Ra - 9th

Suntrip Records: 2008

Okay, I could have sworn Ra were super old-school goa trancers. I mean, they certainly have been around since the early years, technically forming way back in '94 (so sayeth Lord Discogs). Apparently they never released much until well after the fact though, their debut album To Sirius coming out in the year 2000. I dunno', I'm just getting some serious Mandela Effect on their name, one I thought cropped up on numerous psy trance compilations throughout the '90s. They got some tracks on the endless Goa-Head series, but not until after the turn of the millennium. Is it because they also featured on numerous Altar Records CDs, including features on that label's 'Elemental' run? That may have something to do with associating Ra with a solid compilation game, but not thinking they've had numerous albums out before then.

It's the title of this one that's got me all confuzzled, isn't it. When an artist names their record 9th, I just assume it's their ninth record. But this isn't their ninth – it's their second. Why is this called 9th, then? Maybe I should actually read the liner notes, get some insight into the inspiration for this album.

Uh huh, uh huh... Hmm, something about the 'ninth insight' required to raise one's spirit density level. Erm, why does that remind me of New Age mumbo-jumbo? Let me check double-check that... *commences with the Googling* Ah, The Celestine Prophecy. Of course it is. Well, I won't hold it against them.

Anyhow, as mentioned, Ra have been around the block for some time, a pair of Norwegians teaming up to release a resolutely ol' school goa trance album with To Sirius. This actually garnered them some positive attention, as this was in the era of psy getting very minimal, proggy, fussy... y'know, all the things that classic goa wasn't. It makes perfect sense, then, that when resolutely ol' school goa trance connoisseurs Suntrip Records were getting their stride on, Ra would be among their earliest acts to sign. Despite a slight delay, the album came out in 2008 to much... appreciation, I guess?

I personally feel 9th is a solid enough excursion into what folks were (and still are?) calling the Neo Goa sound, which Suntrip are very much proponents of: classic goa trance vibes with (then) modern production values. In a nutshell, stuff that maybe wouldn't have stood out as classic 'back in the day', but compared to the prog-psy plod and full-on fluff that was making the rounds when it came out, definitely material that stands out from the pack. Aside from an opening vocal that reminded me Snap! sans Turbo B, I very much enjoyed the tunes on 9th, but generally only as they played. Perhaps Ra's use of synth leads are a tad too subtle to really stick after. Or I'm just mentally hedging my exceptions because, got'dang, have I got a lot more Suntrip to sift through in the coming year. Could be, could be.

Various - Trust In Trance 2

Outmosphere Records: 1994

I can't believe this happened again. Once, sure, a weird fluke of chance, but twice now? Not that I'm complaining, per se, as this is by far a more interesting item to review than what I initially set out to get. It's just bizarre that, once again, an order for an In Trance We Trust CD has yielded me something completely different. Right, not as egregious a mispick as ending up with Tiësto's In Search Of Sunrise 5 - this at least has the words 'trust' and 'trance' in the title. But yes, getting Astral Projection's debut album is a far better grab than another In Trance We Trust mix – guess that collection will have to wait a little longer for completion.

Okay, this technically isn't an Astral Projection album, but it may as well be. Though the famed Israeli group made their proper debut with The Astral Files, they'd spent a few years prior honing their craft under a number of aliases, including Mantra, Aban Don and SFX. Hitching up with the label Phonokol, Misters Avi Nissim, Lior Perlmutter, and Yan-Iv Haviv were given the green light in compiling the first Trust In Trance collection, launching the sub-label Outmosphere Records. That one had a couple other contributors, but by the time they put together the quick follow-up, it was strictly an Astral Projection joint, even if they were operating under various guises. Hey, if The Black Dog could get away with it on Bytes, why not good ol' A.P.?

What makes all this a bit confusing is Astral Projection did release an album called Trust In Trance ...two years after Trust In Trance 2 came out. Confounding things further is them renaming Outmosphere Records into Trust In Trance Records. To say nothing of an Indian re-issue on Vale Music simply calling it Trust In Trance, which was later re-issued as Karma Trance 2 (so sayeth Lord Discogs). Good God and Vishnu almighty, does this nine-tracker of proto goa trance ever have a weird history.

Oh yeah, the music! Mahadeva is on here, often considered among the earliest tracks shaping the genre's defining characteristics many future artists would emulate. Sure, Eat Static, Total Eclipse, and Juno Reactor were doing their own things by this point, but Astral Projection really put a stamp on tweaking acid and vintage synths in such a fashion you just couldn't help but conjure flailing about on the beaches of Goa. Still, there's no denying Trust In Trance 2 is some early-ass trance music, a hefty portion not quite yet transitioned from mainland Europe's idea of what the genre should entail. Some are blistering fast, while others, particularly the SFX cuts, have little 'goa' influences in them at all. I can see that being a turn-off for those weaned on the psy scene's latter years of radical, freeform, trip-your-face-off music. For those preferring their psy on the simpler side though, Trust In Trance 2 does hold up pretty good three decades on.

Various - Tranceculture > Endless Universe

Hypnotic: 1995

This was a fairly popular CD among my raving peers way back in the day. When you're stuck in the hinterlands of Canadaland, in the Before Times of primitive internet, finding anything with a hint of the underground was like mana from heaven to the ears of high-schoolers. This wasn't some poppy eurodance rinsed out by MC Mario, this was European trance music, with sounds emitting from the deepest cosmic corners, conjuring sci-fi concepts like semiconductors, DNA structures, and Apollo moon missions, all throbbing at 160 – 200 bpm. It does all seem a bit silly in hindsight, doesn't it?

There's a lot about Tranceculture that can come off rather dodgy, even by mid-'90s efforts. Despite being presented as a compilation, it's abundantly clear all the tracks are produced by one man, Steffen Schuhrke, who barely gets an 'Operations & Navigations' credit. The alias Reverse Pulse had appeared on a few other scattered Hypnotic collections, so why not just bill it as that? No, this is just Hypnotic (re: Cleopatra) on their chintzy marketing shtick again, right down to a lenticular jewel case with lame- oh, I can't stay snarky at you, lenticular jewel cases. There's even a picture of Saturn, always frickin' awesome!

Besides, it's all about the music, right? Right, and Tranceculture features some of the purest forms of trance you can imagine. Like, ultra-retro pure. We're talking basic, hypnotic loops, performed in incremental waves, melody more of a suggestion of minor chord progression in backing pads. There's acid and bleepy arps, but served as a rhythmic rudder to the blistering pace of these tracks rather than prominent leads. Aside from escalating tension as loops build upon each other, there isn't any sort of typical song structure going on here.

It's an almost improvisational method of constructing each track, Steffen feeling out when and where each loop gets dropped in, whether a key change is warranted, and how much knob twiddling one earns. Nor does he seem encumbered by when and how a track should end, letting things run for however long feels right for the moment, even if that's nine, thirteen, or fifteen minutes. It rather reminds me of the old Spiral Tribe free-tekno tapes but with German trance sounds rather than hardcore techno.

Still, the dated nature of Tranceculture can't be overlooked. Heck, I'm sure some could argue A.I. does this now – it certainly ain't no th'ang for computers to emulate popular EDM, so why not three decade old (!!) trance? Plug in some stock loops, request a couple effects, and let 'er rip, right? I thought so at first, but the more I re-listened to this CD, the more I realized Steffen's still doing things that just can't be mimicked by technology yet. When and where such loops are utilized, just how much a knob gets twisted – a 'human intuition' sort of vibe, however basic or subtle it may be. Damn, didn't expect to get so metaphysical with a shameless nostalgic trip.

Clementz - Kretsløp

Suntrip Records: 2020

Goa was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. Some moved onto harder sounds with psy trance, others emerged with cross-over friendly, full-on vibes. A few brought back melodic elements with prog-psy, even if it meant slowing the pace down a dozen BPM. For all intents though, the original genre as exported from the shores of India had had its day in the acid-drenched sun, electronic music's constant desire for evolution relegating it to the dustbin of history. You will therefore permit me to reiterate emphatically, that Goa was as dead as a door-nail.

But like any comic book character not named Uncle Ben or Thomas and Martha Wayne, no genre stays dead. Even if a potential audience has dwindled to bupkis, at least that audience exists. Such must have been the logic of Suntrip Records, a little Belgian print eager to resurrect goa trance even if the scene had long moved on. They even scored an early 'hit' in Khetzal's Corolle, proving interest was there for vintage goa, should anyone take a chance on it. Just dress it up in some new hotness tag for all to see, something cutting edge and hip to the kids. Got it! Neo-Goa!

Despite this new-old genre never taking off in any significant way, it persisted in the periphery of the psy scene, Suntrip Records continuously plugging along to this day. Which leads us to one of the label's more recent offerings in Clementz' Kretsløp, an album I picked up because I wanted something new out of PsyShop, and this one had the blueist cover art available.

One Hans Henrik Clementz to the Norwegian database, the chap's been making music on Soundcloud for many years now, having tunes appear on a number of compilations like The 50th Parallel, 303 Syndroms, Colors Of Goa V.3, Goa Trance Revolution 2 (Retrofuturism), and Dimensional Gateway 4 (Veil Of The Moon). His hustle finally paid off, landing a debut album with Suntrip Records consolidating a bunch of his tracks, bringing his brand of goa to more ears than ever. Well, as far as the Suntrip faithful at least.

And if you're still doubting that anyone modern could possibly sound properly retro, opening track Æ-Re-Stu immediately drops you back to the '90s. Those unmistakable Nord Lead synths powering forward, a dooc-dooc bass kick and acid squelches in support... oh man, it's 1997 again, and I've just picked up Distance To Goa 5! I don't know whether Clementz is using authentic gear or really good emulators, but you can easily imagine hearing this stuff alongside classic Prana and Astral Projection. Some tracks stick to proper goa (Inner Core, Distorted Angel, Outside This World), others go heavier on the psychedelic side of things (Big Rip, Easter Hymn, Voices Of Helium), but all remain unwavering in their dedication to sounding exactly like the days of yore'. Whether this is 'dope' or 'bunk' to you depends entirely on your feelings about that era of psy trance.

Various - Chap. 2 Trans'Pact Productions (2022 Update)

Trans'Pact Productions: 1995

(Click here to read my original TranceCritic review)

Gilbert Thévenet, the man behind Trans'pact Productions, and the bulk of the label's releases, passed away last year. From what I can glean, he suffered from Parkinson's, the disease taking his life just over 50 years of age. A number of artists I enjoy have died around that age, and that freaks me out some. I've no reason to believe my health will fail as I draw closer to my half-centennial, but I'm sure many thought so as well, some illnesses coming on sudden and severe. Don't postpone those physicals, is what I'm saying.

As my original TranceCritic review was excruciatingly detailed, let's talk legacy then. It's a bit of a funny one, in that Mr. Thévenet was among the earliest adopters of goa trance. His works as Asia 2001, Loren X, and Progressive Transe helped lead the genre out of its pure acid roots into something proper India influenced, all the more remarkable considering he hailed from the lands of the francophone. Like, you could understand a UK label like TIP Records getting some Goa vibes on, being a former colony and all, but what influence in South Asia did France have? Vietnam? But yes, Trans'Pact has the honour of being one of the first goa labels, even if it didn't much thrive during psy trance's mid-'90s boom period.

I mentioned in that old review how much of a free-wheelin' experimental vibe permeates Chap. 2, as though ol' Gil' was having a ton o' fun toying about with his drum machines and acid boxes. As many of these productions came out in that first year of Trans'Pact's lifespan, it makes sense the songcraft is so laissez-faire, almost no rules to acid trance such as this existing yet. It didn't take long for trends and formulas to take hold though, so by the time this CD came out, much of that adventurous spirit was lost. 'Martin Cooper' soon settled into a singular project alias, Asia 2001, which stuck to the classic squealin' goa stylee for its duration. Just as well, as the Asia 2001 cuts off here were the best tunes by a fair margin anyway.

Trans'Pact itself wouldn't last, the label's output drying out after '95. When it finally shuttered, Gilbert migrated to Avatar Records, where he remained until the very end. For a time, it seemed his Trans'Pact productions would remain elusive items on the collector's market, but in recent years, Avatar started digitally re-issuing his back-catalogue. Well, the original albums as Asia 2001 at least. Ain't no way they'd resuscitate a woefully outdated collection of proto-goa such as this though.

Then they went and did it! I don't know how I feel about this. For the longest time, Chap. 2 felt like this ultra-obscure item only true heads would ever hear, tunes never given the attention or care they might deserve abroad, forgotten to all but a select few. And now anyone can hear it on streaming whenever they like! Good, is how I should feel.

Electric Universe - Blue Planet

Spirit Zone Recordings/Avatar Records: 1999/2016

I had my eye on this for a long while. Something, anything full-length from Electric Universe, if I'm honest, but this one in particular got my attention whenever I happened upon his Discoggian entries. Is it because of a ton of good will through psy-trance discourse? A frequent namedrop in all the cool discussions? Oh, come on, you should know me well enough by now to know why Blue Planet would be the first Electric Universe album I'd spring for. I really am that shallow sometimes.

This came out at an interesting time for Boris Blenn. The middle child of a remarkable period of productivity from him, where he released three albums in three years under the Electric Universe banner. He was also releasing multiple records as Galaxy and Jupiter 8000, not to mention the odd collaborative project here and there. Even more amazing is Mr. Blenn was doing much of this all on his own, his early Electric Universe partnership with Michael Dressler having come to an end. Does this mean he was on an unstoppable creative streak? Or might that dreaded 'quality control' factor come into play? A little column A, a little column B?

I actually may have lucked out in grabbing 'the blue one' first out of all these Electric Universe outings. Between this, Waves and Divine Design, Blue Planet has the most diversity going for it, Boris branching out from your usual psy-trance trappings. Unfortunately for me, however, that wasn't what I was after, wanting more spaced-out goa the likes of Love Is Not A Crime. I get some of that here, sure, but coupled with drab stabs at tribal-prog and... big beat?

Okay, it was the year 1999, and breaks were super-trendy, but after four tracks of various psy, Rock Da House comes out of nowhere, sounding like it should be in a This Is... compilation. It's got shades of The Chemical Brothers, but all the attempts at being block-rockin' feel flat, an experiment in genre dabbling that simply doesn't mesh with its surroundings. Oh well, at least it isn't as dreadfully dull as The Tribal Session.

That all said, at least these tracks give me something to talk about beyond the typically positive psy-trance platitudes. You get the acid outings (Fly, Renania, The Space Dimension), the soaring space rockers (Meteor), and the downtempo cuts at the end (Lovesciene, Journey Into Outer Space). Nothing wrong with any of these tunes, but little that deviates from the norm of Electric Universe's discography either. From a personal standpoint, I was disappointed Blue Planet didn't have anything as dope as Love Is Not A Crime, but the album's best tracks are worthy companions.

And I really can't fault Boris from branching out a little either. It's just when you compare his genre explorations to that of the likes of Juno Reactor or Eat Static, it's hard to not come away underwhelmed. Electric Universe fits in a lane he's plenty adept at, no need to stray from it.

Jupiter 8000 - Twisted Bliss

Avatar Records: 2004

The whole reason I ended up at Avatar Records' Bandcamp page was for a particular album from Electric Universe, Blue Planet. I got it, then figured I may as well splurge on some more psy-trance items while there. It didn't quite turn out that way, Ocelot's One a different beast than I expected, but this one, I felt pretty confident it was psy-trance. I didn't know what kind I was getting, but there's just something about the name 'Jupiter 8000' that screams vintage goa. Vibrant cover art too.

So I'm feelin' good that I'd stumbled upon some unheralded psy-trance project, when soon after I learned that Jupiter 8000 is another alias of Boris Blenn. You might know him mostly for his work as Electric Universe. The same Electric Universe I had already nabbed something from, after which I'd grabbed this because I wanted something else other than more Electric Universe. So it goes.

Actually, I shouldn't be quick to judge. Mr. Blenn started the Jupiter 8000 project as a means of exploring other sounds away from the goa that defined his earlier career. The self-titled debut certainly was a break from that, for more interested in what the realms of techno could offer the domains of psy. Some of it was interesting, but to my ears, it was travelling the same roads that Tristan's Audiotour had already ventured, and would lead to the monotonous psytekk sounds that plagued that Alien Dust compilation. I wonder if Boris realized it was a dead-end, because aside from one track, that stuff is jettisoned for his second (and thus far last) Jupiter 8000 album, Twisted Bliss. Well, I guess it was 2004, the original 'minimal techno-psy' movement already in the rear view in favour of the new hotness, 'minimal prog-psy that techno people can enjoy'. That Israeli full-on thing too.

So is that what Twisted Bliss is, a bandwagon jump on either or that wouldn't fit on an Electric Universe LP? Nah, in a surprising twist that is rather blissed, Mr. Blenn went old-school psy! Okay, about as 'old-school' as you could conceivably get away with in the mid-'00s, but close enough that there were points I thought I was listening to something from 1994 rather than 2004.

Oh yes, there be goa here, captain. For sure that full-on bassline is present in many of the tracks, but it isn't so dominate as most of psy-trance heard it then, and even shows some diversity throughout. Twisted Bliss is mostly dominated by its leads though, running from squiggly acid sounds (101 And Still Alive, Atem (Remix), Break The Law) to spaced out prog-psy trancers (Dust To Dawn, Break The Law, The Memory, New Moon). Throw in nods to other styles ('buttrock' psytekk in Bit Fire, psy-dub in Rubber Dub), and you've a well-rounded album of goa-psy. Not groundbreaking by any means, but enjoyable on its own merits. Throw in the context it was released in, and it suddenly sounds even better!

Neo-Adventures - Big Daddy's Tonight

Hypnotic: 1997

This feels like one of the most needlessly ambitious albums to have ever graced the Hypnotic discography. For one thing, did you know that Neo-Adventures is a super-group? Okay, not really a 'super-group' how you may think of (big names combining forces to do big th'angs), but in terms of Hypnotic, I think the description is apt.

Three chaps are part of this project, most prominent of the bunch being Martin Nielsen. You might remember me mentioning him in that Goa Box: Trance 4 Motion compilation many solar cycles ago, wherein he adopted multiple aliases to fill out a budget trance three-discer. Normally such antics are dodgy as fuck, but his contributions were surprisingly among the best that collection had to offer. He even had a pile of tunes in another dodgy compilation of mine, Rave-Trance 2001, and again were among the better tracks there.

So while I know this won't be some mind-melting hidden gem of exceptional trance (because c'mon!), there's at least a capable hand in the studio. Along for the ride is the late Jan Kjølhede Meedom, whom had done a few productions with various groups here and there throughout the '90s, but was more known for his DJing and label management. Outloud Records (they of Audio Science, Bypass Unit, and a lot of sado-masochist gabber) was his first taste of success, and responsible for numerous Hypnotic releases as a result. This led to him taking over the Danish side of the print, where he carried on doing goa trance mixes for the label before moving on.

Also part of Neo-Adventures is Jakob Andreas Mensch. Lord Discogs has very little information about him, a jazz-dub trip-hop project with Mr. Nielsen called Katharsis his lone prominent work. Neo-Adventures too, I guess.

A pile of dudes in the studio doesn't make a project 'needlessly ambitious' though – just ask Kraftwelt. Nah, I'm talking about the music within, tunes aesthetically on that Danish goa-trance tip, but so very much aiming at progressive house opulence. Second track Good Old Adventure is over eleven minutes long, making it perhaps the longest trance song in all of Hypnotic's history (sans Audio Science's work). And it goes through numerous movements and tonal transitions too, as if its some long lost Blue Amazon work. Just, y'know, not quite as good in the production and songcraft.

There's housier chuggers (Skydiving Baboons, Wake Up Fall), tech-housey shufflers (the titular cut), spacey acid stompers (Hot Pants), proper trance business (Whhhaaauu ...cripes, what awful names), and even a twelve-plus minute live outing of Wake Up Fall (twice as long as the album version already on the CD). A nice amount of variety then, with nifty little hooks, rhythms, and melodies that do a decent job of getting my trance-endorphins flaring up. Again, no where near as good as whatever Sasha and Diggers would rinse out (not even Oakenfold, really), but on the late '90s Hypnotic scale, remarkably superb stuff for a hopelessly obscure release!

Astral Projection - Astral Projection

(~): 2002

Track List:
1. Liquid Sun
2. Astral Projection vs Trilithon - Burning Up (Psychedelic Burn Out Remix)
3. Searching For UFO's
4. People Can Fly!
5. Let There Be Light
6. SFX - We Are Controlling Transmission
7. Anything Is Possible
8. Aurora Borealis

If some of y'all have wondered why goa trance legends Astral Projection have been conspicuously absent from my music collection, this is why. Absolutely I knew of them, and when cruising the AudioGalaxys and MP3.coms of the web two decades past, they were among the first names to crop up when my inquiries of 'goa trance' and 'psychedelic trance' were sent into the ether. And wouldn't you look at that, plenty of seeds for quick downloads! Absolutely I'll nab myself a bunch of those, thanks. Eventually I had enough cool tunes for a burned disc of strictly Astral Projection music, the result of which being this myself-titled compilation. Simple enough explanation, right? Oh, not so fast, I'm afraid.

Truth is, I did this with a lot of artists, including such names like Juno Reactor, Spicelab, Aphex Twin, and Biosphere. Some of those early discs simply deteriorated, but as I found myself more gainfully employed and with easier access to the CDs I wanted, I went out of my way to actually buy the albums proper-like. Who wants to settle for crummy MP3 rips on burned CDs when you can have the real deal, right? Only... I never did the deed with Astral Projection. I've forever kept this lone disc as all that I need from the famed Israeli duo, and honestly don't have much inclination to rectify that. I like the A.P. stylee, just not enough to spring for their albums. Frankly, I feel like I've heard about all there is to them with the selection of tracks I did settle with for this compilation. Sans Mahadeva, of course.

I'm sure their REAL fans could create a more authentic CD, but considering I didn't know much about them at the time, I'd say I did pretty well assembling these tunes. There's two from Trust In Trance, two from Dancing Galaxy, one from Another World, one from (then current) Amen, plus some assorted compilation-only goodies. Oh, and the Astral Projection tune that's technically not an Astral Projection tune, We Are Controlling Transmission, released just prior to them adopting their lasting alias. It certainly is more indebted to German trance than anything from the shores of Goa, and is honestly my favourite cut of the lot here.

And that's the crux of what's prevented me from diving any deeper into their discography, a sense that there really isn't much more to their sound that what's here. For sure there's differences between tracks, but when an older tune leaps out as more distinct than all that followed, I reckon there's a minor issue in your songcraft. Still, folks enjoy Astral Projection for a dependable, spacey goa trance vibe, so all the more power to them in delivering it time and again.

Eat Static - Abduction (2018 Update)

Planet Dog/Attic: 1993/1995

(click here to read my original TranceCritic review)

Finally, an album long overdue for a spiffy re-review, one of my earliest, cumbersome efforts. Time to give this early goa trance classic the prose it justly deserves, none of that regrettably dry track-by-track description nonsense. Let's do this! *cracks knuckles* ...*stares at screen* ...*re-cracks knuckles* ...*makes some tea* ...*checks Twitter and Facebook for a bit* ...*watches some Ten Minute History videos on Youtube*(hehe, *thunk*) ...*stretches every ligament in body*...*stares at screen some more* ...*receives call from Seattle friend that he's waylaid at the Vancouver airport overnight, so meet-up for drinks and a VIP showing of The Freddy Mercury Movie* ...*gets back to computer, stares at screen even more* ...*realizes he's succumbed to paralysis by analysis*

Okay, so turns out I have perhaps a tad too much on my mind, with no clear idea of how to approach. Like, all the traditional angles are covered elsewhere (historical importance, themes explored, etc., etc.), and I see little point in re-iterating points. Really, there's only one that immediately springs to mind, and as usual, it relates to where things sat when I wrote that first review.

Oh, not so much me, as I've gone over that plenty 'nuff. No, I'm talking about Eat Static themselves, and how their career was looking in the dread year 2005 (music-wise, at least). It'd been four years since their last album, In The Nude!, which may not seem like a long time, but for an act that was releasing LPs on a near yearly clip, is quite a gap. And even then, were they still considered part of the psy trance lexicon? That album plus previous Crash And Burn! were showing far greater exploration outside the conventional psy parameters, which wasn't too surprising given the general trajectory the old goa guard seemed headed. Juno Reactor was getting big and opulent with Japanese concerts and orchestras, and Simon Posford had redefined psy-dub for a new generation, so why wouldn't Eat Static, what with a prog-rock background, also start feeling the need for something different? They must have worked it all out of their system though, as by 2007, they'd come back into the psy fold with De-Classified. And yeah, I didn't like that one at first, feeling it a regression of their songcraft, but compared to most psy of that time, has aged remarkably well.

And Eat Static (mostly just Merv now) just keep crankin' out the LPs, almost at the same rate as the '90s. Who'd have guessed they'd still be doing this when Abduction was released? Heck, who'd have predicted that scene itself would take the twisted turns it did. Listening to Abduction now, with how much it owes itself to the progressive house of the era as anything Goa or alien based, there truly is a sense of the UK raving masses still being a communal thing, willing to hear any crazy new idea so long as the rhythms last, the melodies soar, and the pills remain pure.

Etnica - The Juggeling Alchemists Under The Black Light

High Society/DAT Records: 1995/2018

No, seriously, is there a better time to be a music fan than this past half-decade? Like, beyond just the unprecedented abundance of selection, even old, obscure stuff is now frequently unearthed and reissued in ultra-deluxe collector's packages. I've always wanted to pick up an Etnica album, one of the O.G. goa trance acts that lured me into the genre's weird, twisted sonic possibilities. Alien Protein was the obvious choice, released on the familiar print Blue Room Released – be easiest to find, is what I'm sayin' (plus, Party Droid!). I never considered their debut album, released on the far smaller label High Society, an item almost certainly lost to the dustbins of an overpriced collector's market. Not only has DAT Records rescued The Juggling Alchemists Under The Black Light from such a fate, but included a second CD of assorted remixes and single material from the same period of Etnica's career. And then they convinced the band to unleash a pile of unreleased early works for a third disc of material. Dang, son, I would have been satisfied just with a standard re-issue, but all that and chicken soup too?

Describing exactly what makes Etnica click in such a way that so few other psy trance acts do is difficult to detail. Yeah, they have just as much wiggly noises and squiggly sounds as any other act of the era, but there's something uniquely identifiable about their particular method. They have just as much freeform songcraft as other respected acts of the era like Kox Box, but always show enough restraint in not getting lost in random, go-nowhere tangents. There's the obligatory goa tonal scales, but it never sounds like Etnica is completely dependant upon them either, trippy tribal trance sounding just as comfortable cruising the cosmos as it does getting crusties flailing about on Indian beaches. And while the original Juggeling Alchemists Under The Black Light album was a tidy seven track outing, all the additional material in this mega-package doesn't dilute the experience in the slightest, Etnica's sound hardly growing stale even as the hours of music pile on. Well, okay, there are a couple quibbles I must point out.

One, due to a mislabeled DAT being sent to DAT, a lone track isn't even an Etnica cut; rather, it's a tune called Alien Phenomenon by another High Society act called Evolution. Whoops. But to make matters worse, this was supposed to be a remix of Party Droid. Aagh! Also, The Early Years disc definitely shows Etnica still in their developmental stage, tracks on there comparatively unpolished when contrasted with the stuff they properly released. It's all serviceable old-school trance, but not terribly different from much of what else was available out there. A fun bonus, then, though when mixed among the wicked-awesome coolio cuts that Etnica started churning out on the regular (as the digital version of this collection does due to alphabetizing the whole playlist) ...yeah, I can hear why they initially sat on it.

Earth Nation - Terra Incognita

Eye Q Records: 1995

No one disputes Sven Väth was the Head of Eye Q and Harthouse, the face and brains, if you will. Several producers were easily the Muscle, acts that helped build the label into one of the seminal powerhouses of techno and trance coming out of Germany (Oliver Lieb, Hardfloor, Alter Ego, Resistance D, Vernon, Energy 52). One man, however, was unquestionably the Soul, always lurking in the studio away from fame and glory. Who's influence not only helped refine Sven's approach to dance music, but left an undeniable, lasting imprint on how we remember those Eye Q and Harthouse records to this day: Ralf Hildenbeutel. Not only was he behind some of their most successful singles (L'Esperanza, Superstring, My Name Is Barbarella, Desire, Firedance), but his songcraft gave many tracks a charming, retro-futuristic stylee we so often associate with early trance. He never got as much due as he deserved, but its difficult thinking of Eye Q or Harthouse without thinking of Ralf.

He had many projects with both labels, but one seems to have slipped from general discourse compared to his other works: Earth Nation. I suppose part of it has to do with the rather generic name, not exactly the sexiest option when surrounded by stuff like Progressive Attack, Odyssee Of Noise, Icon, Summerbreeze, and Cygnus X. His partnership with guitarist Marcus Deml yielded a few albums though, this here Terra Incognita their second effort. It's also regarded as one of classic trance's last great LPs before the tsunami of Oakenfold changed everything.

Even here, it's clear Ralf and Marcus knew the trends were shifting, Terra Incognita almost devoid of the blistering Frankfurt pace of old. The fastest track on here, The Ikarus Syndrome, features a rhythm that's right out of the Underworld Banger playbook, all the while opening with a lengthy, sweeping, operatic build that could give Cream punters goosebumps. Later in the album, Green Sky Is Red has a nicely brisk pace of its own, though has more in common with goa trance of the mid-'90s than anything Germanic. Elsewhere, tracks Elucidate and The Artificial Dream get more of a proggy groove going, the former with a warm-up set vibe, the latter sounding not out of place in a peak-hour Sasha & Diggers set of the time. Really, the only 'pure' trance cut on Terra Incognita is the opener Way In, a loopy hypnotic number that has as much to do with Frankfurt techno as anything else.

Throw in a few ambient interludes, a requisite 'experimental' track in Transfiguration (breakbeats in goa!), a couple wind-down downtempo tracks towards the end, and you've a remarkably solid trance album for the year 1995, hardly dated at all. Why does this go so overlooked, then? It came out towards the end of Eye Q's run? The 'Earth Nation' handle just too easily bypassed? Not appearing on enough Very Important DJ mixes? Who knows anymore, but if you crave vintage trance, there's no reason for you to ignore this.

Various - UK Space Techno, Vol. II

Millennium Records: 1996

Cheeky Millennium Records, marketing their sixty-percent goa trance compilation as ‘space techno’. They also had the balls to promote it as an ongoing series right out the gate, giving us a Vol. I no matter how successful the first one sold. It probably did reasonably enough, lasting all the way to a Vol. V in 1998. I somehow doubt even piss-poor sales would have prevented this Vol. II from hitting the CD shelves though, coming out the same year as Vol. I - Millennium was super-go on this no matter what! Oddly, I never saw the third or fourth editions over here in Canadaland, and I wasn’t invested enough in this series for a single disc’s worth of UK Space Techno to buy the fifth. Guess no one else was getting hype to that tag anymore either. If it sounds like acid and tastes like acid, just call it trance!

Hell, there’s no way to hide just how trance some of these tracks are, goa or otherwise. As with Vol. I opening with the classic Neuro from X-Cabs, Vol. II opts for a big, recognizable anthem from another hot, new act, this time care of Transa. No, it’s not Enervate, but the single that came before that one, Prophase. What do you mean you’ve never heard it? I know Enervate overshadowed nearly everything Transa ever did, but Prophase (plus b-side Transphase, included on CD2 here) were totally early progressive trance hits. Okay, should have been. Speaking of X-Cabs, there’s another pair of tracks from the famed Chris Cowie project on here (Avalon and Adena), both blistering cuts in that vintage Cowie stylee. Man, was that guy ever on fire in the mid-‘90s.

Goa trance obviously gets its tunes in, Cosmosis, Zart, Endora, Power Source, Mosti, and Ectomorph doing the business. Some crackin’ tunes from Cosmosis, Silicon Drum, Zart, and Power Source, but little else to recommend there. Hard acid has its obligatory tracks thrown in too, Dr. Octopus (alias of D.A.V.E. The Drummer) being the best of the lot. A young Lab 4 appear, though their Transformation is pitched down significantly for some daft reason – what, too hard for a ‘space techno’ CD? Spacer IV shows up again with yet another way out of place progressive house track, Jetson almost a precursor to the genre’s evolution into ‘prog’. And even regular ol’ Detroit techno gets a couple tunes thrown in, care of Darren Price’s Blueprints and Skeleton Crew’s Skeleton Coast. Actually, I’m not sure what to call Skeleton Coast, and nor does Lord Discogs, because it sure as Hell ain’t tech-house.

Overall a more memorable assortment of tune in the UK Space Techno franchise, even if the concept is straying further from whatever Millennium Records figured ‘space techno’ could be. Like, those two try-hard progressive trance anthems in V’s Anjuna (The Incredible Journey Mix) and The Bubble’s Squeek!. Good God, no! What’s so spacey about a lame breakdown with saxophone solo ripped from the ‘80s?

Various - UK Space Techno, Vol. I

Millennium Records: 1996

Yeah, I get why Millennium Records would eschew the ‘goa’ tag for its new compilation series. The European market was already flooded with tons of CDs offering trippy, acid-drenched dance music, with many a label rushing out to capitalize on hot buzzwords goa, trance, and the like. And fair enough, a lot of folks thought of early trance simply as ‘space techno’ (or ‘space house’, LOL), so it’s not that great a leap in logic in taking this angle. I dunno though; it still feels disingenuous promising ‘space techno’ from the UK, and having a good sixty percent of the tracks still feeling that rush of psychedelia from the shores of India. I sure wasn’t expecting so much goa trance when I picked this up way back when, nosiree.

What I was expecting was a whole lot of unknown names giving me another crash-course in all this ‘techno’ business going on overseas. I definitely got that, what with names like X-Cabs, Green Nuns Of The Revolution, Jon The Dentist, Darren Price, and Chris Liberator (as Star Power) appearing on this double-discer. Okay, so they weren’t outright unknowns, but who here remembers tracks like The Attic, or Neuro, or Desert Storm’s Scoraig 93, or Kenny Larkin’s rub of LA Synthesis’ Agraphobia? Hm, that’s all techno that’s rather spacey too, isn’t it.

I swear UK Space Techno Vol. I is filled with obscure goa trance, honest and true! Cosmosis’ rub of Disco Volante’s El Metro, for instance, or Monosphere’s Elysian Fields, or the Spectra Mix of Optica’s Alkaline PH9. And who can forget such forgotten gems like Isomise’s KHO Phang Gain, or Head-Doctor’s Train å Medellin, plus Polyploid’s Coaster Prefix? Certainly not I, since I’ve had this CD for two decades now (holy cow!).

Since this compilation tries to have its acid cake and eat its goa trance too, it creates an odd dichotomy of tunes that no amount of ‘space techno’ branding can overcome. CD1 isn’t too bad in this regard, hitting you early with simpler, recognizable tunes like Neuro and Spacer IV’s Arc 3 (I think it was) before moving onto psy leaning cuts, the odd acid techno tune breaking up any potential monotony along the way. CD2, on the other hand, opts for pure techno tracks for the most part, some of which are regarded as classics in terms of UK offerings (Scoraig 93, Agraphobia, The Simirillion (Svenson’s Trip To Gondor Remix), others not so much (Skintrade’s Andromraxess, Integrated Circuits’ Ghost 843). Having them assorted with trippy goa and hard acid from the Stay Up Forever posse doesn’t do them any favors either, coming off rather basic and monotonous compared to the busier cuts. I often don’t even remember much of what’s on CD2 until I throw the disc on again. Such is the case with so many double-disc compilations from the mid-‘90s though: a couple classics, a few unheralded gems, and a pile of agreeable filler lost to the ravages of raving history.

ACE TRACKS: August 2016

I miss nRelate so much. Why did it have to shutter its servers? Engageya was an alright substitute though, despite only ever crawling my blog a year’s past for related content. Unfortunately, I think that service has been compromised by scammers, as a strange link to A Trip In Trance 4 started cropping up in its recommendations. Bear in mind I had not yet gotten to that CD, the link referring to the original review from way back. I did click the link, and when Chrome gave me the trusty “This Website Will Fuck Your Shit Up!” warning, I backed out, and promptly removed the app. I tried contacting Engageya regarding the situation, but never got a reply. Hence, back to LinkWithin, a serviceable option, but hopelessly limited. Plus, why does it suddenly stop at January 2013 for suggestions, then pick up again December 2014? It’s got lots of weird gaps like that, but eh, better than nothing. Maybe one day a proper nRelate replacement will emerge. Maybe…

Speaking of milestones, I just passed the 1,000th release reviewed for this blog! Turbo Studio Sessions (Vol. 3) earned the honor, and I can’t think of a better pair of CDs to have done the deed with. Erm, even if it was just an uploaded older review of electroclash. If we’re to get proper-technical about this though, Turbo Studio Sessions (Vol. 3) wasn’t the 1,000th release reviewed on this blog at all, as there’s still all those original uploads from EMC’s initial launch. I seldom count those in any interesting stats, but if I did in this case, then Michael Mayer’s Touch would have been the real 1,000th. Oops, kinda’ missed that one. Okay, enough blather, here’s ACE TRACKS for the month of August 2016!


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Turbo Studio Sessions (Vol. 3)
Various - Tunnel Trance Force Vol. 30
FPU - Traxxdata
Various - Transmissions From The Planet Dog
Various - Trancespotting II

Percentage Of Hip-Hop - 0%
Percentage Of Rock - 8%
Most “WTF?” Track - Any of Neil Young’s vocoder stuff. The sheer audacity of it all!

Easily the biggest August Playlist I’ve ever put together, though that’s not saying much. Most Augusts I take a two-week festival vacation, and one year I didn’t write anything at all. Despite still dealing with a bunch of TRANCE music, there’s at least some extra diversity compared to July’s playlist. A splash of rock, a sprinkle of jungle, a peppering of synth-pop, and a smash of psy. Oh, and The Hip. As coincidental as their inclusion is, I’m glad they get in here as well. It seems appropriate.

Terra Ferma - Turtle Crossing (2016 Update)

Platipus: 1997

(Click here to read my original TranceCritic review.)

And finally this CD. Turtle Crossing is the last time I’ll be doing a full 20xx Update post for some time now, in no small part because my current alphabetical backlog is ridonkulus-yuuge, looking at a ten week trip through it all. How did that happen? I didn’t even take on anyone’s collection! Well, unless you count raiding used shops. More than that though, I’m almost through the CDs from this blog’s initial, aborted run. I posted eighty-nine reviews during that time, and with this one, have done forty-two 20xx Updates. About twenty-one of those original posts will never see an update, as I no longer have the releases associated with them – not surprising since a good chunk of ‘em were singles promptly deleted from my harddrive soon after (gotta’ save on that 2.3GB of space!). That leaves a grand total of just twelve more 20xx Updates after this, a ‘milestone’ that I’ll probably reach… oh, next year, maybe. Ha-ha, hah …I’m never finishing this project, am I.

Okay, enough statsing; we’re here to hear music, not crunch numbers. And playing Turtle Crossing again, yeah, she still holds up, though there was little doubt she wouldn’t. Whatever ‘dated’ aspects you might level against Terra Ferma’s debut album would have been the same nitpicks I highlighted in my original review for TranceCritic, so if you need to read them, click the linky above. No, trust me, there are some actual critiques in all those words. You just have to dig for them, sifting through the dry prose like they’re the gritty gravel and stones of so much frozen, alpine wastes. Mind the yeti though; he’s cantankerous at times.

As there’s not much else to say regarding Turtle Crossing, here’s some interesting details about the man behind Terra Ferma that I’ve since unearthed. I mentioned how Claudio Giussani was also an initial member of Union Jack with Simon Berry, and while the two no longer collaborate, Giussani did provide a few remixes for some of Berry’s recent Art Of Trance material. For some reason though, he used a completely new alias of Kaukuta for the rubs. What, is Terra Ferma locked into some legal limbo? Maybe, since those Art Of Trance singles came out on Porcupine Records, the short-lived successor to the original Platipus print. More recently though, Berry re-relaunched his old label as Platipus Music, and has been in the process of making the label’s entire original catalog available again. Sadly, Turtle Crossing remains among the missing albums, but you can get a mail-order CDr, if you so desire a hardcopy.

Finally, a tidbit of pre-Platipus information regarding Mr. Giussani that totally blew my mind upon learning it. Before he discovered acid and trance, ol’ Claudio had his hand in the early UK hardcore scene. Par for the course with lots of producers, but his partner behind the console was none other than jungle legend Aphrodite, working under the name Urban Shakedown. I honestly can’t even with that info drop!

Various - Transmissions From The Planet Dog

Mammoth Records: 1995

Planet Dog was doing well for itself within their motherland. Legendary festivals, highly touted roster of genre-bending musicians, nods of approval from famed DJs like Sasha and John Peel. Finding a Stateside distributor was inevitable, but going with Mammoth Records was an odd choice. The print out of Carrboro, North Carolina was primarily a rock outlet, dealing with alternative, industrial, and indie. Some of their more successful acts included Machines Of Loving Grace, Seven Mary Three, Squirrel Nut Zipper, Kill Creek, Vanilla Trainwreck, and The Bats. I’m sure they are all perfectly wonderful bands in perfectly wonderful scenes, but yeah, drawing a big ol’ blank on most of these. But then, I’m sure most Americans were drawing big ol’ blanks on names like Eat Static and Banco de Gaia, so to help their Planet Dog chums from across the Atlantic, Mammoth released this double-disc primer featuring the label’s biggest acts (re: those who’d released a full LP).

As such, CD1 of Transmissions From The Planet Dog is hopelessly redundant where my own collection is concerned. Essentially the Eat Static/Banco showcase, it borrows three tracks from Abduction, two from Implant, three from Maya, plus a remix of Qurna that was used in most live versions of the song anyway. They didn’t pluck the best Maya tracks either, and though I don’t have Eat Static’s Implant, the two tracks they have here didn’t inspire me to rush out for that record. But hey, if you need a cheat-sheet of both early careers, this CD does a decent job.

For my money though, the highlight is CD2, where Timeshard and Children Of The Bong get to strut their stuff. Granted, the same problem remains, in that if you already have the albums from which these tracks came from, it’s another wholly redundant collection of tunes. Hell, half of Timeshard’s debut album is on here! On the other hand, Children Of The Bong’s contributions are pretty rare for the three tracks you get, one coming from an early tape-only release, and another found on an obscure, non-Feed Your Head Planet Dog compilation.

Even so, considering both Timeshard and Children Of The Bong didn’t last much longer beyond the compilation, their back-catalog grew rather difficult to procure, making Transmissions From The Planet Dog one of the few places you could find their music anymore. And believe me, these guys are worth checking out if you fancy yourself the psychedelic side of electronic music. This is psy dub before the genre really had much demarcation or boundaries for itself, fearless in whatever sounds, instruments, and influences were thrown into the pie. Electro rhythms in acid-drenched Ionospheric State? Go for it! Epic sojourns of mystic lands across the shores of Space Goa? Crystal Oscillations got yo’ back! Ultra spliff haze as dubbed out in Symbol I? Groovy, man. Woozy acid-dub while jamming with Ravi and Jimi? Only with Oracle. Considering how polished psy dub turned after the millennium, it’s refreshing hearing some so deliciously crusty.

Juno Reactor - Transmissions

NovaMute/Metropolis: 1993/2008

An album often hailed as birthing goa trance, though ask ardent techno collectors and you wouldn’t know it. Wait, techno? Yeah, guy, Juno Reactor first appearing on techno print NovaMute. In fact, the Juno debut single, Laughing Gas, was released smack between the first two Plastikman records, Krakpot and Spastik! The early promo material even had Juno’s sound billed as ‘progressive techno’, a term immediately and rightfully tossed to the dustbin of Stupid Genre Names. ‘Progressive’ already had a claim to house, thank you, and we don’t need it attaching itself to more genres. Huh, trance? What is this? Don’t you mean ‘space techno’ from Berlin?

Truth is Transmissions does lean heavily into the domain of acid techno of the early ‘90s, but with enough floating synths, trippy acid, and hypnotic builds such that it does what trance done did in that era too. For sure it’s a unique blend of the stuff, music that owes some inspiration from tribal rhythms and cosmic harmonies being exported from the shores of Goa. You can’t blame the psy scene for taking the Juno Reactor style and flooding the market with an uncountable pile of knock-offs and retreads. Okay, you could, but seeing how some hardcore techno heads have continued to claim Transmission as one of their own, don’t you think it’s about time to let it go? There’s no shame in owning a proto goa trance album in your collection, o’ ye’ Disciples Of NovaMute. Hell, even Juno Reactor themselves fully embraced the demarcation after this, signing with clear-cut goa label Blue Room Released for their follow-up albums Beyond The Infinite and Bible Of Dreams. Or wait, were they left homeless by NovaMute for leaning too trance in the first place? Clarify the controversy!

As a debut, Transmissions is a darn solid album, though quite simplistic by Juno Reactor standards. The boys behind the project at the time – Ben Watkins, Stephane Holweck, and Mike Maguire – were no slouches in the music scene, having worked the London circuit in various bands for much of the ‘80s. Holweck in particular was a long-time partner of Watkins, including as part of the proto-Juno group Electrotete, plus finding time to make music as another early goa act in Total Eclipse. They knew their way around gear, is what I say, with enough background in other music to throw their distinctive spin on acid techno.

High Energy Protons features that gnarly acid bassline that’s been a Juno staple since literally forever (because it’s here, on the debut!). We also get a few vintage sci-fi samples, plus one of their more ‘rockin’ tunes in Man 2 Ray, which led them to becoming such favorites in industrial circles. Also, a requisite ambient closer with Landing, which sounds like the sort of meditative noodly stuff you’d find in Megadog chill tents. And folks still try planting the techno flag on this album? For the standard acid techno, sure, but with mystical stuff like this included, I don’t think so.

Various - Trancespotting III

Hypnotic: 2000

A third Trancespotting! How was there enough interesting in this middling series to warrant a trilogy? And if it is so middling, why on Earth do I own this CD? Easy answer on the latter question: it came bundled in a Trancespotting box-set, titled Complete Trancespotting, released a couple years after it was clear Hypnotic had run the well dry on the concept (whatever the Trancespotting concept may be). “But wait,” proclaims thee, “for a box-set to truly be box-set worthy, there must be a minimum of four CDs in the package.” Right you be, o’ Pedantic One, which means there was a Trancespotting IV in this series. That I must review as well.

Look, the box-set was a pretty good deal, four CDs for the price of one, and I hazily knew the first volume was decent enough for a Hypnotic compilation. I figured there had to be at least another disc’s worth of good material between the remaining three to make it worth the asking price. Juno Reactor and System 7 on II, Synaesthesia on III, James Brown and Dead Or Alive on… oh. Oh dear. Trancespotting IV is one of those CDs, isn’t it.

That’s for a Newer Review from this one though. For now, we dive into Trancespotting III, a CD that already gives signs of what’s to come from this series. Yep, that’s Kelly Hansen among the featured artists, and if you don’t know who that is, you probably never bother with your classic rock station. Actually, I’m not sure if it’s the current Foreigner lead singer, but the song being sung (and remixed by Razed In Black into a plucky club anthem) is Dream Police by Cheap Trick. A couple tracks after, and we get a Mark Pistel rub of The Sweet’s Fox On The Run. Huh, that ain’t so bad, but I’ve faith any member of Meat Beat Manifesto providing the goods, even if his big-beaty remix makes zero sense on a compilation called Trancespotting. In fact, nearly a third of this CD’s taken up by big-beat action, including Filter Section’s Action-8 and Bill Leeb side-project Pro>Tech’s Recalcitrant. Surprisingly, Transmutator’s Equal Opportunity Slut doesn’t go the ‘aggrotech’ route!

But we’ve already come to expect these genre dalliances from this series, if not so overt about it. We still get some trance out of our Trancespotting deal, even if it’s an incredibly ragtag selection. We’re a long ways from Hypnotic’s glory days in the year 2000, though funny enough we do get a Talla 2XLC opener, even if it is a track from a few years past. Not so far back as Juno Reactor’s Labyrinth though, a track found on the Samurai EP, but initially lurking as a B-side to The Overlord’s 1994 single God’s Eye (as The 7th Stage (Labyrinth Mix)). The Synaesthesia cut sounds more like early Delerium mashed with Pro>Tech, a couple vintage-cut acid tunes round things out, and we end on breakcore action from Spaceship Eyes. ONE JOB, Hypnotic!

Various - Trancespotting II

Hypnotic: 1998

Hypnotic wasn’t a label known for follow-ups to their compilations, almost always moving onto another collection of tracks with a completely unrelated title. A couple mini-series did emerge in their early years, like Influence x.x and Ambient Auras, plus those Tribute To [‘70s or ‘80s pioneer] were gaining enough traction for additional volumes. They also launched a remix series called In To The Mix around the same time as Trancespotting, which featured some solid acts like Chemical Brothers, L.S.G., Prodigy, and Leftfield. By its fifth volume though, In To The Mix was peddling shit remixes of funk, disco, and R&B acts like James Brown, The Trammps, Ohio Players, and Sister Sledge. You do you, Hypnotic.

So a sequel to one of their numerous compilations wasn’t without precedent, and it was clear Hypnotic was aiming for a change of direction in the year 1997, when that ‘electronica’ buzz was looking mighty lucrative. Still, you go with Trancespotting in this? Did that brand recognition with the movie truly turn out so well? It was an alright CD, but beyond highlighting the label’s scattershot roster of trance-leaning acts, didn’t have much of a selling angle. Maybe riding the jock of a popular movie/soundtrack was all you needed.

Trancespotting II generally picks up where the first one left off, mixing in ample amounts of the goa and psy while breaking things up with tracks wholly unrelated to the genre of trance. Hey, if it worked on the first one…! (did it?) Once again we’re opened with a System 7 cut in Expansion (Conspiracy Mix), and one can never go wrong with a little Juno Reactor action, in this case the techno-heavy Robert Liener’s rub of Magnetic. Bypass Unit offer up Tunnel Floatation for this CD, though it’s a fairly rote slice of goa by their standards. Heck, the main man behind Bypass Unit, Rene Abildgaard Jensen, has a better cut of psy jib on here with his solo project Colorbox (track I.D.: Grey Spook). Another Bypass Unit alum in Allan Robert Hejl shows up in his Shiva Ram guise with the oddly boshy Spanish Girl. Astralasia throw in a bangin’ remix for industrialists Spahn Ranch – damn straight parent label Cleopatra would worm their acts into Hypnotic’s business whenever possible. And couple ultra-obscure one-and-done acid acts like Solar Plexus (3) and Crude Infinity round out the rest of the psy stuff, little of which highlights the genre at its best.

But who cares about that when the real reason to hear a Trancespotting CD is for the ridiculous out-of-genre contributions! And hoo, are there some doozies, Trancespotting II offering no less than two house tracks! Like, I’ve no doubt Hypnotic was all excited in securing a Giorgio Moroder remix, but his rub of famed UK pop act Heaven 17’s Designing Heaven is pure gay club action. There’s also more big-beat action from Transmutator, an inexplicable contribution of minimalist paranoia-techno from Scanner, and as for Voigt Kampff’s Falculator, WTF is this? Hard-house garage??