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Artist: Various Title: Balbalot Label: Michaeli Records Date: 1999 1. Lost in the Jungle 2. Shikana (Ofer Levy) 3. Hamosad 4. Devil Laugh 5. Just Goa 6. Last Mission 7. Psychodelic 8. D.J. Zoom PERSONAL NITZHONOT RATING SCALE: 5 stars: Close to perfection. Makes me automatically dance. I might almost cry of joy if I listen to it. (Though I somewhat lost the ability to cry while ago... but it the same feeling I remember) 4.5 stars: Usually good-quality Nitzhonot. Makes me automatically happy. 4 stars: Average rating for Nitzhonot (higher than average if oldschool Israeli Nitzhonot). I enjoy it. 3.5 stars: Usually lower-quality Nitzhonot, or Nitzhonot that's "slow" without compensating with psychedelic elements. A bit enjoyable, but also a bit underwhelming, especially if it's Nitzhogoa. I wouldn't chose to listen to a Nitzhonot track from that quality after the first time I did for discovery purposes (except to remind myself of what it sounds like). 3 stars: Usually very amateurish music with poor melodies. Very underwhelming. 2.5 stars: Very amateurish music with poor melodies. Kind of boring. I may actually get sad if I listen to it. Or laugh at it if it sounds so amateurish that it becomes funny. 2 stars: Boring. I never felt this bad about Nitzhonot. ≤ 1.5 stars: Let me reach 2/5 first to know what my Nitzhonot 2/5 means before I even attempt to know how I would feel about ≤ 1.5 stars Nitzhonot. REVIEW: Lost in the Jungle: Look at the title. Of course it features distorted animal samples (which is an oldschool Nitzhonot cliché, by the way). It also features nice tribal drums. I don't find the melodies anthemic enough, though. 3.26/5 Shikana (Ofer Levy): This one is weird. But I like the fact that the artist did experiments! However, (correct me if I'm mistaken as I don't speak Hebrew,) I don't understand this concept of making a Nitzhonot track out of what seems to be a pretty depressing sample, as "nitzhonot" means "victories" in Hebrew. But someone else did it for Uplifting and I love their track, so I guess that kind of stuff can work, lol. I would have enjoyed this track more if the melodies didn't drown the rest as much as they do... 3/5 Hamosad: Somehow, I find the melody, the synth sounds and the mixing boring... So, all these three things. I usually have little to no issue with any of these things in most Nitzhonot tracks, at most I may find some melodies easy to improve. But here, all these three things are off to me! In a way, that's an achievement for a Nitzhonot track. 2/5 Devil Laugh: Listening to almost any Nitzhonot after the previous track would have given me a sense of relief. However, while this one is better than the other one, I still don't really enjoy it. I find the melodies boring, some synth sounds not very enjoyable, and once again I have an issue with the mixing. Upside: I like the tambs. 2.5/5 Just Goa: For a track titled "Just Goa", it sure isn't very psychedelic! 😛 But it's not unexpected from 1999 nitzhonot. Once again, I'm not convinced with the mixing, some synth sounds (that one from 3:59 to 4:37 kinda hurts my ears...) and the melodies. However, I do feel like these are getting better. Or maybe I'm just getting used to what I used to percieve as worse than mediocrity a few minutes ago... 2.5/5 Last Mission: It begins with a nice intro that reminds me of what Nitzhogoa artists would later produce. I also like these busy kick patterns. Once again, it's something that people use in Nitzhogoa nowadays. I find the mixing and the melodies of this track more enjoyable than that of the 3 previous ones, though this one is lacking on the anthemic department. In fact, many of the melodies would not be out of place in a typical Goa Trance track, except that it's lacking psychedelic elements to make it work... 2.8/5 Psychodelic: That one is meh in my opinion. Nothing about it is anthemic. Upside: some nice tribal drums there. HOLY SHIT, WHAT IS HAPPENING AT 5:23?!! I barely have the words for it. You see the complaints I had about mixing, synth sounds and melodies? ... yeah. But this time it's very much worse. DON'T LISTEN TO THIS TRACK WITH A HIGH VOLUME!!! Upside: That terrible part only lasts 1 minute and 12 seconds. So basically until the end of the track. (Okay, not sure that's a good thing lol) Damn man, that outro sucks... 2.26/5 D.J. Zoom: Better mixing than the other tracks. Still a bit boring. And to compensate with the better mixing, a new problem has been introduced! Why are the drums weirdly panned? Between 0:52 and 2:03 it kinda works because the kicks are on the right and the snares on the left to compensate (though the kicks are way louder than the snares so it still feels umbalanced), but then 2:18 happens and it physically uncomfortable with my headphones. 2.5/5 COMPILATION RATING: 2.6/5 I think that's the lowest score I gave to any (non-single) Nitzhonot release I rated so far...

Tracklist A The Temple 9:00 B Stalking The Wild Controller 6:20 This is my first post, and review BTW. How didn't this E.P. get reviewed over the years? This is pretty minimalistic! "The Temple" Starts with some thudding, then it starts sounding like some deranged Mayian gods sacrificing people in a temple. Good track for stomping and will work well for the dancefloor! "Stalking The Wild Controller" continues the madness and it is even more of a stomper, because it explodes midway and will knock you off you of your chair! Note that these tunes might sound boring, but listen to them repeatedly and they will mesmerize you! 9/10 Here are the tracks on youtube:

Artist: Various Title: Mideranged Label: Furtive Records Date: 1999 1. Midrange Freedom Fighters - Death Rattle 2. Parasyke - Tick 3. Midrange Freedom Fighters - Subspace Distortion 4. Airborn Virus - Alien Babewatch 5. Midrange Freedom Fighters - Dark City Slicker 6. Midrange Freedom Fighters - God Complex 7. Splonge - Space Junkie What the f*ck, man? Who thought this would be a good idea? Pubic hair sprinkles, nice touch you sicko, there is no way that I... Oh it's chocolate? F*ck it, gimme two dozen. If you sell cupcakes (not that sick sh*t above) and decide to open a business to sell your cupcakes and then decide once you've made those cupcakes and sold a bunch that on that same day you're going to close your business, well...I'd say that's not really a good business model. I don't care if they're the greatest cupcakes in the world you're still going to take a bath on that venture. But that's what happened here. Furtive Records is a one off label, just a bunch of buddies getting together just to release this CD. Clearly they weren't in it for the long haul or take make sacks of cash. Maybe they make cupcakes and one day after an intensive bong session they said, "F*ck it let's make up a label and release an album and then shut it down. It'll be the most bad ass thing ever! And then we'll just give it away! Hells yeah!" After many bags of Doritos and a bunch of naps that's just what they did. The artists are all the same guys. They did the art, the mastering...everything. And what they came up with was some twisted, psychedelic stuff. Music for the time where goa was well on the way out and psytrance was foraging an experimental new path. You've got swampy forest sounds, tribal percussion, and some groovy bass lines. The uh, moaning on Alien Babewatch...yeah I can't confirm that they didn't lift that from the Tommy Lee Pamela Anderson sex video. But if they did that's pretty good work for an album that is now licensed to drive in all 50 states. It's not the best album you'll ever hear, but for a one and done it will get you there psychedelically speaking. So they built a "label" released one album, and waited for cult status to roll in. Last time this thing sold on Discogs was 6 years ago. Mission accomplished gentlemen. Who wants more cupcakes?

Artist: Various Title: Shiva Space Technology Vol. 3 Label: Digital Underground Date: 1999 1. Tom - Joy 2. Cherouvim - Cyborg 3. Injector - Time Killer 4. Das - Paros 2000 5. Destination - Poste 6. Luminus - Project X 7. Cherouvim - Albert 8. Goldenfinger - Yam "Cause in a 69 my humpty nose will tickle your rear!" This is some corny sh*t right here. Everything that could make you think that nitzhonot can be some goofy sounding music is well represented here. Repetitive eye rolling samples, the rampaging up and down arpeggios, and the changes in direction. I heard someone describe nitzho as goa on speed. Maybe, but goa doesn't usually use the slow down tempo as a prominent feature. No, I would equate it to goa's flamboyant and much gayer cousin. This is full-on Patrick Stewart facepalm music as far as I'm concerned. Not Nitzho's proudest moment. No I got it...Know what this is? A daycare run amok. The kids have tied up the adults and it's an endless loop of fart jokes , boogers on fingers, and Jake and the Neverland Pirates. How the f*ck can you take this organ grinder music seriously? I'd dropkick the monkey turning the crank on this sh*tshow if I didn't think PETA would sue me.

Finally i recorded and uploaded the entire tape so that you can listen to it and download!! Found 9/12 tracks, any suggestions about the remaining 3?? Thank you so much people!!

Artist: Mindfield & Baraka Title: VD Massacre EP Label: Phantasm Records Date: 1999 1. VD Massacre 2. VD Massacre (ManMadeMan Remix) "According to my source the end of the world will be on February 14th in the year 2016." "Valentines Day. Bummer." Holy sh*t that's right around the corner. But other than that cool sample from Ghostbusters 2 not a lot to see here. The remix could be more annoying than the original. Like stepping in cow sh*t is worse than trodding through dog sh*t. You still f*cked up your Jordans. It's definitely louder and heavier with the samples. So it's got that going for it. Mdk

Artist: Rainbow Serpent Title: Cutted Scenes Label: Invisible Shadows Date: 1999 1. Believe 2. Imagination Fire 3. Silent Running 4. Exploring the Mars 5. From Darkroom To Digital 6. Exploring the Mars (Part 2) 7. Ce;tic Dance My camel jacknifed a ways back. Total loss, it was horrible. Frothy spit everywhere. I crawl 5 miles on my hands and knees under the searing sun and you hand me a pack of saltines? If I had the energy I'd punch you square in the tomatoes. This German duo makes ambient style music that has motion in the same exact formula. The pads can be lofty cloud slicers, but it's the same sh*t over and over. Part of the song will be floating, and another part driving. Then floating and driving until you wake up. It's extending a phrase over the entire length of the track adding and subtracting as you go. There is zero psychedelia and they close with the outstandingly cheesy and diabetic coma inducing Celtic Dance. It's a whisker from Yanni without the cool porn stache. Mdk

Artist: Green Nuns of the Revolution Title: Green Nuns Remix EP Label: Phantasm Records Date: 1999 1. Tufaan - Tufaan (Green Nuns Flakey '99 mix) 2. Mindfield - Sphynx (Green Nuns Remix) "I can't get that song out of my head!" GNOTR and Tufaan are almost the same people so their cross track remixes make sense. On this EP the Nuns also tackle a Mindfield track. What you get is lots of effects with a decided lean towards the techno side of things. It wins as a remix ep because it's very different from the originals. It gets added bonus points for remaining true to the goa sound picture. If you like the stuff Anjuna is putting out these days than you'll love this. Mdk

Artist: ManMadeMan Title: Gold Dust / Karahana EP Label: Phantasm Records Date: 1999 1. Gold Dust 2. Karahana I'm beginning to change my opinion of this project. Used to hate them, but that was because I had only heard their most recent music. Their older tracks really show off their versatility. Sure Karahana still bores me, but Gold Dust is very psychedelic and appealing with it's noisy, clanky style. Not goa by any stretch, but not a whole lot was back in 99. Interesting though. Mdk

Artist: ManMadeMan Title: Down On Earth Ep Label: Flying Rhino Records Date: 1999 1. Down On Earth 2. Desire (Bumbling Loons Remix) By this time ManMadeMan (and most other artists) had put goa trance in the rear view and embraced a more techno inspired psytrance sound. Gone were the melodies replaced with samples and sharp sounds. Side A is a noisy clunky mess that is rather boring. The Bumbling Loons remix of Desire is more goa flavored, but it isn't a strong track as it drives monotonously off into the distance. One of those if you've heard the first minute... What puzzles me is how a member of Technossomy and a member of GNOTR make such a lifeless track to nowhere? Sign of the times I suppose. Not the shining star of the ManMadeMan catalog. Mdk

Artist: Various Title: Goa Trance 5 Label: Tetsuo Date: 1999 1. Astral Projection - Andromeda 2. MFG - Intelligent Machine 3. Domestic - Metal Sense 4. Xerox - Kayazulu 5. Children of the Doc - Bionic Bong 6. Pigs In Space - Visitors (Part 1) 7. Cosmic Navigators feat. Xerox - Electric Energy 8. Boris Blenn - Rain (California Sunshine Remix) 9. Oforia - Big Bang (Ambient Mix) Tetsuo is a German trance label that unfortunately to my ears too closely resembles the word testicle. However in the vein of turning a negative into a positive it reminds me that I do have testicles and that I should keep my appointment with my doctor for yearly check ups. So a defunct trance label keeping an eye out for my health care is a pleasant if unintended consequence. Now turn your head and cough. And yest I realize the label was relaunched in 2008, but as far as goa goes, it may as well still be dead. Know why I like this compilation? It's not the same song and dance. Not the same classics copy and pasted to a disc with a different cover. And while the tracks my not be as brilliant as the usual classics, they're damn good in their own right. From the shimmering Andromeda to the not-quite-ambient-but-still-slowed-down version of Big Bang that sounds juicy and alien. And there isn't any filler to be found. Even the California Sunshine remix is fairly dreamy and mellow and believe me those two have made a career out of filler. Bionic Bong is a little abstract and perhaps more famous for its samples, but it was still entertaining during its almost 10 minute length. And as far as the MFG track goes I'm thrilled it's not Magnetic Activity or Exit Eternity. Biggest surprise? The Domestic track was a blistering ass kicking. Bottom line this compilation has 9 tracks that weren't played to death to the point of annoyance. It is nice to hear something different that is still high quality. Not as great as the well knowns, but eventually even chocolate becomes less delicious if you eat it every day. Mdk

Artist: Koxbox Title: Forever EP Label: Matsuri Productions Date: 1999 1. Insect & Insect Bite (Split Mix) 2. Space Interface 3. Loads of Flow (Molecular Mix) Like dancing bananas on the run after a prison break this EP is unnecessary. If you have the first album Forever After from Koxbox that is because these three tracks are all on it. The star of the show is Insect & Insect Bite with its downright evil and malicious intent. It's pumping and sinister and has a twirl factor of Avogadro's number. I don't like it when artists or labels put out an ep that gives the customer nothing new. Blatant cash grab and the practice should be outlawed. Although I'm sure God didn't say, "Whattya mean I gotta give him two testicles? You think nuts grow on trees?" Mdk

Artist: Various Title: Hocus Pocus Label: Mimoza Records Date: 1999 1. Goldenfingers - Let's Go Beitar 2. Goldfingers Vs. Kintaro - Tamegol 3. Kintaro - Chance To Trance 4. D-Zager - Burekas II 5. Kintaro Vs. Goldfingers - Yello Up 6. D-Zager - Vodka 7. Paranoize - x-Plode (Remix 99) 8. D-Zager - Aleira Sky My mother was Jewish and while I was raised Catholic I enjoyed some of the Jewish culture. Ok food. Ok let me stop right there. The only thing that could be considered Jewish about me is my love for bagels and let's be honest that ain't gonna get me into Heaven. Hardly a pillar of the Hebrew faith, you knew it was going mainstream when Food Lion was selling bagel six packs. In the South. But what other food could you enjoy that could be considered Jewish? Ever had matzos? Might as well eat the box it came in. Yuck. Lox? It's fish that is put on bagels, but fish for breakfast? No thanks. So with that weak minded spirit I decided to listen to a nitzhonot compilation and see if I could get into it. Ummm...no. Too much. Too frenetic. I think nitzhonot is an acquired taste (like Lox) and with all the Hebrew being spoken on this disc I felt like an outsider. Ok not that bad, but you get the point. All I could think of was a bunch of fist pumping rich trust fund kids at an all night rave in Brooklyn. But by Passover they had their yarmulkes and side burns and resumed their place at the wailing wall. Mdk

Artist: Cydonia Titlle: Lightning Rods EP Label: Blue Room Released Date: 1999 A. Lightning Rods B. King of New York "New York is boring." Well of course it is since Guiliani cleared out all the peep shows. Now it's like Disneyland. Only with a lot less profanity. Another EP by the authors of dark goa trance. For me their album In Fear of a Dark Planet was a classic and a must listen for every goa fan. Nah, f*ck that you need to own that b*tch. Just like with the Mind Hunter EP you get one track from their album and one that you probably never heard of. Lightning Rods is the former and it is a thick beast of goa trance. Darkness at level 11 with an evil smirk that is part Matrix and part FLA. It's got bounce and bubbling acid ready to scald. King of New York is an example of the direction the goa movement seemed to be heading in 1999. A little on the minimal side and more psytrance than goa. Still, it's a good track with a storming bass line. Good EP by this trio that I can recommend. Mdk