SpaceDivers!

[psytrancedancer]

Dropout Productions is proud to share their fifth release and first ambient compilation: SpaceDivers.

 

Dropout searched the far reaches of the universe for skilled psy minds and emerged with the best of the best. SpaceDivers is an exploration into the world of psychedelic ambient, composed by twisted psytrance masters: Paraclaw, Grapes of Wrath, Dejan, Alien Mental, Ocelot, Nimba (the Nommos) and others.

 

Grab your moon boots and dive in! Fly through the azure waters, past the stars, planets and celestial bodies, as spacious sound particles echo beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. Floating sounds on a colorful coral of beats, deliver an unexpected diving experience…Get ready to launch.

 

The shuttle lifts off with “Quiet Place” (Master Margaritha) a beautiful, floating ambient trip, followed by the chilly, spacious sounds of “Chill in the Dark” (Paraclaw) and “Sun Jump” (Atriohm).

 

The journey then picks up full throttle (for ambient anyways!) with an extremely psychedelic mental twister “D’em D’aliens” (Grapes of Wrath) and “Foulek” (Dejan), ambient breaks from outer space!

 

You know you have landed as you hear the heavy ambient, IDM masterpiece "Mental Blues” (Alien Mental), followed by “Psychedelic Family” (Ocelot), a groovy, downtempo work of art.

 

The dive journey comes to a close with space drums probing the depths of the Universe in “Space Earth: 2high2drum” (Nimba) and “Exhilariam” (Khusuk vs. Bius) a beautiful, airy, tribal track that lands you back from your SpaceDivers mission safe and sound.

 

Welcome home, psychonauts.

 

...and never forget to breathe…

 

For aural samples visit:

http://www.dropout-productions.com/releaseSpaceDivers.shtml

 

Track Listing:

 

1) Master Margeritha – Quiet Place

2) Paraclaw – Chill in the Dark

3) Atriohm – Sun Jump

4) Grapes of Wrath – D’em D’aliens

5) Dejan – Foulek

6) Alien Mental – Mental Blues

7) Ocelot – Psychedelic Family

8) Nimba – Space Earth: 2High2Drum

9) Khusuk vs. Bius – Exhilariam

 

Mastered by Random @ Chromatone Waveworks, San Francisco

 

Artwork by Gaialau & Daya @ http://www.dreamcatcherstudio.net

 

Distribution By Arabesque: http://arabesque.co.uk

 

Dropout is dedicated to encouraging psychedelic trance and art that

skyrockets dancefloors into full force overdrive. We are located in the core of San Francisco, where uninhibited, psychedelic sound is spiraling beyond the vaporous edges of reality! Our mission is to amplify, strengthen and celebrate psychedelic art in its various manifestations. Our vision embraces healing sound, ecstatic dance, tribal culture, and unifying ancient traditions with new emerging technologies.

 

http://www.dropout-productions.com

 

We are dropping out and weaving psychedelic trance culture throughout planet earth!

 

Contact Info: info@dropout-productions.com

 

Dropout Production Releases:

http://www.dropout-productions.com/releases.shtml

 

Turn On, Tune In, Dropout!

[psytrancedancer]

Check out the review by DeathPosture:

 

http://www.sonic-energy.net/core/content/view/324/2/

 

The come-down…

 

American-slash-Swiss label Dropout Productions is out with their 5th opus – which is also their first downtempo compilation… We’re used to gut-wrenching, hard-hitting hypertrance from these guys, but now they unveil their chilled side… And as you’ll find out, this is anything but regular ambient/chill… More about that later. Let’s find out what the space divers are up to first…

 

Let me take you thru the tracks…

 

#01: Master Margeritha – Quiet Place

Swiss chill-out maestro Moreno Antognini begins the spacedive… At the time of release, his debut album Mastura (Electrik Dream Records/2007) was just around the corner, and this track is pretty much a sampler of his talent… What we get here is mellow, soothing chill-out which borders on both dreamy ambient and percussion-rich downbeat… This is a spacy hybrid show-casing everything I like about Moreno’s style… The shaman samples add a more spiritual and evidently psychedelic touch to the mix. A smooth track that will appeal to most trancers. Lovely!

 

#02: ParaClaw – Chill In The Dark

ParaClaw is a collaboration between Alex Ladyzanskiy (Paranoize) from Israel and Charalambos Pieris (Claw) from Cyprus. They’ve collaborated before (though not as ParaClaw) and I was really impressed with their track on the 2005 Manic Dragon Records compilation Multiple Personalities. Obviously, this track is much less hardcore, but it’s still pretty damn frightening… This is evil, haunting downbeat trance… Rich in IDM-flavour and synth-exploration which ironically is also the biggest set-back of the track… It gets too damn hectic and dark for a while there… I think these guys should stick to producing dancefloor material.

 

#03: Atriohm – Sun Jump

Leonid & Aleksandar Golcev from Macedonia have released a bunch of really sweet upbeat tracks, and their first venture into downbeat on A Magical Journey 2 (Ajana Records/2006) was really excellent – and so is this! This is much more refined than the previous track, and this is a very lush piece of uplifting chill-out with a serrated edge.

 

#04: Grapes Of Wrath – D’em D’Aliens

“I believe that the machine opened up a wormhole, a tunnel through the fabric of space-time. Also known as an Einstein-Rosen bridge. Now because of the laws of general relativity, what I experienced as approximately 18 hours passed instantaneously on Earth. Now isn’t it true that these wormholes you speak of are theoretical predictions. There is no evidence they actually exist, is there? There is no direct evidence, no. Tell me something doctor, why do think theses aliens would go to all this trouble, bring you tens of thousands of light years, and then just send you home without a single shred of proof. They said that’s how it’s been done for billions of years. That’s very deep, doctor. You have no proof, because they didn’t want you to have any. A phenomenon known in psychiatric circles I believe as a self-reinforcing delusion.” It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Danish duo G.O.W. (Jacob Skouborg & Morten Wurtz)… Everything I’ve heard from their hands has been immensely psychedelic – and this downbeat offering is no exception… Dubby, crackling, eerie, fuzzy psy-chill filled with bite… The morphing sounds are cool, the Contact samples are chopped up into oblivion and the old-school melodic pads add to the feel-good level here… Yummy!

 

#05: Dejan – Foulek

Dejan Mihailovic from France has released some real sweet and kinky acid-filled tunes in the past… And kinky is just what this oddball track is… Quirky sounds, unexpected twists, turns and tweaks and a very high concentration of trippy FX… Mix that with a pinch of dub, jazz and avant-garde sampling and you’ve got something close to a description of this lovely track… I dunno what the hell it is, but whatever it is, it works wonders… This is easily the most hypnotic track thus far – and even though it’s pushing the boundaries into plain weirdness, I love it…

 

#06: Alien Mental – Mental Blues

US-based producer Lalith K. Rao is notorious for his über-dark, horror-filled, terror trax… I’ve had a hard time coping with some of his bizarre antics earlier, and judging by this perverse track I’m still not on the same wave-length as him… This bears little resemblance to the rest of the stuff here, and in essence it’s basically a minimal clash of noize and IDM… It’s not bad at all I’m just not sure why we need this kind of music on this compilation. I’m passing on this one.

 

#07: Ocelot – Psychedelic Family

American producer Aaron Peacock is a personal fav’e of mine. His VectorSelector album (Dropout/2005) still ranks high on my cool list and I’ll even forgive his somewhat disappointing Dream Selector (Vertigo/2006) album weighed against Aaron’s mostly cool, trippy output… This track is a dubby excursion into psychedelic downbeat… Gnarly FX, rich percussion and lovely synths in a fine blend – though the track seem to loose its focus for the last couple of minutes. It’s still pretty nice though.

 

#08: Nimba – Space Earth: 2High2Drum

Nimba is American artist Ariane MacAvoy – Goa Gil’s partner in crime and an esteemed member of such legendary acts as Kode IV and The Nommos. What we get here is lush, plush world music with a high concentration of ethno-tribal chill-out…Journey music! Perfect for smoking, tripping and sit-down-trancing… Now this is more like it… Delicious stuff!

 

#09: Khusuk vs. Bius – Exhilariam

Apparently Khusuk and Bius are the same person: Cayung Siagian from Indonesia, a spiritual spokesperson against the destruction of earth through industrialization. Anyway, what we get here is basically a sound collage of digital bits and pieces. Analogue synths, ambient pads, irregular percussion and odd instrumentation… It has appeal, but for the most part its way too avant-garde and unstructured for my taste… But under the right circumstances (and quite possibly, under the right influence) I’m sure this track has potential.

 

It’s not every day you get to listen to an actual space dive. And I gotta hand it to Dropout Productions; this compilation is unlike anything I’ve heard before. It is a VERY mixed collection of all kinds of downbeat music. From downbeat terror to virtually beatless illbient, over soothing chill-out to beautiful ambient… Diversity is cool, but ironically that’s also this compilations biggest flaw. The many changes in style and direction kill every shed of flow potential, and as such it doesn’t really work when you play it from start to finish… And that’s a shame.

 

There are some really great tracks here, but unfortunately also a couple of tracks that seem oddly out of place. Even for a (self-declared) open-minded music freak as myself. With that being said, let me also stress that the great tracks truly are great. And a couple of less-good tracks can’t take that away. So, for home-listening this didn’t cut it for me, but chill-out DJs and single-track-download iPod fans will most definitely find something to their liking here… Enjoy!