PhasePhour - Fun From far Away (Morning Star, Geomagnetic.TV)

psytones · December 28, 2010

PhasePhour – Fun From Far Away (Morning Star, Geomagnetic.TV) 2008 (GEOCD028)

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135BPM - 01 Fun From Far Away 8:03

138BPM - 02 Scary Up Close 4:30

138BPM - 03 Too Sexy 8:04

130BPM - 04 Flowting Away 4:39

128BPM - 05 What 6:28

135BPM - 06 Still No Flying Cars 6:24

138BPM - 07 The Worlds Biggest Midget 6:15

138BPM - 08 Thinking Of You Was A 5:43

140BPM - 09 Nothing Man 8:11

084BPM - 10 The Land 3:41

PhasePhour is one of the few legendary psychedelic trance producers from Norway, or used to be, now we got plenty of forest flavored trance which is gathering legendary statuses as I write these words. Together with Trold, PhasePhour are the old-skoolers of Norwegian psy focusing on PsyTrance with a certain full-on flavor (their debut album ‘...Boiing & Zipp’) to more progressive attitudes with some popular potential (this album).

The album begins with its absolute highlight, the gem of the album. The title track itself. It’s a really nice progressive remix of a known band which because of copyrights I’m obligated to not mention. Let’s just say it’s got something to do with a Circle and a Pet. This is a nice rhythmic track with progressive progression and some absolutely nice bass lines that wobbles along silent strings of harmonic peace of what to be expected and encountered. The drums make the track become solid in its venture and the snaring effects fly by like flying mopeds with comfortable engine noise. The melodic additions are beautifully arranged with echoing synths making up the melody which is levitating by the drums and trumpets. ‘Back to slee eee eep ...’ Ah what a drive this tune has. What a great remix to a good song! At 06:37 the strings reminds me a lot of the strings used in Traci Lords – Control (Juno Reactor Instrumental), I’m talking about the strings used at around the 03:27 mark. Ok maybe not so incredible similar but they reminded me of... Anyway, this is not a track to be missed!! 10/10

Next in the story of Fun From Far Away we get a ‘Scary Up Close’ track which uses some voice samples making effects upon beats that gather to form a slow moving thumper with eerie background noises that might scare when up close. The rhythmic aspects is one of this albums strong sides as the general trance flow is gone and replaced by beats, drums and rhythms of progressive flow and staggering bow to all the sounds that are squeezed into the (scary) background. 7.5/10 Michael Jackson was a master of those human-beatbox sorts of sounds which is used a lot on this track, now he was scary up close: http://www.myentertainmenttoday.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/scary-michael-jackson.jpg

As the scare floats away a rumble of a bass line comes to play and the mood is lifted a couple of notches. From scary we get something that seems to be ‘Too Sexy’. Now for me when something is too sexy it’s either damn hot or it’s something that might scare. Never almost trust anything that is too sexy. Fire might look like honey but you better not get burned (Take a extra look at that beautiful album-art made by Spook). I don’t think this track is too sexy in any way. The tribal drums (!!) and progressive drive are mind-blowing, I love them. The initial melody is more haunting then sexy though the tingling melody that plays along with the voice sample at the tracks ending minutes just confirms my beliefs. Why you so sexy? I’m not sure what plot or deeper understanding/message I’m missing out on here, so it would be fun to hear from the producers what their thoughts and ideas behind these tracks are. 8/10 Anyway, here is an image of someone who is too sexy: http://lukehimself.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/wildenstein1wenn_468x696.jpg She's also Very scary up close. Cosmetic surgery, don't go there you will only become full-on in that not so positive way.

And so the next track speaks; ‘Do you know what’s going on, somewhere, down there. Waiting for you. Trying to know.. I want it - Sonic waves' This is a chilled down tune without being downhearted (Ok I meant downbeat, but I wanted to use the word ‘downhearted’) or ambient in any way. It’s still in the well established PhasePhour progressive world of drums and floating flow. Plus the lovely lady speaks nicely about sonic waves which seems to be ‘Floating Away’. – Ever get that feeling that important messages and communication is transformed and sent around the globe through psychedelic induced electronic music (among others)? I do. And I vaguely know what’s going on. 7/10

We continue in the chilled area with a very floating and strange intro part while the kick kicks in with same vibe and strong drum work like most of the tracks, though this time a rugged bass line is following the lead making the track seem rougher and sort of stronger. The ‘What’ melodic theme passes by and I can’t help to feel that something is missing in the spice. It’s all very nicely put together, the album seems to follow a story which is being told and at times it seems like it contains important information pulled out of the artist’s cosmic mind. Some more gentle melodies come and goes making it all float very comfortable. I’m not totally sure what the sample is repeating but at times it sounds like ‘Idiot’. Hence maybe the tracks name, ‘What’. Hehe 7/10

Dreams of flying cars, the ultimate 50’s dream vision of what to come in the futuristic age of 2008. Well you sci-fi oldies, ‘Still No Flying Cars’ around. Heck, we barely have electric cars though I’m happy to announce that Oslo, Norway is doing some nice but slow effort in building charging stations for cool urban electric cars that look so shitty that they are ultra cool, like ‘Buddy’ ( http://www.hegnar.no/multimedia/archive/00039/buddy2_39359a.jpg ). Wouldn’t you like to drive around in a Buddy!? I would! I would have painted it in some nice patterns like flowers, hearts, clouds, and flames – multitude of colours and I would install a huge mottafokking stereo system. How is that supposed to be supported with energy you ask? I would attach a trailer Of Course! And jupp, you guessed it, on the trailer I would have an aggregate to pump the juice needed to play my Fun From Far Away album Real loud and fat in the city. That would be so awesome. 8/10 I mean, look at this shit http://www.treehugger.com/Buddy-Norwegian-All-Electric-Car.jpg - Sexy eh (grr - wraff). Anyway, they are promising to have over 400 charging stations in Oslo ready for 2011 which is great news if they succeed. http://media2.paultan.org/i/elektrobay.jpg At night time they even have this very nice neo-glow colours coming out of them, like green, blue .. It looks awesomely awesome like the future is here now clean and green.

And with those words the track ends only to make some groove changes with ‘The World’s Biggest Midget’ which got a steadier beat but still with the same sound scope as the previous tracks. After all this is sort of like a story being told. Let’s see if I can make any sense of all the track names: Fun From Far Away may sound Scary Up Close but indulge in it’s Too Sexy vibes and you will be Floating Away. What you ask, Idiot? Well there are Still No Flying Cars and the most spectacular show we have for you tonight is The World’s Biggest Midget. And admittedly, Thinking of You Was A thought of a Nothing Man that saw the Land. .. Ok enough goof, this track has again the trademarks as the rest of the album, great percussion on the tribal drums, the staggering slams keeps the feet grounded with stomps and the melodies all float nicely but for me they become sort of uninteresting after a while unless they come under the right circumstances. 8/10

When ‘Thinking of You Was A’ sweeps in some flamenco (?) guitars alla Juno Reactors Pistolero guitar slowed down (not comparing, if that’s what you thought) gets some play time and with that notion things seem to be picking up in both phase and trance. And a voice sample resembling an Underworld track comes in with a more then welcoming feel of ‘Like it so much’. A very nice track and with some different sounds and flow it’s very welcoming with groove and metallic drums of sorts in the background. With most or all of the tracks the layering is also beautifully arranged. 8/10

We’re close to the PhasePhour’s end of a journey, it’s been a thrill and I’m now ready to get close to the fastest beats per minute track on the album (a whopping 140BPM, Whoo-Ha!)). The track starts out real sweet with tingling melodies and a heavy Dub-bass then morphs into a hefty bass line that really sends thrills down my spine. The sound image on 'Nothing Man' seems tighter yet still with a deep and delicious aroma and the sounds cling closer as the tune turns into what for me sounds like yet another variant of Underworld (Born Slippy comes to mind) and their sound/voice samples. No worries, it’s definitely not a copycat but it has that certain flow and flavor (I’m not a huge Underworld expert so don’t trust my words blindly). Love the breaks btw, very beautiful and the more I sense and feel this album and think back on its journey, the more I love it. It’s a great album though it might tear some patience here and there if not in the right mood. 9.5/10

Hm, to experience this album in the fourth phase must be spectacular, I would hope....

Last but not least (Ok it got my lowest score and it's the last track on the album, but thats not the point) we get a very folksy tune with a woman+man (husband and wife?) singing like natives (the words spoken) about 'The Land' of bears and eagles that roam across the mountains where their, or rather our home is. It’s nice but not totally in my cup of taste. It’s too folksy for my sake though I appreciate its beauty and storytelling of freedom of nature. Has a very authentic rainbow gathering vibe to it except for the electronic devices used to make the sounds. 6/10 This track was also present on the Heart's Eye Records release; Chilldren Of The Blue Ray - 13 Moons (http://www.discogs.com/Various-Chilldren-Of-The-Blue-Ray-13-Moons/release/1620917)

Recommendation:This is a very steady and interweaved album with enough progression and drive to blow most minds. What impresses me the most on it is the drums and the percussions, the immense background noises used to create a full audio image and the connectional storytelling. It's a album that should have gotten more praise in both the underground media as well as in the more mainstream media in these days of Electronica hypes like Trentemøller and Røyksopp (though the taste of PhasePhour is very different). The title track is especially on my mind though some of the other tracks would be interesting to hear how they would sound if remixed by some more commercial names like mentioned above. I guess the fail here in that commercial potential is the fact that few of the tracks actually manages to stick to the membrain (except the title track - did I mention I love that track?) and that the general flow or aroma of the album is trance based, of sorts, which is very baboonish to like I think. If you want progressive trance with psychedelic backgrounds and something that sounds unique enough, then do yourself a favor and buy this album, it will be a nice gem to have in your collection and I once again have to bliss the artwork by Spook, it's very inducing floating like honey-fire. Only complaint I have is the pale colours used in the printing, but that might just be my copy since it may be a promo (cheaper) version? I hope so because as the music, this artwork deserves to 'pop' out to really catch your attention. All of this said, I would like to wish for PhasePhour to release a super hard knocking Psychedelic Trance album when and if they/he decides to release more albums in the PhasePhour moniker. That would be nice. Can be collaboration or a remix album for all I care.

Btw Omg. On their MySpace page they now stand as sign to Shiva Space Technology (!!).

If this means more power to the psychedelic trance juice I might faint.

Keywords: Progressive, tribal drums, drum stomps, psychedelic, trance.

Favorite tracks: 1(!!), 9(!)

Final Score: 7.9/10

Where to buy and other links:

DiscoPhase: http://www.discogs.com/artist/Phasephour

PhaseSpace: http://www.myspace.com/phasephour

ThePhasePhourStudio: http://www.freetransform.no

Geomagnetic.TV: http://geomagnetic.tv

GeoArtistProfile: http://geomagnetic.tv/artists/PhasePhour.htm

Psyshop: http://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/geo/geo1cd028.html