V/A - Twisted Sessions

[Guest 1400Miles]

V/A - Twisted Sessions

 

 

Artist: Various

Title: Twisted Sessions

Label: Twisted

Date: 2002

 

Track listing:

 

01. Twisted Allstars : Blue Sky On Mars

02. Dickster : Beloved Icecream

03. Tristan : Dark City

04. Prometheus : Snakes And Ladders

05. Yooza : Things To Do

06. Allaby : Spiritually Correct

07. Aphid Moon : Head Candy

08. Trickster : Audio Evangelists

09. Tristan And Dimitri : Monkey Business

10. Alien Project : Silent Running

 

Review:

 

Tristan Cooke opens the Twisted Trilogy of mixalbums with Simon P. and Nick

Barber(Doof) next...sadly the only upcoming releases from this class label

BTW. Mix albums are often a mixed DAT bag but 'Twisted Sessions volume one'

does what mix albums should do; bring some of the dancefloor magic to the lazy

chair. The track selection and style are hardly surprising as Tristan kinda

continues where VA-Unusual Suspects left off...so expect funky sometimes

clubby Full-on sounds...typical modern UK psystyle I would say... The mixing

is pretty fluid for a change as its difficult to decipher where one track ends

and another starts but with Tristan behind the panel we expect nothing less.

All in all a pretty convincing start of the series. Recommended.

[Guest Onyxura]

Another comp-release from twisted here, and this time mixed by mr.Tristan. As

Allways, Twisted brings us the best of quality. I'm really amazed by this

label; they never seem to fail musically, despite their change in image

lately. No bad tracks in here. as 1400 miles said, they continue the theme

from unusual suspects; never change a winning team! Really love the twisted

allstars track. Also the promethus track is great. Alot of his tracks have

been around on comp's forever. When will we see an album, mr. Vaughn? All in

all this album is stomping, kinda hard in it's own way, but never monotonus

and boring like much of the psytrance out there today. Nice melodies

throughout. I'm not really in to mixed albums, though, but in this case it

doesn't spoil to much for me. 7/10 Bom!

[Templar]

Well, I suppose everyone who likes psytrance knows who Tristan Cooke is - a

brilliant musician and a DJ. Since his deiut album "Audiodrome" we haven't

heard much from him - just few tracks here and there. Before we can have the

opportunity to hear his second album dubbed "Substance". Lately Twisted Rec.

gave us a chance to hear Tristan's DJ skills thanks to long awaited Twisted

Sessions series. I have to admit that this has to be one of the best releases

this year in times when plenty of 'unintelligent' music is being released. And

what have we here? A bunch of great atmosphereic tracks blended into a perfect

mix and sprinkled with some Twisted magic on the top - one couldn't ask for

sth' better than this crazy stuff. Tristan, Prometheus, Dick Trevor from the

very famous Green Nuns Of The Revolution, Alien Project... these names say it

all. I won't go into details about the tracks, so as to not to spoil the

element of suprise for the potetial listener. Just to mention about Audio

Evagelists - best track here by far, Prometheus' track - I cannot wait to hear

a full album of this talented artists, ad a rmx of Twisted Allstars - I like

it even better the the oryginal versio from "Uusual Suspects". All in all it's

a great piece of psytrace music, and if you like quality stuff, ad more over

those crazy guys from Twisted that ever let me down on their releases, you'll

love this. I just hope that the upcoming Tw. Sessios vol. 2 & 3 from the acid

magician Doof and sonic manipulator Simon will be as good (or even better) as

this release. Thanks to releases such as this I don't have to worry about

leaving this music under the dust. This is how psytrance should be: full of

imagination, never boring and dull, a bit crazy on the top and rich in fiber

;P. Overall: 9/10

[Guest Antic]

After the wonderful ?Unusual Suspects? compilation I expected miracles from

Twisted crew. So, when I heard about the first of sessions? CD coming out I

decided to buy it immediately. The packaging is kind of commercial-styled, as

I would expect after Doof and Unusual Suspects CDs. The cover is red and it is

some kind of collage made with photos, and the hemisphere in the middle

reminds me of ?ladybird. Well, that?s just me . The back cover has track

titles showed in typically non-psytrance, linear order and some dots spread

all over it. The lamest thing is the inlay ? there isn?t any!!! This really

looks like Simon?s label is trying to reach ?simpler? and less demanding

pop-techno audience? Anyway, let?s go straight to the music. The mix has only

62 minutes, so (as you can see above) some tracks were cut badly. As for

technical side of mix I can only say it?s good ? I heard better ones (where

are you, Mark Allen?!) and much worse. It?s just correct. The first track

(Blue Sky On Mars) is a remix of the track from Unusual Suspects and it?s just

great ? it has the same elements, the same melodies but different bass and

structure. It?s more spacey and atmospheric, more melodic and continuous. The

periodic acid sounds from the original edit are even harder and sharper here -

just what you need on the dancefloor! Then it is Beloved Icecream by Dick

Trevor of Green Nuns. The track is very good, fast with cool building

acid-bass sounds and some crazy vocal samples (I know this voice, but I don?t

know where it?s from ? any help?!?!). Though it sounds more like recent Flying

Rhino stuff, you can almost feel the spirit of The Nuns, so I think it means a

lot! With Tristan?s Dark City we enter the more minimal part of the mix ? this

one is groovy, with typical machine-gun bass sounds and some bottle-sound

samples over it. Then comes the acid sounds and it all starts to make sense.

It?s like Fortean Times (there is even the same sample in the background!) so

I think this is Tristan?s new style. Not bad, but I for one liked Audiodrome?s

sound much more? Prometheus this time offers more experimental track than what

he used to do. There are still his signature high-pass filter little melodies

here and there, but this one is rather about creating a strange atmosphere

with crazy, growling sounds. Great melody in the second part too but it?s just

too f***ing short!!! Can?t wait for his solo album! Next is Manmademan under

his new alias Yooza (User?) with Things To Do. This track sounds like it was

taken from his debut album released two years ago (Lovetechnology). It?s kind

of funky, filled with sampled voices that are rather used as instruments than

as ?texts?, and after a breakdown it sounds like Semsis (those dramatic,

horror movie whistling melodies). Nothing special. Spiritually Correct by

Allaby (who the hell is it ? on CD it says ?written & produced by ?Allaby?,

doh!?) is another great track. Still with machine-gun bass line, but other

softer and more fluid sounds make it a great morning tune. Dreamy pads and

echoed accords build up until they disappear and wonderful acid bass comes in

? it sounds like some 3D Vision crew, especially Bamboo Forest creation,

because it?s very similar to Osmose and Goodwind from Re:evolution 2. Great

groovy track! After this we have Aphid Moon with Head Candy. The first part is

slow and soft, then it all gains some speed but it?s too monotonous. It could

be much better and should be much shorter too. Audio Evangelist are Dick

Trevor and Tristan. This track has Tristan?s groove and periodic, psychedelic

effects combined with Dick?s tweaking abilities. It is simple in structure,

though surprisingly effective and crisp with incredibly sliced acid sequences

and voice samples from Final Fantasy (the movie). Cool as hell. Tristan teams

up this time with Dimitri (and his dat bag and they do some Monkey

Business. For my ears though it sounds like some monkey did the track, and

those two only recorded it. At least the first half of it, until it moves to

some kind of progressive territories. Too bad it?s so late? The last one is

the only non-UK based artist here ? Alien Project with Silent Running from his

forthcoming album on TIP-World. After all those progressive tracks this one

graces us with real melody, though strangely it sounds again like some 3D

Vision stuff to me! It?s good, but unfortunately nothing new though the last

few minutes will undoubtedly kill on the dancefloor. So the whole CD is good,

but I expected much, much more from Twisted. If you waited for new Unusual

Suspects with killer melodies then you won?t find it here, but if you like

groovy, not-melodic-yet-still-far-from-minimal tracks then you should like it.

Because of those FR / 3D Vision influences this sounds at least 2 years old

for me, so if you liked that style back then you should buy it! At that point

I give it 8/10.

[Guest Hoffman]

yeah, here we got something that could be the next re:evolution on Flying

Rhino.. maybe this is because Tristan used to hangaround in their office.

The cover thing i also don't understand with the latest Twisted CD's. please

let Mark Neal paint your covers!!!!

well, well, this cd starts off with an alternative mix of Blue Sky on Mars

mutch cleaner mutch better. After that comes Dickster with a real swinger nice

jumping tune with samples from Ren&Stimpy. Tristans Dark City dont do it for

me.. this techno side of him could be left for something else. And then

Prometheus hits us with something brandnew, nothing like his past tunes.. i

think he has learnt some tricks while working with Simon. Then Yooza comes

with nice vibes a bit hypnotic, yes its good very fresh. Allaby witch is

Mathew Allaby; until now, an quit unknown producer from Manchester.. hope to

hear more from him. Aphid Moon well pretty boring exept for one nice break.

Trickster nice, nice, nice but the samples are cheesy Tristan & Dimitri

comes with a new collaboration.. i would call this fresh. Alien Project does

what he always does and fhinnishes things of quit nicley. Well yeah i like

this alot, Twisted never fails to deliver nice tunes. 8.5/10

[SkeletonMan]

 

Label: Twisted Records

Catalog#: TWSCD18

Country: UK

Released: Jul 2002

 

Tracklisting:

01 Twisted Allstars Blue Sky On Mars (7:09)

02 Dickster Beloved Icecream (5:40)

03 Tristan Dark City (7:02)

04 Prometheus Snakes & Ladders (4:58)

05 Yooza Things To Do (4:36)

06 Allaby Spiritual Correct (5:23)

07 Aphid Moon Head Candy (6:03)

08 Trickster (2) Audio Evangelists (6:10)

09 Tristan & Dimitri Nakov Monkey Business (7:33)

10 Alien Project Silent Running (7:18)

 

Yeah, this is a pretty strong entrance from Tristan. I know him as quality full-on music style dj, but Tristan really is a lot more. On the trip on this compilation Tristan treats us full-on, housey vibes, and a little psychedelia border musica. Pleasently smoothly nice, indeed, and this time around he's mixing it as one long journey. So how are we flying?

 

Well, some strong tracks loom around here. I especially like Dickster's Beloved Icream, Allaby's Spiritually Correct, and Aphid Moon's Head Candy. But You might choose otherwise, cause I hear no fillers or any "let's-get-on-our-first-compilation" material. Were flying in a nice high.

 

Hmm, if I should add one sinister point here, it might be the mixing. This is sub par and maybe Tristan would have done better without. Listen to the mix between track 1 and 2, or 8 and 9, for instance, and you'll know what I mean. On the other hand, if the mixing weren't there, this'd be a different trip ;o)

 

My Monkey Business is your Monkey Business! (edit: That's track 9 for ya and quite appealing ....... )