Dark Soho - Combustion

[Guest Vbrunner]

Dark Soho - Combustion

 

Artist: Dark Soho

Title: Combustion

Label: Alchemy

Date: 2002

 

Track listing:

 

01. 07'18" The New Age

02. 08'22" DMISH

03. 08'01" The 14th

04. 07'39" Kerberos

05. 06'38" Noise 6

06. 07'05" Combustion

07. 07'41" Save Me God (Rmx)

08. 08'35" The H

09. 05'38" My Wish

10. 06'20" Uring Saracoma (Live Mpeg Video)

 

Review:

 

In essence this album delivers kickass horror psy - something we're not very

spoiled with. A few of the tracks are what I've been waiting for since The

Delta - Scizoeffective. And there are certainly The Delta influences to be

found here. There's of course also strong resemblance to Dark Soho's first

album Sunspot, but this is better (though less varied). As you might expect, a

few of these new tracks lean towards the minimal side (just like The Delta's

newer stuff). After hearing the first tracks I was really impressed. But

unfortunately along the way I came across a few downsides.

I don't particularly care for electric guitars in psytrance, and indeed the

best tracks here are the ones without them. Although there are a few tracks

where guitars work, I think this album would have been much better off without

them. Maybe that's just me though.

The second complaint I have is that almost all tracks use very similar

structures. There are a couple of exceptions, but most of the tracks start off

with few sounds, then constantly progress towards a fuller-oner and more

energetic (though always dark) sound. About 2/3 through, a "horror" melody

kicks in, usually along with the electric guitars. This leads me to the last

point - all these melodies are very similar to eachother. Sometimes you're

almost wondering if you're hearing the same track again. This is a big shame

because with some more variety, it could have been a fantastic album. Now you

can basically just pick half the tracks and skip the rest. The absolute high

is track 3 which is a real middle-of-the-night killer!

In conclusion, 4 or 5 of these tracks range from good to excellent. So despite

the couple of negative sides, and especially considering the lack of good

music of this kind, it's an album well worth the money. A pleasant surprise

for me

[Guest Raash]

Well, as Vbrunner said, all tracks are very similar to each other, alltough

there's one track that's slightly better than the others, and that's track

number 3. A quite ordinary psytrance CD to put it short. 7/10

[Guest 1400Miles]

Ah, the Gothic/Metal/Trance alliance of Dark Soho deliver a 2nd and whereas the

'drive' sounds awfully familiar to Germany's -The Delta-, the melodic

explosions and guitar acceleration follow more the 'Classical Mushroom' vein,

although much darker and heavier, of course. Productionwise, Dark Soho is

finally Floor ready as the sound is crisp and clear this time and 'Combustion'

is more instantly danceable than their freaky and more varied debut. What sets

'Combustion' apart from lets say 'Send in...' is that instead of a single

killer track (Standby) at least 5 or 6 killers can be found. Somehow this

album has a strangely compelling effect on me, its one of those rare albums

that begs to be played when I am half asleep or at work. Maybe it helps if

your previous music addictions included stuff like Sisters of Mercy, Slayer

and Type O Negative (that shows my age, I guess)...This album is currently

battling it out with the surely less violent Entheogenic to become my fav pick

of the year. Best tracks: 1,2,3,4,6. Mark: 9.5/10.

[lespagnol]

I liiike it so much .It s heavy and dark, violent and something trash. It s the

hard rock side of trance, more like Tim Schuldtthan the DElta. Howewer it

sounds very german and gothic with a lot of freaky melody. The last of track 1

is so sad and melodic, one of the song I ve heard since delta - the thing.

Track 3 is so crazy too with violin and clavecin. For me IT IS the best album

of the year just before mr Peculiar. A must ...

[Insejn]

This isn't half as good as the first one. A huge dissapointment. Their unique

sounds is gone. Final Verdict: 5/10

[Goblim]

How nice with some combustion in this arctic temperature. :-) Dark Soho sure

have their unique style, full on / tech gothic trance. The ablum starts well

with The New Age, there's a really nice melody 03:22 in the track, but

unfortunely it doesn't last long. Why? DMISH (strange name) is a bit

techno-like track aided by guitars. The 14th is the best track on the album

but it's also already released (VA - Digital Tribe). It goes out hard and

evolves to a real gothic stomper! Kerberos also starts techno-like until about

half the track when the gothic strings comes in. Noise 6 is just... noise,

almoust tech-trance, unfortunely not good though :-( Combustion is the album

title track, it starts with a strange drum pattern that sounds really good, as

usual a melody joins in after about half the track, but this time it's there a

bit longer which makes it better. Save Me God (Remix), I haven't heard the

original, but this track actually have vocals. Sounds like Marilyn Manson or

something, but almoust whispering. I dont know if they improve the track...

The H is a little bit calmer, but nothing happens in this track. My Wish is a

short and downtempo track, wouldn't ever believe this is Dark Soho. It's

pretty nice and relaxed. Uring Saracoma (Live MPEG Video), the original was

one of the best tracks on Dark Soho's first album (though there it was called

"Uine Saracomm"), here's an updated version, not better though. Overall it's

impossible not to compare Combustion with Sun Spot. Sun Spot was much more

varied, on Combustion all tracks are very alike each other. This is not the

kind of music you hear every day though, as I said Dark Soho have their unique

style, so it's nice with some variation. Some killers on this album are track

1, 3(!), 4 and 6(!) The others just lacks in something. Final rating 6/10

[Guest LoneDeranger]

I would not say this album is a disappointment, but neither is it very good.

Track #1 has a nice melody, but I does not really work out towards the end.

DMISH is a little bit better with that electric guitar, but again it does not

really work with the melody. Now we get to Track 3, which I found really

weird. If you listen to the begging you will realize it is just like the

bassline from The Delta - Supercell mixed with the intro from Union Jack - Two

Moons and a Trout (and slightly changed around). But in the middle we get

that real Dark Soho sound - VERY NICE! Save Me God - I think this track is

good, but with those lyrics it sounds like some cheesy death metal song

composed by a high school band. Uring Saracoma (#10) sounds .. just like #3,

only with more guitar. I forgot to mention My Wish (#9) which is a relaxing

ambient track and is exactly the opposite of all the other tracks here.

Unfortunatelly, none of the tracks here sound nearly as good as Madness,

Suckobus, or Gothic Prayer, my favorite Dark Soho tracks. Rating: 7.5/10

[Jalliuz]

Again for me a really nice one, the more i listen to it the more i like it.

Good to have at home, but harder to fit in a common goa set, it's like melodic

church psytech! Something new for the mind... He just to open the gate to a

new style and soon will be followed in his footsteps i guess. Just wait and

see

[seraph]

Good but nothing spectacular...At lot of places remnids on Infected Mushroom

but more harder.They can make really psychedelic tracks and they suddenly turn

into something else, more harder and less effective..But, they do make

quality, well produced Trance....Best songs : THE NEW AGE, THE 14 TH,

COMBUSTION, SAVE ME GOD...7/10

[Guest Tchankov I.V.]

Personally I suppose that Dark Soho's sound moved in wrong direction with

"Combustion": what caused their once established "Sun Mission" vessel to go

back to Earth right through its harsh atmosphere: don't know, but it's

combustion is at hand - will they make it through in one piece?! However based

on their last tracks back then in 2002 I expected this album to be yet less

effective - something like "Noise 6" & "The H" tracks whole way through. I was

pleasantly surprised seeing it still has its moments (ts.3,6,7,10). Whereas

this album loses quite a bit in its conceptual quality: it's not a whole new

world anymore, it's ...lets just say: "a single individual's attempt to

protest" but yet it still manages to regain it's score through relatively high

production value. But I don't have desire to protest against anything in such

way anymore - that's perhaps my own problem. BTW, imho track "Save Me God

(Rmx)" demonstrates the crux with this album: while this techno-trance could

deliver quite an effective boost for the relative stuff (I mean all those

aggressive styles that persisted long before the trance was brought to this

world), it's not as good on its own for the listener well may get lost

somewhere out there, in between the worlds. I consider it being good tool-kit

for such a purpose but when taken aside it lacks both inspiration & direction

in some way. However it's still somewhere above average among contemporary

trance releases. So it well worth 7/10. Tchankov I.V. (civ604@mail.ru)