Etic - Touch Ups

[DeathPosture]

Etic – Touch Ups

 

 

Format: CD

Artist: Etic

Title: Touch Ups

Label: Trancelucent Productions, Israel

Cat. #: TP-009

Year: 2004

 

Track listing:

 

01. 09’05” Winter Intro

02. 08’15” A-U

03. 08’10” Deep Night Dream

04. 08’07” Night Time

05. 07’40” One Man Band

06. 06’59” 1st Element

07. 08’00” Human Voice

08. 07’45” Touch Ups

09. 07’43” Some Piece In Half Speed

 

Review:

 

Groovy hybrid trance…

 

Trancelucent Productions is out with the debut album from Etic (Etay Harari). This time the label strays from their usual full-on approach towards more progressive/deep trance… Nice to see that for a change… I’ve never heard any Etic tracks before, so I have no idea what to expect…

 

Let me take you thru the tracks…

 

#01: The intro-track starts with undecipherable female samples… I can’t make all of it out, but it resembles the good old Music Instructor idea where different musical elements are added through the track… “Add some bass!”… It’s a funny, yet not highly original idea… Anyway, the style is a mixture between full-on and progressive, leaning mostly towards prog… A hybrid really – it’s nice and groovy… “Take it up”… Very nice intro-track!

 

#02: Let’s dwell deeper into A-U… This is prog-trance with Israeli hints… I mean, it’s not progressive like Son Kite or FREq, the bass is somewhat more full-on, yet very groovy… It’s hard to describe really… Thumbs up for funky echo-effects and all the cool pads… Wicked percussion work as well… Sweet!

 

#03: Rich intro, with metallic digital drops and synth-effects… The bassline is deeper than the previous 2 tracks, so the title of the track is well-chosen!... I’m sure this will put a few sound-systems to the test… Again, the percussion work is really impressive – I really like how Mr. Harari has incorporated the percussion into the main “melody” - it’s a challenge NOT to move to this… Nicey nice!

 

#04: Again, the track title says it all… Its night time on the progressive trance floor now… The intro is dominated by hi-hats and a phat-ass bassline… Much more brutal than the previous tracks – and with the addition of all kinds of psychedelic FX this truly is a twisted track… There is a passage in the middle of the track, where it gets too minimal for my taste, but luckily it’s only for a short while… Though the samples might appear cheesy, I dig them… Especially the Shidapu’esque pitched up male voice… Another fine track!

 

#05: Still night and Hariri launches into a seemingly more minimal approach towards progressive nite trance… It’s dark and fast, yet somehow the groove is intact… There are no voice samples or random tweaking going on here, it’s just pure, smooth, building trance… This would mix well into a FREq-track… Nice!

 

#06: Continuing in the same vein, but more experimental – the bassline is run through different filters, and more twisted effects are added, making this track more psychedelic… The sweet percussion and voice samples are also back, added are a few subtle acid lines – and there even a little synth melody popping up now and again… Great combo!

 

#07: Digital drops, electronic farts and sonic burps… Always a pleasure! As you might’ve guessed, this is another progressive night stomper… Slightly faster than the last one and with a more clanging sound… And of course there is a computerized human voice repeated throughout the track! Halfway through, the track changes into a very psychedelic piece with rolling percussion and subtle acid melodies… Beautiful!

 

#08: The title track kicks off with a much more repetitive bassline – not as groovy as the others… Bummer! The surrounding effects are all nice though – we get some really nice floating melodies, epic even! As the track progresses the funk creeps in slowly, yet the paramount flaw is that it never reaches the high standard as the rest of the album… Decent track!

 

#09: Sonic manipulation - The last track is Harari goofing around in his studio, experimenting with all kinds of FX…This doesn’t really do anything for me, but it’s obvious that the man has talent… Average track!

 

Wow – I was caught completely off guard with this album… I mean, with most releases you kinda know what to expect… I figured this would be another semi-boring Israeli full-on album, but talk about being wrong! It was in fact one of the most positive surprises I’ve had this year… With the exception of the last two tracks, all tracks are above average standard… I love surprises like this… Hats off to Trancelucent – this is the best CD I’ve heard from them (though I’m reviewing the Misted Muppet soon – strong contender for that title)… I’d recommend this to any fan of progressive trance with a touch of nite-time full-on… Enjoy!

 

8/10

 

Favourites: 1, 4, 6, and 7 super-nice… 2, 3 and 5 are nice… 8 and 9 are decent. ;o)

 

DeathPosture

 

External links:

Trancelucent Productions: www.trancelucent.com

BOA Distribution: www.boadistribution.com

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

Saiko Sounds: www.saikosounds.com

Trance Shop: www.trance-shop.com

[Guest aguilita]

good album, very positive symple morning trance from my point of view... about the misted muppet...mhh good look with that one, i found it very uncreative, and noizy sfuff from some israeli teenager,,, i'll like to check the review later and see another point of view...!

 

 

Keep On Psy/*

[Guest Le Lotus Bleu]

Etic (Etay Harari) makes some clubby progressive trance.

 

Winter is a perfect example of his dominant style all along his album, a smooth groove with clubby melodies, it’s an ok track but no more for me.

 

A-U sounds dull to me & flat, the track isn’t that bad but seriously lacks of creativity & the musical content is resulting weak.

 

Deep Night Dream &Night Time are 2 attempts of more night groovy stuffs, ok it confers variety to the album but once again sounds so empty. Nevertheless i must admitt that in track 3 Etic tried to make something slightly more psychedelic but he didn’t make a strong effort here, it’s quite confuse. Track 4 is just fully night oriented.

 

One Man Ban is better, more living but this clubby aspect still disturb me, less linearity would have been welcome.

 

1st Element confirms the improvement but it’s shy, it’s strange Etic’s music gives here me the impress of someone sleeping with wide open eyes animated with a low energy.

 

Human Voice enters the hypnotic area but as i already fall asleep with nearly all previous track it’s getting redundant.

 

Touch Ups fits me better in funky-groovy style, it’s really pleasant the best track of the album by far.

 

It seems unfortunatly that Etic has waken up a bit lately for me coz i only appreciate now his sound, here an asiatic-groovy sounding production with more contrast between tones.

 

Sum up keys :

First of all the covert is awful (indeed if you don’t posses a good covert design instead of putting a lame one, just make black writting on white background, simple & minimalist but still effective) which was a bad omen for the musical content.

The sound is definitivly melodico-clubby progressive but it’s too honeyed for me, furthermore i’m not that much fan of the mastering. According to me, this Etic project wasn’t mature enough to be ready for cooking a real full debut album. Touch ups sounds to me more like a demo, i think it was a too early for an album production but with the experience of this one the guy would be able to improve his skills.

 

Favorites by order :8,9&1

 

Mark : 6/10 (maybe some hardcore proggy lovers will enjoy it more than me)

[Guest Darvin]

I seriously love this album.......track 8 is in my top five of the year so far, and yes I am a prog lover so that seems about right! Thsi music is ment to be layered, and i think a lot of peopel, dj's included, miss the point of having dj friendly, minimal Progressive psytrnace, these tracks are tools, ment to be USED.....I mean, don't be afraid to mix them for 2 or 3 minutes. THAT'S when the magic occurs.

 

I come from a Progressive House background with my djing, and I mix my psy the same way. Layers, it's all about layers. You can't layer full-on stuff so well.

 

 

You can hear what I mean by listening to one of my mixes:

 

www.area709.com

[Manuser]

This minimal psytrance music is very "clean", and it is very pleasant to hear, easy listening to. However, none of the tracks is a real killer, none of them really catches your attention, at least according to me. Last track surprised me cause Etic put basslines, melodies and snares from the other tracks of the album in order to make this last track, and it is quite innovative, and made me smile.

So i'll go for a 6.5/10 rating. Sweet and soft psytrance, but not realy amazing. But I like it.