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Artist: Nervasystem Title: Time Travel Label: Anjuna Records Date: December, 2013 1. Rotating Rama 2. Non Terrestrial Intelligence 3. Interstellar Mutation 4. Juddervision 5. Dimension Expansion 6. Narcosynthesis 7. Cybermat 8. Karmenbozia I had a dream last night. Nah, cooler. I was at Pink's (yes that one) wedding trying to console her because her family didn't approve of who she was marrying. I wasn't trying to score (not my type) just trying to be nice. For some reason it was in India cause that's the type of sh*t rich white people do. And somehow I managed to hike there from the Appalachian Trail. In Virginia. I know, the trail doesn't even have India as a destination! So anyway, the wedding is over and we have to climb down sheer cliffs to board an elephant that will take us to the ground. My kids are there and just like real life they're fast so I don't see them get on the elephant but I'm on it and we begin to descend. My stomach drops like it would on a roller coaster and he slams into Earth and we disembark. Onto another elephant that will take us to the train home. And I'm sitting next to the mother of an acquaintance from high school who just so happens to be from Goa, India. She tells me that her son wished that we were better friends and that he could play the synthesizers like I could. And in her best New Dehli English said, "That boy always had a love of goa trance." No sh*t. No f*cking way. With that last statement I knew I had to review this album. I haven't had a drink or smoked weed in over a decade and I can only attribute the vivid presentation of this dream to one thing... Meatloaf. That's right, a loaf of meat. To answer your question I will be making the same meatloaf for dinner tonight, I simply must find out if Pink goes through with her nuptials not to mention getting another ride on that elephant. Go figure some people need weed or LSD to open the door to another dimension, mine is available at Wal-Mart for $1.79 a pound. These tunes were written by Mark Dressler & Darren Beale between 1994 and 1996, some of the first tracks they ever recorded. The material was rediscovered when going through some old DAT tapes. Like with the Lucid Flux release there was a regular copy and a limited edition available. They even did posters and T-shirts. Rotating Rama is a thumping bit of psychedelic goa trance right out of the gate. Thumping being the operative word. It's very repetitive (and you'll find this throughout the album), but in a hypnotic way. It gathers you up in an old school goa vortex for over 11 minutes. Non Terrestrial Intelligence is a tale of two halves. The first half was ok, but the 2nd is where the lead went nuts and things took off. Sufficiently warmed up? Because from here to the last track it's it's an old school paddling. The bass hums in Interstellar Mutation as the synths snap crackle and pop in a nasty groove. And Juddervision is...well, it's kinda... Whew! Like that. Dimension Expansion is another bass driven monster with an absolute squealing lead. Narcosynthesis has a funky wobble and had a darkness that reminded me of Syb Unity Nettwerk. So that's a huge thumbs up. Monster track. Cybermat continues the assault with perhaps the most layered and aggressive track. Forceful. The only track that didn't floor me was Karmenbozia, but not a whole lot can keep up with the last several tracks. I was singing the name of the track for a bit though. Without question this is the best release from Anjuna Records. What a treat to get these tracks. This project has always been on the periphery of goa trance for me, but these tracks are extremely good. It's a powerful trip through deep space with screeching leads, bubbly bass, and plenty of darkness. Highly recommended. All it needed was a little meatloaf. Anjuna Records Mdk

Artist: PharaOm Title: Under The Sun of Goa Label: Neogoa Date: December, 2013 1 - Under The Sun Of Goa (149 BPM) 2 - Full Obsidian Eyes (145 BPM) 3 - Ispahan Garden (143 BPM) 4 - Shine Like Gold (146 BPM) 5 - Drums Of Babylon (feat. Nadasorion) (143 BPM) 6 - Sattva, Rajas, Tamans (148 BPM) 7 - Sopdet To Giza Travelers (77 BPM) 8 - Shiva's Cosmic Dance (149 BPM) 9 - Goa's Sun Will Shine Forever (148 BPM) Yeah, Canada in July is not what I thought it would be. Winter got you down? Well come in from the cold and saddle up your camel! If you like your goa trance with an ethnic slant Oswald has a shiny treat just for you. This is one long Temple of Doom menagerie. I'm talking voodoo priests that pull your heart out of your chest, ritual sacrifice, and chilled monkey brains for dinner. Sweltering heat with multi-appendaged deities that offer a gentle touch one minute and manufacture fire and brimstone the next. Real Old Testament type stuff. Melodies swarm and shimmer amidst the searing sun as chants float mysteriously on warm desert breezes. I'm searching for that damn Ark and no Asian stereotype will stop me. Nope, that honor goes to Google Maps! Man I hope they fix that software. That's it? That's your solution to the botched rollout? I'm not following that guy! There will be more twirling than a 5 year old's Christmas hula hoop. Except the closer. Hmmm...that sounds a little more Bollywood porn and less forgotten City of Mystery. Yeah I have a few Indian friends and they don't eat that. They like cheeseburgers. One did say she rode an ostrich once, so I guess we'll call it even. Beautiful work Oswald. Now will you hurry up and make some physical releases so I can throw some f*cking money at you? Free at Ektoplazm Mdk

Artist: Trinodia Title: Astral Clouds Label: Ovnimoon Records Date: December, 2013 1. Astral Clouds 2. Enlightened Moon - Trinodia Vs. Judaika 3. Qind Mind 4. Alien Language - Trinodia Vs. Judaika 5. A11 (2013 Mix) 6. Out of orbit 7. Rusty Rites 8. Moon Mission - Voxel9 Simply beautiful? Or beautifully simple? "Mensa called again...they said don't ever, ever call them back again. Ever." Both actually. Trinodia is Daniel Eldström and unless you've been living under a rock (or Alabama, Mississippi, or Lousiana, know collectively as the place education goes to die) you've heard his music. This savvy Swede is a veteran of the goa trance scene. The digital release Human History from 2011 and his last album Stargazing are sparkling examples of stellar melodies and driving power. Like Filteria and E-mantra he's got..."it". What began as a regular doctor's visit soon descended into a whirlwind of glossy pamphlets, antibiotics, and painful urination. The Midas touch. He's got the Midas touch. Jeez, dial it down. Melodies are plentiful with rising and falling arpeggios willfully sacrificing themselves to the filter cutoff knob. There are samples of exotic shamans that are more enlightened than you after a bag of weed and ass wiggling grooves (Qind Mind) which keep me twirling. He stacks new school melodies on top of old school bite and growl resulting in an enveloping atmosphere. However it's not without a blemish. Like a man going to see the Notebook in the theater something was out of place. A11 wasn't bad, but it was too polished and shiny. Too...full-on. The feel of the track didn't match the overall vibe of the album. But by the time Rusty Rites came on... The final track is a downtempo one from his ambient project Voxel9 that couldn't get you closer to viewing the Earth from space than if Nasa sent you there to fix that f*cking cooling duct on the space station. Where was that thing made, China? So cold, so bright, so desolate with only the sounds of mission control in your headphones to keep you from floating away. It should go without saying, but get on this. It's worth every penny. Nice work Mr. Eldstrom. Psyshop Mdk

Artist: Various Title: Psionic Ritual Label: Digital Psionics Date: December, 2013 1. Outer Signal Vs. Tickets - 254 Kilograms 2. Earworm - Energy Field 3. Khopat Vs. Smashed - Substances 4. Locked Locker - Substance D 5. Tantrum Vs. Catarsis - Force Field 6. Remove - Idea 7. Shuumat - Don't Shoot The Process 8. Rubix Qube Vs. Nevermachine - Definitely Dead 9. Rabdom L - Black Hole (Iliuchina Remix) 10. Dark Nebula - Sajuuk Khar "Do you understand what I'm saying? The whole system's gone...haywire." The label with the signature kissing door knocker is back with another chapter in the Psionic series. It's a digital twilight ride with a copious amount of acid, lasers, and well manipulated samples. Some tracks have a theatrical quality to them, but one common thread is dark power. It's what they do. Blistering tracks like Substances and Definitely Dead have that rapid pace and swirling energy. The girl interrupted sample in Substance D is delightfully twisted. Right up my alley. Most of this compilation is top notch with only a few misses near the end. Great sound and furious energy. Welcome back Digital Psionics! Beatport Mdk

Artist: Various Title: Cosmic Guide Label: Goalogique Records & Ezel-Ebed Records Date: December, 2013 01. Guide's intro - Burak Malçok - Didgerdo & Ney 02. Travma - Son Nefes 03. Imba vs K.U.R.O. - Uchu-Jin Deaimasu 04. Somnesia - Pyrotechnical Project 05. Shidartha - Tetalidrocanabinol 06. Ephedra & Goarama - Spiritual Sunday 07. Mindsphere - Chosen One 08. Astrancer - Hercolubus 09. Ogo - Kobejada 10. GoaTree - Goaliens "Since I was a child I've seen some very strange things in the sky..." "It's still good, it's still good!" When a friend tells you that he struck out with the head cheerleader it means two things. One, there will be no awkward fondling in the back seat of mom's minivan and two your friend has no game. Strikes are bad. Garbage man goes on strike and you're knee deep in banana peels and disposable diapers. I suppose a strike in bowling is good, but then again you're a bowler so you've obviously failed at all the sports that actually matter. Having reviewed this label's previous two releases I was less than impressed and gave them two strikes. One more and they'll be having lunch at the chess club table. The powers that be have clearly consulted the Cosmic Guide for answers because this is the best thing to come out of Goalogique Records since...well, ever. You can debate the cover art quality (no you can't even though this was clearly their best effort), but the music is head an shoulders above Up to Next Step and Astronot. Now they joined forces with Turkish label Ezel-Ebed Records so at the very least those guys deserve an assist. The Goalogique sound is characterized by an amateurish, raw feel and some of that is still here. But nothing like the previous compilations. You have good tracks like Son Nefes, Tetalidrocanabinol, Hercolubus and Chosen One. It's a very good compilation, but it still doesn't tell me if Goalogique has turned a corner or just relied on Ezel-Ebed to do the heavy lifting. Beatspace Psyshop Mdk

Artist: Various Title: Timecode Anestetic Label: Timecode Records Date: December, 2013 1. Rinkadink - Elements of Water 2. Deeper In Zen Vs. Mad Maxx - Rainbow Body State (Mekkanikka Mix) 3. Android Spirit - Scarface 4. Iliuchina - No Turning Back 5. D_Maniac - (Es)Cape Town 6. Orca & Shameless - Step Back 7. D_Maniac & A-Mush - Music & Fire 8. Phyx & Tryambaka - Item 9 9. Tickets - Deep Blue Ocean 10 Sick Addiction - Masked Addiction 11. Deedrah - Reload (Tickets Remix) "All I have in this world is my balls and my word and I don't break 'em for no one, you understand?" This explains a lot. I like visiting old friends. You get to see how they're doing, relive past experiences, and see what's going on in their lives in the now. Timecode is just such a friend to whom I've been listening for about a decade. This label burst onto the scene with what we now know as the South African sound. Darkly atmospheric, laden with acid and bursting at the seams with bruising power. Revolutionary psytrance that continues to be copied today. Their latest is a digital release and we see some old friends as well as some new ones. What you get is a mixed bag with equal parts fingernails on a chalkboard along with flashes of what made this label so iconic. Rinkadink combines a house gro ove with Artifakt techno t hat grew on me with repeated listens Mekkanikka continues to offer his brand of sanitized ultra shiny f ull-on, but this one wasn't bad and actually grew on me as well. Scarface of course samples the movie and is one of those flashes. No Turning Back is also a powerful standout along with the too short Deep Blue Ocean by Tickets. What was once the high school quarterback banging all the cheerleaders is now the balding middle aged guy selling insurance in the town he never left. There were some good tracks here that began to approach the label's heyday, , but they were offset by equally bad tracks that slammed that window shut. Some of the tracks were more of the commercial Nutek variety with incessant buildups and that whole increased bpm wind up thingy. The bombastic take no prisoners twilight insanity that they created is lacking on this compilation. Other labels seem to have surpassed them in delivering that night time craziness. Far from bad and being on life support, you might still want to look into some life insurance. I know a guy. Timecode Bandcamp Mdk

Artist: Various Title: Prana Remix EP Vol. 1 Label: Wakyo Records Date: December, 2013 1. Boundless (2013 Re-Edit) - Prana 2. Mugen (Astral Projection Remix) - Prana 3. Geomantik (Damir Ludvig Remix) -Prana You sons of bitches how the f*ck do you sleep at night? "On a mattress stuffed with dead presidents as I'm fellated by multiple porn stars." You...bastard. I meant metaphorically. Wakyo Records has released a three track EP of some classic Prana Tracks. You know cause everything old is new again and there's money to be made and we have to have constant proof that Astral Projection did not die in an erotic asphyxiation session gone wrong. The updated Boundless is juicy and crackles with electricity. It's good, but I didn't have a problem with the original. So it's like an answer to a question nobody asked. Well I didn't ask it. Mugen was one that was in dire need of a redo. But alas it became Astralized, homogenized, and sterilized, devoid of any passion or power. Their remix is better, but is it possible to go back in a time machine and have 1996 Astral give it a look-sie? Which brings me to the track that would clear out a pool as surely as if it took a massive dump in the shallow end. A house version? Why not just put it on in an elevator? Who did they think this lifeless wet noodle of a track would appeal to? The best thing that can be said about this track is that it bears zero resemblance to the original. How could you. I'm only linking to it for the purpose of saving the evidence. By the way great cover art. Thanks for putting in some overtime on that. Beatport Mdk

Artist: Bogtrotter Title: Sonic Visions EP Label: None Date: December, 25 2013 01 - Bogtrotter - Mystery Beneath (72 BPM ; 7/4) 02 - Bogtrotter - Sonic Visions (68 BPM) 03 - Grouch - Perfukt (Bogtrotter Remix) (70 BPM ; 6/4) 04 - Bogtrotter - Unknown (80 BPM) 05 - Bogtrotter - The Escape (70 BPM) 06 - Bogtrotter - Dismal Direction (74 BPM) This is some slow twisted sh*t. Know how I know? For starters, there are 6 tracks and the size is 66.6MB. "I am evil Homer! I am evil Homer!" Whattya need a f*cking roadmap? That's some evil sh*t. You know that's what he was going for it's not a f*cking accident. Do you know how hard it is to make a file size come out to that exact amount? Second, look at the bpms. Barely average a c*nt hair above 70. Waiting for the last bit of ketchup to tumble out of the bottle clocks in at 80. The producer is from the Midwest and it's a known fact that the portal to hell is around there some where. And then there's Charlie Sheen. Yeah he's on here. And he's "winning." There are quicksand slow beats with underworld bubbling. Dubby basses and satanically manipulated samples. Even the track titles are dark. It's not for me, but I can appreciate the effort and attention to detail. This isn't just some cut and paste sh*t. Free at Ektoplazm Mdk

Artist: Various Title: Lunar Dawn - Blessings From Irij Remixes Label: Neogoa Date: December, 2013 01 - Blessings From Irij (Screw Loose Remix) (145 BPM) 02 - Blessings From Irij (Trinodia Remix) (138 BPM) 03 - Blessings From Irij (Sky Technology Remix) (148 BPM) 04 - Blessings From Irij (Imba Remix) (145 BPM) 05 - Blessings From Irij (Perfect Blind Remix) (120 BPM) 06 - Blessings From Irij (Decadent Sympozium Remix) (147 BPM) 07 - Blessings From Irij (GoaTree Remix) (138 BPM) 08 - Blessings From Irij (Original Mix) (136 BPM) I salute you sir. I salute you for making an album of remixes the right way. No full-on clones, no paint by numbers sketches, no unimaginative drivel that makes me want to jump out of a f*cking window. The original track by the Lunar Dawn duo has its origins in Slavic folklore and we all know that means vampires because what the f*ck else could it mean? Hold it...I'm getting word that it actually means paradise. Surely they mean a vampire paradise where they walk freely in daylight with harems of busty virgins. *Sigh* If only... Neogoa has become a fixture on the goa trance scene much like Suntrip where you expect the highest quality. The all digital label does it for free and has earned its bones. So what you get is the original track and a bunch of remixes some some of the best and brightest in the genre. A shocker I know. Seems like they incorporated parts of the original and then went on to make it their own. You know...like the f*cking definition of a remix? Know how I know this works? It's not because I'm a damn genius although the evidence speaks for itself. It's because I don't think the original is that special. No offense. It's not bad, just a personal preference. But each remix takes the original and moves it along a different path. Especially Imba's. I don't know what he was remixing, but it sounded like something else entirely. And over 11 minutes? I had to take a piss break halfway through. Trinodia gets all dancey and rhythmic while Perfect Blind serves up a downtempo space trip. Silly Perfect Blind...there are no such things as space vampires. What the f*ck is that? What's with the unibrow? It's a good track even if it sounded like a slowed up version of the original. The ones I didn't care for were the Decadent Sympozium and the Goatree remix. The former was too euphoric although I appreciated the way they worked in the original during the break. The latter was a little too...too...what's the word. Maybe that's a little too critical, but you get the idea. Then again the original was medieval sounding also. Still, it's a remix album that is done right and if you liked the original or even if you didn't, these fresh goa takes will make you smile. Free at Ektoplazm Mdk

Artist: Braincell Title: 5th Album Label: BooM! Records Date: December, 2013 1. Earthlinked 2. Clash Of Power 3. Distorted Energy 4. Melting Point 5. Circles 6. Tricky Trippy 7. Space Union 8. New Cycle 9. Waverider 10. Setting Things Free With his 5th album Ralph Knobloch decided save all of his creativity for the music, essentially telling the title of the album to go f*ck itself. Which I guess is the way to go. Would rather have a brilliant album and a generic title than a really imaginative one with a sh*t sandwich on the inside. Getting to the music I have gone back and forth with this release having written two reviews. I know what you're thinking... Don't you have a life? Yes I do, but music is a big part of it and I want to get it right. If you compare this to his first three albums (not coincidentally the ones released by Glowing Flame Records) this continues the trend of Intelligent Being where the melodies are pared down and less prevalent than those earlier albums. It's thumping psy with electric energy for sure. The sound is very visceral and liquid with the feel that is distinctly Braincell. When he does unfurl the melodies the taste of goa isn't far behind. However when I gave it a go the first few times it didn't grab me. The album doesn't have any tracks that stand out or are stellar. That said, this is one of those where repeated listens have put me in his Imax and now I see it all. It's a solid release that while not nearly as brilliant as Transformation of Reality it's still one I am happy to have in my collection. Psyshop Beatspace Mdk

Artist: Various Title: Anairam Label: Replicant Records Date: December, 2013 1. Armagetlam - D_Maniac 2. Psykodeliak - Rabdom L 3. Exploding - Shuumat 4. Criminal Phenomenon - A-Mush 5. Bedtime Story (Iliuchina Remix) - Orca Hey baby, how you doin'? Guapa Lee you say? That's a nice maxi ep you compiled there. I'd offer you some assistance, but you seem more than capable of some heavy lifting. This is an outstanding ep that began horribly. Imagine picking up a ridiculously hot chick (or, dude I suppose...whatever you're into...I don't judge.) and right when she gets in the car she rips a lengthy, wet, and obnoxious fart. Roll down your windows nasty. Awkward. But don't get hung up on that smelly turd from d_maniac because you'll be richly rewarded. The rest is thumping nighttime psy with huge amounts of apsi. Acid per square inch. Some of the tracks have too much stopping and starting, but they're good enough to let it slide. A-mush rarely disappoints, but the Iliuchina remix steals the show. Dark and eerie with danceability set to maximum. Great job by most involved and here's hoping for a second date and an attempt at second base. Beatport Mdk