Triquetra "Access Denied" ep

[DoktorG]

 

Triquetra "Access Denied" 12" ep

Suntrip Records

2023

 

Access Denied  12:32

Heliophobia  8:11

Out Of Reach (Alternate Mix)  6:55

 

The Reinartz twins return with a vinyl ep on Suntrip Records, a kind of accompaniment to their Myriad Vision album on the same label. I didn't find that album all good: I just don't think the Reinartz brothers are as good at the dark minimalist style as they are at old school acid Goa. Luckily this ep is in the latter style, so how did I find it?

 

Access Denied

The title track is excellent. Quite a long, epic track in truly old school acid Goa style; indeed, this reminds me of pre-1996 Goa in that the rhythms are quite straightforward and there isn't massive layering. The track uses the notion of access as the gateway to a new rhythm. The first half starts off with an "access granted" in the usual vocoded computer voice before the bass kicks in. The same conceit opens the doorway to the faster second half of the track, which goes in a more acidic and intense direction. So a clearly structured and signposted track that is fun and bouncy, reminding me of an old video game. The word I would use to describe this track is "kinetic". A-

 

Heliphobia 

This is more straightforwardly psychedelic, building to a single melodic climax and then falling off from that. Starting off with a stomping beat and itchy noises, it evolves quickly via a stuttering bassline - wonderful bass, so different to the done to death single note bass characteristic of psytrance today, and for the last twenty plus years. Then gyrating synths create a swirling vortex and we are sucked in. This is a faster, darker, more psychedelic track than "Access Denied". B+

 

Out Of Reach (Alternate Mix) 

"Out of Reach" is a track from the second "Live" cd of the second Triquetra album Human Control. On Human Control the track is 13.44 minutes long and features angelic choirs and gently bubbling 303 - an epic outing indeed, suggesting precisely something very very far away and hence out of reach. The "Alternate Mix" offered here is much shorter, with wobbling bass and epic synths that interlace with gentle bubbles before the acid 303 melody kicks in. A frenetic and profoundly pleasing melody that lifts the track and couldn't have been done better in 1995. That is basically the highest praise that can be given. A 

 

So for me this is a more successful ep than the album. There were tracks on the album that just didn't suit the Reinartz style to my ears, but that is not the case here as we have only old school acid Goa tracks at which the twins are demonstrably good. 

A note on the mastering by Tim Schuldt: Super! Velvety sound is the result. 

Recommended. ~*~