Tiga - Ciao! (Original TC Review)

Turbo: 2009

(2022 Update:
Mr. Sontag certainly seemed primed for a shot at super-stardom in this long-ago time of 2009, especially as the Era Of Guetta was nigh. Instead, he waited over half a decade for a follow-up album, and hasn't released another LP since. Still out there DJing and making collaborative singles though, so seems to be doing alright for himself.

Nothing much else to add to this review. The 'maximal' Ed Banger stuff is very much stuck in the '00s, but all the charming synth-pop tunes hold help. I still randomly get Shoes stuck in my head, though that might be more due to Neebs Gaming naming one of their NPCs in Conan Exiles that. It's funny when you know the context, I swear!)


IN BRIEF: Getting better.

With Ciao!, I think we can finally put an end to the big question surrounding Tiga’s career as a solo artist: just how serious is he being? The answer is rather serious after all, at least as serious as anyone can get when it comes to synth-pop of this sort. It was tough to tell, though, since there was always this sense that he was merely toying with the novelty of the genre, making it his personal playground to indulge himself with surprisingly fun covers of unexpected tunes. Then, once the faddism of it faded, he’d move onto whatever whim fancied him from there (remember, this was the guy that at one point wasn’t averse to pushing drum ’n’ bass DJ mixes on his label Turbo). Yet, after the relative success of Sexor, it seems he decided to properly pursue this avenue further.

In that regard, Ciao! is a very easy record to form an opinion on. Do you like synth-pop that holds silly-silly nonsensical lyrics about shoes and the time being “sex o’clock”? Then you’ll love this, no question. Not to say Tiga doesn’t stretch lyrically elsewhere on here, but that isn’t the aim with Ciao!. This is dance-pop at its simplest, and complicated wordplay only gets in the way (just ask The KLF).

That said, there is a degree of musicianship going on here that prevents Ciao! from easily being dismissed. Having Soulwax, James Murphy, Jori Hulkkonen (naturally), the better-half of the Dahlbäck brothers, and Gonzales of Feist-production fame in the studio with him certainly helps, but fact of the matter is Tiga has long had an ear for knowing a good hook, even if he’s liberally borrowed from others. Beep Beep Beep? Shoes? Luxury? Mark my words, those songs are going to lodge in your head and set up residency for a while. Elsewhere, you’ll swear you’ve heard some variation on these tracks on your local Jack.fm radio station. The piano in Turn The Night On, for instance - damn, where have I heard that before? Or those backing “ah-ah-ah, ah”s in Speak, Memory (oh, that’s right, Billy Idol’s Dancing With Myself).

The funny thing is, for a guy that made his early reputation as a purveyor of great underground music, Tiga’s pop leanings fare much better than most of his purely techno tracks. What You Need’s abrasive out-of-tune maximal-synths is fun enough and Overtime has a good deal of solid instrumental build-up at the beginning, but Mind Dimension is just… ugh. What the hell is even going on in this? The beats limply plod, sounds interchange aimlessly between spits of acid and farty squelches, and by the end you realize the track has amounted to nothing of note (Jesper Dahlbäck, who co-wrote this, must be picking up some bad habits from his brother John); Shoes, such a ridiculous (though fun!) song on its own, sounds utterly brilliant as a follow-up. And yet, somehow, Mind Dimension too gets lodged in your head. Damn that Tiga!

Then, at the other end of the spectrum (and the end of the album), we see Tiga’s songwriting mature in such a way I’m sure no one could have predicted. Gentle Giant’s melancholy keyboard tones and solemn mood seems to bring out the very best of Mr. Sontag’s singing capabilities, but more impressive is he can be credibly serious if he so chooses. The ten-minute opus Love Don’t Dance Here Anymore then solidifies this assumption, and you’re left wondering, if he’s clearly capable of this, why fall back on simple synth-pop ditties?

In that regard, Tiga seems to have come to occupy an intriguing musical area between hipster-faves Chromeo and festival-faves Hot Chip. On one hand you have music that is clearly satisfied in being somewhat campy, yet it still displays a creativeness that belies its pure-pop sensibility. Tiga seems to be stuck at that crossroad of where to take his music next.

This isn’t to say Ciao! is some kind of revelatory genius of songwriting - it honestly isn’t. The final couple tracks aside, the music is about as candid as dance-pop gets. Whether you enjoy this album in the long run will probably boil down to how long you find Tiga’s performance charming. As it stands, Mr. Sontag still is an incredibly charming fellow, but unless he’s willing to grow as a songwriter, charm will only carry him so far.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2009.© All rights reserved.

LongWalkShortDock - Casual Tea (Original TC Review)

Lunarian Records: 2009

(2022 Update:
Talk about a flashpoint in time. While I can't say Mr. King's career ever took off at a global superstar level, he's certainly become one of the premiere fixtures on the American West live P.A. circuit. This was written shortly after his first, almost innocuous performance at the Shambhala Music Festival, but it wasn't long before his annual sets turned into one of THE weekend highlights every year. Not too shabby indeed.

As for the music, this has held up pretty well. Yeah, it's definitely a product of its time, but the songcraft holds strong-style in spite of whatever Ed Banger-era attributes drip through. It almost feels like a forgotten album in Dave's catalog now, his profile growing much larger after the fact with the headbangers as heard live. No time for sentimental downtime when moshing away with stage flailers, I guess.)


IN BRIEF: Criminally overlooked.

(2022 Edit: Removed an overlong, unneccesary anectdote that served as a lead-in; just get to the point, 2009 Sykonee!)

Some of the best bangin’ techno albums I’ve heard - Speedy J’s Loudboxer or L.S.G.’s The Black Album, f’st’nce - lose something at a purely primal level when listening to them from the comfort of home, which unfortunately also loses part of the appeal of what makes such music work. It’s rather impractical to be lazing on a couch with tea while beats are blasting out of your speakers, urging you to get your flailing mosh on.

Such concerns arose when it came to the debut album from up-and-coming local-scene hero Dave King; aka Longwalkshortdock. Given the Northwest’s isolation from the rest of the world, it wouldn’t surprise me if our overseas readers haven’t heard of him, especially so because King has made his reputation mostly on the live circuit (ask anyone who’s seen him at the Soundwave Music Festival, and you’re sure to be met with an outpouring of hyperbolic praise). Without a doubly-doubt, he is a sight to behold live, as King seemingly turns into rubber, flailing about as he serves up an excellent entre of ready-made maximal techno mosh and chip-tune thrills. His stage energy is highly infectious, with tunes that tap into the best aspects of techno bedlam, any show quickly turning into a rockingly rowdy gathering. How, then, can you possibly transplant that intensity onto an album format?

Frankly, you can’t. So it’s just as well that King hasn’t tried. Instead, Casual Tea presents itself as a proper album, with tracks of various styles, tempos, and length. Hey, it worked for Liam Howlett, and while this truthfully is no Jilted Generation, there are plenty of things about LWSD’s music that still works in an album context. Let me detail a few such things!

Actually, the opening track is as good an example as any. Will I Dream contains a bunch of elements that sum up King’s tunes nicely: nu-electro-funk, maximal-aggressiveness, 8-bit glitch, dreamy melodic backings. Okay, so that sounds par for the course for a lot of electronic music these days, but here’s the catch: King does it better than many another. His beats, though admittedly brick-walled in the production department, hit you with force and purpose, urging you to wildly wobble about just as much as the man himself. When his synths are cranked to the red, it still sounds clean and clear, not cartoonishly distorted like many an Ed Banger tune. The chip-tune bits are effectively handled and the backing melodies are just trancey enough to let your mind float on. What makes all this better though? It’s the fact that the track keeps moving forward, constantly building upon what came before. After some six minutes, from where you’d expect a track of this sort to wrap up, King unleashes an extra assault of funky goodness. Why he do that? He don’t need to do that. But he did do that, and Will I Dream is so much better that he did do that.

Many of the cuts on here work this continuous build, sending his tracks to energetic highs few contemporaries seem willing to go. Horse Fly, I’m So Bad I Make Medicine Sick, High Expectations, Knowin’ That You’re Goin’ - all strong examples. Beyond that, though, King keeps his album fresh throughout by dabbling outside this field. Of course, you have your electro-funk numbers, but how’s about something more on the industrial side in Born At Night or I Will Kill You With Techno, where he drags his synths through gravel pits and distorts his voice in such a way that would make Cabaret Voltaire happy. Melodically blissful tracks Keep It Round, Sara Purple, Warm Girls, and Why Do I Bother prove King’s more than just a one-trick maximal pony, and the all-out chip-tune closer You Can Have It is a hoot, only missing some actual NES themes as has been known to be heard in his live sets.

And dammit, some of King’s tunes are just undeniably catchy. The clear highlight - High Expectations - is already a wildly fun bit of warbled techno, but I dare you to resist bellowing out in unison “I want someone who grabs my soul, and sets my heart on fire!” during the track’s chorus. Go on, try. Ah-ha, I knew you couldn't.

Casual Tea is as strong as any EDM debut you’re likely to come across these days - it easily trumps several other albums that have received gratuitous amounts of promotion in recent years. Even if you’ve grown rather sick of nu-electro tropes, the infectious energy King has infused his music with will have you throwing such cares to the cliffs. Despite LWSD’s profile being nearly nonexistent outside of his local scene right now, an album like this clearly proves he has the chops to make it on a larger stage. With luck, Casual Tea will help push his career to higher pastures (even without the need to resort to a gimmick like a mouse-head). If not, well, you can always say that you managed to grab your hands on a true underground classic, one that will end up being worth stupid amounts of coin at Discogs a decade on.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2009 © All rights reserved

Phynn - C U Smile (Original TC Review)

Black Hole Recordings: 2007

(2022 Update:
I know I seem to say this often about trance artists from the '00s, but seriously, what happened to Phynn? He seemed to do everything an up-and-comer of the Dutch eurotrance scene was supposed to do to have a lengthy career. Have a couple break-out singles playlisted by the Very Important trance DJs of the day, get his name out into other ventures such as DJing, get some snarky blog reviews written up leading to a debut album (okay, maybe not that one), and then... Profit, I guess?

Honestly, having listened to said debut and only album, Metamorphosis, I'm not surprised Phynn's future prospects sputtered. The first half, which includes C U Smile, is quite the blatant jump on Sander Van Doorn's brand of acid-fart bosh (the back-half is more traditional euro-trance fare, but only marginally better). Who knows if it was Mr. Jager's intent, or Black Hole Recordings forcing him to go in a new direction the scene was desperately hitching their wagon on, but regardless, it proved a musical dead-end for all involved as the new decade took hold. Phynn eventually left Black Hole, started his own short-lived digital print Lunary Records featuring music with a tougher, deeper techno edge, but all other social media and Discoggian info on him dries up by 2016.)

IN BRIEF: Marco V lite.

These past couple years have seen quite a few trance producers fleeing their past to embrace the chunkier nu-electro sound. Ferry Corsten, Marco V, Cosmic Gate, just to name a few. However, their transition isn’t terribly surprising, as these folks had done all they felt they needed to in that old sound. They’d prefer to move forward rather than stay in the past (even if moving forward doesn’t always translate to producing better). What does come as a surprise though, is seeing some of the names of the new generation of trance already doing the same.

Finne Jager - aka: Phynn - was early-on expected to be part of this fresh breed; his productions and DJ mixes seemed to indicate he’d be perfectly fine to carry on the Dutch trance mantle. Heck, just a year ago he was tapped to take on the long running In Trance We Trust series, a release filled to the rim with epic anthems. Surprisingly, his first single in nearly two years (not including two download-only tracks from last year, but then it's still up in the air whether those count as true singles [2022 Edit: oh, 2007 Sykonee, you silly git]) finds the young man instead leaving that sound behind and joining the ranks of producers making march-a-long tech. Is this a case of bandwagon jumping? Or perhaps Finne’s already bored with epic Dutch trance and is also looking to try something different. Fair play if the latter is so, but his offering isn’t much to get excited about.

C U Smile does everything we’ve come to expect from tracks like these, with very little innovation to distinguish from the pack. As mentioned, the rhythms are standard march-a-long in nature, causing the track to plod for large chunks at a time. The main hook is very simple, but does benefit from playing in a slightly different time signature, thus helping turn your head somewhat. Beyond that, this is a bland, forgettable techno; his club version is the better offering by a significant margin. There’s more energy and doesn’t completely rely on the main hook to sell it, with additional hooks doing a nice job between the peaks. Mind, it’s still an overly simple track, but at least doesn’t plod like the original does.

DJ Preach brings chunkier rhythms with his remix, letting his techno influences overtake the track with workable results. Aside from the additional sounds though, there isn’t much difference between his and Phynn’s club mix. Well, aside from an extended breakdown where Preach stretches the riff out somewhat, but it’s nothing more than a novel trick that adds little.

Ultimately, considering how much potential he showed in the past, C U Smile is something of a disappointment from Phynn. The track is functional but functional is very, very common in the world of dance music, and Mr. Jager hasn’t produced anything here that demands to be snatched up. It’ll work in your sets but you could find any number of tracks that do the same.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2007. © All rights reserved

Eastern Dub Tactik - Blood Is Shining (Original TC Review)

Waveform Records: 2001

(2021 Update:
I feel like a right idiot-jerk reading this back now, in that I inexplicably and completely neglected mentioning any Indian influence here. I have no idea why. Was I so utterly berift of cultural exposure that I couldn't recognize any? I mean, the Middle East certainly was more prominent on everyone's minds in the mid-'00s, but c'mon, man. I even made a tacky joke about it right in the brief!

This album still bumps mighty good though. I never fail getting hype hearing all these big-ass beats and ear-wormy hooks again, even after over-playing it something stupid way back when. Oh yes, this was another one of those CDs I was carrying a torch for, often whenever local festival goers would go on about some local hero. They'd be all like, "Isn't Bassnectar the greatest thing ever?" And I'd be like, "He's okay, but he doesn't play anything as dynamic as what's on here!" And they'd be like, "What? Who are you? I was talking to my friends over here?" And I'd be like "......." Good times.)


IN BRIEF: Funky fresh bloopity bloop, Allah.

Uh oh. Middle Eastern themes? A name with the word ‘dub’ in it? A promo spiel using adjectives like ‘worldly’ and ‘exotic’? Could this possibly be yet another unnecessary ‘world beat’ album consisting of noodly downtempo collages of Western and Eastern styles, where it’s blatantly apparent one or the other is in total control? Hardly.

Rather, producer Aaron Dysart has taken elements of East and West, and fused them together so his music wouldn’t sound out of place in either locale. Eastern Dub Tactik is as smooth a blend of funk rhythms, Arab harmonies, dubby psychedelia, and slummy street attitude as I’ve ever heard.

The reason for Dysart’s success is in his music’s simplicity. He doesn’t get bogged down in elaborate atmospherics or complicated arrangements. Tracks get down to business in short time, delivering all the pieces early on and having fun with them for the duration. And while some producers may overindulge embellishing their tracks’ components for tedious lengths (hi, Laswell!), Dysart keeps things concise and to the point, rarely letting a track go on for more than necessary. This does create a slight problem though. Because of their simplicity, tracks come and go without the kind of engagement reserved for intuitive songwriting; they come across as fun diversions but little else.

Such a release will often warrant a three star rating from me but you’ve probably noticed that extra half-star there by now (don’t lie; I know a bunch of you skip to the bottom first). So what, you ask, warrants that above above-average rating? Simply put, sheer diversity.

Even despite the similar themes and arrangements, no two tracks sound alike on here. Each cut has Dysart trying something different and aside from the plodding Day Of Despair and uneventful Asra, his works continuously surprise. And, whoo... are they ever catchy to boot. With their short running times and quick loops, breaks and hooks easily get lodged into your noggin.

The opening chunk of Blood Is Shining sees Dysart’s fusion at its most, shall we say, united; everything blends together so no influence overwhelms the other. The sounds of plinky organs, funky guitar licks, sitar strums, whispery woodwinds, and Arab vocals flow so smoothly, you’d think they’d all been a match since their cultural beginnings. Throw in a few turntable tricks and chunky beats with serious horsepower, and you can’t help but groove along.

Ah yes. Those beats. I’m not sure how much overdubbing Dysart did for them, but they pack a thick punch. Most of his breaks are time-worn from funk’s forefathers, so they’ll be quite familiar to anyone who enjoys hip or trip hop. They certainly are brisker than those styles though, and carry enough bass to piss off the neighbors. And even here Dysart melds cultures, gleefully allowing Indian drums to jam alongside the funk bands in overdrive. The rhythm heavy tracks - street-savvy Cultural Wisdom, the stompingly fun Brothers & Sisters, and screwy time-signatured Wicked Style - are irresistibly fun, and will light any dancefloor up. Well, maybe not Wicked Style as much, since it’s break isn’t quite as accommodating to folks weaned on standard rhythms; those funky organ licks will definitely have you trying though.

A few downtempo tracks help add to this album’s diversity as well. The aforementioned Asra doesn’t do much of note, but Like This, soaked in psychedelia, is a welcome dubby interlude. Meanwhile, closer Five ‘N’ Dub’s ominous atmosphere mixes nicely with chunky, clumping beats.

The odd-man out on Blood Is Shining is Eastern Winds, where Dysart allows the Eastern influences to totally dominate. Even the rhythms follow an Arabian pattern rather than the funky ones heard throughout. Fair game, I say, as it adds some vintage spice to the proceedings.

I suppose I should also mention the political content of this release. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised to hear it kept to a minimum: a couple sampled quotes looped at points, but no more. Dysart’s liner notes don’t dwell on the ills of society either, merely paying respect to those who’ve done what they could to change it. In this age of acts sacrificing musical content for sloganeering, it’s nice to hear less of it in tracks that Zack de la Rocha wouldn’t sound too out of place on. Then again, this was released in 2001, a year when music and politics weren’t quite so chummy as they are now.

Yes, this is an older release and, truthfully, there isn’t anything on here that makes it a necessary grab, fans of dubby breaks or otherwise. Even the melding of East and West, though exceptionally done, isn’t revolutionary. But regardless of these facts, should you decide to commit debit to disc, Blood Is Shining makes a worthwhile diversion from stressful days.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2006. © All rights reserved.

Attoya - Based On True Events (Original TC Review)

Trishula Records: 2007

(2020 Update:
Yet another one of those old reviews where I spend a huge chunk of the rambling pre-amble detailing a whole sub-genre of electronic music for the readers, just in case they weren't all that up to speed about the exponentially increasing micro-genres emerging within the psy trance scene. What 2007 Sykonee wasn't aware of is this was just the tip of a fractal iceberg, genre splintering occurring at almost the quantum level - this new nano-genre can both exist and not exist! Not that most would care, but for a scene indulging in reality warping psychedelics, the divisions are razor sharp, crystal clear, and down to the sonic yoctometre.

Attoya would release another album half a decade after this one (so sayeth Lord Discogs). Taking a quick skim through, they apparently took the positive words I had for their debut and explored them further. Whee, I loves me some wobbly, rubbery basslines in dark psy. Not sure where I could find a copy of that CD now though, save the second-hand market. Ooh, there's a decent price on Discogs now. No! Must... resist...!)

IN BRIEF: Results vary.

One of the funnier things about electronic music is how scenes often adopt pet names for their music, names that are seldom referred to anywhere else. Sometimes it’s nothing more than making use of a redundant adjective to describe a variation of a sound, and other times it can be a mind-boggling maze of slang terms (grime in its transition from UK garage, for instance). So, it’s hardly surprising a scene as old and esoteric as the psy trance scene is just as guilty of this too. However, it is surprising there are only two isolated terms to spring up from it: morning and forest.

Without getting too bogged down in technicalities, morning trance refers mostly to the melodic stuff, typically played, um, in the morning of all-night parties. Forest trance, on the other hand, tends to be the darker side of psy, played at night in, er, forests. For the purpose of this review, let’s focus on the latter.

Forest trance can be incredibly hit or miss. The apparent aim is to create an atmosphere where the creatures of the night are welcome to the party, like some kind of gathering in the middle of Fangorn; creepy tones, mischievous sounds, and foreboding moods are often utilized. However, while psy has a tendency to forego conventional song writing in favor of warped soundscapes, it seems producers in this field are all too eager to go overboard when they tap into the dark side; why care about immediate appeal when you can totally trip out your audience with those twisted noises, eh? All fine and dandy to a degree, but the end results are often tracks that end up a rambling, incoherent mess. Even when lost in a tribal frenzy, the need for a point to it all is still welcome.

And now, after some 300 words of introduction for our non-psy readers, we finally get to the Burshstein brother’s debut album, Based On True Events. Going by the name Attoya and hailing from Israel, the duo seem to fully embrace what this style of psy sets out to accomplish. If the cover is anything to go by, they wholeheartedly dig the forest trance mystic.

Sure enough, eerie sounds, disconcerting effects, and twisting synths creates the feeling that everything ain’t quite right in the woods tonight. Unfortunately, it’s rather aimless in the process, with Attoya producing tangents and moods for no reason other than they needed something to support the driving rhythms. Every so often, you get a lead that perhaps hints at a possible intriguing plot, but it soon dissolves into psy’s typical squiggly wibble; The System Of Multiple Language is a great example of this as the opening notes are delightfully paranoid, but are never touched upon again. About the only thing that keeps these tracks from descending into nonsensical noise are the basslines; they’ll leap off the rails of the standard dark-psy drone, creating unpredictable urgency in the process, but even then it isn’t done enough to maintain steady interest.

And then we move onto the second half of this album.

Heh, okay, I apologize for slightly leading you on there, but Based On True Events really does seem like an album of two halves. While there are moments to be had in the early going, that is all they are: moments. Even when the tracks are a bit more structured - as in Our Tasty Part for the best example - the end result is rather lacking, feeling like mere appetizers. That all changes after the mid-way mark.

Green Crop Matured is an apt title, as Attoya seem to have firmly grown into their sound from this track on. Yes, there are still some rambling moments, but not to the degree as before, and they are supplemented by musical ideas that build upon each other instead of compete for trip-out time. In fact, this tune is rather brilliant in execution, layering the intensity on in ever-increasing increments while maintaining a sense of flow from idea to idea.

After something a little more subdued, Attoya finish the album out with a couple brisk psy offerings, and quite strongly in the process. While nothing revolutionary, they are solid tracks, especially so when the basslines seems to freewheel with abandon at this late stage.

All being said, Based On True Events is a tentative recommendation. Despite a couple choice cuts to be had, a great deal of Attoya’s debut falls upon bog-standard psy execution, making this a pick-up that'll interest fans of the forest sound but very few others.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2007. © All rights reserved

Various - Balance 014: Joris Voorn (Original TC Review)

EQ Recordings: 2009

(2020 Update:
Probably the Most Important release in the Balance series, and I don't claim that with snark, believe me. There had already been critically lauded releases before, but none of them got everyone buzzing quite like this one did. And despite Balance carrying on to this day, there hasn't been another grabbing the same level of attention as Voorn's contribution did. In fact, after a run of releases that served as a sort of Trilogy in DJs showing off the extreme side of genre eclecticism... well, I'll get to that when I get to it. Ultimately though, 014 was pretty much the peak of Balance being regarded as the premiere DJ mix series lauded by music journalists.

Can't say I've come back to this much. It was fine re-listening to it again, favoring CD2 over CD1 a little more now. Voorn's set still feels too reliant on the gimmick over the track selection though, and if I'm gonna' indulge in one of these massive mix-n-mash ultra-sets, I'd sooner throw on Magda's She's A Dancing Machine - it's 'funner'! (yes, I had to get that name-drop in there as another obligatory 'it's been done' snipe)).


IN BRIEF: A trainspotter’s wet-dream.

Whether it be paid journalists, obsessive bloggers, or casual commentators, this is the kind of release such folk eagerly anticipate adding their two cents about. With a track list this big and eclectic [102 in all], Joris Voorn’s contribution to the Balance series screams for opinions, and plenty of people were ready to cast judgment on his mix sound unheard. Commercial DJ sets, after all, are traditionally done as a means of providing new music for the home listener or to promote said DJ to a potential wider audience, and you only need around ten to twenty-five tracks on a CD to accomplish this (dependent on the style of music, of course). To do something more, however, tags the mix with a bright neon “Artistic Statement” sign, from which folks will debate the merits of such a statement well before it’s even released.

Mind, Balance has long been an outlet for DJs to indulge themselves with concept mixes. EQ Recordings practically encourages it, and it’s certainly paid off for the label, in that it’s established itself as one of the premier DJ mix series – fans now tend to come away somewhat underwhelmed if the chosen jock(s) doesn’t do something unique. So, the fact Voorn seems to have willfully dove into a concept mix of this sort got all the commentators giddy. After all, here was once again an opportunity to discuss the merits of commercial DJ mixes as a something uniquely artistic which, in this age of podcasts and radio sets aplenty, does seem to be a dying artform; and this was the same reason commentators feared tackling Balance 014 as well.

Voorn’s tracklist seems to gleefully taunt any kind of criticism. Indeed, how can one be critical of something that has apparently been crafted with such passion and care? To say anything negative about Balance 014 automatically paints such a critic as someone who doesn’t appreciate artistic endeavors, thus rendering their opinions on such matters moot. Forget whether the music is actually good or not, it must be praised on concept alone.

Maybe I’d be willing to fall sway to this massive tracklist like so many others have if I thought there was something truly uniquely clever going on here. Yes, for a series that typically caters to the progressive house sect (whatever sound ‘prog’ currently represents), a CD1 with fifty-plus tracks does look impressive. But it’s not like Voorn’s playing all these as individual songs; rather, he’s cherry-picked bits and pieces to create a collage of dubby tech-house that plays out quite like a traditional prog set (re: atmospheric lead, groovy build, mid-set peak, indulgent third-act, climax/outro). On one hand, this does make it somewhat more impressive than Richie Hawtin’s DE9 mix (and indeed, Voorn’s own Fuse, a similar technical showcase), as there is ample amount of actual melody involved that creates a definite narrative. Yet compared to the wild-yet-cohesive ‘cut’n’paste’ antics of turntablists like Coldcut, Z-Trip, and DJ Shadow, Voorn’s effort here seems timid.

“Enough,” you say, “just fucking tell me if this is worth my pennies or not, f’er crissakes!” The Mizuiro disc most definitely is. As mentioned, it flows seamlessly from beginning to end, taking your ears on a lovely little journey through various atmospheres, pleasing melodies, groovy passages, and sinister soundscapes. Although the ketamine-murk of the second half may not be everyone’s cup of chamomile, Voorn ends the disc on a lovely bit of psychedelic ambiance from an obscure Alter Ego side-project, making it worth your while to let the whole disc play out – after all, such tranquility is only enhanced by the menace that comes before. The only quibble to be had is the lead into this ambient outro, as it makes use of a mild tease of a build, suggesting a more vigorous climax to Mizuiro. All is forgiven once you realize where Voorn aims to take you instead, mind, but a tease it remains.

The Midori Mix, on the other hand, comes across as a mish-mash of leftover ideas. It opens strongly with bright house beats and fresh funk, but quickly drops back into the k-hole with dark, dubby minimal-tech. This of itself is nifty head music, yet comes off redundant if you’ve just listened to Mizuiro; and makes the vigorous beginning of CD2 seem rather pointless, especially so since Voorn keeps lowering the tempo until we’re floating in beatless lounge-chill mid-way through. From there, Midori keeps jumping all over the place: disco-funk makes a return, then is promptly dropped again in favor of ambient; some jazzy-soul passages come by, yet don’t seem to relate to the rest of the mix in any way. Of course, the actual music is perfectly fine –the lack of a cohesive narrative to it all is what holds CD2 down in terms of an endearing listen.

I’m sure you’ve noticed I haven’t really been highlighting titles Voorn as used. Truthfully, there’s very little point in doing so, in that his mix isn’t about individual tracks. And to be perfectly honest, the music works better the less familiar you are with the tunes he’s used – you’ll end up just letting yourself go with the flow of his set rather than endlessly trainspotting the bits and pieces he’s used. Frankly, I found myself distracted by playing too much “I See What You Did There” with the tracks I was most familiar with. Example: Leftfield’s Rino’s Prayer: I kept waiting for the beats of the original to drop, and felt hanging when he instead just looped the dub-throb effect of the original. I’m sure there are a number of similar examples others could point out with their listening experience of this. Granted, some folks thoroughly enjoy doing so. Much like Boards Of Canada fans love hunting for sonic easter eggs, or Star Wars Prequel fans love scouring the background of Lucus’ effects-laden scenes, some could spend hours dissecting what Voorn has done with what during the course of his sets (spoiler alert: if you go to his website, you can watch a Flash animation that lays it out for you). Yet, in doing so, we’re praising production gimmickry, not musical merit.

In that regard, I cannot in good conscience give Balance 014 the super-high marks others have given it. Yes, the technical aspects are awesome, but I’m here to judge the final musical product, not studio tricks. And Voorn’s mix is musically good, not great. While I can’t fault the ambition that went into this, it unfortunately comes across as needlessly overcooked across two discs. And ultimately, were I to throw on a hour-long mix with forty-plus tracks, I’d sooner grab a Soulwax set – it may be messier, but it’s definitely more fun.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2009. All rights reserved.

Various - Balance 010: Jimmy Van M (Original TC Review)

EQ Recordings: 2006

(2020 Update:
Wow, doing 2020 updates now... that's crazy. Ahem..

Jimmy and Chris Fortier were pretty much my favorite 2nd tier prog house/trance jocks, so it's funny that their triple-CD offerings for the Balance series ended up having opposite effects on me. Whereas I only liked and returned to CD3 of Fortier's set, I've never returned to CD3 of Jimmy's set (and vice-versa with the other discs). However, whereas I've come around to Fortier's other mixes, re-listening to CD3 here only reaffirms just how much these prog-house guys struggled finding their way in the wave of minimal's trendy dominance.

Still, credit due to Mr. van M, paving the way for all those future Balance releases where eclecticism was celebrated. True, it got a little out of hand, such that the series felt obligated to return to more traditional DJ mix CD outings, but... eh, we'll get there when we get there. For now, I'll simply admit having serious bias to these mixes over the others, in that half the track selection here could have come from my own collection of music.)

IN BRIEF: A mix for electronic music fans by an electronic music fan.

Jimmy Van M is one of those DJs who, despite being in the business for several years, never quite moved beyond underground darling status. While often tapped by Sasha and Digweed to be their warm-up act on tours, his profile has consistently remained stuck in the trenches of clubland while the superstars grab the spotlight.

Still, Jimmy earned him a loyal following that has given him the freedom to explore DJing avenues some would consider counter-productive to creating a larger profile. Take his first official DJ mix. When Ministry Of Sound tapped him for the debut American version of their popular Trance Nation series, ol’ M delivered to them a trance set that was a far cry from the style UK runner Ferry Corsten was compiling. It was, as the old schoolers of the time termed it, “proper trance”, a prog trance set that could have given the heavyweights a run for their money. Of course, for a series known for its epic anthems, this just wouldn’t do and it wasn’t the best way to make a first impression on the masses. Small surprise the follow-up Trance Nation America featured Corsten clone George Acosta and Top 40 favorite ATB.

Perhaps going against the grain was the point though. Jimmy’s style hints at being a music lover first and a DJ second, and the constraint often imposed on DJs by major labels would definitely be unappealing. It seems the Balance series has come along and offered him the freedom of a mix he desires.

So what we have here is an eclectic collection of music spanning nearly two decades, all arranged into three differing discs. Anyone with a passing familiarity with electronic music should recognize a number of these tracks - heck, even steady readers of this website will notice a few (Bill Laswell, Boards Of Canada, Peter Benisch, and others scattered about). Given the amount of time covered, Balance 010 may look like a Back To Mine or Choice collection rather than a current DJ mix, but Jimmy’s arrangement is silky smooth. Tracks sometimes separated by a decade flow together with remarkable skill. As for the details of each disc, they display very unique personalities which fit their tempos.

The most diverse of the lot is the Downtempo Mix. Sets like this one are tricky to pull off, in that the listener’s attention can easily wander when listening to chill music. And even if the strength of individual tracks keeps it from becoming wallpaper muzak, a downtempo set can still lack cohesion if one tries to compile it like a typical dance set; this is music meant to chill out to. So what Jimmy has done here is created a set that dwells on one style for a bit, then moves onto a different style through a bridging bit of ambiance. Dubby world music, psychedelic chill, loungy acid jazz, and avant garde pop all have moments to hold the stage. Because each segment typically runs for only a couple tracks before an ambient interlude leaves it behind, the tempos on this disc wildly vary, which greatly helps keep your attention to see where the mix will take you next. Listening to M’s arrangement of these songs is like floating along a dreamy river where, just when you feel like you’ve gotten a handle on the scenery around you, the landscape morphs into something unexpected yet fits with what came before.

In case the loose nature of the Downtempo Mix has you fearing the others are going to be like that, worry not: the Midtempo Mix tightens things up considerably.

Oh, not all at once, mind you. The opening bit of the second disc displays the same amount of genre-jumping as the first, going from Miles Tilmann’s intelligent techno offerings into something more ethereal and organic for a couple tracks afterwards (including the haunting oldie Blue Bell Knoll from Cocteau Twins - now there’s something unexpected in a ‘dance’ mix!). Jimmy returns us to the intelligent techno after this diversion, although it isn’t the glitchy noise-fest the term IDM has become associated with. Most of it is the mellow grooving sort that would often be found on plenty of ambient techno compilations from the early '90s. Heck, Aphex Twin’s Delphium was on such compilations. There’s a fair deal of newer material within this lot though, including some super-rare material from Adam Johnson: the bottom-heavy track Kriegspiel is definitely a highlight here.

Towards the end of the Midtempo Mix, Jimmy smoothly moves us from the techno into territory he’s more known for: prog house. There’s only a few tracks to gorge on here, but each easily fits the within the mix’s dark, groovy futuristic theme. Also, one might find playing the full fifteen minutes of Underworld’s remix of Cool Kids Of Death cheeky, but given the fact the track manages to hold your interest for the duration is a testament to that group’s songcraft prowess.

And now the third disc. The Uptempo Mix... well, uptempo when compared to the other two. The BPM doesn’t get much higher than the mid-130s, which, for a DJ known mostly for prog house, is about par for the course.

Here, Jimmy keeps things current. Every track is from the year 2006 and not a moment earlier. Because this is more of a representation of what you might hear at a club rather than something for at home, this mix doesn’t display anywhere near the diversity of the other two. The quick and easy lump term for it would probably be (cringe) ‘minimal,’ but aside from a few early tracks, M remains within tech house’s territory... and prog house, I guess, since that genre’s been borrowing elements of tech and minimal lately. Ah, hell. Since there’s generous influences from many other styles of music lurking in this tech house mix (trance, tribal, acid, electro), let’s just call this style “...Except-The-Kitchen-Sink House.” Or, like so many others, minimal tech-house. Argh! I’m going bleary eyed with all these adjectives! Anyhow, this is mostly tech house with prog influences, and despite having the Uptempo header, is quite low-key in its delivery. Things do groove along nicely for the most part and there’s a good acid peak-out moments in the middle courtesy of Tom Pooks’ Docker, but as with much of this kind of music, it makes better sense on the dancefloor or while doing something active than sitting back at home.

The particulars out of the way, I suppose I should answer the big question: is this edition of the Balance series worth your money if you happen to own a number of these tracks elsewhere. The strength of Jimmy’s mix (any good DJ’s, really) is in taking tracks dedicated trainspotters are familiar with and putting them into a set where they can take on a new context. Hell, I never would have imagined Delphium would have worked as a perfect segue into prog house, yet M pulls it off with ease here (as just one example of many available). However, the Uptempo Mix doesn’t quite live up the expectations set out by the first two, so Balance 010 doesn’t get the super high marks a top notch DJ mix would normally earn.

In spite of this, Jimmy’s offering for the Balance series is a worthy pick up for electronic music lovers. The first two discs will easily remind you why you fell in love with this music in the first place, and the third is a decent bonus to groove on.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic, 2006. All rights reserved.

Various - Backspin: A Six Degrees Ten Year Anniversary Project (Original TC Review)

Six Degrees: 2007

(2019 Update:
I wonder if 2007 Sykonee would have been so critical of gatekeeping if he'd known that electronic music would blow up to the degree it did half a decade later? My larger point in the pre-amble ramble was pop music needn't be so shunned by the techno underground, but considering the sort of obnoxious bilge that did break through into America - not to mention the usual slop constantly hitting it high in European charts - my wish for a little more acceptance of popular sounds shouldn't have been taken upon a monkey's paw. And was kind of a moot point anyway where this compilation was concerned. Yeah, the original artists being covered here were generally chart toppers, but the selected songs for covering were hardly their biggest hits. Heck, some of them may not have charted at all.

Also, I'd love to see this concept revisited. Would be interesting to see what the current generation of wordly musicians consider their influences of the past three decades.)


IN BRIEF: The old is new again.

Before I start, I feel I should warn you the following review contains musical philosophizing. If you haven’t the time to indulge in my pseudo-intellectual rambling, then here’s the bottom line regarding this release: it’s good. Really good. Check it out. You won’t regret it!

Alright then? Let’s get into it.

Electronic music, for the most part, is typically regarded as non-mainstream. Aside from brief bursts of trendy pop dance hitting the airwaves, most of it is only enjoyed by a select few (in America, anyway). As a result, a sense of pretentiousness has been bred in its fans. The pursuit of underground purity permeates many scenes, even those who could very easily have crossed over had some events been different. This has led to an outright dismissal of anything with a hint of pop. The assumption is if it’s catchy, it must have been manufactured for a wider audience, thus no longer credible within the realms of the indie. What a load of bull.

Granted, a great deal of pop music is manufactured, with the sole intention of placing in the charts as high on street date as possible. But believing every song that does is ridiculous. Fact is plenty of musicians can hit upon a good song the general public enjoys and, with just the right amount of promotion, become a hit. In this age of Everything-Available-All-The-Time, a single spreading through the internet can secure success far better and credibly than thousands of PR dollars pumped into the industry.

Alas, the gut reaction of scensters to ignore good songs that become popular persists. So here’s an intriguing question: what if these popular songs hadn’t made it, and had initially been performed by obscure indie names like Ojos de Brujo or The Real Tuesday Weld? Would such folk enjoy them in that context then?

Okay, okay. This isn’t really the premise behind Six Degrees Records' new compilation. In actual fact, Backspin is a ten year anniversary project for the eclectic label. However, rather than rounding up a bunch of their biggest hits, Six Degrees instead got members of their roster to do covers of their influential songs. But in doing so, it does raise that question, doesn’t it?

Well, maybe not. Perhaps I was the only one to even think of it. It was something that crossed my mind when I saw songs on here originally written by names like Abba and The Beach Boys. Credible names to a degree, sure, but frankly often dismissed by the underground.

Anyhoo, that’s all beside the point. What matters here is whether these cover versions are worth your attention. In a word, yes.

In more than a word, the mark of a good cover is to take a familiar song and make it your own while still honoring what made the original an enduring tune to begin with. And here Backspin certainly succeeds.

Many of the producers here stick to the original arrangements for the most part, but often throwing their own sound into the mix. So Bob Marely’s Get Up Stand Up turns into a fun bit of latin music courtesy of Ojos de Brujo, Herbie Hancock’s Rockit gets organically jazz-housed up by dZihan & Kamien, and MIDIval PunditZ crank the orchestral arrangements up on Led Zeppelin’s Four Sticks.

Elsewhere though, songs are given completely different re-imaginings. For instance, who’d have ever thought the ABBA italo-ballad The Day Before You Came could have been interpreted as a kind of smokey lounge tune sung by a guy probably wearing a beret? The Real Tuesday Weld did.

Of course, there are plenty of other examples I could dwell on, but part of the fun in this compilation is discovering what surprises these musicians throw at you. Here’s a few tidbits that caught my interest:

- Shrift’s take on God Only Knows really turns this tune into a weepy. The original was so bouncy that I had never even considered the lyrics could be this depressing.

- Toby Marks (Banco de Gaia) seems to still be having fun with his vocoder.

- Spirits In The Material World has notoriously been known to be a difficult song to cover, as the arrangements are deceptively complicated. Good on Karsh Kale to have a go.

- Los Mocosos’ cumbia go at The Bed’s Too Big Without You is a hoot!

So a wrap up then? Backspin is a lot of fun, period. While the wide range of musical types may not be everyone’s cup of tea, the fact they wrap familiar pop in these unique styles should keep even the least adventurous intrigued. Seek it out and get reacquainted with old standbys.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2007 All rights reserved

Louderbach - Autumn (Original TC Review)

M_nus: 2009

(2019 Update:
I was a bit off on that Depeche Mode comparison, but beyond that, everything in this review holds up, as does this album for a little bleak sonic artistry in your life. What boggles my mind, though, is how Troy Pierce essentially faded from music making after this. Not just as Louderbach, but in totality. Aside from a smattering of singles shortly after this album's release, Troy's Discoggian data vanishes - I'm not even sure how much he remained involved with Items & Things after he founded it with Marc Houle and Magda. I know he'd become somewhat jaded over techno's direction, but surely not so much that he'd abandon it completely. Such a shame, as he was one of the few 'minimal tech' dudes I actually liked from that insufferable era. Would have been interesting hearing how his sound developed in a post-Berghain era, or even where he'd have taken Louderbach. As for Gibby, he's kept active in the visual industry, but it seems this project was the height of his vocal career. Oh well.)


IN BRIEF: Feel the gloom.

Hey there, how’s it going? Oh, not bad. Lovely weather today, isn’t it. You know that it’s going to turn to rain soon, right? Yeah, I know there’s not a cloud in the sky, but trust me, it’s going to turn damp and overcast soon enough. It won’t be a nice summer shower either, but a long, soaking downpour that will chill you to the bone. Yeah, I suppose it’ll make the grass greener afterward, but all of that lush vegetation is just the byproduct of artificial growth; it’d be green in a desert with all the chemicals saturated in those soils - which, by the way, will dissolve into the rain water as it seeps into the water table, where it will eventually make its way into our drinking reservoirs and finally into our taps as we unconsciously consume these toxins, allowing them to slowly erode our body’s health with cancer until we die from it. Oh, and your favorite sports team won’t win a major championship ever again.

Alright. Have I sufficiently depressed you, my dear readers? If so, then perhaps you’re now in the proper mood to listen to the new Louderbach album titled Autumn. Okay, so it isn’t really that depressing, but in exploring their inner goths, music-man Troy Pierce and vocalist Gibby Miller have conjured up quite the gloomy sophomore effort.

On one hand, this is actually quite beneficial because it’s different from so much of what you’d expect from the M_nus camps these days; instead of a collection of minimal tech that will be forgotten in a year’s time, there’s actual songs on here! More than that, though, is Pierce has eschewed many of contemporary techno’s clichés, which shouldn’t come as a surprise as he’s been one of the biggest critics of plink-plonk-hiss ‘minimal’ for a few years now. As one of the individuals who helped nurture minimal’s early rise in popularity, it’s a safe bet he’s been patiently hoping all the tourists clear out soon. In the meantime, he's taken the time to indulge in another scene altogether: industrial-goth.

If you’ve ever had a passing familiarity with that scene, much of Autumn will come across as old-hat. The murky atmosphere, Depeche Mode-like lyrics, and choking drone-experimentation seem directly lifted from the late 80s - third track One Hundred Reasons could have easily been an early Delerium tune (back when the group was more known for their industrial project Front Line Assembly). Heck, even the cover art seems heavily inspired by 4AD’s output. And this is all perfectly fine. Pierce adds just enough fresh wrinkles into the sound, especially excellent bass grooves, keeping things from sounding too much of a blatant style-bite; it’s apparent he’s got a genuine fondness for this sound, even if his minimal techno career prevented him from exploring it more.

As for Gibby, he too seems to understand that, when it comes to goth-inspired vocals in dance music, it is best not to take things too seriously. I can honestly say I don’t pay much attention to such lyrics, nor do I have any desire to search for a ‘deeper’ meaning; a lot of it is pretentiously dark poetry anyway. So long as his singing simply adds to the atmosphere of a track, he could be going on about walking his dog for all I care. Aside from the opener Autumn and She, Gibby seems to throw a knowing wink to the audience that this music is meant for light escapism rather than deep contemplation. (at least, I sure hope that’s the case…)

Speaking of She… yikes! I don’t know what got into Pierce’s head, but this is one seriously disturbing track. I can actually feel myself suffocating as this one plays, which either makes it devilishly great, or one I’ll never want to unearth again; rather like one of those psychologically terrifying movies.

There’s a couple other odds and ends to Autumn, like the Juan Atkins inspired Nothing More Than A White Poison, which seems out of place given the theme of the rest of the album, but overall I’ve covered the gist of things. It’s a short album that doesn’t stray far in tone, though arranged such that it doesn’t get dull; that is, provided you buy into the whole goth atmosphere. And that’s where some problems arise.

For the minimal techno groups, Autumn will come as a breath of fresh air (despite that air being musky, damp, and carrying the scent of wood-rot): it is, after all, something different from the norm. Label-honcho Hawtin sure seems to believe in this album, having commissioned a whopping seven remixers for the lead single Shine; even mainstream records don’t get that many right off the bat. Yet despite nothing to fault with the music on hand, long-time goths aren’t going to be nearly as enthralled. Any number of albums released in the past twenty years have touched on these themes and sounds with various results; Louderbach falls somewhere in the higher end of the middle of that pack. Plus, you can’t help but wonder if the goth scene will accept Pierce and Miller with open arms, or figure them as much of tourists as all the ‘minimal’ producers that sprung up a couple years back.

Whatever the case, Autumn is a fun little album to throw on if you want to get in touch with your depressive side, but generally too singular in tone to be a compelling listen in any other setting.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2009. © All rights reserved.

Various - Audioworks Various Artists V1 (Original TC Review)

C.I.A.: 2004

(2019 Update:
Well, is this ever an eyesore. I know there's still a few track-by-track reviews lurking in my archives, but the older they get, the harder they are to read. Not that they were well-written in the first place, but my eyes can't help but glaze over once the supposed meat is getting detailed. Looks like a bunch of fat and gristle now. Some folks out there like fat and gristle, but not me. I likes my steak lean an' mean.

Of course, the biggest oversight in this review is the total absence of any Pendulum name-drops. True, this compilation came out before the Down-Southerns changed the d'n'b game forever after, but I was writing this at peak Pendulum-mania. Frankly, though I knew they existed, and Jack Moss had reviewed them for TranceCritic, they never registered on my radar until much later. Just goes to show how out of the loop I really was from jungle at the time, so take whatever I had to say here with a boulder of sodium carbonate.)


IN BRIEF: Rough’n’ready jungle for all.

Got’dang’it, but do I ever have a hard time starting these jungle reviews. I only dip into that scene whenever I feel the urge to bust out some frantic dancing or be absorbed by sub-whoofer assaults. The cultural nuances hardline junglists cling to with life-or-death intensity fly over my head, just because I’ve never been subservient to any one small niche of music-dom. Yes, I do my research for the necessary background info on the subject, but the personal insight a highly anticipated release on the jungle ‘mah-siive’ isn’t something I feel. I am, for all intent and purpose, a passive fan of the music, and that’s about it.

Perhaps that’s why we don’t cover as much jungle as some of the other genres. We know we can’t bullshit our way through some of the more underground acts, as junglists would see right through us. Alternatively, just dryly covering a release’s details is awfully boring, and can probably be read anywhere anyways.

Take this release for instance. I’m sure a hardline junglist could go into great depth about Total Science, their impact on the ‘deebee’ scene, and the particulars about their C.I.A. label. Of course, I could do the same, but the nuances junglists have come to know from fellow scensters would undoubtedly be missing from my interpretation of this info. While events are just historical dates to me, to the junglist they are defining moments in their lives.

Does this make me qualified to review jungle? As a review of jungle for junglists, maybe not. However, as a general music fan writing for other general music fans, why certainly.

That convoluted disclaimer out of the way, let’s dive ourselves into some breakneck drum’n’bass, yes?

So yeah, Audioworks is basically a showcase of the C.I.A. family (the C.I.A. stands for Computer Integrated Audio, your fun-fact of the day). Everyone has a moment to flex their muse here, and while the tempos are fairly consistent at their rapid pace, there are still plenty of flavors to be had.

Hive & Echo get the party started with some easy going street funk and synthy strings. Of course, the rhythms are as frenetic as ever, but never feel as though they’ll derail at any moment. As for the bassline, it doesn’t try to bludgeon you with its presence, simply bobbing along at sub-frequencies that’ll rumble in your gut when played on adequate sound-systems.

However, if you prefer your jungle with the basslines dominating, then Baron’s Meet The Creeper will be right up your alley. After a bit of a tease in the intro, the beats come in slammin’ with a grimy bass riff. Nothing pretty about this track; it knows its role and performs it admirably. DJ Friction’s follow-up Shockwave indulges with the formula a little more though, making use of a bleepy hook to play off the main bass hook. Additional sound effects complete the package, making Shockwave a well-rounded slice of niceness.

Wisely, Audioworks doesn’t overindulge in these tracks for long, and takes us into more soulful territory with Total Science’s own offering of Picture Perfect. The bassline still has drive, but the additional synth hooks and vocal samples help carry the song to mellower pastures. The next couple of tracks follow Picture Perfect’s lead quite nicely, although Booty Conspiracy began to wear a bit thin with its repetitiveness.

Invaderz aim to change the mood of this compilation once again, giving us a taste of the paranoid sci-fi soundscapes of Control. With more attention payed to the atmosphere rather than the rhythms here (the beats tend to be quite repetitive, and are arranged in such a manner that isn’t the easiest to dance to), this track may not be up your alley if you prefer your jungle soulful or energetic. Still, as a diversion form what we’ve heard so far on Audioworks, Control is a welcome bit of moody music.

The Spirit’s Midnight Run retains a similar atmosphere to Control, but the beats are more ‘bang-on’, making it easier to groove to. It also marks a return of the dominating basslines as heard earlier in this compilation, although intermittently. It makes for a nice segue though.

Why? Because follow-up Friday is absolutely killer, that’s why! The intro beats to this track are already some of the most intense heard on Audioworks, but when Friday briefly breaks down to introduce the main bassline hook in a nice build, the energy it creates is off the fucking chart! This is head-banging, balls-to-the-wallz, pummel you senseless jungle business here. And like crafty producers, Drumsound and Smith only makes use of it sparingly, making you hungry for it to drop back in but never for so long you get sick of it. Fucking wicked, this track is.

After that burst of nitro, we’re taken into a blissy bit of drum’n’bass with Digital’s 3 Point, hinting at an easy-going outro for this compilation. Follow-up Divine Intervention seems to support this idea for a bit, but takes a 180 by unleashing a growling, abrasive bassline with terrifying results. Heh, nothing like a little ‘bait’n’switch’ action to snap you out of your stupor. Q Project does come correct though, offering us a dubby slice of ragga jungle to take us out.

In all, I quite enjoyed listening to Audioworks. While individually these tracks may not be breaking any new ground, their arrangement here is very good. At no point did I feel the flow lagged or came to an abrupt halt, and each track managed to sound different enough from the last to keep me interested. In fact, even after listening to this constantly for the last few days to write this review, I’ve never grown bored of it, and will probably still have it on my current rotation.

Audioworks is a solid compilation of jungle. Even if you’re only a passive fan of the genre, do check it out.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2006. © All rights reserved.

U-Recken - Aquatic Serenade (Original TC Review)

Dooflex: 2006

(2019 Update:
Haha, I was such a chronic back in the day, wasn't I? There I go, smoking d'at dank kush, all for the means of a review that I assumed few people would read because really, who'd care about Yet Another Full-On producer in Israel's overcrowded scene? Oh, wait, a lot of you, apparently. Uh, didn't see that coming, all the hits this review received on TranceCritic. Not to mention just how much some folks are willing to pay for this on the Discogs market. Like, I knew this was generally well regarded at the time, but didn't think it'd be a superstar launch or anything. I could hear the potential though, Yaniv's songcraft at creating psy trance with some intelligence and skill behind it. He just needed refinement, or at least an editor, someone to shake off the useless fluff he littered so many of his tracks with.

And wouldn't you know it, he seems to have taken the advice I offered here, even if he likely never read it. I checked out his latest album, 2017's Nothing Is Sacred, and most of the things I liked about Aquatic Serenade has been retained, with none of the naff randomness I found distracting. Just simple, spacey, morning psy vibes. Almost tempted to buy a proper copy.)


IN BRIEF: A full-on olive branch to goa? Perhaps...

The genre wars in the psy scene is probably at an all-time high. The old goa guard has been moaning over full-on’s raise to supremacy for most of the 21st Century, claiming it’s destroying psy’s initial spiritual connections in favor of clubbing appeal. To the old goa guard, I say this: welcome to the world of music.

No matter how hard some may try to protect and cultivate their scenes, electronic music has a way of being heard by outsiders: separate scensters, business opportunists, even those who don’t consider EDM ‘proper’ music. When this happens, it attracts new folks, and thus new ideas. Some stick and become new sub-genres, attracting even more new folks who dig the new sound over the old. I’m sure everyone knows what this leads to, so I won’t dwell on it.

Still, even if full-on is super-popular in psy strongholds like Israel and... um...er, other places (does psy have huge followings anywhere else?), if it doesn’t try to innovate or change its formula, it will suffocate on its own bloated self-worth. As much fun as driving rhythms and catchy psychedelic hooks can be, endless copycats only dilute the scene, leaving it to collapse from excessive weight.

Yaniv Ben-Ari may realize this. As U-Recken, he seems to show interest in crafting songs using the full-on template merely as the foundation rather than to get popular with the kids.

I know the term ‘subtle full-on’ sounds like an oxymoron but that’s honestly the feeling I get from Aquatic Serenade. Despite the trappings, there’s few moments that succumb to full-on’s clichés. The tracks have mellow, flowing synth melodies that guide you between typical wiggly, squiggly bursts of acid. In fact, with such attention paid to the melodies rather than the climaxes, I’d almost be inclined to say some tracks hold elements of goa rather than full-on.

A couple by-the-book tracks aside, the main thing that helps U-Recken distinguish himself are the rhythms. Yes, there’s plenty of full-on’s characteristic ‘duggita-duggita-duggita’ bassline throughout, but it doesn’t always dominate. Some tracks even forego it altogether (Pitch Of Mind being the most apparent example). Most of the time this happens when the standard bassline begins to overstay its welcome, making the differing basslines most welcome.

As with most psy trance, Yaniv fills his tracks with many hooks and sounds; one can sometimes hold more musical ideas than half an hour of an epic trance set. This seems to be the result of his improvisational approach to the tracks, and will often keep you guessing as to where he’s taking a song. It sounds like a good idea: unexpected surprises keeps music exciting if you crave diversity. Something seems amiss though, and I can’t quite put my finger on it. Fortunately, I have a handy aid which allows me to pay diligent attention to music in such emergencies like this.

Sykonee gets stoned; listens to Aquatic Serenade in such state. Eighty minutes pass...

...see, what I don’t get is why the Machines would send a Terminator back in the first place. Surely they would have realized if they had to send one back to kill Conner at all, that the T-800 failed. If he’d succeeded, there would be no Resistance to begin with. But then I suppose if they didn’t send the Terminator, the Resistance might spring up anyways. But then we’re just back to the illogical assumption sending a T-800 to the past if its mission was pre-determined to fa- Wait, what was I talking about again?

While listening to U-Recken’s debut under a THC haze, I find the biggest problem is it just doesn’t maintain its focus. A big number of tracks have wonderful little melodic or psychedelic moments (opener Lost Paradise, Tania being good examples), then are never heard from again. Various themes are often dropped after a good minute or so, and aren’t even revisited again later in the track. I don’t mind musical tangents in a song, but at least have some kind of unifying narrative, otherwise it can turn into a big mess of rando-

Wait, what was I talking about again?

I have to admit a part of me fears technology is slowly but surely taking over our humanity. I mean, just look at the most recent party trends of raving. Synthetic music; synthetic stimulants; synthetic lighting; hell, even the synthesizers are synthetic (word to laptop symphonies)! Maybe there won’t be any need for an apocalyptic war between man and machine; they’re already doing an excellent job of subverting us. Is it such a bad thing though? After all, if we as a species are ever to travel to the stars, we’re gong to have to rely on technology. Flapping our arms has proved fut-

Wait, what was I talking about again?

U-Recken can’t go eight bars without throwing in some random, superfluous sound effect or sample. It’s like, “Can’t have a moment’s breath; this is psy trance, and we gotta keep this baby chaotic!” Frankly, I tuned out most of these inconsequential fills very quickly, and primarily focused on the meat of the tracks. Of this meat, there’s some good and some bad, but de-

Wait, what was I talking about again?

Since all energy transfers from one state to another, where does the left-over energy generated by our body go when we die? I can see it slowly fading away as we get older, but what about quick deaths, like a bullet to the head? Our body is generating energy as always right up to that point (sometimes even more if adrenaline’s surging through your body), and I highly doubt a penetrating bullet sucks it all up. Is this why some people twitch after they die, as a means of releasing residual energy stored in the body? Or might it be that energy is what gives us our conscious thought, and when we die, that conscious thought moves on into other forms? Frankly, I’m too scared to find out for my-

Wait, what was I talking about again?

When U-Recken settles things down toward the latter half of Aquatic Serenade, the tracks start to show some tighter musicianship of which was lacking in the first half (opening track notwithstanding). Songs like The Other Side and Misery hold a definite themes together - even if the melodies aren’t always synced, at least the general atmosphere is. Normally, a melancholy mood is felt as we head into the final stretch of this album, which makes for an interesting contrast given full-on’s typical gung-ho approach. The self-titled downtempo closer to Aquatic Serenade is quite nice as well, ending on a gorgeous bit of singing from Slay (nope, don’t know who that is either).

Generally, Yaniv displays an interesting take with full-on. It’s a blessing and a curse though, as he creates some nice melodies and hooks but without the focus needed to make them enduring. You get the impression he has tons of smart ideas floating around in his head, and let them all out in a big burst of driving rhythms. With luck, his next offering will show more restraint. It’s already apparent in the latter half of Aquatic Serenade, so we know he has it within him.

Anyhow, time to raid the fridge.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2007. © All rights reserved.

Pitch Black - Ape To Angel (Original TC Review)

Kog Transmissions/Waveform Records: 2004/2005

(2019 Update:
I fear I overplayed this when I first got it. I wouldn't say it was a revelation or something so daft, but man, did it ever hit the sweet spot in releasing those fussy pleasure endorphins, music that I needed at a most opportune time in my life. I sadly haven't gone back to it much this past decade though, so much of it now burned in my brain that I just have to think of it and the whole thing plays out in a rapid flash within my mind. I don't like that. I yearn for the lost anticipation of hearing it fresh and new again, but such a time is gone, gone, gone. Maybe I can take a spoon and scoop out wherever the Ape To Angel memories are stored.

Or perhaps it'd be better if I just scope out some more of Pitch Black's music. They've certainly kept active to this day, and apparently even resisted the temptation to jump on the dubstep bandwagon like a lot of unique, groovy psy-dub festival mainstays did. Guess that's more Bandcamping in store for me...)


IN BRIEF: This release coulda been 'electronica'.

“Oh great,” you say. “Here go these TranceCritic writers again, willfully reviewing obscure material and giving it high scores just because it’s underground.”

With that, I’m sure I’ve put a chunk of our readers on the defensive. Don’t play coy. I know there’s a good deal of you out there who figure because we don’t shower certain DJs and producers with unconditional praise, we’re nothing more than elitist music snobs. Of course, such folk rarely see the nice things we have said about said DJs and producers, as it tends to only be the negative that sticks in their mind.

However, it is true we sometimes dig deep into uncharted music territory, where more often than not we come across electronic gold to share with our readers. Such is the allure of the hunt for dedicated music collectors, spending countless hours and funds in the pursuit of those unheralded artifacts.

Our excursions have now taken us to a land most don’t regularly associate electronic music with: New Zealand. The island nation is more known for its Maori heritage, kiwi fruits, and, more recently, the spiritual home of Middle Earth. But an EDM scene? It hardly registers - the lack of any globally recognized names doesn’t help. Fortunately, this lack of worldwide notice hasn’t stopped Zealanders from pursing their interests into the realm of digital dance music.

Production duo Paddy Free and Michael Hodgson have quietly built up a name for themselves over the years, and the dedication to their craft has begun to yield some notice in other corners of the world. Reason is their music has reached a stage where they’re at one with their sound - dubby psychedelia - and aren’t afraid to export it to other styles. There’s a cool confidence in their work, a trait that was quite common in the big ‘electronica’ acts of the 90s like Underworld and Leftfield.

Hmn. Suddenly I have the suspicion this room just got a lot emptier. Was it perhaps that ‘psychedelic dub’ tag that caused the less adventurous to flee? If so, it’s their loss, as Pitch Black’s sound encompasses far more: psy dub is merely a starting reference. Free and Hodgson show an affinity for the cavernous sounds echo, delay and reverb effects can create, but they don’t get caught up in the novelty of it like some dub producers do; providing texture is their main goal with the sound. As for the psychedelic part, it too doesn’t get bogged down with over-indulgence. There’s some loose arrangements and some squiggly sounds, but none of which are a track’s focus.

Still, when Pitch Black does indulge in psy dub, they fire on all cylinders. The titular opener, Flex, the jazzier Freefall, and the ambientish Empty Spaces lazily groove along with dubby effects tingling at your mind. And in case rhythms and effects aren’t enough for your head to chew on, your attention will easily be drawn to the warm melodies bubbling just beneath the surface.

Elsewhere on Ape To Angel, the duo have fun fusing reggae harmonies, techno soundscapes, and brisk breakbeats into their dubbed-out delights. Melt is a little more traditional for this kind of sound, but Lost In Translation’s funky freewheeling and chip-choppy vocal sampling will definitely get your body movin’. And if that’s not enough for you, the gradual build of easy-going grooves to near d’n’b speeds of The Random Smiler should satisfy even the most suspicious of this reviewer’s praise. But wait, there’s more!

Far from content to stick to these styles, Pitch Black tackle techno head-on in Big Trouble Upstairs. This is the kind of track you wouldn’t find too out of place in a WipEout soundtrack, using subtly layered rhythms, burbling acid, and moody future soundscapes to bring the energy up in ever gradual increments. It’s definitely a different kind of track on this album, especially considering the generally psychedelic chill vibe that permeates the proceedings. Yet, it maintains the duo’s style, and shows how adept they are at this electronic music thing.

But wait, there’s still more!

Forget all that talk about psy and dub and techno and breakbeats. Pitch Black throw in a spacey bit of acid jazz with the track Elements Turn, including full lyrics provided by Sandy Mill (her voice is also used in Freefall, but only for a few repeated words). Were it not for some of this duo’s dubby sound lightly lurking in the background, Elements Turn could easily fit snugly in a Kruder & Dorfmeister-styled set. Hell, it still could, should such DJs feel a little adventurous in their track selection.

A diverse album? Ape To Angel certainly is that. Even if the general mood tends to remain consistent, Pitch Black have no trouble flirting with other styles, keeping the variety on this full-length fresh as it plays through. Many acts often attempt this, but all too often sound like they are merely checking off a list of types of tracks they should have - even more often for the sole reason of trying to distribute their material to other genre scenes they don’t normally associate with. However, because Free and Hodgson aren’t really a part of any predetermined scene, they don’t feel inhibited by what is expected of them, which allows them to produce the music they desire. As a result, the songs on here are strong and fearless, and shouldn’t be missed by anyone who fancies themselves a fan of electronic music.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2007. All rights reserved.

Markus Schulz - Amsterdam 08 (Original TC Review)

Armada: 2008

(2019 Update:
Man, is there anything left for me to update regarding the Schulzer? I already did one of these with Ibiza 06, actually went back and surprisingly enjoyed his earlier mixes, and am pretty sure touched on all his activities of the past decade. Did I mention his mid-life crisis pairing with Ferry Corsten as New World Punx? That should be reiterated, absolutely. He did release another artist album this past year, where he poses in all white while glancing at a piano, touching a single key as though... y'know, I've no idea what sort of message that's supposed to portray. Seems either hilari-bad, or ineptly pretentious. Almost curious of what the album sounds like though, just to hear where his muse has wandered in all this time. His go at the creaky In Search Of Sunrise series too, if I'm being honest.

Most of the complaints (and faint praises) I had with this set remained intact as I replayed this. It's funny though, how without even looking at the tracklist again, I instantly knew which tracks Carl B had his fingers in. Very definition of hilari-bad eurotrance excess.)


IN BRIEF: I dub thee Side-Chain Schulz.

Are we tough on ol’ Markus Schulz? Certainly, but it’s tough-love we deliver, not spiteful rage. Whether in his distant producing past or recent remix work, we hear the potential he has to do something more with his career beyond merely pandering to the watered-down popular taste. I suppose the reason we continue to scope out his output is the hope that some of that unrealized talent surfaces again, but the returns have been ever diminishing.

His DJ releases haven’t fared much better. The last major offering, Ibiza ‘06, was a bland trudge through melodic trance mediocrity, indistinguishable from the glut and hobbled by his insistence on giving much of his label’s singles undeserved spotlight (save a couple decent tracks). Since then, the Schulzer’s career has seen something of an uptick thanks to an album [Progression] that, while still treading water, was better received than his debut [Without You Near] (probably due to expectations being sufficiently lowered after his abysmal ‘first time’). The general assumption has been Markus would capitalize on that momentum to reinvigorate his DJing career as well. After some delays denying him a proper 2007 release (to keep with the idea of an annual DJ mix), we finally have Amsterdam ‘08, where the answers to this question shall be given.

The opening of the first disc is promisingly interesting. Some pleasant sounds, laid-back rhythms, and agreeable melodies are featured here (although why is Beyond The Shadows making that out-of-sync beeping sound? Reminds my of my discman's pause feature). Glenn Morrison’s two offerings of Blue Skies With Linda and Rubberband easily steal the show: his tracks have some wonderful sounding synths on display, and the melodies he crafts are quite lovely, even if Blue Skies does draw a bit closely to over-sentimentality. Also, there is a rather lazy tone to this mix; not so much haphazard or sloppy, but more lethargic and mellow (no, not stoned... or k-holed, to be more contemporary within the current clubbing scene). Overall, it’s quite nice.

...and all downhill from there.

Rubberband makes for a great mid-set peak, but Schulz obliterates all those warm fuzzy feelings the tune leaves in its wake by following it up with one of the most abysmal sequences of tracks I’ve heard in a DJ set in some time. Rex Mundi tries some ‘piano trance’ breaks, and fails miserably in the process (break-beat rhythms should never sound this bland, my friends); Mr. White features annoyingly aggravating hookless hooks care of Ruben de Ronde’s remix; tiDi’s silly attempt at clicky minimalism screams of Schulz trying to get a piece of the ketamine crowd; and let’s not even mention the atrocious side-chaining going on in the latter two (we’ll be dealing with this abused effect in a bit anyway). The shell-shock of these three awful tracks leaves a very sour aftertaste, ruining the set’s momentum and instilling general apathy for the rest the first CD's final stretch. There’s little to mention there anyway: straight-forward trance number Azaleas from Supüer has a better-than-average hook, and Sonic Division’s If I Had Wings will turn your head since it apes the memorable chorus from 80s classic (I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight by Cutting Crew.

Any hopes of recovery on disc two is put to rest with the opening tracks, where Schulz under aliases treats us to awful side-chaining effects. Eh, you’re not sure what side-chaining even is? Although it’s long been an attribute associated with bass kicks canceling out equal frequencies, Markus and his McProg associates have been known to apply the effect on everything from backing pads to lead synths, creating a distinctive ‘pulsing, throbbing’ sound. When handled effectively it gives tracks some decent rhythmic pump, but when handled poorly, it wrecks any sense of sonic flow with constant aural interruptions. Repeatedly hearing frequencies cutting out and springing forth at full volume can be incredibly disorientating, the audio equivalent of someone continuously zooming in and out when recording a video. Markus has been a big proponent of it, and made good use of it when it was first being championed, essentially relegating it to the background as he let the twinkly melodies McProg was derided for claim the stage. On Amsterdam '08 though, many of the pulsing synths are blatantly front-and-center, as it seems some of these producers rely heavily on it to create hooks (instead of, y’know, writing a goddamned melody rather than depend on pre-set effects doing the work). The opening of disc one avoided the problem based on the strength of melodies grabbing your attention, but from there on, and especially so on the second disc, it turns intolerable.

Seriously, CD2 is rendered practically unlistenable by how bad the side-chaining effect is abused, persisting for well over the first half and much of the second. After only three tracks it’s become a painfully predictable gimmick, where a perfectly fine eerie peak-hook in Schulz’ own Fly To Colors is ruined by unnecessarily throwing this effect on it. You can’t enjoy any of the nice synths on display when they’re constantly cutting out (and no, this does not create a ‘strobe’ effect like multi-tap delays do; more like a vertigo effect), and by the time Agnelli & Nelson’s pleasant little trancer Sleeping In Airports hits, I keep imagining I’m hearing synth throbs despite there being none, so ingrained into my psyche the pulses have been.

As for the actual music, decent moments seem few. Coldharbour’s Next Big Anthem in Forsaken will either having you reaching for the lasers or rolling your eyes, depending on your taste for cloying tunes such as these; the tech-y finish has some fine grooves in tracks like Avalon (now there’s some good use of side-chaining!), but equally cringe-worthy bits as found in More Manners Please (idiot electro-fart nonsense) and Formulation (now there’s more of that poor use of side-chaining...). Ultimately, not the greatest finish, but then given the lead-up, it isn’t that surprising.

Reading back on this, it may appear my bitching is focused mostly on technical attributes, something that really shouldn’t factor much when reviewing music. However, the very fact I’m ranting so much about it highlights one of the overlying problems, in that the music on hand either isn’t terribly interesting or is ruined by overdone pulsing-synth wank. Glenn Morrison aside, few of the melodies make a lingering impression, and the tracks that jump on current trends (nu-electro farts; minimal clicks) are quite forgettable. Seeing as how Markus’ commercial sets are as much a promotion vehicle for upcoming Coldharbour cuts as they are standard DJ sets, this doesn’t bode well for his label. Sure, his loyal Cult will lap it all up, but if you’ve grown weary of Schulz’ shtick, Amsterdam ‘08 will only reinforce your distaste for his sound.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2008. © All rights reserved