Theory Of Madness

[Templar]

Theory Of Madness

 

Dark Life Records, 2005

 

1. Barracuda - Jump Station

2. Tracer - Criogenic Chambers

3. Remote Access - Find Your Self

4. Artha - Virus

5. Sungirl - You Are Don't Stop It (org. ver.)

6. Terminator - Two Lions

7. Fobie - Predator

8. Manga - Dancefloor In Hell (Sungirl rmx)

9. Parrket - Silent Void

 

"Transelected" & "DJ Choice" compilations, Tromesa and Aural Planet albums... The pantheon of psy-releases from Poland is joined by "Theory Of Madness", which presents a slightly heavier and darker variant of the psychedelic trance chosen by the Warsaw-based music label. The expectations for this album were quite high. It was a birth with many complications, but finally Dark Life Records' debut pregnancy was carried to full term. The effect? A Polish-Russian-Croatian cocktail.

 

A nice and climatic cover design (good work) with autumn colours and elements of paranoia covers a CD consisting of nine unpublished tracks, five of which belong to Polish artists. First on the list is a Barracuda duet, giving us a hypnotizing track with a thrill. A very good start to the album. Right after "Jump Station" we have got Tracer, head of the Uridium collective from Poznań. The track starts with a monologue by an actor well known to cinema lovers (Vin Diesel) after which, using relatively easy moves, we are treated to a sound story about cryogenic chambers. It is a pretty good piece, though I lack some extra sonic spices which would make the track even more interesting. The Polish wave is continued by Remote Access, who throws a real bomb at us. "Find Your Self" is a really good, energetic piece that can easily liven up any set. The fourth track belongs to my secret favourite Artha, a musician from Malbork, well known for his attraction to Goa. This time he has created a bouncy track with frequent acid sequences bringing to mind none other than Cosmosis - such a comparison can only be good news for this piece. "Virus"? Let yourself get infected! Once this piece ends a more aggressive mood picks up on the album since the following tracks (not counting number seven) belong to foreign artists. "You Are Don't Stop It" (linguists will probably shrug at this one) is nothing other than a fat, slightly schematic dancefloor moloch. In the end it is pretty difficult to patch up the holes this thing drills in your head. Zolod (ex-Parasense) is responsible for the Terminator project, adding to it a touch of… leftovers from the well-known Parasense sound. It is surely not something you have not heard before dozens of times, though on the other hand this musical deja-vu will find fans. Fobie continues the Russian music theme started by Sungirl, though it should be mentioned that the project behind "Predator" is quite… Polish (we have had Poznań, Bydgoszcz and Malbork, now time for Warsaw). Fobie gives us a sharp, energetic and predatory creation full of samples from the movie which, like a laxative, pushes the listened to the dancefloor. Yana Polishchuk (Sungirl) returns in the second last track, remixing a production by Manga project. Frustrated synthesizers make themselves heard and once again we experience the power of trance worthy of Russians. The whole thing is brought to an end with a Croatian project named Parrket, who delivers a tasty progressive track with evident clubby influences, all served in a Russian batter. This is surely one of the most interesting tracks on this CD.

 

This is not an exceptional compilation and it is not groundbreaking. To be honest I did not expect it to be, but I did receive a compilation with very decent material, full of different pieces among which everyone will find something for themselves. A few of the tracks presented here guarantee a full dancefloor with a good soundsystem. I hope the next Dark Life Records release will be even better and my dream is to see even more purely Polish productions on their album covers in the future. After all we have so many talented artists that copying other countries would be an indiscretion.

 

http://www.darklife-records.info/

http://www.saikosounds.com/english/display...ase.asp?id=4962