Double Dragon - Continuum

[Guest Scott.Kanov[at]v2music[dot]com]

Double Dragon - Continuum

 

 

Artist: Double Dragon

Title: Continuum

Label: Phantasm

Date: 2000

 

Track listing:

 

01. 08'17" Pulsating Thing

02. 08'17" Deep Thought

03. 08'38" Black Project

04. 07'21" Hairy Liquid

05. 06'57" WORM

06. 07'48" Encrusted Filth

07. 09'37" Soft Machine

08. 08'23" Spiked

 

Review:

 

If you know me at all, then you know how long I've hoped for this one.

Without a doubt, Double Dragon's "Fluffy Purple Thing" is my alltime favorite

psy-trance track. That said, I've been waiting on a full-length release for a

long, long time. Finally, Steve Good has answered my prayers; I can safely say

that it was well worth the wait. This one is unquestionably one of the most

mind-blowing psy-trance albums I've ever heard. What struck me first was the

percussion -- aside from the usual four-on-the-floor beats, we get the

scintillating sound of live-drums as though someone was playing alongside in the

studio. Beyond that, the variation of percussive sounds is astonishing --

traditional snares, tribal drums, and other "organic noises" intertwine into

some of the most complex and lush rhythms (un)imaginable. "Continuum" also

crashes in with the unlikely marriage of ferocious squelches with sublime

melodies. How could anything be as dark as a moonless midnight but as beautiful

as the ensuing sunrise? Highlights for me are the teeth-gnashing workout,

"Encrusted Filth" and the boiling-oil basslines of "Spiked," but there's not a

bad one in the bunch, not even close. Perhaps someday I'll find an album I like

better, but for today this is the album I've waited a lifetime for. A modern-day

classic...10/10

[Guest jsbedard]

Nice twisting effects, very original concept album even if it's to slow for my

preferences. Some track are powerfulls, others are more funkys but this guy is

very talented. Maybe i'll apreciate more when i'll listen to them in good

quality...RA sucks let's try a 9/10 for this (revelation?) CD

[Guest Dreamer]

I agree with Scott.. this album is something very special.. sort of the good

old psy-trance we always liked to hear, but also a more sophisticated one..

all the tracks are fucking mindblowing!! 10/10 for sure.

Tzahi. (Dreamer)

[Guest Infected Max]

Well i heard only 1 track Tzahi sent me And i'm sorry to say that but i don't

like it. Maybe it sounds too old And as i didn't liked Trance in 1996....I

began to be really involved in Trance with X-Dream And i hate that old

sound...very melodic And very weak in bass... Newer stuff have a fat groove,

Double Dragon didn't seemed to appreciate.

[Children]

Hum ... I don?t really like this CD cause I find it too noisy ... however there

is 2 Tracks you should listen to : Track 1 and particularly Track 8 ! These

ones are interesting ... other Tracks are listenable (maybe except Track 3

cause the end of the Track is really strange : it seems the CD is lined but

it?s absolutely not), but not awesome because too noisy for me ... I don?t

call that melodic music ... Rating : 4.5/10

[Guest cosmo[at]futaba.ne[dot]jp]

Kind of agree with the last reviewer a little bit-some of it does

get a bit random at times, but a good album none the less. Prefer to see a

little bit more continuity of the bass and beat though- bit less random

psychedelic sounds a la Cosmosis, bit more stomp a la Israel.

[Guest pzikoguy[at]hotmail[dot]com]

Really a great cd...it was since mittelstandskinder ohne strom I hadn'tlistened

to such a great cd...not always the same rhytm...not the continuous bass or

the progressive one, very good sounds...not only to dance but also to listen

to...fav track and my fav track until now in year 2000 it's nr 3

[freak51]

Tasty electro influences. No time-wasters, but some tracks take too long to

build. When it's good, it's very verrrrry good. Buy it.

[Guest Psychotoons]

is it good ?

did'nt hear all of the trax on this cd

beside of x trx on dat...

if those on this cd so it should be a very worked

album

 

bom, izik SaNdMAn

[Basilisk]

-- blip -- full review to come...

[Guest AlexG]

very nice! i agree with pzikoguy: this cd reminded me of m.o.s. in a way. very

groovy, complex, stylish, and fresh; the percussion is especially similar to

m.o.s. imax, i think you should listen to this again: this is not 96 trance,

definately! it's as modern as it gets, with a fat groove, tight drums, crisp

percussion, and all kinds of weird effects. track 6 is very powerful, and it

explodes on the dancefloor (tested)! but no tracks are bad, in fact the whole

cd is very good. sometimes, on a good day, this seems like a 9/10, but i think

8/10 is more appropriate. and cosmo, while this is similar to cosmosis' last

cd, it's definately not "random psychedelic sounds". hmm, i wonder what you'd

say if you heard g.m.s. or hux flux =)

[Guest cosmo[at]futaba.ne[dot]jp]

OK, I saw this guy play on Saturday night (for the second time actually) and I

take it all back-he is the psychedelic master-first time I heard him he was

good , but didn't have much material-he's come a long way since then. I have

heard GMS live a few times, and I agree-Double Dragon is better in psychedelic

terms, though GMS are more obviously danceable. Best live in my opinion? Jaïa

or Koxbox.

[Guest AlexG]

well, getting a bit carried away here, but since we started talking about "best

live"... =) agreed, koxbox are great for dancing, but i liked infected

mushroom live better: even though their new stuff is not very danceable, when

they play it live it becomes much much better. but to this day nothing beats

x-dream: their live set 2 years ago totally blew my mind; highly explosive

stuff! i've yet to see gms live, and i'm very happy to say i'm going to this

august: they're coming to san francisco for a 3-day outdoor festival! woo hoo!

=) alright, enough excitement and sorry for an off-subject post...carry on

[Guest psytrancer]

Its good, but not really original - sounds a lot like two year old tsuyoshi

stuff - nothing wrong with that though! 7.5/10

[Guest strou[at]mail[dot]tele[dot]dk]

Very funky stuff here from Double Dragon. Some of it sounds great in the

morning and some at night. A very good mixture. 7/10

[freak51]

This is breaking down under heavy listening. Stock declining, but still at

least 6.5/10.

[Guest Mascok]

Brilliant, some tracks here really pump me up. highly worth buying

10/10

[Guest eat the beat]

Liking Digitalis, Metal Spark/Sibilant and some of the Joujouka album, this

came as another revelation. This style and the new Three Point Turn percussive

push are where my taste is at. 8.5/10

[Guest casey from vegas]

Track 6 stands on it's own as one of my favorite ever. Aside from that it's

the stuff in the 130-135 BPM range that proves that psy-trance madness is

possible at comfortable morning pace. (10/10)

[Guest Dandoo Forest]

a cool and great dark psy not manimalistic at all!

evil and bad! good sound 4 a party or at all

buy it !! if u like a unmenimalistic dark night muzice..

[Guest rmoench[at]hotmail[dot]com]

This album is fantastic, one of the best releases of the year, up there with

Process's One Drop or Two. Very tight sounds, clean production, and great

variety of musical strucures, with some genuine madness and a touch of beauty

and emotion thrown in to round off the brew. It seems many people point out

some of the earlier tracks for praise (like Encrusted Filth), but to me the

new sounds are where it's at. (Encrusted Filth does destroy dance floors

though. When he played that track live at a recent Tokyo party, the place went

apocolyptic! An orgy of dance and sound.)

The first four tracks are amazing, but hands-down the most interesting track is

Pulsating Thing. If we put the GMS sound at around 2nd grade, then this is PhD

trance. The track never tires. Play it a hundred times and you can always hear

something new.

Black Project is also brilliant. It's like you are going on a jog through a

deep forest and all kinds of creatures are just waiting on your path and

darting out of the dark, and then you reach patches of sunlight as the forest

clears out, and things get happy, until you are back in the forest with the

creepy-crawlies again. The slow-mo ending is also great. Our robot jogger

slowly runs out of steam as his batteries run down, but fortunately he's in

the clear and out of the trees. Love it.

The production of track 2 sounds great on a big system, and track 4 is very

lyrical. This one created a beautiful, peaceful moment on the dance floor

during the aforementioned live set.

Overall, great album. 9.5/10. Complex sounds for the night and day. Well done

Steve! Now get cracking on the next album in your new studio!

[wicoe]

I hesitated before buying this album, because the name Double Dragon was not

familiar to me at all, but when I finally bought it I could not believe my

ears. This is one of the most astonishing releases I've ever heard, and the

track number 8 blew me away completely - I've heard it before in a DJ set, and

at that time I realised that it's the best psy-trance track I've ever heard (I

didn't know it's Double Dragon then). Steve Good is a true magician, his

production skills can easily match those of Simon Posford - perfectly worked

out percussion lines, very complex patterns, with NO randomness at all! Every

sound is EXACTLY where it should be, it's a rare talent (yeah, HuxFlux and GMS

sound much more random to me). Lots of weird processed FX, twisted grooves,

all in 3d, NO sign of cheese, it just keeps growing! Not repetitive at all,

but at the same time NOT overloaded! (in my opinion ) Before I heard this

album, I considered Infected's percussion very interesting and worked out, now

it sounds childish to me (I'm biased, listening to Double Dragon right now, so

don't believe me . Yeah, this release it reminds me of Joujouka, but

definitely more trancey and less techno-ish (just the beginning of track 8

makes me fly away!). Overall, it's currently the best full-on psy-trance album

I've ever heard.

[Guest agibson684[at]earthlink[dot]net]

I've only heard WORM and I'd buy this record for it alone. I just wish the

nice high hat work had more measures to satiate the psy-break junky in me. If

the rest of the album has the rhythmic flair of WORM I can only imagine this

records potential. Hyperion's Sun Flower has been my current favorite track

for a LONG time and if any album might contain the brilliance to change my

mind, it'd be this. Wish I could give a thorough review.

[Guest manicmagicmmushroomman[at]hotmai]

this just isn't my thing (not pumping enough), but its sooooooo clever I love

it anyway. Production on this album is IMMENSE, and the way he sustains some

of the noises just isn't fair. I don't think the music is that good for

dancing too, because lots of the tracks are pretty slow, and anyway doesn't

work really speeded up. I don't REALLY like the beats, but the percussion as

a whole works really nicely, keeping things very groovy. Good for the morning

after the night before methinks, esp. w.o.r.m. only track that could be said

to be anywhere near hard enough for me is Encrusted Filth - the end of this

track is amazing!!! (Just try to mix it!) Shouldn't like this album as I said,

but this to me is perfect for the more chilled moments, or even skunkified

madness. BLT seems to be heading this way on presence, to my surprise. No

bad thing, and trance music seems to be dividing down the middle. I love the

pumping nature of stuff like spirallianz, but feel this is amazing music too,

but maybe not so good for parties, more introspective. 7/10

[Guest smokeBuddha]

Badass! Double Dragon brings in something fresh in each song. From the

twisted effects to the warped squeals, this is a must-have album. 9/10 (Would

have gotten 10/10 if it wasn't for Soft Machine)