traveller

i kinda like the sub6 track too..

Artist: Tikal Album: Ritual Cycle Label: Neurobiotic Cat: NBRCD09 Genre: Psytrance Playtime: 72:46 Tracklist: 01 Equinox 08:17 02 Sunshine Middle East 08:21 03 Time Is Running Out 07:14 04 Breath Remix 07:46 05 Jazzistique 07:53 06 Mr Pink 10:15 07 Aura Remix 07:52 08 Horn Travel 07:01 09 Canicule 08:07 No lack of fish in the ocean of full on. Sometimes it seems as if nine out of ten released psytrance albums are full on, might for real be that its cut is even bigger. The genre’s growth has been exponential for quite some time. So no sortage of fish, but unfortunately atleast I find the ocean rather homogeneous. It's tuna all the freaking way down. But alas! Here comes Tikal. Tikal, to me anyways is that odd lil tuna with a queer eye on its forehead. I think it might have even grown wings. Yes, it doesn't have fins any longer. This bizarre creature is airborne and will spread its genes, take my word for it. Gun on my head, I still say I absolutely love Ritual Cycle and I for one am one of the biggest full on bashers. Ritual Cycle wasn't my most anticipated release. To tell the truth I almost didn't bother answering Neorobiotic's contacts when they asked me to review the album. Obviously, I'm pretty fucking glad I did. Let’s jump about a month back in time. There I was, wondering wether or not I should bother opening that packet with stamps saying Rome on it. I knew what was inside. Well here goes nothing. Me and my attitudes make it almost impossible to find new decent acts. So what will it be? Yet another GMS clone? Something slightly more Israeli sounding? But wait, that guitar in the beginning of “Equinox”! It sounds mystical, very promising. Then that 80's computer game like spooky melodic thingy. Rolling bassline and the kick, hi-hat & snare combo appears. Uuuh! That's how I felt. Especially since I heard the stuff on top of it all. Sure was bloody good music. And then that singing, I felt as if I was in the middle of some art war movie thingy. The scene; it's black and white, blood has spilled more than enough, the brutality of man, ah the horror. Some don't bear to watch. Everything is still, remaining black & white, then we get that bright red blood slowly mixing to the black and white water, it's not cheesy for it's made way before Schindler’s list. Took me like a week or two just to realize that the woman is actually singing in English, that's how deep emotions, or some other sentimental crap like that it brought up in me. It goes something like this; “I once had a true love, and I loved him so.. I loved him for...." Soon, so soon the rolling pounding bouncing bassline, hi-hat, kick etc combo enters. Was I ever to hear this tune at a party this would mark the part from which on I'd dance like a maniac my moves going beyond unsanity. So that was pretty intense I thought. Wanting to listen to the tune again, but no, I'm in no habbit of skipping tracks. After all, it can't be all bad, the album I mean, not if they can create a tune like that. There's not much fucking around in the beginning of “Sunshine Middle East” for it gets straight down to brass tacks. And then some chanting. And uuuh, we get the extra flavour on top of everything in this baby aswell. You'll know what I mean once you hear it. And the melodies, praise the melodies! Well anyways, the peak comes at the five minute mark along with the guitar. It’s so elegant. Ah, so elegant! Reminds me of the good old times when it was Goa. So it was time for “Time Is Running Out”. I recall how the tune sneaked in while I was making coffee in the kitchen. That must have been the first time I really took a look at the album's artwork. And I saw it was good. Then I noticed that the next tune was called “Breath Remix”, but more about that real soon. Ah well, I can't say a bad thing about “Time Is Running Out”, It's from time to time very heretic with its uplifting “let’s start again from whispers” buildups. The magic enters once it’s complete and built again. This was the second time I was dissapointed to realize that it really isn't a remix of the Prodigy's Breathe. That's when I realized that it's a remix to Bamboo Forest's “Breath”. Can't really recall what the original is like. I do remember that I happen to dig it and was bouncing like a madman to it at Samothraki. All-in-all what I can say is that Tikal takes the best part of Bamboo Forest's original, the singing that is and makes the tune, in my opinion, superiour to its predecessor with all the fancy tricks, noises and sounds. (Note! I checked the original.) If anything, “Jazzistique” makes it clear that also the Tikal guys have heard of that “Voices Of Istanbul” soundbank cd thingy. “Ommmmm mokshaaaaaaaaa”. Don’t know if this is the first time that chant has been used in a full on tune, nevertheless it sure works. Jazzistique is a continuum to the four previous tunes, ethnic chants, electric kicks, lots of percussions and intelligent melodies/structures, maybe just a tiny dash of good old goa spirit can be found within its realm aswell. “Mr Pink” starts with a great sample, which if I’m not totally mistaken has been taken from that movie “Reservoir Dogs”. I don’t feel like repeating myself too much but the melodies and the build ups! 01:55! Just listen to it and fall in love. Here is the most dramatic difference between Tikal and most other full on acts; Tikal has understood that it’s more than basslines. And you can hear it loud and clear. Actually I’d file this under psytrance. That’s how good it is. I fooled you a bit in the beginning of my review for I did listen to the first fifteen to thirty second bits of all the tunes before I started listening to the album as an whole. “Aura Remix” is the tune that got me most exited. Is french one spooky/psychedelic language or what! Wherever that sample has been taken from, whatever the man actually says, well anyways it makes an ultra kewl intro. Groovy is alltogether great word to describe what Aura sounds like. Can’t feel bad while listening to this shit. That female chorus fits in so well. I wish I had more time to tell you what this tune is like and all but time is the one thing I really don’t have at the moment. Anyways, one of the highlights of the album for me for sure! The groove is brazilian, the mood is cheerful and the name of the tune is “Horn Travel”. You’ll get the name quite fast for the tune is packed with travelling horns. Is it just me or do they sometimes remind you aswell of “My Head Feels Like A Frisbee”? These horns know how to travel, everything in between porn movie music and brazilian carneval can be found here. “Yentoooo” Isn’t that from some Shpongle tune? I love the way the organic horns mix in with the electric beeps and almighty growly basses, the drums aren’t bad either. It says on the backcover that this tune is 120BPM. Tikal is quite good at this for I really don’t notice the regulator at all. Canicule goes for more chilled approach with its long wave synths and peacuful flutes. It’s real chill out. To this one could actually chill to, even mentally. Those damn horns in the previous sure wiped this option. Then again, what do you prefer? 9/10 for this album has no weak points. Don’t take my word for it? Have you seen a single negative review of this album? I sure haven’t.. not that that necessarily means anything.. however I stick to my opinion.. thanks Neorobiotic and Tikal !!

reviews section actually..

told yu

towelie yu bore me

yep

Artist: Kiwa (M.Elsinen & M.Louhio) Title: RetroActive Label: Surreal Audio Recordings Cat: SURR006CD Style: Psytrance 01 Intro Sound 06:41 02 Oxygen 07:24 03 Dtm 09:29 04 Mental Collapse 07:23 05 Five Digit Orange 07:11 06 Pure In Motion 05:51 07 Aeroplane Menace 07:29 08 Sidechained 08:15 09 Commercial Break Munchies 03:03 10 Over The Top 05:39 11 Purist 06:45 12 Retro Activity 02:56 The usual.. Maybe (although I do doubt it) it's the booze talking, but this album sure makes me feel as if I'm one big ass LSD consumer. Then again it might simply be those groovy as hell basslines, furious layers of beats, sounds, twists and butter that play together to create this all together psychedelic experience. To tell the truth I feel awkward while listening to these beats, sounds (you get the picture?), if there are other people (IE my parents) at home. If you ask me, Kiwa is (capitals)the(/capitals) flagship of Finnish psytrance. Their debut, Dreamtime Enhancer that is, was released just like a year ago. To me at least it came out of the blue, and umm, well Kiwa sure proved themselves. Take my word for it, mp3s simply don't cut it for Kiwa. The stream of sound is just simply too much. About the music.. More than anything the music is positive and happy. It's also by all means groovy. Other than that it's pretty psychedelic and from time to time even spooky. It does take time, lots and lots of time, but do believe me, in the end you'll love it! When, like a few rows above I stated the music is happy I sure as hell didn't mean that it's happy in that fluffy euro/ibiza/dream/euphoria trance way, but that all-in-all twisted evil "lets do drugs" kind of way. The music is also a little housey, but not in the house house way, it's psytrance all the way down, quite innovative psytrance if I may add. Well we do get a few heavenly downbeat/breakbeat/ambient chillers. Forgive me.. The short review, but I'm running out of time. By this time tomorrow I'll be serving Finland at some distant military installment. But hey, at least I'll have RetroActive MD with me. Cheers: Omniholic, Surreal & Kiwa

only if u r a dropdead gorgeous redhead with a sexy brittish accent and tight body

i'm guessin' it's a tune that never made it to are you shpongled.. therefore it's: shpongle_-_nn-unrl-gem.mp3 =p

so there, you have it.. BOOM is the place all fashionable trancers r going to be @

voov is the place to go @ 2004.. isn't that the one in portugal? or is it boom? i always mix these 2..

/A – Angelic Science (Surreal Audio) Artist: V/A Title: Angelic Science Label: Surreal Audio Recordings Release Date: December 2003 Cat: SURR005CD Total Playtime: 64:59 Genre: Chill out Tracklist: 01 Indidginus – Myriad 07:18 02 LBJ & TAYA – Borderland 05:16 03 Subfocus – Fountains Across 08:26 04 LBJ & 2 Hullua Muusikkoa – Movie S 05:24 05 Gettoblaster Sound – Tear Of The Crocodile 04:10 06 Transparents - Playground 05:23 07 Sora – Gos-Mos 04:55 08 Koneveljet – Redux V2 05:33 09 Kris Kylven & Syb-Sonic – Angel Dust 10:30 10 Kiwa – Wider Chanting 08:04 Surreal Audio might not be the biggest label around but they for one aren't quilty of selling out or public ass licking or commercialism of any sort. So all in all it's a brave little label with something unique to offer. In this case that unique offering is "Angelic Science". Indidginus, a collobration of Michael Martin and Colin Bennun is definetly not the most famous group out there. I for one have never ever heard of them before, but lets not let that bother us. Remember, there was a time when Shpongle was just as unknown, to me anyways. Mellow is definetly the word. Chilled will serve as the back up. Things go more beat/bassline centered as the track goes. I've heard of LBJ Bukem or something like that but I doubt it's the same guy as the "LBJ & TAYA" here. Atfirst there was the beat. He saw it was good. Forty seconds later came the vocals sung by a female. He saw it was good. Then came the effects, the piano and the bass. He saw it was flawless. So yeah, it's not the most psychedelic/twisted/magical/alien tune on the block, more like mellow chiller, kinda like the last one. I like the vocals. I dig that piano aswell. The bass goes well with the piano too. Subfocus is a Kiwa side project, or atleast it's the other guy from Kiwa, Make Louhio that is. If you're familiar with the Kiwa style you obviously have no idea what so ever what to expect from this tune. Some Kiwa tunes are all about furious breaks, others are very chilled pieces of Tibeatian folk music. So what's here then? The hi-hats at the beginning promise trance. But the beat that enters at 00:50 disagrees. Jungle? Not really. Lets call it beat orientated music with electronic things served next to it. Jazz/blues saxophone thingy is here aswell. Lets call it free jazz of the 21st century roasted with Cubase. Now it's LBJ on (this is the way it translates) two crazy musicians. The beginning is one of those "lets play a vinyl and mute the sound” beats. Doesn't take too long, 20 seconds tops and we get a bassline. Sounds like there might be a actual bassist behind it. The bassline is the strongest, the beat is integrated to it. Then we get the guitar (I suppose) and are ready to go on. The bassline is gone now, it's up to the beat and the guitar to keep things on move. Beautiful, peaceful and once again mellow, these are the keywords here. The beat is gone now too, all up to the guitarrist. Not for long, things return accompanied by some synths. Relaxing, not too electronic, but who cares.. Ghettoblaster Sound is pretty odd name for a band, atleast in my opinion. Here its the drum machine that puts things on move. We've got a guitar here too. I like it, very much thank you. Synths are doing their things here aswell. Flute is part of the play too. Notning lacks here, in other words; nice tune. Transparents has been given the green light. They don't waste much time. Straight down to business ala semi spooky athmosphere. Drum machine didn't go anywhere. Time for the half agressive electric guitar to kick in. Hints of Shponglish feeling, far away, but still.. Sora goes for the drum n bass approach. Well in a way anyways. We've got vocals here too. "Feel the magic.." Ah yes, boootiful. Drums play around, a synth is coming straight at you, it's still far away, but give it some time. Hypnotic beats flow in the air. She's almost rapping. Bassline returns. Ingredients are tasty and the way they're prepared is elegant. Koneveljet does tight lives, the last time I saw them, they (3 guys) were all dressed up as doctors. In the beginning there are some spoken samples, I think it's spanish, might be mistaken though. I think it was this tune playing when I was driving in the city at six a clock in the morning a few days ago. It was snowing outside and windy as hell. I had waken up like 20 minutes earlier and had the usual coffee plus cigarette breakfast, so basicly I was feeling like shit. But as this tune got serious with the bassline and synth appearances I begun living again. Things looked beatiful. It was one of those "how can things be like this" philosophy moments. Everything was perfect, the universe and the tune. It's still.. amazing. I wish all Koneveljet tunes were like this.. I'm not sure who exactly Kris Kylven is, but I'm pretty sure he has something to do with Kiwa. Their live drummer perhaps? If that's the case we should have a killer/chiller here. After all drummers are the most talented breed of musicians. In the beginning and the next two minutes or so things remain calm, distant, eastern and umm.. hopefull. Then it's time for the uplifting circling (literally) synth. I'm sensing a soon to come beat. No sight of it yet, we did get some chants though. Totally out of sync bonga/conga "beat" appears around 02:50. Wasn't expecting that. Doesn't take long and the synth is gone. 10 to 0 for the beat. It's like another track. The bassline that's appearing slowly might be good, give it some time to grow. When we get to the 5 minute mark things are (to my taste) in much better shape. A bit of this and a bit of that and a multidimensional beat and this would be purrfect. Don't see it happening though. Well the option we're given isn't bad either. Voices of the apocalypse! As we pass the 7 minute marker there are promising things on the background. Soon there are trancey elements (regulated kick drum etc) doing some work. This tune could have been so much more.. Now it's time for Kiwa's Wider Chanting which I believe has been released on some LSD compilation. I must say that atfirst I didn't think much of this tune, but now that I'm listening to it for maybe the 5th time I must say that it's everything a track has to be. Way to go Kiwa! Give or take? Definetly take! Granted, it's not the most psychedelic release around, but not everything has to be that in the first place. I definetly see myself listening to this one a lot in the future. It's one of those cds you pop in when you're about to do something that needs concentration. As you do your math or whatever you every now and then notice something rather "42" in the music. Think of it for a while and return to work. Perfect to begin the day with, perfect to end the day with..

Artist: Blowfish (Graham Wood & Tony Stapleton) Title: Puffed Up Label: Surreal Audio Recordings Release Date: December 2003 Cat: SURR004CD Total Playtime: 76:52 Genre: Psytrance Tracklist: 01 Intro 00:59 02 Cycles 06:56 03 Active Compound 07:53 04 Liquid Eyes 07:53 05 Grey Tone 07:32 06 Movin’ 05:15 07 Scope 05:46 08 Fat Controller 05:58 09 Stoned 07:00 10 Not The End 05:33 11 Trumpetfishology 16:07 Every self respecting trancer should recognize (and praise) the name “Graham Wood” for he was the co-founder of “The Infinity Project” which -as we all know- later morhped into TIP World. Back in the glory days of TIP when psychedelic trance was psychedelic trance and 303 leads were the shit Raja Ram, Simon Posford, Martin Freeland and Graham Wood along with the Total Eclipse gang were right in the middle of it. They are the dinosaurs! We all know what Simon, Raja and the others have lately been up to but no ones heard of Graham for quite some time. Well anyways here he is along with Tony Stapleton who apparently is quite known in the UK trance scene. As bizarre as it seems they’ve chosen the Finnish Surreal Audio Recordings to release their debut at. The artwork is, I’m looking for a word, ah different. Maybe half of it is done with Paintshop, the other half is hand drawn. The blowfish on the frontcover looks pretty twisted. The expression on its face is quite er, twisted. Name your poison. Full on? Progressive? Night? Morning? Downbeat? Ambient? Tech? Minimal? House? Breakbeat? Something else perhaps? Whatever the case as long as it’s electronic I’m pretty sure it's here. What’s the drink you never have? Tasted it once and almost puked, couldn’t even finnish the fucker. Mine is “Bloody Mary”. How retarded must you be to come up with such drink. I mean tabasco, pepper and salt, those are ment to be eaten not drinken. Well anyways my poison is here, but so is the Bloody Mary. I’m pretty sure the same thing will apply to you. We start from the dancefloor, stay there for six tunes or so, and then slowly find our way to the chill out. As much as say the last tune is a complete paradox of the first tune they still bear some similarities. You can hear that they’ve been made by the same guys in the same studio and the mastering guy has not changed either. The tricks (effects etc), no matter what the track is like, pretty much remain the same. Or well, lets say they play for the same team. So in a way it’s a complete journey. I however prefer the second part by a factor of “insert big number here”. Then again I’m a chiller, always been and will always be. Atfirst I found this album a huge dissapointment. I guess I was expecting for a breed inbetween “Mystical Experiences” and “The Mystery Of The Yeti” with the whole 2003 mastering thingy. So to say the least my expectations were next to the Moon. That’s how high you have to travell before meeting them. But, well, the music isn’t bad. It’s nothing groudbreaking from another dimension, but it’s not bad either. It’s pretty good actually. Perhaps even a little more. One thing I have to say in favour of Blowfish is that they aren’t trying to be “Astrix” or “GMS” or “X-Dream” or “Hallucinogen” or “Shpongle” or whoever else that might be targeted by the cloners. They’re definetly doing their own thing, and the chilled tunes are fabulous! 10/10 for the chilled tunes 7/10 for the album

yet another ADD case..

Artist: Shulman (Yaniv Shulman & Omri Harpaz) Album: In Search Of A Meaningful Moment Label: Aleph Zero Release Date: December 2003 Cat: AlepZ01 Total Playtime: 74:42 Genre: Psychedelic Chill Tracklist: 1. Inner Selves 11:43 2. The Unexpected Visitor 10:41 3. A Magnificent Void 11:02 4. Consciousness Revoked 10:58 5. Random Lifelines 07:26 6. Mushroom Therapy 08:00 7. Another Paradigm 02:16 8. Instability 12:36 Once upon a time in a reality not so far from ours there was a handsome trancer. He, like many of his contemporaries was facing a battle. This was no ordinary battle for it wasn’t about physical conquest. Little did the trancer know at the time but there was a spell cast upon him. This evil spell originated from the Twisted empire. Most weren’t aware of it but it was told that the spell was originally designed by the evil storyteller duo called Shpongle. Listener by listener Shpongle spread its magic. There was no way to resist it. Meanwhile in the deepest corner of the full on stronghold there was something rather magical going on. Two full onners had forsaken the nation’s traditions, given up the holy full on regulations and rules and were preparing a new kind of weapon. History books refer to it as a weapon of mass destruction and sure from Twisted empire’s point of view the weapon was disastrious. The two full onners had developed a way to fight the evil spell. Little is known about this weapon but they say it had a lot to do with the element of surprise. The other of the two full onners had once before tried to fight the Shpongle magic, but the result wasn’t the best one imaginable. In the end things got even worse when his malicious employer deceived him. But he was powerful, this time he wasn’t going to fail. The mistakes which sabotaged the success of the first weapon were now only a bad memory. Day after day the two full onners prepared, engineered, tweaked, polished and all in all improved the design until one day they felt it was ready to be distributed. Come again.. The last Shulman album, “Soundscapes And Modern Tales” was referred to as “a Israeli answer to Shpongle” or something in that fashion anyways. I admit, it was bloody good, but still in my opinion it lacked something. It was as if some of the tracks were done in pretty short periods of time. Well that’s history now. The things that made that album in my opinion “not the album of the century” have here been overcome. While listening to “In Search Of A Meaninful Moment” one can clearly hear that it has taken enourmos amounts of time to prepare. This is no Bic Mac, rather like a eight dish meal. The element of surprise is strong here. You never know what will happen the very next second. You can hear that Yaniv and Omri haven’t really given too much thought to public’s demand, but rather have done exactly what they’ve felt like. But that doesn’t really tell what the album is like does it.. Well in a way this is just like the first Shulman album. Then again in a way this one here is totally different. We’ve got lots of bass here that’s for sure. On top of that we’ve got a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Now remove the “little bit” and replace it with “a lot”. Also remove “this” and replace it with “fucking top notch production and state of the art effects”. Yeah you guessed right, “that” has to go too, lets replace it with “weird/alien/yeti/mystical/magical/rainforest/desert/space athmosphere and incredible genious sound structure”. So we’ve got a winner! Now lets talk about the tracks.. Innerselves starts from silence and the next three minutes that are to come serve as a intro. Atfirst we’ve got birds. Then we get the wind. Doesn’t take too long and we’ll be there. There? In Yeti’s private little cabin in the Himalays sipping odd tasting beverage of some sort. At some point we start wondering why the walls are moving. Must have been the tea. The Yeti has two heads and three huge toes growing from his palm. One of them is metallic. The fucker seems to be enjoying himself. Circles, more circles, stuff on top of the circles, stuff on top of the stuff, it’s all here (and even a little more). The Unexpected Visitor is a story of its own. As you open your eyes you find yourself floating in high orbit. The earth is still down there. Running out of air? Nevermind, you can hitchhike to that odd yielding color sifting spaceship of psychadelicusine. As you find yourself a comfy place to sit at the band starts playing. They’re still doing a cosmic soundcheck, after all their gear exists in another timeline. Then a man walks on the stage “Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve got a unexpected visitor”. The paranoia starts to rise as you find yourself thinking wheter you’ll be thrown back to the vacuum of space or not. The narrator keeps on talking “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Raja Ram”. Raja steps on stage, there’s a small cheer and he starts doing his thing. You feel proud about the fact that you happen to represent the same specie. The band is wobbling around the stage. There seems to be a dispute of some sort at the bar. Oh nothing big, a member of the band just had a tripple whiskey. As he returns he begins his solo. You ofcourse have no idea what so ever what his instrument is called, never the less it sure sounds neat. Raja joins in again. Marvelous! But that’s not all. As the band comes a cross a criticall timesift and the music is about to stop you hear a sound which sounds like a.. well you don’t really know what the hell it sounds like. Never the less there’s suddenly a guitar on the stage. It’s being played buy some being from another dimension. You can only see the guitar. “Breath taking eh?” You turn around to see who the hell it is that it talking to you. “Yeti! What are you going here?” He passes you the bong and says “it’s the incarneted King” Whooop, Yeti’s gone. The track is now like halfway done. Raja sounds like never before and that band isn’t bad either. The guy on the keyboards is staring at you. Ah yes, pass him the bong! Now he’s all settled to do his magic, lay back and enjoy. Suddenly we’re back on Earth. Seems like it’s Sahara, then again might just aswell be the Gobi desert, how the hell am I supposed to know? There’s not much going on. “A magnificent void” all around you! All you can see is sand and more sand in every direction other that upwards, there you can see a billion and two stars. The Milkyway has never been this beautiful. Suddenly there’s music. It’s hypnotic to say the least. Then out of nowhere, there comes the female chorus! They’re sort of like levitating maybe 5 or so meters below you. Ah yes, you seem to be levitating aswell. So lets take a swim in the air now that we’re at it. Takes a minute or two but suddenly you master the art of manuevering in the air. That chorus is giving you “how to” in binary. Don’t resist, take it as it comes. Ah lets chill for a while, takes lots of strengh to fly for more than five minutes. The chorus is gone, only one has been left behind. She’s beautiful, her voice in angelic, have you seen her somewhere? Wait a minute, wasn’t she working at the bar? You find it difficult to concenrate, after all her voice is, like I said, angelic. The chorus returns. As “Consciousness Revoked” begins you don’t know where the hell you are at. Sure seems like you don’t even know the “you are” part because it somehow seems like as if you don’t even exist. Oh well, don’t let a little thing like that bother you, I’m sure it’s just that tea you had at the Yeti’s place good twenty or so minutes before. Don’t let the fear get you though I’d suggest to watch out for that CHINESE DRAGON THAT’S COMING STRAIGHT AT YOU!! As the dragon eats you things go really weird. Noises seem to reflect from the dragon’s stomache and they sure are coming from every direction/dimension imaginable, watch out, you’re in for a real mind fuck. Weird. You find yourself at a bazaar of some sort. Dripping sounds can be heard just around the corner. Wasn’t that Raja Ram? Simon Posford seems to be here too, he’s recording those sounds with his microphone. “Hey you!” A two headed creature shouts. Well the other head anyways, the other is talking with the King. She continuess “Are you looking for Random Lifelines?” “Random Lifeliness?” But wait, she’s gone already. Just as you start to realize that you were talking to Queen Elizabeth you start to hear music. Sense of time pretty much being gone you still sort of know that you’ve been here for a while already, maybe for five minutes? It’s calming. Then again, what else could you expect from a band which consists of five mummies? Suddenly the bazaar is gone, yet you’re at the same place. This isn’t a holodeck is it? The mummies are gone too. But where’s that music coming from then? Almost feels like drum n bass. Time to dance for a while or two perhaps? As you think of that a hundred or so umm.. beings appear out of nowhere. Everyone is dancing like there’s no tomorrow. This is far from traditional dancing though. Apparently the band has managed to get a Indian chanter here too. Now if you could only see the band. Oh well, don’t let the little things bother you, just join the crowd. It’s raining mushrooms. The Yeti is here too. He's mumbling something about "mushroom therapy". That metallic toe has transformed into a bong. Everyone is smoking mushrooms from it. Sure go ahead, join the queue, but do yourself a favour and don’t stop dancing. A little over five minutes have passed now, this seems to be the peak. The music isn't transforming into psytrance is it? Ah yes, you hear the regulated kick. Well you see it too. How could you not see it, after all it’s floating right above you. No, don’t touch it! Oh too late, you shouldn’t have done that. The tune starts collapsing. I’m glad we have that chanter guy. He’s doing his best to rescue the rhythm, show the band the way so to speak of. Well not much to be done, it’s all over now. Another Paradigm. Seems like that tea is finally starting to wear off. But the ride is pleasant, nothing to worry about. Time to think about what has happened this far. Been one hell of a trip eh? Ah yes, you’re lying at your own bed. You can see your room. Everything looks so familiar. There’s a relaxing piano on the background. But wait, what was that? Ah must have been nothing. Fall asleep. No what’s that? Ok granted, the Small Grey Creature sitting next to your bed is sort of interesting. He’s singing to you. The band is here too. “Here” however isn’t your room. We’re looking at Mt. Fuji, the sun is rising, the band from the ship is here too. Best gig of their entire career is about to end. They’ve even got the Small Grey Creature. Killer collobration if you ask me. It’s all orange, the spirits of Mt. Fuji have casted a spell of some sort over the band. They all glow in a elegant goldish shade. That foxy lady from the desert is here too. The guy behind the keyboard has had his share of whiskey, just wait, it’ll be the solo of his life. Six minutes have gone now. The drummer joins the play. BEAUTIFUL! The drummer is high! He’s showing off with his skills. The guy behind the keyboard looks anxious as he’s emtying that bottle of whiskey. How much longer can he hold on? The drummer has five hands, he’s playing in a way no man can. Almost nine minutes gone now. Small Grey Creature is giving evertything he's got. The keyboardist is shakeing! He looks furious. The last sip. Here he goes! Can you see him? Ofcourse you can, the spirits of Mt. Fuji are holding him and his gear in the air. Ah yes, everything is orange. Well he passed out, but it was the solo of his life. Everyone’s cheering! “We want more, we want more!” Finally it’s all over, been a long journey, time to sleep now, wont forget this one in quite some time. And.. Very inspiring music to say the least. Extraordinary review (right ?!?) for extraordinary album. That’s all folks, like I said earlier, we’ve got a winner. Do yourself a favour and don’t miss this one. 10 x "thank you" for Yaniv & Omri

yeah we've also got ak47's in case the polar bears find the parties.. man you should see the way the penguins dance to trance.. now that's psychedelic!

finnish sound suomi saundi

V/A - 13th Moon (Interchill) Artist: Various Title: 13th Moon Label: Interchill Cat: ICHILLCD016 Genre: Ambient/Psytrance Playtime: 65:46 Tracklist: 01 Kiwa - Dawn 08:38 02 Aba Structure - Rescue 07:27 03 De-Fex - Another World 06:34 04 Human Blue - Spinnin' Spoon 08:15 05 Taruna - Sacred Tree 07:49 06 Mystical Sun - 2012 07:28 07 Umberloid - Neon Tetra 06:56 08 Kaya Project - Stone Turns Black 05:32 09 Bluetech - Prayers For Rain (In Dub) 06:54 The Maya foretold that on 20th of December 2012 a cycle will end and another will begin. Some believe that it marks the end of this Universe (read Armageddon) and the beginning of another (read a new Big Bang). Others believe that it will transfer mankind into a new level of consciousness. I for one believe that the whole 2012 thingy is utter nonsense just like that Harmonic Concordance crap you might have heard of a month back or so. Yes, nonsense, crap and misguided information. Now you might be like "Yeah maybe that Harmonic thingy was nonsense after all, but the Mayan thingy is real for sure!" May I ask where your evidence are? Don't you find the idea that someone would be able to read the sky and foretell the future ridiculous? Well other future besides the fact that the Universe will keep on expanding also in the future. I mean just think about it. There are billions of billions of billions (and probably a few more) objects (stars, planets, moons, asteroids & meteoroids) in the Universe (and lets not even get started with the whole Multiverse thingy). Who gets to choose which of these effect the destiny of the Universe? It's impossible (without transwarp technology anyways) to see all of them. How can one know for sure that the ones he didn't see don't contribute. I'm pretty sure that the Maya didn't have trasnwarp cabable ships. I for one wouldn't recommend on joining any mass suicide cult thingies, unless of course you happen to be old/sick and the ritual involves thousands of virgins dressed up as princess Amidalas and subcommander T'Pols. So all in all total nonsense (like wmds of Iraq) but never the less a neat mystical theme for a compilation. This compilation's style could loosely be described as trancey ambient. So yes, it's the first time Interchill takes a step towards the dancefloor. But ye shouldn't be afraid for it's not that trancey, more like dreamy. Evil kickdrum is distant. It's still about beauty, harmony, mystery, jungle, sun, stars, sky, destiny, flowers, toes, fingers, love, fear, joy, water, waterfalls, oranges, monkeys, dimensions, distance, light, fire and aliens. The compilation dawns with Finnish Kiwa's "Dawn". The dawn of the "Dawn" is very distant, I guess one could say a little Himalayan. Noises, wind, instument of some sort, bassy kick, rhythm, these are the elements that I, the listener am aware of. A little after 01:00 there's still no point. I mean everything is rather nice, but to tell the truth there's not that much going on, and sure seems like things were to remain the same. Then it rises, that stable kickdrum plus clicking sound thingy is finally here. Going a little deeper with the bassline and the wind is back too. In a way it's hypnotic, in a way it's pretty boring, I guess it's once again time for that magic phrase; "It's all about taste". Nothing groundbreaking or radical here, then again it's just the dawn, maybe things will change as the day passes? Will Aba Structure rescue my high expectations with "Rescue"? The athmosphere seems quite different to the previous tune. I guess this one here represents a bit more of a traditional appproach. Beat, more variated beat, more stuff joining in, otherwise remaining the same. Loopish. Angel like female voice. This tune seems to be lounge orientated. It's one of those "hear the first two minutes and you've heard the entire tune" tunes. I'm not too fond of this approach. Sure it's a bit overexaggerated to say that you've heard the entire tune after the first few minutes but for real there aren't any huge differences in between the 0 to 2, 2 to 4, 4 to 6 and so parts. What I'm saying is that there are hundreds if not thousands of tunes like this out there. Nothing too unique here if you ask me. Okay, maybe I was a little harsh, it's just that quite a few quality chills have been released in the past few months and this tune here is one of those that just simply don’t stand out at all. Let us leave this world behind and travell to De-Fex's "Another World". Gotta love that sample in the beginning, it’s so alien. And ah! "Into another World". There's something oldschool in that melody thingy! I love it. Good old glory days of TIP reminder. It doesn't take much, yet many just simply don't know how it's done properly. I have this Mayan art thingy my mom got me from Peru. Looking at it goes rather well with the music. The expression on that boxy guys face is mystical. And ah, that sweet sample again! Great! "Spinnin' spoon" is rather odd title for a tune in this compilation for no matter how hard I try I can't seee a connection inbetween a spinning spoon and the whole 2012 Mayan crap. I'm sure "Human Blue" had his reasons. The BPM is 130 here and this is for sure the tranciest track on the compilation this far. The kick is dominant, not distant. Poor little flocking background sounds, they've got so much potential but the evil kick doesn't let them be. Repeative track, can't say too much good about it. Well it's uplifting, see I always find the positive things! Me having a severe overdose of music I'd say it's better to have a break.. And back in business.. I've never been too big fan of Taruna but you never know. The beginning of "Sacred Tree" is somewhat spaceship like. Then there's this sample saying something about a new level of consciousness. Believe it or not I dig the beat which begins shortly after 01:00. And gongas.. geniuos. Heretic, but not for long, the good ol regulator kick is here. But yay, the bassline makes a difference. Synth, effects, 140bpm, I guess you could call this psytrance. Unlike in full on and progressive the kickdrum doesn't regulate/dominate things here. This tune goes well with the theme. Towards the end you might recognize some familiar sounding flutelines.. Mystical Sun's "2012" is up next. What we have here is futuristic lounge music with some crisp effects served as a sidedish. Can't find too many bad things to say about this tune, then again I can't find too many good things to say about it either. Sure the beat is nice and all and the wah wah guitar isn't bad either, but where the hell are the melodies? I know, I know, melodies aren't big of a part of this genre (lounge again), never the less to please me you've got to have melodies. That being over and all it's the time for by far the brightest gem on this compilation. Umberloid is Mr. Ott’s and Mr. Barker’s collobration. I'd guess Mr. Barker did the fabulous bassline(s) here and the rest was left for the dubious dub virtuoso. I must say that this is till day my fav "Ott" tune. It's a bit more Shponglish than Blumenkraft and a bit more psychedelic than those few Gargoyles tunes and a bit less organic than the whole In Dub thingy. "Neon Tetra's" beginning is a little Indian influenced. We've got this manipulated female voice, indian beat and some fabulous backup synths. Then it's already time for the marvelous bassline to enter. 01:17 marks the "real" beginning. What's there to say. It's all here, GIVE ME A UMBERLOID ALBUM, RIGHT NOW! Those "transformers" samples are sweet, but then again, everything here is sweet.. purrrrrrfect. Suddenly the whole Shpongle saga only being a trilogy (hopefully in five parts though) doesn't sound that awful.. After a tune like that you'll need a miracle (or two) to keep the quality up. Kaya Project’s “Stone Turns Black” begins slowly. Drums, more drums, growling background noises, a string instument of some sort, and finally one of those Indian (native American) chants. Very rhytmic, the beat isn’t the weakeast link here for sure. If you ask me this tune is too repeative, the flavour is great, but something here lacks strongly. Bluetech will be the one ending the cycle this time. They’ve chosen to use “Prayers For Rain (In Dub)" to do so. The beginning is rather promising, atleast we’ve got something electronic here. The “melody” sounds very emotional. Can’t say anything bad about the effects either. This is more like it! Maybe it’s just my speakers, but the bassline is pretty weak. Soon there’ll be a electro piano of some sort. Didn’t see it coming that’s for sure. It does a few solos. This is almost like reggae, though the lyrics have been replaced with computer stuff. The “melody” from the beginning chooses to return. Nice tune.. So not that good of a compilation? Well yeah, sure seems like the review came out that way, but well, it’s bloody good music for real. It’s just that some of these tunes aren’t ment for analyzing, they’re just simply ment to be. Again, bloody good music, perhaps even a little genre defiant. Definetly differs from the “mainstream” stuff.

for real, it's dead? HOORAY

Artist: Depths Of Despair (Shahar Melamed) Album: False Sense Of Security Label: Spiritual Beings Release Date: November 2003 Total playtime: 75:55 Genre: Psychedelic Tracklist: 01 Passive Aggressive 06:11 02 The Burn 07:18 03 Patient 06:20 04 Voluntary Disapearance 06:27 05 Obsessive Compulsive 07:17 06 Repeating Patterns 05:33 07 Madame Venus Se Faschera 08:28 08 End Of The Tunnel 07:03 09 Bipolar Mood Swings 07:40 10 Between Black & Grey 07:15 11 Dawn Of Despair 06:21 I’m not the biggest nor the most accurate electornic music encyclopedia around so I have to admit that before I came across this one I had never ever heard of Spiritual Beings or Depths Of Despair. Thus I chose to explore and have now acquired a little data. This seems to be Spiritual Beings’ second release and apparently the guy behind this spins at Haifa’s Luna club as a resident chill-out dj, so he should all-in-all know his shit quite well. If the frontcover was to reveal what the album is like we would have one harmonic trip ahead of us. But then again, maybe it’s that unknown which waits us at the end of the pier. Everything here says underground. Perhaps it’s that tiny print on the inner circle of the cd which says “recordable cd” or then again it might just as well be the “non factory cd” sign on the backcover. But underground is good, right? To make things short and keep to the point lets talk about the music for a while (or two). I’ve now listened the album thru quite a few times and have created more or less settled opinion of it. Basicly what we have here is a experimental psychedelic IDM album, some sort of bizarre breed in between psytrance, IDM, drum n bass and dub. Doesn’t sound too bad does it? Unfortunetly the album isn’t exactly my cup of coffee. See I like my music emotional, psychedelic, innovative and perhaps crunchy. To tell the truth this album is emotional, psychedelic, innovative and crunchy. So how come it’s not my cup? Well here it’s the subtle differences inbetween sounds and composition that create the tracks. My coffee is usually made with clear noticable differences. Say you could taste both, the sugar and the milk, here however it’s all blended. In the end the result is more or less the same, but the way it’s acquired is radically different. There are no tracks that really stand out from the rest so in my opinion one could say that the album has a straigh path it follows from the very beginning till the very end. There are moments that give one (me anyways) serious chills. Waves run down my spine, thoughts fly, you know what I’m talking about, right? The beginning of “Passive Aggressive” is like paregoric medicine. It’s so smooth, so calm, yet barren, eerie, ghastly and perhaps just a little bit depressed. Well it’s not only the beginning, but the whole track, it’s just that once the breaks truly enter they tend to attract one’s focus. Every now and then the breaks reach violent states and the basslines aren’t that far from furious either. The ending is another dosage of that medicine the doctor prescribed. “The Burn” begins with orchestral strings. They come with tiny bits of cheerfulness. Alas! They’re gone now. Bassline becomes dominant. It’s like the foundation the rest will be build on. The beat is very static in some deep bassy way. It’s all about scales here. I guess you should reach a state in which the scales would disappear. The kickdrum is furios! But so is the bass! Spooky piece of sound is what we have here too. I could imagine one couldn’t bare this under the influence of psychedelics. There’s this finnish word which could describe this track in an outstanding way. It’s like when you are in the state of getting “the fear”. Be a patient patient. You’re in for a treat. “Patient” is good medicine for the psyche “the Burn” caused you, the patient. It’s still spooky, but in a bearable way. Or well, actually it’s not. It’s rather deep tune if you really manage to dig in. I really dig the melody which can be found a little after three minute mark. “Voluntary Dissapearance” is a step closer to more easily recognizable melodies. But take my word for it, one step at max! The part which begins from 02:30 is one of those moments I was talking about earlier. I get some serious chills everytime I go thru it! “Begin to focus on listening to this album.. let me be responsible.. allow this.. to surround you.. object of solitude” That is the spoken sample which begins “Obsessive Compulsive”. As it ends a fragile music box melody thingy appears out of nowhere. Magical moment. Again one of those “moments”. Creepy! Some awfully distorted kickdrums do some series damage to your ears. Then strings, I’d say it’s a guitar, but feel free to pick your instrument. You can almost sense that something violent is about to happen. But ah, it’s beatiful! Some of those noises just sound simply wrong! They almost hurt your ears, but I guess that’s the point.. “Repeating Patterns” might not be a perfect name for a track because it sure sounds like the track is going to be all about repeative patterns. Come to think of it it doesn’t sound that bad. Things are pretty sharp here. The kick is so clean! Lovely effects. Fancy things for sure! And a loveable melody! Nothing that repeative here if you ask me. But still, something lacks here.. “Madame Venus De Faschera” has another emotinally charged beginning. My guess is that this would be a thousand times more difficult to create from scratch than some average full on tune. Things go a little groovy once the bassline enters, didn’t see that one coming! If any of the tracks were to stand out from the album I guess then it would have to be this one. This is my cuppah! The ending is quite melancholic. Loads of fancy effects here too. Actually this one reminds me a bit of that "Billy The Kid" tune from Ott's album. In the beginning of “End Of The Tunnel” there’s this spoken sample which sounds awful lot like finnish. To me it sounds like he’s saying “mitä sä teet tääl?” which means “what are you doing here?” After that things go fast. 180bpm baby! Well maybe a little less, never the less really fast tempo here. The style reminds me of “Koneveljet” (aka Brothers In Machine) if you’ve heard of them. There’s this neat Indian like vocoded female voice which appears at the magical three minute mark. Soon it sounds more like a instrument. Bring it on! Vocoders are near my heart! Melancholic is proper word again.. “Bipolar Mood Swings” begins with static hi-hat driven drum n bass beat. Suddenly it’s all silent. Not for long though, now we go on with the synthline. Going up, up, up, down, down, down,,, the scaleism approach is strong here. Go on for a few minutes and it sounds like a totally new track. Some of those vocoded female vocals can be found from here too, yay! Super melancholic! A bit too weird for average trancer that's for sure.. “Between Black & Grey” Phased synth wave thingy goes on for about a minute. Then we get something rather Himalayn. This tune might aswell be called “A Melancholic Yeti” or something in that fashion. Some of the melodies here are very, very violent. The corner stone of our civilization, the piano, is the instrument which has been granted the right to begin the final chapter of the album, “Dawn Of Despair”. As we pass the two minute mark things remain calm. Sure we’ve got a hi-hat or two but that’s about it. Give it 45 seconds or so and you’ll get the kickdrum. The tempo however remains low, something like 70 perhaps? As the track advances it becomes clear that there’s not going to be any more musical advances, just chill and enjoy! As I stated before, not exactly my kind of coffee, never the less it's definetly a quality release. If you're getting tired of ordinary music why not try something a little bit extraordinary?

was thinkin' about going to a long long trip after my military service,, i'm talking atleast 6 months.. just gotta decide between south america and asia.. hmmm

maybe some psychedelic lounge stuff? definetly a group called juju spacejazz =)

seen it twice.. it's the man behind this thingy with knobs..

nope and anyways why on earth would you want to sell it..

i'd go for ogg vorbis @ 320 kbps but that's just me..