Denshi Danshi - Fluid Dynamics

Suntrip Records: 2015

It's a strange feeling, completing another Suntrip artist discography before starting others. I'm not talking the one-and-done types either, but those who have at least a couple LPs under their belt with the label. Mind, that list is quite pared down now – I think there's only a couple such examples left – but I do wonder if I'll even be halfway through this catalogue before I get to them. Hm, just how far along am I now anyway? *clickity-clicky clack* Oh, wow, I'm actually 43% done! Man, when I look at the pile of 'To Do' against 'Done', it sure doesn't seem like it. Then again, a few items I've reviewed were digital versions, hard copies long sold out (Ka-Sol's Fairytale the most prominent example).

So I'm back with Denshi Danshi (hyphen optional), the duo with a proper, distinct logo to their name. I mentioned on Brain Chemistry how so very important that was in helping them stand out from the glut of goa trance CDs currently occupying my space. Something striking, with colour contrast popping out at you. Okay, not so much their sophomore album, a bit over-busy with all the kaleidoscope colours. This one though, there's no averting your eyes, stark blue and yellow against deepest grey and black. Really nothing else like it in Suntrip's catalogue before or since.

Also regarding that album, I felt the full-on party sound of it was a little relentless, which was par for the course with many Suntrip outings as the years wore on. Thankfully, their debut shows a little more diversity, which makes sense as Monsieurs Frère and Acher have been around since the early days, among the earliest acts out of France going goa. Easy to forget just how many micro-labels sprung up in that country – not a touch on the U.K.'s, obviously, but a respectable amount nonetheless.

And if you somehow didn't know you were getting proper vintage with Fluid Dynamics, opening track The Dancing Shiva harkens as far back as you can get with this stuff, the bassline strictly a New Beat affair. Dang, it's dope hearing that slower, menacing rhythm with the usual trippy stuff. And the retro style doesn't end there, though it is pretty much the '90s vein of goa and psy we're dealing with. Some of it goes chunkier (Feed The Mugwumps, A Fast Trip Straight Down The Ladder, Tsuki), some more tear-out (Make Make, Maelstrom), plus those quirky outliers that spice a play-through up (Vanaspati, Kraft Karamel). And best of all, each track feels different from the other. I can only assume it's that 'analogue duo' factor playing into it.

Seriously, most of the best psy trance acts have been 'bands', in some fashion. What makes them so unique is that interplay between producers, letting one go off on some psychedelic tangent while the other holds the rudder steady. Not that this can't be done solo, but boy, does it ever sound 'looser' with multiple people at play.

WRNR - Floating In An Acid Can

Intellitronic Bubble: 2022

I guess it's appropriate I recently began a 'sportsing survey' on Hardfloor that I end up with an album like this. Not that the German duo are the sole arbiters of all things acid, but when folks namedrop significant artists who've worked the TB-303, they're often among the top five, if not number one overall.

Acid is enjoyed by all though (haha, hah), some artists doing weird and warped things with it to fascinating results. Many others, however, are content with playing with the little silver box (or reasonable emulators of it) in its most basic, primitive form. Ofttimes this purist approach goes unnoticed, the realm of niche interests, which would explain why producers will take up an alias to specifically explore it. And where there's niche techno interests, there's always a label or three around to help promote it.

WRNR is Kenneth Werner, who more commonly goes by the handle As If. More of a dub techno and ambient guy, he spent much of the '10s releasing music with the likes of BineMusic, Silent Season, Arctic Tone, Faint (as Midnat), and gterma. He even had a clutch of tracks compiled for a Carpe Sonum CD, always a nice feather in one's cap. Recently he fell in with Intellitronic Bubble, and as most of that roster does, started feeling the itch for retro styled techno, in this case of the acid variety. He actually followed this with the alias CNTRLD MND, the MND SPN EP leaning a little more electro than acid, but the TB-303 had its moments to shine too. For Floating In An Acid Can though, it's all about what sounds and groove the machine can make on its own. And it's... well, rather basic if I'm honest.

Any of these tracks would be a nice addition to a compilation with a variety of vintage techno, or a handful of such featured on an EP. A full length of this stuff, however, grows rather dull, most tracks settling for a simmer of burbling acid groove. There's definitely space for the minimalist sounds used – Mr. Werner did ply his trade in the dubbier side of things, after all. You feel that distant reverb whenever he gives the knobs enough tweakage to expand out in the furthest reaches of your headspace. It's just the songcraft supporting the sounds isn't doing much beyond the bare minimum of what you'd expect to hear out of an acid jam. Or at least, what I've come to expect out of an acid jam. Dammit, Hardfloor, gumming up my impression of a kindred spirit.

There isn't much more I can say about Floating In An Acid Can. If you hear one track, you've generally heard the rest. Yeah, some up the tempo a little (Acid Shower), some use backing pads for mood support (Raindance, Orbit Spaceacid), but the acid is front and centre throughout it all, and mostly sticking with the tried and true squiggly sounds you associate with the genre.

N:L:E - Floating Garden

Liquid Frog Records: 2021

This was bound to happen sooner or later. An artist releasing this much music in such a short time span, mostly sticking to a dubby, downtempo and ambient aesthetic for his works, can't help but repeat themselves here and there. And that's fine, musicians exploring different facets of similar themes and all. How many blues singers or folk warblers basically rehash the same song structure over and over (not to mention the banal repetitiveness of pop country). What I hadn't counted on was hearing nearly a carbon-copy of a track!

Or at least, I thought I did. I swear, the opening track to N:L:E's Floating Garden - A Green Sunshine - I've heard before. Granted, it's sometimes hard parsing out which minimalist ambient piece differs from another, especially after the amount I've already heard from Juan Pablo. Towards the back half, though, a gentle, harmonic tone ebbs in and out, putting you into a meditative trance. It then has a rather abrupt fade-out at the end, but then starts right back up in follow-up track Nice Light For My Plants. It carries on for a little while, receding again for another round of ultra-calm ambient, then re-emerges later on. And damn if I haven't heard this exact sequence with that exact harmonic tone used elsewhere in Mr. Giacovino's catalogue.

Thing is, I actually checked the releases I've thus far covered, and didn't come across it again! Granted, I wasn't sifting through every track minute by minute to confirm – that's well over thirty items, including ten Caravan Of Healing Sounds. My autistic ticks only take me so far before giving up on some obsessions. Still gave it as good of a skim as is deemed sensible, and nope, didn't hear that sequence elsewhere. Did I somehow Mandela Effect myself into this? Maybe I happened to play Floating Garden out of sequence sometime in the past couple years since I bought the N:L:E discography? Really and truly bizarre.

If this all seems like a wild tangent, well, that's because I'm reviewing another Natural Life Essence album. There really isn't much else I can say about them beyond what particular style Juan Pablo opts to explore on a particular release, Floating Garden going deep in the lowercase ambient field indeed. Gentle melodic tones, relaxing field recordings, and all that tranquil stuff. Like one of his Caravans though, he does bring some dubby beats towards the end for Rain In The Floating Garden 2, then gets a little peppier with them in closer The Happiness Of A Floating Dandelion. Given they are the shortest cuts on this seven-tracker (titular piece runs over sixteen minutes), it's clear they're not a primary focus for Floating Garden. More like bringing you back awake in case you dozed too deeply for the past hour.

This definitely is one of the calmest albums I've heard from N:L:E. At least, I think it is, from recent memory. Man, this discography dive is already two years old...

Imba - First Encounter

Suntrip Records: 2016

I'm gonna' run into more artists like this one, the deeper into Suntrip's discography I go, aren't I? Like, I'm pretty sure I've touched upon most of the primary players for this label, and many of the agreed-upon classics from their catalogue. There's still many CDs in the pile I bought from them (just... so many), with artists that are either just emerging, or were fly-by-night producers.

Imba, for instance, has only this album to his name. Several compilation contributions prior, a couple EPs after, and that's all Nikola Petrović wrote for his time in the psy trance scene. Not that this is an entirely uncommon thing to happen, many working hard keeping that initial enthusiasm burning hot, only to gradually recede in the aftermath of their accomplished goals. Or something else happens, like bad drama and whatnot. Hmm, now I'm curious, and whenever I get curious about something regarding Suntrip's artists, there's one place that's time and time again proved quite resourceful, the psynews.org forums! Man, am I ever fortunate that place still exists, and has a functional search engine. Anyhow, back in a pantomime moment...

*bad A.I. psy music plays*

Okay, I'm back, and boy, was Imba ever active there. At least, for a long time leading up to this album. Seems I wasn't far off in my guess though, the chap airing some grievances about the static state of neo-goa as the '10's wore on, how there just wasn't much room for innovation or growth without the purists declaring the music not vintage enough or too modern sounding. Hey, I feel that, the sort of gripes you'll come across damn near every micro-niche music scene in existence. And Lord knows psy-trance's micro-niche scenes can have some of the most anal-retentive, stylistic pedants about. How else does such a specialized genre of music have dozens of offshoots? It's definitely an issue, and I'm glad he felt compelled to talk about it.

Or maybe Nikola was venting that his music wasn't gaining the traction he hoped it would, for those very same reasons. Could be, could be.

So First Encounter just didn't grab me. I really don't know why. Maybe it's because of his insistent use of prominent 'modern' (re: full-on) basslines, which overwhelm much of what else his tracks have going on. The squiggly sounds and melodic leads all seem fine, but don't really leap out in any significant way, almost subservient to the dominate rhythms that vary little between tracks. I'll grant it's not so bad as the random wibble you'd often hear in regular full-on utilizing similar basslines, but nothing I'm anxious to hear anytime soon either.

I suspect, because the rhythms are so high in the mix, this stuff is better served in live settings, but even as I was playing it during my regular walking commute, little hooked me beyond “yeah, this gives some pep to my steps”. And any ol' Suntrip release gives me at least that.

Placid Angels - First Blue Sky

Magicwire: 2019

I really need to keep a record of my buying habits. Like, I can suss out the 'why': been neglecting John Beltran, nabbed a record with striking blue cover art. It's the 'how' I'm drawing an utter blank on. How did I end up landing on his Placid Angels side project? How did I even find it in the first place? It's certainly not on his own Bandcamp page, First Blue Sky coming out on the little-known Magicwire print instead. Yes, it was initially an offshoot of R&S Records, but far as I know, has been mostly independent since 2017, and has barely released much of anything lately.

It had to have been name-dropped somewhere, Magicwire. Perhaps Simon Reynolds on his Energy Flash blog, or one of the trance forums that still exist, pointing out some tunes that capture the feel of the genre in its vintage form. If either so, then the fact this happened to be a John Beltran album as well is pure coincidence. I mean, you sure wouldn't have guessed it as such just from listening to the samples. Who even knew he resurrected this alias in the first place?

For those not in the know (most, I wager), Placid Angels started as a one-off guest feature way, way back. Sometime in the late '90s, his career doing quite well with a solid handful of albums under his belt, he put out The Cry as Placid Angels on Peacefrog Records. Was it because the use of his regular name was an exclusive to R&S at the time? No, he'd already released an album on Peacefrog as John Beltran prior. Was The Cry a radical departure from his usual sound then, thus in need of an alias properly separating it from his regular output? Not terribly so, perhaps a shade more Detroit than his other techno works. And he certainly felt no need to return to Placid Angels after, letting the name sit fallow until reviving it for Magicwire.

Resurrect it he did though, and boy does First Blue Sky ever drip with retro rave feels. Right from the jump in the titular opener, you got brisk breakbeats, dreamy synth pads (a John Beltran staple), and subtle little samples spicing things up. Follow-up Angel leans more into classic ambient techno, when the beats could still be abrasive and the melodies outwordly. A Moment Away From You slides closer to Detroit's realm, and Vent... well, this is just straight up jungle, ain'it? The use of an Amen Break, sure, but not those supporting melodies, nosiree.

The remaining album mostly flits between variations on these types of tracks, which is great if your earholes crave more dance music in that vintage Warp and Apollo style. Of course, you can likely find plenty of this stuff elsewhere, but few have a way around a moving melody quite the way Mr. Beltran has done time and time again throughout his career. First Blue Sky is no exception to that rule.

Spiritual Fields - Fields Of Light

Liquid Frog Records: 2018

Wow, it's actually been a legit two months-plus since I last did a release from ol' Juan Pablo (which means he's released four more items during that period!). I'll grant half that time was taken up by vacations, and at least another third from the return of Fabric On A Budget. Still, any time I can put some space between these endless N:L:E items is a bonus in my books. Not that I've developed a distaste for them, just sometimes you need thoughts on an artist to marinate in your brain before diving into them again. Recharge the talking points, come fresh with new perspectives gleaned from real world events.

So getting back into the Liquid Frog catalogue anew, ready to tackle any and all items waiting alphabetically in my queue. Ooh, it's one of the Spiritual Fields items, the least active of Mr. Giacovino's side projects. Not only that, but this is the first such release he used the alias for, coming out quite early in his musical development. In fact, if the little blurb on the Bandcamp page is to be believed, Fields Of Light was crafted before he even started putting stuff out as Natural Life Essence. Okay, it states “an oldie rare crazy track”, but one doesn't typically call a tune of theirs such a thing unless it was made in the before-times of a career properly starting off. And since it doesn't quite mesh with whatever you currently are making hay off of, here's a unique handle for it so it's distinct from your main output. Maybe file that name for future reference, if something else strikes the muse feeding off of it.

Cool then, some pre-N:L:E material, which should be solid enough if Juan Pablo felt confident to release it regardless. Wait, it's only two tracks? Well, one, as this honestly comes off like an extended jam session like so many of those Caravan Of Healing Emotions did. Combined they do break the twenty-minute mark though, which is enough music for me to come up with something worth writing about ...I hope.

Heck, Fields Of Light Part I almost reminds me of a Caravan session, in that it uses similar, sweeping synth pads performed in an exultant fashion. There's also a lot of busy, dubby rhythm going on, mixing things up here and there in a freeform way – honestly sounds rather like playing about with sample packs, but it's all nicely crafted regardless. There's barely a pause between the two tracks, an ambient fade marking the start of Fields Of Light Part II. The longer session, there's more interesting sounds and melody on display here, but it does kinda' meander about too, in that classic post-Orb sort of way much ambient dub did. Like, you know the more dithering portions of Orbus Terrum? That, but without the eventual conclusion those tracks eventually arrived at. Hell, Part II seemingly ends at various points, only to start right back up again for a few minutes more.

Q-Burns Abstract Message - Feng Shui

Astralwerks: 1998

Michael Donaldson's project always felt bigger than it actually turned out. Maybe it's because his early tracks were appearing on several noteworthy labels via compilations and mixes, FFRR the most prominent of the lot. Also showing up on OM Records, Wall Of Sound, and even Mo Wax (kinda') didn't hurt in selling Q-Burns Abstract Message as an artist with an ear to the ground with what was hip and shakin'. However, he was seldom ever tidily pigeon-holed into any particular scene. Was he acid jazz? Trip-hop? Dubby breaks? Big beat? Balearic chill? A bit of everything, really, and coming up in a time when an eclectic style at least got you noticed.

Q-Burns got his proper break with Astralwerks, consolidating his wayward tracks onto a 'debut' comp' called Oeuvre. Oh my, doesn't that come off just a tad pretentious. If so, then titling his proper debut Feng Shui won't help. I get it though, this being the late '90s, and alternate interior design all the hipster hype. Yes, let's use Far East spiritualism as a guiding principle in how to arrange wall shelves. I jest, some practical use in 'feeling' how one's living environment should flow just so. Titling an album upon it though...

Actually, it makes sense, his music rather free-flowing in of itself. In fact, I can't help suspect Mr. Donaldson was reigning himself in. The sort of artist brimming with ideas, fully capable of crafting pieces exploring them, but also realizing not everyone would be down for an ultra expressionist outing for a debut. Gotta' lure in folks with traditional dance tunes, hook them in with the familiar, then throw them for a loop when you go off on a little key-change solo two-thirds deep.

That's the general approach to Feng Shui, but obviously each cut offers something different from the other. Opener He's A Skull does the big, funky breaks thing with a quirky vocal sample. Follow-up Solar Car goes even funkier in a Euro-hop, skippity sort of way. Jennifer gets on that chill-out vibe by way of French pop getting so very popular at the time (thanks, AIR). Some tracks are more catered to showing ear-wormy contorted sounds or samples (New Patterns, the titular cut). Others are just an excuse for him to jam things out (A.S.T., Talking Box). And in case you did come to a Q-Burns album looking for more of the acid jazz vibes, Kinda Picky and There Must Be Something have you covered.

It all sounds like a solid record (and I really dig his bass tones in several tracks), so why isn't Feng Shui brought up in talks of Very Important 'Electronica' albums of the '90s? Honestly, I think things are played almost too safe. It's a good album, but the decade was spoiled for great albums, good ones gaining fans who find them, but few of the plaudits that entrench it within the lingering scene consciousness. Which kinda' sums up the Q-Burns Abstract Message story in a nutshell.

Subtle Shift - Farshadow

Anodize/Harmonic Resonance Recordings: 2014

It was a decade ago that I first wrote up something about Gregory Kyryluk, the Open Canvas album Nomadic Impressions. I didn't really dig much deeper into his discography until covering his Alpha Wave Movement record Somnus, which got me intrigued enough to at least bookmark his Bandcamp. Y'know, for those days I was feeling a little extra splurgy on a Bandcamp Friday sale. And that's how I've now ended up with Farshadow, a pleasant little ambient techno LP that wouldn't sound out of place on any Lee Norris label. In fact, that's kinda' why I scoped this out in the first place, in a roundabout sort of way.

So Farshadow initially released on Anodize. Yes, that short-lived print that seemed to attract just about every modern ambient techno producer worth their salt. Autumn Of Communion released their second album there! Ishqmatics released there! David Morley released there! Lingua Lustra released there! Rapoon released there! And hoo boy, did Mick Chillage ever release a bunch there. The chap that kicked this little label that flamed so bright early, however, was Mr. Kyryluk, the album Transient Broadcasts as Within Reason. A year later came Farshadow, then a year after that, an Alpha Wave Movement release called Earthen. He... didn't release anything else on Anodize, probably because the label ceased operations following 2015. Ah well, time to retain your music rights and re-release that material under your own banner.

“But wait,” you say, “this is credited to Subtle Shift, not Within Reason. What gives?” Had to do a name-change for legal purposes, apparently. What, did Anodize somehow still hold the rights? Seems weird that a derelict print could, but then it did take a while for Lee and Mick to get their material back for re-issue as well. Always tricky to navigate, those music legal waters.

Anyhow, although Transient Broadcasts would have been the more obvious album for me to get (because blue), I went with Farshadow as the odd animal on the cover was more striking. At least, I think that's an animal – a shell, or maybe one of those strange cephalopods that can wrap its short-tentacled foot over its body.

And the music? Well, like I said, this could easily have been on any number of Lee's labels, probably ...txt. I've talked up plenty of those by now, and there really isn't much else here that deviates from that aesthetic. The rhythms are subtle and slightly dubby, the melodies are soft and charming in an inquisitive sort of way, and the atmosphere remains tranquil throughout. There's a loose theme of aquatic exploration, which reminds me of Lars Leonhard's Deep Venture, just not quite as expansive in sound design as that record. There honestly isn't much on Farshadow that'll leap out at you, but it's not really that kind of album either, mostly content being gentle music one can lose their thoughts within. Maybe read a little Jules Verne while it plays.

Rapoon - Fallen Gods

Staalplaat/Abstrakce Records: 1994/2021

Jumping all around Rapoon's catalogue has yielded plenty of interesting items now, but man, I just can't help but keep returning to Vernal Crossing the most. Something so primal, so instinctual ...so, dare I say, erotic. I keep wondering is there anything else like it in Mr. Storey's storied career, when the answer is so bluntly obvious, I'm astounded it took me this long to realize it. Or maybe I was subconsciously biding my time for a digital remaster to emerge. Sure, let's go with that, a seductive, subliminal message lurking within Vernal Crossing Revisited suggesting I bide my time before returning to this era of the Rapoon tale.

While there's plenty to be said about most of the early Rapoon records, I feel like Fallen Gods gets a little overlooked. It doesn't have that 'new concept' freshness the debut Dream Circle does (an album that's seen a triple-LP reissue!), which follow-ups Raising Earthly Spirits and especially Vernal Crossing maintained. If anything, because Fallen Gods came out the same year as Vernal Crossing, it couldn't help but get bypassed, the post-ecstatic glow of the former record still permeating upon the public consciousness. Whoa, reign in the hyperbole there! It's a cool album, f'sure, but only a highly niche audience would be aware of it back when, much less today.

Still, I'm a little surprised Fallen Gods didn't get at least a little more attention outside the abstract ambient sphere – say, the tribal techno sect? Obviously it sounds little like what you'd hear out of the PWoG camps, but compared to the pure, loopy nature of his previous works, Rapoon has added something more of a propellant rhythmic pulse to all the sampled drums and primal sounds.

Opener certainly seems to build upon the Vernal Crossing formula, but feels more minimalist and dubby. Meanwhile, second track Iron Path is almost mechanical, its rhythms rather jerky and coerced into its loop – and still, all performed rather spaciously, as though letting the drums be the dictating force. Rapoon had always used rhythmic loops before, but seldom such that they were the dominate feature, preferring to focus on the general atmosphere of his compositions. And as if to put an exclamation mark on this different direction, the titular cut features drum work that is almost thunderous, as though the sky spirits themselves are descending upon the populace below.

If Fallen Gods was primarily of this tone, I could see it having more attention over the years, but it kinda' waffles after. There's pure ambient drone pieces (Breathing Gold), tracks that sound like left-overs from the Vernal Crossing sessions (Sacrement, Valley), and a dalliance into what I assume is a Bulbul tarang solo: one mostly unmanipulated, followed by a more 'traditional' Rapoon loop session. All neat stuff, absolutely, but doesn't leave the album with a dominate aesthetic compared to his other works. Which may explain why Fallen Gods didn't get the 'revisited' remix treatment either. Nothing left to further explore here.

Ka-Sol - Fairytale

Suntrip Records: 2006

Isn't it fun going back to the early years of an established entity? The feeling-out days, where an identity is still being hashed out, so things are just a little askew from what we typically associate with said property. TV shows are the most prominent example: when Kramer wasn't so physically eccentric; when Flanders wasn't so Flanderized; before Riker had a beard (Sisko, too). Music labels are no less susceptible, many tossing their hands into the grab bag of genres as they figure out what super-niche lane they will come to proliferate. Unless you're one of those 'anything goes' type of prints. Then it don't matter if you started out with ear-bleed gabber, so long as you eventually come around to minimal deep-tech.

Suntrip was pretty clear about its original plans when it launched two decades ago: psy trance for the old goa heads, before all the full-on and prog changed the scene around them. And while they were mostly able to meet their manifesto out the gate, there were still a few 'wild' years before they properly purified their product. Seeing Aes Dana on their first ever compilation Apsara was odd enough, but shortly after that came this little outlier of an album, Ka-Sol's Fairytale.

So this is dark psy. Maybe not as demented and twisted as the genre can go, but definitely on that “creepy, mischievous things lurking in the woods at night” tip. Like, you already get that vibe from the cover art - less traditional psychedelic, more ancient European folklore. As I recall, there were quite a few chaps from the Scandinavian lands pumping out forest trance as much as prog-psy, and Mr. Lundström could have found a home on any number of labels supporting the stuff.

For some reason though, he wandered the wilds, only contributing tracks here and there over the years, before landing on Suntrip. A strange pairing, perhaps one made out of convenience: Ka-Sol needed a place to release an album, and Suntrip needed product to get their print established. Having already provided a track to the aforementioned Apsara (and among the best tracks that compilation had to offer), it made sense giving him the green light on a full-length record. Sure, Fairytale would end up sounding unlike little else in Suntrip's catalogue until the wa-a-ay later Carpe Noctum compilation, but how was anyone to know that's how things would shake out for the foreseeable future?

Anyhow, Fairytale is a solid slice of dark psy, though I can't help but feel it stands out more because of its stark contrast with the rest of Suntrip's discography. There's even a concession to the goa brigade here, in that as the album plays out, the psychedelic derangement slowly subsides, such that by the end, we're getting into more traditional forms of trance. Or is this meant to capture that transitional point of an outdoor party, where the night has given way to the first rays of dawn? Given Ka-Sol's rep' for live performances, probably so.