Infected Mushroom - Vicious Delicious

[tamlin]

IMHO...

 

In terms of production quality and skill in applying music theory, it is difficult to get much better than this. For this reason alone, the album is most definitely worth a listen. There are a couple of nice tracks here, though much of it isn't psytrance at all.

 

However, Duvdev should be gagged and confined to a closet or basement.

He can hit the right notes (albeit probably with the help of some hard auto-tuning), so technically i would say he can sing, but why the hell does he have to sound like Cartman trying to do a Metallica-impression?!? If they did it with some self-distance* and some sense of humour (think Tenacious D) it could work, but when they try to be all emo and deep with lyrics about unhappiness and pain, it just feels embarrasingly pretentious to me. It's impossible for me to take the emotional aspects seriously when Duvdev seems to be so enormously in love with the sound of his own voice. I would personally prefer no singing whatsoever, but if you ARE going to sing, then either ditch the attempt at serious and deep lyrics, or ditch the "damn my voice is cool" style of singing. You can't get away with both at the same time!

 

"with artilleryyy, with artilleryyy, rattattattattattattaah"............. *SHUDDER*

 

( * = literal translation from a swedish term, can't find the english word, hope you get the point.. )

[The Psychologist]

Clearly, there is only one answer:

 

Re-release their album as a double CD, first CD is instrumental, second CD is the vocals! Then the people who wish to inflict hearing loss on themselves (and others) can find a way to blend the two CDs together. Plus, that gives terrible DJs some acapella tracks to use when shitting up their sets.

 

It has been the only option since I'm The Supervisor, an album that would have been fairly solid without any vocals.

 

The odd part to me is that they are both classically trained. That means there's NO way they can overlook bad vocals, melodies, whatever. I wonder if they are crying on the inside every time Duvdev launches into a soaring, cacophonous vocal solo?

 

It's like Picasso finishing a good painting and then dropping a big, smelly deuce on the canvas.

[Drew05]

Plus, that gives terrible DJs some acapella tracks to use when shitting up their sets.

hahaha, brilliant!

i agree with your other points too

[yerg]

This album is so BAD that everyone wants to say that

[frosty]

this ablum has lost me as a fan of infected mushroom. after listerning to it i wished id never brought the ablum. i got the single becoming insane and liked what i heard, but then the album came and i was very disapointed. maybe i just expected a killer ablum like "Im a superviser"

[shaman of sound]

before even listening to the album itself.....

 

-5\10 for the album cover.

[FTP]

before even listening to the album itself.....

 

-5\10 for the album cover.

Cover is fucking great

[Jon Cocco]

After few listen Album seems to be OK and it's better than Supervisor,

 

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.

Agreed.

 

 

It has been the only option since I'm The Supervisor, an album that would have been fairly solid without any vocals.

 

It's like Picasso finishing a good painting and then dropping a big, smelly deuce on the canvas.

Yes.

 

Also, with this album, Infected Mushroom further attempted to appeal to the mainstream as expected. The reality is that most people both in and outside the mainstream don't listen to I.M. for tracks like 2, 6, 7, and 8. Those aren't trance or psytrance. I'm not really against the first two tracks for their more mainstream direction: A shallow fun singing opening followed by a pretty solid Rap/Rock track, but WHERE IS the cut off when things aren't good for what they are or just plain bad? Two tracks here (1, 10) are psytrance with lyrics and singing. Fine. Five tracks (3, 4, 6, 9, 11) are psytrance without lyrics. Now I'm glad at least five tracks is what many people prefer but who is Infected Mushroom fooling? What are they accomplishing by putting tracks 6, 7, 8 on here? Non psytrance/chill tracks have arguably never been so out of place as they are here.

 

Their first FOUR main albums by Infected Mushroom flowed. Even the experimental album from "Converting Veg..." felt consistent to what it was. Here it's come down to a compilation of different styles and music. The new stuff is either ripped-off or not good. Those songs are clearly not the selling point so why have them? I'm just curious although I'm not against having one track like this here... Did they think the Rap/Rock song (2, Artillery) would be on the radio so everyone would buy their psytrance album? Many of those people aren't even into psytrance. They don't even know what psytrance is! What genre or how many genre's are they, IM going for? Pick a direction and capitalize on it for heaven sake. Nothing was broken before so only ego's try to fix something not broken. I ENCOURAGE innovation, new ideas, breaking ground, etc... but it has GOT TO BE ATTRACTIVE. It must be good, catchy, and work on the album!

 

When a subject becomes subjective and attempts to be a psytrance pop star the POP people aren't into you and you seriously put cracks in your core psytrance fanbase infilstructure.

 

Infected Mushrooms image is becoming less focused, more tarnished and confusing thanks to this mans attitude and inibility to not include songs like 6, 7, 8.

 

I thought Infected Mushroom was going in the direction of catchy, kickass psytrance (with lyrics and singing) songs combined with NON-lyrics psytrance ones. They accomplished that very clearly for two thirds of this album but THE OTHER THIRD IS WHACKED. Maybe whacked isn't the best word. I'd go as far as to say that tracks 6, 7, and 8 are bitch slapped. Yes bitch slapped. The whole album gets bitch slapped because of these tracks and I didn't slap the bitch. I mean, we didn't ask for this. They forced it upon us by putting these tracks around the good dance and listening psy/psytrance songs which IS WHY WE BUY INFECTED MUSHROOM ALBUMS. (!!!!)

 

The wanting to eat their cake and have it too seldom seemed so plainly obvious to me as it does here.

 

Look, tracks 3, 4, 9, most of 10, and 11 (all of the final track) KICK ASS. They're fun to listen to. This is the direction, Infected Mushroom! Guys! Track 4 is wonderful. It's great. It shows these guys have amazing talent and creativity. They're artists beyond most artists! Make us an awesome, powerful psy/psytrance dance (and listening) masterpiece again! IM can have a track or two like the first tracks here, long as they're GOOD even if it isn't what I favor. Does that make sense? They can even have 3-4 tracks with lyrics or singing if it's GREAT lyrics, voice, and singing. A different voice like a female that actually sounds beautiful, can hit notes, and compliments the track like in Muse Breaks (Rmx), etc.

 

I love the several super-charged buildups and climaxes on this album. I don't care that it isn't original. It works. It's fun! And they don't do that on Heavyweight or Before so they balance it out well. For the love of God these artists NEED to stop trying to appeal to everyone because they're becoming very confusing to identify with, like being stock between an awesome ride and an unfunny clown. Tracks like Heavyweight are great. It may not be as danceable but musically it's the classic IM I love making a new song. It is those songs that should exist on a main album around the less innovative although big dancefloor psytrance stompers, not what we have here. They're depressing me with their sad, falling down lyrics and voice/singing. And is Forgive Me some attempt to win back fans or some personal communincation to with a higher source? I'm glad few people like it but most people I spoke to don't. It stands out of place as a weak sore thumb here.

 

If I could compile their album to their advantage without making them looking so pompous, presumptious, and out of sync, I'd give them their loud opening, fine. It's a success for what it is I believe. Whether IM gets beautiful female vocals or not, they NEED chill off the lyrics outside of having fun in styles like the opening track and focus on what makes them great because they've already innovated. Now it's up to them how they continue to build their structure.

 

This album could have been awesome if the track list was more like this. And Suliman is a cool psytrance track even though it's far from great so no need to over analyze.

 

 

01. 07'20" Becoming Insane

02. ..........Enter awesome psytrance song here OR actually leave this one alone. It isn't bad for what it is.

03. 07'25" Vicious Delicious

04. 08'41" Heavyweight

05. 06'11" Suliman

06. ..........Enter awesome psytrance song as opposed to "Forgive Me" here.

07. ..........Enter awesome psytrance song as opposed to "Special Place" here.

08. ..........Enter awesome psytrance song as oppsed to "In Front of Me" here.

09. 06'31" Eat It Raw

10. 07'44" Change The Formality ... I wish they created omething great without lyrics to replace the middle singing part.

11. 06'57" Before

 

 

Does I.M. read this thread? They should. PSYNEWS is psytrance, trance, dance, etc...listeners from all over the world. There are some very aware people on here too or I wouldn't waste my time posting here after all these years!

[Dajek]

Clearly, there is only one answer:

 

Re-release their album as a double CD, first CD is instrumental, second CD is the vocals! Then the people who wish to inflict hearing loss on themselves (and others) can find a way to blend the two CDs together. Plus, that gives terrible DJs some acapella tracks to use when shitting up their sets.

 

It has been the only option since I'm The Supervisor, an album that would have been fairly solid without any vocals.

 

The odd part to me is that they are both classically trained. That means there's NO way they can overlook bad vocals, melodies, whatever. I wonder if they are crying on the inside every time Duvdev launches into a soaring, cacophonous vocal solo?

 

It's like Picasso finishing a good painting and then dropping a big, smelly deuce on the canvas.

Haha, that hits the spot!

Well said :D:D

[mentat]

for me it all ended with Merlin. from that it got only cheesier and cheesier... wasn't expecting anything else with this album.

[Jake]

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.

Going way off topic - but the Prodigy never played Big Beat - that was a very different sound & scene (Skint etc) - but you're right that they did manage to change their sound/image sucessfully. Although no where near as good as the Prodigy, clearly IM also have a career plan - and judging by their success, and bookings, they are doing well - so the fact that i think its complete derivative rubbish, I'm sure, does not really concern them too much...

 

[Jeff]

Very good detailed descriptions of each track having already been provided by previous reviewers, I'd rather give my overall feeling on this album.

 

Personal background: I have been listening to IM since 1999. Not a huge fan at the time. And then Classical Mushroom popped up. My first reaction was rejection: this was not psytrance according to my holy scriptures (read Pleiadians, Hallucinogen, Koxbox or Astral Projection)! Though I soon became addicted, precisely because they had given up the orthodoxy of the Psy sound (something which should never have appeared, but that is another story). Some said they had sold out. Maybe, maybe not, I couldn't care less anyway. The motivation of IM, or any other bands, for doing their stuff is one thing, the musical appeal of their production to my ear is another. I always saw this new trend as a way of infecting "standard music" with psychedelic elements. For me, it perfectly illustrates the definition of psychedelia, suddenly appearing here and there in a monotonous reality to beautifully twist it. We already had masters (see short list above) producing 100% oniric landscape, science-fiction style if I may say, and then we had a group producing fantastic (to be understood as the literary genre) music, that was refreshing.

 

With Vicious Delicious, I'd say that they have pushed this trend very far. We have Nu-metal guitars, lots of rap-style singing to the great dismay of Psy purists (lyrics in my Psytrance, OMFG, the ultimate blasphemy! ). To some extent, I share the concern of many reviewers above, which I would thus formulate: by dint of navigating at the fringe of non-Psytrance music, didn't they finally cross the boarderline between Psytrance-infected standard music and commercial-infected psytrance? The question arises in my head when I listen to In Front of Me for example. Though this is not the case to me for Artillery that so many seem to loathe. I even take the infamous Duvdev's "tataratata" as a sign of welcome self-derision. If I remember well, before the release of Converting Vegetarians, IM had announced that they would stop producing Psytrance. This heralded mutation has been running for three albums now. In Vicious Delicious, as Jon Cocco pointed out, the amount of tunes located at the fringe of Psytrance now represents about half of the album. On top of that, the only "100% Psy" tracks of the album are rather uninspired IMHO, particularly Eat it Raw.

 

My favorite tracks are thus in their old blending vein:

- Becoming Insane

- Heavy Weight

- Change the Formality

- Before

 

If they continue their mutation toward more and more Metal, I think I will stop following them, as I stopped following Pleiadians with their third opus, because I am not convinced that they can bring anything new to the Nu-Metal genre (and not because they would be "betrayer" to the Psy cause...).

[Ov3rdos3]

Ive given this album a listen now.

 

When you look at as nothing to do with psytrance, but an original peice of work.....it isnt actually half bad.

 

Production is top notch, but there are a few dodgy tunes.

 

8/10? I think thats a fair score. Mainly because it doesnt sound like the generic shit out there. They at least tried to do something different.

 

I like it.

[Mindphilux]

i like this one better then IM The Supervisor... but i guess that isn't saying much because i hated that one. Obviously you can't compare this to their old work or any other trance for that matter... but for what it is, electronic music, its not bad

[mike.54]

I love infected mushroom

[Muerto]

Sorry if I bring up this thread but being an IM whore like myself I just have to share my opinion.

 

I was introduced to IM around 2001-2002. By then, they have realesed 3 albums. I absolutley loved those albums to death.

When Converting Vegetarians was realesed, I loved it, same thing with the Supervisor album.

 

Vicious Delicious. I don't know really, I have mixed feeling about this album. I hate and like it at the same time.

When i first saw the Becoming Insane video on youtube, I wanted to cry, cry and cry, it was so bad.

 

The album itself isn't great or bad.

The album version of Becoming Insane isn't that bad untill they start to sing, from there it's utterly crap.

Artillery, I'm not going to make a comment on this song, I bet you all know what I think about it.

From here, I'm going to make my 'review' short...

Vicious Delicious, Suliman, Before, Eat it Raw and Change the Formality are the songs that I like most on this album, maybe Heavyweight as well.

The rest is just utterly crap and makes me want to dig myself into the ground.

 

Infected Mushroom earlier albums are masterpieces to me, I can't get enough of them yet today but with Vicious Delicious they sunk themselves down to new level.

 

I would give Vicious Delicious 2.5 or 3 of 5 but for being random I give them 2.75 of 5 possible.

 

That's all from me now.

[Darkarbiter]

This album is aweful. Vicous delicous is an excellent track but the rest of the tracks are rather poor. My favourite albums from IM is I'm the Supervisor and B.P. empire. Merlin was alright for the most part. Classical mushroom and Converting vegetarians were more a mix of ok tracks a few great. I really liked I'm the supervisor but this is just horrible. 3/10 for me... theres worse "Psytrance" albums out there but not by anyone who've made a few things decent.

 

Theres psytrance bands that have gone into more mainstream (some juno reactor and shpongle's latest album) which sounds great but this is not one of them.

 

Couldn't really get into the gathering either. Vicous delicous only has one good song which is rather dissapointing. Even still there is better stuff then Vicous delicous like Dracul, Cities of the future, Muze breaks, B.P. Empire, Funchmelon, Psycho and Scorpion Frog.

[mike.54]

Previous albums were fantastic. And this album is also good only different. Tracks like Vicious Delicious, Suliman, Change the formality are awesome!!

[abasio]

I liked this album when I first got it!

I thought it would be a summer album

but it wasn't good enough to listen to again and again

now I ignore it

[buzzman]

Totally agree with you, something is missing... like the last two albums IM have made.... Personally i think they've lost it along time ago... To experimentating in the completely wrong direction. Don't understand the hardrock like vocals and guitar riffs, the plastic like synths and the same boring bassline they've used for the last 5 years.... EUUGH, i actually hate this album... 3/10 for the small shiney moments on this disc.

 

Peyz

 

there

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.

[Psy Bates]

You can back them up, you can pack them up, but all said and done, this album should be in the world music section catering to all styles from electro to hip-hop ! They surely have gone a step further, i just don't know where they are heading !

 

IM needs a holiday in Goa !!! :posford:

[buzzman]

You can back them up, you can pack them up, but all said and done, this album should be in the world music section catering to all styles from electro to hip-hop ! They surely have gone a step further, i just don't know where they are heading !

 

IM needs a holiday in Goa !!! :posford:

Exactly. I wouldn't even call this psychedelic anymore, with theyre rap/rock/pop crap they're toxicating this genre with

 

But they have been in the scene from almost day one, and made some GREAT GREAT tracks... They where one of the names that i heard when i first was introduced with this music, so you gotta pay them some respect for that.

 

But for the last couple of releases they have put out here, i have only one thing to say..:

 

don't think they need a holiday... I think they need to retire;)

[Ov3rdos3]

I agree with Pavel on this one.

 

10/10 for production skills.

 

2/10 for musically appealing.

[Guest antic]

But they have been in the scene from almost day one, and made some GREAT GREAT tracks...

Technically speaking, no. Their first releases are dated 1999, which is far too late for "from day one". Still, one has to give a creadit where credit is due and they really do deserve it for The Gathering, Classical Mushroom & B.P.Empire

 

They where one of the names that i heard when i first was introduced with this music, so you gotta pay them some respect for that.

I'm not sure whether we should be grateful to IM for introducing you to the scene or not

[buzzman]

Technically speaking, no. Their first releases are dated 1999, which is far too late for "from day one". Still, one has to give a creadit where credit is due and they really do deserve it for The Gathering, Classical Mushroom & B.P.Empire

 

 

 

I'm not sure whether we should be grateful to IM for introducing you to the scene or not

The are one of the pioneers of how psytrance sounds today, im i right or what? Yes there was other names before them, but that is not what i feel when i hear music today.... They have been a big part of makin psytrance what it is... But then again, i wasn't listening to this music in 1999, i was 13 years old at that time, so don't hang me up on it.