or percussion, just atmosphere and weird noise. A dark alien voice comes in halfway through bringing with it a soft yet oppressive bamboo beat. I have to describe this track as passively aggressive. It's chilled yet uptight. It's spacious but too dense. It is a paradox. I'm just not sure about it. I usually like weird abstract stuff but I just don't get this! It's not too weird it's just not that good. 8. Overload (Put Put Remix) The longest track on the album is quick to get going, short stabs of synth seem to act as a danceable beat & there is energy from the get go. When the beat comes in it's a 4-4 beat right from Aes Dana. Very driving relaxed dancefloor stuff. When the beat comes back in with the beat lines coming back in perfectly, I really feel like my brain's on overload. 9. Moon Town Follows on nicely from the outro of Overload. It feels spacey but also feels more tribal & grounded. Think alien tribe sacrificing someone to their god on a full moon or a double moon. It's much more relaxed than overload with a more intricate beats. It's a lot trippier & a great track visually. 10. Morning Call (Dawn Remix) The celestial vocals at the start bring with them a light warmth. The sound of an alien oceanic wave crashing against the cliffs puts me on a beach and the steady rushing sounds put me at dawn. The voice sounds like the sun's light creeping over the horizon & the beats feel like the light creeping over the hills to light the rest of the world. It feels like the day is underway but I'm on the wrong side of it. Experiencing the sunrise after being up all night. 11. Sunday BBQ With The Neighbours Now that the day is underway, the birds are out & the sun is shining. Melody seems to come out of the sky but it fades away in a foreboding manner. When it comes back it seems more sinister, the sounds behind it bring dark clouds but still the birds sing. After fading the second time only the birds are left behind. Then silence for a minute followed by some dark BBQ destroying spirits. The total opposite of the start of the track. Sounds a bit like rain and as we know rain kills BBQs. So did Aes Dana & Solar Fields work well together? I think they did! It's a good album & apart from Time Circles, which is crap, the tracks all form part of a story. The album goes from early evening through the night to the dawn & even until the day with poor weather. Favourites are symmetric lines, indigo room, overload & morning call but I wish there had been no inclusion of Time Circles. This is not the greatest ultimae album & being a combination of 2 great artists that it is I can't help but feel a little disappointed. You should listen to this before you listen to Solar Fields or Aes Dana.

I believe you must be being very silly I have no problem with the baselines. They sound how I wish all fast baselines should sound! Well, I have the promise of money which is just as good, well not just as good but it's made me less cautious. Of course, Ultimae releasing some must haves has not help my curbed addiction.