Synchro - Born In California

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Synchro - Born In California

 

 

Artist: Synchro

Title: Born In California

Label: Avatar

Date: 2002

 

Track listing:

 

01. Born In California

02. Atomik

03. Refrigerated

04. Kiss This

05. 2 Kool 4 Skool

06. Tiny Tablet

07. Big Bongos

08. Small Bongos

09. External

 

Review:

 

At first I didn't know what to make of this album. It's quite different for

some reason, as the structure of each track varies so strangely at times the

soundstage is hollow and unfilled, but at other times often within the same

track, that feeling dissipates, but no more layers are added really to broaden

the scope of the soundstage! It's kind of a paradox, and I can't really put

it into words. A huge emphasis of this whole album is repetitive interwoven

rhythms that induce a light hypnosis, with sort of minimal melodic passages

then additionally intermingled within each track. All tracks are pleasant,

but the only track that really stands out is the first, and it's for the

nearly 2 minutes of spoken lyrics that are very, very accurate. The closest

comparison I can make as far as a similar sound is Morphem, and that's even

somewhat of a stretch. I would even classify this as minimal-tech-psytrance,

but it's not always minimal and is actually quite subtly 'melodic'. A very

peculiar release; I don't know who this will appeal, or has appealed to, but

it's certainly nice when played loud with high sound quality to boot. Track 1

is the best on the album with kick-ass bass beats in a break-beat style 7/10

for sure: 'Born In California' is so clean and pure it sustains most of that

rating, but just fully so!

[Ormion]

I find this album boring and much worse than Synchro's earlier works.

There are two good tracks in here (Born In California & 2 Kool 4 Skool) with all this original Synchro vibe. Unfortunately the rest of the tracks are minimalistic techy trance. 4/10

[Manuser]

I agree it is very forgettable, the style is strange, it sounds like techno music that was made in the middle of the nineties when genres were not too clear and distinct, at the time you could listen to some of this kind of tracks in various compilations such as Ultra Techno, where they put a bunch of tracks with very different styles, from very melodic trance to strange German techno. There is nothing very interesting in this album.

I agree with Ormion, eleven years later I like the two same tracks, 2 Kool 4 Skool is worth a listen and is more trance in the psychedelic sense than any other track here, and the opening track is pretty cool even though I don't fancy the change of direction in the middle but the vocal sample makes it nice to listen to. Overall, an album that sounds much older than its release date.