V/A - Acid Transmission

[Rotwang]

V/A - Acid Transmission (Trishula)

 

 

Press Release:

 

Acid Transmission is the new compilation by Trishula Records, 10 fresh & unreleased musical journeys. The transmission is powered by 10 artists, no need to introduce them as you know all of them as most of them having released music at Trishula before or other labels well known for their psychedelic music.. The concept is to dig deeper and further into the realms of psychedelic trance. The album is an exploration into the emptiness (sunyata) of our minds and to celebrate it with ecstatic dancing on the dance floor. Fat bass lines accompanied with strong kick drums with a sauce of well cooked synthesis and fx sounds. An acid transmission in 10 chapters to complete within 80 minutes! A full power psychedelic compilation guaranteed for joyful moments in time and space.

Tracks (click titles for Saiko Sounds sample):

 

1) wi']['ch - Fractal Generator 7:06

 

Trishula records evidently know how to start an album with style. Listening to Fratal Generator is a bit like being dragged backwards through a hedge made of clicks, buzzes and awesome. Pure sonic destruction.

 

2) Zoolog - Contradictionary 6:40

 

I don't think there's anything I can say about this track which would do a better job of describing it than its title. To be honest I'm not entirely sure what "contradictionary" actually means, but I nonetheless believe that this track is one.

 

3) Purosurpo - Multi Range 8:50

 

Purosurpo's Multi Range strikes me as being not so much a piece of music as a sort of psychedelic fractal tree, which continually grows into unexpected shapes and directions, and produces strange new fruit. If I didn't know that the artist was half of Derango I would think that he had crammed every idea he's ever had into this one track. And if that were true he'd still have had more ideas than most artists have in a lifetime.

 

4) Arabali - Mars is Amazing7:31

 

Arabali consists of Mubali and Arahat, apparently. After opening with a sample of somebody repeatedly reading out the track title in a manner which I find a bit unnerving, their track soon begins to bombard the listener with the kind of fat, sweeping crunches which Mubali has become incredibly good at of late. It ends with some out-of-tune horns which would kill a piece of melodic music, but which work pretty well in this context.

 

5) Attoya vs. Oil - Escaping The Bubble 6:39

 

This is just great. The first half is a rather confused mass of strange noises, bizarre melody and disconcerting samples. Then shortly after the four minute mark it suddenly turns into a proper tune, which rapidly builds up to a climax which is one of the few genuinely dancefloor-friendly moments on this CD. I think it's a shame that they decided to stick some horror-sample screaming at the end, because the track really doesn't need it.

 

6) Karash - Likadelic 7:35

 

In contrast to the previous track, this has very little in the way of attention-grabbing buildup. Instead, its appeal lies in the subtle array of nice sounds which bubble under its surface, challenging the listener to pay close enough attention. This needs to be heard through a good sound system or it's wasted.

 

7) Oil - Behemot 10:00

 

I don't much care for this. It starts nicely enough but soon descends into a load of unpleasant high-pitched screeching, which just goes on and on and on. If you know Matutero's Pure Evil you'll know what I mean - this is pretty much the same.

 

8) Olien - Dynaversum 7:47

 

This, on the other hand, is rather splendid. It sounds a bit like somebody sitting in the middle of a motorway shaking a cup full of plastic teaspoons, while a child practices playing the recorder in a nearby building. With everybody involved on drugs, obviously.

 

9) Mind Distortion System - Looking At The Sky 7:52

 

This is good too. It mainly revolves around some whirring sounds which mess with one's ears quite nicely, with a few key changes thrown in for good measure.

 

10) Psyfactor - Mythical 7:51

 

Psyfactor's closing track quite ambitiously attempts to fuse ethereal melodies of the sort featured on Endless Universe with click-and-hiss darkpsy. It's a brave effort but doesn't really work, not least because both the melodic bits and the darkpsy bits are actually fairly substandard compared to the rest of what I've heard by this artist, at least to my ears.

 

 

 

Overall: Acid Transmission came out within days of Multiple Personalities 3, and in terms of style they are very similar; both are dark, noisy and seemingly more designed to get your brain moving than your feet. When I set out to write this review I was hoping to conclude by recommending one over the other, but I just can't. While this album, unlike MP3, has a couple of tracks which are duds in my opinion, the good tracks are too good to miss. If you like either this or MP3 then I can't imagine you'll regret getting both. 9/10

 

Favourite Tracks: 1(!), 2, 3(!), 4, 5(!), 6, 8, 9

[psytones]

VA - Acid Transmission (Trishula Records) 2008 (TRISHCD015)

 

 

01. wi']['ch- Fractal Generator (7:05)

02. Zoolog- Contradictionary (6:39)

03. Purosurpo- Multi Range (8:49)

04. Arabali- Mars is Amazing (7:30)

05. Attoya vs. OIL- Escaping the Bubble (6:38)

06. Karash- Likeadelic (7:34)

07. OIL- Behemot (9:59)

08. Olien- Dynaversum (7:46)

09. Mind Distortion System- Looking at the Sky (7:52)

10. Psyfactor- Mythical (7:51)

 

wi]['ch (T1) starts the journey good with playful sounds and funky basslines with unstable jumping kicks and some samples to make the noia creep out from the para. Most of the tracks got nice drives and deranged atmospheres covered in fuzzy a sound image which makes the Acid Transmissions compilation sound old, actually, the whole VA has this pre-2005 feel to it with a lot of stuff going on to melt and to be felt. The clue in music like this is the sound effects that are dropped all over and it has basslines that varies and plays a lot of tricks. The Danish act Zoolog (T2) brings some super Hottentotten beats that sort of wiggles your pants off while distortion starts to spin your frail mind apart. Zoolog is walking along the forest trail sending out radioactive vibes with quirky moods in an obscure swamp. Again, as most of the tracks here, it got some good variation in store for you, like raising and lowering the tempo, flabbering the effects while bending and trending your head around to catch all the visual goodies flying around. When it comes to the variation inside a track, no one does it more active then Purosurpo in Multi Range (T3) who truly pulls out a stellar start for open spaces inside your imagination. It’s sturdy and steady beats manages to pump the party to higher multi ranged grounds. Purosurpo is Jens who should be well known for most dark heads with his Derango and Hallucinogenic Horses projects. It has a lot of effects with trance and trip powers that when unsettling the beat flow, will grind your wide mouth to insane behaviors. Variation is the key, and chaotic is the door. OIL who is represented twice here (T5&7) has this touch that is quit interesting, dreamy, pleasant and absolutely cool where it works, but can get boring where it doesn’t. Escaping the Bubble, btw, has a very disturbed closing sample where a man from South Park is screaming out help calls because he is being mentally raped by Attoya and OIL, which isn’t my idea of a good sample as it could do harm to a person under the wrong circumstances. As the tracks run along, you realize how much the music represented goes together hand in hand, with samples and effects that connect the different tracks. Acid Transmissions has a good flow of selected tracks and they work in harmony, well, in their own type of harmony that is. You’ll love some tracks more than others for sure, but if you like this style of dark Psy-Trance music, you will probably dig them all. Personally I love the first three and the last three tracks the most, especially the Purosurpo (T3) and Olien (T8) tracks. The middle part of the compilation starting with Arabali is good, but lacks something extra to turn me on.

 

Recommendation: I think this is a good compilation but it’s not on my favorite list. It has some very good moments like the strange and pleasant harmonics of Attoya Vs. OIL (T5) and the liquid drops in Karash’s contribution (T6), but unless it’s played on the right moment or state of mind, it gives me little but loads and loads of effects thrown with intergalactic manners, which kind of hurts when I’m not ready. If you like your music marinated in mud from the forest with heaps of variations and effects thrown at you in weightless conditions and hard as a nail in pain while sucking on a piece of moss, I say go for it, this will rock your world. It has a sound that sort of blends the Swedish deranged forest with the sound of San Francisco’s darker corners (think Mistress of Evil Records) and the disturbed and suppressed Russian moist cellar where freaks with huge eyes wander around. Overall the sound is fuzzy and strange, a little bit messy. It’s music covered in mud.

 

Favorite tracks: 1(!), 2, 3(!!), 8(!), 9, 10.

 

Where to buy and other links:

Trishula Records: http://www.trishula-records.com

Trishula MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/trishularecords

Psyshop.com: http://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/trr/trr1cd015.html

Saikosounds: http://www.saikosounds.com/english/display...ase.asp?id=7325

Wirikuta: http://www.wirikuta.at/web66/product_detai...owDetail=197989

Beatspace: http://www.beatspace.com/dettagli/dettaglio.asp?id=4096

Play.com: http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/5341969/Ac...on/Product.html

More Reviews: http://www.myspace.com/psytonesmusic

Isratrance.com: http://www.isratrance.com/cd-reviews/acid-...sion-d1069.html