Otto Matta

Just be happy for me. I've arrived again.

No. Honestly, I don't care about the labeling. This is it.

This is not full on the way I know full on - not the new version of full on. This is the old full on, man. I feel fucking insane. Hoenstly. Jesus. This is it.

I am in some other fucking world right now. Thought I'd share. Never have I experienced this sort of high from music alone. At least not this particular sort of high, or this sort of intensity - which is a cross between a really hefty synthetic stimulant and perhaps a mild psychoactive, but made of electricity. I had to keep the hyperbole down in my review of Collaborating with Machines, but Jesus, I'm totally tweaked! I remember back in 1997/1998 finally discovering Goa/Psy music like Pleiadians and Astral Projection and feeling like I'd arrived. But since 2000 or so I feel like I've been just chasing that initial experience. I've recovered it here and there, temporarily, with several albums. I remember going a bit nuts with Fractal Glider, X-Dream, Schlab in general and Ka-Sol. But nothing like this. This is so much more. This is phenomenal. This is a whole album, beginning to end, of pure adrenalin, testosterone, and substances that haven't been published yet. It's like I've been traveling for nine years just to hear this album. I hope I don't regret this when I come down.

Multistate - Collaborating with Machines Timecode Records, 2006 1 Clear v3.0 (7:37) 2 Bipolar (8:36) 3 Silver (7:07) 4 Sharp (8:26) 5 Prosthetic (7:40) 6 Windup (8:28) 7 Nefarious (8:23) 8 Roberta Sparrow (8:28) 9 Colour Collapse (5:37) 10 Close-Up (8:32) Multistate is a collaboration between Xatrik and Lost and Found from South Africa. The sound is definitively South African, which tends to be gritty and aggressive, and this album is, to my ears, the pinnacle of that region's Psytrance sound. The quality and clarity of production, the range of musicality and innovation, and the sheer wallness of sound is totally top-notch from beginning to end. They even have the gall to throw in their interpretation of a tech trance track (Colour Collapse) towards the end. I also enjoy how they forego the use of samples to mask a lack of musical detail, although the samples they do include are well-chosen and feel like they belong. A really good example is a young woman with a Japanese voice taken from what sounds like a recording in an airport in Sharp, track four. I fucking LOVE this album, like I've never loved a Psytrance album before. I think this is The Shit as far as Psytrance is concerned. It makes me dance in ways I never knew I could dance before, where even my fingers have a job to do. Real pupil-dilating stuff. Wish there were more of it. 10/10 Samples at Saikosounds

I think it's an okay album. I thought I'd give Posford and Benji another try after liking one or two things from the first Younger Brother album. A lot of this is reminiscent of Are You Shpongled?, but without what I thought was a certain amount of mystery and surprise that album had. The production and technical subtlety of The Last Days of Gravity is admittedly exquisite, but like most of Posford's stuff, in my opinion, it lacks emotional subtlety, not to mention profundity or elegance. There are some decent hooks here and there, and some stuff that would make a technician cream himself, but there's nothing that really makes me want to keep listening to it for purely emotional reasons, which is what I listen to chilled music for. That said, with all the technical intricacy going on, I bet smoking some stiff drugs would once again really help this one blossom. Meanwhile, unless the P-man somehow gains a knack for effective stylization, I'm through. Again.

Murcof - Mo Shuttle358 - Frame The Mitgang Audio - Minor Causes Clark - Ted Isan - Gunnera Lemon Jelly - Closer Carbon Based Lifeforms - MOS 6581 (compilation version) Pan Sonic - Arvio [Long Edit] Freescha - Smurf Shoe Plaid - New Family Kettel - Pinch of Pear Amon Tobin - Four Ton Mantis Solvent - Frozen Food (Remix) Röyksopp - So Easy Ka-Sol - Pricken Spirallianz - One Way Ltd X-Dream - Fall Out (Dong Edit) Juno Reactor - Masters of the Universe The Delta - Def by Delta (Part 2) Bent Sentient - Liquid Launch

It's off to the side, by my mailbox. Not easy to see.

Few things change my life LIKE music, except for maybe a good book or a good friendship. I love when the right music comes along at just the right time and totally transforms my existence. And creating music can have the same transforming experience (usually better, if it's going well). There's a very good reason, I think, why a philosopher like Schopenhauer would hold music-makers in such high esteem. They create enigma and profundity out of virtual nothingness.

You'll have to share something with me when you get the opportunity. I was listening to some Dolly Parton recently and it affected me like other music doesn't. ... My recent Saikosounds order came to the door today, but the messenger didn't know how to ring my doorbell and left a note instead. I hate when that happens. Hopefully I'll get it tomorrow. Also, I'm planning on getting some chill dub stuff from Waveform soon, like recent Bluetech, Sounds from the Ground and Grey Area (which sounds amazing). And Murcof's latest - Cosmos. And I really need to get more of Monolake's stuff - everything I hear of his is great.

I'd say that's definitely in the running, especially the compilation version. Great track, too.

Not as many posts, would be my guess, all other things considered.

Sorry about that Charlie. I can totally relate. I was lucky in a couple of my relationships. One girl, a very cool girl, I invited to a Juno Reactor gig early in our relationship. Before we went I played some JR stuff for. She seemed to get it. And at the show she danced like mad the entire time. She described it as "primal." Another one, whom I dated for much longer, could take my electronic stuff in fairly large doses, but at some point would be totally honest with me and say, "Okay, I've had enough. Let's listen to something else." I think having been exposed to some industrial stuff before I came along helped a lot. And then there was Angela, a totally bitchin' hippie chick, who loved the music I listened to, and my favorite thing was to get high with her and listen to stuff, with beer, candles and incense, DJed by me, LOUD in our own headphones, deep into the night - of course with long breaks and conversation, etc. But she still ultimately preferred her own girl-power hippy stuff (which I also thought was cool) over my boy-power stuff. Totally respectable. Total cat girl, open-minded, independent. And then there was Erin, who was very much involved with the whole psychedelic trance thing, but way more into the social and image aspects than the music. Which was very annoying. My lesson learned from all that is that the more chemistry you have, the more you're willing to share, and bond with, each other's music.

LSD and Starship 101 are a bit old-fashioned to fulfill Ormion's guidelines, aren't they? I mean, both are big tracks in their own rights, but as far as modern production is concerned, I don't think they quite hold up. I won't go into detail. My personal instinct leans more towards something like Astral Projection's Trance Dance or Mahadeva '99. And then maybe something like X-Dream's Psychomachine or Juno Reactor's God is God. These tracks (none of which are big favorites of mine) took the spirit of Goa and made it "Psychedelic," as in "neo-Goa for the next wave." I guess it's ultimately subjective, but that's my input. e: Oh, and yeah, IM and Logic Bomb definitely qualify, I think.

That's a really great job, mars.

Claude Debussy - La Cathédrale Engloutie (The Sunken Cathedral) I'll be listening to it, and the rest of his piano works, until I die, I'm sure. Erik Satie made some seriously awesome piano stuff in a similar vein. Timeless. I like Grieg's work, too. I think my favorite is Solveig's Song. And Orff made some seriously weird but interesting stuff, for sure.

These are ones I'm currently excited about: Multistate - Collaborating with Machines Broken Toy - The Low Down Dirty Sound of... Krumelur - Paramoral (I had to buy this after listening to the MP3s for so long. SUCH a good album.)

Me too. And then, if necessary, I'll go into the piano roll and do some interesting things to it like add accent notes or syncopations.

Never heard Vitan. For me (after about nine years) it's V.T.O.L. Runners up would be: Man with No Name Presents Yogy & Grey One - Big Trouble in Outer Space (Oforia Remix) Spirallianz - One Way Ltd. Juno Reactor - Kaguya Hime Ka-Sol - Pricken Total Eclipse - Space Clinic Colorbox - CYANid Psygone - Camaro Kanitou

I like the music more than I do dancing, but when the music hits that sweet spot, I can't help but dance. The worst feeling is being on a dancefloor and wanting to dance but the music's no good - I feel like an awkward, wet mop. The best feeling is when the DJ's good enough to make you dance. Happens once in a while.

Saul Stokes and especially Off the Sky make some really cool music. Reminds me of a lot of Tim Hecker's stuff.

Reaper is cheaper.

Okay. If it were sticking I'd say blow a hair drier (hot air) on the key, a helpful tip I got a long time ago when dealing with Korgs. I bet it's a minor cleaning issue. I wonder if one of those cans of compressed air for computer keyboards might help.