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

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!

Release updates.

New California Sunshine album was released and a Liquid Stranger album is coming up soon. Here is the full list:

October 10th:
Para Halu - The Future Sound of Para Halu (Psylife Music)
California Sunshine - The Dark Side Of The Brain (Ultiva Records)
Bodhisattva 13:20 - Equations (2TO6 Records)

October 16th:
Shotu - Conception (Hadra Productions)
Liquid Stranger - The Intergalactic Slapstick (Interchill Records)

A review for an older album is coming up before I review something recently released. From last month's releases I listened to Open Source's album and I thought it was pretty terrible. A score of 2 out of 5 for me, not really worth listening.

First month of my blog. September release summary and albums coming in October.

Thanks to all of you for commenting, following and visiting my blog. I managed to get nearly 500 pageviews which is much more than I expected. Hopefully the numbers will continue to grow. I posted three reviews so far and that's what I am planning on doing every month. September has been a very intense month as far as new releases go. I still haven't listened to Banco's new album, but when I do I'll post a review. Here are the releases from last month that caught my attention. If I listened to them I added my rating.

Banco De Gaia - Memories Dreams Reflections

Capsula - Sense Of A Drop (4.5/5)

Argaman - My Little Forest (3.5/5)

Side Liner - Missing Pieces Of A Puzzle (4/5)

Union Jack - Pylon Pigs (5/5)

Smiley Pixie - Chillout Moods To Urban Grooves

Open Source - Uncultured (2/5)

Soundaholix - Soundaholix Annonymous

Way Out West - We Love Machine

Heyoka - Gate Code

Lokesh - Utopia

DarkShiRe - Breakdown

Vishnudata - Vishnudata

And the first week of October watch out for (all due to be released Ocober 2nd):

Radical Distortion - Psychedelic Dreams (Suntrip)

Rawar - A Journey Through Time (Wild Seven Recordz)

International Observer - Felt (Dubmission)

More release news. September YouTube playlist.

The new Flooting Grooves album still doesn't have an exact release date so it looks like it won't be released in September... More albums just released:

Smiley Pixie - Chillout Moods To Urban Grooves (September 25th)

Open Source - Uncultured (September 25th)

Soundaholix - Soundaholix Anonymous (September 18th)

I also made a playlist with all my September uploads on YouTube. Tracks from Ra, Slackbaba, Solar Fields, Walter Ego and more!

"Memories, Dreams, Reflections" released! New releases update.

One of my most awaited albums of this year, Memories, Dreams, Reflections by Banco de Gaia was released on September 11th. You can order a copy here. It's not really a regular artist album, but as he stated on his blog disc one is is remakes of a few songs that influenced him plus remakes of his old tracks and the second one is a "selection of live recordings taken from over the years". Maybe not as exciting as an album full of new tracks, but still something to look forward to. My review of it coming as soon as I listen and analyze it.

Sense of a Drop by Capsula was also released on Waveform Records on September 8th and My Little Forest by Argaman was released on September 4th.

Side Liner - Missing Pieces of a Puzzle is due to be released tomorrow, September 14th.

Lots of new stuff in one week. Check back for my reviews of those.

And here is a taste of Flooting Grooves (another September release) on my latest YouTube upload, enjoy.

Slackbaba - ...And The Beat Goes Om...

Here is my first review. I don’t have much experience so sorry if it’s very amateurish, I should improve as I write more :)

I’m always up for checking out an artist I have never heard of, especially when they are known for making psychill. Slackbaba was recommended to me on Last.fm so after a while I decided to listen to his album.

...And The Beat Goes Om... is an easy to listen to album and is very re-playable. On my first listen I wasn’t sure what to think because it is a little lighter compared to most albums in the same genre, but it grew on me very fast. While none of the tracks actually stand out that much the whole thing melts perfectly together. The album is pretty up-tempo compared to other psychill releases and you won’t find many ambient moments except for the first track which has a very beautiful intro. The only minus is that some of the tracks are a little too repetitive, but I guess after three listens in a row you would get that impression with any album. Expect some very interesting samples. Psychill and dub lovers will find everything they like about this kind of music on this release and some more, because unlike some other artists Slackbaba has his own distinctive style. This is definitely one of the best psychill/psydub albums I have heard in months and deserves way more recognition. Let’s hope he will release another album soon because this one is a real gem.

Rating: 4.5/5
Standout tracks: 1, 2, 8
Genre: Psyschill, Dub

Release info:

Label: Liquid Records
Country: United Kingdom
Released: June 2006
Credits: Artwork By - rich@purpleproject.co.uk
Mastered By - Kevin Metcalfe
Producer, Written-By - Jonathan Smith

Tracklist:
1. A Drop in the Ocean
2. Drink More Tea
3. Sea of Green
4. Long Sunny Daze
5. The Golden Apple
6. Metatron’s sugar cube
7. And the beat goes om
8. Fruit of Mahoot

Links:
Discogs
Last.fm
Myspace

Upcoming albums for September

Upcoming releases confirmed to be released in September. Full length artist albums only.

Banco de Gaia - Memories Dreams Reflections

Capsula - Sense Of A Drop

Argaman - My Little Forest

Flooting Grooves - Psydeburns

Side Liner - Missing Pieces Of A Puzzle

If you know of any other releases let me know :)