Electrypnose - Brain Stretching

[DeathPosture]

Electrypnose – Brain Stretching

 

 

Artist: Electrypnose (Switzerland)

Title: Brain Stretching

Format: Hi-quality MP3, FLAC or CD-R

Label: http://www.ResonantEarth.com (Sweden)

Cat. #: RES002

Distribution: Internet

Date: February 2005

 

Track listing:

 

01. 08’26” Leo Zitrone

02. 07’23” Arcangemy

03. 08’02” Bombaxis

04. 07’13” Alcoolemie

05. 08’29” Le Druide

06. 07’52” Deity

07. 07’36” Au Pays Des Lutins Malins

08. 08’15” The Key Of Life

09. 08’49” Fil De Légèreté

 

Review:

 

Welcome to the future!

 

Resonant Earth is a 100% internet based record label from the deep forests of Sweden… The label boss is Leo Bergman (a.k.a. Spindrift and one half of Steptime) and he’s on a trance-mission to ‘create an outlet for music that is honest and fair for artists as well as fans’… He was fed up with labels accusing downloading fans of ripping off artists, when it is in fact artists ripping off artists… So he took the logical step, cut out the middle men and created http://www.ResonantEarth.com – a website that supports high-quality legal downloads of Resonant Earth’s releases… You can compile your own compilations there or you can order hardcopy CDs via snail mail… It’s total freedom really! Cool! The first release was the compilation Mythical Vortex and the second release is the debut album by Swiss artist Electrypnose (Vince Le Barde) who’s had three tracks released on Peak Records… The tracks I’ve heard from him have all had a distinct eerie charm to them, so I hope the album is in the same style…

 

Let me take you thru the tracks…

 

#01: Leo Zitrone

Leo the Lemon? Is this a Bergman nickname I didn’t know about? This a truly hypnotic track… Deeply psychedelic and packed with melodies… The intro is eerie and spooky, but soon the track evolves into a melodic night piece… Check the bell action in the middle part – a Switzerland trademark I guess… Eerie, haunting, hectic… The soundscapes are huge here – tons of effects help create a massive wall of sound guaranteed to tear any dancefloor apart! Sweet track!

 

#02: Arcangemy

Eerie, spooky Electrynose-trademark intro… Reminds me of some of the sicker Schlabbaduerst demented pixie forest trance – with definite hints of sauna, koala and vodka-induced trance… The bassline is deep and repetitive and Vince tweaks his buttons like a madman… I dig the razor-sharp ‘cutting-FX’ in the second part of the track and the break is particularly sweet… Nice!

 

#03: Bombaxis

Orchestral Misted Muppet/Infected intro with an analogue bassline… Very old-school at first, but soon the track develops into a raging stormer with computerized voices, long organic pads and a phat electro-groove… Spooky Halloween trance!

 

#04: Alcoolemie

Another stormy intro – I’d go as far as to claim you can actually hear that this was produced in Switzerland… There’s that snow-covered mountain feel to it… The track itself is a bit more hectic, with pointy FX and tons of layers… Very dark, yet uplifting in its entire psychedelic glory… The build-up/climax part kicks some serious 303-ass… Sweet!

 

#05: Le Druide

Trippy chanting monks/aum intro… Bassline and percussion are added before the general groove kicks in… The first three minutes doesn’t really stand out, but as it is often the case things really pick up in the second part of the track… Suddenly mad, twirling melodies are unleashed and the acid is running thick… Aciiiiiiiiiid!

 

#06: Deity

“This is what I want… ” Yeah, me too! …Static hisses and radio knob adjustment and a deep bassline make out the introduction to this track… Slowly more FX are added and after a couple of minutes the track is a full-blown tweaking party choon… Again Vince shows how good he is at using breaks to intensify the listening experience and leave the listener eagerly awaiting more… Once more it’s acid galore, and I’m still a sucker for that… Stellar track!

 

#07: Au Pays Des Lutins Malins

Right, my French vocabulary is limited to ‘crossiant’ so I had no idea what the title meant… Babelfish suggested ‘With The Country Of The Malignant Imps’ so I’m guessing it means something along the lines of ‘From the country of the magnificent peaks’ – makes sense, and as I described above I really do believe you can tell this music was made in a mountainous country… But hey, let’s talk about the music… After a long chilled intro, we’re exposed to another mean Electrypnose trademark bassline… A dark and repetitive track – with hints of stale, demented psycho FX… Watch out for the hypnotizing, naïve melody that’ll grab your attention whilst the psychedelia takes control of the rest of your senses… Evil track!

 

#08: The Key Of Life

"Take this empty glass. Here it is... peaceful... serene...boring! But if it is... destroyed... Look at all these little things, so busy now! Notice how each of them is useful! What a lovely ballet ensues.. so full of form and colour. Now think about all those people that created them: technicians, engineers, hundreds of people who will be able to feed their children tonight so those children can grow-up big and strong and have little teeny-weeny children of their own and so on and so forth... thus adding to the great chain... of life!" Vince kicks things of with a lengthy movie sample and soon after the track is drenched in a bouncy, almost happy bassline surrounded by a bunch of sharp, metallic FX… This is layered, wobbly and twisted music to be played in the twilight zone… The outro has some cool movie-samples too… Spooky dusk trance!

 

#09: Fil De Légèreté

Babelfish says ‘wire of lightness’ so I’m guessing ‘ray of light’ as it’s the last track of the album and the sun has set after a long, dark night… As legend prescribes this is the downbeat, experimental last track to finish of the album… This is nice floating downbeat… Hints of dub and electro… Very mellow – and a striking contrast to the rest of the album… A nice way to return to reality… ;o)

 

Right, so the first half of the album is definitely the one that suits my taste the best… The last three tracks are not bad at all – the first six are just better… I’m a hard-copy fetishist so I have the CD-R version of this album, but anyone can pick out the tracks they like and just pay for those… Nice concept indeed! I was pleasantly surprised by this album, and I really like the whole concept of ResonantEarth.com… Hats of to Vince for the sweet tunes and to Leo for a visionary outlook on releasing psytrance to the masses… The third release is already ready, waiting to be downloaded… ;o)

 

Recommended to fans of the darker realms of psytrance with a distinct Swiss edge… Enjoy!

 

Favourites: 1, 2, 4, 5(!), 6(!)

 

DeathPosture

 

External links:

Electrypnose: http://www.electrypnose.ch

Resonant Earth: http://www.resonantearth.com

[Spindrift]

Thanks DeathPosture for the nice review.

And of course big thanks to Vins for his great music.

 

Great stuff!

[seraph]

AMAZING album !

To me the one of the best albums of this year by now. Very psychedelic, demented, just the way I like it. He manages to twist your brain and he is doing that uncompromisingly. LEO ZITRONE is amazing psychedelic madness, one of the better ones on album, really perfect construction with lots of twisted messages. ARCANGEMY is another psychedelic stomper with some funky effects and lunatic effects. BOMBAXIS sounds a little bit like Menog - Natural Behaviour with those gentle lullaby sounds covered with hard beat and noisy effects. Outrageous arrangement. ALCOOLEMIE is twisted and very hypnotic, pretty demented tune that has wacked effects splattered all around. LE DRUIDE is the best one here, very hypnotic, crazy and psychedelic. This guy really knows how to create atmosphere. This song alone is worth whole album. DEITY is okay track, could have been done better actually, but it is still pretty good. AU PAYS DE LUTINS MALINS is another good track. It sounds similar to the rest but it has that nasty feel throughout he track. THE KEY OF LIFE is pretty melodic and has very nice energetic parts. It is the most positive track on the album and it is not even that light. FIL DE LEGERETE is pretty good ambient track. It has nice, atmospheric pads and has nice flow and finishes the album perfectly...All in all, this is pretty fine release. It is juicy psychadelia and it is done just in the right way. The name of the album fits perfectly, it is pure BRAIN STRETCHING...9/10

[RAH]

one of my top 5 this year... nuff said

[Malachyte]

Does anyone out there still happen to have this on CDr? Evidently Resonant Earth doesn't make CDrs anymore... I have every other Electrypnose album and would very much like this one to complete my collection! :-) Anyone have the CDr version willing to sell it to me?