V/A - Doppler FX (Alchemy Records 2004) CD [Full review]

[DeathPosture]

V/A – Doppler FX

 

 

Format: CD

Artist: Various Artists

Title: Doppler FX

Label: Alchemy Records, U.K.

Cat. #: ALCD 010

Date: late April

Year: 2004

 

Track listing:

 

01. 06’55” Rinkadink vs. Protoculture – Poolside Killers

02. 07’48” Tristan – Cats & Fish

03. 08’06” Shift & Simba feat. Judah - Dubmention

04. 08’22” Exaile – Pitch Shift Case

05. 07’24” Sesto Sento – Name of the Game

06. 06’45” Broken Toy – Creature of da Wheel

07. 07’42” Dark Soho vs. Fatali – Around the World

08. 08’04” Intelabeam vs. Cyclic – L’eft by a Comet

09. 08’29” Fatali vs. Bizarre Contact – Psychedelic Emotions

 

Review:

 

Full throttle full-on with a touch of UK trance magic…

 

UK label Alchemy Records is out with another one of their critically acclaimed compilations… The never-ending collaboration trend is very much present here, and so is the Israeli invasion with more than half the featured artists being Israeli… Will this live up to expectations created by the dazzling Rinkadink album? Let’s find out…

 

Let me take you thru the tracks…

 

#01: First up is Rinkadink vs. Protoculture… The dust has hardly settled from Vana’s brilliant album ‘Rabbit From Darkside’ and now he’s back on Alchemy with this Protoculture collaboration… This is full-on! Poolside full-on … I’m not sure this is the stuff I’d play @ my pool, but that’s a different story all together… Constant changes in pace and rhythm, hard-hitting bass… Breaks and build-ups en mas – with all kinds of weird, twisted bleeps and acid belches and the occasional neat little melody… This has got the Vana touch for sure… Energetic track! ;o)

 

#02: “Dogs living with cats and mice sleeping with fish… It’s just wrong and I think we need to put a stop to that sort of thing!” Next up is Triiiiiistan… Oh yes, I can’t get enough of Mr. Cooke’s compositions… And he does NOT disappoint on this little gem… Smooth, groovy intro topped up by an übercool Shpongle-like vocoded voice sample… Very British, very cool! ;o) There are some really heavy underlying beats here, alongside a wicked, yet subtle acid line… So deep, so groovy – Awesome! Oh, and nerds shouldn’t be allowed to dance!

 

#03: The mystery of the disappeared dub! Now here’s Isr-alian Shift playing around with some of his buds… This is a pretty hectic track – it’s fast-paced with all kinds of melodies and FX twirling back and forth… Oh, and check out the very Analog Pussy-like voice sample… Maybe it’s Judah? Dunno… And I’m not sure if I like it or not… The music is pretty decent – without being revolutionary in any way… The second half of the track is better though… Decent track!

 

#04: Uhhmmm very tasty intro on this one!… Sweet psychedelic guitar action from Israel – kinda reminds me of the Infected “Classical Mushroom” sound… This is pretty standard full-on Israeli trance, though with some added value in the form of some nice guitars, a couple of cool climaxes and uh, yeah pitch shifts… Not bad, not bad at all…

 

#05: Wauw, this is one spacey track… Sesto Sento has already made quite a name for themselves on trance-floors around the world…And with this track it’s no wonder why… Maximum power full on with all kinds of psychedelic effects… Loads of twisted FX and more pitch shifts… Check out the crazy part @ 4’44 – Awesome! Stand-out track!

 

#06: Ultra-short intro with engine talk… And then it’s just eerie, industrial sounding full on with rock’ish influences… There’s a weird old high-pitched sound in here that annoys the hell out of me… I’m sure this will appeal to all the Chemical Crew fans, but personally I’m not too impressed…

 

#07: Ahh… Good old Dark Soho – and this time with neo full-on wonder Fatali… Style-clash really, but the outcome isn’t bad… Again, it is max power full-on, but this time with a slightly darker edge as always when Dark Soho is involved… The second half of the track is the best, where madness is just pumping away in the good old-fashioned manner… Sweet track!

 

#08: I had no previous knowledge of neither Intelabeam nor Cyclic… A what a shame that was, ‘cause they seem really talented! Again it’s blasting full on with loads of impressive effects… It’s all really bouncy and happy and this morning track left a big smile on my face… Very nice track!

 

#09: More Fatali, this time with Bizarre Contact…It sure is sunrise time now and the melodies queue up on this very blissful morning track… Classic Israeli full-on… The production is flawless, and it’s almost a little too well-polished… Generally, I like it though… Just take it for what it is; a light, fluffy morning track… Nice!

 

First of all, check out the very, very classy cover-art… I dig it! Generally I like this compilation… If there were a couple of more stand-out tracks, this would’ve gotten an even higher mark in my cool-book! For the untrained ear, the majority of these tracks will sound similar… And to a certain degree, they are similar… So I guess you could say “for a V/A it just needs to be more V!”… But then again, people would have complained if the tunes were too different. So of course it is a matter of taste… If you do not appreciate Israeli full-on with a touch of UK psy-trance, I’d advise you to stay clear of this… If you do appreciate it however, you’ll love this!

 

7.5/10

 

Favourites: 2(!!), 4, 5(!!), 7, 8(!)

 

DeathPosture

 

External links:

Alchemy Records: www.alchemyrecords.co.uk

Psyshop: www.psyshop.com (Audio samples available!)

Saiko Sounds: www.saikosounds.com

Chaos Unlimited: www.chaosunlimited.co.uk

Trance-shop: www.trance-shop.com

Juno Records: www.juno.co.uk

[Trance2MoveU]

"Nerds should not be allowed to dance!"

 

 

Lamar disagrees.

 

Whew, that was tough to get through.  Not an enjoyable listening experience at all.  14 years old and and holds up like lineman with bad knees.  Uninteresting full-on that you should avoid at all costs.