Battle of the Future Buddhas - Songs From a Forgotten Memory

[DoktorG]

 

 

ANIMIST FUTURISM

 

David Tingsgard has created one of the only albums, apart from E-Mantra’s Arcana, to rival the greats of the golden age of Goa trance in this latest record Songs From a Forgotten Memory. I really love what Battle of the Future Buddhas is doing on this and the previous album Light Behind the Sun. Quite slowish, spacey Goa with deep beats and wonderful melodies. In both albums, Tingsgard returns to the roots of Goa trance in the early sound of 94-96, which tended to be slower and more mellow than the later years which got more and more intense. Perhaps the first thing to note is that the title suggests that this is a back to the future kind of project. Is this just a nostalgia project then? Perhaps, but I go on to argue that this project involves reanimating the virtues of the past, but also updating those virtues so that they speak to the present. I call this animist futurism because it features a number of alien animal sounds. It is worth noting that both albums feature superlative production with all sounds clear, distinct, and textured against a velvety black background, but avoiding brightness or an analytical edge. 

 

One of the things I really like about both albums is that BotFB shows restraint. He does not go straight for maximum velocity from the outset. The tracks and album as a whole can thus build, and build they do. Take "Collidoscope" for instance - at the 5.35 mark the track breaks into huge pillars of rising and falling modulations - this really takes the listener on a disorientating psychedelic trip because it has not been constant throughout the track which builds up to this peak gradually. This is the mark of a mature and talented artist who understands that drama comes from restraint, not throwing everything and the kitchen sink at the listener all at once. Moreover, by avoiding manic layerism and the straitjacket of 16th note galloping horse bass and drums, when he decides to use a sawtooth or a flutter effect, it is effective. Not constant fluttering, which has little effect but to put you in a flutter. Lots of his melodies do have this fractalised or fluttering effect, but because he doesn't do this all the time it is not tiresome. Effective, like I said.

Another thing worth pointing out about the whole album is that a great deal of attention is paid to background atmosphere and ambience. There are a lot of subtle background ambient sounds, a bit like distant landscape in a painting. These are sometimes innovative, as in the drones in "Mugwump". Moreover, this is not just arbitrary spacey ambience, conjuring some nondescript outer space. Space here is not empty. It is inhabited. There be creatures. We might go into cold interstellar space, but this is no colonial "myth of the virgin empty land" - this is a kind of Star Wars vision of space with lots of alien creatures. Alien creature sounds abound, primarily in squiggly forest-style melodies, either major ones or minor ambient noises. Hence I think of this album as animist futurism. 

 

"Collidoscope" is a highly rhythmic track with a really slapping kick. Alien keening sounds kick in at about the 4 minute mark and there are Prana style rising and falling 303 arpeggios arranged in circular patterns till the end. A collidoscopic track indeed. 

"Go Gently into Space" (obviously a riff on Dylan Thomas' famous "do not go gently into that good night/rage, rage against the dying of the light") is a space hymn to the "future space travellers" (thanks to Miranda and Prana for that phrase). It starts off with a spoken manifesto to all future space travellers, the kind of thing that you might hear in Starship Troopers: “It’s really the next stage in the evolution of mankind, out here amongst the stars lies the destiny of mankind”.  Hehe, c'mon Goaheads, let's send this track to Elon Musk; he can make it his anthem. It also features great deep bass and one of the best snare sounds I've heard, and placed with pitch perfect accuracy. The track goes all Astral Projection at the end with sugary melody. This really is a space anthem if ever I've heard one. And without going over the top. Everything in total control, but without becoming predictable or zombie automaton. There’s not even a hint of the dreaded shiny plastic sound that psytrance has become. AWESOME!!!

"Pitchbend (Into the Light Remix)" does exactly what it says on the tin: it starts with heavy bass 303 judders which shudder throughout, but gradually builds and ends with incredibly positive, life-affirming, sunny vibes that also happen to be delightfully psychedelic. Starting off pretty intense, this ends up being a lighter track than many on the album, but just as excellent.

"The God Particle" makes it clear that this is a scifi themed album. There's such an awesome bass warble at the start of this track - honestly, this is totally addictive. Imagine holding a big sheet of roofing zinc and being able to shake it like a blanket - a metallic wap sound not far from a didge is what you'll get - and this sound goes on throughout. Infected Mushroom wish they could create just one sound as cool as this across their entire discography. A special shout to the snapping snares on this track too; faster than a cobra, as insouciant as a saddhu. As for the super trippy little alien elf melody at the end... I'm actually at a loss for superlatives. Could this be the best track on the album?

"From Nothing"?? Nothing comes from nothing, so they say. Is this track describing the radical dissociation of a strong trip? Is it just a hymn to "empty" space? I don't know. But from the start this one goes heavier (I said the album builds not so?). At 4.52 there comes that unique little BotfB melody that sounds like the weird siren song of an alien at the window of your spaceship, luring you off track to the Triangulum constellation when you were supposed to be flying to Ganymede. Who needs Startrek when you have Goa trance like this?

From nothing we find ourselves "In Heaven". This is the most classically Goa track on the album, featuring Indian singing, and it could an Astral Projection song. Utter bliss, with some of the most textured riffs you'll ever hear. This is clearly the spiritual heart of the album. Om mani padme hum. Om namaya Shiva. Bom Shankar!  

The comedown commences with "Mugwump". According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a mugwump is a person who remains aloof and undecided, especially it seems on political matters. And there I was thinking it was a grumpy old Goahead who goes around muttering "old is gold". This track has a cool wurlitzer fairground horror melody that again seems to come from some creature. I love this forest elf twisty weirdo black metal goblin animism. We don't see enough of this tokolosh spiritualism in Goa or psytrance even though we have subgenres like forest and twilight. Sheesh, BotFB practically invented forest twilight. Clearly BotFB is winding back from the hypnotic bliss of "In Heaven" and we go a bit darker and more foresty here. 

“Interstellar” is a more mellow track starting with a techno beat and tweaky noises, but soon accompanied by a whimsical and simple melody that repeats. Another one of those charmingly simple but minor key little melodies that BotfB specialises in. A little drop of unaccountably strange and otherworldly stardust. Though not as befuddling as the weird ohm moan at 3.39 - another example of alien noises in the album. At the 5.45 point we enter another world with bigger riffs that are nevertheless restrained and subtle; nothing too loud here, but pulling you in with texture and intrigue. This is some beguiling shit!  

Finally, we come down to earth with “Blurred, Calm, Warm, Hazy”, just how you feel after a good toke. This is a fully ambient track, so of course there are some sitar sounds, Asian scales, along with tabla, and wailing melodies. This is quite a hazey track in which nothing much happens, but it does create a nebulous alien ambience. We are left with strange feelings that are hard to put into words...

 

I feel that individual track ratings are redundant here as each track is close to flawless in its own way and, more importantly perhaps, the album flows as a whole, unified, singular journey. I didn't at any point in several complete listenings want to skip a track or back off the volume or feel that it was becoming too intense or too dull. Am I saying that it is perfect? Well, equally, I would like to avoid such hyperbole. Once or twice I wanted a more cinematic or orchestral intro/outro, or felt a bit more analogue atmosphere might have added something. David Tingsgard, take a bow bro. I will probably never meet you as you live on the opposite side of the globe from me, but I wish I could shake your hand. In my opinion, you've created one of the all-time great Goa albums. I thought "The Light Behind the Sun" was good. Well, you've upped the game with this 10/10 record. You've shown Etnica, Pleaidians, Miranda, Transwave, Simon Posford, et al, that Goa is a genre capable of more than we dreamed. Technically it seems better than many of the classics, yet it is true to the apparently simple sounds of early Goa. Imaginatively it is really out there, mixing Asian spirituality, science fiction, and a kind of northern forest paganism (if I may call it that) in creating a kind of animist futurism with some strange alien noises. But this album is also just so mellow, so musical, such delightful fun, as well as being dark, serious, and prophetic. If spiritual = balance and could be bottled, this is it. So, for me, this record takes the virtues of a nearly forgotten past and updates them for the present, making the genre more surprising than ever. Goa has always burrowed into the deep roots to reach towards the future, but now that appears more real in this tougher, darker, more scifi, yet still melodic, updated version. Goa goes animist futurism. This is a critical, useful kind of nostalgia, if it is even nostalgia at all. Finally, this is very much a BotFB album; no one else could have made it. It has a unique peaceful calm understatement combined with crazy Loki inventiveness. By stepping back from the intensity and some of the darkness of the earlier work, BotFB seem to have achieved their potential. 

The dust has long settled on the dirt roads of Anjuna. If you avoid the tourist areas you will only hear the lowing of sacred cows and temple bells at night walking near Chapora fort. The insects are loud in bamboo forest and the rice paddies glower in the gloom. But decades later, one who kept the faith has left behind a relic as valuable as anything made at the time. I feel privileged to discover it.

Goa trance album of the year!

This is deep trance plateau music - if you're a Goa fan, this is a must. It is begging for a vinyl release! Anoebis, do you hear me? Do not delay - crowdfund if you must, but do the best possible vinyl mastering and pressing of this classic album. I would be surprised if this album is not selling for thousands in decades to come! ~*~

 

 

[Anoebis]

Here are the other reviews (taken from the promo section). I dont want them to get lost as I still believe in the value of review! 

Paul Eye:

A no-nonsense, shining beacon of light in a sea of overproduced polished modern goa trance. This one goes right back to the roots while not sounding outdated at all. It does have a few annoyances (particularly that vocal in "Into Heaven" that also appears in a far better context on Banco de Gaia's album "You Are Here") but overall it does its job at sounding like "proper goa trance" (yes, I know that's a bit of a silly term to use) far better than most albums out there.

There aren't may *trance albums I bother listening to anymore these days. This is not one of them.

Scenery:

What to say someone for milestones like this, gratitude & grateful for listening something like this that it seems totally like the absolute sequel to the cornerstone 'Twin Sharkfins' after almost 25 years...

Blissful feelings...  

vv303:

I don’t usually comment here because I don’t want to create disturbance plus it weighs on me putting anything on the internet at all. Bob Dylan said everything he created is a curse because it haunts him and follows him around. I think that’s also why Filipe Santos puts music up and then takes it down on bandcamp. I feel that way too so I try not to say much

But I just wanted to say that the first time I heard this I was utterly blown away by this all-time classic. As I’m listening I’m thinking this is up there with the all time great goa trance albums from Etnica, The Infinity Project, and Pleiadeans.  The last Battle Buddhas album from suntrip was very good, this is an utter masterpiece. I listened a second time and still had the same feeling

Ive heard just about everything relevant (not bragging) since the 90s, and I would say it’s at least top 5 all time. I know some others here have heard a lot more than me but usually anything very good finds its way up and you hear it so I doubt I’ve missed anything outside previously unreleased stuff like Tranquence or Psylent Buddhi that comes out

I think it was great idea to add Pitchbend also to this since every other track also is an all time great classic

From Nothing stands out and maybe the top track on this but all the other tracks are just as good

Maybe I’m in the heat of the moment but at times I’m thinking to myself, “I’ve been listening to goa since the 90s, and quite possibly this is the best album I’ve ever heard”

So anyway, I know very little about the technical aspects of making goa or music theory. I did fiddle recently with caustic and cubasis making goa but I don’t think I have that type of natural expertise to be able to make it or understand it very well

This is why I don’t really comment much. I used to live at a Buddhist monastery and I have studied and practiced Buddhism, and I can do that, but (sadly) I doubt I could ever understand the technical aspects of making music to comment intelligently on it, or make music 

I don’t know if this makes everyone cringe or if they like the feedback but I thought I’d put it out there anyway. I usually see most music (that isn’t terrible) as “all good” in its own unique way and obviously each person has their own preferences

Now off to worry about what type of impact or disturbance posting  this makes on people or on goa

[Trance2MoveU]

 

Wow this is certainly garnering some very high praise. BOTFB has been around awhile and most of the time they have been on the abrasive forest side of goa trance. They didn't take you gently into the good night...they strapped you to a rocket and left you kicking and screaming.

But this is totally different. It doesn't even sound like old Buddhas!

It bounces, has a restrained growl, it crawls with single-minded purpose, and shimmers with a melodic liquidity that I didn't see coming. As the good DoktorG mentioned one of the greatest strengths of this album is his ability to create drama in each track. Let's face it there's a reason goa trance music lengths are usually longer. To bring you along, take you on the journey and open new and unexpected doors without putting its purpose on full display. And it's a success as new leads and arpeggios are introduced, each taking their turn in retelling the story. Everything is crystal clear and as the tracks unfold new surprises await, leaving me with a large grin. From Nothing is a prime example. This is how you let a track breathe and evolve. It builds and builds until the cup runneth over with cascading, entrancing, melodic, shimmering rivulets.

It's not perfect, as the last few tracks lose some of that "what's going to happen next quality", but it's certainly damn good. Entrancing really. There is an old school feeling to this endeavor and I can say with utmost confidence that this is my favorite BOTFB album to date.