AMBIENT/TRANCE/TECHNO, etc:
BUS: Morebusinesslinkyou there CD
It's Psy-trance, Jim, but not as you know it - actually, it's better than that. For a psy-trance album, the electro-percussive, synth and sequencer rhythms don't so much rattle along as gallop - in other words we're talking chunky beats that are closer to ambient downtempo than they are to rip-roaring dancefloor, and THAT, just for starters, makes this a thing of greatness. Those rhythms are just fantastic!! As much bass-driven as percussive or electronic, they exude feeling, addictive but not in your face, shuddering but never bombastic and thunderous without thudding. On top of all this are created a whole series of soundscapes that range from miles of assorted effects and swooshes and sonic spectra to actual melodies and samples, the whole thing cooked to perfection and created lovingly and with great attention to detail. Make no mistake - for the ambient music lover who just can't get on down to out and out bangin' trance or techno, this is the album you'll really love as it inhabits both worlds in wondrous fashion - it oozes atmosphere and feel while being almost dark yet all the time it's busy and full to overflowing with layers, textures, beats, rhythms, soundscapes and beyond - simply awesome!!
C.O.N. SEQUENCER: Strange Planet CD
Psyychedelic trance with a twist - in fact several twists - the main one of which is that this trio feature a synthesizer player, a guy playing real live drums and an electric guitarist. Sounds more like a prog-rock band, huh? Couldn't be further from the truth, squire, for this really is full-on, solid trance - but trance that has its roots and sounds in heavy rock at one end and hardhouse music at the other. As a result - and quite unbelievably - this works a treat as the three musicians don't hold anything back and go for the throat on a set of 10 tracks that will have your whole body shaking from start to finish. The drums along will have your ears bleeding and if they don't get you, the bass will surely finish you off. All around the synths howl, swirl, drive and dive while the sequencers take control and the guitar simply glows white hot. From echoing drums and scorching rock guitar through massive blasts of trance and house, complete with samples and more layers than a Royal Wedding Cake, this is one of the most innovative albums of hard trance that I've had the pleasure to hear - a sensation from start to finish if you like it hard and heavy, muscular and musical and full-on rhythmic attack at the foundation of some of the most banging tunes around. A stunner!!
EN VOICE: Inclination For Composure CD
A remix project involving a whole host of variations on a particular track, and the results are not only outstanding but absolutely magical, as the chunky rhythms are overlaid with flowing choirs, exotic keyboard tunes, plenty of horizon-stretching synth action, samples, occasional burst of guitar and an overall feel that's just sublime. It's solid ambient music with tunes and atmospherics, beefy beats yet nothing explosive or one-dimensional, set from a variety of percussive and electronic sources. Overall, it's rhythmically solid with melody at its heart but strong and full of direction.
ANNE GARNER: Re-making The Pearl CD
The story here is that the lady in question is ABOUT to release her album called 'The Pearl' but BEFORE that happens they've released an album of ambient remixes of tracks from the real album? The words "cart" "before" and "horse" come to mind. However, whichever way you put it, it does not detract from the fact that this is one almighty gem of an album. With thirteen tracks remixed by the likes of Richard H Kirk, The Pylon King (Voice of Kwahn), Mixmaster Morris, Sean Quinn, Decal, Sub and more, there's not a less than engaging second across the lot, much of it absolutely superb. For anyone that knows the effect that a mix of perfect ambient grooves and gorgeous heavenly female vocals can conjure - as evidenced on things such as Orbital's legendary 'Halcyon' or some of the less trancey Delerium remixes - then this album will have you in raptures. One obvious standout is Cabaret Voltaire's Richard Kirk's mix of 'In Slumber' which is simply stunning, it's mix of slowly electro-percussive rivers and surround electronics allied to Garner's soaring vocal, is the sort of track you'd be quite happy to have looped and playing time after time after time. The Decal vs Human mix of 'Home' starts with echoed synth refrains, quiet percussive beat, distant swirling guitar chords and Garner's solo and multi-tracked voice soaring away almost Enya-like on top, as all of a sudden this slow-motion tidal wave of guitar squall enters and the effect is like a decelerated ambient Cocteau Twins only much more heavenly. Elsewhere we move from almost instrumental intensity (the Last Sound mix of 'Home') to almost ambient Judie Tzuke territory while the rest of the remixes are consistent, cohesive, expansive, dynamic and just the sort of thing that makes a project like this rise above the rest with ease. This has to be one of the best ambient albums of 2005, and there's no excuse for you not getting it - it really is THAT hot!!
GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS:76:14 - Remastered + Bonus CD DBLCD
Sums up ambient music in the '90's and regarded as a classic with a wide range of layers from spacey soundscapes to powerul rhythms, a truly incredible 76 minutes of music that has you hooked throughout its length no matter how many times you play it. Avoiding any indulgences or cliches, it covers techno, ambient, drifting, melodic with just the right atmospheres, paces, textures and constructions for maximum listening pleasure. The bonus CD features over sixty minutes of rare single and previously unreleased tracks and ranges from sublime ambient grooves to funky house, just 7 tracks and more uptempo than the main album, a fine complement to the more ambient delights of that album.
IN R VOICE: The Scent Of Russian Dreams CD
Now there's trance and there's trance - but in the world of industrial electronic music there's this thing called "EBM" or electronic body music, which takes techno and trance by the scruff of the neck, roughs it up a bit and comes out with something thunderous that eats up the dancefloor and minces your brain - yet it's just stunning home listening for all that, as the solid, titanium-strength, electronic and electro-percussive beats and rhythms just lay waste to everything that's gone before. That this album is a steaming, soaring, stunning, rampaging sea of those rhythms - the perfect album for anyone who would love to have an industrial electronic EBM album but without any vocals - is a testament to the quality of the compositions that simply fill you with energy, adrenaline and the desire to move or the desire to sit there and let the whole thing fill your body with life. This is one awesome album.
KAYA PROJECT: Elixir CD
The brainchild of one multi-instrumentalist with a number of guest musicians, this is a multi-cultural mix of music from across the global downtempo ambient spectrum. Each track is so carefully crafted, so well arranged with such attention to detail, a factor so important when you're dealing with what are essentially 12 tracks that are, in reality, quite different from each other, yet treated as a single ambient listening experience, becomes something that's way more than the sum of its parts. From warm ambient dub beats with acoustic slide guitar and deep bass, more guitar rippling across the horizon against chanting vocal through the chunky beats and soaring Eastern-meets-Moroccan melodies of 'Dark Tabla' to the heady exotic beat-driven melting pot of cultures that is the glorious remix of 'Salaam', this is a mix of drums, percussion, bass, synths, violin, acoustic guitars, sampled voices, strings, exotic Eastern instruments and more, on a world-ambient trip that is both downtempo and divine.
MOOCH: Flight Of The Dub Voyager CD
While Mooch and myself are still sifting through loads of new tracks to find a follow-up to the "In Search Of The Acid Metal Grille" album on Dead Earnest label, he's decided to fill the gap between that and the next album with something from the recent archives, namely this full-length album he recorded in '96, which I love but is not what I wanted to do as a new album on my label.
Historical explanation over, what are you getting here. For a start, it's a single fifty-seven minute track, and the first thing you notice is that it's slowly but solidly rhythmic in a decelerated ambient dub style with gentle drums, percussion and bass in very far eastern mode, while all around the slowly changing rhythmic base, assorted layers of synth heaven slide, glide, soar and swoop to create a truly breathtaking and serenely beautiful setting. Around the 6 minute point, the shape changes as a new sea of heavenly synths appears while the bass and ethnic percussion subtly change rhythmic shape into a more heartbeat setting, eventually disappearing to leave an ocean of synths that soar and fly, dive and echo all around your head to amazing effect. From this a sort of fast-paced sequencer style line emerges, the huge panorama of synth sounds intensify, then all this fades to bring back the opening rhythmic bass as various synth landscapes glitter and sparkle from horizon to horizon - and still we're only nine minutes in with 48 to go. You've got to believe me that if Mooch can achieve such spectacular soundscapes and moods i8n just nine minutes, when I tell you that the rest of the album features a jaw-dropping array of layers, textures, similarly paced rhythms, soundscapes, moods, atmospheres, spacious soundpools, miles of gorgeous synth flows and a warmth and depth that few synth musicians operating in such an ethnic field can match, then you have to realise that this album is something very special indeed, is not readily comparable to anyone around, save the faintest of nods to Roach/Obmana along the way, and is an album from which you will derive lots and lots of long-lasting musical heaven for years and years to come. It's immaculate.
TRANAN: Restarter CD
Another Japanese guy who, from the pre-sell blurb they gave me, has made loads of dosh from computer game music. So, to noone's great surprise, probably, here's an album of bangin' tunes that sound like they would be more at home as…….well……computer game music, actually. While you hear the usual assortment of beats, rhythms effects, swoosehes, melodies, echoes, samples, cacades and more, you have to ask yourself - WHERE'S THE HUMAN TOUCH!!!! As lifeless as a slug on a poisoned lettuce, this is the most soulless example of the genre I've heard in ages and the kindest thing to do would be to press the destruct button on the player - oh, sorry, I forgot - it's not a game. If only…..
V/A: Far East Psytrance League 2005 CD
Sixty minutes of hard, fast and, it has to be said, more wide-ranging, musically, trance music from the guiding and, in part actual, hands of Japanese master DJ Tsuyoshi. With 8 tracks only, it is hard and banging for sure, but this one is more in keeping with much of the quality UK and Euro-trance in that it exhibits a lot more dynamics, with an eye on both the armchair listener (if such a thing exists for this music - I can't believe that you could just sit down to this addictive blend of beats and melodies) and the dancefloor diva/diver. As a result, with nuclear powered sequencers, throbbing bass and crunching drums at the heart of things, the overlaid action consists of vast amounts of synth melodies, phased synth effects, string synth backdrops, swirling electronics, massive blasts of electro-percussive action and huge swathes of electronic overload to mince your brains if the rest failed. But it's the rhythms that getcha, and if you can sit still for more than a couple of tracks on this album, then I'd check yer pulse mate - you're dead!! Meanwhile, the rest of us can do our ridiculous dances to a huge set of solid beats and multi-synth melodies - and enjoy it time after time - no matter how silly we look.
V/A: 5 Years CD
Celebrating five years of the Flow Records label with a steaming set of progressive and psychedelic trance that pumps out the beats with solid drums and thunderous bass overlaid with all manner of melodies from an arsenal of synths, electronics and samples, cascading and gliding, diving and driving all through every nook and cranny of the landscape above the driving beats and dancefloor rhythms. If you want something to move your feet and your body with a force that is practically unstoppable, then this is the disc for you.
V/A: Lyserg Lesson 1 CD
Don't listen to this if you've got any kind of stomach complaint, because the bass beats on here are so heavy, relentless and throbbing, you'll simply not survive the experience. Yes folks, it's time for some serious bangin' psytrance, of which this album distinguishes itself by virtue of its overall darker approach, with the electronic bass and drums providing some skull-crunching beats and rhythms, while a mile wide ocean of synths, swooshes, cascades, rampaging melodies and assorted electronic effects, all merge to provide a ride that's scarier than anything Alton Towers can offer, and twice as dangerous. Try dancing to this and it could be the accident unit for you, my lad - on the other hand, try listening to it at home, but be sure you board the windows up first. Either way, get that tin helmet out and prepare for the onslaught.
V/A: Mountain High Vol 2 CD
Seventy one minutes of ambient bliss as the world-groove driven beats chart a relaxed but solid foundation for some truly dreamy, warm, multi-layered melodic magic to be played on top and all around the predominantly rhythmic setting. This is what made ambient electronic music such a force way back in the nineties and every track is sheer quality. The only names I know on here are the unmissable French label Ultimae's Solar Fields & Aes Dana but from start to finish, this is addictive and then some, one of those albums that's strong and funky yet melodic and tune-laden, crossing ambient dub, downtempo and more with ease and fluidity. Essential listening pleasure.
V/A: Nova Natura CD
From dreamy bliss to downtempo beats and ambient moods, this is a neatly varied but completely consistent set of 11 tracks that, even though possessing quite a high rhythmic content, will relax you and set your mind wandering. The production is fabulous and the sound just out of this world as a whole universe of excellent ambient grooves is out there within your grasp. All you have to do is turn the lights out, play the CD and go travelling. That's all you need to know - it's strong and atmospheric ambient, beat-driven bliss.
V/A: Numinous CD
This one's a strange one. It's got some thudding beats but that's not the entire story as it tend to reveal a lot more dynamics than most psytrance albums, often coming over as much ambient, accelerated dub and techno, as it does trance, with most tracks exhibiting an altogether more dark and disturbing atmosphere, but all the time - or at least most of the time - set to a strong and solid set of rhythms from the usual electronic and electro-percussive suspects. Even though laden with melodies, effects and samples, this one requires more work on behalf of the listener as it really does go places the others don't.
V/A: Psychedelic Trance DBLCD
Does exactly what it says on the tin - an album of massive bangin' psy-trance with tons of sequencers, tons of electronic drums, tons of synths - in fact it's trance overload of the Goa variety, in other words, subtlety and dynamics are out he window as the rhythms take control. That said, like any decent album of Goa trance, there's a ton of melody in here - even the rhythms are melodic - and if you want a combination of massive sequencer-drums-led, bass-heavy dancefloor delight (although yer gonna have to be moving at a fair old pace to dance to this lot), but also something that is so utterly tune-laden it's positively addictive, then this double CD will have you in ecstasy - or on it!!
V/A: Santuary CD
Part of a new sub-label set up by the Interchill label to focus on the more spacey, cosmic side of blissful ambient music of which this is the first release. As you'd expect from a label like this, the quality is superb, the arrangements inspirational and the music, heavenly. About half the tracks are rhythm-free while the other half use them as backdrops that add to the whole flavour of the setting and structure that comes out of warmly crafted ambient cookery in the right hands. A lot more musically multi-dimensional than you might think, this is a gorgeous album and varied enough to hold your interest but not too varied as to lose it. Without a less than engaging track on the album, this comes warmly recommended.
V/A: Seismic Mood CD
A full-on assault of techno-trance with sequencers on stun, electronic drums on kill, bass on overload and more swirling, swooshing, sky-high synth layers and melodies than you can shake a tequila slammer at. Not so much a dance-floor experience as a window-shaking, teeth rattling sensation, as track after track flies by like an out of control jet fighter, blasting out its sonic attack with alarming rapidity. The rhythms are positively nuclear - sadly some of the melodies are less so. Overall, it's pump-action rifle-fire stuff, then all of a sudden this weird little tune pops up, gets inside you r head and that's it - you're done, mate - as this annoying bloody melody swirls around your rattling cranium until the track ends, it falls out and you move inexorably onto the next. This is the sort of thing that your mother warned you about - to be approached with care.
V/A: Soul Vibration #001 CD
A rather fine album of ambient dub - now, you don't get too much ambient dub these days and, on the evidence of the 10 corking tracks on this CD, you can't have enough of it, either. With a couple of tracks featuring vocals, it's a mostly instrumental journey through a world of expansive, deep-sounding, multi-layered rhythms and textures, melodies and beats, backdrops and horizons, all infused with a sea of infectious ambient dub rhythms that simply defy you not to shake along with its addictive, sinuous charms. There are loads of ambient dub albums out there that lack warmth, depth, the human touch - but this isn't one of them. Instead we get a set of tracks that take you off into an altogether more pleasurable dimension as you become hooked to the whole thing from start to finish.
V/A: Whirl-Y-Waves Vol 3 - Sounds Imported DBLCD
They don't come along very often - only the third one in about ten years - but when they do, they're worth the wait. This one is over two and a half hours of tracks, with CD1 being the world grooves ambient travelogue. Starts with a class slice of ambient-infused reggae from Zion Train before moving into the dark dub world of Transglobal Underground and onto the Indian continent courtesy of two Bhangra-styled ambient groove sensations from Kamel Nitrate & Oojami, the latter sporting a more Westernised rattling sea of rhythms as the lead melody moves further towards Morocco. Finally we return to UK turf with five corking examples of real ambient grooves from Banco De Gaia, System 7, Earthtribe, Hawke & Azukx before things begin to take on a more dancefloor ambient appeal with Swarf mutating into some full-on chillout trance care of The Morrighan, the whole thing ending as it began with the reggae of Dub Trees. CD2 features well over an hour of music of a more chilled nature but with every track possessing some seriously meaty, beefy rhythms and this is a stunning set of Grade A ambient beat-driven music from start to finish, including tracks from Gaudi, Sounds From The Ground, The Orb and more. For anyone who loves class and classic ambient grooves, this is unmissable.
VOICE OF COD: We Are Free CD
Rare you get an album of predominantly driving, pumping, beat-driven psy-trance from a duo that actually knows how to make it work on both the physical and mental levels. System 7 managed just that with a lot of their more driving uptempo albums and this is an album that would appeal to anyone who enjoyed those classic albums. Full of driving beats and pumping rhythms, there are nevertheless plenty of passages along the way where the ambience takes over to reveal a beat-free blissful setting only for the rhythms to come back more powerful than before, the mix of thunderous bass and solid electronic drums driving it all forward. On top of this, you hear the usual immense mix of synthesizer melodies, space swoops, cosmic synths that fill the spectrum, sampled voices on occasion and the whole thing rises up to become this mighty monster of an album that just rocks while at the same time, being absolutely essential home-listening. Quite superb!!
YOUTH: Calibrate Your Intuition CD
This guy's been around the ambient, trance and techno scenes for aeons and this new solo album is awesome. It's full of pumping rhythms and blinding beats with a strong selection of melodies and if you're one of the people who thought the album by Sunfish was the bees knees, then this will please the heck out of you. It's over seventy minutes of class, so well produced you hear every nuance of the mix from the deep and thunderous basslines to the high-flying tunes as they roar, rattle and roll through a mesmerising world of driving ambient trance.
ZEN DAD: Welcome To My World CDR
Well, I can't actually review this-track by track since most of the track times on the back cover against the track titles listed don't conform with the running order on the CD and life's too short to sort it all out!! In fact, that's pretty immaterial anyway, since the music on the album really flows and is the sort of thing you really do enjoy as a complete entity. Most of the tracks bar the brief intro and one cosmic piece, are founded on beds of rhythmic drive, and several feature riffing electric guitar in addition to all the synths that swirl and solo all over the mix. The main reference points are modern Astralasia, Banco De Gaia and, to a degree, Hawkwind or, and it's highly unlikely this guy's heard any, Alien Dream. So, on the journey through the 11 tracks on here, you'll hear elements of space-rock, allied to electronic rock that covers everything from trance and ambient through to almost Shreeve-esque synth and the occasional Eastern-tinged melody, although the structure of most of the tracks revolves around layered melodies above solid, chunky rhythms, with swirling space synths, the odd sample and soaring distant strings, rearing their heads from time to time. Despite a production that sounds alright on speakers and a tad murky on headphones - after all, it is a self produced work - the music is really enjoyable and I found my self wanting to play it again. It's not going to knock yer socks off, but it is a cut above many I've heard. There is one track, at six and a half minutes long, which is presumably 'Echoes Of Fragility' where the production quality suddenly shines out in crystal clarity as the initial string synths soar across the horizon before more string layers are added against a backdrop of tinkling synth tones creating a warm and gorgeous soundscape. Then a layer of swirling, cyclical melodic synth leads emerges as a thudding percussive beat appears only to be enriched by a deep resonant bass line and more electronic drum rhythms to give the track drive and more of a solid structure rather than a one-note trance rhythm. Above this now dramatic, driving slice of ambient trance, the lead melodies soar and swirl to ear-catching effect as the rhythms disappear, leaving the wondrous synths-laden panorama to expand before the rhythms, this time more subdued but no less strong, return, then suddenly become louder, then disappear and so on - dynamics that work a treat on the best sounding, and possibly the best track, on the album. Overall, there's a lot of potential for this album - it's production is good - not top notch but way better than anything which might harm your listening pleasure of this album. In terms of its content, it's solid, chunky, varied, mostly of an ambient-trance nature, but well played and arranged. Whether all this is enough for it to rise above many that are out there already, largely depends on how others see it, but for now it gets my vote as something worthy of your attention.
Z MAN: Storyteller CD
New kid on the psy-trance block but this is meaty, beaty, big and substantial. There's a lot of thought gone into this album,, so that while the throbbing bass, racing electronic beats and solid electro-percussive/ sequencer rhythms dominate every track, they are never overbearing, always carefully constructed so as to be something that's within the structure of the track a whole rather than designed to take your face off, and addictive to the point of ecstasy. If the rhythmic content doesn't sell this to your feet, head and heart, the mass of synth overlays, effects, melodies and samples that are just so sharp, crisp and dynamic, all flow and thunder to effortless degree, on what has to be said, is one of the absolute finest albums of its kind around right now, and the psy-trance album that is as made for pleasurable home listening as for leaping about the dancefloor. Stunning and then some!
