psychedelic_mustache Posted November 10, 2006 Share Posted November 10, 2006 Artists: various Title: Nova Natura 2 Label: Cosmic leaf Catalog: CLCD006 Format: CD Released: 2006 01.Minos - Reconditus Dark drifting ambience greets you as you press play on this disc. Minos opens with a drifting piece of music shifting between epic outrospection and more quiet introspective moments. There is plenty of space involved here, and the track is well balanced. Long synthsweeps couppled with very nicely harmonized melodies makes this blend of sounds sweet as sugar. Great opener! 02. Not Drowning, waving - Cold and the Crackle (Arcane Trickster remix) Not drowning, waving is a band I'm not familiar with, but it seems they operate within the terretories of Avantgarde and post-rock. As far as discogs will tell me they released two albums in the early nineties. This track isn't on any of them, and I obviously can't comment on the original. What I can do, however, is let you know that this remix by Arcane Trickster is an amazing piece of work! This is like an intensely haunting track from the time when trip-hop was at it's finest, merged with elements from dark ambient and a dash of psychedelia. In this mix we have alot of elements, and purists should be warned that they may be turned off....The fuzzy guitars, the violins, the spacey vocals, the piano and the heavy, smokeridden bass blend together in a way you seldom come across in our 'scene'. I for one love this, and for the moment this track is one of my prime tools for sofa-chillage. Worth the money alone, and the best track here! Wonderful! 03. Side Liner vs Will-o'-The wisp - Soul Path Side Liner, or Nick Miamis is the man behind this label and here he teams up with fellow familiar suspect will-o'-the wisp to create 'Soul Path". Things aren't quite as deep here as in the previous track, but we still keep to the bassridden side of the force The track has somewhat of a melancholic feeling, really enjoyable for this time of year. If I were to put my finger on one thing here it would have to be that the rythm-section sometimes (in my ears) clash with the rest of the sounds. Nice track, though! 04: D.Batistatos - Sparclin Coconuts With D.Batistatos we move into the more hypnotic realms of chill. There is some tranceyness involved here at some level, allthough very relaxed, offcourse. The lightter and more gentle melodies play along nice enough with the deep bass. It's a decent track for creating a soundtrack to your surroundings, but lacks somewhat in depth. Ok track... 05: Zero Cult - Blur (Original mix) Zero Cult is one of the usual suspects on the compilations of Cosmic Leaf records. This time he presents a pretty simple piece of dub-muzak. It floats around nicely with plesant melodies and mellow beats. It get's your head nodding, but again, this is not one of the albums stand-out tracks. Then again, it doesnt ruin the flow of the album either. Another fair track! 06. D.Batistatos - Crazy Sick Monkeys Mr. D.Batistatos seems to be a really active guy. This is his second effort here, and he has a debut album comming out on the same label in December. This time the beats are more heavy, the bass is deeper and the effort just works better overall than on his first attempt. The melodies are neat and not to repetitve, but where are the Crazy sick monkeys? Not too psychedelic, but very enjoyable track! 07: Will-O'-The-Wisp - Echoing Melodies We seemlessly float into the next track, 'Echoing melodies' by will-o'-the-wisp. The title is pretty fitting, the basic concept seems to be various echoes of one theme over a melancholic background soundscape. The first coupple of times I heard this track I felt it was kind of boring, bu my GOD has this thing ever grown on me. There is a "gamma goblinesque" feeling over that main melody-line(don't get me wrong here though...I know saying that might be considdered blasphemy...). It's also got a ceirtan nerve and an intensity that seldom to come across... The track is truley beautiful in all it's harmonic simplicity. Great! 08: Kick Bong – Landscape Next up is Kick Bong. This is slightly more up-tempo, and the melancholy is toned down. The beats are a tad more funky than on the bulk of tracks here. It fitts into the compilation somehow, though, but this is a tad to friendly for me. It's like one of those tracks you find by the dusin on compilations that features titles suche as 'baeleric' and the such. Really no favourite of mine, but ok as background music... 09: Side Liner - White Wisdom Side Liner takes matters into his own hands and delivers "White wisdom". This is more techy than the other stuff here. The beat is actually rather pumping and drives this forward in style. The psychedelic elements are present as well. The best thing for me here though, is those driving synthsweeps in the background together with those nifty electronic snippets jumping around on top. BUT...and there is a serious "however" here. Towards the end I find the track rather ruined by some pretty dodgy melodies and the over-extensive use of that awfull pan-flute... 10: Cydelix - Over The Western Lake Cydelix does a bold move here, as he tries to apply the aesthetics of western country music in to the chilled electronica world. Luckilly it seem he is familiar with the art of hinting, and it all works out pretty well. This is another rather upbeat track with focus on the brighter feelings. I'm not saying this is superb or anything, but it works... 11. MLT - The Blue Razzphonica MLT jazzes things up in lounge-style towards the end here. A smooth trumpet, some piano and various other instruments create the backdrop for the very lush sounding beats. It all appears as a tad too polished for my taste, though...don't get me wrong... I appreciate the effort - I'd just like to hear it a tad more dirty and experimental. This might be 'outside the box' on a disc in our little scene, but it would fit right on center-stage in a baccardi breezer-comercial...Presented like this it strikes me as, well, boring. 12. Sunsaria feat Lulea - Life is a Dream To finish of the album we have this little piece...well...ouch! I'm sorry but this is an awfull track. Boring and rather repetitive 4/4 beats with some simple piano-chords. On top of this you add eurovision song-contest-style singing and you've got the basic idea. Really, really not to my liking.. Final Remarks: So what do we have here? Well, the essence of it is that this has turned out to be a really nice compilation! In my ears it's the best thing released on Cosmic Leaf thus far. A few of the tracks here are outstanding, and there are a numer of tracks that are really good! That however does not mean that everything is perfect. Things get a little out of hand towards the end, and I really could do without the last two tracks. That being said, this compilation will be on heavy rotation in my livingroom for a while, and I recomend you try it out as well! Tomas (Psychedelic Mustache) Get it here: Psyshop Saiko Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headbot Posted November 14, 2006 Share Posted November 14, 2006 ===[TESTIMONIALS]==================== "-Nova Natura 2- is one of the best chill out compilations for me this year! Especially track 2 is soo nice! Perfect selection and not even one track which i don't like" // Mikadho @ Chaishop Records // "...On "Nova Natura 2" the digital, hard edged world mesh well with organic sounds. Side Liner knows what he's doing, and his approach is entirely tasteful. He assembled songs from an extraordinary cast that includes: Zero Cult, Kick Bong, Cydelix, D.Batistatos, and himself. Even given the high standard set by some of the Cosmicleaf label's previous compilations, this one is a gem. You'll have to listen. Brilliant..." // Marius-Cristian Burcea @ "Journey to Infinite" RFI Romania Review by Pedro Gaspar aka Juggler (Chaishop/Quark Agency) ======================================= Cosmicleaf give us another compilation, the second one from Nova Natura series, let’s listen. Track 1 from Minos starts in a very relaxed and ambient mood...then the psychedelic atmosphere start to born and take us into some downtempo shamanic ritual, full of percussions and suspense. Track 2 is a remix by Arcane Trickster of the “Cold and the Crackle”, originally made by Not Drowning Waving...here we are projected into a downbeat tempo, very pacific, with some beautiful vocal samples. Track 3 is done by Side Liner and Will-O’-The-Wisp and is a bit more into the psychedelic world...as almost all Side Liner tracks, it has a nice and rhythmic downbeat formula that I really like Track 4 is from D.Batistatos, that is going to release an album very soon...it has a nice and hot ambient atmosphere, with some quiet beats going around. Track 5 is done by Zero Cult and continues in a downbeat tempo with some mellow and cheesy tunes...there is a morning atmosphere very present, beautiful for the start of any morning Track 6 is again by D.Batistatos...here they use a bit more agressive beats, that mixed with the quiet melodies gives the track a spooky but sunny feeling...the only problem is that his tracks are very short in time. Track 7 is another by Will-O’-The-Wisp but this time alone...it has some profound sounds that seems to be all over the place, if you are in a good mood you still, but if you aren’t it don’t brings you to there. Track 8 by Kick Bong is my favourite here...it’s in a downbeat tempo, some vocal samples going in and out, some organic instruments around, very nice production Track 9 by Side Liner is more fast and into the electro zone...it has some digital tunes over there, a very lucid bass line, ideal for finishing the night. Track 10 is done by Cydelix and seems to be a kind of traditional music from some psychedelic country...very rhythmic and danceable, with some bright and happy melodies. Track 11 by MLT take us to some jazzistic downbeat open air concert, makes me reminder a medieval party in a castle in one summer night...the construction is very nice, the only bad thing is that is too short. To finish the compilation comes a track by Sunsaria featuring Lulea...downbeat tempo, mixed with Lulea beautiful voice and with some snares behind...I think the track could be more interesting if we dont listen so many times the title. In general I liked the compilation, it has a lot of different types of sounds into the chillout portal...my favourites here are 1, 3, 5, 8 and 11...a must have 9/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headbot Posted December 14, 2006 Share Posted December 14, 2006 Ambientmusicguide.com review: ====================== Cosmicleaf Records (Greece) has been releasing its polished and highly melodic style of psychedelic-leaning chill for around 4 years now. Volume one in this series lacked the depth of the label's other comps, with some tracks being so sweet they bordered on new age facsimiles of the Cosmicleaf sound. Nova Natura part 2 goes some way towards redressing the balance between pretty surfaces and more ambiguous undertows. Its best tracks are sweeping and colourful and mysterious, and all of them are once again immaculately produced. Label regulars Side Liner and Minos contribute tracks with that same magical sense of unfolding and discovery that defines great progressive club trance, at least in the way the sounds are layered. A surprising remix of Aussie band Not Drowning Waving's along "Cold & The Crackle" by Arcane Trickster is flat-out brilliant. It coaxes out the original's dark ambient qualities with brooding atmospheric drones and a big, slow drum break. Rhythmically the album offers various permutations of dub grooves, electro-breaks and slow doof. Texturally its those intricate, clean and rich futuristic sounds that Cosmicleaf artists do so well. Rating: 4/5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trance2MoveU Posted January 24, 2010 Share Posted January 24, 2010 Perfect music for a rainy day. "Cold and the Crackle" is an awesome opus. Mdk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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