abasio

interesting, cheers Janet! Was that actually on C4?

new link

can any mod fix my typo here in the title should say dive not drive

Damn! Completely didn't notice that

Portal of Perceptions (Celestial Dragon)

I put up a few today & they are already quite far down the list so obviously people are psoting in the review section, 2007 anyway

douzo Midnight Soul Drive

Try explaining this to a Japanese that has no idea what you are talking about

Tracklist 1. Hospital Requiem (4:22) 2. Foliage Pathway (4:27) 3. Leraine (With Kettel) (7:44) 4. The Realms Of Sanda (7:53) 5. The King Of Sanda (2:13) 6. Born In A Tropical Swamp (9:29) 7. Kingdom Of Hearts (4:55) 8. Friday Fall (6:01) 9. Terata (2:27) 10. Shrine (4:06) 11. We No Longer Need Ourselves (2:24) I initially bought this album on the strength of Leraine (a collaboration with Kettel) but I was disappointed & didn't listen to it again for a long time. Stupid Stupid Stupid that's what I was. Plain Stupid!!! Although this is what usually happens with me, with this album I can't help but feel like I've missed out on a few months of pure joy just becasue I didn't pay enough attention to it the first time round. As when I gave this another try, this time alone & undistracted in bed it just blew me away. Since then I have listened to it again & again & again and I still discover new intricacies as well as more fully understanding the big picture. If it was a woman I'd try to take it to bed. I'd want to marry it & give it half my stuff. I just hope (& I'm pretty sure it wont happen) that I wont get bored of this in the future after listening to it too much & want to get a divorce & send it packing! Anyway the story is about a dying man & his journey through the afterlife realm of Sanda. Enjoy 1. Hospital Requiem The story starts in the hospital with Hospital Requiem. I can here the sound of the machine helping me breath & a voice from somewhere. Where have you been? Let Me go! & Friend? The melody comes in slow & melancholic just as I'm about to die. I can here the doctors talking but it's a muffled conversation. The melody becomes more floaty & the vocals seem less real. Surely I am passing over now into the other side. I can hear the ocean, the sea of souls but somehow I can still here that damn machine keeping me tethered to the mortal plane. As the machine finally stops I wail as I hear other sounds out of the ether. 2. Foliage Pathway On the Foliage pathway I start my journey proper. Slight rain falls around me as I try to get my bearings. Suddenly it feels clear what has happened to me but I am still unsure as to how, why or most importantly where I am. Everything seems strange as an other worldly melody hums around my head & small strange bugs buzz around me. I can hear muttering nearby but as I walk down the path surrounded by the most beautiful leaves the people fade & I'm presented with something huge & indescribable. It's gone, this godlike thing. I'm alone. 3. Leraine Completely alone I am standing before open plains as the wind rushes hard in front of me, yet I do not feel it. Another melody permeates the air & disspells the wind leaving just the trickling of water. I think of the life I left behind & Leraine who undoubtedly mourns my passing still. How long has it been? I march on with purpose. I have no idea as to my goal but still I march on. My life flashes before me as I march, a long happy life in that world I led. I had the love of a good woman & the friendship of people who really cared for me. I was the first to leave it. My impatience must have gotten the better of me, my thirst for exploration led me to this land alone so alone I must march. Across the plains to where I don't know, but I'm looking forward to what awaits me next. I stop. I sense something ahead. I'm nervous & I don't know what to do. 4. The Realms Of Sanda I plunge on & find myself in a bustling marketplace. People everywhere selling their wares, chatting away. Nobody's noticed me, should they? Would they? Am I just another traveller passing by? I filter out all the hustle & bustle as I focus on it. Right there across the square. Something familiar yet alien. I walk towards it but it doesn't get any closer. It's still in the same place & I have moved but somehow it remains the distance away from me. No matter how much or how fast I move it stays out of reach. I don't even know what it is but it has filled my head. I must have it, an all consuming passion takes me as I rush on but it still wont come. As I rush I am halted. A hand grabs my shoulder pulling me back. I look back, a woman is holding onto my shirt so I can move. She pulls me closer & whispers in my ear the disappears. What? I didn't catch that? She's gone I'll never know what it was. But when I look down, it's there waiting in front of me as it always had been. 5. The King Of Sanda Looking closely at the box I recognise it as my box. The one in which I kept all my old photos & love letters. Of course I open it & I'm surrounded by a blinding light. I'm in a hallway surrounded by alien dancers moving so slowly to the slow music. They are not all alien, many are human many are not but yet they are all the same. Above them all sits a man who could be King. He looks on me, as our eyes meet the scene disappears before my tired eyes. 6. Born In a Tropical Swamp It's hot here, it's muggy, it's dark & it's foreboding. I'm knee deep in the wet earth, I try to move but it's slow going. A contrast from where I was just transported from. Strange creatures I can hear around me & in the distance I can see a light. I try to make my way towards the light but it's hard going & it has started raining. I give up, I lie on my back & try & sink into the ground, but it wont take me. An Eagle plunges out of the sky & grasps me in it's talons. It flies me high out of the tropical swamp, out of the jungle above the trees. I can see the tree tops I can see the palace behind me where I just was and in the distance where I am headed I can see a castle, dark & foreboding I fly closer & lower. The Eagle is dropping, am I too heavy? I look again at the castle, what before looked dark & scary now looks like pristine white beauty but soon it is obscured by the trees as I fall lower & lower. The Eagle drops me, as I free fall with the rain I wonder if there is pain here. I heard that there would be no pain but still I am fearful of it. I land painlessly on the ground, as I stand there is the woman from before. Who is she? Why is she here again? What is she saying? 7. Kingdom Of Hearts As the woman disappears I start walking again. She looked disappointed that I couldn't understand her message. I walk anyway in the direction of the castle, along the road coming the other way are monks. Some human others not so much, I've no idea what is going on but they all sing the same song. They are praising someone, they can't they sing, they love they praise. I walk on, they didn't notice me. Their song fades from my memory as the sound fades from my ears. I walk on towards the castle. I come out of the trees & see it, it's smaller than I first though & closer too. In a few steps I'm there & I'm greeted by children. Strange somehow that they should all seem so happy when they should be sad. 8. Friday Fall The gates open & the children disperse. I walk on into the main building of the castle & into the main hall. So many people rejoice! They dance, they sing, they eat & drink together. The talk & laugh, the mood is so different from the last gathering I attended. There is energy here & a real sense of belonging. I feel like I've come home, that my journey is over & I'm again among people who care for me. A man grabs my hand & bring me into the dance, we dance for some time but he leaves. There is the woman again, I go to her & offer her my hand. She takes it & I pull her up to dance. I stare into her eyes but she's not there. Her eyes are blank & soulless. All the revellers seem to fade away yet are still there. As fire comes to her eyes & she is awakened she turns & runs away. As she gets to the door she looks back beckoning me to follow her. 9. Terata I follow, intrigued. She leads me down a series of winding passageways, deep into the castle. It looks as if no one's been down this way for years, decades, centuries or even millenia. Only the bugs are disturbed as we make our way down. She disappears through a door to the right. There is sunlight shining from the other side & I step through into a beautiful garden. 10. Shrine She's gone. All I can see in the garden is a little shrine at the bottom of it & all I can here is the cicadas in the background. I walk towards the little shrine & I brush off the moss and the dirt so I can read the epitaph. Leraine. May she join us here soon. I fall to my knees, head in my hands & begin to cry. Soon. Soon? What does this mean? She'll be here soon? She'll die soon? We'll be together again soon? The mix of joy & anguish is unbearable. 11. We No Longer Need Ourselves Time has no meaning here. I've just gotten here yet I've been here forever. Everything is new & fresh yet everyone is an old friend. The best of both worlds it seems yet I am alone, waiting. Will I wait forever in this place with no time? Among old friends & new experiences can I truly be alone? Without her, yes, I will always be. So I wait. I don't know if I got this story how it was meant to be told as this is a game of Chinese whispers and the story is different on every retelling. There are no favourite chapters. It's a story that needs be heard as a whole to be fully understood. Japanese Translation / 日本語の翻訳 私の日本語は下手ごめんね！

1 Ishq - Sundive (11:47) 2 Papa Legba - Night Surf (7:17) 3 Val(Liam) - Almost Eden (6:25) 4 Androcell - Opium Swirl (6:45) 5 Open System - Atlantis (6:22) 6 Bodhisattva 13:20 - Relearned (9:50) 7 Solar Fields - Air Song (Androcell Remix) (8:12) 8 Bodhisattva 13:20 - Renewal Chant (8:44) 9 Val(Liam) - Perfectly Rational (7:41) Well I hadn't heard anything about this apart from that androcell had 2 tracks on it & one of those was a remix of Solar Fields' Air Song! After that I had to buy & I did. As usual I was initially disappointed with just about everything on the CD but given a lot of time & repeated listening this has really grown on me & I'd definately recommend this to... well actually I'm not sure who I'd recommend it to. If there is a music double of me somewhere that's who I'd recommend it to! 1. Ishq - Sundive This track along with other compilation tracks bu Ishq recently have really gotten me excited & impatient for the new ishq albums scheduled for release soon. 11 minutes of pure chilled out bliss here. Very soft beats & spacey atmospheres. A well done drone throughout & vocalish sounds aswell as the hint of strings. Natural wave sounds like a distant ocean on a far away planet. 2. Papa Legba - Night Surf The wave sounds at the end of ishq's piece lead beautifully into this track. Waves at the onset & birdsong. The sound of the surf continues throughout the whole track as do the sounds of birds but towards the end they are heard mainly behind the chimes. The title sums it up well. Night Surf! 3. (val)Liam - Almost Eden Slightly more upbeat now, but just as beautiful. A similar alien ocean feel as the last two tracks with added strings being plucked in an almost oriental melody. Like an alien orient! The melody evolves nicely as we progress to hold the interest of all. 4. Androcell - Opium Swirl Well, what do you expect from Androcell? A masterpiece everytime? No? well you should 'cause he really delivers here. An actually Oriental sounding melody over a delicious baseline/beat. Amazingly the baseline & the beat are almost indistinguishable from each other (at least to my broken down ears). Quite a jump from the beatless tracks before it. The atmosphere is similar but has shifted away from the alien ocean into an alien forest with lots of alien bugs buzzing around towards the end. 5. Open System - Atlantis More upbeat again & pretty electro (to my ears). A poorly titled track as it sounds nothing like I expected being called atlantis. Nothing watery or mysterious about it. With a heavy sounding beat throughout it's almost trance but trance on horse tranqualisers as someone once said. It's okay as a stand alone track but it really doesn't fit in with the rest of the compilation. I can only guess that it's a friend of the compiler (pete pan) to get on this comp. It would be a lot better I think with softer beats. 6. Bodhisattva 13:20 - Relearned Well after that little sojourn away from our alien planet we are back there now but it seems like we have crash landed in hostile territory. A very dark menacing atmosphere in the intro & when the beats tease it feels like a mounting panic & even the electro melody sounds like trouble. The ambient synth is a stroke of genious & the whooshes give us that dark outside feel. The pace changes throughout & towards the end you can hear this big dark gong like the summoning of a dark power or a demon or a king! 7. Solar Fields - Air Song (Androcell Remix) This was the main reason why I bought this CD. I wanted to see what Androcell could do with one of the greatest pieces of music ever made. It is basically everything a remix should be. It sounds very different from the original while still keeping some of the core aspects (in this case the slight melody) to make it recognisable. The beats are bigger, there is more energy & there is a vocal in it. A good remix, incomparable to the original because they are so different. Well done Androcell! 8. Bodhisattva 13:20 - Renewal Chant Back to the Alien Orient now. A sci fi synth runs down like a dark blade runner. It sounds futuristic & traditional at the same time. The best part about this track is for sure the beat. A cool rolling beat that has loads of chilled out energy. The worst part is the vocal. It completely ruins what could be a very good track. It's awful & I hate it! It detracts completely from the sci fi atmosphere. The guy on the vocal at some points really sounds like he's taken 10 e's & can't speak properly. The worst part of this CD for sure! 9. (val)Liam - Perfectly Rational Back to a more chilled style to finish of the CD. I'm really looking forward to hearing more from this guy judging from the strength of his 2 tracks here. This one has a nice relaxed natural feel. The use of piano seems to Earth this track giving it a much more terrestrial feel. Like awaking from a dream about alien worlds to a warm Earth autumn morning. So to sum up this compilation. It's mostly fantastic alienesque chill with just a few tracks (Open System - Atlantis & definately Bodhisattva 13:20 's abysmal attempt with Renewal Chant <- that's going on my worst of the year ) that really shouldn't have made it on. Well done Celestial Dragon Bad Show Pete Pan :wank: Mostly good choices mate but in the end you ruined the flow with those 2 gash choices. Favourites 1,2,3,6,7,9

I enjoy it in a mix

It's the title. Will always remind me off second rate scum!

Sounds heavenly It's not that important!

I can't enjoy that track anymore np

1 Unoccupied - Everyday Life (4:26) 2 Cord - Zodiac (6:25) 3 Krill.Minima - Wie Die Wolken Zieht Auch Der Tag Vorbei (6:18) 4 Hibernation - Melt (5:17) 5 Cosmic Fools - Bohemian Atmosphere (6:00) 6 Anahata - Prana (6:29) 7 Vataff Project - Plasticine Bird (10:40) 8 Omnimotion - Embrace (4:47) 9 Ishq & Shulman - Mother Nature (6:45) 10 Elve - Cyantium Flower (9:35) 11 Bluetech - Snow Drift (4:32) 12 Rena Jones - A Curious Unraveling (4:32) Aleph Zero. A label that really has a quality filter on their music. Almost every track released on the label is at least very good and this time they have put together a very nice night time chill compilation. The cover is very reflective of the music inside smoky urban night time grooves. A lot the earlier tracks put me in mind of an underground lounge club with the atmospheres whereas the latter tracks remind me more of the end of a night. Lets take a closer look at the tracks 1. Unoccupied - Everyday Life I don't know what I was expecting from this the first time I put it in my CD player. It's closer to massive attack than your conventional psy chill. A nice trip hoppy track. Starts with a long heavy drone which stays throughout the track in the background, a melancholic melody, rather depressing 'shut in' lyrics & slow electric guitar makes for a rather melancholic opener 2. Cord - Zodiac Another kinda trip hop track, at least with the beats. This one though is much funkier. Quite random in parts with a lot of sounds not seemingly doing anything but when the really funky baseline kicks in it all seems to come together nicely. It's more atmospheric & better in the second half of the track for sure. 3. Krill.Minima - Wie Die Wolken Zieht Auch Der Tag Vorbei Crackly analogue sounds mixed with sounds of nature is a strange intro. A minute in and the dark night time atmosphere is back. Think of a cool, dark, underground lounge in New York, Paris or Tokyo and you'll get the smoky atmosphere of this track. Soft pads, jazzy melody & water sounds mix surprisingly well. The melody morphs into a more relaxed keybord one towards the end. It's nice & leaves me wanting to listen to it more & more 4. Hibernation - Melt Think weird ambient with a flavour like the previous track. That is the 1st half of this one. The second half sees some beats come in and a soft female vocal (sounds quite alluring). I again get the feeling of sitting in some poorly lit back street bar in the basement with big comfortable sofas & very few customers & a sultry singing waitress 5. Cosmic Fools - Bohemian Atmosphere I think this track & title sums up the CD so far. Urban bohemian lifestyle. Nice beats, dark night atmosphere. Trippy twisted melody. Cool track very reflective of it's title. 6. Anahata - Prana Interesting track, what sounds like sitar (?) but actually played well is the main focus. Slight yet prominent beats & some electronic sounds surround it but still the strings take all the spotlight. When it's not there though the music sounds flat which leads to a really disappointing end to the track. It feels like a transition track (which it is) 7. Vataff Project - Plasticine Bird Love this track. The longest on the comp at over 10 minutes & we've made the transition from downbeat to more ambient sounds. There are still a few beats but they are very minimal & the ambient drone is at the forefront of the track. A minimal melody is very nice and interspersed with little 'plop' sounds. A very nice track. I especially like the waaaaahhhh drones later on 8. Omnimotion - Embrace Great intro & follow on from the previous track, very majestic. A slow operatic song seems to fill an entire auditorium while a slight yet heavy beat pounds in the background. The beats become a little more involved but the atmosphere remains the same, dark, slow urban nights. Lots of random glitchy sounds permeate adding to the feeling of a slowed down busy city at night 9. Ishq & Shulman - Mother Nature I must admit I was probably expecting too much from this collaboration between these two heavyweights of chill. It's a good track though much more in ishq's style than Shulman's. In fact I can't hear Shulman's influence at all. Completely ambient & very dark & natural sounding. Think forest at night, beatless & could have been better given more time to evolve. A really nice vocal comes here & there but the track is just a little too short. This gets me looking forward to ishq's forthcoming albums but gives me no insight into what shulman's might be like. 10. Elve - Cyantium Flower This track only highlights that Shulman's influence in the collaboration can only have been a distraction from the dreamy floatiness of what ishq can do alone. Here we can see what he's capable of by himself. A better vocal wail & much more ethereal. My only gripe is that it's not new. I already had this track on the Elve album 11. Bluetech - Snow Drift Think Bluetech collaborating with ishq & that's what you get here. Sounds a lot like his Sines & Singularities album but chilled out even more. Ishq is not actually present on this track which shows that it is Bluetech's evolution, taking his beautiful sounds and turning it into even more chilled out bliss. 12. Rena Jones - A Curious Unraveling A curious end to the compilation. After the last 5 tracks completely chilling me out along comes this one with more energy. Enough to make you open your eyes anyway. Not a lot of energy mind but it seems more after the preceding tracks. It's in the style of her album, Driftwood. Very nice floating ambient with a smattering of beats & strings. Well, a great compilation again from Aleph Zero. The first half sounds like night time urban lounge music & the second half sounds like end of the night ambient like you've come home sat in the garden & watched the sky. It's perfect for a sunday night after a heavy weekend. Put this on & let the music do it's work. Favourites 3,7,8,10,11

Aye I do. Apart from 2 tracks it is really really good. Writing a review of it now so it should be up soon. np

As I said I am writing a few reviews today. You can love or destroy them when they find their way up My favourite review of mine solar fields - extended

I really enjoy writing reviews. Long in depth ones even if I'm not very good at it. I usually write reviews though of chilled releases as I find they take more effort to properly get into & understand & listening to them closely enough to put down what I think in words really helps me feel the music more. & then forever after when listening to that CD again I can still feel it

Bluetech - Snow drift followed shortly by Rena Jones - A curious unravelling

Someone had a go at people writing short reviews & so people that I know are really into their music like TC & Faze never seem to post in the review sections. I think the first review should be more than a couple of lines but after that I think people should be able to discuss the music & go off topic (a little, not too much) but the deletion of all posts like nice review, I want to check this out, what would you recommend that is similar to this etc has kinda killed the review section IMO