Rotwang

V/A - Multiple Personalities (Manic Dragon) Press Release: Tracks (click titles for Saiko Sounds sample): 1) Claw vs Paranoise (aka Wicca) - Access Denied 7:36 The album opens very nicely. Access Denied starts with a powerful bassline, and rapidly sets the scene for what is to come: lots of dark, crunchy noise. Apart from an always-confusing doorbell sample and a short heavy metal interlude it continues to bombard the listener with this winning formula, until around the six minute mark, at which point the bass drops and the track becomes even more ear-rapingly awesome. 2) Gorump Peyya vs Acid Goblins - Brain Hack 6:41 Another nice track up next. This track is built mainly around the high-end sounds, namely the rhythmic, swirling hisses which are the staple diet of darkpsy fans. Meanwhile the bassline shows signs of ADHD, seemingly unable to go for a minute without stopping and starting, changing pitch or changing syncopation. I imagine that this would prove frustrating on a dancefloor, but in the context of this album it works. Incidentally if you're looking for the obligatory McKenna sample on this album, you'll find it here. 3) Devic vs Bodhisattva 13:20 - Magnetic Monopole 7:43 Very interesting, this one. It sounds less grainy or crunchy than the two preceding tracks, and is instead built out of noise that I can only describe as sounding "knotted". Some weird, alien laughter and breaking glass are used to great effect, and it works itself up to a climax that kind of sounds like MFG's Alternate Dimension has been run through a filter which removes any trace of recognisable musical mode. 4) Fractal Cowboys vs Freaks of Nature - Space Ark 6:50 The samples featured on this track include some accordion music, some bizarre guttural singing and an excerpt from a Steve Martin stand-up routine, among other things. Frankly it makes no sense at all. But that really doesn't matter, because the real purpose of this tune is to repeatedly stab the listener in the brain with bass noises until he bleeds out of his eyes. In a good way. 5) Baphomet Engine vs Iguana - Tictic Tactac 8:00 There's not a lot I can say about this track. It doesn't have much to make it stand out, and it doesn't have much in the way of progression or build-up. But it does what it does really very well, which is make strange noises which mess with one's ears rather nicely. 6) CPC vs Far East Ghost - Ground of Darkness 7:20 As the name suggests, Ground of Darkness is very dark indeed. A bit too much so for my liking, it has something of a horror movie ambience, a melody which would feel at home on a metal album and sound effects which hint at something evil writhing in the shadows. It's well made but not the kind of thing which I find easy to listen to. 7) Mubali vs Kraft - Aerobics 8:13 This is tasty. Aerobics starts off with a simple formula and sticks to it - it drifts up and down like a psychedelic tide, which keeps bringing interesting new things to the shore. By the time the track ends the listener has heard a bewildering array of timbres. 8) Dark Elf vs Darkshire (aka Septagram) - Tech Mec 7:11 Like track six this track seems designed to scare; it has the horror movie bassline and the slithering monster sound effects. But unlike Ground of Darkness this is almost camp - think Hammer House of Horror to track six's Blair Witch Project. Almost needless to say, it's also very good. 9) Kirayama vs Hishiryo - Yuuutsu Mori 8:16 Another excellent tune to close the album, this is bursting with bold, aggressive noises which sound as if they could eat you. And it's trippy as heck. Overall:This is darkpsy at its most extreme: noisy, psychotic and psychedelic (and with very little that could be desribed as "trance"). If you like V/A - Durdom you'll probably like this too. Despite the high tempos I actually don't find this kind of music makes me want to dance - rather it is the kind of music that is best experienced by lying with your eyes closed and your head between the speakers, and allowing it to carry your conciousness to strange places. A couple of additional points in its favour: I am particularly impressed by how much variety there is on this CD, especially considering that all the tracks occupy a small corner of a sub-sub-sub-genre which places seemingly very limiting constraints on what artists can do. Also the digipack is really nice, both in look and feel (great work from Quasga as ever, and the effort they went to with the printing shows). An excellent album, thoroughly recommended. 9/10 Favourite Tracks: 1(!), 2(!), 3(!), 4, 5, 7(!), 9(!)

Except perhaps a dead horse.

Not to mention...

I did.

I like it. I'm going to give it a Pavel rating of: Four and a half Pavels (out of five)

I got my copy in the post today. Time to find out whether that Ethiopian family died in vain.

Rubbish. Labels don't "compete" like that; if you look at any psytrance label's website, chances are you'll find a load of links to other labels which put out similar music. Especially since many of the artists release music under several different labels.

I listened to the samples on Saikosounds, and I don't see what's so bad about this. Not my kind of thing, to be sure, but it sounds well produced and it's good that they're trying something that's a bit different to everything else that's out there.

You should check out The Fall and Rise of Reginald Perrin, a British sitcom from the Seventies. The main character set up a shop called "Grot" which exclusively sold rubbish. . . Actually both Primal Meltdown and Worldbridger were given the top spot. Deservedly in the case of the former. Other Nommos/ Gil releases seem to have positions which are all over the place, e.g. Karmageddon sits at 13.

+1. Not many current releases but quite a few old ones which can no longer be bought on CD are there in my experience. Stuff you're looking for is not guaranteed to be there by any means, but you might be surprised by some of the stuff that is. Itunes' DRM leaves a lot to be desired though.

Sounds sweet! Looking forward to this.

+1

What is it with you and liquid genitalia?

See 0:22 - 0:38.

It's a good question. Probably because I am an idiot.

Thanks. Actually I already listened to a few tracks on YouTube earlier today, but for some reason that one didn't appear in my search. It sounds good, albeit suffers greatly from the shitty sound quality.

I've just ordered IFO from Lu Bu for an amount of money that could have kept an Ethiopian family in food and clean water for some time. It had better be good.