rino

...These would be the top of the top ones from the top of the top shelf... PLEIADIANS- I.F.O. (who would have said?) COSMOSIS- Cosmology LP MIRANDA- Real Rush LP (the title track still gets at me every time!!!) TRANSWAVE- Helium LP (the whole album is a special journey on its own) the following ASTRAL PROJECTION TRACKS- Let There Be Light, Power Gen (Live mix), Enlightened Evolution, Maian Dream, People Can Fly(!!!)

Nice going Felipe, I don't have any of these tracks, except I think one in horrible sound quality, and I've heard maybe one more, but that's it. And I see it's coming out on the Metapsychic Records, so now I got two releases from them I'm looking forward to: yours and "Innerpolarity"!!! Nice stuff here... When's the proper, full lenghth album due, if you had one planned, and I reckon you were mentioning it on the locked topic, no?

...random steps to enlightenment... Str8 Outta Comtpon : Hip-Hop = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance Pele : Soccer = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance Valentino Rossi : MotoGP = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance Federico Fellini : Movie = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance The Joshua Tree : Rock 'n' Roll = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance Aristotle : Philosophy = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance Tiger Woods : Golf = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance iPod : MP3 Player = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance Alcatraz : Correctional Facilities = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance Michael Schumacher : Formula 1 = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance Jenna Jameson : Pornography = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance Dante Alighieri : Literature = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance Michael Jordan : NBA = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance Al Capone : Organized Crime = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance Detroit : Techno = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance Bosch : Power Tools = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance Louis Armstrong : Jazz = Identified Flying Object : Goa Trance You must have gotten the point by now.

Respect to you as well. I don't wanto to discuss tastes because as separate individuals, each of us has our own taste and our own reasons. If you wanna check my final & in depth review of why I.F.O. wins over Sky Input, I invite you to read my review of the first Pleiadains album under the 1997 review section, which will be up in a few days. Peace!

How and where do I even begin with this? There is no way I could ever write a constructive, non biased and at least partially objective review. I simply love this album. I was, still am, and probably will forever be a major sucker for acidic lines, acid synths and so on... And just for the record, for the 0.01% of you out there who by know didn't get it, this release is overrun with them. Which is a good thing. No. Cross that, it as a fantastically phenomenal thing. This has to be the most entertaining, acid stained, crazy melodic album I have. This is not just a bunch of TB-303 effects thrown over dull beats; they are very nicely arranged, and the best part is that they are soooooo well incorporated with all the goaesque melodies to reach wonderful levels of psychedelia. This is truly something for the body as well as for the mind. I mean, the acidic synths remind me of some of my favorite old school acid artists like Solar Quest, The Pump Panel and The Dentist, while the melodies are not on the Etnica level, they certainly weren't supposed to be, but they kind of remind me of some wierder Cosmosis stuff from "Synergy", only that this album predated Bilbo's masterpiece. But it came after "Cosmology", which also being very acid influenced could kind of be in the same vein as this... Well, I love 'em both, and the acidic sounds are mainly to blame for that! But rather than thinking of what separate parts of it remind me of, I prefer focusing on the whole thing, and every time I get blown away by this album's uniqueness and originality. This is for me one of those albums which stands in a league of its own, a true masterpiece which can hold its own against virtually any modern release. I have never listened to this with pressing the pause, skip or stop button during the coarse of the tracks. Hell, I don't even answer to my cellular phone when listening to this. And picking a fav' tune here is almost impossible... Maybe Ring Of Fire, with the jaw dropping and eyeball popping part after 04:15; aaaaaaaaaaccccccccccccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiidddddddddddd!!!!!!!! Once again I will repeat myself: it is pointless that I write a full track by track review of this album because 8 out of 10 words would be praising adjectives like glorious, spectacular, invincible, unimaginably phenomenal etc.! The bottom line is: if you really are a fan of the old school acid sound, and I for damn sure know I am, if you like crazy, twisted and seriously funny samples (I forgot to mention it above, but his CD is loaded with those as well) that the likes of Psyko Disko, the older Ubar Tmar releases, Quirk and the newer suomi acts like Texas Faggott and Squaremeat adore to use, and last but not least, if you are simply a fan of old school goa trance, and did not listen to this, go fetch. I am not implying that you have to love it as much as I do, but I'd be stunned if you carefully listened to this album, and came back at me like: "There's nothing on here for me... These guys suck!". Never happened to me. Not yet. Top notch work here! JESUS DIDN'T DANCE! BUT HIS BEAT GOES ON! A WELL DESERVED 9/10 FROM ME! DEFINTELY STILL ON MY ALL TIME TOP 5 LIST!!!

I am not going to comment the samples too much because I seriously hate talking about any music until I hear the whole thing. I can't make anything sensible out of a sample except for a superficial comment such as: "I like it" or "it sucks"! But point a gun to my head and I'll cry out lou: "I like this!", and a lot; distortions, acid synths (and I'm a major sucker for those), weird & crazy sounds, cool sounding samples... man Filteria... if the rest of it sounds like this, I can hardly wait to grab my copy! But one thing I'd like to reflect upon. While I vewry much enjoyed both of the Filteria albums, and I am well aware of the immense talent the man's got, I quite a few times critized him for so obviously borrowing from, and being overly influenced by the Pleiadians. While they are my all time favorite project, and I am delighted with the fact that there are artists out there feeling the same, and keeping that kind of sound very much alive, there is a line which I rather not see get crossed. And that is when the "inspiration" starts to become "sounding alike". However, not to leave the wrong impression, I am going to repeat that I admire and have enormous respect for his work, and I am starting to feel as though the respect could increase with this K.O.B. release, for it seems tha tfinally I'll get what I bargained for: a unique, Jannis' own sound, when no one will point fingers anymore, and pigeonhold him as "the guy who made amazing Pleaidians tribute tracks"! Nice going Jannis, I seriously can't wait for the K.O.B. stuff to drop!

Not great, not terrible, in my opinion it is just an interesting change in direction for Rough & Rush, but unfortuantely I don't see it as anything more... It does not have the rawness and in-your-face energy of "Radio" and it sure as hell doesn't posses the bulldozer, sledgehammer like production skills of "Irritant". This makes "We interface" an entertaining and listen, but I doubt it will do any long lasting and real damage to the dancefloors or leave the scene shook in awe, as each of their previous releases did. But in the end, who knows? After all, it's X-Dream, so anything is possible. I urge everybody to give it a listen, because there is a possibility you will get positively surprised. I didn't, but it's not like that immediately implies "We interface" sucks...

I guess I can call myself one of those older goatrance fans who got turned off by his more progressive style. But, in te year of 2003, I did not expect a goa trance album from Man With No Name. Along with Astral Projection and Transwave, he was the first goa trance artist I ever listened to, and boy did I adore his music! I am a proud owner of all his work from the '90s, including his vast remix body of work. But I did not like this album. Not because I wanted to hear blast-from-the-past over the top melodies and stuff, but because there is one thing I never would have expected from mr. Freeland: monotomy. On a lot (if not all apart the last 2!!) of these tracks nothing happens. Actually, the last track is the only one which could engage your mind, while the rest is more for, well, dancing. At dawn. "Pipeline" stays true to his goa-ambient production and I must admit I like it more than the ambientesque tracks from his Moment of Truth and Earth Moving the Sun albums, which I found to be somewhat filler tracks. My favorite track on the album, which is also kinda weird, since I'm usually not that much in the whole downtempo/chill thing. But very nicely done! And "East 98th street" kind of reminds me of Chris Liebings remix of Ignacio's "Virton", which is btw one of my favorite techno tracks. Not that the track is spectacular, but it has that nice type of melody that just keeps on rolling in "circles". Yes, the track is repetitive, but this is one of those rare moments when I like it that way. And my third, and last standout track, is "Broken Promise", which is just fun to dance to. It's the closest thing to his older and rowdier stuff you will get on this album. And I actually heard him play some of these tracks around 6 in the morning, and it wasn't bad. I mean, this is at times so simple, and well, boring, that I would never guess that I was listening to Man With No Name's music! Well, and the other reason of my dislike of this album is the fact that by 2003, with the whole old school hype being dead and buried, I moved on to, and found it quite enjoyable, the finnish trance sound. So I must admit I was rather surprised to see him having a new album out, and rather not willing to adjust to this sound. If this was to be your first contanct with this man's music, it is perfectly understandable if you retain this a good album. Fans of progressive trance should give this a listen and, like the user above me wrote, probably enjoy it as well. Not even I'm saying that this sucks, it is just hard for me to accept something as plain as this to come from him. It just isn't (if this is the appropriate term) uplifting enough as his older work. I feel like I'm listening to the same track over and over and over again up until track 8!!! Oh yeah, and the thing about the chime hit in track 2... No comment. Coming str8 from "The Breech". This is in no way a bad album per se, in fact, I am kind of glad with the direction that he took after his amazing old school phase. I quite like the direction he took in that he didn't become another one of those horrible full on pointless music makers. That is, I like it until the old stuff doesn't reach my eardrums. Fans of the old MWNN, be careful, big chances of you getting disappointed. But, nonetheless, this man will, is and always will be a legend in my eyes, regardless his choices of where to go in trance music. Solid work, mr. Freeland, I know that the old days are long time gone, but can't you give us even a glimpse of what you use to do? BEST TRACKS: Broken Promise, East 98th Street, Pipeline (!)

Usually I write long, constructive reviews, focusing on almost every aspect of the album, but in this case, all I am going to say is that "A Flock of Bleeps" is in my top 5 post year 2000 albums! From start to finish this is such a creative and nicely flowing album. And although I do not like Prometheus, the sound of him and Simon Posford mashing together in the studio is, IMO, nothing short of breathtaking! I give this CD a very, very warm recommandation, and I would recommend listening to it from beginning to end, without interruption or the skip button, in a single listening. Amazing!!! The way in which it evolves from the slower, dubbed out beats to the stompier tracks only to end it all on an ambient note is great. Flow wise, "A flock of bleeps" can hardly be equalled. Simon Posford simply amazes me when he's sharing the studio with others, and this is no exception, being his finest work/collaboration since the immaculate Shpongle debut, "Are you shpongled?". I very well remember how I though this was so original, such a nice sound and a new, cool direction for trance music. That opinion still stands. I'm not saying everybody will like it, of course they won't, but for the sake of the people involved in this project, I am damn well positive that it would be hard to find people who haven't heard this yet, three years after its release. Nice going guys!

I absolutely join your club! Eventhough I must say I disagree that they are the two most talented psy (they don't even do this type of music anymore) trance producers on the scene! They use to be very, very, close though!

Trip to Dreamland (2006) Artist: various Title: Trip to Dreamland Label: Alien Community Label Format: Mp3 file SIZE: 127mb LENGHT: 01:19:19 TRACKLIST: 1. Chatnik - 7 Days Left (06:16) 2. Artha - Genetic Formula (09:07) 3. Mindcrawlers - Firebloom (10:50) 4. Swan X-1 - Matchu Pitchu (07:15) 5. Tellurium - Atheist (05:32) 6. Lost Buddha - In Love With A Godess (08:14) 7. Phazur - Detonation Device (09:33) 8. Cybernetika - Architect Of The Universe (10:47) 9. Tears - Gateaway (07:21) 10. Project 83 - Vision (04:24) Ok, so here we have a compilation focusing on the more melodic aspect of psychedelic trance music, and giving us a taste of newcomers, young producers still not established on the scene. First off we have Chatnick, and just by his name I can tell where the guy is from, and all I wanna say is that I hope this name is a joke, because back where I'm from, he's NEVER going to get a gig with it... Well, back to the music. A solid, if not wrongly placed, slow tempo track. Sound like a reaaaaally slowed down break beat track, with the tempo notably picking up at 04:43, but by that time you'll probably be asleep or you already hit the skip button. Hello?!? Tracks like this one go at the end of the compilation. Artha's track has a seriously annoying sample about some DNA and genetic formula crap, but the main problem here is that nothing happens on this track for aout 8 minutes, except some pretty simple and predictable effects over a common beat, up until 08:20 when a cool sounding acid synth flies in out of nowhere, and leaves you nowhere after being abruptly pulled out of the tracks after only 25 seconds. Next up we have Mindcrawlers whose track starts in a pretty unpromising way, but give it time, it does evolve, and all in all ends on a good note. Its strenght lays in its lenght; not that it contains mind blowing musical complexity, but it'll do! Nice track. Swan X-1 deliveres a solid track as well, even though his name sounds like the newest model of Whirpool's washing machines. And please, update your sample files, for I am up to over my head with samples about reality, and the paranormal, etc. And you get another one of those here. But I actually very much enjoy the background melodies here; they are not overdone, but they nicely flow over the beat. Especially from 04:35 to 05:15... Unfortunately after things get a little annoying. I won't complain, for this is a solid track as well. The next one is Tellurium's "Atheist" which is one of those short tracks which don't waste too much time before getting into it. The high pitched melody that flies in @ around 02:30 is definitely the high point of the track, but the rest of it seems... well, already heard dozens of times before. Put it this way: because of the strong bass line, and the acidic melody kicking in after about three and a half minutes, this could work well on the dancefloors, and let me add that it does not seem difficult to mix. Nothing that'll stick in your mind for weeks to come. Oh god, here we come: track #6, mr. Felipe Santos aka Lost Buddha, and the man still has to let me down. I think that somewhere on this forum I read that the guy has an album coming out. I hope soon. Me want. Me want very much. All I'm going to say is that when listening to this track, the five previous ones all of a sudden don't seem so fine anymore. Not that I don't appreciate other artists' effort, but theses other producers are, dare I say it, newbies compared to Lost Buddha. A stomping, old school like, goa flavored track- he kills it. Again! I am very sorry to say, but it is with tracks 7 & 8 that this compilation gets most negative points. More so, having that these two tracks together colck in a little over 20 minutes, and some painful 20 minutes you gotta go through... "Detonation Device" is nine and a half minutes of listening to a boring beat, ran over with some psychedelic effects which I have heard at least 100, 000 just during the last year!!! Come on man! And that background melody that appears twice during the track... Horrible. Sound like one of those cheap Samsung cellular phone ringtones. Cybernetika's "Architect of the Future" suffers from one major issue: over lenghth. For everything you hear in this track is overdone and overused by the long run. Especially the bass kick, the beat or however you want to call it, but in my ears after listening to it for about six and a half to seven minutes seems like a major pain in the you-know-what! Did I mention that it's a dull bass kick? Well, it is. Not that this track is bad- it just HAS to get edited... It is just too plain to keep your attention for the wole 10:47! Qay too long. Certain parts of it are more interesting than other ones, but all put together like this sounds like an uneven, over going track. I want an edit. Quick! Not a great track, read my lips: b-o-r-i-n-g. "Tears" is hella melodic, repetitive, dreamy and old school sounding, which seems like an awesome description at first. Remember those old tracks from albums like One Love or Transdimensional or Asia 2001's RA? How melodic, trippy and dreamy they used to be. Even though sometimes the tracks seemed repetitive, the melodies were so mesmerizing that you enjoyed listening to it... Not that I dare compare Tears with the mentioned masters, but here you have a single melody, only going through minor changes, and just floating over a quiet, soft (if I can call it that) beat, for the whole 07:20 minutes. Now, the melody is not that interesting to make me trip for 7 minutes, nor is it 1996 any more, so tracks like this really sound outdated and what's even worse, is that I know that this is produced in 2006, but sounds like something that would have been published on a so-so compilation 11 years ago. And we end the journey with Project 83's short and really nice track, with some live instrumentation on it. Not really my type of music, so I'm not gonna comment too much, but if that is a saxohone I hear at the beginning of the track, it sounds damn nice. A very cool way to end the CD. CONCLUSION: My review might seem a little harsh, but that is simply because the vast majority of these tracks never gets past the being just nice point. I mean, except for Lost Buddha, Mindcrawlers and Swan X-1 there isn't much to hear on this CD. Well, OK, the melody on "Atheist" kicking on 02:30 is some truly uplifting stuff- too bad it isn't used in a better track. But this leaves me with 3 tracks out of 10 that I find thorougly enjoyable. Which is not a good average. Now, not to turn people off and hurt anybody's feelings, I understand that almost everybody included on here are newcomers, and not yet established producers. To end this in a nicer fashion, I give my full support and all the best wishes in the future to all of these acts. I hope to get more of your music in the future, and remember: harsh critics can only make you better! Work, try to mprove, keep the new music coming, and who knows what can come next? For now, I see this as nothing more than a little, but very little taste of what is (I hope) to come. Just a teaser. And of coarse I ask everyone to go and find and listen to this compilation! I am certain that you will, just as I have, find at least one track on here that will seem very nice. Support new artists! While very far from great, this compilation deservers a listen! If for nothing else, just to show some appreciation for other people's work. VOTE: 5.5/10 HIGHLIGHTS: Firebloom, In love with a godess (!!), matchu pitchu

Hm... If in the glorious day of 1999 when you listened to "The Gathering" and you felt a wave of freshness as though somebody was smacking you across your face with a plastic bag full of cold piss, and if in the year of 2000 "Classical Mushroom" left you so shook up after you first heard it, you felt like you were punched around by the Lochness monster on top of the Himalayas during a snow storm, the year after you were gently irritated by the overuse of live instruments and guitars on "B.P. Empire", but on a good day it was your release of the year album, then in 2003 you threw "Converting Vegetarians" out of you window when you heard it. Or no? Or did you think it was a masterpiece? While I personally got pretty tired of the whole Infected Mushroom frenzy already around the time of "B.P. Empire", and I honestly felt that all the hype around these guys after their Classical LP was pure nonsense, I just recently felt like playing this CD again, and who knows why. While I'm not going to comment not even one track on this album, I want to focus more on the album as a whole. While Infected Mushroom fans probably aknowledge this as a classic, and psy "purists" bash it in any way possible, my prblem with this album is the idea and not the music. While I very, very, very, but very much enjoy "The Gathering" and "Classical Mushroom", at the same time I ver much dislike anything they have released since. Not that the music is bad, I mean each one of us has his own criteria, and sees music in his own way, but I just found their other albums to be annoying. Why? Because after the tremendous success of "Classical Mushroom" these guys were in the posistion to release anything, and I really mean anything, and have hundreds of thousands of people rushing to the shops and buying whatever it is. It's the point when everybody are convinced that you are king, #1, the best or whatever, and you actually have the choice to cash in your formula or continue to explore new grounds, keep on making interesting and provocative music. For example GMS and Astral Projection made them $$$, while acts like X Dream changed their sound each time around just like a teenage chameleon changes skin. Now, as this album's title may suggest, it was Erez Aizen's Amit Devdevani's intention to "convert" their fans to other forms of music or expand their viewpoints. But, my beef with this release (and the one after as well) is that I don't want to be coverted by Infected Mushroom. I already know other forms of music, I listen to them, and I don't need one of my favorite psy trance acts (if not THE favorite) circa '99-'00 trying to show me that psy trance is not the only thing around. I am well aware of that, and so is 95% of trance listeners out there. While I very much respect them for never following the formula "if it ain't broke, don't fix it", I just don't see what was wrong in continuing doing psy trance music for them? They were doing more than just fine, and I really didn't need to hear very annoying live instruments to understand that these guys are not your run of the mill trance producers. They proved that by the time of their second release. But even though this album definitely is original, not typical sounding, sometimes even apstract, daring, and the second CD comes across as very experimental, I never took those terms as sinonyms for good sounding. For original does not mean good! I find this a challenging album, and I would invite everybody to give it a listen and make their own judgment. You might even like it. I am personally very irritated by this whole "we are Infected Mushroom and we are sooooooo different"!! Yes, thank you, but we already know that- no need to make pointless music just to prove it. If their intent was to break out of the psy genre, they very much succeeded in that, and I don't mind that, it was their artistic freedom. But there is no way in hell I can aknowledge this piece of double plastic as anything more than average. At best. God damn it, when people realize that diversity and originality are indeed very nice characteristics of any given album, they do not guarantee its quality, they only help achieve it. But when you have a bunch of creative ideas, going nowhere and not being arranged properly, you get "Converting Vegetarians".

And I would add "Tarantula" to the bunch... See how this album gets back at you? That's excatly what I was trying to prove. While the highlights of this album are at times sky-high, the low ends of this album are frustrating and annoying whenever you hear them, like "Seratonin Sunrise" for example...

You can't even imagine how excited I am about his forthcoming album... he's my co-citizen for crying out loud!!! No problem for the comments, just keep the music flowing P.S.: not for a split of a second did I think you copied anyone, I perfectly understand what you mean, for there are so many great artists, albums and tracks to learn from and get inspired by. At the end, that is what music is all about...

There... I let some time pass and let these tracks grab a real hold of me. So, there we go! Ataraxia- I guess this track starts in your pretty typical mid-ninetees goa trance sound, which means that for its first almost three minutes you get the bass kick and some pretty cool background melodies and tweaking sounds. Up until 02:55 when a wonderful melody rips it, and all is great until 04:00 when after the sample, in my opinion, things go awry. What I would have prefered is to hear the track exploding onto a whole new level after the sample. Hey, you remember "V.T.O.L." and the sample "jesus christ! That thing is full of electricity" after a few minutes of the song? Right after it, Monro & Evans took us into even more melodic and psychedelic mayhem! Not that this break is bad, but after an amazing intro it kind of leaves me wanting for more. My other beef with it is that the more part doesn't arrive until 06:40, when the melodies come back in. I mean, not in any way am I saying that there is anything bad here, but for a little over two and a half minutes, we are lesft with little more than the bass kick (which I forgot to mention above is awesome- a true floor ripper) and some background melodies and tweaking acidic synths, if I am not mistaken. But all of those are subdued to the bass. It's the bass that is definitely too loud in that part. I very much do understand and appreciate that part while on a dancefloor and I am sure that this track would make me touch the sky, but it just (dare I say it) seems kind of simple (not in a bad way). But don't confuse this kind of simple with the modern full on banging and boring production! Because here the melodies are always present, there is always something going on, but that mid section could have been a little more trippy. Like this it simply says an excellent head nodder and feet stomper. Anybody gonna complain about that ? But watch out for the main melody kicking back in at 08:00. Even though I would have prefered hearing it right after the sample at 07:35. This is where the track really picks up again, and to be honest, that is where I realised how something was missing before. And the track ends nicely. Very nicely. We're only halfway through, but I'm already far, far, far down memory lane... Southern Oracle- OK now, if Flying Rhino Records were by any chance alive 20 years from now, this track woulb be one of the highlights on one of their legendary Retrodelica compilations! The melody flies in already at 01:49 and you can't even believe so much has passed since it seems as a matter of seconds before it came. And it lasts until around 02:30 where after some chant-like sample it stops. If I can say, the melody reminds me of (NOT that it is the same!!!) Miranda's awesome lead melody on her stunning tune "Labyrinth". But that's just me. For about 30 secs not much happens but then... I don't know what that effect is called that sounds like schratching, but I reckon it isn't. Well whatever, because after that stentorian effect, another melody rips it for about half a minute. By this time, if the track didn't get you, you must be ill. Or Psyfactor is your favorite trance producer. And then for about a minute you can enjoy the power of this truly pumping and (no joke) joyful bass kick with various effects, melodies, tweaking sounds and what not coming in and out as though the track was an elevator. And then the so called "ambient break", which, IMO, in this track is a stroke of pure genius. To put in a track as powerful and fast as this an ambientesque break with some sort of background choir chant(?), use no bass kick whatsoever, and pull it off, is not easy. Even during this break, virtually all the effects from before (and some new ones) are all in tact, and then the melody kicks back in at 05:00, but the bass kick is still not there. Oh wait! I hear it coming, and coming, and climbing and climbing until- BANG! All hell breaks loose at 05:30 after the sample. See Lost Buddha? That is what I meant above- hit us with it after the sample, for this moment is a killer! We're only five and half minutes into the track and had already three (3!!!) melodic climaxes. But then I felt wrong when after half a minute of this bliss the melody disappears... Naturally, I was soon proven wrong. For at 06:36 the infamous "scratch" effect (I'm loving it) comes in out of nowhere and from there to about 07:25 we are teleported into space. Who remembers Chi A.D.'s "Celestial" and the point in it when that unforgettable and utterly mesmerizing, whinning acid synth came in? Well, while I still wouldn't compare this to that, it does come seriously close. We have no bass kick, but in a few seconds yet another melody (who can keep track of 'em here any longer?) kicks in, and the bass drum starts to crawl in at 07:45, and all hell breks loose when you feel its full power combined with this last climax which is in my opinion everything goa trance was ever about! Except, I really feel that the last climax sounds a little too similar to the melody used on MFG's "Overload" track. Except this is faster. Well, who cares. It's been such a long time, a few will remember, and people like me are so hungry for more goa trance that on a killer climax as this one (and trust me, this WILL blow any door off its hinges) you won't even be thinking about it. You will be too busy dancing your ass off. And the track ends on such a high note with the (predictable, I guess) return of those chanting background vocals, and for the third time, that beautiful scratchy effect ending it very effectively. In all the three time it was used, it really impressed me how skillfully was it incorporated in the track. Nice work, here. Very nice work! This is music that sweeps across the floor, putting a huge smile on everybody's face. IN CONCLUSION: So, why is my review so long and accurate. For one, I really felt that I needed to comment these tracks as I am very convinced that Lost Buddha has more talents and tricks up his sleeve than Inspector Gadget! His "Metamorphosis" track from the V.A. Apsara hit me like a pissed off tsunami, especialla thanks to that insane middle section from around after the second sample and his track on the Pyramidal Trancedance could easily be the show stealer even though that is a pretty bold statement for finding a best track on there is like looking for a grain of sand in the Sahara desert. So the man's got me impressed. And stay tuned for my review of the V.A. Trip to Dreamland where the man himself can be found again . All in all, he still has to let me down with his blast from the past wall of sound and feel good energetic goa trance that I fell in love with years ago. But that "years ago" could be the crucial phrase here. Why? Because back in 1996-1998 this would have easily been the "EP of the year" release (of coarse along with the Moonshine EP and Plastic EP ), but in 2006 I want something to make me go: "This is it! This is Lost Buddha! It is THIS that sets him apart from the rest". I am not like another fellow user before me indulging that he should switch over to doing something out of the ordinary just to proves he's different and original (and eventually get fatally taken away by the "originality", like the Infected dudes), but just add his own little original signature, which I understand he hasn't still found having that he only released a few tracks. Not that this style isn't awesome, it rocks! It just does!!! But just like Khetzal is recognizible for his ambientesque approach to music, and Filteria is instantla recognizible for his off the hook multilayered, multi climax and melodic frenzy style (even though I even see too much Pleiadians (my all time #1) influence there...), so should eventually Lost Buddha get his. At times, listening to this EP, I find myself thinking about Ra's To Sirius. A bad thing? Hell no. Just wanna make sure that when I listen to his music, I don't wanna think like: "this part reminds of that guy, that melody is similar to that one... etc". But I am positive that will eventually come, for we haven't heard the half yet. At least I seriously, but really seriously hope so! Boom!!!

I've heard a lot of talk about it, but I'm usually very skeptical about the new breed of trance acts messing around with the classics. Furthermore, I wasn't even that sad when I found out that Etnica's double remix album, which was supposed to be called after their insane classic, "Intense Visitation", will most probably never see the light of day...

The above quoted description of "Seratonin Sunrise" couldn't be more true than it is. I simply have nothing more to add about that track. This has got to be in the top 3 of the worst used vocal in an alectronic music track Hall of Shame. But let me write a reflection upon this album, for I see many biased (and too short "reviews")... At the time of this album's release I was 14 years old, and was already familiar with the likes of Man With No Name, Astral Projection and Transwave, mainly because of a one hour TV show going once a week and playing videos of artists producing electronic music. And back in the day, after all the Prodigy, Underworld and Aphex Twin crazyness cooled down, you could see that simple, but cool three minute video of "Teleport". Already then I had an audio cassete with some of Freelander's earlier classics (Teleport, his awesome remixes to Rise's The Single and Disco Volante's Moonraker, Sly Ed, Jack in the Box, Sugar Rush, Evolution, etc...) and I use to play it on a daily basis. Then I remember this dropping. Coming from a city where getting original goa trance CDs is an equivalent of running across the Asian continent in one afternoon, it was only natural I pulled on my mom's sleeve until she bought e this CD! And boy was I happy, I thought I just climbed the top of the world. While I'm at it, I also remembering buying the Goa Head vol. 4 double CD on the same occasion which was miraculaosly also there. And man I use to play Earth Moving the Sun night and day! I use to think that this was the finest music I have ever heard. (Un)fortunately my euphoria didn't last too long because a few months later I'd taken a trip to Italy where I got acquainted with other artists through endless crate digging in neglected record shops. Now what does this have to do with anything? It does. It does because remembering now, I can perfectly understand why I cherished this album so much: it had those over-the-top melodies, it was happy, loud, and very, very dance friendly! I even use to write my homework with a smile on my face when I listened to this album. Tracks like "Possesed", "Own the World", "The Breech" and the obligatory head nodder "Tarantula" all sounded amazing. And to be honest, they still do. Last summer, at the O.Z.O.R.A. festival in Hungary, I saw Martin Freeland play "Possesed" live at around 6 in the morning, and let me tell you, if there was a roof over that place, that would have been the point of its demise. And I don't even want to mention all the numerous times that some other tracks from this album (virtually all of them except the two pointless interludes, the ambientesque "Treacle", the above mentioned peace of garbage, anf the honestly 100% pop sounding "The First Day (Horizon)) that I have heard during the last few years at various parties and festivals. Not one time have I heard a single person dissapointed or just standing still!!! Man With No Name is one of the all time most played producers at festivals... ever!!! Looking at this album today, I very much understand how somebody can call it trash; this sounds like a kindergarten choir compared to todays's groundbreaking production, but it even pales when compared to a lot of albums from that era (don't wanna count 'em now), but does anybody really think it was Martin's intention to compete with the unbeatable psychedelic madness of let's say Hallucinogen or Cosmosis? Man With No Name delivered a very easy listening, easy digestible and club friendly album, packed with simple but effective melodies and cool sounding rhythms. On the other hand, "Earth Moving the Sun" was one of the rare albums which could easily successfully appeal to goa trance freaks as well as to occasional trance listeners or fans of the whole "uplifting" trance scene. No doubt about that. Tracks like "Own the World", "Possesed" and "Vavoom" were played by goa/psy DJs worldwide and even today are oftenly spinned on some old school parties, and I don't personally ever recall anybody shouting at the DJ that he's a sellout because of putting them on. But take for instance "Vavoom" again (which even got played by some mainstream DJs) or "Parallel Universe"... they could easily be injected in a non-psy trance set. Hell, I even see "The First Day", no matter how horrible it may be, getting played to a mainstream crowd. So, in conclusion, even I today find myself laughing when listening to this thinking back on how madly was I in love with this album. Not that my favorite tracks from this CD sound ridiculous tody, I still like them! But of course I don't recognise this as a classic or an essential release. No way. But I wasn't always like I am now, and I have much matured in taste, and this pales in comparison in just about everything when compared to my beloved Etnica / Pleiadians group! But I ask you: just stop pretending that you were always all knowing trance freaks and remember the time that the sounds of "Vavoom" blasted through your speakers... Magic!!! Once again, this may sound ridiculous looking at it with modern eyes and judging it with modern criteria, but for those of you who were there, I just don't want to believe you that you didn't think Man With No Name wasn't cool. This album is not in any way a milestone in the psychedelic trance scene, but it's going to be a while before we get rid of and forget some of these mesmerizing tracks. Boom!

As it was numerous times stated above, the Goasia tracks "Yin & Yang", "Spectralys" and "Spiritual Connection" (the latter being my stand out track) are all very nice old school like tracks, packed with those feel good vibes that should satisfy virtually any older goa trance fan, including the fans of the whole new Suntrip Records sound! Goasia, as usually, fully delivers! Worth buying for the 3 tracks mentioned above, IMHO. The rest is far from being my cup of tea.

If you listen to this one without knowing it's the third Pleiadians album, you might even get some quality time out of it. Having that it is a fact hard to ignore, accepting the painful truth that these are the guys who were once involved in churning out classic albums "I.F.O." and "Family of light", I find it almost impossible to appreciate this one, on any level. Objectively not bad, but I myself cannot play "7even sister7" through without being very subjective and critical.

"Jesus Christ! That thing is full of static electricity!"---------- Need I say more? V.T.O.L. still remains one of the genre defining tracks. A huge, 12 minute epic revolving around two differents exchanging drum patterns, and each one of them having its own accompanying melody and fxs. This is my favorite Technossomy track, and the one which has according to me stood the test of time better than any other track they have done except maybe for the equally classic The Pyramid. One of those old gems which can even nowadays blow any crowd off their feet if properly introduced. Even soundwise this gem sounds great. If I didn't know the year of it's making, hell, I'd even take a wild guess about it being fresher! The layers are really well constructed and are better distinguishable than on most other records from mr. Monro and mr. Evans. The melodies are fast, very catchy, danceable and highly psychedelic! AAaahhh, the glory days of Mr. Monro before abbandoning the goa ship and embarking on the progressive/minimal voyage... Unforgettable track! "Porcupine" is a great track, but to be honest, I never really heard it up until one time I decided to listen to the EP from end to beginning. Why? Because every time "V.T.O.L." finished, the track kept on floating through my head during the whole 8 minutes of "Porcupine". Unfairly naturally, as it is a sweet little tune, but nothing to brag about as it pretty much stays in the typical mid ninetees goa sound, which is a very good thing! It's much slower and less full onish than its predecessor, but I must admit it comes in handy as a little break point before going into track 3... ..."Elektron bender (Samsara live mix)" which is one hell of a party track. I once heard on some private party and it got the whole place on their feet in seconds. A nice, groovy, pretty pumping track accompanied by a wonderful, if not too demanding or complicated melody. In fact, "Elektron bender" doesn't come anywhere near the complexity of "V.T.O.L." but it doesn't even try to! The track follows in that beautiful early Flying Rhino Records melodic, goaish, party trance! YAY!!!! Very catchy melodies, a few nice breaks (pauses) and a beautiful old school feel good vibe... What more could you possibly ask for? FINAL VERDICT: "V.T.O.L." is the track to watch out for. An EP containing only that track would of been a 8.5/10, but with the inclusion of the other two tracks, listening to this almost eleven years after its original release, I reckon it's fair to grant this EP a well deserved 9.5/10! Well done, Technossomy, too bad we never got a "replay" of this release... Boom!

Actually, this would be my biggest beef with the album. The fact that I already had "B.P. Empire" in its unmixed version, alongside the seriously spectacular "Roll us a Giant" from the B.P. Empire EP, the album left me only one truly awesome track, the above mentioned "Dancing With Kadafi". Which on its own, however, seems just average compared to some of their prior work. But it remains a more than impressive or decent way to end an album! It certainly did make me smile for at least 10 minutes, which is saying a lot, considering nothing on this album could keep a forced smirk on my face for over forty seconds. I just felt like I had the best tracks before even getting the album, and the biggest irony of them all is that the track "Roll us a Giant" wasn't included on the album, and I always thought of it as being the highlight of the EP, and even outshining each and every album track. Not that the album doesn't have its moments: "Spaniard" is nice, so is "Tasty mushroom" (even though the sample borders stupidity), and I also very much like the piano sample in "Funchameleon" and "Noise maker" could have been beautiful, if I.M. did not decide to riun yet another track with a cheesy sample... But during the course listening of the album, certain parts may seem cool and innovative, upon coming to the album's last track, Dancing With Kadafi, everything else just paled when compared to its greatness... But then, whenever I turn to other and older Infected Mushroom's older classics, I come to realize that Dancing With Kadafi only seems great when confronted with the mediocrity of tracks from this album. And then once the album's time is up, I am left dissatisfied. Even I have to admit that the tracks, only in my humble opinion lack consistency, and that sometimes I prefer to listen to certain tracks on their own, rather than playing the whole album. Moreso, there are sections from some of these tunes that show potential, but they never develop into anything more than a cool "full on" interlude... A lot of build ups are resulting in short explosions of psychedelia. They should have focused on one of these: or make the tracks utterly dance friendly or make a quieter album.

Even though I was never a huge S.U.N. Project fan, and I found "Macrophage" to be their standout album, I was negatively surprised by this album. For starters "Zwork" is much more bass heavy, hard, stripped down and simple than their previous albums. There are no real stand out tracks or instant classics like for example At The Edge Of Time from "Drosophila" or Space Dwarfs from "Macrophage", and as a whole album, I think this lacks inspiration when compared to their sophmore release. The first 2/3 of the album has a great driving and pumping energy to set any floor on fire, but that is only because of their pumping beats. But IMO all of the above mentioned tracks suffer from the lazyness virus. Whereas great versatility was displayed on "Macrophage", most of the tracks here have cheap and simple effects thrown over hard beats. To me it sounds like they just threw them over in order not to be labelled as some... I don't know what... Techno? Or just for the hell of getting the psy trance sticker on it. Zwork, Copeland and Casio Paya have guitar riffs that seem like S.U.N. Project's garage band outtatakes when they were about fourteen yeas old, while basically the first six tracks have entire sections where literary nothing goes on, until some what are supposed to be acidic melodies kick in. And those suck. If you are known for skilfully incorporating electric guitars in your tracks, then you don't put corny riffs as these on top o' your tunes. There isn't a single guitar section on this album that has edge, or that sounds like it was actually anything more than a product of a 30 second improvisation. I don't even mind the absense of "real" melodies, but nothing is decently compensating for them. The guitar riffs, which were once great on tracks like Dance Of The Witches and Spaceships And Spacepeople are nowhere to be found here... The song Planet Earth very much stands apart from the rest of the album due to its funky and easy digestible flow, and that makes it the official misplace here, in a good way though. And even though I occasionaly enjoy its groovy bass line, apart from it sounding so different from the rest, the track goes nowhere, eventhough it does come off as refreshing after a bunch of shallow stompers, but that's about it. It doesn't have any determined flow or direction, it lacks evolution, catchy sounds or melodies, so apart from creating a pretty pleasant vibe, it doesn't add anything new to the rest, ultimately resulting monotome and dry. Practically all the elements they previously used to create a highly unique and recognisible sound are simplified and degraded to the maximum here, in favor of thumping beats and rehashed sounds, which are supposed to ignite a frenzy on the dancefloor. And Subsonic Overdrive is, IMO, the primary example of that here: it has everything you'd expect from a S.U.N. Project tracks, but think some five steps down on the ladder. The elements that could have been used to create a killer tune are just lousily and quickly put together. Not that it is an unbearable track, I just have a feeling that this trio just wanted to get it over with as soon as possible. As they probably did with the entire album. There are exceptions, like my favorite track ever since the first time I heard this album, Alienated which soooooo perfectly samples Pink Floyd's mega classic "Welcome to the Machine", and the track itself is really energetic stands as the highlight of the album. The guitars are, for example, absent in that track, but it still contains enough flavor to satisfy the most picking S.U.N. Project fan! It has some cool build-ups, accompanied by nice acidic synths. Different from the typical S.U.N. Project track, but still maintains the energetic feel! Great tune! The CD ends with the ambient Deeper And Deeper which I dare not compare with the utterly amazing closing track from Macrophage, Energia Magica, but it's good nonetheless. Very atmospheric with some female vocals. Hell, it sounds good enough to make me regret why S.U.N. Project hasn't made an ambient album instead of this pile of banging beats + horrible guitars. While I actually saw no point in them releasing another album sounding like the last one, and I can understand the flirting with new ideas and sounds, mainly because the style they pursued on their first two albums was slowly fading away from the scene, the real problem here, however, is that they don't elaborate on any of them. I tend not to bother about genres or S.U.N. Project's determination to pursue a newer, more minimalistic sound, but I must say that this sounds uninspiring, not because of its minimal structure, but mainly because it just fails to come across as psychedelic in every aspect, let alone interesting. There is nothing that strikes me for its constructive musicality, detailed elaboration and provocative or challenging sound. To me this just sounds like some drunk punk band members being rushed into producing an electronic music album, while they are well behind their times. But that is just me. Most tracks follow the same formula, and none of them have any sign of greatness or epic and memorable parts. They do their share as dancefloor numbers, but once the party is over, except for the standouts, I don't think anybody will have these tracks sticking in their heads for a long time. So yeah, a disappointing release, I'd give it a 5/10 for the three great tracks, the rest is just filler material.

8 (almost) years have passed, and my initial verdict still stands on firm grounds. There's no need to do a track by track description in 2007, for everyone have at least once heard this album! I mean, if there still are people out there who haven't at least once listened to this album, they must have really set their minds and bodies to it. Now, why have I decided to write something about this album now? Well, first and foremost, I much rather prefer writting something about an album after at least two years, giving it time to properly sink in. Now, what amazes me about "Family of light" is that I still hold my original opinion about it; I still think that "Head Spin", "Modulation" and "Meter" are the killer tracks here. The classics. And I really mean that. I retain those 3 tracks true classics. "Modulation" still has the power to wreck any speaker system and blow away any crowd if played properly. No joke. And tracks like "Moon in Your Window" gradually grew on me; I know that I really sound cheap, but as many reviewers wrote before me, I couldn't stand that Morisson sample at the time I first listened to the CD!!! And to conclude, and to further prove that my original verdict still stands, I still think that "Universe 13" and "Family of Light" are much weaker (maybe weak is the wrong term, for nothing these italian maestros did back in the day could be referred to as weak...) than the rest of the album. In no way are those tracks bad, but after hearing the 3 mind blasting tunes I listed above, in my opinion, the remaining tunes seem reasonably inferior. And the album is concluded with "Seven Sisters" which I really like, but I must admit that there are times when I'm just not in the mood for it, and simply find myself pushing the "stop" button in the middle of it. Something I have never done during the last 7 years with "Head Spin", "Modulation" or "Meter"! Is this release essential? In my humble opinion, everything these italians released before Andrea Rizzo left the group is a must have. And this album is no exception. That does not necessarily mean that everyone will fall in love with it, for I know many (OK, not many) people who aren't too crazy about the italian goa sound, but give it at least a spin or two. It is after all, The Pleiadians, and it will be worth your time.

OK now, I read a lot of mixed reviews about this release; there are people who hail this as a classic, and then, there are those who regard this as worthless trashbecause of the heavy guitar use. Usually, I don't judge trance music by the guitar use measures. In fact, I think that goa can sound pretty cool if the guitars are properly used! And who better to use them properly than 3 ex-heavy metal fans?! So, as most reviewers already said, "At the edge of time", eventhough it is pretty guitar ridden, could easily be the album's highpoint. Along with that track, my other 2 personal favs would be "Awakening" and "Tribolus", which both burst with that old school goa energy! It's pointless analyzing the album track by track now closing in on its tenth anniversary, so I'll just briefly comment. This album's greatest innovation is the introduction of the (in my opinion) greatest trance act to have ever used electric guitars in their production. But, that apart, this album sound more like an introduction to what was to come later... These tracks aren't as half as memorable, psychedelic, crazy (you name it) as most of other tunes from that marvellous era. In no way are they bad, but saying that they are breathtaking and classic? No. They are not. This album may be best described as a cool ride down memory lane for old school fans when they dust it off from the top of a shelf. Tracks like the three mentioned above will have a greater impact on you if you stumble across them on some compilation then when listening to them on this album. Why? To some, listening to this album as a whole may get tiring after a while, because you don't get those dreamy melodies as Transwave, Electric Universe, neither that in-your-face sound of A.P., nor the over the top theatrics of Man With No Name, or the crazy psychedelic mayhem of Cosmosis and Hallucinogen... Plainly put, 7 out of 10 tracks here don't cross mediocrity. To me, this sounds like a nice debut album, from a trio still not as confident of themselves as they should be, and still searching for a sound of their own. The latter would be fully accomplished, according to me, on their third and, IMO, best album, "Zwork". favorite tracks: 1, 3, 5