Leaderboard
Popular Content
Showing content with the highest reputation on 01/24/22 in all areas
-
David Tingsgard has created one of the only albums, apart from E-Mantra’s Arcana, to rival the greats of the golden age of Goa trance in this latest record Songs From a Forgotten Memory. Really love what Battle of the Future Buddhas is doing on this and the previous album Light Behind the Sun. Quite slowish, spacey Goa with deep beats and wonderful melodies. One of the things I really like about both albums is that BotFB shows restraint. He does not go straight for maximum velocity from the outset. The tracks and album as a whole can thus build, and build they do. Take "Collidoscope" for instance - at the 5.35 mark the track breaks into huge pillars of rising and falling modulations - this really takes the listener on a disorientating psychedelic trip because it has not been constant throughout the track which builds up to this peak gradually. This is the mark of a mature and talented artist who understands that drama comes from restraint, not throwing everything and the kitchen sink at the listener all at once. Moreover, by avoiding manic layerism and the straitjacket of 16th note bass and drums, when he decides to use a sawtooth or a flutter effect, it is effective. Not constant fluttering, which has little effect but to put you in a flutter. Lots of his melodies do have this fractalised or fluttering effect, but because he doesn't do this all the time it is not tiresome. Effective, like I said. "Go Gently into Space" (obviously a riff on Dylan Thomas' famous "do not go gently into that good night/rage, rage against the dying of the light") is not only a space hymn to the "future space travellers" (thanks to Miranda and Prana for that phrase). It starts off with a spoken manifesto to all future space travellers, the kind of thing that you might hear in Starship Troopers: “It’s really the next stage in the evolution of mankind, out here amongst the stars lies the destiny of mankind”. Hehe, c'mon Goaheads, let's send this track to Elon Musk; he can make it his anthem. Seeing as I mentioned Prana, this track features the juddering, ascending 303 melodies that Prana mastered. It also features one of the best snare sounds I've heard, and placed with pitch perfect accuracy. The track goes all Astral Projection at the end with sugary melody. This really is a space anthem if ever I've heard one. And without going over the top. Everything in total control, but without becoming predictable or zombie automaton. There’s not even a hint of the dreaded shiny plastic sound that psytrance has become. AWESOME!!! "Pitchbend (Into the Light Remix)" does exactly what it says on the tin: it ends with incredibly positive, life-affirming, sunny vibes that also happen to be delightfully psychedelic. Starting off pretty intense, this ends up being a lighter track than many on the album, but just as excellent. "The God Particle" makes it clear that this is a scifi themed album. There's such an awesome bass warble at the start of this track - honestly, this is totally addictive. Imagine holding a big sheet of roofing zinc and being able to shake it like a blanket - a metallic wap sound not far from a didge is what you'll get - and this sound goes on throughout. Infected Mushroom wish they could create just one sound as cool as this across their entire discography. A special shout to the snapping snares on this track too; faster than a cobra, as insouciant as a saddhu. As for the super trippy little elf melody at the end... I'm actually at a loss for superlatives. Could this be the best track on the album? "From Nothing"?? Nothing comes from nothing, so they say. Is this track describing the radical dissociation of a strong trip? Is it just a hymn to "empty" space? I don't know. But from the start this one goes heavier (I said the album builds not so?). At 5.00 there comes that unique little BotfB melody that sounds like the weird siren song of an alien elf at the window of your spaceship, luring you off track to the Triangulum constellation when you were supposed to be flying to Ganymede. Who needs Startrek when you have Goa trance like this? From nothing we find ourselves "In Heaven". This is the most classically Goa track on the album, featuring Indian singing, and it could easily be an Astral Projection song. Utter bliss, with some of the most textured riffs you'll ever hear. This is clearly the spiritual heart of the album. Om mani padme hum. Om namaya Shiva. Bom Shankar! The comedown commences with "Mugwump" which has a totally cool wurlitzer fairground horror melody. I love this forest elf twisty weirdo black metal goblin shit. We don't see enough of this tokolosh spiritualism in psytrance even though we have subgenres like twilight. Sheesh, BotFB invented twilight. Clearly BotFB is winding back from the hypnotic bliss of "In Heaven" and we go a bit darker and more foresty here. “Interstellar” is a more mellow track starting with a techno beat and tweaky noises, but soon accompanied by a whimsical and simple melody that repeats. Another one of those charmingly simple but minor key little melodies that BotfB specialises in. A little drop of unaccountably strange and otherworldly stardust. At the 5.45 point we enter another world with bigger riffs that are nevertheless restrained and subtle; nothing too loud here, but pulling you in with texture and intrigue. This is some beguiling shit! Finally, we come down to earth with “Blurred, Calm, Warm, Hazy”, just how you feel after a good toke. This is a fully ambient track, so of course there are some sitar sounds, Asian scales, along with tabla, and wailing melodies. BotFB set you adrift on deeply relaxing waves of calm and bliss. David Tingsgard, take a bow bro. I will probably never meet you as you live on the opposite side of the globe from me, but I wish I could shake your hand. In my opinion, you've created one of the all-time great Goa albums. I thought The Light Behind the Sun was good. Well, you've upped the game with this 10/10 record. You've shown Etnica, Pleaidians, Miranda, Transwave, Simon Posford, et al, that Goa is a genre capable of more than we dreamed. Technically it seems better than many of the classics. Imaginatively it is really out there. But it is also just so mellow, so musical, such delightful fun, as well as being dark, serious, and prophetic. If spiritual could be bottled, this is it. Yet this is very much a BotFB album; no one else could have made it. It has a unique peaceful calm understatement combined with crazy Loki inventiveness. The dust has long settled on the dirt roads of Anjuna. If you avoid the tourist areas you will only hear the lowing of sacred cows and temple bells at night walking near Chapora fort. The insects are loud in bamboo forest and the rice paddies glower in the gloom. But decades later, one who kept the faith has left behind a relic as valuable as anything made at the time. I feel privileged to discover it. Album of the year, and it is only January! This is deep trance plateau music - if you're a Goa fan, this is a must. It is begging for a vinyl release! Anoebis, do you hear me? Do not delay - crowdfund if you must, but do the best possible vinyl mastering and pressing of this classic album. I would be surprised if this album is not selling for thousands in decades to come! ~*~1 point
-
A no-nonsense, shining beacon of light in a sea of overproduced polished modern goa trance. This one goes right back to the roots while not sounding outdated at all. It does have a few annoyances (particularly that vocal in "Into Heaven" that also appears in a far better context on Banco de Gaia's album "You Are Here") but overall it does its job at sounding like "proper goa trance" (yes, I know that's a bit of a silly term to use) far better than most albums out there. There aren't may *trance albums I bother listening to anymore these days. This is not one of them.1 point
-
What to say someone for milestones like this, gratitude & grateful for listening something like this that it seems totally like the absolute sequel to the cornerstone 'Twin Sharkfins' after almost 25 years... Blissful feelings...1 point
-
Hey there! Yes that's me! I'm actually planning to make a proper length version of that track for the next album! But Flumina was just released so that's not for any time soon haha. Hope you like the album in the mean time though! <31 point
-
Thanks! It means a lot to me that the producers like to hear feedback. Goa is maybe not as popular as other genres of music so unfortunately they don’t hear as much feedback and maybe it feels like they’re doing everything for nothing Or, they rack and crush their brain for years trying to rework the music to get it right and all they hear is “well, it’s not good” or something like that Im terrible at it, but I experimented with caustic and cubasis and I know you have to crush and rack your brain to get it right. One note that is out of place that you can’t get right no matter what you do And then an album someone spent three years crushing their brain to make comes out and someone just says “it’s not good”, when really the music is very good but there were one or two bars that you couldn’t get right no matter whatever way you reworked it I know nothing about the technical aspects to make any intelligent or in depth review of music and it would be basically “this is good” or “I really like this” every time, so thats why I dont really ever comment on it But I see very good music come out and there’s absolutely no feedback or someone just says “it’s ok” or something like that Thats maybe somewhat demoralizing so that’s why I had to say something this time I guess Yes! If you want to post my comment in the review section I would feel good about contributing something1 point
-
Well, its lovely what you say, and the producer was very happy to read your feedback too! It would be lovely if we could post it in the review section as well1 point