Ephedra - What the Future Brings

[Tsotsi]

Artist: Ephedra
Title: What The Future Brings
Label: Goa Madness Records
Release: May 18, 2018

Tracklist: -

1. In Search Of Flying Saucers
2. Flying Into The Night
3. Twisted Keys
4. Machiavellin?
5. Savannah Monk Trail (Ephedra & Imba)
6. Cosmic Collaboration (Proxeeus & Ephedra)
7. Return To the N Life
8. Deep inside Feelings
9. Floating Souls

Ok whats going with you bunch? Triquetra, Morphic Resonance, Sab Kuch, Lectro Spectral, Geomagnetic/Timewarp comps and the rest of the 2018 release gang (you're all great) and now Ephedra.

You graduate from middle school? Finally got yourselves real jobs? Get yourselves married? Have a couple of kids? Cause 2018 has been a year of mature music.

A year of well thought out, technical bangers that have got me hitting puberty.

Now Ephedra comes in to bring to add a little extra flavour. To show that the big boys know when to hold back till just the right point, when to build but not explode, when to reserve their tracks to create anticipation, when to just make nice sounds and not stress about all the hooha. 2018 got us all grown up.

 

In search of Flying Saucers - UFO's. mystery. space. aliens. New Mexico the home of the Roadrunner. The kick Is hot the leads are perfectly reserved coming in and out but never to insane. This is the patience Im talking about. A really really good track.

Flying Into The Night - a little break beat introduces us into spacier and faster feeling track. The leads twirl and slice away in the back, being brought forward at perfect moments as the rest of the track balances out. The melody is infectious as its shot at you over and over again. The track is pure hyperspace listening material, put it on and before you know it you’ve reached galaxy NGC 7320

All Aboard

Twisted Keys - we don’t slow down here, a short moody intro keeps the journey rolling. Little tribal drum taps in the background are beat out with the lightest of fingers before leads takes centre stage & zip us away. Once again Ephedra balances the elements and layers out with exquisite grace. Nothing in this song is monotoned & just as you think the frenzy has ended Ephedra takes it up a notch and finishes with some great knob fiddles.

Machiavellian - Ah señor Niccolò, the espouser of the old greek and roman value systems as well as the man that had the personality trait of deceit, self interest and manipulation named after him. The only manipulation in this song is that of Ephedra’s tools over your brain. Ephedra darkens things up a bit while keeping a coherent flow throughout the song. A perfect track for workplace craftiness, backstabbing a trusted confidant and dancing in any dark location of your picking.

Epehdra & Imba - Savannah Monk Trail - Love the choral vocals and the drums in the intro. Another cool baseline and kick combo then takes us off to a happier place where elastic leads extend in and out. More squelches, an elephant and tribal chants set this track apart from the others. Imba and Ephedra’s mojo works in fine balance with each other, proven as the track increases in intensity from start to finish. A fav

Ephedra and Proxeeus, Cosmic Collaboration - I gotta say I was excited when I saw these two together on a track, even more so the the title suggested that these two came up with some sweet sweet hallucinogenic Himalayan Cliff Bee Mad honey for us all to sip on. They did, much more melodic than I expected while still completely psychedelic and of course totally banging, another welcome and successful combination of talent.

Return to the N Life - A title that would also work well for an Ice Cube album, Return to the N life takes us back into the land of classic ephedra. Another mature track that despite not really standing out I would still play at any party, yea even my nephews 6th birthday party. Once again Ephedra shows a lot of skill with his instruments and thought in production.

Deep Inside Feelings - Ephedra gets all sentimental and opens up his electrifying feelings to us. I love when he strips the baseline away, a metaphor for his struggle to balance an minimalist life with the pressure to succeed (I don’t know, sounds cool though). The song is hot hot hot but nothing prepares you for whats next.

Floating souls - The closing track. What's it gonna be? Which way will he take this? Many questions and only one answer. Ecstasy. Ephedra takes us away from all earthly feelings and into a land of the beyond. I don’t know exactly what it is….Yes I do, the intensity, leads, melody, dreamy floatiness and all the other things that make Goa trance just so incredible. This goes up there with Experiments into some of my favourite Goa trance tracks of all time.

 

That’s that, what I will call a perfectly balanced album. This is by far my favourite Ephedra album, the patience in the track development all the way to the actual track development really stand out here. It’s a skill that comes with experience and with 3 albums under his belt it seems like Ephedra is getting plenty of that. Like all good middle school graduations, Ephedra has matured his sound into something completely delightful for the ears.

Big shout out to Goa Madness for their support of great artists and 3 big blasting Ephedra albums. 

https://goamadnessrecords.bandcamp.com

 

 

 

[Imba]

Thanks for nice feedback.

 

Regarding our track, well it's done after my last gig in Belgium and visit to Ephedra studio which became routine, everytime I come to Belgium I visit him for studio sessions. We wanted something a bit different from our usual styles and we joked a lot. We said let's make Vini Vici triplets and chants but in Goa way, so we did that. Ephedra himself recorded chants, he used vocoder for effect, we sampled elephants, gongs, buddhist chants, tribal drums, random stuff. He got some new hardware so we used it, most of track is actualy hardware: TB-03, Virus Ti, Microbrute, Nord Lead, JP8000 and some more... it was really funny and we enjoyed a lot!

Here is video from the making of... with our stupid tired faces 

 

 

[Tsotsi]

19 hours ago, Imba said:

Thanks for nice feedback.

 

Regarding our track, well it's done after my last gig in Belgium and visit to Ephedra studio which became routine, everytime I come to Belgium I visit him for studio sessions. We wanted something a bit different from our usual styles and we joked a lot. We said let's make Vini Vici triplets and chants but in Goa way, so we did that. Ephedra himself recorded chants, he used vocoder for effect, we sampled elephants, gongs, buddhist chants, tribal drums, random stuff. He got some new hardware so we used it, most of track is actualy hardware: TB-03, Virus Ti, Microbrute, Nord Lead, JP8000 and some more... it was really funny and we enjoyed a lot!

Here is video from the making of... with our stupid tired faces 

 

 

It was by far the freshest and most unique track on the album. Thoroughly enjoyed. The triplets worked a treat. Its nice to know you had fun making the track as well, keeps things spicy. 

[Jaza]

A return to form after the second album which was a bit flat IMO. I love Ephedra's sound generally so this album is very welcome in my life.

Tell me though... Are my ears fooling me or does this sound a bit more intentionally old school compared to the crisp production of the first two? Not full old school Proxeeus style, but not as sharp? 

(I am quite legitimately having hearing issues of late, this is not a trick question.)

 

[Trance2MoveU]

3rd album from Alexandre Cohen is quite good.  The kicks are punchy, he impressively twists 303 leads to his will, and the whole sound was nicely layered.  I don't think he's trying to tell a story here.  I believe he wants us to get off our a** and ask that cute girl to dance.  True dance music and I suppose you can't ask for much more than that.

[Jaza]

Seriously though... Is it just me or does it not sound as sharp as the first two albums, production wise?

 

[psychedelic chipmunk]

Can''t wait to give this one a listen. Love the Journey through my head album a lot. For what ever reason I'm always like super late to Ephedra releases. Only recently found about Flying over the universe.