Rotwang

Huh? Of the 14 releases reviewed on the front page, 9 are positive and 2 are mixed. Only 3 consist of mocking bad releases. Erm... ? I don't know how funny he thinks he is, but IMO he's pretty darn funny. Actually I mainly read psyreviews for the comedy, since I don't usually like the same stuff as he does anyway.

:lol:

There's a re-release? Then there needs to be a re-re-release.

Fantastic track, too.

I'd like to see TIP - Feeling Weird re-released. How about it, Avatar?

Right. Suntrip re-released Transdimensional but Anoebis has said they won't be doing any more re-releases. I vaguely recall that there was a petition. Dunno what happened to it though.

Alien Mental - Mind Hack (Insomnia) Press Release: So first up, what does it sound like? Mind Hack is in a similar vein to Osom's recent output, a kind of swirling cacophony made up of noises which inhabit a veritable rainbow of colours, each of them a slightly different shade of brown. The album is full of very shanti-PLUR samples, but, rather than being stuck over the top as an afterthought, the artist uses them as if they were just another one of the many strange, rhythmic noises. But what sets this album apart from the crowd (other than its sheer quality) is the continuity; often the individal tracks don't so much start or end as seamlessly blend into one another, while small themes that start in the background gradually and subtly work their way in and out of the listener's conciousness. The end result is that this album is not so much a collection of tracks as a single, continuous piece of music. I actually wish more artists would do this. On the downside it makes writing a track-by-track description rather difficult, so I hope you'll forgive me if I keep the track descriptions fairly brief and skip a couple. Tracks (click titles for Saiko Sounds sample): 1) The Initiation 2:44 The album kicks off with a rather strange, ethereal intro; I'd call it "downtempo" but the truth is that most of it has no discernible tempo. It's all very unnerving and reminds me a lot of the intro to Horror Place's Hobyah. 2) Waves of Chaos 3:59 This is really just a continuation of the previous track - it starts with more beatless ambience, before a relatively slow, stuttering beat takes shape. As standalone tracks these two would be fairly pointless (and certainly not something you could work into a chillout set, for example) but in the context of an album such as this which is designed to be listened to from start to finish they work well as an intro. 3) Drift Within 7:46 And then the album proper begins: the familiar darkpsy bassline kicks in, and will stay with us for quite a while. Drift Within contains quite a few confusing stops and starts, but otherwise pretty much sets the template for most of what follows. 4) Halucinogenic Visions 7:25 5) Samadhi 7:41 Aside from some nice tribal drumming sounds this continues in the same vein, although the most memorable element of Samadhi is a sort of robotic shouting noise that outstays its welcome in my opinion. Shortly before the seven minute mark, though, it builds to a very nice climax. 6) An Awakening 2:11 Another ambient section here, and I enjoy this a lot more than the opening track - whereas The Initiation was downright scary, this is actually relaxing, and gives the listener a chance to catch his breath before... 7) The Ritual 7:50 ...the second half of the album, which is IMO way better than the first. Hard to say why, exactly; it's the same formula, but from this point on it starts to feel like the artist is really pulling out all the stops. The Ritual opens with a sample from Goa Gil with which you're no doubt very familiar, and soon settles back into doing what this album does best. 8) Reclaim your Mind 6:42 Moments after the previous track closes with a great Cartman sample, this kicks off in fantastic style with some psychotic, swirly electronic screeching that's just great. "...and what is real is you and your friends and your, er, associations, your highs, your orgasms, your hallucinations..." 9) Fresh Perspectives 7:19 About half way through this one there is even a melody, with actual notes and everything. Don't let that fool you though, it's back to business as usual soon enough. 10) Fully Fluoro 6:25 Another one of the highlights. Fully Fluoro contains another one of the (many) Terrence McKenna samples on this CD, clichéd perhaps but used to incredibly good effect - it's chopped up and reassembled into a sort of head-banging psy-poem, bringing the track out of a brief compound time section and into a wonderful climax. 11) End Complete? 5:52 12) Into Unity 8:29 The closing track is more of the same, but the outro deserves a special mention; it's made of some crunchy noises that very pleasantly mess with one's ears, and is probably the best fadeout I've heard. Overall: There's not much left to say, except that this is a monumentally good album. If you like your psytrance noisy and chaotic then you absolutely must own this - it may not be to everybody's taste but what Alien Mental does he does better than anyone else I've heard. 9/10 Favourite Tracks: 4, 7, 8(!), 10(!), 12

He's still alive.

I'm sure there must be a lesson in there somewhere.

Cool, let us know what you think when you get it.

Kraft - The Mysteries of the Sacred Universe I've only listened to this a few times, but so far I think it's awesome. One thing that really stands out for me, which you don't get from the samples, is the way the tracks progress - there are loads of key changes and tempo changes and suchlike, which are achieved without annoying breaks and which give every track a kind of "journey" feel that's missing from a lot of trance IMO. There isn't much variation between tracks but there's a lot of variation within the tracks themselves. Elea - Stellar Connection Had this for about a month and I really like it. It sits somewhere between ethno-chill and progressive; I'm not usually a fan of progressive at all, but whereas most of it sounds sterile and samey to me, this sounds warm and organic. It's very varied too, ranging from frantic old-school acid to slow paced vocal trance. Some might be put off by the vocals on a few of the tracks, but I really like them.

This applies to all genres, not just dance. The fact is that different genres of music need to be listened to in different ways, and if you try to listen to different acts from the same genre when you don't know what you should be listening out for then it's going to sound samey. And it works both ways too - I expect most people here think that most verse/chorus-structured, lyrically-driven pop music sounds samey, but if someone who listens to music for the vocal melody and lyrics hears a record with melody and lyrics he hasn't heard before then as far as that person is concerned it's an original tune, even if the instrumentation and so forth is very similar to other stuff. This is really no different to how two darkpsy tracks can sound very different even if they are built around the same bassline, kick drum and (complete lack of) melody. That's not to say I would entirely defend people who think that all dance is "boom boom boom" music though, since in my experience those people typically don't realise that there is more than one way to listen to music, whereas dance fans usually do (necessarily so, since they will have been brought up listening melodic pop like everyone else).

Oh man, you suck so hard.

+1 Glowing Flame consistently delivers great covers.

Orbit Constructions - Androneda

Yeah, I found out since I got Kraft's album in the post today, and it's dedicated to Alex. I suppose that explains why the Insomnia website hasn't been updated in months as well.

Nice to see that the negative reviews have made a comeback: link

Sad news - I learnt today that Alex Komixa, who used to do most of the artwork for Insomnia Records, was killed in a car crash in October, along with his girlfriend. Check out some of his work:

I'd like to hear what you think of this.

Oh. Then I must confess that I don't know what that means.