Search the Community

Artist: Human Blue Title: Base Basket Buffet Label: Transient Records Date: February, 2009 1. Lone Ranger 2. Imperial Mind 3. Dessert Desert 4. Dragonflingz 5. Hide and Seek 6. Party Deluxe 7. Pacific Run 8. Gravity Affair Progressive trance from Sweden? Sign me up. The churning beats, the deep bass sounds that growl from the ether, and lush pads make this one a keeper. The opening track is a lesson on how to open an album combining power and layers to blur the line between psytrance and progressive. That trend continues throughout the album with long tracks which I believe mostly hold up well some ten years on. Psyshop

Artist: Madnetic Title: Magnetic Fields Label: Nutek Records Date: February, 2008 1. Dejavoo 2. Click The Red 3. Subliminal 4. No Way 5. Afro Samurai 6. Todo Bien 7. On Time 8. Playground (feat. Painkiller & Mekkanikka) 9. Got To Be Funky (feat. Pure Pressure) 10. Magnetic Fields "Got to be funky!" Funky, not insipid. I severely underestimated how much sh*tty psytrance was out there. Madnetic falls into line with his one and only album under the Nutek label. A label which has brought us such turd burgers as Discodelic and Eat It by former psytrance artist CPU, the last 12 carbon copy nonsense records from Mekkanikka, and an artist album by an a project called Punchline. I am not making this up. The label has been prodigious in producing full-on music with zero depth and an unhealthy affinity for build-ups and snare manipulation. And this factory has been busy. Like previous offers from this label Madnetic isn't so much as involving you in his music as much as he wants to bludgeon you with it. Build-ups galore, silly samples, and headache inducing loudness. With the subtlety of the Jersey shore he aims to have the masses fist pumping as he wages war on any dynamics the music may have foolish notions of containing. The whole thing is a cringe-worthy cheesefest that will have the girls laughing at you and pointing at your small penis whilst you pump this up in your red IROC. Todo no esta bien. Psyshop

Artist: Various Title: Conundrum Label: Reckless Rhythm Records Date: February, 2008 1. Seroxat - The Game Rmx 2. Shift Vs. Menog - Activate The Spiral 3. Damage - Accidental Rmx 4. Shift - Overdrive 5. Psychotic Micro - Shadow 6. Seroxat - Out of Time 7. Toxic Vs. Toast3d - Voices 8. Tube - Chaos 9. Twisted Reaction - I'm Hypnotic Ok...let's get this over with... The Game Rmx- Oh...God....Oh God....*several more minutes of painful vomiting and dry heaving interspersed with half hearted prayer* All right, cool... We got that out of the way. What's next? Ooooh...I think I sh*t myself with all that pushing... Activate the Spiral- This is Shift and Menog at their acid laced finest. Well...not finest, but after that opener you would think this was some Mozart next level sh*t. Accidental Rmx- Stops and starts with egregious sample overuse. Otherwise known as a Damage track. Oh God...here come the dry heaves... Putting a good track in between two terrible ones...that's cruel and unusual. Overdrive- Shift comes back (thankfully) with another good one. Now this is Chris at this South African night time psy best. But alternating between the good and the horrific...It's like they're daring me to get through this. Strap up motherf*cker I'm in for the long haul! Shadow- Ok enough already. Is this guy ever going to produce a good track? Out of Time- Wishful thinking. This wasn't as bad as I was prepared for, however one must realize that the bar was set ridiculously low. Or to put it another way... Still better than the WNBA. Voices- Good Lord the sh*tstorm continues. You have to work really hard to suck this badly. Chaos- "Took pills to stay awake." Take more. I'm Hypnotic- Etnica could play Alien Protein three times in a row here and it wouldn't save this sinking ship. There's a reason the cover has question marks all over it. It forces you to ask those tough questions. Like what the hell were the compilers thinking when selecting most of these tracks? How is it possible for Seroxat to blow as much as he does, and how many sweatshop workers had to die for this to be made? I haven't heard a compilation this bad in a long, long time. If I was Chris Hoy I would set this sh*t on fire and briskly walk away. "See you in hell!" Psyshop

Artist: Electric Universe feat Chico Title: Burning Label: Electric Universe Records Date: February, 2008 1. Meteor (original remake 2007) 2. Gaijin Rocker (rmx 2007) 3. Solar Noir 4. Metaphysics 5. Observation (Guitar Version) 6. Present 7. Hyperspace 8. Def Con Min7 9. Dawn 10. Burning 11. Sunrise 12. Higher Love 13. The Calling 14. Traveller "Observation is a skill like anything else." *Writes feverishly. Looks at paper, balls it up and throws it in corner to land with several others* Why? Why is it so hard to write this letter? *sighs deeply and continues rubbing temples* Boris I don't know you, but I feel you are in need of an intervention. Yes, you're a legend in the psytrance genre and as I've often stated with all the great tracks you've made there is a certain amount of freedom you're entitled to. But there are limits. To whom is this supposed to appeal? The people that like guitars probably want more than generic guitar riffs. And those that don't like guitars in their psytrance will run from this like it was an AIDS patient with cancer. I'm sure Chico is a great guitar player, but why f*ck up great tracks with these guitar remixes? I understand that you got bills and food ain't free. But can't you mow some lawns or get a paper route? Why do you have to dumb down your music? I didn't want to say anything, but this has been going on for a while now. Look we all loved Cosmic Experience, but that was almost a decade ago. I'm not saying don't let your music evolve, but maybe it's time to try something different. Even Michael Jordan retired. Perhaps you could bring back the Galaxy project and make a downtempo album. I'm still a fan, but you're making it hard to play your music without getting embarassed. Out of respect I won't link to this and we can pretend that it never happened. Mdk