Rastaliens - Freestyle

[Guest Blue Spectral Monkey]

Rastaliens - Freestyle

 

 

Artist: Rastaliens

Title: Freestyle

Label: Baloonia

Date: 2002

 

Track listing:

 

01. 07'52" Bodyspeaker

02. 09'02" Weird Condios

03. 07'39" Grumble

04. 08'08" Fitz Fatz

05. 07'05" Mission Not Possible

06. 08'28" Twister

07. 08'29" Fat Flip

08. 08'15" Mr Sandman

 

Review:

 

rastaliens finally releases a full length after several winner tracks on

compilations. all tracks between 140-143 bpm.

#1 bodyspeaker - starts warm and bouncy with long wash flangerwinds, and

sproingy blips... the percussion is nice and carries the song ahead, bass

bubbling. A breakdown brings some pensive chords, and goes on ahead with the

subtle yet anthemic melodies that permeate much of this album. Rolling along,

good effect work, then a huge kick roll picks up the pace and more noises

begin to swirl you away, and more and more push behind the melody, grindy but

slippery at the same time good balance of sounds. The last 3 minutes of this

song is killer material, fun and sending tingles down the crowds spines for

sure. tweaks put on the lead instrument and nice varying kick patterns make

for a thrilling ride on this one. #2 Weird Condios - you can tell that these

fellows have some set ideas on song structure... builds nicely, gurgling

effects and washes make the progression into a somewhat minimal yet effective

opening, good sense of presence and then boom, after a brief interlude, the

elements combine and begin to really pump, several layers all working

together. Plenty of room in here for dreaming up geometries and dancing even

without paying attention to the myriad details and fine tuned architecture of

the sounds. builds up and begins to to hit the 16th leadline with stuttering,

sweet. makes people move thier hands a lot while dancing. the breakdown

makes it more solid, but some may feel that they take it up and down too much,

i feel that it makes the tracks more epic, giving each sound room to be at the

front of the mix. HUGE emotive blastoffs are common. Very classic feel,

amazing harmony of effects and instrumentation. great track. #3 Grumble -

same bass instrument or intention here... the individual instants are varying

but the rastaliens have a mad style! This one has a nice off beat snare

feeling to it at the beginning, and huge winds of power washing each new

phrase onward. again with the strangely anthemic or theatrical feeling synth,

used with discretion and care. much space layers and time to think here.

almost sounds like a live drumming session was recorded here at times.. groovy

as hell modulated goo over the well established funk. the breakdown gives new

perspectives on the theme and allows it to come back more serious and driving,

you can almost see the aliens puffing doobers in the studio as they begin to

laugh at the measured perfection and flat out way over your head conceptual

mayhem that they must have channeled to be able to create such a thing as

this! #4 fitz fatz - a vibrato voice introduces you seamlessly into this

track, which holds a similar floaty space, pushing you into lofty realms of

delay and openness, more with the mad accurate percussion, and then lighting

it up with the "frog voice?" that several other atrists have been using for a

while now (Klegg -"02", Biodegradable, hux flux to name a few.) right on

brothers! the shiny edge of a new starship refracts laser cannons with ease

and minds are sent reeling by the sheer vastness and deep intention put into

the production. amazing second half, they are pounding their way into your

heart with these awe inspiring melodies, makes me feel like everything is

going to be alright afterall.... #5. mission not possible - argh. sorry but

the remix of the tv theme song is just not even close. maybe i had bad

memories from childhood, but it sounds gimmicky and not as graceful as the

others. im getting tired of movie samples, so this taking the somewhat catchy

tv show tune and beating it to death... argh. its got some good parts, and

their trademark effects, so some people will like it. #6 twister - deep bass

and nice high end percs, solid framework. drives well into an uplifiting and

somehow dark melody, what a balance. little cowbells hit briefly, the hips

are shaking, building slowly, ooh baby. similar sounding chord progressions

and drum rolls, but serious in intent and not played out, still sounds

original. cool drumming and well constructed interludes and advancements.

more with the fun super dynamic and playful synths. #7 fat flip - begins

ominously, spiralling off. solid structure and sharp hihats, trippy. neat

and different sounding, while still encompassing all the elements previously

noted. a fun and catchy melody will make this one a hit. "....time.. to

spark up.." sounds like they have better stuff than me, makes my head feel

all gooey and not on straight, this one is a bit cheezy with the organ sounds

as accent, but they use that great large slug sound like in their older track

- "reality" so i cant tell if i love it or hate it. another great ominous and

elevated anthemic tweaker leadline for the final movement of this piece. #8

damn, another solid entry. what are they trying to tell us? the amazing work

here shows that these fellows are serious. we should be seeing them a lot

more in the future if this is thier first work. mr. sandman is cool, bit more

sparse and dreamy somehow, but finishing the album off as a conceptual

dreamworld with a point... very similar in style to the others, yet, wrapping

it all together and sending you off into the future all wiggly and scavenging

for one last toke to chill you out after having just grokked more information

than one album has held in some time. 9/10. favorites: all but #4.

more please!

[Guest Hippo]

really nice release from Rastaliens, nice full-on melodic kind of stuff, some

old school style, some more advanced, most of it about the same style, goes

down smoothly I am not entirely sure about "mission not possible", somehow

I don't think this works out too well with the "mission impossible" theme, but

taste differs, as it does with necton's "beverly hills cop". The only thing I

absolutely don't agree with in the review above is the favorite selection. IMO

there is only one really outstanding track on this album and that would be #4

Fitz Fatz go judge yourself!

[Guest Goagabba]

Well known for their releases on Boom!, Rastaliens finally release a full

length, on the Hadshot clone, Balloonia Ltd. You can clearly here the Euro

influences in this full on journey.

Track one is a good melodic number, which kinda reminded me of Classical

Mushroom style. Frtiz Fatz is indeed the most standout track on here. Other

song of note is Fat Flip. Mission not Possible is okay for home listening,

but hope I don't here it in the middle of someone's killer set. The whole

album works really well, and if you're into your full on european style, then

get your hands on this. 8/10

[Guest Bioman]

This is a fairly good release but nothing extraordinary. Perhaps a little

better on the production side of things in comparison to earlier releases.

Track by track analysis is not required as they are all in the similar "full

on" vein. There are some very nice and freaky psychedelic sounds on this album

as well as some nice beats that will keep you dancing. Overall RAting: 7/10

[Guest LoneDeranger]

The sound of this album is surprisingly similar to that of Infected Mushroom.

I would not say they copied it, but it's definately influenced by it. The

only track that stands out is #5. 1 and 7 are OK also, although they all

sound very similar. Rating: 8/10

[Guest Monkey]

i guess i was initially over excited aobut this one, because after several

listens, its all too similar. they work well in sets, but listening the whole

way is monotonous, albeit well crafted. worth picking up nonetheless if you

are into newer style fullon intelligent.

[Guest Acidhive]

Pretty good stuff here IMO, typical Rastaliens style.

If you can stand a whole cd filled with this stuff, you could do a whole lot

worse than to check these guys out!

Anyway, this is rather standard psytrance, but with a great sense of rhythm and

percussions. They did a good job also on the Mission Not Possible track, which

is a pretty good remix of that old MI theme. Maybe a good idea for the MI:3

soundtrack (if there will ever be such a movie) Rest is all in the same mould

as for their single releases, so if you dig that, you'll dig this as well. I

give this 8/10 and although I listened through it once in it's entirety, this

is one of those albums that is best suited for 2,3 track listening.

[Basilisk]

Slightly derivative as alleged, but still good.

[Guest Acidhive]

Change here... I've listened to it more often now, and I'm starting to dig this

more and more! And I can listen to this for more songs now without getting

bored. What can I say? It grew on me!! Official 8,5/10 now! Buy it while you

can!!

[Jon Cocco]

RASTALIENS - FREESTYLE

2002

 

 

 

Track list

 

01. 07'52" Bodyspeaker - B

02. 09'02" Weird Condios - B-

03. 07'39" Grumble - C

04. 08'08" Fitz Fatz - C

05. 07'05" Mission Not Possible - C

06. 08'28" Twister - C

07. 08'29" Fat Flip - C

08. 08'15" Mr Sandman - C+

 

 

I bought this album in 2005 because of the first track, Bodyspeaker. It's such a strong musical psytrance piece. There aren't many layers but that main, sustained tune is so catchy and moody. It's infectious to my ears. It's like everytime I hear this track I go into a different, more relaxed, sublime state and feel because of it.

 

I also enjoy the second track, Weird Condios because of the sounds, melodies used. It is generally more musical and catchy like the first track, but it's leading tune and overall melodies is far less strong and moody.

 

The rest of the album unfortunately is no where up to the opening track.

 

The rest of "Freestyle" is so uninspired, derivative, uninteresting, and mediocre. I know some people find Fitz Fatz a stand out track but that doesn't mean it's great or even good by any means. Fat Flip is another track that sounds out because some different noticeable sounds are employed. Nonetheless I won't give this credit because it sounds different because it is supposed to sound different! The track is uneventful and dull. Most here lack energy. They have this flat, lacking feel to them. It's like the same sounds have been recycled through most of the tracks. There is little to differentiate the general song here and maybe that's because they're so forgettable.

 

The melody in the opening song is what makes it truly stand out. It's a great hook and that really captures my taste. The last song has a more melodic sound but it's nothing worth jumping over. Actually it gets kind of boring as things progress because it's one digital melody sound playing different notes on and off throughout. The change up is supposed to exist. It's necessary! Things that are supposed to happen stand out in this album because so much of it is generic minutes passing by. This is why I cannot recommend it. For example, the Mission Not Possible track has a melody going for it that no other track has. Can you guess what that is? The melody from the Mission Impossible theme song! Around that however they've decided to be as uninteresting and as linear, predictable as possible. Basically they put a hard kickdrum to it and little more. Oh yeah, and they run the theme melody through synths or whatever and skip it. Wow. And that's the high point. I don't know who loved the theme song so much that it was worth doing a psytrance cover on it but okay. They did and it's about as memorable as, well...I had to hear the track again to write this.

 

I do however like the opening track and wish these artists would make or have made more strong and musical, character-filled numbers like those. It's too bad because the album starts off interesting and gradually seems to lose more and more meat and potatoes as it progresses. This is a weak album because it lacks good songs.

 

 

C+

[Sideffect...]

still one of the best, a perfect crossover from melodic psychedelic trance to morning fullon,

too bad the mastering didn't turn out right,

for the rest 10/10

[Sawfly]

I rather like this album but as mentioned it does suffer from that "old sound syndrome".. A lot of it sounds dated but the music is pretty good. Brings back memories so I like to put in the background once in a while. 3.5/5

[DoktorG]

Here's what I wrote about Rastaliens' Freestyle on Discogs in 2015: 

"One of the worst covers of any Goa/psytrance lp, but one of the best albums musically. Dark, funky, danceable, fun, heavy, trippy. What's not to like? For what it is worth, this was one of the most popular albums in Goa back in the day. Along with MFG's "The Prophecy", every Chai mama or roadside stall had a pirated copy to sell. Top. ~*~"

What do I think practically a decade later in 2024?

Well, the cover still sucks; I like the dark blue colour scheme, but that's the only redeeming feature. Praying Mantis adorning some kind of underwater scene? Wtf. If it were today I would think it bad AI art. We don't listen to Goa or psytrance for the cover art... 😅 

Speaking of which, I'm listening to my original Balloonia double vinyl now. Decent mastering and pressing job - there is zero surface noise (and I've played this lp plenty) and zero inner groove distortion, or any technical glitches. Well done Balloonia and the press - good job for early noughties, or any era.

Which raises the question of whether it sounds dated. Well, of course it sounds dated! Things sound like what they are made of and how that is played and this era had its musical technologies and its trends, as does every era. So yes, it sounds dated, but in a good way in my opinion. For sure, the mastering could be more dynamic. However, there is no beat matching or autotune as far as I can tell; the music is not marching to a nuclear clock rigid metronome like so many contemporary tunes. There's a certain rhythmic looseness that is necessary for groove. There's some soul peeking through the digits. Also, it doesn't have that super-glossy sound in the mids and treble, a shiny sound I have come to dislike. In other words, this album sounds good to me. Highs could be a touch brighter and more dynamic, but I dig the slightly darker sound that goes with these tunes, which are early slightly dark psytrance.

And what tunes... The immediately noticeable musical thing is that there are funky basslines on this album. Just listen to the bassline on "Bodyspeaker", or the walking bass on "Grumble", or the tuneful bass on "Mr Sandman". These are instantly recognisable, memorable basslines, much more inventive than the predictable galloping horse bassline of psytrance today. The way the tempo of the bassline in "Grumble" is used to build up to climaxes is masterful. If you heard these basslines on a big system, you would be twitching that ass involuntarily. Melodically you won't find any Goa fractals and Rastaliens definitely could be more inventive - the glockenspiel melody in "Fitz Fatz", for instance, seems to be cribbed from Infected Mushroom's "None of This is Real", which came out just 2 years before. Generally I think that this album owes a lot to Classical Mushroom. But while this is not Simon Posford with his melodic creativity, there are plenty of interesting melodic moments on Freestyle. My personal favourite must be the longest track on the album "Weird Condios" (9.02). The melodic line takes its sweet time to develop into a heavier and heavier and darker and darker trip that goes on and on, just how I like it. Wonderful! Overall, I would say that there could be more variation in this album; it is pretty much like they just made the same track over and over. Nevertheless, with familiarity the individuality of each track reveals itself. 

Finally, one of the things I know about this album over the years is that it has high replay value; once I'm into it I just want to hear it over and over. That's not a minor thing. 

So thanks to Sawfly for reminding me to listen to Rastaliens' Freestyle again. As you can probably tell, I think this is album is a classic of sorts - one of the few good early psytrance albums to come along after the many awesome albums of Goa. Maybe a minor classic, but a classic nevertheless. ~*~