V/A - Positive Alchemist Vol. 3

[Trance2MoveU]

 

Artist: Various

Title: Positive Alchemists Vol. 3

Label: Avigmatic Records

Release: August 2007

 

Track Listing

 

01. 8�02� Protoculture � Revolutionizer

02. 8�09� Life Extension Vs. Crying Freemen � Let Me Out

03. 6�49� Mixed Emotions Vs. Didrapest � Time Stratch

04. 8�15� Intersys Vs. Optical Vision � Systematic

05. 7�27� Space Buddha � Dream On

06. 7�22� Bio-Tonic � Do The Same Thing

07. 7�37� Sine Die � Eclipse

08. 6�32� Digicult � Magic

09. 7�25� Evoice Vs. Digital Tribe � Freak Out

10. 7�40� Avigmati - Hikoseki

 

Man I have been waiting for this one. Avigmatic Records, the label that brought you the awesome Digicult album, the previous 2 installments of this series as well as the new effort from Life Extension. I really enjoyed the last 2 Alchemists so I have high hopes for this one. As usual the art is very cool. I wish I was an alchemist. I would grow a long white beard like Gandalf, and tell evil demons that they shall not pass. I think you would really like my dragon like fireworks. All the kids think they�re cool. Go ahead�ask �em! Right�let�s get to it!

 

 

Protoculture � Revolutionizer- South Africa rules! Well, as far as psytrance goes. Maybe it rules in other ways. I�ve never been there before. I just don�t know. Here is Nate bringing us his latest. This guy knows his way around a track. He warms you up with a nice driving beat, and allows you to recover with a short break. The pads are so spacey, the synths nimble over top, and as we reach the climax, the bass line shifts and brings the emotional whirlwind to a head. Can�t you just taste the sunrise on this one? Vive la revolution! Great track!

Life Extension Vs. Crying Freemen � Let Me Out- �There�s only one part of my body I don�t want anybody entering�that�s my head.� Really? Is that the only one? Cause I can think of a few more that shouldn�t be entered. As I mentioned before Life Extension have a new album out, and as far as I know Crying Freemen is a French duo that have released a track on a comp I have reviewed called �Mysterious Force.� There is a nice bouncy beat, you know that galloping bass line. The arpeggio scrambles across the track but I feel it stays a little too long. I found this one pretty good, but nothing special. I preferred Life Extensions track on Vol. 2 of this series.

 

Mixed Emotions Vs. Didrapest � Time Stratch- Didrapest did battle with Planet B.E.N. this year and Mixed Emotions did a mix with Didrapest on the Enigmatic World Israel disc. The staccato voice lead brings a nice melody as the other sounds start to fill it out. The final romp sort of has a goa-hypnotic quality to it. Sort of. This one has a lot of stops and starts so it�s hard for me to remain �in trance.� Not bad.

 

Intersys Vs. Optical Vision � Systematic- Intersys have released a bunch of tracks on various compilations but I dunno who the hell Optical Vision is. Cool, bring on the unknown. The beginning of the track has a worried feel to it. People are trying to reboot, there isn�t time, I say. I think the samples are from Red Planet, cause that sounds a lot like Val Kilmer. Eh, who knows. This one meanders along but really is firmly in full-on territory. Not bad, but not great.

 

Space Buddha � Dream On- Eliad has the right attitude here. He�s got leads snaking onto the scene just within earshot just before the beat drops. Brad Pitt knows man�know your drugs! I liked the break as it wasn�t business as usual with all the effects used. When the final melody kicks in, it is pure happiness. Rainbows and unicorns. Everything is going to be all right! Some might find this Chester cheesy, but I liked it because�I want everything to turn out fine. Pretty good track.

 

Bio-Tonic � Do The Same Thing- I always found these guys wacky. They can make pumping kick you in the nuts psy and then they can make some weird Bootsy Collins trippy shit. My favorite D.I. says we will all be able to do the same thing. The fluttering lead amidst the beat is soothing, and then another lead fills out the bottom end very nicely. Lotsa reverb here. Pretty good track.

 

Sine Die � Eclipse- Yohan (like Lohan?) Lasorsa pops in to deliver us an eclipse. His choons have been spot on, and has shown he can wreck some shit. That break is trippy as the lead evolves, gurgling to the surface. His bass line changes to a different tempo for a short time, but then he is back on 4/4 ground and continues to weave a sonic tapestry. Smashing!

 

Digicult � Magic- �This place is different�it�s special� My favorite track by these guys is �The Way In� so I�m hoping for more of his powerful goa flavour. Did you see that? Did you see what I did there? I used the Queen�s English! You should see the look on your boat! Anyway, this track moves along well, and comes with more guitar. I normally don�t like that, but it�s all right here. The leads are quality and although I didn�t get any of that goa magic, I still enjoyed this one.

 

Evoice Vs. Digital Tribe � Freak Out- Shlomi and someone else want to freak me out. The voice sample is on the corny side and most assuredly not freaky. The beat isn�t that freaky, and the leads aren�t very freaky either. You know what scares me? Jellyheadz. That is some scary shit. Oh, and Xenomorph�s Qlippoth. I cannot listen to that with the lights off. That guy seems like the psytrance Marilyn Manson. Well, what Eric Warner would like to think he is. What were we talking about? Oh yeah, this track is not very freaky. Average at best.

 

Avigmati � Hikoseki- I don�t know what Hikoseki means but we have some quirky leads to start. Later there is some definite goa nicey nice as the track chugs along. Pretty good track although some variation would not have been remiss.

 

In Summary: I want to tell you that this was the most kick ass album of the year. I want to say that you should move your Hallucinogen and Pleiaidians aside and let this rule the mantle. I want to. But I can�t. I would be lying if I said that I wasn�t disappointed in this release. I suppose it is my fault for probably having unrealistic expectations, but damnit, I have them. The previous two entries in this series were very good to exceptional. Almost every track left a blistering mark. Not so here. Don�t get me wrong(ly), this isn�t a bad compilation and none of the tracks are terrible. But it's like the Blade series of movies. When the first one came out it was great. The second one was really good too. I don't know what the hell they were thinking on the third one. Who the hell green-lighted that tom-foolery? AND that hot chick was in it. This was sorta like that. This comp doesn't suck. Not at all. It�s just not up to the level of it�s predecessors. 7/10

 

Favorites: 1, 7, 5.

[frozen dream]

apart from the protoculture this isn't something special, good thing i didn't go and buy it straight away.

 

7,8,9 & 10 have something but it just doesn't deliver like the protoculture one

 

raubenheimer is MASsIV!!!

[Riton]

Great stuff by avigmatic recs!

My personal favorite being Digicult's MAGIC!

[LLB]

1> It was a long time since i last listened to a Protoculture (Nathaniel Raubenheimer)'s production, so i didn't know what to expect here. The style is still morning full on, but it has gained in smashing & heaviness. From 4'32, the tune evolves into its floating part (the paroxysm moment) , the layer is quite fresh & confers an adrenalin push. You'll be submit to a sudden euphoria, so be careful don't get cold.

 

 

2> Life Extension (Dj Olive & Dj Stenman) Vs. Crying Freemen (Dj Naya & Dj Salva) delivers something less emotional, all is based on the energy given by the powerful sounds (muted brass, heavy bassline, fat kick) with some arpeggio in guise of melody. Let Me Out is a nice body-dancefloor stuff, prepare you to sweat a lot when dancing on it; it also constitutes a positive view of what Life Extension have produced on their recent album 'Side Effects' on Avigmatic too.

 

 

3> Mixed Emotions (Or Kopel) &. Didrapest (Hanan Ben Armon) have produced here the quite widespread squealing Full On that you may like btw. Personally, it's not my thing & furthermore i find out the melody to be too much repetitive & gets quickly irritating on my nerves.

 

 

4>Things are going better with Intersys (Omri Azram & Moshe Maman) Vs. Optical Vision (Dudu Zohar) with a classic Israeli Full On stuff which means a quite bouncy bassline, some electric riffs as lead, plus some twisted fx sometimes on the metallic tones. In few words, the usual bank tones & production's tricks used by the I.F.O.M.P (Israeli Full On Mafia Production).

 

 

5> Space Buddha (Eliad Grundland) opens up his track on the pumping way, the sound is massive upto 2'30. After the 'break' (this moment will be certified by a vocal sample for everybody understanding lol, next time dear Space Buddha your mission, if you accept it is to place eitheir the word 'Climax' or 'Floating' in your next production ), it goes fairish, your head is turning at 360 degrees. Later on, another break will occur in a filtered mode this time & we will come back to the pumping mode with more aggressive leads this time.

 

6> Same as Protoculture, my last listen to Bio-Tonic (Jérôme Lecoq & Julien Lecoq & Julien Brizard) isn't recent. But indeed it seems it's like i never stopped to listen to them as i got the impress i already heard this tune before. At least, it was the case upto 2'20 where some minor changes happen compared to their previous productions (some 303 lines for examples) btw it's quite funny as it's the title of the tune 'Do the same thing', maybe a restricting wish emanating from the label owners who knows ...

 

7> Sine Die (Yohan Lasorsa) usually produces some goaish influenced Full On, with Eclipse he's just on the melodic Full On side with a funky rocked by a high tempo. I'd qualify the lead as kinda 'martian speaking' : a fast sharpy tone which twitters, something funny & catchy.

 

8> Digicult (Davy Piessens & Bert De Becker) keep going with the style that made their notoriety thanks to their debut album 'Avenida de Belgica'. Magic is axed on rock influences from 2'15,but you don't get the usual nervous electric riffs but a sweet melody with the electric guitar here, let's say they make it cry. It's a confirmation for this band which has the potential to generate an identifiable & genuine music.

 

9> Evoice (Vadim Mityagin) Vs. Digital Tribe (Shlomi Dahan) belongs them too to the I.F.O.M.P, so this stuff is dedicated for their fans, they know who they are...

 

10> Avigmati (Khetzal & Dj Chaï) get us used to genuine, effective songs, this time i'm slightly disapointed. I think it's due to the melody which isn't catchy enough to my taste coz if we consider the production, it's clean. It might come also from a little overdose of squealing tones & a global confuse thickness soundscape.

 

Highlights:1,5

 

other preferences:2,7,8

 

Verdict: 7/10