Psychowave - Dancefloor Metadata [Boom Rec.]

[antic604]

 

• Psychowave - The Open Ceremony
• Psychowave - Musica
• Psychowave - Ground Groove
• Psychowave - Nav Gate Bahia
• Psychowave - Love Act
• Psychowave - Dancem Macacos, Dancem (2015 Remix)
• Via Axis - The 4th State (Psychowave Remix)
• Psychowave - Sunrise Prelude
• Psychowave - Elves On The Dancefloor

As it often happens, I stumbled upon this by pure chance (on Soundcloud, I think) because the cover art was so striking: boldly coloured, drawing inspiration from the old-school fractal collages, stylishly merging the spiritual, earthly and futuristic. The next thing I noticed was Boom Records logo - home to the BoTFB, Fractal Glider, Principles of Flight - and my interest immediately piqued, even though I wasn't at all familiar with Natan Bueno's - admittedly modest - body of work. I checked the samples and was sold on the spot.

To my mind "Dancefloor Metadata" should be classified as melodic psy-trance, not really a "Goa"-trance. While it's full of acid sounds, soaring synths and pads, at places gets very dense, elaborate and trippy; it somehow avoids the typical Goa cliches and instead relies on more typical, I'd venture to use the word "theatrical" melodies. What I mean is that while Infected Mushroom, Talpa or Nystagmus went all-in with incorporating classical music structures in psy-trance aesthetics, Psychowave made sort of half-step, i.e. the atmosphere is serious and usually somber or melancholic, the melodies are dignified, exalted and sophisticated, but it falls short of creating little concertos, etudes or symphonies those other artists aspired to. Mind you, I'm not saying it is bad (for trying and failing to achieve that) and I think this was a conscious decision - it's definitely a pretty distinct, unique style that safely avoids sounding "like 100-s of other goa-trance albums" and steers clear from being perceived as tacky or cheesy (or "IM-copycat"). The album is consistent in terms of style, but individual tracks are distinct enough to provide variety. I liked in particular the the jazzy / old-school techno-ish chord progressions in #2 and #3 (when you sample the full chord and transpose it up/down), well implemented singing in #4, the trancey drive of #7 and acid-lines in basically all of the tracks. What I wasn't fond of were some of the "real" instruments, especially violins in #1 or #6 and it took me some weeks to get over Brazilian speech samples - I mean they sound fine, but the language will forever link in my head with TV soap operas...

On the whole, this is an immensely enjoyable album - melodic, acidic, trippy and ...not afraid to sound different. It's good music, expressed using psy-trance tools and techniques.

4/5

Samples:

Buy here:
https://boomrecords.bandcamp.com/album/dancefloor-metadata
http://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/bom/bom1cd034.html
http://beatspace.com/8809/BooM+Records/PSYCHOWAVE/Dancefloor+Metadata/detail.aspx
https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Psychowave_Dancefloor_Metadata?id=Bdcolum3cqvjjekma5oulvixh24

[BraneFreeze]

This is Psychowave's first full length album. I thought it was pretty good overall, but some of the songs just seemed to run on and never really developed.

 

The best tracks for me were Nav Gate Bahia, Dancem Macacos (minus the talking intro), Sunrise Prelude, and Elves On The Dancefloor.

 

I think Psychowave's got talent, but his compositions need more structure.

 

3 / 5

[Penzoline]

I ended up finding it average as well. I do really like his unique style and interesting sounds, but like branefreeze said, the compositions are dragging it down. The tracks have a lot going on in them but I don't feel like they've achieved anything by the end. The spanish samples are highly distracting and some melodies are just really dull and cheesy, Infected Mushroom-esque but more amateur. "Musica" is probably the worst offender of the album. It feels like the album could benefit more from being darker mysterious atmospheres, but instead it feels maybe a bit too playful. Also I like the idea of real instruments mixed in but the compositions just aren't working.

 

Best tracks are Nav Gate Bahia, Love Act and 4th State. Ground Groove gets points for the production.

 

I had big expectations for this because the track "Big Bang Podcast" reeked of a proper Hallucinogen vibe. Mysterious, trippy, deep, smooth and floating perfection. Unfortunately there's none quite like it here.

[Celaripo]

i think it is a very good album

[acid-brain]

I haven't checked this album yet, but I'm interested to hear reviewers say the tracks are poorly organised and don't really progress satisfactorily. In my opinion, Psychowave tracks like Moon Bindi (one of the very best goa tracks from the last 5 years!) and Supernova have some of the most psychedelic progression and flow I've heard in goa. Reminiscent of Koxbox in how lots of different colourful ideas are woven tightly together without big buildups or repetition. I'll be listening to this album and report whether I share the consensus view here.

[Trance2MoveU]

I enjoyed his

On 9/8/2016 at 11:35 AM, Penzoline said:

I ended up finding it average as well. I do really like his unique style and interesting sounds, but like branefreeze said, the compositions are dragging it down. The tracks have a lot going on in them but I don't feel like they've achieved anything by the end. The spanish samples are highly distracting and some melodies are just really dull and cheesy, Infected Mushroom-esque but more amateur. "Musica" is probably the worst offender of the album. It feels like the album could benefit more from being darker mysterious atmospheres, but instead it feels maybe a bit too playful. Also I like the idea of real instruments mixed in but the compositions just aren't working.

 

Best tracks are Nav Gate Bahia, Love Act and 4th State. Ground Groove gets points for the production.

 

I had big expectations for this because the track "Big Bang Podcast" reeked of a proper Hallucinogen vibe. Mysterious, trippy, deep, smooth and floating perfection. Unfortunately there's none quite like it here.

Even the tracks you highlighted as the best tracks are weighed down by seemingly unnecessary clutter.  Hard pass.

I suppose we'll always have Sunshine Reborn!