Trance2MoveU Posted September 29, 2007 Share Posted September 29, 2007 Artist: Pitch Hikers Title: Sting Label: Nexus Media Release: August, 2007 Track Listing: 01. Can't Please Everyone 02. Creation 03. Valhalla 04. Taste Our Medicine 05. Wormhole 06. Rattlesnake 07. Mud & Guts 08. Infinite Nature 09. Columbia (Remix) There are a few labels out there that I will buy whatever they try and sell me. Timecode, 3D vision, and Nexus Media. These labels make the insane, beat heavy melody driven psytrance that I love. Pitch Hikers is Shift (Chris Hoy) and Slug (Liam Gibbs) from South Africa. I reviewed Shift's latest Alternator and that was an awesome ride. The last Pitch Hikers album Twilight Zone was a delight and I hope the same for this release. Let's get to it! Can't Please Everyone- Ain't that the truth! This is pretty standard stuff right up to the break that brings absolute silence. A new melody flowers above the bass line and then it reaches its filtered peak. Not a whole lot to describe really. Powerful without a lot of variation. Creation- Once again, pretty standard stuff on the dark side of things. Big kick, rumbling bass line and some sharp leads. The break brings back the soft Detroit-like pad, and soon we are off again. I feel there is a too much dead air in this track. Also, I'm not a big fan of the key change. Average track. Valhalla- Ah yes, the ancient hall of Odin in Norse mythology. I would love to visit Norway one day. This track begins as the previous two have, with full-on bass lines and psy sounds from all around. The break brings a moment of peace with a soft string pad which is short lived. The melody at 4:30 sounds familiar but I can't place it. When it gets going with the beat behind it, it sounds quite nice. Good track! Taste Our Medicine- So far their medicine isn't having the desired effect. This one sounds a lot like the other tracks. Galloping bass line, metallic leads, but this one gives a little more to focus upon. Thank you, yes, there is the acid I have been waiting for! The break sounds quite dark, as if something is crawling about in the shadows. As it winds down it all comes together for a pretty good track. However, I again didn't like the key change at the end. Wormhole- This one gave me the feeling that it would keep growing. It would rise only to fall back down again. All part of the buildup I suppose. I will say I enjoyed the latter half of the track more than the former. The 2nd half is truly pumping! Again not a whole lot of twisted melodies, but the ones that are there are very thick. Good track! Rattlesnake- The beginning lead here is nice and shiny as is cascades over the grumbling bass line. The break brings a forlorn melody that is replaced with more industrial slams. I like the mood here, and this track does change up a bit. The shiny lead comes back and I am in groove mode. But again, what's with the key changes? Enough already! Good track that was weakened by the last bit. Mud & Guts- There is a nice bass line here but more of the same sounds and dead air. I like the melody at the 3:39 mark as it slams into the break. The tribal drums right out of that break are cool, but other than that, nothing special. Infinite Nature- We start out with a gurgling lead just ahead of the bass line. There are some interesting parts here, but once again, too much dead air. The parts of the tracks that are full, are grandiose. The 2nd half of this track brings a nice melody and the full power I have been yearning for. Very good track! Columbia (Remix)- I liked this track a lot when I first heard it so it will be interesting to see what they can do to improve it. We'll call me Johnny Skeptical but this one is just as good as the original. Lots of power, dark atmospheric leads, and an all out banger! Best track on the album! :posford: Summary: Sad to say, I was disappointed in this release. I was expecting full-power acid insanity, but that just didn't happen. The tracks aren't bad, but when the bar is raised so high, it is difficult to maintain that type of quality. Maybe they do their best work as solo artists. You know what they say about too many cooks. While the beats were good, I felt they could've been more powerful with more intricate melodies. I found myself waiting to see what would develop only to find that nothing developed. A lot more variation in melody and sounds wouldn't have hurt either. I know this sounds like I am trashing it, but I don't want to leave you with that impression. This is a good CD, it just could've been better. 7.5/10 Mdk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pandemonium Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 I myself was also very dissapointed in this album. I had high hopes and expectations for this. After they released Twilight Zone I felt the bar had been raised. Well I feel that it is safe to say that the bar has been lowewred here. I keep wanting to like this album after each listen, but always find myself getting bored. There is definetely something lacking here. 5/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mars Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 I found this album much much better than Shift's latest opus Alternator, and also better than Pitch Hiker's first album. It's definitely not a disappointing sequel, like the Twisted System one. This is not full on, this is not dark, this is so much typical frenzy ZA style. The closest I can find which is not from South africa is CPU's first album. The guys are pushing their explosive musical skills very far and this gives a radical album full of crazy & massive ideas all along, up to the remix of Columbia that I found more mysterious and complete than the original. It's not flawless either. Some tracks could have been much better imo, but the whole thing is very homogenous and satisfying. I've listened to it several times and never skipped a track. It deserves a good 7/10 but the guys should pay attention to renewing their style now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insejn Posted September 30, 2007 Share Posted September 30, 2007 I also think this was better than their first one. But somehow I expected more cool trix and stuff. Maybe the next one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormion Posted October 5, 2007 Share Posted October 5, 2007 First I have to disagree with Mars about the second Twisted System album. Different? Yes. Dissapointing? No! IMO. But I don't want to get off topic. Sting is a great album fo sure. After all I can't remember a single album that came from Timecode or Nexus Media that is a dissapointment. But I prefer Twilight Zone more. First of all it was more balanced between dark and morning, crazy and clubby-feeling, aggressive and mellow. Sting is definitely much more morning. I was looking for a bit more power, but not that much because Pitch Hikers was never an intense project. Still this album has great tracks, the trance feeling of the first album is here again and like Mars said they definitely expand their music. Best tracks: Can't Please Everyone (awesome morning psy) & Taste Our Medicine (kick-ass dark stomper). 8.5/10 BTW South Africa was, is and will be awesome. Respect. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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