Yudhisthira - Sine Qua Non

[Trance2MoveU]

 

Artist: Yudhisthira

Title: Sine Qua Non

Label: Vertigo Records

Date: November, 2011

 

 

1. Sacred Cave

2. The Room

3. Spiritual Entity

4. Material World

5. City Scapes

6. Maya

7. Om Nama Narayana

8. Kaneo

9. Weirding Way

 

 

"A condition without which it could not be..."

 

Latin meaning an absolutely necessary condition. Like breathing. Or...scrolling one handed while viewing the latest in ebony threesome action during the kids's naptime. I guess...

 

Vertigo Records is a Russian label that usually have their feet firmly planted on the dark side of things, but have recently been branching out. They released the Delerious Noon disc which I believe to be supremely underrated. Yudhisthira is Ogi and Bugi ...wait. Really? Ogi and Bugi? Sounds like a f*cking kids show. Whatever. These guys from Macedonia are on their second release, their first being Civilization and Transcendence. Wasn't really impressed with that one if I'm being honest. The first thing that stands out about this though is the beautiful cover. Look at those colors! It runs the gamut from the blues of the heavens, to the greens of the forest culminating in the deep browns of the Earth. Stunning. Sure they have a multi armed deity chilling by the lake to take it to that spiritual next level, but it looks cool to me. They bill it as an audio fairytale...

 

Ooohh, I can't wait to hear this.

 

 

Sacred Cave- This is some freaky forest shit. The bass line rumbles like an animal on the hunt while eerie effects bubble and scatter like cockroaches with the light on. It's really a nightmarish scenario as creepy crawlies move with an awkward fluidity. Like spiders. You know the way they move. It's unnatural. But this...

 

this was tasty. By the way, Jokkinen you suck!

 

 

The Room- Deeper down the hole we go with more effects in layers. Pretty creepy like the previous track with some nice leads and ominous melodies. Reminds me of the Johhny Depp version of Alice. Only instead of the Tweedles being goofy, they had meat cleavers behind their back.

 

Where did this come from?

 

 

Spiritual Entity- "No idea who they are..."

 

The flute adds mystery as the bass line rumbles and effects squeak like mice after scoring some cheese. Gated synths rattle and scream with the layers piling up. It's liquid, amorphous as it wraps itself around you in creaking forest brilliance. There is an evil growling afoot. Someone or...something is watching.

 

"For the last time Davy, no you cannot have my last Oxy!"

 

 

Material World- "I'm living in the material world, I'm living in the material world, can't say what I'm doing here, but I hope to see much clearer after living in the material world."

 

See, I don't remember Madonna's lyrics that way. Get me, you guys are probably like...who? You mean that sinewy grandmother with the tatoos on her hands? Trust me, she was to the eighties what Rihanna is to today's pop crap. Scrapes and scratches join a funky little beat as the pads unwind. It picks up a little Glowing Flame style towards the end with driving intensity and bubbling.

 

"Get it off, get it off! Shoot that motherf*cker!!!!" - Justin Timberlake, right before his transformation into a blood sucking zombie.

 

 

City Scapes- This is an alien city with weird dwellings as the denizens creep about with a watchful eye. Plenty of echoing synths and effects with depth inducing layers. Good, and it gets better near the end when the main melody kicks in. It flirts with goa, but only just. Man, a lot to dig into here.

 

 

Maya- "Maya...the veil of forgetfulness that deludes living entities into illusion about their true spiritual nature and home."

 

I know they don't own the word, but maybe we should allow the Pleiadians to retire that track name. Nah, that would be like Olive Garden retiring the word pasta because they think they are the end all and be all in Italian food. Let me be clear...the Pleiadians are better than Olive Garden. Although endless breadsticks...

 

More layers in this spiritual sandwich as sounds ricochet off each other and effects clamor for attention. It's like a firefight in space with all the laser activity. Set phasers to ass kicking. Not overly powerful, but pleasingly intricate. Love how they twist a track from point a to b.

 

You know Shatner hit that, right? See McCoy? Dirty ol f*cker. Did he die in front of a computer of a self inflicted gunshot wound with one hand down his pants while on a teen asian girls site? Cause, cause that's how I figured it would happen.

 

 

Om Nama Narayana- Are you gonna get all goa on me? It's almost mandatory with a track name like that. And that's how it begins as the intensity starts to build. Three minutes in and the lead unravels like ribbons on Christmas morning and just like Christmas there is a surprise. After a short break it changes into a percussive undercurrent that believe it or not adds to the mystery. Sure it leaves the goa behind, but it goes in an equally interesting direction.

 

Kaneo-

whoa.

 

Another multi-layered effects driven atmospheric track. These guys have been practicing. It's deep and lush striking that balance between motion and feeling. There is no downtime on this one, just a spacey vibe with a bunch of synth on synth interaction.

 

Weirding Way- With a filtered lead that climbs and descends the bass line gallops away. There is considerably more sunshine here, and I realize that this is a long track. Not bad, but not as deep as the previous stuff. And in my what the f*ck moment was Santanna a guest on this? That wailing guitar sounds like him like a hockey player with his head down it shows that this project is either stupid enough to or isn't afraid to go into one of the danger zones of psytrance.

 

Guitars...you either love 'em or hate 'em.

 

 

This was an enjoyable surprise for me. It's not smash to the face power you get from South African psytrance or the soaring melodic brilliance goa trance can give you. It is twisting and evolving music that is very deep. Layers abound to keep the atmosphere interesting and it sounds full and rich. I don't think this would blow anyone off the dancefloor, but if you're in the mood for some driving and detailed psytrance this would fit the bill. Nice.

 

 

 

http://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/ver/ver1cd025.html

 

http://www.beatspace.com/6744/Vertigo+Records/YUDHISTHIRA/Sine+Qua+Non/detail.aspx

 

http://www.goastore.ch/product_info.php?products_id=4624

 

http://www.saikosounds.com/english/display_release.asp?id=8934

 

Mdk

[Maden]

Sacred Cave : To start the experience in Yudhisthira 's world, let's go into this dark cave which show immediatly the album's idea. The bass is pretty dark and it will be the same in most of the tracks here, some xylophone sample and a good twist (hit hat, clap) are playing, liquid sound are here too and the flow is well built.

 

The Room : We are directly in the binary bassline, no atmospheric intro here, and the kick will drive with all the rest. At 1:32 we have a darker rythmic which will bring step by step the different psy elements. We were in the cave, we are now in the room and we can respire a new air. More spacey oriented sound, and still good twist mixed with fx. Good composition. We enter in the crazyness here . What a surprise!

 

Spiritual Entity : Dark voice , dark bassline, but like often, we have after sunny lighted landscape. This is the Sine Qua Non direction. Breaked rythm at 2:20 and it restart from minimal to more complex. The sounds that do the thematic are like screamy, don't know how to say. Not my favorite because of the kind of voice doing the thematic i was talking about.

 

Material World: Here more groovy than the first tracks. i like the digital drum like in this begining, the bassline make you dance, at 2:50 the emotion is coming with melody line making a varation in the track. New element again at 6:00 that catch your mind to travel space and time dancing. Nice landscape, enought psychedelick.

 

City Scape is a nice construction because the key moment is at the end (6:35 - 7:20), it has some voice sample that irritate a bit, anyway all the other sample are good, the second part don't let me be sitted on my chair and more and more trippy during the track until the end.

 

Maya : Quickly in the twist, this track get a lively panel of sound, waoo amazing, fx coming from every where very psychedelick and like a train sound from the background. Pretty dark.

 

Om Nama Narayana : Introduction with vocal, with a very close bass with evolution, first part with strange sound playing a melody, to a first break wich bring new element and a new idea installed. Totally groovy, sometime enlighted and sometine full of strange scratchy sound. Good

 

Kaneo : The bassline begin cool and become darker quickly, we can enter inside step by step to a good landscape of psychedelick sound and melody.

I really appreciate the whole track, not only fx sound overused but everything is melody mixed together. A dark touch with the groove spirit. Nice

 

Weirding Way is a very nice track, it has sweet introduction, ok listening another time to check if it's a guitar sound that is playing the same melody at 4:08 and at 8:55, i normally don't like the guitar in trance but here the sound is very well worked. Nice atmosphere from the begining to the end to close this brillant release.

 

Nice release, good production.