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Artist: Various Title: Dreamshadow Label: Ektoplazm Date: April, 2010 1 - Septagram - Omerta 2 - Progress - Trails 3 - Tsabeat - New Technologies 4 - Cream Corp - Tesseract 5 - Mutalisk - Chicks With Glowsticks 6 - DoHm - No More Autumn 7 - Clone - Invasion 8 - Rigel - Dodecahedron 9 - Oxya - Mindhunter 10 - Wizack Twizack - Welcome To Knutby (The Return) I've had this for quite some time and just never got to it. This is a night time journey compiled by Mr. Ektoplam himself. Not being a darkpsy aficionado like some of you, most of the artists are unknown to me. Because of that take this review with a grain of salt. As you should with all reviews. Let's face it, I'm just a guy in front of a computer with some free time trying to entertain. And the biggest pair of balls you've ever seen! That monkey is straight ballin'! Omerta- "All I leave behind me is smoke, death, and desolation." Sounds like somebody ate at Arby's. Well the black death is sticking with you Septagram, because this track embodies most of what I hate about darkpsy. Monotonous bass line with zero change, total lack of melody, and scratchy abrasive leads. No depth and thin as f*ck, which is surprising since you just came from Arby's. And all the fat white chicks say "YEAH-UH!" "Must...make it...to...Arby's!" Trails- "This is all the power you ever had. Now it is mine. Pity...there is not more time for us." If you don't mind taking my kid to school and doing a few loads of laundry we could make some time if you know what I mean. Thumbs up for the use of a Crow sample. I watched that movie over a hundred times. This one is a workout. Straight ahead with eerie sounds that make you feel like you're hallucinating or you're a prisoner in some dank dungeon. There is of course the metallic sounding synths raging across the track but what would a darkpsy track be without that? Cries of alien animals that are searching for food ring out. I liked this one. New Technologies- New technologies are great, but with all the new technology out there, this was rather underwhelming. Scratchy synths with no twists or turns. You gotta step it up. Even my daughter is getting proficient with the new stuff that's out there. "Oh hell naw! I know that b*tch didn't just unfriend me!" Tesseract- Not to be confused with the waaay better PharaOm album of the same name, this is by a fairly new project. This is a little more appealing though complete with pumping bass line, terrified female sounds...but it still sounds like the same old same old. And at almost 8 minutes it feels even longer when the track doesn't go anywhere. Darkpsy should have a time limit. For me the quality would skyrocket if they were all under 5 minutes. Of course the crap on the radio is under 4 minutes a track and I still want to drive over the elderly. Chicks With Glowsticks- "Let me know when this gets your attention." You have my attention. Instantly better with eerie sounds, but now the compilation seems to be in twilight mode. It bubbles and sounds like the old nightmare creatures video game I used to rock on the Playstation. Playstation one. Don't act like you didn't have it. At almost 9 minutes maybe it also went on a little long, but at least there was some evolution in the track. No More Autumn- DoHm has been a staple on a lot of free forest comps and is one of my favorite in the genre. That said, how the hell do you dance to this? It's spooky with lots of twinkling and rushing sounds creating a pretty good atmosphere. Is, is that...is that a car stereo in your hands? What the f*ck? Invasion- "Waitaminute man, get me outta here!" Clone has done some decent work going back to their Real Eyes EP and they make an appearance with another track clocking in at almost 9 minutes. It's funhouse style with people in the dark laughing and undulating waves of eerieness. Not bad, but it suffers from being too long without a lot of changes. Stop me if you've heard that before. Dodecahedron- At first I thought it was pretty thin, and I still do. But at the end when the arpeggio came in it seemed to get it's legs. Just took too damn long. Like all the rest it's dark, but for me it will be quickly forgotten. Mindhunter- I really like this one. No, it has nothing to do with it being the least aggressive track on the album. Are you going to take my big balls card away? It has a bit of everything. Layers, eerie feeling, and horror movie melodies. But it doesn't forget it's a trance track either. You get a lull near the end, but then that razor sharp lead comes back to cut you. Welcome To Knutby (The Return)- Tommy Boy! Not that one. But RIP buddy. Nope, the reason I probably downloaded this pig in the first place is I am a fan of Tommy Axelsson's dark music. This is a remake? of a track from his Dead End album. It's pretty good. I didn't like the combination of the two samples during the very short break as it came away a little garbled, but other than that it no problems. He's always been good at layering a thick track and that hasn't changed. I don't know if it's better than the original or even if it's supposed to be. What am I, a referee? As far as comps go, this one isn't going to be a classic. It's dark and undergoes a switch from the heavier amelodic darkpsy to the edgy night time full-on style. Couple of good tracks, but there's a lot better out there. It's free so you don't really have anything to lose. I try never to complain much about the free stuff from Ekto because he has done such a service to psytrance and the vast majority of the releases are pretty damn good. Ektoplazm Mdk