DoktorG

"For me the really good bits are when he goes more ambient / downtempo and lets the music breathe a little... but I honestly have to say that for most of it I don't get that really magic feeling that I get with older Goa or something like RA...It might be something to do with the mastering or just Filteria sliding back into his tendencies for a relentlessly constant level of energy in a track." Tend to agree: Filteria is wonderful in small doses, but the manic layerism in track after track becomes monodimensional, relentless, and tiring after a while, unless you are in that manic body/headspace I guess...

I can confirm that the Hallucinogen singles box set is indeed superlative quality. It is well remastered and repressed and the box is high quality and beautiful. The mastering is more uniform than the original 12s, which were highly variable. Recommended.

LSD Snarling Black Mabel Mi-Loony-Um!

Here's what I wrote about Rastaliens' Freestyle on Discogs in 2015: "One of the worst covers of any Goa/psytrance lp, but one of the best albums musically. Dark, funky, danceable, fun, heavy, trippy. What's not to like? For what it is worth, this was one of the most popular albums in Goa back in the day. Along with MFG's "The Prophecy", every Chai mama or roadside stall had a pirated copy to sell. Top. ~*~" What do I think practically a decade later in 2024? Well, the cover still sucks; I like the dark blue colour scheme, but that's the only redeeming feature. Praying Mantis adorning some kind of underwater scene? Wtf. If it were today I would think it bad AI art. We don't listen to Goa or psytrance for the cover art... 😅 Speaking of which, I'm listening to my original Balloonia double vinyl now. Decent mastering and pressing job - there is zero surface noise (and I've played this lp plenty) and zero inner groove distortion, or any technical glitches. Well done Balloonia and the press - good job for early noughties, or any era. Which raises the question of whether it sounds dated. Well, of course it sounds dated! Things sound like what they are made of and how that is played and this era had its musical technologies and its trends, as does every era. So yes, it sounds dated, but in a good way in my opinion. For sure, the mastering could be more dynamic. However, there is no beat matching or autotune as far as I can tell; the music is not marching to a nuclear clock rigid metronome like so many contemporary tunes. There's a certain rhythmic looseness that is necessary for groove. There's some soul peeking through the digits. Also, it doesn't have that super-glossy sound in the mids and treble, a shiny sound I have come to dislike. In other words, this album sounds good to me. Highs could be a touch brighter and more dynamic, but I dig the slightly darker sound that goes with these tunes, which are early slightly dark psytrance. And what tunes... The immediately noticeable musical thing is that there are funky basslines on this album. Just listen to the bassline on "Bodyspeaker", or the walking bass on "Grumble", or the tuneful bass on "Mr Sandman". These are instantly recognisable, memorable basslines, much more inventive than the predictable galloping horse bassline of psytrance today. The way the tempo of the bassline in "Grumble" is used to build up to climaxes is masterful. If you heard these basslines on a big system, you would be twitching that ass involuntarily. Melodically you won't find any Goa fractals and Rastaliens definitely could be more inventive - the glockenspiel melody in "Fitz Fatz", for instance, seems to be cribbed from Infected Mushroom's "None of This is Real", which came out just 2 years before. Generally I think that this album owes a lot to Classical Mushroom. But while this is not Simon Posford with his melodic creativity, there are plenty of interesting melodic moments on Freestyle. My personal favourite must be the longest track on the album "Weird Condios" (9.02). The melodic line takes its sweet time to develop into a heavier and heavier and darker and darker trip that goes on and on, just how I like it. Wonderful! Overall, I would say that there could be more variation in this album; it is pretty much like they just made the same track over and over. Nevertheless, with familiarity the individuality of each track reveals itself. Finally, one of the things I know about this album over the years is that it has high replay value; once I'm into it I just want to hear it over and over. That's not a minor thing. So thanks to Sawfly for reminding me to listen to Rastaliens' Freestyle again. As you can probably tell, I think this is album is a classic of sorts - one of the few good early psytrance albums to come along after the many awesome albums of Goa. Maybe a minor classic, but a classic nevertheless. ~*~

I just want to repeat the praise for the mastering of the vinyl edition, which is presumably pretty similar to that of the cd edition. The Dat Records mastering of Etnica's Live in Athens and, especially, the Crop Circles compilation was brickwall compressed, bass boosted, and lacking in spaciousness and tonality. Happily, it seems that a lesson has been learned because that is not the case with this excellent release. I don't know what the DR number is, but this is not a heavily compressed mastering job and sounds great as a result. A very happy outcome that serves this stunning music well and augurs well for the future. All strength to Draeke and his excellent projects. ~*~

Twisted writes: "We will soon be offering LP sales of the latest collaboration by Simon Posford and Raja Ram entitled Improvisations for Piano & Flute. This super-chill album by the dynamic duo is a salve for the soul, an atmospheric antidote to the relentless stress and fast pace of our increasingly complex world. The digital release of this album is a 1xLP pressing on golden nugget vinyl - a luxurious way to enjoy these eight beautiful tracks. Stay tuned for LP sales link on 28th November. You can pre save the album now on all good streaming platforms": https://simonposford.lnk.to/PianoandFlute

Pre-release on Suntrip of Bypass Unit vs Color Box: https://suntriprecords.bandcamp.com/album/bypass-unit-vs-color-box-nanosphere-courier-digital-12-shipped-4h-of-oct

A round of applause for your sensitivity Rapid Flow, but what you are saying is no secret on this forum. Lots of us identified the cul de sac of the galloping horse and machine gun rhythm section with irritating build ups many years ago and are openly critical of it. In fact, this critique has been going on since the early 2000s when so-called full on developed.

Enjoying the gnarly, crunchy Bamboo Forest vibes on this.

Yes, Amtinaous are excellent and obscure, but not quite overlooked. Here are the Discogs reviews of the 1996 "YOD" ep on POF records: peuk Oct 19, 2023 Edited 8 months ago Huhh... As the articles before me, I can say this is the key to answers, what we are try to found every time when listening goa trance. This record is beautiful! Four tracker gem, with pure goanish elements, magical soundscapes on every single track. But not a regular release. Bravo! chimushi Apr 13, 2022 Surprisingly deep, 4 track gem that will not disappoint any true Goaseur. I missed this one on my first tour of the small Amtinaous catalogue of releases and was very happy I came across this must have release on my second pass. This is contemplative level Goa Trance of the highest quality and is not for the Greatest hits of Goa Trance crowd so if you have time to really listen to this release, you will be rewarded by it's depth, nuance and subtlety. A note of Thanks to the artists who created this gift. doctorg Jul 11, 2021 Edited 2 years ago Good quality floaty Goa from France. "Y.O.D." is wonky; lots of little tweaky sounds and clanky percussion moving in and out of a gentle beat, it hovers in the liminal zone between the dance floor and chill area. "Araxia" is squarely in the dance floor with a stumping beat, insistent bassline and shimmering synths. "Organic THC" in the "Imothep Disturbance mix" is a gentle chill out track with Indian flute and tribal percussion - very nice. "Nyamgal" returns to the dance floor, though it is a fairly gentle and trippy track with long textured synth lines verging on drone; an excellent track. A lot of work went into this varied ep and it shows. ~*~

You're most welcome to use what I wrote. I agree that nothing trumps quality tracks, but sets and comps with good flow create a journey. Ag I guess I'm just an Etnica fan; for me they are so plugged into cosmic power at their best that most everything else sounds a bit undramatic by comparison no matter the tempo. The kosmiche opera of trance. The production on this new track sounds promising; their old stuff was badly compressed, especially Alien Protein. Wild acid lines? Yum

Thanks Acid Being. Yes, I did listen to the Etnica "Universo" ep and I liked it, but none of the tracks achieve take off like "Golden Era". I don't want to undermine your forthcoming review, but as you asked here's what I thought: "Different Species" is a collaboration with Ovnimoon to remix the Crop Circles (Etnica + Lotus Omega) original from the "Full Mental Jackpot" ep (1997). Excellent track. I think Ovnimoon is one of the best neoGoa/prog artists. "Chemical Brilliance" seems to be a new track and has a full on psytrance beat with fabulous Etnica melodies. Stunning melodies but the robotic beat works against them a bit for me. "Fireworks" is also a new track I think and has more of a techno vibe, like on Nitrox. I found this track a bit meandering and it didn't quite hold my attention, especially towards the end when it kind of peters out. Going back to Acidum Influxum, I think that it was a programming error to make the awesome "Golden Era" the first track; it set the bar a bit high for the following tracks. It would have been much better placed towards the end of the compilation I reckon. Overall, I felt the compilation lacked flow (admittedly only a few compilations really get this right).

Etnica "Golden Era" First of all the alien atmosphere, then the bouncy bass, then the beat: that slapping kick and rattling percussion that Etnica perfected. Slightly loose, swinging, so easy to dance to. But I should have known that was just for starters, because when the 303 kicked in at 3.20 I felt every hair stand to attention and I thought "Fuuuuuck this is the sound I've been missing". The Italian masters know how to make a fractal melody like no one else. I wish the initial form of that melody came back later in the track, but what a bliss to get a blinding power Goa track from Etnica in 2023! It is like reuniting with your soul mate 24 years later because we haven't had a track like this from Etnica since "History" from Equator in 1999. The only question is why it took them so long to go back to the golden era. If they carry on making tracks like this we are in for a new golden era. Unfortunately, much of the rest of the compilation pales compared to this track, for me at least, but I must mention Antidot & DICA's searing "Soulbinder" which could light up a dancefloor, Inner Zone's blissed out "Heaven's Gate", and the whimsical trippiness of BotFB "Tenderlion (Anthem Remix)". Welcome back Etnica! ~*~

Agreed. In certain realms, the accusation of cheesiness is the kiss of death and it can take guts to bring the cheddar in such realms. However, please allow me to clarify that while I find the sample both intriguing and kitsch, it is the generic elements of the track as a whole that make it a bit cheesy to me. It just seems a bit psychill-by-numbers, especially the angelic choirs towards the end. Please note that this does not decrease my appreciation of RA's fabulous art. I said a bit too cheesy, not quattro formaggi. 😅

"Enthralled" starts off with a simple quiet piano-type melody, slowly evolving into a sweetly melancholy slow ambient track via squelchy and clicky percussion - kinda reminds me of ambient techno ala Autechre. There's a bass growl in this track that is appreciable, sounding like waves lapping on a shore. The big pads that come towards the end build to quite an intense climax. Super ambient track that is well structured, if somewhat simple. A- "Mysterious Thing" is just what it says on the tin - exotic ambience that reminds me a bit of Entheogenic. I like this track, though at times it verges on the generic. B "Visions of Touch" revs things up a bit in that it actually has a beat and is the outstanding track here, managing to be both chilled out and acidic, a winning combination. A "The Burning" has some sounds that have become generic for psychill - choirs, panpotted bass growls, swooshes etc. However, it also has a long voice sample about love that might well make this one of the few Goa tracks that is overtly romantic (it reminds me a bit of Boris Blenn's "the ultimate experience is love" sample from Galaxy's "Musication Celebration" on the Angel album). Is the romance here tantric-style or Romeo & Juliet type? I don't know, but even though I find the sample both intriguing and kitsch, this track is just a bit too cheesy for me. C I'm a big fan of RA, going right back to the 1997 "R.O.M./Azure Child" ep. I rate "To Sirius" very highly and "9th" is my favourite, but I also think "Earthcall" and "Unearthly" worthy works. This latest chill out ep from RA is solid, but I can't help feeling that it is just throat-clearing. The singing is yet to come. Let us hope we get another album soon. ~*~