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.

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

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

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

Union Jack - Pylon Pigs

Union Jack is back with a new album, fourteen years after the release of There Will Be No Armageddon and twelve since their last single. Clasudio Giussani left the group and was replaced by Paul Brogen (also known as Pob). This is probably in my top three most awaited albums of the year because Union Jack, alongside Art of Trance, has influenced my taste like no other project.

I was afraid even these guys would succumb to the new trends in music, but fortunately they haven't. They haven't forgotten their roots, most of the tracks sound like goood old school trance and just like on their first album we get a few chillout gems. Blink stands out a little stylistically sounding more like modern trance, but it's still a very good track. The acid sound is a little less noticeable on this one, but it's still an acid trance album, something extremely rare these days. The trance tracks have a very hard beat for the most part, lots of acid and a dark sound. Unlike most albums the chillout tracks are put in between the trance pieces which is a pretty good idea. Instead of cooling off after hearing the whole album we get a calmer track more often. The cover is pretty interesting, but very different from the old style Platipus cover art. I liked the old ones more, but this is nice too. It's really hard to find a minus on this album. Even though it sounds old school it's much fresher than all the stuff that gets called "trance" these days. Union Jack does not sell out and gives us another trance masterpiece. It's been a very good year for Platipus records. Six new releases, an Art Of Trance collection and a few compilation albums show that the label is back in the game.

Rating: 5/5

Standout tracks: 1, 2,10

Genre: Acid Trance, Chillout

Release info:

Label: Platipus
Country: United Kingdom
Released: 14 September 2009
Credits: Artwork By - Kiosk, Gemma Winter 
Mastered By - Paul Brodgen 
Producer, Written-By - Paul Brogden, Simon Berry

Tracklist:

1. Papillon
2. Submerge
3. Triclops
4. Longhorn
5. Mainlining
6. Blink
7. Lifeblood
8. Vowel
9. The Dark Major
10. Funnelweb

Links:

Discogs

Last.fm

Myspace

Argaman - My Little Forest

My Little Forest is the second album by the Israeli producer Itai Argaman, but first under this alias. He's known for making psytrance, but like many produces he also decided to make some psychedelic chillout...

The cover is pretty interesting and it caught my attention. It looks more like a cover for a Disney DVD than a psychill album artwork, but I actually like it's cheesiness. They say "don't judge a book by it's cover", but in this case I couldn't resist. Especially if it was released by FairyTales Records... After listening to the album it's obvious all this cheesiness is intentional as the music itself has many "fairytale" moments. Most of the tracks have some light dub and classical mixed together with "magical" music which gives it an interesting and very unique sound. There is a lot happening in every track so they never get boring and they are not repetitive. It's pretty weird stuff though and one or two times I was about to skip to the next track. I cannot say this is my favorite style, but I have to give him credit for having some cool ideas and most of all for creating his own style. Most of the time when I hear something new there is always some other artist or album I can compare it to, but this is something new. I've been hearing good things about this album before my first listen and even though it's not really for me I know many people love it. Seeing what Argaman comes up with in the future will be interesting.

Rating: 3.5/5

Standout tracks: 1, 4,9

Genre: Chillout, Dub

Release info:

Label: FairyTales Records
Country: Israel
Released: 4 September 2009
Credits: Artwork By - The-Pash

Mastered By - Itai Argaman
Producer, Written-By - Itai Argaman

Tracklist:

1. LSDing Camping
2. You Will See
3. InHarmonic Symphony
4. WierDUB
5. Don't Leave Me Alone
6. The Old Times
7. It's Not For Money
8. The New Vibe
9. Concertina
10. The Silence

Links:

Discogs

Last.fm

Myspace

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