Guest Blue Spectral Monkey Posted September 28, 2002 Share Posted September 28, 2002 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! 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Guest Hippo Posted September 28, 2002 Share Posted September 28, 2002 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Goagabba Posted September 29, 2002 Share Posted September 29, 2002 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Bioman Posted September 30, 2002 Share Posted September 30, 2002 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LoneDeranger Posted October 1, 2002 Share Posted October 1, 2002 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Monkey Posted October 2, 2002 Share Posted October 2, 2002 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Acidhive Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Basilisk Posted October 10, 2002 Share Posted October 10, 2002 Slightly derivative as alleged, but still good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Acidhive Posted December 21, 2002 Share Posted December 21, 2002 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!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Cocco Posted May 28, 2007 Share Posted May 28, 2007 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+ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sideffect... Posted June 6, 2007 Share Posted June 6, 2007 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 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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