Lectro Spektral Daze - Infinitely Intricate Unfolding Kaleidoscope

[Tsotsi]

Artist: Lectro Spektral Daze

Title: Infinitely Intricate Unfolding Kaleidoscope

Label: Neogoa Records

Release: Feb 23 2018

 

Tracklist:

1. Experiences And Encounters

2. Acid Feels

3. Observing From All Around

4. Matter Into Energy

5. Seen Something

6. Thoughts They are Like Flames

7. Yellow And Green And Blue Patterns

8. Wave After Wave

 

I gotta say at first i was confused. Lectro Spektral Daze does some great stuff, some of my favourites, his use of breaks is intelligent, the builds keep me guessing and the fun just jumps from all his tracks.
The confusion however came from my first few listens on my car speakers and a pair of little in ear phones. The highs and Lectro’s use of sweeps caused me to wince in pain. For example in Acid Feel at the 4 minute mark the washed out sweep made me pull my earphones out and turn the volume down. At 6 min the highs build to a similar discomfort  I went through some of his older tracks and heard similar sweeps and highs that didn’t cause me the same discomfort.

Then Neogoa were all ‘lets review this bad boy aye’. So i thought, it must just be me, the team themselves couldn’t have messed mastering up that badly (I'll always believe in you Neogoa). And so I should, on proper speakers everything changed.

'When you face animosity you don't give up, you turn the biggest loudest rig you have access to on and hit play'

 

1. Experiences and Encounters - Nice little intro, and a cool kick and bassline, very Lectro Spektral styled. The progressive influences come through in the beginning and it doesn't take long before the track (Almost explodes into energy), if those leads were just a little louder, if they just roared a little more. Regardless the melody doesn't get old and we soon come to the first big break, it’s a good one too, then the track really blasts off, i love that lead that comes in around 6:20 coulda listened to that for the rest of the track really.

 

2. Acid Feels - A warm acid filled track, that doesn't take long to draw you into a deep trance. Overall a pretty positive track. The pain from the washy sweeps is gone and the high builds teetered on the edge of painful without actually crossing the line.

 

3. Observing From all Around - Starts without much messing around, cool knob turning and big drums lead us into our first melody. The use of one off sound effects and connected samples is pretty sweet. It really takes off at the halfway point. And that break at 6 min! Thats what im here for, This really where Lectro stands out from the crowd, the change of direction is awesome. A great track and favourite of mine.

 

4. Matter into Energy - Another short intro, very educational all the same, and we are met by warm full-on sounding pads.A floaty sense of funk surrounds fills this track. As the promo track to the album this didn't really grab me, after a few more listens I’m turnt right up. Another great break, this time more intense. Instead of over-layering with melodies other sounds and fx are used to keep your interest.

 

5. Seen Something - A light star spangled first act leads us into another cool melody which takes center stage. I would’ve liked the leads after the first melody to roar at me a bit more, instead they are placed deeper into the track drawing me in. The broken beats around 5 min are sweat and another LSD trademark i appreciate. This is one track however where we coulda dressed the kick drum up in a little tree costume and sent it to the backstage to offer the rest of the song more room to move.

 

6. Thoughts They are Like Fire - They do don't they? Who'd have thought.

We get some cool loops and wacky sounds drawing us into the track before the melody takes over, not overly complex but lasts longer than the other melodies we have heard so far. 

 

7. Yellow And Green And Blue Patterns - Goa trance can be a little bit like a game of rugby. Sometimes the Full Back has the ball and takes center stage, other times they just sit there to support the rest of the team. Sometimes the Wing gets the ball and takes center stage, they get some help from the others but it's really all them going for it. For the first half of this song i would have liked more focus on the ball carriers. So much coolness happening but not a lot taking focus...It deep tho.
That being said, this was without a doubt my favourite track, Why? You guessed it, that break is beautiful. Tear inducing, uplifting, beauty. This is what i came here for. The purity of the second half of this track is unreal.

 

8. Wave After Wave - Who is that lady? Is that the weird girl from American idol, i gotta find her . . .
- Mary roach, My God Lectro, did you get Mary to talk about acid on your track? My lord, has she changed her name to Guilbeaux yet? The rest of the track is too hot to trot, another favourite of mine, the chopped up melody and broken beats take over and make me to jump around. The voices in the back are a great addition.

 

 

Lektro’s strong focus on breaks, nice use of builds and jump inducing fast paced changes have been mixed into a deeper style of trance. While at any point he could have brought parts of his track into stronger focus, what we get instead is balanced deep listening journey. I agree with the label when they say “...putting the listener into a unique state of deep trance led by trademark LSD melodies and pulsating drum-kicks…”.

I enjoyed all tracks and loved three. I think Lectro has real talent, the album isn’t crawling with influence from other artists which tells me this amigo has his shit together. The work also shows that Neogoa is willing to release something a little bit different and unique.

That being said I think the album could have gone a different direction into masterpiece territory, it’s art no doubt, good art too. Random snippets of sound, good melodies and awesome changing flow, more focus could have gone into bringing out some of the ‘bigger’ sounds, This may have taken away from the deep trance state induced rhythm of LSD, but it could have paid off big as well. 

Don’t get me wrong, the work is incredible and i was happy to purchase it, but i feel LSD has the potential to release the Magnum Opus.

I read somewhere that what really separates the great originals from the rest is sheer volume of work. From art to engineering, more albums means more greats. If you catch my drift.

 

https://neogoarecords.bandcamp.com/album/infinitely-intricate-unfolding-kaleidoscope

[Neogoa]

Thank you very much for your review and track-by-track analysis, we really appriciate it! I'm also glad you gave another spin on proper speakers, as you said, we do care how our production will sound and any input and feedback help us get better!

-R

[Aspartic]

The first LSD track I heard was Gamma One, and I was instantly in love. A breath of fresh air through goa land.
More EP's followed, an album followed, but I became less impressed as it didn't feel new or fresh anymore. Something was lacking.
Now, talent always comes to the surface again. And what do you know?!

YES! Danny aka LSD is back with a bang!
On "Infinitely Intricate Unfolding Kaleidoscope" he still uses his biggest trademark: the basswork.
This is incredible. All tracks have a glooming, pumping bassline in the back that carries the track.
And the kick. Wow, LSD doesn't make big loud drops, but when the break ends, the naked basskick sneaks in like a lizard and it screams UNDERGROUND!

What sets this album apart form previous releases?
In my opinion, overall track structure and soundscapes. Every track is a story, a beauty with so many delicate synth sounds. Never harsh, but so sweet.
And always psychedelic. The slower bpm of some tracks is perfect to make the tracks breathe more.
 

It's very difficult to select a favorite track. Maybe Wave After Wave because of its floating nature. But the whole album is so very beautiful.

"Infinitely Intricate Unfolding Kaleidoscope" is LSD's stamp on goa and psychedelic trance. His best work to date. And I'm proud to have the cd on the shelf.
And I'm sure we will be blessed with even better and other work from him in the future.

But let us first enjoy the beauty of this music. Congrats Danny and Neogoa!

[Neogoa]

Thank you for the review and your continous support!

[gfp1]

On 3/17/2018 at 11:39 PM, Aspartic said:

On "Infinitely Intricate Unfolding Kaleidoscope" he still uses his biggest trademark: the basswork.
This is incredible. All tracks have a glooming, pumping bassline in the back that carries the track.

maybe it's just me but to my ears this album is severely lacking in bass... i'm not sure if it was Mr. Lectro Spektral Daze's intention or the mastering choices but the low end frequencies feel neutered. whatever beautifully sequenced bassline and kick that there might have been gets de-emphasized to the point that my enjoyment of the album is reduced.

the fact that tsotsi mentions pulling out his earphones from one of the sweeps should tell you something... while listening on speakers is kinda okay, listening on my v-moda headphones, which are usually excellent at reproducing booming club-like bass, the low ends are often anemic. when the bass is more isolated it sounds fine but when the music becomes more complex, the highs have very little to push up against, there is no groove to the music, it's far too treble-y.

i know some people prefer that old school sound but i feel that in order to enter into the trance-state (the whole point of this genre of music, i would think) the mind focuses in on the repetitive nature of the bass and allows the effects surrounding it to create the psychedelia.  

turning the volume up to get more punch to the bass hurts my ears and there is only so much i can tolerate fiddling with equalizers. 

i don't think modern era goa (or more specifically Neogoa Records) as a rule needs to be trying so hard to re-create that 90's aesthetic. comparing the recently released remastered Etnica album Juggeling Alchemists with the original 1996 release, it's apparent that DAT records considers thickening up the bassline as part of what constitutes an improvement for modern sensibilities and equipment.

or to take another example, Timewarp's recent compilation Call of Goa 3, they've managed to maintain the integrity of the trippy goa highs without sacrificing the low end. 

 

in the past i've praised Neogoa's mastering as being gentle as it felt like the layers of sound were in good balance and thus easy to listen to at high volumes. though maybe part of what necessitated listening at higher volumes was the fact that the basslines lacked drive. so, ultimately i would like it if different approach was taken in the future to make the basslines more aggressive and prominent... 

i'm curious what Lectro Spektral Daze himself has to think about how his album came out...his previous albums had a much denser sound.

[Deimos]

I mastered this album and wasn't satisfied at all how it turned out, but this is the best I could pull out of his mixdowns, after many hours, re-runs and tweaks. Unfortunately stuff often spiked out of balance, especially synth sweeps/fx, and lows were really deep down in the sub-area without a real punch in those places (freqs) where we expect them to shine.

I tried to level all that as much as I could, no to hamper other stuff that was OK, in the process.

Production-wise, Danny had much better albums in the past, don't know what changed at his studio for this change of sound. Or maybe he just wanted to reacreate that early-90s goa sound and production values.

I apologize to all for not fully enabling you the listening pleasure of his music...

 

[Neogoa]

On 4/10/2018 at 8:07 AM, gfp1 said:

maybe it's just me but to my ears this album is severely lacking in bass... i'm not sure if it was Mr. Lectro Spektral Daze's intention or the mastering choices but the low end frequencies feel neutered. whatever beautifully sequenced bassline and kick that there might have been gets de-emphasized to the point that my enjoyment of the album is reduced.

the fact that tsotsi mentions pulling out his earphones from one of the sweeps should tell you something... while listening on speakers is kinda okay, listening on my v-moda headphones, which are usually excellent at reproducing booming club-like bass, the low ends are often anemic. when the bass is more isolated it sounds fine but when the music becomes more complex, the highs have very little to push up against, there is no groove to the music, it's far too treble-y.

i know some people prefer that old school sound but i feel that in order to enter into the trance-state (the whole point of this genre of music, i would think) the mind focuses in on the repetitive nature of the bass and allows the effects surrounding it to create the psychedelia.  

turning the volume up to get more punch to the bass hurts my ears and there is only so much i can tolerate fiddling with equalizers. 

i don't think modern era goa (or more specifically Neogoa Records) as a rule needs to be trying so hard to re-create that 90's aesthetic. comparing the recently released remastered Etnica album Juggeling Alchemists with the original 1996 release, it's apparent that DAT records considers thickening up the bassline as part of what constitutes an improvement for modern sensibilities and equipment.

or to take another example, Timewarp's recent compilation Call of Goa 3, they've managed to maintain the integrity of the trippy goa highs without sacrificing the low end. 

 

in the past i've praised Neogoa's mastering as being gentle as it felt like the layers of sound were in good balance and thus easy to listen to at high volumes. though maybe part of what necessitated listening at higher volumes was the fact that the basslines lacked drive. so, ultimately i would like it if different approach was taken in the future to make the basslines more aggressive and prominent... 

i'm curious what Lectro Spektral Daze himself has to think about how his album came out...his previous albums had a much denser sound.

Thank you very much for your in-depth sound-analysis. Believe it or not, this kind of feedback helps a lot to make our releases sound and feel better. When it comes to sound-policy at Neogoa Records, we try to respect artists input and preferences, but also to meet our (high) standards when it comes to sound-quality. Lectro Spektral Daze new album isn't the exception here and it was released when artist gave green light.

 

[Trance2MoveU]

Now this is the Neogoa I love.  Liquid layers, floating melodies, and a keen ear for atmosphere.  The music rages, breathes, and then is quick on the attack again.  Great job from down under.