Penta - Pentafiles

[Jon Cocco]

PENTA - PENTAFILES

2003

SPECTRAL CONCEPTS

 

 

1. Disqusting Creatures

2. Leave a Message

3. 1190

4. Collaboration

5. Neurotic Call

6. Time Warp

7. Lost in Space

8. Every Machine

 

 

 

 

I am shocked. Why?

 

Because this album is considered by many as one of the best DARK PSYTRANCE albums. There hasn't been a review thread for this album here. Surprisingly I can't find one on Isratrance either! But it IS now available after being unavailable for all you sexy people who never had a chance to get it years back.

 

 

What makes this album so good for dark psytrance? Two reasons:

 

1.) It's GROOVY as shit.

 

2.) It has melodies and they're very catchy.

 

There are more reasons of course. I mean this doesn't have a ton of melodies. I won't lie, but it is so not minimal. Compared to most of todays dark psytrance, Penta has invested the time to find strong and catchy voice samples, sound fx, atmosphere, ambient, industral/metal influence without ever entering guitars or rock, and melodies! It isn't just these elements but how they're integrated, mixed, delivered. Penta has done a terrific job in locating, combining, altering, distorting, mixing, and playing around these elements. This album is not a bunch of songs raped in psy-sounds like much of todays generic, noisey stuff. You have a wicked, building rhythm with additional layers of sounds and melodies, sometimes a strong leading melody. These things and more are added, subtracted, mixed up to great degree such as in track 2 for starters. There is lots going on here and it flows. It's catchy!

 

Although I find the opening track, Disqusting Creatures a bit more repetitive than I prefer, a fast and cool deeper melody and especially voice sample make it memorable! It stands out. Besides the sweet focus on melodies and groove present, what goes a long way is the delectible sounds and oh.. the mixing.

 

THE SOUNDS - Remember in X-Dreams Radio. You'd be misinformed to forget. Well that album had some really really cool, distorted sounds like a zipper being ripped up on a jacket? This sound was echoed and pierced across the beat like a tornado skimming the roof shillings off a house. I don't want to exaggerate but their are some very catchy and accentuated echoed sounds here that spice up add spice up the album and give it style. More of the sounds involve another strong element here so I'll touch upon that with...

 

THE MIXING - The sound of a siren will fade into the growing thick atmosphere. A car crashes to the sound of lightning or thunder. In Neurotic Call for instance, a passing car in the night will be altered and cleverly utilized as a melody, slowly shifting from one speaker to another, and to the rhythm. The drum speeds up to these sounds as a glass is filled with what sounds like soda following the sound of fizz or carbon dioxide. Soon after the music like stops with two echoed clicks and a pop, (music continues and a little something else. I mean, these things are minor details that may register to you as uninteresting but to the dark, occasionally playful mixing and music they add to the great, fun style. A phone dialing the wrong number fuses to the dark tone of the menacing rhythms and strong atmosphere. This is great when you're hooked to the groove. You won't be looking for the little details because you'll likely be enjoying the music. You won't care and yet there's all these cool things. So much of todays dark psytrance seems empty, void of substance where Penta succeeds because of character even when the story lacks depth. I barely even touched on all those cool echoed, industrial sounds, many creating melodies! I prefer songs where many actions or details seem to take place within the same song.

 

In conclusion, Pentafiles IS one of the best dark psytrance albums of all time. I have words that come after good such as great, than comes excellent/superb, and than amazing or groundbreaking. Overall I seriously believe this is a great album with moments of excellence. I think the reason why many people love, admire this debut is because it wasn't as accepted by the general mainstream. This isn't to say you can dance to it because you can! It had its own innovative style, spirit, and sound. I for one imagined him taking this warped, twisted sound to the next level. Penta ended up changing his style and sound. Some of his tracks became darker and better for the dancefloors and mainstream psy crowd but they lost some of their spirit, groove. A classic is something that people love, generally return to on their own, and speak highly of ten, twenty, thirty-plus years later. Penta's first album is considered by many to be a cult classic and even a classic [already] in dark psytrance because enough people believe it is. Maybe that's a bit much for the producer/artist here to swallow but it is what it is because people generally like this album who are into dark psytrance. Pentafiles stands out. It has character, power, and it's fucked up enough too, in a good, fun, twisted, way.

 

In conclusion, if I were to comprise a top 10 best dark psytrance albums list, Penta would likely on it. This is an album packed with catchy, cleverly mixed and compiled sounds, melodies, and atmosphere. Emotions are provoked such as suspense, anger, drive, insanity, being abandoned, and sadness! In Lost and Space for instance the artist did a very good job making it feel like the spaceship broke down and we as the listeners identifying with the characters in the story are stuck on some desolate, isolated planet. This works due to a great combination of voice samples mixed with strong melodies and atmosphere. This track alone involves one of so many elements that make this album interesting, build character, and substance. Pentafiles is one of my favorite dark psytrance albums ever made. I personally find this his best, most unique and original album to date. It has its own sound. It puts "emotion, feeling, and crazy" first without making it difficult to dance to too. I find this more enjoyable for home listening, driving. This launched Penta's career. There is actually some thought involved here unlike most dark psytrance today. It isn't as gritty and chaotic as Toi Doi and Menis. It isn't Dark Goa-Trance like Tandu, Cydonia, Sandman's Witchcraft, BofFB, Darshan's Awakening, and MFG's Project Genesis for top starters. Pentafiles is one of the best post 21st century dark psytrance albums, period.

 

 

1. Disqusting Creatures - B+

2. Leave a Message - B+

3. 1190 - B+

4. Collaboration - B

5. Neurotic Call - B+

6. Time Warp - B

7. Lost in Space - B / B+

8. Every Machine - B

 

 

Tracks I favor: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7.

 

 

B+ = Great!!

 

 

Samples:

 

http://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/scr/scr1cd003.html

 

http://www.saikosounds.com/english/display...ase.asp?id=3344

[Drosophila]

Fantastic album! I got this one after had Funraiser... and this one is even better!

 

Very good consistency in the tracks, a must have if u like Penta's out-put!

 

Sorry for my short review, but my time is short, but this one deserves some serious attention!!!

 

Give it to it, it will pay u back in many joyful moments, believe me

[Gnome]

Is the whip included?

 

The album is pretty much flawless.

[Sawfly]

The album is pretty much flawless.

Indeed it is :posford:

 

Pwns pretty much all the new darkpsy albums.

[frix]

i don't like much of the modern dark psy.

But this one is a class of its own.

And I think it is penta's best album so far.

[buzzman]

This doesn't really sound like darkpsy IMO

 

But indeed it is flawless!

[exotic]

This album is psychedelic to the bone.. its just so much fun to come back to it every now and then. never gets dull. In my top 5 albums of all time.