Braincell - Intelligent Being

[Trance2MoveU]

 

Artist: Braincell

Title: Intelligent Being

Label: Free Spirit Records

Date: November, 2010

 

 

 

1. Intelligent Being

2. Sounds Bubbles

3. Discovered by aliens

4. Electrochemical Communication

5. 8 hours of madness

6. Different time level

7. Solar Wizardry

8. Divine Plant

9. Wormhole

10. Sea Foam

 

 

What is the picture of disappointment?

 

 

Yeah that guy's got it.

 

 

 

 

 

Jeez, take it down a notch, it's not like I ran over your dog and then backed up so I could do it multiple times. As far as you know.

 

Now I'm not going to say that I am that broken up about this Cd, but let's back up. This is Ralph Knobloch from Switzerland with his 4th full length album. Talent? He's got loads of it. His music is darker edged, intelligent full-on with great sounds and effects creating a deep atmospheric trip. His previous 3 albums on Glowing Flame Records have been excellent so I had really high hopes for this latest release. This was put out by Free Spirit Records so maybe that had something to do with the...difference in his music.

 

Intelligent Beings- That was a pretty slick breakbeat opening before it's all hands on deck with the full on bass line. This is a less melodic Braincell than I am used to. The leads that are there are more useful as sound effects, but the groove is still dialed in. I would be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little disappointed...

 

Sound Bubbles- Didn't he just use this exact same bass line? Pretty sure he did. You lose points for that buddy. This is a little more melodic than the first track with a pretty cool sample, but so far doesn't touch his previous work. Even with the final break where there is an opportunity to do something great or unexpected, it sorta just fizzles out. Good, but below expectations.

 

 

Discovered By Aliens- Now this is what I've been waiting for. Bout time. Plenty of effects, with a great atmosphere as deep sweeps drop in and sounds echo off imaginary boundaries combining with force. The synths are mysterious and move with great speed. This is a great track in the Glowing Flame tradition. More of this pretty please!

 

Electrochemical Communication- I was also underwhelmed by this one. Kinda just straight forward without a lot of the twists and turns he usually delivers. I mean it's not terrible, you can hear the quality of his production, but there wasn't one thing about the track that was memorable. I mean I like echoing sounds and stuff, but after a while you gotta throw something else out there. It just leaves one feeling empty, like an entire nation across the pond felt when this happened...

 

 

 

8 Hours of Madness- This took forever to get to a point where I thought he had something. About 4 and a half minutes I would say. And even then it continued to be fairly linear. You guys didn't send me the wrong disc did you? Again not the worst I have ever heard, but just because you're great doesn't mean you don't have to try.

 

 

Different Time Level- The deep, squirty effects that I love start us off and my interest is peaked. However, the sounds he has chosen don't "sound" nice. Too...amelodic. Is that a word. The effects are better and I would much rather hear those. Meh.

 

Solar Wizardry- Sigh.

 

 

Divine Plant- Hmmmm....what could he be talking about here?

 

 

Oh, crumbly non-stemmy goodness....

 

This absolutely demands a strong track. And thankfully he delivers. Superb sounds like his previous efforts give a rich, textured, dirty feel to the track. It's balls to the wall with sh*tloads of groove and intensity. Definitely one of the best tracks on the disc.

 

 

 

Wormhole- He has this ability to make a track sound melodic with a total absence of melody. Effects and groove rule for the most part as this grumbler fills out.

 

 

Back off Poindexter this is my rodeo.

 

I would label this as a good atmospheric track that has loads of rhythm. I enjoyed it.

 

 

Seafoam- He closes with a downtempo track that comes with the obligatory ocean sounds. That's where the cliche ends though, as the beat is slow and steady with sweeping bass sounds. Real bob your head music. The break is short and sweet and as the beat goes on I realize this is the most melodic piece of the whole album. Makes me even madder knowing what he is obviously capable of.

 

 

I don't want it to sound like this was a sh*tshow because it wasn't. It was a not bad album with groove aplenty. On it's own, it is pretty good. The problem is when you hold it up to his previous stuff, it is glaringly deficient. If I wanted groove only with nary a melody I would listen to anything from Wild Things Records. Some out there will undoubtedly like his non-melodic evolution (and be mad at me for taking a shot at Wild Things), but I ain't one of em. His talent still shines through but I felt most of these tracks were a little on the thin side. He has produced more involved and deeper tracks and I hope he gets back to it soon.

 

 

 

 

Psyshop

 

Saikosounds

 

Beatspace

 

Goastore

 

Juno

 

Beatport

 

Mdk

[exotic]

I think you pretty much nailed it. Braincell is uber talented undoubtedly but is not using that touch he has for the greater good of psytrance. I really hope his next release is exactly what , all of us who know what he is capable of delivering, expect it to be.

[BraneFreeze]

This is a very solid album, albeit not as twisted or trippy as his Glowing Flame material. Excluding Sea Foam (which I wasn't wild about), the other nine songs are good, but might benefit from a little more complexity and variety.

 

8.5/10

[Lemmiwinks]

extremely dissapointed by this one... put it in my cd player, then just found myself pressing "skip" until there were no more tracks to skip through. Given that for me Braincell was one of a handfull of full-on artists that still had some integrity left, I give this a big thumbs DOWN! 1/5