antic604

Currently in rotation: Playstation 4: Uncharted 4, Ratchet & Clank, Alienation, Dirt Rally Playstation Vita: Axiom Verge, Shovel Knight Sony Xperia Z4 Tablet: Lara Croft GO, #Sword & Sorcery Yeah, I'm a Sony / Playstation fanboy

Yeah, it was most likely the cover that discouraged me to look into it - it's pretty generic, pseudo-spiritual design with poorly chosen font. Glad I checked it, though!

n/m

Props to Drezz / Nervasystem for linking this album on FB! I mean how many more good releases have I been missing!!! Promo text: Kri Samadhi has been producing Psytrance in various groups over the years such as Shapestatic, Annunaki and PusleWave. Now he brings us his first full length solo album, “Konx om Pax”. Kri's debut album takes the feeling and energy of mystical experiences that we feel in the Psychedelic realms and works it into an audible bliss with top notch modern production. Performed on analogue hardware, each track has its own distinct sound. This modular synth masterpiece represents all Psytrance sub genres, often mixed together, creating a new and unique vibe. Bits of forest bass lines fused with hallucinations of inner dimensional languages, classic leads, and subdued melodies take you on a journey, riding the the electric neurons of the mind. This is the music of the night, when we connect with the universe and the inner most deepest parts of our true selves. Artwork: Samples: https://soundcloud.com/krisamadhi/sets/kri-samadhi-konx-om-pax-cd Purchase: http://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/ovn/ovn1cd112.html http://beatspace.com/9689/Ovnimoon+Records/KRI+SAMADHI/Konx+Om+Pax/detail.aspx

No, no. That's not what I meant - Bill obviously didn't write the music FOR Jeremy, but they were doing it together and considering Bill's broad musical knowledge and experience - he was a professional guitarist playing and doing session recording for jazz/funk bands - I'd suspect he had much greater influence on the final sound of Laughing Buddha back then than Jeremy had. For me the clear evidence lies in "Synergy" - 1st Cosmosis album after they've split, which for me to this day is a pinnacle of Psychedelic Trance (not Goa-Trance), with its incredible musical and technical achievements: beneath the overwhelming acidy storms it's full of melody, musical ideas and clever arrangements. Jeremy's solo albums in comparison - even to later Cosmosis albums, which not consistently as great as Synergy - sound empty and soulless... And it's not an isolated situation either - just compare the before and after output of Dick Trevor without his Green Nuns' pals Matt Coldrick & Neil Cowley, Etnica / Pleiadians without Carlo Patterno & Andrea Rizzo, or Koxbox without Ian Ion... The list goes on

Not sure if it's been there forever or it's something they introduced lately, but in Collection view discogs.com shows an estimated worth of your musical treasure chest based on last 10 sales of each item in your possession. For my collection it gives: min - EUR 5.2k med - EUR 9.1k max - EUR 15.4k Mind you, this is not to brag about anything - I'm sure most people here have much bigger collections, with more rare / expensive stuff in them. But I thought it's interesting. BTW, here's my collection: https://www.discogs.com/user/antic/collection?header=1 (the value estimate is obviously only visible to the owner of the account )

Weird, spring came in the middle of the summer!?! Thanks Neogoa!

I think it matters to CD collectors, no? I know I'd be pissed if I got one of those... But I'm assuming the whole idea of collecting CDs is a "lol" to you as well, so I'm not expecting you to understand.

It's fine, I've a lot of other music to listen to right now. Send whenever you can

Yeah, no - I think it's mostly Bill Halsey's work... In those times Laughing Buddha was Cosmosis' alter ego releasing under labels other than Transient. Once Bill and Jeremy parted ways, they also split the names.

Yes, please be more specific - there's not a lot of great goa trance, but plenty of great psyvhedelic trance music

Have you seen my reviews or rants about mastering quality/issues of certain releases? Yeah, I'm a classic example of grumpy old goa trancer: listening to psychedelic goa trance since 1996, on psynews.org since early 2000 (under "antic", without the "604") although I'd say my collection is pretty evenly distributed over time: out of ~800 CDs 250 is from 2000 or earlier. My grumpiness shows in me being picky with regards to quality of the music and my specific expectations - I know a lot about music production, I listen to different music styles and I know what I like. I think there's always interesting stuff being released, because no artist / label on purpose releases bad stuff - some of it just isn't my cup of tea, but I'm not losing my time and nerves criticising it. It's more difficult than ever now to find good stuff, because so much gets released both paid and free and I really pity the people stuck in expectations that old golden days of '96-98 goa will return, missing on all the great releases that are there... So yeah, I'm mostly grumpy about big part of the scene (or maybe it's specific to psynews.org?) being grumpy and stubbornly stuck in the past

Love the ratings all over the scale for this one! Anyway, here's interview with Loud where they go indepth on the album:

Oh, well can't please everyone The interview with Mark is up as well: https://www.psynews.org/forums/topic/72249-artist-nervasystem/?do=findComment&comment=1071098

The interview is up as well - go check it out: https://www.psynews.org/forums/topic/72249-artist-nervasystem/?do=findComment&comment=1071098

Looks more like a monkey to me, but yeah - this is also how real psychedelic music works: everyone get something different from it

The album is out: http://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/ptm/ptm1cd191.html http://beatspace.com/9651/Phantasm+Records/NERVASYSTEM/Brainradio/detail.aspx Hope my review will convince you to buy it: https://www.psynews.org/forums/topic/72245-nervasystem-brainradio-phantasm-rec/ Oh, and if mods help me, the interview with Mark will be published shortly!

Did my part and ordered the bundle with Deimos CD. Looking forward to it!

Nervasystem - Mesmer Nervasystem - Interpretation Nervasystem & Process - Groktangle Nervasystem - Kraal Mayalis Nervasystem - Mythraic Nervasystem & Skizologic - Hacking The Neuron Nervasystem & Braincell - Theory Of Cut-Up Nervasystem & Alex Thynne - Omni Nervasystem & Graham Wood - Dualtech Nervasystem - New Si-nap-tic Pathways Nervasystem & Globular - Brainradio Dub It struck me one day while looking at the cover for Nervasystem’s “Brainradio” that it’s author - inadvertently, or perhaps not? - provided me with an apt description of his music. In mathematics, physics and optics there’s this phenomenon of Moire Pattern, referring to a “secondary, visually superimposed pattern created when two identical patterns are are overlaid while displaced or rotated a small amount from one another”. You know how it looks like? Well, then imagine a similar effect in sound domain Mark Dressler, a.k.a. Drezz / Nervasystem is a veteran of psychedelic trance scene, active from day one and rubbing shoulders with other giants of british underground, with releases on Phantasm / Psychic Deli, TIP Records, Flying Rhino, Matsuri, etc. After some hiatus in 1st decade of 2000’s, he came back swinging with “Time Travel” on Anjuna Rec. - a collection of unreleased, hard and banging 90’s psychedelic techno - and two self-released albums: “3” where he explored the more laid-back, experimental side and “4”, an up-tempo, but still very deep, organic and intricate psychedelic journey. The newly released “Brainradio” is a spiritual follow up to “4” then, but with the added sound variety brought by collaborations with artists new & old: out of 11 tracks total, 6 were composed with some of the most prominent figures of our scene. Coming back to my Moire Pattern analogy, Nervasystem’s music can be described as an organic, flowing arrangement of ever-changing ideas and spontaneous, one-off accidents - melodic lines, chords, sampled voices, sound effects, etc. - skilfully and meticulously manipulated over a steady 4/4 beat. In a way that’s very similar to what The Orb or FSoL were doing in the 90’s in ambient: producing sound collages, only loosely bound by the formal guidelines of given musical genre. This means that the music is rarely catchy or immediately accessible for a casual listener, requiring a lot of effort and dedication to fully “get” it, as a lot of what’s happening is taking place in the background, on 2nd or 3rd plane and is often very subtle, nuanced and intangible. I always liked the more random, non-direct music, i.e. one without clear, easily separable and distinct melodic lines, where the brain needs to fill the gaps between sounds to the point when I’m not sure anymore if what I hear is actually there, or it is my mind’s construct… - just like Moire Patterns. For some (many, I’m afraid considering current generation’s short attention span) this kind of music will sound empty and aimless, but for me it’s the definition of PSYCHEDELIC - each listen reveals new things that I missed previously and in one year’s time, when I come back to it, it will sound different still, because the brain will have to figure it out all over again. Sure, it might not always work to the fullest, it will rarely provide an euphoric moment of build-up, peak and release so ingrained into expectations of today’s psychedelic trance consumer, but it does have it’s time & place: when you want to disconnect from the outside world, dive into the sub-consciousness, contemplate your inner thoughts and just drift away… Funnily enough, this would be a pretty spot-on and true definition of TRANCE in it’s most primal, basic meaning. “Brainradio” is therefore a pure, classic PSYCHEDELIC TRANCE album. In the end, I’m not fooling myself that “Brainradio” will achieve some global recognition because it’s at odds with what the larger audience is expecting today - even if it’s more accessible than “4”, it is still too demanding, too out-there and probably not enough in-your-face. I hope it being released on an established label, getting proper CD print (“4” was a CDr) and having for once a genuine distribution will help it reach a wider audience. For me personally, I’m grateful that such non-conformist, intelligent psychedelic music is still being produced and released today. It’s incredibly rewarding, rich experience and shows what psychedelic trance is really all about. It cannot be easy to stick to your guns and go against the trend, but artists like Nervasystem deserve our support ...and money 5 / 5 Purchase here: http://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/ptm/ptm1cd191.html http://beatspace.com/9651/Phantasm+Records/NERVASYSTEM/Brainradio/detail.aspx Bonus track-by-track info: “Mesmer” and “Interpretation” are minimal, sort of ambient-ish and droning, with the former borrowing heavily from old-school German techno (e.g. Mille Plateaux label) and the latter adding atonal, cinematic samples to create dense, 80’s cyberpunk atmosphere, “Groktangle” (with Sean ‘Process’ Williams) is hard, noisy and pretty random; it starts to get a bit more coherent in 2nd part, but never really achieves much more than being a curious, clever sound experiment and running just over 4:30 doesn’t help it spread its wings either, “Kraal Mayalis” and “Mythraic” see Nervasystem’s earlier formula pushed towards more modern, dancefloor-friendly territory with faster tempo, funkier basslines and more traditional arrangements - but they’re still beautifully abstract, cryptic and non-conformist, only in a slightly more accessible full-on-ish disguise, “Hacking the Neutron” bears Maor ‘Skizologic’ Hasbani’s trademark 303 acid lines and distinct, dry sound all over it, subjected to Drezz’s merciless sonic twisting and mangling, but - while very good - doesn’t really venture sufficiently enough into any of those directions, hanging somewhere in the middle; on the flipside, this one’s probably the most accessible tunes off of the CD, “Theory of Cut-Up” (with Braincell) takes the step that it predecessor wouldn’t, ie. goes deeper into the experimental, vague and highly psychedelic sound sculpting on top of relentless kick/bass combo and accentuated here & there with hints of “normal” melody lurking beneath, “Omni” (with visual artist Alex Thynne) and “Dualtech” (with TIP’s Graham Wood) are even more out-there, trading the mid-album speedy full-on rhythm sections in favour of twisted, wiggly, swirling and meandering soundscapes - sometimes very alien and dark (“Dualtech”), other times more earthly (“Omni”) but always very richly textured, playful and intriguing, “New Sine-Ap-Tic Pathways” dials the tempo down, providing the sounds with much more breathing room and in a lot of ways is reminiscent of X-Dream’s classic “Oscillator”: slow, menacing and relentlessly progressing acidic trance in its purest form, “Brainradio Dub” (with Globular) closes the album in style, mixing guitars, deep bass, water-splash percussions with tons of effects and samples, in a manner that vintage The Orb would be proud of - there are hints of dub, jazz, funk and it’s all served in a hazy, misty collage of electronic effects.

Man, I love Bill Hicks, that track and the album it comes from! Any chance for a new Voice of Cod release someday?

"All of us want to be happy. In this we are all together. How we imagine our happiness that differs from one another, but it's already a lot that we have all in common"

That's why I wrote "melodic(-ish)" because sure, it's not goa but it's also much more musical - not necessarily melodic - than say Tristan, Hypnocoustics and the like. Yeah, I can see that. I wrote as much about my initial impressions. The low point for me is "Unique Drum" where a guy explains the art of playing tabla, in particular underlying the idea that "you can only play as good or as clean, as you can sing (the tune)". Due to my music-making experience I totally understand what he means, but they've built a whole track about this idea, so the guy sings and then plays the tabla. It's fine and fun for a 1-2 min segment, but not as a whole tune... But then again, there's no album perfect back-to-back

Thanks, I respect that and I clearly see why our perceptions of the album differ. It's cool, agree to disagree, etc.

That's exactly my thinking behind rating this 5/5 and the description of that particular grade in general - it goes beyond established 'sub-genres' (of widely understood "psychedelic goa trance" scene) thus has much better chance to be appealing to lots of people, seeking for different elements in music. To give counterexample, Psilocybian's "GodHead" is a terrific molodic(-ish) full-on album, one of the best in years, but I don't think people specifically into goa, dark or prog exclusively would find it interesting; hence my 4/5 for it, even if it's 5/5 within the melodic(-ish) full-on sub-genre. 5/5 is basically for genre-transcending, eclectic music or genre-defining classics. You don't. No one does. But I really appreciate it

@Padmapani, thank you! Also for the links - some of it is very interesting!