Infected Mushroom - Vicious Delicious

[Goa Bill]

Infected Mushroom for me are the Psy Trance equivalent of the Hollywood duo from the 80's and the 90's Don Simpson & Jerry Bruckheimer. They both seem to suffer some sort of an artistic megalomania, each in their field. For Bruckheimer & Simpson it showed up in their trademarked "let's blow as many cars/planes/space shuttles as possible, depict the craziest stunts and let's see if the crowd would love it regardless absolute lack of a plot or coherency" agenda. The dynamic Israeli duo's agenda is "let's put 300 hundred effects on Duvdev's vocal, pitch up everything and put some ridiculous hair metal riff behind and let's pray that the stupid American crowd will like it and vote for them on MTV TRL". Simpson's and Bruckheimer's dogma came into perfection in their 98 Armageddon movie. Although Simpson didn't participate in the making cause he died from drug addiction but his hot headed partner finished what must be their best work ever. A movie with absolutely no logic, sensitivity or plot but with lots of explosions and cult appearances by Peter Stormare and Steve Buscemi. It was their best and worst movie. Such work is IM's recent album. It has absolutely no plot, no story and zero sensitivity. What it has is Hollywood quality production that can make BT squeeze an embarrassed smile. It seems that the race on how much abuse Duvdev's vocal chords can take has finally reached the top mark. But where Armageddon succeeded this one fails. It doesn't deliver entertainment. It's not good in being bad. It's just an extremely well conceived product who's target market is yet to be found. It's a candy with a strange taste. The last time I've had the same feeling about an album was with BT's "Emotional Technology" album. The only difference between the 2 is that Duvdev is not on the cover with an Armani suit. And that's good.

 

Final mark: 10/10 for the production and for the crazy ideas. 0/10 for everything else. If you got any brains in your head you'll go for something with more sensibility and plot cause not everything that shines is gold.

[healium]

Pavel - I enjoyed reading your review in terms of the writing itself... However, the tracks on this album are very different from each other - how can you generalize the whole album in that 0/10 or 10/10 way? It seems you're making a comment on their style in general rather than really examining the seperate tracks...

 

I agree that IM has developed a completely obnoxious style in recent years, but some of their tracks have been superb - "Streched" from "IM the Supervisor" comes to mind... It's hit or miss, you have to rate each track on it's own merit I think... Some albums are more congruent, where all the tracks are in the same format, and it's easier to comment on the whole album, but not with this one...

 

Also, what are "plot" and "sensitivity" as you use the terms?

 

An unrelated question - isn't most psytrance way ahead of mainstream or "Hollywood" electronica in terms of production quality? I remember listening to one of the Okenfold albums on headphones once after I graduated to psytrance and the production was all flat, no sound panning or wicked sonic manipulation like you get with good psytrance producers...

 

Would you say IM's production is any better than other top producers like X-Dream, KoxBox, Simon Posford, etc? If so, how is it different or better?

[advance]

Well, it's a dirty job but someone's got to do it...

 

Infected Mushroom - Vicious Delicious

 

BNE / YoYo 2007, (YoYo 078)

 

Track listing:

 

01. 07'20" Becoming Insane

02. 04'28" Artillery

03. 07'25" Vicious Delicious

04. 08'41" Heavyweight

05. 06'11" Suliman

06. 03'20" Forgive Me

07. 06'53" Special Place

08. 04'29" In Front Of Me

09. 06'31" Eat It Raw

10. 07'44" Change The Formality

11. 06'57" Before

 

Introduction:

 

Infected Mushroom need no introduction to the psytrance scene crowd.

Erez Aizen and Amit "Duvdev" Duvdevani have created some of the most

loved psytrance music since the end of the the last century. With some

genre defining tracks such as Psycho, Bust A Move, and Dancing With

Kadafi, their place in the history of psytrance is guaranteed.

 

Four years ago, Infected Mushroom begun undergoing a metamorphosis

that is still undergoing today. The album released that year, Converting

Vegetarians, was (retrospectively) a first step towards the "new" Infected

Mushroom sound. Tracks such as I Wish were the first sign of their new

direction - toward mass popularity. It seems Infected Mushroom got tired

of writing music primarily geared towards the small, rather underground

scene of psytrance and decided to target their music at bigger crowds.

Many members of the psytrance scene disliked this move, but it did give

Infected Mushroom their first taste of mass popularity and they sure

seemed to like it.

 

Two years later, Infected Mushroom released the much disputed IM the

Supervisor. This album contained some tracks which are very

mainstream oriented, with heavy emphasis on Duvdev's vocoded vocals:

the title track and Cities of the Future with Muse Breaks being affected to

a lesser extent. Very mixed reactions were seen in the months after the

release of this album, as members of the psytrance scene were mostly

disappointed, while the album was adored by the masses. Even if it did

contain some highly loved psytrance tracks such as Meduzze, Bombat

and Stretched - the album was mostly looked at with contempt by the

most hardcore of psytrancers, as a "sold out" non-psytrance album.

It was still reviewed on this forum.

 

And now, we've come to the next chapter of Infected Mushroom's journey.

Vicious Delicious will be released on March 26 and I managed to get an

early copy, which I will review today.

 

Review:

 

1. Becoming Insane

This is without a doubt the signature track of this album. It will be played

around the globe in many dance clubs and parties, and it is quite a

dancefloor stomper. It begins with spanish guitars playing the soon to be

very well known tune of this track, and a small build up gives us more

of Duvdev's "lovable" vocals. I don't seem to get why he keeps insisting

on singing, when he clearly does a bad job at it. The tracks continues

into a nice Infected Mushroom multi-layered track, with typical arpeggios,

a few nutty synth pieces and a sound very similiar to IM the Supervisor's

tracks. Around 03:20 we get to hear the spanish guitars again, and now

we get to listen to a guest singer on this album: Gil Cerezo, lead singer of

the Mexican band Kinky does have a nice voice, at least at the higher

pitched parts, but then we get more of Duvdev and then some low level

"Insane... insane... insane... insane, insane... am bi da bi..." chants.

Just weird. Still, the build up near the end, with the electric guitars

storming in are quite energetic and I have no doubt the dancefloors will

go insane around this part. This track is Infected Mushroom's equivalent

to Juno Reactor's Pistolero.

6.5/10

 

2. Artillery

It starts with really silly electric guitars, a drum machine and some rapper

(credited as Infected Members, probably the hip hop group Swollen

Members) going "Ah", "Hmmm", "Tshhh", "It's like...", "Yeah", "uh huhh".

What the hell? The rapper is fairly tolerable, but he dominates the entire

song until around 01:45 when (I think) Duvdev starts singing in a

non-vocoded voice. It actually sounds rather okay. Melodic, not ear

piercing. The rapper continues, these parts of the song are very

monotonic - except for some interesting orchestral sounds underneath it

all. Around 03:11 the song "errupts", with Duvdev (back with his favourite

vocoder) singing and giving beat ("rat a tat a tat rat a tat a tat"). This part

sounds very System of a Downish, and the song ends with another

Duvdev non-vocoded solo. This track... nay, song, is so Linkin Parkish,

so "emo rap" or whatever you might call it. It is not psytrance, not even

close. Definitely a song for the radio.

5/10

 

3. Vicious Delicious

Ah yes, this is the first track on this album where we get to listen to

Infected Mushroom actually performing a psytrance track and not

something completely different. It starts with souds that remind of me

of old Arcade machine, sort of stretched razorsaw sounds. A nice speedy

melody kicks in soon after, a few layers of beat, and then we get a

melodic change that reminds me of IM circa-2000. Rather funny sound

samples ("aaaah BOOOM!!! yeahhhhhhh") kick in, and it is rather silly

fun. The track keeps on building up, and then we get the speedy melody

once more, with added percussions - and it builds up and builds up, with

the typical hills and valleys of tension. This is just a great piece of music.

Tribal guitars (or something like it) come in, the "BOOOOM" samples

return, a big melodic build up commences, and you can't help but smile,

move around, and such a lovely, airy, happy melody enters - and it builds

and builds and builds and buildssss.... joyous! We continue into a more

full-onish groove, with typical Infected Mushroom sounds interwined.

The track ends in rather epic sounds, with a high pitched chanting.

What a lovely track!

8.5/10

 

4. Heavyweight

And we though Vicious Delicious was great. We start with hammers

pounding, a drum-n-base beat starts, and more tribal chanting begins,

something distinctly tribal, but just so odd. Lovely guitars join in, and

we're greeted to a nature flight, over the desert, the forests, lovely.

Some variant of an oriental strings instruments joins in with a nice

harmonic melody, the guitars changes to assist it in making us smile,

and good God - this is what Infected Mushroom are all about! This is why

we loved them in the first place, this is so beautiful! A female singer, or

is it some sort of high pitched instrument? I'm not even sure, joins in.

Lovely. Around 03:14 we get to hear some odd vocals, that remind me of

Shpongle's vocal games. The track changes, and we're in a medieval

mood, with a squinchy high pitched sound dictating the melody, and

then we're transported into heavenly sounds, sort of reminiscent of

Nobuo Uematsu's Final Fantasy sound tracks - with electric guitars

entering and lifting everything even higher. The guitars move to a very

metalish solo, and then we're treated to a rather lullabyish piece of

music, chilled out, slow, cold - until the guitars return. So many different

styles in one track! Amazing! This is this album's Dancing With Kadafi.

It becomes silly around 07:45 with Indian "aaaahh" chants, and you

can't help but laugh. This is so cheesy it is beyond cheesy and is just

hillarious, maybe even a bit suomisaundi. Infected Mushroom can

still write the tracks we love them for, and thank god for that.

9.5/10

 

5. Suliman

This track, like Becoming Insane, will be a good dancefloor stomper.

It has a very arabic sound, interwined with heavy metal guitars, quite

a bit of distortion and interesting samples - like some sort of xylophone

instrument and a razorsaw sound. The lovely melody around 03:02 is

very memorable and likable, but the track in its entirety is a bit cheesy.

We get a guitar solo at 03:45, which eventually errupts into a guitar

storm that will no doubt be a favourite of crows all over the globe this

year.

6/10

 

6. Forgive Me

This has to be the weirdest track on this album. It sounds as if it

could've been on CD2 of Converting Vegetarians. With a rather quirky,

strange melody and samples used, even Duvdev's vocoded vocals

are somewhat likable. This sort of reminds me of Cher's last attempt

at pop stardom, even if it does have Aizen's magic melodic touch.

This would definitely shine with Michelle Adamson performing the

vocals, sort of like Blink or Illuminaughty. As it is, it feels like a miss.

5.5/10

 

7. Special Place

A nice introduction greets us into this song, and humming with it is

quite immediate. Nothing spectacular about the first 2 minutes, but

it is fairly standard issue Infected Mushroom psytrance - which is

well produced, ineresting and varied. Around 02:30 the track shifts

to a rather Goa style, which is done great, but 30 seconds later

we're already in a down-tempo build up, sort of reminiscent of Beauty

and the Beat, which eventually leads us into a groovy part of the

track, which is spoiled a bit by Duvdev's vocals. Still, of all the tracks

on this album, his vocals are best here. A part that is very clearly

inspired by the feel System of a Down starts, and it a classic guitar

assists in giving a very nice melodic feel, until an entirely

unneccesary and cheesy vocoded low-pitched rapper voice enters,

slowly becoming higher-pitched. Damn it, this is just wrong - such

a lovely track ruined. At least the song ends with the more beautiful

parts of the track.

7/10

 

8. In Front Of Me

The last song on the album, it is all psytrance from here on. The

Infected Member rapper begins rapping, with weepy-teary

depressed lyrics which are very badly written. It seems as if

someone translated the lyrics from Hebrew and somehow lost

the meaning of the original. This song is very Linkin Park, and even

if it is beautifully melodic - like almost every track Infected

Mushroom have ever released - it simply is not well done. Too bad.

6/10

 

9. Eat It Raw

A weird, goofy track - it sounds a bit off-key at times, but that seems

to be the intention of the Infected Mushrooms guys. A stomping bass

line begins, and we're greeted to a more old-fashioned Infected

Mushroom sound. This track wouldn't be out of place in their older

albums, that is - until the electric guitar joins and then we're up for

something very different indeed. At 01:45 an interesting rhythmic

sample, I'm not sure what it is, joins in - and at 02:10 the electric

guitar takes the front of the stage, a-la Suliman. A very melodic part

ensues soon after, and another typical lovely Infected Mushroom

build-up which just makes you want to dance around in a circle,

feeling like jolly gnomes, until it turns simply evil, and you've

become a horrible night dweller - and when it errupts it sure is nasty!

A lovely, well done full-onish part with high-pitched sounds and plenty

of original sounds begins, and then it breaks down to a down-tempo

chapel organ sort of sound.. it ends on the same note it started.

Tasty!

8/10

 

10. Change The Formality

Well known Infected Mushroom synths launch this track on it way,

with a swampish sort of feel, a bit video gameish, a bit machine-

danceish. Metallic as hell, and very goofy too. A xylophone sound

soon joins in, and is lovingly well embraced - even the electric

guitars that obviously were waiting for their que are well done.

Nice track! The track continues with odd laserish sounds, very

nice rhythms and finally into chimes which make you wonder where

this could possibly go next - and we soon discover that into happy

vocals land. This is actually very nice, except maybe for the Israeli

accent Lovely melody, if rather odd lyrics, but I actually like it.

This is a nice interlude, after which we get a trippy, energetic buildup,

which I can imagine would freak people out on the dancefloor.

Awesome! Beautiful melody, heart wrenching beats, this is just great.

8/10

 

11. Before

Speaking of weird sounds, this starts with something that reminds me

of... I'm not even sure of what. A washing machine? A nice floating

melody is played underneath, and then we're treated to an epic build

that comes to a totally strange insect-like part. What a weird track.

Still, the melody is beautiful, the samples well done, and you are so

busy enjoying the track you aren't ready for the sudden change at

02:20. A bit of progressive trance sound, a bit of old-style Infected

Mushroom, even a bit of Goa - this is a very special part, in my

opinion. At 04:14 we get a feel of where we're going next, with a very

very beautiful, even Jaia'ish melody - this is just perfect! Rain drops

join the melody, and during its last minute the track just lapses into

insanely Goaish melodies, which just launch you into a domain of

utter happiness. What a great ending to the album!

8.5/10

 

Final words:

 

Infected Mushroom's new album is quite a mixed bag. It contains

some simply fantastic tracks, which will be classics of the

psytrance scene without a doubt - Heavyweight primarily, but also

Before and Vicious Delicious. It also contains some cheesy if very

dancefloor'ish tracks - Becoming Insane, Suliman, Change The

Formality, Eat It Raw - some of which are quite good. And, sadly,

it also contains some badly done (or well done - time will tell)

attempts to create a new genre, which I am forced to call nu-trance

following recent years outburst of nu-metal (Linkin Park being the

most prominent example of that genre).

 

Infected Mushroom fans should defintely check the album out, if

only for the few very well done tracks. Hardcore psytrancers can

probably skip it. It is not as plastic as IM the Supervisor, but it is

very experimental, goofy, and a bit over the top at times.

 

Overall: 79/100

 

Favourites: 3 (!), 4 (!!), 9, 10, 11 (!)

[Goa Bill]

Pavel - I enjoyed reading your review in terms of the writing itself... However, the tracks on this album are very different from each other - how can you generalize the whole album in that 0/10 or 10/10 way? It seems you're making a comment on their style in general rather than really examining the seperate tracks...

 

I agree that IM has developed a completely obnoxious style in recent years, but some of their tracks have been superb - "Streched" from "IM the Supervisor" comes to mind... It's hit or miss, you have to rate each track on it's own merit I think... Some albums are more congruent, where all the tracks are in the same format, and it's easier to comment on the whole album, but not with this one...

 

Also, what are "plot" and "sensitivity" as you use the terms?

 

An unrelated question - isn't most psytrance way ahead of mainstream or "Hollywood" electronica in terms of production quality? I remember listening to one of the Okenfold albums on headphones once after I graduated to psytrance and the production was all flat, no sound panning or wicked sonic manipulation like you get with good psytrance producers...

 

Would you say IM's production is any better than other top producers like X-Dream, KoxBox, Simon Posford, etc? If so, how is it different or better?

Many questions here...

I'll try to answer a few.

I am a bit tired myself from reading and writing track by track reviews so i prefer to address to albums as a whole rather a collection of tracks. That is what an artist album for me. This album here is just a bunch of tracks they have written in the last few years. They don't have really a connection and they just come and go. Like a radio rather than a live/dj set, which is very important to me in Electronic albums. Don't agree with you regarding mainstream against psy trance production. To me most of mainstream productions sound much clearer and well produced but boring when comparing to the Goa and Psy trance albums that i've grown to like.

Plot is the message of the album and the story. Can't find any of it here. As opposed to Classical Mushroom and BPEmpire that had it. Sensitivity is when you don't attack the listener from the first second with hammers in the head but develop the tune. They were doing it to some extent before and now it's a climax after a climax. The best example for sensitivity in their previous works are Symphonatic, Bust a Move and Roll a Giant. Nothing of these is felt through this album

IMHO

[Jon Cocco]

INFECTED MUSHROOM - VICIOUS DELICIOUS

2007

BNE RECORDS

 

 

 

Track list:

 

01. 07'20" Becoming Insane

02. 04'28" Artillery

03. 07'25" Vicious Delicious

04. 08'41" Heavyweight

05. 06'11" Suliman

06. 03'20" Forgive Me

07. 06'53" Special Place

08. 04'29" In Front Of Me

09. 06'31" Eat It Raw

10. 07'44" Change The Formality

11. 06'57" Before

 

 

Vicious Delicious is the 6th main album by Infected Mushroom. I was initially expecting to hate this but it's not a bad album. Be open-minded guys! You can't look at this for psytrance alone or you'll be disapppointed. IM is trying different things while occasionally flexing their impressive music, mixing skills.

 

During many tracks these artists are skating on edge of what actually defines psytrance. There is more singing here than on previous albums. IM is conditioning fans and listeners to get used to the singing since each main album has more singing on it. For psytrancers fortunately, there are some gems to dig out of the rough. Don't be so quick to judge and hate.

 

Some songs are average, disappointing. On the other hand more than a handful are good, great.

 

IM's first three main albums are classics. I was listening to B.P.Empire the other day; I was blown away compared to this (and the last two trance albums) but whatever. They are clearly trying to appeal to EVERYONE as best they "think" they can and it is having a ripple meets snowball effect. The good news (for them) is that more people world-wide will become aware of psytrance. The bad news is many other groups will follow this singing/lyrics thing which renders those consistent awesome moods, being tranced, and having adventures of all types useless.

 

IM is so musically talented. I know many psytrancers will be disappointed with this release, as I am. But if you want to here Classical Mushroom or B.P.Empire go listen to those albums. It will be interesting to see how Vicious Delicious compares to 2004's "IM the Supervisor", which fans and listeners will be most comparing. It's strange hearing these guys sound like Linkin Park on track 2 because they're usually the group everyone seems to be copying, not the other way around. IMO tracks 2 and 6 don't flow with the rest of the album but they do add an nice little variety. Track 2 would sound good on a Linkin Park, POD, or System of a Down album, but I don't hate it. It's fairly catchy for a rap/rock song although the style and concept is so unoriginal. We've heard stuff like this before. It's called RAP/ROCK... not psytrance, but I'm not going to hate because they pulled it off on one track.

 

 

01. Becoming Insane - B ... This will be fun for the dancefloor. Lyrics are shallow fun.

 

02. Artillery - B- / B ... Not bad for a Linkin Park or P.O.D. song. Those into rap/rock may like this. It's actually good for what is is, not for what it isn't.

 

03. Vicious Delicious - B ... Good drive, buildup, melody work, and climax! This is the first actual psytrance song here without lyrics.

 

04. Heavyweight - B+ ... Great first half, melodies. Good second half but I'm not in love with the last third or so. It's one of the best songs here. Probably the most original piece on the album!

 

05. Suliman - B- ... I like the opening skipping, melodic hymm parts. They're good! The second half is decent. Bring back those melodies and do more with them!

 

06. Forgive Me - C- ... This is not innovation in a good way. Thankfully it's short. Disappointing. Lackluster. Lame.

 

07. Special Place - C ... Get some catchier lyrics, chorus, and voice please! Example: Muse Breaks (Rmx)

 

08. In Front Of Me ... C+ ... One of the better non-psytrance songs with lyrics here. The actual lyrics could use alot of work however; they are depressing, forgettable. This track is already being called an inferior attempt to basically rip-off Linkin Park. The voice overs (multiple vioces singing together) give add a nice touch but far from great. It isn't a bad song per say, but is this Infected Mushroom were listening to or someone else?

 

09. Eat It Raw ... B ... Finally another real lyrics-FREE psytrance song that's good. Nice climax.

 

10. Change The Formality ... B / B+ ... Great song and melodies before and after the singing interruption which distracts from the awesome mood (listener) and structure (sound) developing. I love the thrilling, energy buildup part during the second half or final third. I seriously wish they left out the singing (in the middle) of this one. They need to either go ALL-OUT with lyrics like in the first two tracks OR NOT because tracks like these could have been awesome without them.

 

11. Before ... B / B+ ... Good ending. Wow. I wish they would stick to making solid songs throughout the album like this one and as they once did.

 

 

In conclusion, Vicious Delicious is a hit-and-miss electronica album fused with several lyrics and lyrics-free psytrance songs. Several tracks don't qualify as psytrance and would probably sound better on another album. That would separate the fans for good however and I doubt IM is ready for that. There are some good, great new psytrance songs here. I'm generally not a fan of singing in psytrance but I don't mind the opening track for instance. Becoming Insane is just a silly, energetic, mainstream pumped-up dance song. Don't over analyze it. Heavyweight is arguably the best song on the album and I'd love to see I.M. continue their innovative music with songs like this mixed in with the lyrics free roller coaster psytrance songs as began on previous self-titled song Vicious Delicious here. Tracks like Forgive Me on the other hand almost makes me cringe. The vocals and singing on tracks like Special Place is anything but special. I wish these artists would give their ego a break because outside of having fun, not trying to sing and sound like stars they are ruining their image. These artists should get good female voices and vocals as they did on the Muse Breaks (RMX) song from their previous album. Around half of the songs don't have singing or lyrics here. For those not into lyrics you're about to ride a steep hill througout the middle-third of this album. After that fortunately it's almost sunshine for miles. Vicious Delicious is the most lyrics singing filled I.M. album to date. You decide if it's stronger or weaker than their last controversial 2004 album. I don't think most of us were expecting much after seeing the direction they were heading in 2004. In that sense I was plesently surprised by the several very well done songs here. If you're expecting Classical Mushroom or B.P. Empire part 2, you will be disappointed. Do yourself a favor and DON'T DO THAT. Listen with an open mind and hear the album several times before making a judgement and writing a review. I never said this album was great or even that good!, but there is some very well done tracks and work within this package.

 

 

BEST TRACKS: 3, 4, 9, 10, 11

 

 

B-

 

 

Samples:

 

http://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/yoy/yoy1cd078.html

 

 

 

 

OVERALL INFECTED MUSHROOM ALBUM SCORES

 

 

2004 - IM THE SUPERVISOR ... C+ ... Several good/great songs and several VERY disappointing ones.

 

2003 - CONVERTING VEGETARIANS ... Trance/Other Side ... B- / B: Overall B-

 

2001 - B.P. EMPIRE ... A- ... Great album with some excellent and superb songs.

 

2000 - ClASSICAL MUSHROOM ... A ... A melodic masterpiece.

 

1999 - THE GATHERING ... B+ / A- ... Awesome debut.

[Blaze]

Finally gave it a listen. Well, I won't admit having big expectations from this one. I haven't heard becoming insane and whatever else was available before the album. Here are some observations:

Track 1 (becoming insane) - the guitars reminded me of Kiss' I was made for loving you.

Track 2 (artillery) - starts like Prodigy - Diesel Power then moves into Linkin Park and SOAD territory.

Track 4 (Heavyweight) - very nice, spoiled a bit by the singing (how's that? ). The guitars remind me of a Russian band Sektor Gaza (song - Lirika)

Tracks I've liked - 3, 9 (the singing on this one is not as annoying), 10 and 11 (Very ClassicalMushroom- like, a bit cheesy but that's probably due to the Goa insertion ).

Overall, it's much better than I expected (except for the vocals,some guitars and sounding like someone else in a few songs). It's not really psytrance (or full-on) as we know them.

If you are not afraid of Duvdev singing, definitely give it a listen.

Overall - 6.5/10 (considering 5/10 is an average album).

[advance]

Infected Mushroom for me are the Psy Trance equivalent of the Hollywood duo from the 80's and the 90's Don Simpson & Jerry Bruckheimer. They both seem to suffer some sort of an artistic megalomania, each in their field. For Bruckheimer & Simpson it showed up in their trademarked "let's blow as many cars/planes/space shuttles as possible, depict the craziest stunts and let's see if the crowd would love it regardless absolute lack of a plot or coherency" agenda. The dynamic Israeli duo's agenda is "let's put 300 hundred effects on Duvdev's vocal, pitch up everything and put some ridiculous hair metal riff behind and let's pray that the stupid American crowd will like it and vote for them on MTV TRL". Simpson's and Bruckheimer's dogma came into perfection in their 98 Armageddon movie. Although Simpson didn't participate in the making cause he died from drug addiction but his hot headed partner finished what must be their best work ever. A movie with absolutely no logic, sensitivity or plot but with lots of explosions and cult appearances by Peter Stormare and Steve Buscemi. It was their best and worst movie. Such work is IM's recent album. It has absolutely no plot, no story and zero sensitivity. What it has is Hollywood quality production that can make BT squeeze an embarrassed smile. It seems that the race on how much abuse Duvdev's vocal chords can take has finally reached the top mark. But where Armageddon succeeded this one fails. It doesn't deliver entertainment. It's not good in being bad. It's just an extremely well conceived product who's target market is yet to be found. It's a candy with a strange taste. The last time I've had the same feeling about an album was with BT's "Emotional Technology" album. The only difference between the 2 is that Duvdev is not on the cover with an Armani suit. And that's good.

 

Final mark: 10/10 for the production and for the crazy ideas. 0/10 for everything else. If you got any brains in your head you'll go for something with more sensibility and plot cause not everything that shines is gold.

Did you even listen to the album? Like I said in my review, it is quite a mixed bag.

Yes, some of the tracks are indeed what you said - an extremely wellconceived product who's target market is yet to be found (nu-trance fans ). Others, like Heavyweight, are great and lovable psytrance.

 

I don't get your review, what does "plot" even mean? I have read what you said, that Classical Mushroom has a plot... come on! It is a mix of different tracks. Hell, if anything - this album has way more "plot" than Classical Mushroom. It has a goal, a purpose - to break mainstream. The tracks are similiar and in one context.

 

Your "plot" concept is misguided. You want plot? Get Principle of Flight's album Nighttime Lullabies. Now THAT has plot.

 

By the way, I don't know what your point is with BT's example. I haven't heard Emotional Technology, but even if it is a product as you claim it is - BT did release the wonderful This Binary Universe last year. Just like Infected Mushroom can be hailed for their initial efforts at producing quality psytrance, so can BT for producing beautiful IDM (or whatever This Binary Universe is).

[kicha]

After watching Becoming Insane on Youtube i waited for a complete disaster. But the album's not that bad actually (except Artillery which is a very much disappointing piece of... music )

However, there are some nice psytrance tracks and Heavyweight is just brilliant, my favorite for sure!

 

So the album is at least worth listening to

[frozen dream]

ok for the love of god, i'll try to do my part

 

for me the whole psytrance thing started with their 'the gathering' back in 1998 (i discovered it myself in 2001, wich got me eventually into dj'ing and producing that same year) still today i consider the gathering to be my 'holy bible' of psytrance and genres alike, like the hard core i followed it very closely untill bp empire but with converting veggies i had to rethink it, still after some time i really digged it, mostly the other side and most of the track on the trance side. I guess mainly because i loved them so much for making the three previous albums, my subconscious self still wanted to adapt

Im the supervisor was like the deathstab for me since their old style had completely morphed into something more weirder and more commercial(seems the only word for it) than anything before. still again after a while i really got into tracks like meduzz and even im the supervisor, but still disliking some elements as duvdev's singing (though sometimes it works quirkishly intruiging).

now with this album i sensed small elements coming back from past lore. for instance the vicious delicious track i like very much as wel as eat it raw, i like it very mad and ravy and made me think for an instant of certain elements of the gathering tracks. in a way its not bad they have kept on evolving to what style they have today, a style which is broader and weirder than anything else on the market today, which i am certain of that that was their key to succes in the first place. they said it themselves 'we wanted to keep evolving our style to be able to play music for an ever expanding crowd' be it commercial or not, they live in hollywood, they can write music for movies and things alike, they just did what they wanted to do in the first place, make big money with the things they liked to do.

 

and they did it.

 

my quote : 6/10

TG 9.5/10

CM 9/10

BPE 9.3/10

CV 7/10

IMTS 6/10

 

edit: i also agree on the plot issue, this album has no plot, not that its needed, none of their albums had a clear plot i think (maybe the gathering and bp empire a bit)

its indeed quite a mix bag as usual and only adds up to its intruiging factor

 

edit2: and, all said and done, after making TG CM and BPE, they could even start making poptrance GMS-style with fluffy barbies singing in it, they would still be the kings of psytrance for me

[healium]

About sound production - can Pavel or anyone explain to me how commercial Hollywood type releases have better production than most Psytrance? Can someone point me to an album that demonstrates this?

 

I listened to parts of the new Madonna album, Paul Okenfold "Perfecto Presents Another World", and Crystal Method "Tweekend" on my Sennheisers this morning and thought the sound production was way less exciting than most psytrance...

 

The Crystal Method album was pretty good, had some panning and such, but Madonna and Okenfold did almost none of that....

 

Compare releases like that to X-Dream "Radio", Hux Flux "Crytic Crunch", Kox Box "Dragon Tales" etc in terms of production, how can you say commercial releases are better? I totally don't get it...

[yossi126]

I Like your approach on this album guys.

as a MUSIC album it is great, some fine tracks that make you wonder "what if".

"what if" they'd make psytrance, oh man Change The Formality, VD, Heavywight, Eat it Raw

all of them are amazing.

 

7.5/10

 

shitty Artillery and In Front Of Me....

[travbrad1001]

Wow...it's just as horrible as I expected, perhaps even worse. Every song here is ridiculously cheesy. The "best" song is heavyweight, but even that is pretty cheesy and not worth listening to a 2nd time... It's not that it's bad for psytrance, I like all different kinds of music, and this music just plain sucks. Boring, uninspired, predictable, and cheesy is the only way to describe it really.

 

Just my 2 cents...your mileage may vary.

[The Psychologist]

Wow...it's just as horrible as I expected, perhaps even worse. Every song here is ridiculously cheesy. The "best" song is heavyweight, but even that is pretty cheesy and not worth listening to a 2nd time... It's not that it's bad for psytrance, I like all different kinds of music, and this music just plain sucks. Boring, uninspired, predictable, and cheesy is the only way to describe it really.

 

Just my 2 cents...your mileage may vary.

Good summary. It is even worse than I had expected. Cliche builds, horrid vocals, annoying lyrics, and just too much cheese for even the greediest of rats. Also, is it just me or is the album quite loud? That would make it an even more genuine pop music article, as so many modern albums have their volume jacked up to compete for mindshare on the radio.

 

I'm sorry to say this, but fuck off, IM. I have been a huge defender of yours through every mutation - No more. I have no tolerance for artists who have the skill to make genuinely unique and meaningful music, and instead choose to play to the lowest common denominator and contribute to the ever-dropping IQ of humankind. Go back to your doubtlessly expensive studio hole and remember the meaning of integrity.

[euchkuh]

nice album, but won't age well.

couldn't find any psytrance elements, except for eat it raw and heavyweight, but 2 tracks can't sustain an album.

I loved forgive me and in front of me a lot, but those songs fits an electronic band and not a psy duo.

[Shaft]

Can we please stick to REVIEWING the album?

[TheCreamFilling]

I'm not surprised by the negative responses to this album. I'm not a new IM fan. I've been listening to them since their first album, and have loved each of their releases ever since. That being said, I LOVE their newest album, Vicious Delicious, although I'm surprised so many people hate the track "Artillery". That track is my 2nd favorite on the album (the first being Heavyweight).

[abasio]

 

Well there was a big question mark hanging over this one wasn't there? Everyone knew it was going to be absolute shite becasue infected mushroom want to actually make some money so have tried to become mainstream. making music for people who might actually buy it instead of downloading it even if they love it. Fair enough I think.

I just have a few questions about this release.

 

Is it Psy? No

Does it have psy influences? Some

Does it have guitars? Yes

Are the guitars done well? Yes (mostly)

Does it have vocals? Yes

Are they shite? A lot of them, yes

Do they ruin tracks? yes

Is it cheesy? Hell yes

Is it fun? Quite

Is this enjoyable cheese made well? Yes

Are you going to like if you are a psy/goa/oldschool purist? No

Will you like it you have an open mind? Maybe

Is it for everyone? No way

Abasio, do you like it? Yeah, it's okay

 

Tracklist

 

1 Becoming Insane (7:20)

2 Artillery (4:28)

3 Vicious Delicious (7:24)

4 Heavy Weight (8:41)

5 Suliman (6:10)

6 Forgive Me (3:29)

7 Special Place (6:53)

8 In Front Of Me (4:28)

9 Eat It Raw (6:30)

10 Change The Formality (7:44)

11 Before (6:57)

 

 

1. Becoming Insane

 

Spanish Guitars, electric guitars, dodgy vocals but it all seems to work well together. It feels summery like at a beach party surrounded by bikini clad beauties shaking there thing!!

 

2. Artillery

 

Sounds like it belongs on Converting Vegetarians (CV) The Other Side but I like this more than anything I heard on that CD. It's a cool funky track & I think my favourite so far on this album.

 

3. Vicious Delicious

 

This title track is great! It has melody, pace, energy, psy sounds & an interesting baseline. It's emotional if a little cheesy. It has everything that can make you cringe but it's all done pretty well so sounds kinda good

 

4. Heavyweight

 

Guitars, some weird vocal sample. This track could have been disastrous but it's made well & ended up sounding pretty good. I've heard a lot of people say this is the best on the album but I don't think so. It's okay but I'm afraid it is the start of the decline of this album. Some of the guitars verge on the annoying towards the end of the track

 

5. Suliman

 

Sounds like Infected Mushroom circa BP Empire but not quite as good. Thumping good beat, interesting sounds. Just ok

 

6. Forgive Me

 

Vocoder

Short

CV other side material but not very good

 

7. Special Place

 

Cheesy Cheesy build up!!! Starts trancey & it's okay then does this big long drum roll & drops into this CV Other side style track. It's shite!!! The vocals are bloody awful!

 

8. In Front Of Me

 

More vocals but they fit a lot better into this track. The difference here is that the singer can actually sing quite well. It's not great, it's nothing to do with psy at all, it's very popish but it's okay for what it is. I am just dreading Dudev's cover of this at the festivals.

 

9. Eat it Raw

 

Similar vein to Suliman, sounds a lot like BP Empire just not as good. Drum rolls & break downs make it sound a bit like a cheesy dancefloor killer but it's quite fun

 

10. Change the Formality

 

Starts noisy with no real direction, a nice melody halfway through & a decent beat. The it's ruined by some shit vocals. SHITE!!!

 

11. Before

 

Instantly forgettable but after a few listens it turned out pretty good. Makes you wonder why infected don't have to projects. Stuff like this & mainstream pop!

 

 

 

All in all then this is quite a mixed bag. Some tracks are really good, some are a bit cheesy but quite alright and then 2 tracks are just ruined by shitty shitty shitty vocals. I don't get who finds these vocals to be good but obviously some people do so there they are.

As an album I like it. It makes me smile at times, cringe at times but I think I'll be listening to this a bit this summer!

 

One last point about infected mushroom. There albums always sound better than there live shows. I know we will be seeing some shocking performances on youtube come summer with Dudev being a prick & ruining every track as the crowd goes nuts to his tone deaf stylings

 

I'm not going to complain about selling out becasue if I had talent & the opportunity I definately would. They do not make psy trance any more. I don't know what this style is, it has a lot of different influences & it's probably there own style, they are pioneers maybe Either way, Infected Mushroom have talent, like their style of not it's true. Don't dislike this just because it's not pure Psy! Give it a chance.

 

Favourites 1, 2!, 3

 

Fucking awful tracks 7!!! 10!

[yerg]

I started listening to it... really

 

But i couldn't get it at all...

 

I appreciated all previous Infected albums but this one really stands out for me as the most horrible.

 

This change of direction may be another experiment for IM. Maybe it's temporarily. Maybe forever...

 

Anyway i didn't feel anything - yes it's full of many different noises but it's empty with all that useful content which had their previous albums.

[Chis]

This is great. I get lambasted for saying something vaguely negative for an album, but you guys can hit on IM as much as you like.

 

Well, I'm going to join in anyway. What a come down from Classical Mushroom (lots of melodies in that one guys, it's hailed a classic for a reason) - it doesn't help that this album is... rubbish. Nu-metal + psy ? Christ, if you want cheese, this is it.

 

Actually, "Becoming Insane" starts well as a very melodic psy tune, but when those dumb powerchords come in, and those vocals... ugh. Artillery? Am I now listening to Limp Bizkit or some such rubbish? There are some interesting moments though, Forgive Me starts as a nice funky bigbeat tune but I'm not sure about the vocoded vocals. Special Place is a fairly decent psy piece, Before has some really nice filtered leads, and a great breakdown. But on other psy tracks they're painfully generic, and on the more poppy stuff they just get very cheesy. Yes, cheesy, as in properly, tastelessly bad.

 

One day perhaps the elitists here will learn that melodic doesn't necessarily equal cheese. This album, however, doesn't demonstrate that; head for Classical Mushroom, instead or, hell, why not some Sattel Battle, or SynSUN?.

[abasio]

I was listening to artillery today & I was reminded of The Prodigy's track Diesel Power. Same vein if a little different.

Did everyone slag off the prodigy when they changed their style? Yes probably but what do they care they sold loads more records and got rich

[Chis]

Bigbeat was still fairly new by then. The Prodigy just took it to 11. No dodgy nu-metal style powerchords necessary, as their beats were so monstrously powerful.

[FTP]

After few listen Album seems to be OK and it's better than Supervisor, except becoming Insane...argghhh

 

Songs have nice developments and structure, but sometimes they've got lost to the end. Mix from Hip-Hop to trash metal is quite challenge and they've made it. Album is not boring and sounds pretty cool on the head-phones. Production again ahead of time. Duvdev attempts to singing failed as usual but with the help of CPU it's not that bad.

 

hail to the new era, cause Goa is dead - forever

[Chis]

cause Goa is dead - forever

I beg to differ, even if it is a compilation of old tracks.

[Jon Cocco]

hail to the new era, cause Goa is dead - forever

You mean IM doing Goa is dead forever... (?) Coz I'd sooner agree to that.

 

Goatrance is not dead thanks to our love for Goa. The magic will never die even if it's become so rare and rarely produced anymore. Goatrance has become more special and powerful than ever because to me because it isn't mainstream. In other words, the mainstream attitude makes something over popular and saturating it until there's hardly any if any innovation left, and then they exploit it until people get tired of it, milking it for every penny. Then we get things like Minimal Psy and Full On which can last forever but they're tired and lack innovation even if they do well with general audiances.

 

I'm thankful for Suntrip Records. Goa in my heart will never die. It's the deepest, most intelligent trance ever written to date. We keep it alive even when the entire world is asleep.

 

 

I beg to differ, even if it is a compilation of old tracks.

Thank you distant friend.

[Goa Bill]

hail to the new era, cause Goa is dead - forever

IM killed Goa long time ago with The Gathering, after it was already killed in The Lone Deranger, Cryptic Crunch and The Great Unknown. What's left is just a phantom limb