Troglodytes - Written in Stoned

[ollylovesgoa]

As I haven't written a review before I felt I should wait until the right release struck me as worth the effort. This definetly is. Having been exploring the dark forest sound intensively for a few weeks now I've grown to love it beyond any other sub genre of modern psytrance, and this is one of the best forest albums i've heard. It genuinely gives "Tumult" a run for its money. That sort of comparison is for the individual listener really, anyway:

Troglodytes - Written in Stoned

The album is a coherent journey throughout the deepest and darkest Scandinavian forest, and as such it begins with a relatively long introduction, the sample would be far too lengthy were it not hidden beneath such thick layers of eerie sound. The track picks up and the album begins, and it becomes very apparent that this is an incredibly dark album. Not neccesarily in theme, and not necessarily to the avid dark psytrance listener. By dark I don't mean evil, I mean without melody. If you're an Israeli lover the chances are the intelligence behind the release will not translate to you. The closest we get to a melody is the dribblings of high pitched windchimes that hang in the background. The bassline can be a little prominent for my taste, but the sheer wealth of psychedelia combats this easily, and the sequences of such effects create a vivid atmosphere that is what forest psytrance endeavours to do. As we journey through four great tracks, Sacred Weeds being my favourite, the trip through this particular twisted nightmare forest arrives at a strange and more than a little out of place dub track. I loathe the sample, but it picks up and turns out to be quite enjoyable, at least interesting, heh, dark forest psychedelic dub. I could have done without the track as It does lessen the coherence of the journey, but it's not a major gripe, I just skip it.

Continuing then with the story we reach one of my favourite tracks of the album. The bassline gets a little groovier, and the effects tighten and sharpen up, stabbing and ferreting around with a strangely vague and abstract focus that is so typical of this beautiful sub genre. Amongst these effects comes softer breaths of the forest, reverberating for a second at most and slipping away into the leaf litter. As the track slows down, a very effective sample arrives through a gloriously psychedelic sequence, the percussion opens up and the sample is twisted into an echo that fits well into the atmosphere. "Animal Vision" is again, another very strong track. Strange voices and thick, squelching vibrations scatter around, entrancing the listener with the hypnotic rhythym. The artist really knows where to put the higher pitched sounds, and just how quiet they can be to have an effect without disturbing the darkness too much. This one builds to an array of overlapping sounds that gets very intense. A sample comes in "caught the echoes of rituals". We have arrived at the most ancient part of the forest it would seem. Just by being here we are assualted by relentless psychedelia, the sounds of nature have become deformed and mutated by our altered perception and hypnotic state of trance.

Having reached the inner forest, the next track opens up with tribal rythyms. The spoken of ritual reveals itself, and we are thrown into a track with an impressive introduction in how a bassline can be manipulated. The effects increase until around three minutes in where the snaps and breaths make a new re-emergence, but with increased aggresion and tension. The fizzing sounds twist and writhe and the track is solid.

The finale track ends the journey. And the best has been saved for last. The level of psychedelic manipulations is mindmelting, and these garble and giggle until the invert themselves into a bassline form, and then spew themselves out again. Voices are laced upon a subtle wobble. This is true forest psytrance. The energy erupts around two and a half minutes in and it is difficult to take at first. This track has its impact because of the prior listening of the album. The bassline is used very effectively in this track, and all of this wonderful sonic entertainment continues up until my favourite section of the whole album at around 5.30. The beat pounds, and the warbles and grumbles of this living forest roll around the awareness of the listener. A fantastic track.

In conclusion then:

This is a genuinely incredible album, a cohesive story through a rich and vibrant landscape, intensely heavy psychedelia, and a huge aspect of hypnotic rhythym that entrances the listener into it's world.

A solid 9/10, I could have done without the dub tune, but understand that it couldn't have been the finale, maybe it could've been on a comp except for its unique style.

Listen to this album forest lovers!

[Shpongled247]

Somehow I forgot about this album until recently.. It is really good quality forest trance.. And extremely psychedelic to my ears.

 

Hope I can submerge myself in it sometime soon. Not sure it has the sheer intensity of Tumult but a contender nonetheless. Nice review there too, thanks for reminding me.