Crazy Ducks - Quacktastic
1. Bulka
2. Beastquit
3. Umevuka
4. Jazzetdelic
5. Funkadelic
6. Umevulaka
7. Mania Kasha
8. In your phase
9. I'm not a Bird
10. Enterfear
Label: Adapted Records
Style: Suomisaundi/Psytrance
I may not be a complete suomi guru, but I've heard some of that stuff, and until now this and Haltya's 'Book of Nature' (which are both totally different) have caught my ear the most. I haven't heard any of Crazy Ducks previous works, just one track maybe, so I can't compare this album with their other stuff. Anyway, this is my first review, so let's get on with this...
Something different, something new, something duck-ish indeed.
The beats won't catch you completely off-guard, it's the good old fashioned pumping psy kick and basslines doing their work beneath the amazing layering most of the time, there are even good old 'tone going from low to high during the climax' and other typical psytrance stuff. Why do I mention these slightly uninteresting matters? Because I want to stress the fact that you can mix these tracks in a (twisted) fullon or darkish set with ease. I've heard some suomi stuff which might catch your audience totally off-guard (but still can be damn good )... well ok, so will this, but it is still clearly psytrance to me. And believe me, I've seen the crowd go ape-shit on this.
Ok now let's go to the whys, wheres, whats, hows, etc... For example:
Why did they add this insane synth, which indeed is 'quacktastic'?
Who's playing that funky bassguitar?
Are these people actually inventing some sort of psytrancefreejazz?
Where did that break come from?
Is it all still in tune or am I hallucinating?
How can something that pretends to be as simple as a lunatic bird, be so melodic, so insane, so full of incomprehendible melodies and climaxes?
As you can see, I like this stuff. I definitley won't listen to it in a U-Recken or Vibrasphere mood, but when I am feeling as if I'm some sort of duck getting my every orifice filled by some purple three headed g... nevermind.
You just start wondering about a lot of things when you are listening to this, and that's a good thing I guess. From oldschool melodies to the really nasty stuff, it all comes with the package. Believe me, you won't become an enlightened being when you listen to this. Especially when you aren't familiar wth the suomi side of psytrance, you will be in for a hell of a ride. It simply (well, not that simply) will show you a totally new face of psytrance. This album is... ... Original
This is probably the thing that made me love this from the very beginning. The sound archticture is really neat. The synths and effects have a new and fresh feeling to them. The quackish sound has been transfomed into many different sounding synths: from distorted to clean to delayish etc. And at certain points multiple layers of those synths will blast you away. The mastering is really neat, so it doesn't all sound like one big wave of uhm, well, soundwaves. The breaks are really neat as well. They have a good 'wow I didn't expect that coming' feeling to them. ...Melodic
Most of the songs contain many melodies. Sometimes they all just play together like little ducklings in a lake on a nice day in spring. Yaron Osinsky, the man behind all this, must have quite a nice knowledge of music in general. Sometimes you just can't be sure what the HELL is going on with al these melodies. Thoughts like 'shit, did I take a drop too many of that nasty liquid?' may occur at certain points. ...Dark
Hey, didn't I just say that it was melodic? Hell yes, but sometimes evil. Somehow those ducks aren't always that friendly and might occasionaly give you those nasty shivers you get from the nasty dark stuff. And you know you love it. ...Funky
Jazz baby, oh yeah, or should I say funk? There is this bassguitar and organ thing in most of the songs, they're definitley not played by man (sadly I guess) so they don't have a completely natural funky flavour to them, but the machine has done some good work here. ...A bit boring?
Well, it might be sometimes. After a while those duckish sounding synths might work on your nerves, and overstimulate them, so then you will lose all sense and commit suicide. But not if you don't put it on repeat all day long I guess.
I don't feel like writing something about every track, I'll just tell something about some of my favorite ones. 1. Bulka
This track starts off with a nice climaxing intro. The bassguitar starts off with some funkiness, supported by very neat percussion, then slowly but definitley steadily the other elements join in. Starts off with a simple melody, then the mind boggling old school goa tunes from the ducks beak enter your gray matter. Wow, what the hell did I just put into my stereosystem. Before you notice, we go back into some darky funky stuff. The happy ducks shut up, and give some space to the slightly annoyed ones. This darkish bit goes on for a while, whooping some ass. After a while, we get to one of my favorite parts of this song.
At 7:09, all you hear is 1 synth and the kick. The synth does really some basic stuff, but it just gives me the creeps, especially when the bassline joins in. You know Infected Mushroom - The Shen... The part where suddenly all you hear is that creepy voice? And other elements join in? Like that.
Anyway, the song goes on being melodic again, the darkness still supporting it, and it just hoovers to the end. 4. Jazzetdelic
Another melodic song. But also again, with some dark elements. Starts off really friendly with some piano and synthiness, makes you wanna cuddle some ducks. After a while, it makes you believe they want to eat you alive and you just start shooting at them like a maniac. Well ok I might be overdoing this, this is by FAR not as dark as real darkpsy can be, but for what it is, it sure can make you consider calling your local mental institute. Great climaxes, great melodies, great dancefloor destroyer. 10. I'm not a bird
This song really shows the musical talent of Yaron. It's really funky, makes you wanna drink whisky and have a massive orgy backstage and the usual stuff.
The melodies are just all working together to give you the extreme thrill, and then all of a sudden, break, boom, totally new feeling to it. This radical change in sound happens quite a few times during the song. Some elements return, some leave, some give a slight hint of their existent, all work in harmony, and still sound really messed up in a gorgeous way, like an ugly duckling. I guess it's the awesome bassguitar that holds it all together sometimes. WHAT THE HELL DID JUST HAPPEN?? And before you realize what just happened, it's finished. Great song!
The more I listen to this album, the more I love it. 8/10 shall be my final verdict...
