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Artist: Scopes Title: Digilog EP Label: Psyderweb Records Date: July, 2012 01 - Eyes Closed (72.5 BPM) 02 - Tatanka (64 BPM) 03 - Suddenly (66 BPM) 04 - Tools (69 BPM) 05 - Old Fashioned Air (63.5 BPM) Last I heard from Dutchman Marcel Hartholt was his Glass of Water EP from 2011. It was a nice glass of water and with his latest he's keeping the bpm's low. Which is good because stoners can't follow high bpm's. They just get lost and start spinning in circles. And this is stoner music. Moving at breakneck speed (holy sh*t we just got passed by an old lady with a walker!) if you were a sloth or a turtle walking on quicksand this must sound epic and incredible if augmented with drugs. That part of my life was over long ago so now I'm just like...get to the f*cking point already! Is it just me or is it funny that one of the tracks is called Suddenly? Suddenly implies rapidity, something decidedly absent from this release. This is a Tarantino flick where the drug deal goes bad and the doors burst open with guns blazing in super slo mo. Nah...I got it. Porn music. Free at Ektoplazm Mdk

Artist: Querox Title: How Life Goes On Label: Prog On Syndicate Date: July, 2012 1. Dirty Beat Drop 2. Dancing Angel 3. Go Now 4. Berlin Soundtrack 5. Backstage Girls (feat Monod) 6. Kiss the ground (Voice:Rea) 7. Say Goodbye 8. How life goes on 9. Fly Away (Querox rmx) - Phaxe I love the letter q. Can't have quiet without it. And how would you get any answers if you couldn't ask any questions? And what the f*ck would ducks say? I think you spell qu'ran with a q, so without it billions would have to get a new holy book. May I suggest something from the works of a Dr. Seuss. It rhymes. Which brings me to a project that begins with a q. Querox is Tobyjas Schiermeier with his debut on a label that is no stranger to quality progressive trance. There is a light feel to this style. Sometimes it comes across as a little thin, but at the same time it can be appealing. Can't be a melodic orgy all the time can it? He doesn't bore you to death with solely a minimal approach, but allows effects and melodies to germinate in their own time. He flirts with progressive house, but not enough to make me wanna hurl the disc out the window. And believe me that first track tested my restraint. Most tracks eventually become fairly detailed progressive and it's interesting to see how he gets there. Somewhat similar to the mutE or Midimal style I love the fine details he put inside and think it works great on headphones. One of the strengths of the album are ther dreamy breaks. He's very good at it. Of particular note was the euphoric title track that was so juicy you could taste it. If I had to pick a problem area it's that the middle of the album is weak, with 5 or so tracks sounding very similar. This isn't going to rock the floor or shake any speakers, but it's an interesting hybrid of minimal and progressive styles that doesn't have its feet solidly planted in either. Psyshop Beatspace Goastore Mdk

Artist: Kuro Title: Conception Label: Wakyo Records Date: July, 2012 1. Not Enough 2. Analyzer 3. Resolution 4. Black Zombie V2 5. Blue Moon 6. Push 7. Black Star 8. Magnetic 9. Red Zombie V2 10. Runaway I don't know much about Takeichirou Kurosaki. His album Revolution back in 1996 contained a great goa track of the same name, but that's where it stopped for me. This is his 4th album and 1st in 4 years. So is he an old master returning with his take on today's goa or is he doing his own thing? If you hoped he would release a goa stormer than you shall be disappointed. But all is not lost. This is party music pure and simple. You need all the lights flashing their brilliant colors and a pumping system for this to work. I can easily see this being played and watch the masses below bounce with ecstasy. Home listening cannot do this justice. It can't, because it doesn't have the same effect. You can't contain music that is supposed to be blasted. This is dancing until you pull a hamstring music and it comes at you like a tsunami of sound. He wields subtlety like I would surgery. Total disaster and someone would end up losing a testicle. There are no twists and turns, no breaks for you to contemplate your place in the universe. He flings sonic sledgehammers and kicks you with techno boots. Soaring melodies were never his style and he unleashes his power all at once. Standouts include Not Enough with it's hard hitting acid line and Analyzer with it's discordant melody. Push blows the doors off the hinges with maximum concussive force and Magnetic and Red Zombie V2 shows that he hasn't turned his back on his goa beginnings with sick acid lines and big bass. But there is no middle ground. If he goes straight forward with power he equally moves in dare I say a boring fashion. He finds his melody and sticks with it. Black Zombie V2 and Black Star while not minimal didn't have anything new to offer. The heavily techno inspired Blue Moon is placed right in the middle of the tracklist and doesn't maintain momentum. Hell, it kinda kills it. But like a good warrior he recovers. If you like his techno acid style then this will please you. It's got power and I'm sure can whip the masses into a frenzy. It's not the most imaginative thing I have ever heard, but it does hit hard. Psyshop Beatport Mdk

Artist: Atrium Carceri Title: Void Label: Cryo Chamber Date: July, 2012 1. Dear Diary 2. Humanity's Cradle 3. A Curved Blade 4. Reselected 5. Victorian Meltdown 6. Passage 7. Endless Deep 8. Debt 9. Trembling 10. Slower 11. Ancient Past 12. Reap Simon Heath is back with another entry into the macabre. If you like the dark side of ambient and horror movies are your thing then this is for you. With eerie melodies and a heaping dose of serial killer mystique this is sinfully delicious. We love to be frightened and the effects used will conjure up every movie you've seen where the dumb b*tch trips and allows the monster to gain ground. Where Jack the Ripper paralyzes an entire city with fear. Most of the tracks are bite sized morsels which helps maintain the shiver quotient, but even the long ones drip with regret. He is the master and if you put this on at 3 am in the dark you will see some sh*t. *rubs arms and looks around nervously* I need to go wake up my kids and play some Candyland in this motherf*cker. Check out all this guy's scary releases. Mdk

Artist: Various Title: Overdose Part 01 EP Label: Dropland Recordings Date: July, 2012 1. Overdose - Absolum & Ex-Gen 2. Open This Shit - Zinx & Wired 3. Asteroide - Terraformers Dropland Recordings have been releasing several EP's in the twilight psytrance genre that have been well worth the dough. This one is a mixed bag though. Only 3 tracks, so...uh, a small bag. Overdose- "The dead have highways. Highways that lead to intersections. And intersections that spill into our world. And if you find yourself at one of these intersection you should stop and you should listen cause the dead have stories to tell." My love affair for Absolum's music has been going on for quite awhile. Wow. That uh, that's...coming off a little bit gay. Better dial it down. But truth be told he doesn't make bad tracks. Ex-Gen is one of the newer twilight warriors that lays it down in the same fashion. Overdose is fast and frenetic with membrane slicing leads and a dark theme. Is the sample a little cheesy? Sure, but when the pizza is this good, I don't mind some extra cheese. Open This Sh*t- "You think you're better than me? I'll tell you what you are...you're zero!" Zinx is another newbie in the twilight realm that marries movie samples with intense music. A few EP's in and his style is pretty clear. Unfortunately I remember him more for his Unclean EP cover than for any of his music. It's hard, but nowhere near as good as the opener. Asteroide- Does a speech by MLK belong in psytrance? Terraformers seem to think so. This track is another sample heavy effort that has it's own unique groove. He strays from it, but always comes back to it. It's kind of all over the place. Worth it? You'd have to ask Cartman, they gave him an anal probe. For me the Absolum track rules and the Terraformers one comes in a distant second. Zinx? Meh. Beatport Mdk

Artist: Deimos Title: We Have Forgotten Label: Goa Records Date: July, 2012 01. Disobey 02. Modus Operandi 03. Na Rubu Horizonta 04. Our Benefactors 05. The Raid (v.2) 06. Seishin - Deimos feat. Subscale 07. Breaking Point - Deimos vs. PsiloCybian 08. We Have Forgotten 09. Blood Magic 10. The Fallout "Our projections show that by the year 2025 ,not only America but the entire planet will be under the protection and the dominion of this power alliance." Proving to be the vengeful God that he is, Jesus is obviously paying me back for the Vox review. Seems he didn't care for my blasphemous tone. Fine Jesus, you control the weather. You're lord of the thermostat. It's stickier than sweaty donkey balls out here. I'll save you the trouble of asking me how I know that. Your mom told me. My wife had a friend in med school from Ghana who would get so pissed off when Americans would say "It's Africa hot out here." She would remind us that the level of humidity in the Southeast United States cannot be found in Africa. I don't know if that's true, but I took her word for it. She also had a gardener, housekeeper, and a butler. Totally shattered my conceptions about the standard of living in Africa. Well, Ghana anyway. So...what else have I been wrong about? Maybe blondes really aren't that dumb? Don't...f*cking...care... Maybe female bodybuilders look perfectly natural I bet my 401k that he-she pees standing up. Maybe Smithers wasn't gay, he was just well dressed. Still not as gay as Glee. This is Igor Čeranic from Zagreb, Croatia. You might recognize the name because not only is he behind the Perfect Blind Project (great downtempo stuff) but he is also half of Dual Barrell. Couple that with being part of two metal bands and I would say this is one busy motherf*cker. But check a lot of releases because he also masters a ton of them. Ironically, he didn't do the mastering on his own release. So like a fat kid at the state fair he's got his fingers in a lot of pies. Deimos is a psytrance project with a darker and harder edge to it. Know how I know that? Promo told me. And this is not hyperbole. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's begin with the cover. Love it. It gives us a glimpse into a post apocalyptic future where we didn't seem to learn our lesson. He tackles a lot of the same issues that Front Line Assembly would and you can tell they had a huge influence on his music. Identical track names and of course samples. Minus the laryngitis inducing vocals of course. The cover itself reminds me of a release by Rush in the mid 70's called Farewell to Kings that he wouldn't know anything about because f**ck him. Young bastard. What have we forgotten? That there used to not be anything called remote control. That I would have to to get up from my TV Tray that shakily supported my Hungry Man dinner and change the channel, only to knock over said tray and thereby kick the dog in anger and resume my position as public enemy number one on PETA's sh*tlist? Still love the cover. Disobey- It's a short intro track that sets the stage for what happened to us as a society. Living underground, very matrix like, broadcasting from a hidden location imploring the human race to please wake the f*ck up. Modus Operandi- Thumping and in a bad mood he takes apocolyptic inspiration from Frontline Assembly and mixes psychedelic sounds with changes in tempo. It ends on a fast note and is a further introduction into a world where man vs. machine had devastating consequences. She can't hear you scotty, you're talking into the garage door opener. Na Rubu Horizonta- More driving rhythms as the intensity increases. The break is a hollow echo in the shell of a warehouse where a few lucky survivors were able to find refuge. From a relatively safe area they are treated to more of the air combat that leveled their society in the first place. Our Benefactors- A sinister lead moves with blinding speed as it enforces discipline on the vanquished humans. It's fast, deliberate and very atmospheric. Think of Dark City, The Terminator, and Blade Runner all combined into one monumental defeat for us. The break is rich in mechanical fear as prisoners are kept at bay with a searing 303. Very powerful. The Raid (v2)- He ain't letting up for a second with that bass line as the effects ripple in the background. If the title says the Raid, I'm thinking of the machines infiltrating home base of the humans deep underground. The break has danger lurking around every corner with synth stabs soaked in reverb. He takes this music, sets the scene, and then rams it down your throat. Seishin- I'm not Japanese and only know what I see in Godzilla movies, but does that word mean sperm? Mario Tomašković of Subscale (one of the heavy metal bands of which he is a member) on guitars. Now normally I like guitars in my psytrance about as much as I like drinking from the toilet. But here, it's forceful and melancholy at times. He doesn't half ass it and the guitar adds to the vibe instead of screaming "Hey asshole, look at me!" In the beginning. The break like all the other breaks is brief but descriptive and where it solidifies itself as a trance track, but then the guitar begins to really take over and I don't care for hair metal in my psytrance. The Breakout- Here he teams up with his Psilocybian buddy and this is one of the most psychedelic tracks on the album. Throbbing with great percussion and juicy electronics that get you in the back of the throat. Leads that leave a mark and are unrelenting just spill over the banks and it makes me whip my bear back and forth. What? Hair? No, I'm pretty sure it's bear. See? Bear. Where did you get hair from? Whatever. Doesn't even make sense. We Have Forgotten- Another driving track with acid licks, but I didn't connect with it too well until the sort of break which started getting my attention. Apart from that though, not as powerful as the last track or as intricate as some of the others. Blood Magic- I get the sense that he's slowing it down without decreasing velocity. Gone is the hard exterior and in its place is a more pensive thought process. Psy-gressive would be a great way to describe this. His effects are on point and the darkness still reigns. Think of coming from underground and looking upon the devastation of the war between man and machine for the first time. It's a holy sh*t moment. The Fallout- This one is quite interesting. The title and the beginning suggest that that war is over as the track creeps along at a mid-tempo shuffle. It's still dark and eerie and the good guys have won, but will they have learned their lesson? You know there's one asshole who keeps some alien dna or something because he things that he can tame the creature. The influences jump right out at you. FLA, science fiction movies, heavy metal...all with a dark overtone. And for the vast majority he doesn't miss a step with full power rhythms and superb atmosphere creation. This is an example of an album you have to listen to all the way through to allow yourself to get swallowed up. There is no sunshine here, no winners, only the cold reality of high tech warfare and the toll it takes on all involved. If you like your psytrance powerful and dark this is something that you will enjoy. Coming Soon Mdk

Artist: Zamurai & Apatheya Title: Goa With Attitude EP Label: ACP Records Date: July, 2012 1. Who Knew - Apatheya 2. Everybody's A DJ - Zamurai By now (if not years earlier) people should know who Filipe Santos is and that he seems to make quality goa trance so effortlessly that it bores him. Maybe it does. Maybe we are just sheep and he's a good sheep herder. But his label pumps out EP's that I cannot help scooping up. Here he is with Simon Palmieri who himself released and EP earlier this summer called At Full Goa Force - Chapter One (review here). So guess what you get here? Goa head, I'll wait. So bad. No guesses needed as I'm sure you figured out it's goa trance. Simon crafts a racy (settle down) track that has leads that move like your sister's pet hamster that hit the jogging wheel cause he felt fat. Filipe's Everybody is a DJ (I'm guessing that is his shot at all the producers of unoriginal new school goa trance) is another quality production that just has lead after lead to make you dance. So for whatever passes for money these days on that sheep pasture across the Atlantic it only costs one of them. Well spent people. ACP Records Mdk

Artist: Flexus Title: The Beginning EP Label: Iono Music Date: July, 2012 1. Sunset 2. The Beginning 3. Magnetic Field Technically this isn't the beginning for Flexus aka Stefan Goransson as he collaborated with Time In Motion on last years Smooth Vibrations EP from Iono. That aside what did I learn from this release? Not everything needs to be a massive storytelling adventure. Sometimes it is great to just be spirited away. And that is just what this 3 track EP does. I would describe it as light and airy progressive trance that follows the Iono mold of gentle melodies, soft breaks, and a sh*tload of delay. Imagine taking flight on the gossamer wings of a butterfly or plucking the strings of a spiders web to get an idea of how delicate this is. Soft and sensual, never intrusive, this floats like bubbles in the wind against the warm rays of the sun. Stefan shows that you don't have to be overly complex to craft a beautiful track. Well done sir. Beatport Audiojelly Psyshop Mdk

Artist: Various Title: Pump Remixes Label: Nexus Media Date: July, 2012 1. Pump (Deliriant Remix) 2. Pump (Ectima Remix) 3. Pump (Brain Driver Remix) 4. Pump (DEL Remix) 5. Pump (Mental Substance Remix) 6. Pump (Penguin Conspiracy Remix) 7. Pump (Spliff Politix Remix) Remix albums are usually hit or miss for me. They can be great giving tracks a fresh perspective and a new coat of paint, but too often it's just a clone of the original without much individuality. Nexus Media is a label that has earned blind buy status from me due to their overwhelmingly consistent ability to produce some of the best night-time full on out there. So imagine my joy when I see a remix album by one of my favorite artists sHiFt (Chris Hoy). All the artists were winners of a remix contest so that's kinda cool. Taking a look at the tracklist it...well, it...it appears to be seven remixes of the, uh...the same track. Hmmm... Sure that track is kick ass, but...Look, I love sHiFt's music, but seven remixes of the same track. Wow, how can I put this? I would love to motorboat Sofia Vergara seven times in a row, but after the fourth or fifth maybe...nah bad example. Would totally do it. Think she's available? I love pizza. But after four or five meals of pizza in a row I'm starting to look at Arby's like it's an actual food product. Don't make me do that. I'm begging you. The first four tracks are exactly what you would expect them to be. Of course he's got his boy Deliriant (Shane Renew) and he delivers the goods. Followed by Ectima (motherf*cker, Zyce is even on this thing!) which makes a dark track seem even darker. By the time we get to the DEL Remix it's become watered down and the bile that is an Arby's craving is beginning to surface. I'm sure one of the rules wasn't that the bpm's be 145. So thankfully the Penguin Conspiracy remix does exactly that and kicks the speed up to Usain Bolt level and when I hear it I just wanna break speed limits. Closing things out is an eerie take on Pump in a big beat electronica scary movie way. Hey at this point I was just happy with a change in tempo, but this remix did it right. None of the tracks are bad and I liked them, but they are so similar that you just go numb after awhile. Anyone want to think outside the box? Where the f*ck was David Guetta in all of this? I'm sure Akon wasn't busy...wait, is he incarcerated, because I don't know what kind of studio capabilities are in the pokey. So in summary it's a little too similar for a listen all the way through, but if you break it up it's pretty good. Beatport Mdk

Artist: Ex-Gen Title: Extreme Genetics 0.1 EP Label: 3D Vision Date: July, 2012 1. Awaken 2. Exhausted feat Khopat 3. Sharingan Sometimes you have to take a step back to regain a clearer view. I stopped listening to psy and goa for a while and focused on something else. Despite the sick moves you see here, I was not chosen to pilot the Mars rover. All politics. Seeing as how that didn't work out I now feel energized with renewed vigor for the music I love. Ex-Gen is one of the top producers of high-tech or twilight or whatever the f*ck the kids are calling it these days. Whereas full-on has taken on the form of cotton candy this style pours kerosene on said cotton candy, sets it ablaze and laughs as your kid runs away screaming that clown is a bad man. Groovy, melodic and intense with a dark edge. And he doesn't disappoint with this 3 track EP. This is an in your face smackdown with acidic leads, sci-fi atmosphere, and thumping beats. The first track doesn't seem to believe in easing you into things as it's boot is so far up your ass that you're spewing acid in a projectile fashion. Exhausted sees him join forces with fellow cotton candy abuser Khopat and it's how you'll feel when that whip like lead finishes with you. Once Sharigan gets going it would be like trying to stop a bullet train with a papeer towel. Go ahead, sure you can use Bounty...knock the mustache off that 70's porn motherf*cker. This is not music you take a smoke break to lest you be the one who gets smoked. I don't know what type of extreme genetic experiments are going on at 3D, but I'll volunteer. Anything for science, you know. Beatport MDK

Artist: Various Title: Three Drops To Evolution Label: Triple Drop Productions Date: July, 2011 01 - Zaigonen - The Connection (Intro) 02 - Soluble Sounds - Psillypsybinge (90 BPM) 03 - Brujo's Bowl - Everything's Special (80 BPM) 04 - Wolfen Technologies - Caveman (91 BPM) 05 - Brujo's Bowl - Najd's Squelch (80 BPM) "To be paid, to do what you love...ain't that the dream?" It sure is! Speaking of which...Mars, I know this might be a bad time and all, but you owe me $35,000 for all the reviews I put up here. Hello? Hello? What the f*ck is that? Is that...is that a vagina? You sick pricks... But seriously this is the virgin (pun intended) release of Triple Drop Productions (Go Wales!) and they treat us to 5 tracks of downtempo/Psydub/Drum n Bass music. The only act I am familiar with is Mr. Bowl, but I'm a sucker for some good dubby downtempo noise. The intro is short, but haunting and beautiful with a mournful Dickensian feel. It mixes sweet strings with bubbling percussion and sometimes harsh electronics. Psillypsybinge makes great use of panning, surrounding me with percussion and bass on all sides. It's like walking down a dark corridor with flashing fluorescents. Quirky, glitchy, and upbeat with drum n bass motion. It's very metallic, sounding as if my toolbox opened and all the nails and screws fell out and tumbled down stainless steel stairs. Everything's Special breaks out the rumbly bass and tribal drum set in a truly alien presentation. It's a dirty affair with some filthy low tones that creeps like a serial killer. Loved it. Caveman didn't thrill me. It was brighter, but I felt the bass was too intrusive and dominated the track. Not for me. Najd's Squelch went on way too long and for me just devolved into squirty noises and stutter step beats. Pass. This music can be extremely descriptive, but I think the key is if music that is that light on melodies and intensely focused on the percussive side of things maintain it's hold on the listener. After a while, clanks and basses can get boring but these guys found a way to involve me. The bpm's are low, but most of the tracks have that high speed that make you think it's way faster than it is. Very enjoyable listen for sure. Ektoplazm Mdk