"V/A - Digital Beings"

[Trance2MoveU]

 

 

Artist: Various

Title: Digital Beings

Label: Echoes Records

Date: June, 2010

 

1. Age of the 6th sun / Earsugar

2. Process / Ritmo

3. Kelman Gates / Easy Riders (aka Ace Ventura and Rocky)

4. Scandonavian / Gaudium

5. Digital Beings / Zen Mechanics and Ace Ventura

6. The Path / Quantize

7. Revenge / Freq

8. Concrete Jungle (Rocky rmx)(Feat. Michele Adamson) / Lish

9. Yin and Yang / Human Element

 

 

Another recent purchase in the progressive vein and another I cannot locate an image for. Sorry. Echoes Records based in Israel is responsible for releases like "Borderline" "Stereo Slave" and "Think Different." Some pretty good progressive hits on those. Their latest compiles previously unreleased tracks from mostly well known artists. The cover is of a woman with her eyes closed in the greenish black style reminiscent of the Matrix.

 

1. Age of the 6th Sun- Earsugar begins the track with a prayer to Hunab Ku and then...not a whole lot. Some nice sounds, but it doesn't really go anywhere. Suitable opening I suppose, but not very deep.

 

2. Process- "But we all want to move....in the same direction." This one is very rich as one would expect from Ritmo. Thick bass sweeps and a galloping, steady bassline. He even drops a little Obama on you. It plods along until the 7 minute mark and then it gets a little aggressive. I just wish I didn't have to wait so long.

 

3. Kelman Gates- "Listen to me! Whatever door you opened in my brain...shut it!" Rocky and Ace Ventura combine for this project. Smooth and steady without a lot of melody changes. I would be tempted to say that at ten minutes you need to throw some variation my way, but they do a good job with breaks so it doesn't seem so long. Crystal clear sound for sure with a brooding atmosphere.

 

4. Scandonavian- This seems boring to me, with its rapid fire bassline and not much else. The break however, gives the track some much needed depth, but it just can't recover from the monotony.

 

5. Digital Beings- Now that bassline seems familiar... Even with it, this track seems fuller than the previous ones. The break gets some funk on ya, but not enough to switch genres. Nice.

 

6. The Path- Noise plus interminable buildups = me skipping this track.

 

7. Revenge- Freq brought his heavy beats and minimal style progressive trance to the show. The result...you know what it sounds like.

 

8. Concrete Jungle (Rocky Remix)- The only remix on the compilation. I haven't heard the original so let me see if I can dig it up. Nope, couldn't find it. All I need to know is that it has a stupid spoken verse in it about leaving the house without a knife. Terrible, another skipper.

 

9. Yin and Yang- Ahhh, the Human Element. This track is a feel good groover that ends the compilation nicely. Not a lot of variation, but the reverb was working overtime and the little melody is very catchy. Great job and my favorite track.

 

 

So this is one of the other sides of progressive trance. There is more focus on the beats than the melody or the creating of atmosphere. Accordingly, the tracks are thinner in the area of richness compared to other compilations. These guys do what they do really well. The grooves are heavy and if that's what you like get on board. If you're looking for a deep, melodic listening experience, this will leave you a little flat.

 

Psyshop

 

Beatspace

 

 

Mdk