Blubber Posted June 2, 2016 Share Posted June 2, 2016 ARJUNA PRIMAL CONTACT Parvati Records 1. Arjuna - Whispering Angels 2. Arjuna - Endless Possibilities 3. Arjuna - Duality 4. Arjuna - Cermenate Sunrise 5. Arjuna - Stand Alone 6. Arjuna & Farebi Jalebi - Secret Window 7. Arjuna & Orestis - Unintended Consequences 8. Arjuna - As Long As It Burns 9. Arjuna & Atriohm - The Drunken Orchestra ...review will follow from IronSun Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronSun Posted June 20, 2016 Share Posted June 20, 2016 ARJUNA PRIMAL CONTACT Parvati Records 1. Arjuna - Whispering Angels 2. Arjuna - Endless Possibilities 3. Arjuna - Duality 4. Arjuna - Cermenate Sunrise 5. Arjuna - Stand Alone 6. Arjuna & Farebi Jalebi - Secret Window 7. Arjuna & Orestis - Unintended Consequences 8. Arjuna - As Long As It Burns 9. Arjuna & Atriohm - The Drunken Orchestra ...review will follow from IronSun Every year around January for the last four or five years I have spent some money on other cd’s than Goa. This started out at first to be a lot of psychill and psychedelic downtempo, but over the years my appetite for electronic music also came to encompass different uptempo genre’s. So the last two years this meant I got some albums and VA’s from my favorite chill-out / prog, full-on & forest labels. The way I approach this, as just buying anything at all does not stroke with my attitude towards art, is to browse forums for list of ‘top 10 of genre x of the previous year’ (hence the prerequisite of January). Since my extremely positive experience with Hutti Heita last year, I decided to go for some forest again this year. I settled on VA - Umcherrel 2: The Backwoods Baize by Treetrolla Records (A label I love since their awesome comp Remember The Slime), Blue Hour Sounds’ VA - The Dark Side Of Dawn and last but not least Arjuna’s Primal Contact on Parvati Records. Turns out this was a damn good haul. (Thanks to Rotwang for recommending The Dark Side Of Dawn somewhere here btw!) I must admit this is the first Parvati release I own. I know I know shame on me. But let me make it up to you with a review: According to the Parvati site, Arjuna was born in the Himalayas in India in 1982 Ever since, he has had a unique and interesting journey through life. He grew up in Goa, the mecca of psy trance, where he saw the birth and evolution of this mystical genre. Arjuna started collecting psytrance DATs and mini disks at a very early age. At the age of 19, he got his first shot behind the decks and there was no looking back. This is his debut album, and MAN is the cover artwork sweet!! It looks like a scene out of an awesome psychedelic animated movie... The details in the cover relate really well to the music! Arjuna’s sound design is crystal clear: it is an absolute joy to listen to the intriciate details that get woven throughout each track. That being said, the album starts off pretty intense with heavy kick and bass and gets more and more muddy/confused towards the end, an approach I can definitely appreciate. The level of detail he puts into his production is remarkable although the overall style is a lot more straightforward and driving than for example Hutti Heita’s debut, yet not as intense and oppressive as Goch’s. This makes it a little easier to listen to and is also a bit more danceable in my opinion, mainly due to the grooviness of the basslines. Definite highlights of the first half for me are endless possibilities and cermenate sunrise with their awesome drive. The first half of the album may be categorised as a kind of forest that more closely resembles Dark Psytrance of around 2007-8 and less the swampy muddy modern forest. The sounds produced are really on the verge between organic and synthetic, which is a very nice accomplishment in my opinion. It sounds organic enough to feel warm (Forest has the tendency to feel like an aural warm blanket to me) yet retains enough synthetic elements to sound sharp and technologic. I find this relates very well to the title of the album, with ‘primal’ signifying organic nature and chaos while contact presumes something more alien, highly sophisticated and technological. The album has a lot of collaborations, and for the most part I like them, but the collab with Orestis, unintended consequnces is just too fast and hectic for me at some times and because of this loses a bit coherencey. The collab with Farebi Jalebi features, as expected, a very heavy kick and bass, but doesn’t really manage to catch my interest as well as the rest of the tracks. However, my absolute favorite track here is also a collab and that is with Atriohm, one of the grandmasters of the genre as far as I’m concerned. The track focuses more on a slower but atmospheric approach which is strengthened in the beginning by a myriad of organic bleeps, urghs, blargh and ooooorghs that seem to come from all sides. Through all this seems to be interwoven in the background the sound of instruments playing but heavily distorted, this must be the drunk orchestra!. It creates such a groovy sensation. Sound production here is absolutely godlike in my opinion. Conclusion: I simply adore this album. It has the right Kick/Bass intensity, it sounds a bit less swampy than for example Goch but is groovier for it and ultimately that benefits how danceable this is. I would love to hear Arjuna live one day and the follow-up album will be an insta-buy. 4/5! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ormion Posted June 26, 2016 Share Posted June 26, 2016 Cool album, something between Darkpsy and Forest. My favourite track is his collaboration with Orestis which is a bit more sinister than the rest. 7/10 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Starkraver Posted March 29, 2017 Share Posted March 29, 2017 Listening to it quite a lot these days. Sadly it's already sold out :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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