Saiko-Pod - Phutures And Options

[Guest DJ Mantrix (djmantrix[at]hotmail]

One of the best albums of the year. Top trance artists. Mature sounds,

especially Groove Moderator and Magnetic Forces (is this a kind of "Samba

Trance"? What the f*** is that?). Man, these tracks are terrific! Saiko Pod

really got their aim. The music of the future... is their music! Rating 10/10.

P.S.: Are they really coming to Brazil in September? Please answer me as soon

as possible. Bye.

[Guest dimitri]

You know, one thing I'm surprised nobody mentions is the way the KoxPod boys

always incorporate elements from their other tracks into the track at hand.

They've been doing this ever since Forever After and it has a way of making

their Tracks all sound very familiar, even though this is different from

anything they've ever released before.

[Guest MG]

Feel the Universe rmx is an example, and on this album go fly a kite's voice is

trimmed and echo'd into a track as well.

[Guest Onyxura]

Pretty cool album, this, with a different approach as allways from the danes.

More clubby feel over the entire thing. Nice blend of different styles as

well. Slower tracks, faster tracks, club-tracks, psytracetracks all blended

together in a very innovative meltingpot. Nice sounds, and this one never gets

boring. Can't imagine what theese crazy danes will do next! cycles are boring,

spirals are fun! Bom! 8/10

[seraph]

New release by Koxbox guys and it is rather nice..I was actually expecting a

bit more considering some very good singles they released before this...But it

is in the end very nice and chillin'...The textures are very good and they are

less psychedelic than usual..There are some not so good songs but the good

ones are : TWO DOTS, SILENT RUNNING, MAGNETIC FORCE, APOLLO, TRON..7/10

[Guest Dr G]

Another brilliant offering from the Koxbox lab. This definitely deserves

highlighting and may be the best album in psytrance in 2002, maybe even the

best album of 2002! Much has been made in the other reviews about this album

involving elements of house, but I'm not sure that I can agree with this.

Undoubtedly, djs have had a tendency to play house-tinged trance this year;

Tristan comes to mind as just one example, and has been very popular in the UK

this summer for doing so. Also this album does have shuffling rhythms as Knut

points out above. However, I think that this is where the resemblences stop

(thank Thor, Odin, Freya, Loki or your favourite Scandinavian god), because

this album is way too psychedelic and trippy for house, it has the short

motifs and details typical of koxbox that you won't find anywhere else, it

also has some of the epic stabbing chords of goa (especially in "Magnetic

Force"), and it doesn't have the same langourous (read "boring") hypnotic vibe

as house. I tested out how genre-evasive this album really was on a friend who

is really fanatically into techno, and he didn't like it, saying it was too

mystical and trippy. His loss! Another praiseworthy element is that this

record seems to work as a whole, it really is an album. A special mention must

be made of "Magnetic Force" - what a track!! Apparently this tune had

"add-ons" from Logic Bomb; I'm not sure what they added, but this is nothing

short of one of the tracks of the year. My only quibble is the "intelligent

trance" label on the album cover - what the *%&$^ does this mean? In fact, the

cover as a whole is not great, apart from the font used in the lettering.

Don't miss this album. 10/10