Tor.Ma In Dub – Jump High (From the Roots to the Stars)

There is lots of dub similar to this released these days. While none of it is particularly bad, most of it is pretty average, or better yet forgettable, rarely getting plays in my library after the first 2 or 3 listens. I never even heard of the artist so I was expecting a very average album, Tor.Ma in Dub’s new album was actually a very nice surprise. It is very heavy dub and very psychedelic which is a very good thing because the psychedelic vibes present make it more interesting. While not really innovative, I don’t think it was meant to be. It’s a perfect album for just chilling out, put it on repeat, lie down and forget about everything else. The breaks track at the end is kind of interesting as well.
After having it for over one month and listening to tons of different music everyday, I keep coming back to it very often. Good album that does its job just the way I like it.

Final grade: 7/10

Pros: Great overall mood

Cons: Nothing new or especially different about this album

Tracklist:



Label: Beats & Pieces
Country: Israel
Released: 15 Mar 2010

Genre: Psydub

Links:
Discogs
MySpace

Darkpsy Adventure

Last week I realized I know almost nothing about darkpsy, a genre that has always seemed interesting to me, but I never got around to actually checking it out. Well except for Blisargon Demogorgon, whose music I always liked and even that did not push me to delve deeper into the genre back in the day. I rarely listen to trance these days, some goa now and then, but I abandoned that genre a while back so checking darkpsy was sort of like going back to where I came from in my musical evolution.

I got three albums by three different artists: Tumult by Derango, Waves From Innerspace by Kindzadza and Da Budet by Psykovsky. 

Derango – Tumult

First of I have to say Derango is a great name for a darkpsy project. Just perfect. That’s what got my attention in the first place. That, and also the fact that Derango always seemed to be one of the most praised projects of the darkpsy sphere.

This album contains some of the most evil and twisted music I’ve ever heard. It makes you feel like you’re being dragged through a forest path in the middle of the night and the path is full of thorns, rocks and evil creatures that follow you the entire way. And it doesn’t end well. As you progress on your trip it just gets darker and more hopeless. Very, very climatic, I must admit.

Unlike in some cases the samples are perfectly blended in. If anything deserves the label dark psychedelic trance it is definitely this album. The only minus might be that none of the tracks really stand out, it’s a solid album, but no real “hits” on it. Maybe after more listens it will become clearer.

Rating: 4/5

Kindzadza – Waves From Innerspace

I chose Kindzadza because of its high popularity on Last.fm. For a darkpsy project of course.

Waves from Innerspace is definitely a ligher album than Tumult. The sounds are not as twisted, not so evil sounding. There is a bit more variation here though, beat pace changes quite often, and there are some melodies here and there. Overall though I have to say this is not as good as Derango’s album. It’s a good release, but I’m guessing this is pretty

much standard darkpsy. No fireworks, just solid dark psytrance.

Rating: 3.5/5

Psykovsky – Da Budet

For the last release I decided to follow Last.fm tags and checked what came up for the tag forest psytrance. Psykovsky wasn’t on top but the name caught my attention. I decided to get the second album because it is purely him here and on Debut he included several remixes and collaborations.

This album is very varied. Even more variations in the beat pace than Kindzadza, really excellent voice samples and dark atmosphere is what makes it great in my opinion. At times it sounds chaotic, but in a good way, very keeps your attention to the music. Unlike with the previous two albums, here the tracks stand out a lot, each one having something specific to offer. In my opinion the deeper you get into the album the tracks get better and better. The Indian prayer (I guess it is a prayer) at the end of the final track was a really nice surprise.

Very interesting art work for this one, I like it a lot.

Rating: 4.5/5

After touching the tip of the darkpsy iceberg I have to say I am hooked! It is definitely not something I would listen to everyday, or at least not long periods of time, but it is definitely very good stuff. Possibly the darkest music I have ever listened to, hard to believe people put it under the same label as all the fluffy trance, not to mention all the pop Tiesto and company release these days. I would say that besides goa (new or old), this is the most interesting sub genre of psytrance. Fans of evil and twisted stuff should not miss this.

Blog and YouTube Channel News

Hello everyone! I'm considering changing the look and possibly the name of my blog too something different. The look seems kind of boring to me and the name not really accurate so I'll work on that tonight.
For those of you who follow my YouTube channel I think I owe some explanations. It is on hold once again. I won't be home for some time and over here my internet connection is extremely weak and unstable so any attempts at adding videos fail. I decided to stop fighting with it and just wait until I have a better connection once again and I'll go back to posting videos like back in the day and hopefully for a longer period this time around. Sorry for that.

Artist Recommendation: Globular

Globular was recommended to me on Last.fm. From looking at his profile I expected just another artist starting out, nothing spectacular, but nothing bad either. Globular is on the plus side though, his music is really great, especially for fist releases. He is basically what you would get if you took Shpongle’s first album, mashed it together with Ott’s music and added a pinch of darkness.

I really like the dub vibe on both albums. It is not too dominant like it happens with Ott sometimes, it just blends in very nicely. Most of his tracks are pretty long, probably longer than psychill average. They develop slowly, get you in the mood and do their magic. It surely isn’t the most complicated music in the genre, it’s pretty basic, but the production quality and the mood created stand out. I really didn’t expect a project like this to have such great samples and overall quality, great job.

The minus might be that some might say they have heard this before. It is true Globular is nothing new, sound similar to artists that might have influenced them, but it is still a real treat to hear his music. Plus after just eight tracks released we can expect much more to come and then we can see what direction is his music going and see how it’s changing.

Quick reviews of the two releases:

Colours Of The Brainbow: Dark and mysterious is how I can describe it. Lots of Indian influences, great samples, perfect for just chilling out. 95%

In Formation: A little lighter sounding than “Colours…” The tracks are more uplifting, and psychedelic. Indian influences also present. 92%

You can download Colours Of The Brainbow for free and legally at Ektoplazm. Click to redirect.

A full length album is on the way as well. Globular is what psychedelic chillout and dub are all about and I can safely say he is the most promising new artist in these genres. Look out for news about this project here and spread the word about Globular!

Links:
Last.fm
Facebook
Youtube
MySpace

The Flashbulb – Arboreal

I’ve only heard the tip of the iceberg as far as artists put in the IDM genre go. Kettel, Secede, Wisp, Venetain Snares and that’s pretty much it (I know, no Aphex Twin, but I will try something very soon). The Flashbulb is not new to me, I have Reunion, which was a decent album, but pretty forgettable. I decided to give his new album a listen to see what else he has to offer.

The opening track is a very beautiful piece, one of the best on the album. It sets a good mood for the journey you’re about to begin. The second track is also excellent. I especially like the vocals, they blend in perfectly. As the album goes on it gets a bit more aggressive. The tracks are not really harsh or anything, but we drift away from the melancholic pieces from the beginning. And then starting with the seventh track we go back to the calmness the album began with.

The second part of the album is pretty standard chillout, nothing innovative or that I haven’t heard before, but it sounds just beautiful. I especially like the piano and guitar throughout the album, great to hear instruments in this kind of music. The second to last song titled Skeletons has a guitar section that took me by surprise, but it was an interesting moment. I am not too fond of the vocals on this one though, they are not necessarily bad but there is something annoying about them.

Overall I am really surprised with how good this album came out to be. It has very few weak points and overall it’s a very good and relaxing release. It’s also very listenable. The first time I gave it a listen I played it three times in a row and I could do it many times more. I guess it’s more ambient than what he used to make, but he should keep on the path he’s on now. While waiting for a next album I will probably give his older releases a try and let you know what I thought of them.

Final grade: 4.2

Pros: Piano and guitar use, atmosphere

Cons: Some vocals can be annoying

Tracklist:
1. Prayer
2. Izel
3. Out Of There
4. This Way (Live Edit)
5. Subconcious
6. Gaia
7. Times A Billion
8. Smile
9. Metamorph
10. Impulse
11. Dark Dub
12. Biocircuit
13. Raining Dub (Special Breaks Edit)



Label: Alphabasic
Country: United States
Released: 8 Jun 2010
Genre: Ambient, IDM, Chillout

Links:
Discogs
Official

New Solar Fields' album announced!

Good news for all Solar Fields' fans out there. A remix album of Movements titled Altered: Second Movements will be released by Ultimae on July 26th.
"Atmospheric in essence, almost beatless, the soundscapes invite the auditor to settle within and embark upon a profound floating experience. As in the reminiscence of a dream, Solar Fields subtly recalls Movements harmonies and melodies in a widely stretched manner with low resonating pads providing a soft texture upon which electrified and crunchy interferences glide."
Sounds good, I guess we can be expecting a more ambient version of Movements. Even better news is that another, regular album from him is also coming up "in a couple of months". Really great news, good to see such a great musician being so productive.

Read an interview with Solar Fields here.

Uruk-Hai - Elbentraum

Most projects with names taken from Tolkien’s books, maybe except for some black metal bands, are pretty cheesy. At least from the ones I’ve heard. The website promoting this album made it sound pretty interesting, and because I like both ambient and Tolkien’s writings I thought I would give it a try.

The first few seconds of this album gave me hope for something decent, but unfortunately my hopes left me after the first track progressed. It is cheesy indeed, and not really in the fun way. The music sounds a bit amateurish, like the soundtracks of early fantasy games. Pretty random sounds, bells tinkling and the “epic” and dramatic sound was not a good sign for the rest of the album.

The next two tracks are on a pretty similar level with some surprising moments, like the fast beat on Baggins for example. It all doesn’t sound so bad, but kind of like the producer forced himself to make a “fantasy”” sounding album forgetting about how the tracks sound as a whole.

As the album goes on the situation gets a little better. Song of the Ainur is decent and finally sounds like a complete track. The last track saves the album a little. It’s twenty four minutes and by far the calmest, closest to ambient on the album. It has a pretty nice atmosphere that gets a little spoiled by the tinkling again, but it’s still the best here. Overall the second part of the album is better, but not by much.

I have to say I am disappointed by this release. I was hoping for something much darker, with tracks sounding complete and well thought out. Instead we get pretty lame music, trying too hard to sound adventurous and epic. Instead of creating an atmosphere reminiscent of Tolkien’s world which it was obviously aiming at, it makes you imagine Middle Earth as a world with candy trees and pink rivers. The only time I can see myself listening to it again is as a background for an old Warcraft game or something similar. The producer behind this would be good for making soundtracks for games, only if the music is a bit calmer, more ambient and gloomy.

From what I have read Uruk-Hai’s albums vary a lot. Some can be great and some very poor. Maybe this wasn’t his best effort, but there is definitely some decent qualities here and there. When his next album comes out I will give it a try just to see how it sounds and maybe my opinion might change, but after this I will not be expecting much.

Final grade: 3/10

Pros: 90s game soundtrack music

Cons: Over the top dramatic, cheesy

Tracklist:
1. Elbentraum
2. Laurelin
3. Baggins
4. Song Of The Ainur
5. The Mirror
6. Uruk-Hai Part 6
7. Hobbiton
8. The Glory Of A Dragon (*)

Label: none
Country: Austria
Released: 2010
Genre: Ambient

Links:
MySpace

Evan Bartholomew - Secret Entries Into Darkness

Evan Bartholomew is better known as Bluetech. If you expect to hear something similar on this album you might be disappointed. I did, and I wasn’t as I am not am big fan of his work as Bluetech. I mean sure it sounds great, but I guess I like more organic or ethnic sounding psychill than what his albums offer us. It’s one of the few famous psychill projects that doesn’t really do it for me. Either way I expected something similar as I haven’t really read about this release before checking it out.

First of all it is not similar to Bluetech at all. This release is ambient. Very interesting ambient at that. While some ambient projects, like CBL or Solar Fields for instance are borderline psychill and others are just ambient in its purest form this is something in between. It’s very slow motion, you have time to reflect every sound. It is deep, heavy and if you forget about everything, but the music it makes you feel very unsafe. Like you’re going down some deep and forgotten cavern and you know there is nothing good waiting for you at the end of it. That is the beauty of this album for me. The atmosphere is just amazing.

The thing is you shouldn’t listen to this album as background music, or while focusing on something else because then you will not get the feeling of it. You have to take the music slowly, let yourself float together with the music and then you will be able to judge the whole thing. Otherwise it will probably sound boring, or at least just like any average ambient album.

The track titles are interesting as well. They are great descriptions of what the album is all about. I like the album art too, just like with all Somnia releases.

This is a new side of Bluetech for me and I sure liked it a lot. It certainly needs to be more popular than it is now, but I guess this kind of music is not really accessible. But for all the ambient lovers out there this should be something to look forward to.

Final Grade: 92%

Pros: Atmosphere, titles, artwork

Cons: Doesn’t always work for me, you need to be in a right setting to really enjoy it to the fullest.

Tracklist:
1. Secret Entries Into Darkness
2. Cracks In The Fabric Of The known
3. Soft Spots In The Tyranny Of matter
4. Where Forgotten Days Slumber
5. And Ancient Hurts Dwell
6. Light Reflecting Black In Shadow



Label: Somnia
Country: United States
Released: 2008
Genre: Ambient
Artwork: Ray Massini
Mastered by: Twerk

Links:
Discogs
Somnia

Gonjasufi - A Sufi and a Killer

When I first heard about this album I automatically got intrigued. Something described as “experimental hip-hop combined with jazz, blues, eastern music, early electronic” had to be at least weird. Weird doesn’t have to be good, but I just had to hear it. For those who cannot stand hip-hop don’t worry, this is NOT a hip-hop album. It’s pretty much impossible to classify. Probably like nothing like you have ever heard before.
This album is an amazing journey. It’s really unbelievable how his vocals sound here. I know some might complain and say “there is so many better vocalists”, but for me that is not the point at all. Here it’s all about the emotions he puts into each track, how his voice fits the music perfectly. This is seriously one of the most passionate examples I ever heard. While the vocal is probably the best thing about this album it wouldn’t be the same without the background. The beat, guitar playing even the cracking sound on some of the tracks sound just great, each track sounds like it has been worked on for very long amounts of time, just to make them as perfect as they are now. Another plus for me are the mentioned eastern influences heard on some tracks. They add a nice flavor.

If you take all the styles you can hear on this album and list them on paper they have no right to work together. Gonjasufi managed for that to happen, enhanced everything with his vocal and released what is the best album of the year so far.

Pros: Vocals, eastern influences, I can play it on repeat and it just doesn’t get boring.

Cons: The long silence during the last track and the hidden outro, I’ve never liked that kind of thing.

Rating: 97%

Tracklist: 

01.
02. Kobwebz
03. Ancestors (*)

04. Sheep (*)
05. She Gone. (*)
06. SuzieQ
07. Stardustin'
08. Kowboyz&Indians (*)
09. Change
10. Duet
11. Candylane
12. Holidays
13. Love Of Reign
14. Advice
15. Klowds
16. Ageing
17. DedNd
18. I've Given
19. Made (*)

Label: Warp Records
Country: United Kindom
Released: 8 Mar 2010

Links:
Discogs
Official Website
Warp Records

News about the future of this blog

Hello everyone. It's been a long time since I last posted. I am getting back to it now, with just reviews for now and later on I'll start adding news items like I used to. I am also working on a music website where you'll be able to find everything from this blog and more. It's still in the works and I'm not sure when will it be available, but hopefully in about two weeks. It will be basically a place for reviews, recommendations, news etc. focusing on similar genres as this blog. When it's ready I'll post both here and there. For now I'll post two new reviews I have ready in a minute.

Kuba - Bringing It All Back Home

Chillout artist Kuba is back with another album. I admit I haven't heard the middle two yet, just Inside Out which was a cool experience. Before I even got to listen to Inside Out enough for it to grow on me and pick out the best tracks on it I found out he's out with his fourth album. As I haven't heard the other two I won't compare this to his other work.
The album opens with a very chilling Monk Dust. It's a really nice piece, with "tribal" vocals repeating throughout the track. Not very psychedelic or dubby, just good old chillout. The next track is a bit more dubby. Sounds very similar to what I would expect from Kaya Project. Just great. After the first two we get something different. Heavy dub sounds, a psychedelic vibe and reggae vocals. I am not a big fan of this kind of vocals in chillout music, but here they definitely sound good. And as if there wasn't enough happening the listener gets some magnificent flute playing as well. Really cool track, not the best vocals, but they fit well. Track number four is titled They All Went To A Party and it's totally different from the previous three. It's pretty upbeat, almost trancy and a bit monotone, but still one of the best on the album. Perfect soundtrack for a rainy day train ride. The next track is a pretty simple one. Uplifiting guitar playing, flute and a lively beat make it one of the most chilled tracks on the album, but it's a bit on the cheesy side. Still nice to hear. The next track features guitar as well, but I like this one much more. Not as uplifiting and a bit more ambient, very beautiful. Soft female vocals are a very nice addition. The following piece is titled Mushroom Daddy In Dub and it has a lot of reggae influence. Really nice sounds, Kuba really shows how varied his styles can be. Make Me Water is the second trancy track on the album, not really impressive, kind of simple, but still worth a listen. Next on the list is Keep Walking, which has hardly any beat at all and keeps on building up and right when you expect it to climax it dies down and ends. It's very good though, great sounds Kuba offers us. Track number ten is a dubby chillout tune with an ethnic sound. Good one. Next is Maria From Huddersville which has a very heavy feel to it. Not sure what is it about it, but it's one of the best on this release. The outro track is an ambient piece with some vocals, a good ending to the album
This album is an amazing experience. Psychill, trance, dub, reggae, ambient. You hear everything on this one, but none of those styles stands out at any point. Maybe it's a bit inconsistent, but all tracks are at least good. Very positive and uplifiting vibes, perfect for anyone feeling down. While I usually prefer the darker side of electronic music, Kuba knows how to deliver without being cheesy. Highly recommended.

Rating: 4.5/5

Standout Tracks: 1, 2, 3, 4, 11
Genre: Chilout, Dub, Psychill, Reggae, Ambient

Release info:

Label: Chillcode Music
Country: Germany
Released: November 2009

Tracklist:

1. Monk Dust
2. Where's Fragga
3. A Shoe String (Spaff Mix feat. Shaky)
4. They All Went To A Party
5. The Sky You Are (Feat. Tiago Coimbra)
6. It Keeps Us Down To Size (Feat. Michele Adamson)
7. Mushroom Daddy In Dub (Feat. Charlie Shuttler)
8. Make Me Water
9. Keep Walking (Feat. Michele Adamson)
10. Bringing It All Back Home
11. Maria From Huddersfield
12. A Tangerine World

I'm back!

Hey everyone and sorry for the long silence! I just moved recently and getting an internet connection took way more than I expected which stopped my progress with the blog and my YouTube channel, but now I'm back and don't expect to have interruptions like this again. A long overdue update is coming up (probably tomorrow) with all the album news. Reviews will follow so I can get back to normal.
For those of you who follow my YouTube channel I invite you back there as well. New upload in progress as I'm writing this ;)

Second week of November update.

With the new Shpongle album out the my most awaited albums of the year are already released. Still no news on the Asura album though... I've been listening to a lot of classic rock lately so I have less recommendations related to this blog, but one album I discovered this week is Visions Of Surya by Colourform, a project consisting of Matt Hiller and Jake Stephenson. Amazing, light ambient, similar to the ambient works of Solar Quest, but probably even calmer. Another album I heard by this duo is Microcosmacrocosm, released as Alien Mutation vs Indigo Egg. Check those out if you like to hear some ambient sometimes.

So as far as new releases this week go the highlight has to be E-Mantra's Arcana. Another Suntrip release in a short period of time and from I heard on the samples it will be awesome. Really great year for goa and Suntrip. Full release list:

E-Mantra - Arcana (Suntrip Records)
Silent Enemy - Diabolic (9th Circle Records)
Yubaba - Paradiso (Cyberset Records)
Animalis - Sly Technology (Geomagnetic.tv)

X-Dream - We Created Our Own Happiness

Before the Shpongle album review I decided to go back in time to 1997 and one of my favorite goa albums. We Created Our Own Happiness is the second album by the famous X-Dream duo from Germany. It's widely considered as a goa classic so many of you must have heard it or of it.
It starts out slow and then we get what I love the most about this album. The amazing acid sound use, X-Dream are the masters at that. After the amazing first track I expected things to go down, happens a lot when artists put the best track to start off and leave a good first impression. But no, in this case it gets even better. Do You Believe is just an amazing journey through acid landscapes and goa melodies. Very hypnotizing. The following track, The Second Room (A-Trip), is a bit weaker in my opinion, but still great goa. We don't have as much innovation here, it's simpler, but that also makes it feel like it's much faster. Then we move on to Zebra which has a more chilling feel to it, probably because of the lower BPM. But the track is just beautiful, great use of acid again. The fifth track is a downtempo piece, nothing special really. Not bad, but I preferred the trance tracks. About half way into the track we get a quote about ganja. We go back to trance with We Created Our Own Happiness. Good track, but more monotone compared to the first few. The sample here reminds me a lot of the one used in Sea Of Tranquility by Art Of Trance. Eleven follows and it is probably the second best track on the album. It starts out simple and continues evolving and the second part of it is one of the finest moments of this release. Unlike on most goa releases the last track is no a downtempo piece. Aurorix is just crazy fast, but still manages to be very complex. It's actually the perfect ending for this album.
We Created Our Own Happiness is one of those albums that could be recommended to someone new to goa, if they won't like this, then they probably won't like anything else. It's very complex, but everything flows perfectly. Listen to it if you haven't already and let me know what you think.

Rating: 5/5

Standout Tracks: 1, 2, 7
Genre: Goa Trance

Release info:

Label: Tunnel Records
Country: Germany
Released: 1997
Artwork: Bi.sign
Producer: Rough & Rush

Tracklist:

1. Screw (The Truth)
2. Do You Believe
3. The Second Room (A-Trip)
4. Zebra
5. Related Vortex
6. Eleven
7. Aurorix

Links:

Discogs

Last.fm

Myspace

October release summary and upcoming week's albums.

My blog is two months old now. Thank you for all the visits again, I got twice as many visitors in October with the counter hitting 1500. I also added a Flag Counter (after around 1000 views) and got visitors from 62 countries so far.

October had some interesting releases, but no great albums. The Intergalactic Slapstick is the best I heard so far, but Planet Discovery should be good too. Here is the full list of releases from last month with my rating added:

Para Halu - The Future Sound of Para Halu
California Sunshine - The Dark Side Of The Brain (3/5)
Bodhisattva 13:20 - Equations (3.5/5)

Shotu - Conception
Liquid Stranger - The Intergalactic Slapstick (4/5)

Kalumet - Burlesque
Easily Embarrassed - Planet Discovery

November will start out strong with the long awaited Shpongle album. It will be available from the Twisted website October 7th, but the pre-ordered copies will be sent out November 2nd. The Shpongle Live DVD is also being sent out Nov. 2nd. It includes Shpongle Live In Concert as well as bonus materials. Here is a list of new releases for the first week of November:

Shpongle - Ineffable Mysteries From Shpongleland (Twisted)

Yggdrasil - Prose Edda (Digital Psionics)

Ghreg On Earth - T³ (Underground Sound Promotions)

Liquid Stranger - The Intergalactic Slapstick

The American producer Martin Stääf, aka Liquid Stranger, is back with a new full-length album. The first album was an amazing journey through his sounds, very heavy in dub and overall just a very chilling experience. On his second album he continues to give us a very heavy dub sound. This time however we don't get as much ambient and vocals are present on most tracks.

The album starts out with a minute short intro track. The two following tunes are really awesome psydub. Just what I like  in this kind of music, heavy beats with a psychedelic twist, just awesome. Seb Taylor plays steel guitar on His Fully Automatic Wheelbarrow. Following the first two we get the first vocal track. The reggae sounding vocals are the main focus of the track, but it's much less complex than the first two. It continues like this through the next few songs. Heavy dub beats, reggae vocals, but unfortunately they lack the psychedelic twist I mentioned.  But even though less complex than what I like to hear, the music flows nicely. The vocals can be annoying at times and at other times they are enjoyable. Tantrum and Bodily Needs are examples of tracks where I couldn't stand the vocals. Tantrum had a reggateon feel to it which I absolutely hate and Bodily Needs, while it's a decent track overall, has some terrible vocals towards the end, both lyrically and in the way they sound. Then the album finishes off with two great tracks. Lotus is a very calming piece with softer beats and beautiful female vocals. Dew Point is the most ambient track on the album and a beautiful finish to it.

This album is something different compared to The Invisible Conquest. More focused on the vocals, it loses some of the psychedelic beauty. Two or three bad tracks are equaled out by the standouts making it a good album, with some minuses. While the change of style is interesting and enjoyable for the most part, the tracks most similar to what we hear on his first album are standouts.

Rating: 4/5

Standout Tracks: 2, 3, 12, 13
Genre: Dub, Reggae, Psychill

Release info:

Label: Interchill Records
Country: United Kingdom
Released: 16 October 2009

Tracklist:

1. Hiding In The Morning Mist
2. His Fully Automatic Wheelbarrow
3. Dancing On The Petals Avoiding The Nettles
4. Soundboy Killa
5. Full Mental Jacket
6. Tantrum
7. Dub Missile
8. Mutants
9. Rough Road
10. Hexed And Perplexed

11. Bodily Needs

12. Lotus

13. Dew Point 

Links:

Discogs

Last.fm

Myspace

Fourth week of October update.

I want to thank everyone for your visits! I really appreciate it, without you I would stop writing.

New Easily Embarrassed album is out now! You can buy it here. I'm finished with my review of the new Liquid Stranger album. I will post it soon. There is no releases coming up this week that caught my attention, but the following week should be much more exciting.

Because of the lack of news this week I'll go a month back in time to the release of Imaginary Friends by Ultimae. Those of you who get their newsletter must have heard about it, but for some it might be news. According to Ultimae it features "a melange of styles, different facets of ambient electronica infused with neo-classical moods, acoustic sensibilities, epic melodies and impressionistic textures and tempos for a vibrant and overall warm feel". Sounds impressive. I'm not sure what to expect from this release, but I thought I would mention it here since Ultimae hasn't released a single bad album (or compilation) so far.

A new psychedelic chillout review website by Trwolfe is up. He has one review so far, a nice collection of links and a very useful artist list. Check it out at http://psyreviews.trwolfe.com/.

With the month of October coming to an end I made the October compilation of my YouTube videos. You can see it here or on my channel. A few IDM tracks again, I'm really getting into that genre now. Also featuring a track from Liquid Strangers new album.

Artist Profile: Sebastian James Taylor

For those who don't recognize him by his real name he is also known as Digitalis, Shakta, Kaya Project, Hibernation and also for his collaboration work, most notably as Angel Tears with Lior Miller and Momi Ochion. If you still don't know who am I talking about then you're missing out. Seb Taylor is one of the most versatile electronic music artists, often compared to Simon Posford, but unfortunately not as well known His music styles range from pure goa trance through chillout with world music influences to IDM.

Taylor started out in the early 90s producing goa trance under the alias Digitalis. Sometimes described as breakbeat goa or psybreaks his work as Digitalis is pretty unique stuff, often being pure breakbeat. He's still producing under this alias with the last EP released in 2008. In 1996 he started his pure goa project for which he is probably best known, Shakta. With tracks like Silicon Trip or Lepton Head Part III he guaranteed himself a place in the goa trance history. His sound with this alias is pretty hard and heavy sounding goa. Around the same time he also released as Somaton, also goa, but in a little lighter melodic form. It never gained as much popularity as Shakta.

But even though he is an amazing psytrance/goa producer what impressed me the most are his chillout productions. He is one of the core members of Angel Tears which started out in 1998. Wonderful chillout, with calming melodies, amazing flute playing and hypnotizing vocals. Lots of indian, arabic and african influence here. Some tracks have a bit faster beat, but overall Angel Tears offers very calming, meditative music. We hear a lot of authentic instruments like indian sitars, arabic violins, tibetan flutes etc. After Angel Tears, Kaya Project followed. Pretty similar by definition, but with a more natural, "dry" sound. It's hard to explain what makes Kaya Project unique, but just give the latest album a listen and you'll know what I mean. Really passionate music. Just when you would think Seb Taylor can't do any more styles he released an IDM album as Hibernaion. Well maybe not pure IDM, but very different from his other chillout output. You can hear some influences from the days of Angel Tears, but it's something completely new. Let's hope that's not the last he has to offer as Hibernation.

In the sixteen years of producing he released 13 albums, 9 solo and 4 with Angel Tears, and numerous EPs. Everything I heard so far is just amazing music and he keeps on evolving. And what's most important he hasn't gone commercial. We can hear passion in his music and as long as he is passionate about what he does we can only wait for another masterpiece.

Solo Albums:
Somaton - Future Memories (1997)
Shakta - Silicon Trip (1997)
Digitalis - The Third State (1998)
Shakta - Enlightened Ape (1999)

Shakta - Feed The Flame (2004)
Kaya Project - Walking Through (2004)
Kaya Project - Elixir (2005)
Kaya Project - And So It Goes (2008)
Hibernation - Some Things Never Change (2008)

Collaboration Albums:

Angel Tears - Angel Tears (1998)

Angel Tears - Angel Tears Vol. 2 (2000)

Angel Tears - Angel Tears Vol. 3 (2002)

Angel Tears - Angel Tears Vol. 4 - Vision (2005)

For his complete discography go to Discogs. He has many more aliases and collaborations with only a few tracks for compilations or one or two EPs. I only covered the most notable projects.

Links:

Discogs

MySpace

Kaya Project - Official

New releases update plus the promised goa playlist.

The new Shpongle album is coming up very soon and it is available for pre-order from Twisted. I'm really excited about this one and I refuse to listen to any samples until it comes out.
I gave a listen to the new Bodhisattva 13:20 album. I'm not really a big psytrance fan so my rating for those albums will always be lower than some other styles (unless it's a real masterpiece), but this album is pretty good overall. 3.5 out of 5 for me. Worth checking out, but nothing amazing. It's a bit on the dark side, but you can't say it is a darkpsy release. The California Sunshine album will be an interesting listen, I'll put up a review soon.

Releases for the next week (both due October 23rd):

Kalumet - Burlesque (Halu Beats Records)

Easily Embarrassed - Planet Discovery (Cosmicleaf Records)

The new Easily Embarrassed album is one of the highlights of this month. The first one had some very interesting tracks and they sure showed they have talent so this should be good.

I also created the neo-goa playlist which I mentioned in my article. Over 52 tracks from the artists from my list. Enjoy!

Adham Shaikh - Fusion

As I promised I'm reviewing an older album now. Sorry for being a little inactive lately, I had some more important business but now I should post as often as before.

The first track by Adham Shaikh I heard was Opal. And I loved it right away. It's just one of those tunes that get you entranced by themselves. The flute (more specifically it's a bansuri) played here is amazing, the beat is just right, everything works. So after hearing that I didn't wait long and decided to give the whole album a listen. Adham Shaikh takes you on an amazing journey, listening to his music feels like you leave the place you are in and travel somewhere far. The most amazing thing about this album is the use of flute, how Adham mixes it in the tracks. The first two tracks are probably also the two best ones, or at least the most entrancing ones. The beat here is pretty fast, but nothing too crazy. Then we get into the more dubby part of the album with the excellent Dubfire which sounds like it could be an Ott track. From then the tracks are pretty much chillout with an indian sound, but they are very entrancing as well. The last few tracks are more trancy again, Shake It (Shaikh It) is pretty much a dance song. Which doesn't mean they are not good, everything sounds just perfect. The album finishes of with Rabbit Hole Raga (Spore Mix) on which we get to listen to some more flute playing.

This album will please psychill, chillout, ambient and maybe even trance fans with a great mix of all these genres. The great thing is that unlike the majority of producers Shaikh uses real instruments on most of these tracks and mixes them in with the rest. And fortunately here we can hear them because often if lets say a guitar was used it's sound is changed so much you can't really tell it is a guitar. It was definitely worth checking out, amazing music.

While in my opinion this is his best release his other three albums are great too. Journey to the Sun is much more ambient but the other two are very similar to Fusion.

Rating: 5/5

Standout tracks: 1, 2,5, 9

Genre: Chillout, Dub, Trance

Release info:

Label: Sonicturtle Records
Country: Canada
Released: October 2004
Credits: Producer, Written-By - Adham Shaikh

Tracklist:

1. Opal
2. Flying Beyond
3. Dubfire
4. Infusion (Bombay Mix)
5. Ohm (Transfix Mix)
6. Gayatri Mantra Shuffle
7. Somptin Hapnin (Ganesh Mix)
8. Shake It (Shaikh It)
9. Newborn Shuffle
10. Rabbit Hole Raga (Spore Mix)

Links:

Discogs

Last.fm

Myspace