Moon Tripper - Hypnotic Frequencies (2023)

[acid being]

 

Moon Tripper - Hypnotic Frequencies

Altar Records - ARCDA130

I hadn't heard of Moon Tripper before, the Dubai-based artist Brad Ashtar. I came across this album because I enjoy psychill and want to start posting reviews of new music here so I was looking over Altar Records' recent catalog.

 

1. Moon Tripper – Inside Your Head  13:03

2. Astral Waves – Black Panther Medicine (Moon Tripper Remix)  10:15

3. Moon Tripper – Mystical Realm  6:57

4. Moon Tripper – Transcendental  7:15

5. Moon Tripper – Arise  6:00

6. Moon Tripper – Hypnotic Frequencies  6:59

7. Moon Tripper – Dopamine  7:55

8. Moon Tripper – Spiritual Smiles  8:53

9. Moon Tripper – Elevated State  8:00

10. Moon Tripper – Earth's Consciousness  6:46

 

1. Inside Your Head: This has a lovely long build up with mysterious pads, slow flute, growly synth sounds, what I think is a sitar sound, tribal drums and later a nice kick and bass come in. A little reminiscent of Elysium to me but with the psy turned down and ambience cranked up I suppose. 6/10

2. Black Panther Medicine (Moon Tripper Remix): We start with some tribal voices and cool drippy sounds. The kick and bass makes it sound a little bit dark and we have some nice somewhat tribal percussion coming in then some really trippy melodic synths. Nice. 9/10

3. Mystical Realm: This track is harder and a lot more psychedelic than the earlier ones but still has a lot of ambience. A nice, slightly more irregular beat. 7/10

4. Transcendental: We continue the harder psychedelic theme with this one which is really nice with layers of squelchy synths and still little bits of ambience sprinkled in here and there. 8/10

5. Arise: A mystical sparkley opening with a female voice and some flutey ambiences. Then the driving kick and bass come in quite near the start and groovy synth stabs. It feels more ambient than the previous track whilst maintaining the pace and energy. 7/10

6. Hypnotic Frequencies: For the title track we're back to harder psy again with some really tasty acid lines. The production quality is nice and the pads envelope you with a real sense of depth and immersion. If you only have time for one track, listen to this one.  9/10

7. Dopamine: This sounds closer to pure psytrance to me. The light sort of synth-almost-a-flute melody is nice from about 1:40. Past the halfway mark I must admit I was losing interest a bit but the closing parts of the track were a bit better. As mainly a Goa fan I may not be the target audience. 5/10

8. Spiritual Smiles: It opens with chanting, then the standard kick and bass, and a fairly laid back mood with lots of weird ambient sounds and one meandering synth. Then from around 4 minutes we get nice acid coming in. A trippy breakdown where the chanting comes back. 8/10

9. Elevated State: This one is some crazy mind jumbling psytrance. Sounds to me a bit like darkpsy with the tempo turned down slightly. 6/10

10. Earth's Consciousness: We end with another serviceable psytrance track that's well put together but not really my cup of tea. 5/10

As primarily a Goa fan who also enjoys psychill and ambient but is less keen on modern psy, I find this album a bit of a mixed bag, but the good bits are great and the rest of it I certaintly wouldn't mind having on in the background.

I deliberately listened to this before trying any of Moon Tripper's older music. It will be interesting to see if that is more to my tastes.

6/10

https://moon-tripper.bandcamp.com/album/hypnotic-frequencies?label=3714585001&tab=music