Jump to content

Walkabout

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    137

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Walkabout

    Re-evaluation of older psy releases

    in General Psytrance

    Posted

    Lot's of Japanese and Aussie stuff. Two scenes I have very limited knowledge about. I'd like to know my Koxboxes and Pleiadians of those scenes. Could you write me a little list with the highest regarded artists/labels or link me to a site with some info? That would be GREAT.

     

    :P

     

    Japanese psy is not strong in my collection (I'd sure like it to be!). But some important names there are Uni, Ubar Tmar (probably the closest to a Japanese Koxbox), Aoa, Ree.K and Masa.

     

    In the Australian scene the biggest names I'm aware of are Ray Castle, Ollie Olsen and Nick Taylor. Here's an interview with Ollie from back in the 1990s.

    Re-evaluation of older psy releases

    in General Psytrance

    Posted

    I bought Lumukanda's Araglin years ago, but never got the chance to listen the rest of their catalogue. What are your personal Psy-Harmonics faves?

     

    http://www.discogs.com/Zen-Paradox-Eternal-Brainwave/release/43051

    http://www.discogs.com/Sonic-Sufi-Sacramental/release/57437

    http://www.discogs.com/Ree-K-Yammataikoku/release/201544

    http://www.discogs.com/Psyko-Disko-Psycho-Disco/release/140786

    http://www.discogs.com/Various-Psy-Harmonics-Vol-3-Hacking-The-Reality-Myth/release/234726

    http://www.discogs.com/Texas-Faggott-Texas-Faggott/release/58805

    http://www.discogs.com/Grey-Area-Absolute/release/371592

    http://www.discogs.com/Various-Experience-Psy-Harmonics-Volume-5/release/150829

     

    ...maybe it's better to ask what aren't my favorites. ;) I didn't like Pound System all that much, but everything else I've heard from the label is gold.

     

    Psy-Harmonics Volume 5 is a TRIP, and it took several listens before I could really get into it; a lot of the tracks sound like psychedelic garage rock done with psytrance synths. About as far from conventional dance music as you could get.

    Re-evaluation of older psy releases

    in General Psytrance

    Posted

    hmm well as a general rule psytrance ages very badly, there are TONS of albums I cherished in the past but don't think much of today: Etnica, Pleiadians, MWNN and even the high and mighty Astral Projection... well I guess that an album will become old after you've listened to it a million times no matter how good lol. Still, if I'd have to pick one substyle that I totally dissed when it first came out only to regret it became extinct today it would be techtrance...

     

    In my experience the hypermelodic goa trance artists you mentioned give diminishing returns. I love Etnica and MWNN but it's easy to become overfamiliar with their music; I have to step away from them for a while and come back in a few months or years.

     

    I regret not appreciating 'alternative' psy labels e.g. Psy-Harmonics in their heyday and buying more of their albums. That's music with real staying power.

     

    What Double Dragon album are you talking about? Continuum or Transparent?

     

    Sorry, I was talking about Continuum.

    Astral Projection new album

    in General Psytrance

    Posted

    The Mahadeva remix is part of the "Astral Project", which is a subproject and NOT to be associated with their "Astral Projection" material!

     

    Also "the center of the world" / "the holy land" etc. in the video was done by a fan, they asked if they could use the video and edited it slightly and put a clip of "The History Of War" over it.

     

    And I am glad to see Elysium banned. It seems he is in a scene because of what people say and do and not because of the music. I am in for the music, and Astral Projection, still today, kick major ass. At some point in time (2012 is likely, although I think I'll stop posting too many news on here because it's "seeing is believing" on here and I can understand it) they *will* release "Open Society" and I know I'll be first in line to get it.

     

    Gadflies are useful things for a community to have; I'm not sure that we want to become so thin skinned that we can't tolerate criticism of our favorite artists.

     

    And yes some of Elysium's behavior was bad indeed, but it was hardly unprovoked... the other people who flamed and ranted here should take a 'time out' as well and consider how they fed the situation.

     

    And I'm sorry to hear about Astral's political leanings; it's dispiriting when artists use slogans of peace and love in their work yet speak ill of real-life oppressed people.

    Astral Projection new album

    in General Psytrance

    Posted

    Mahadeva is such a masterpiece that any kind of intervention on it just does not work. Yeah, it's out of proportion, but's like trying to improve a Vermeer painting. There's nothing to do. IMO, the only remix that would sound great would be a dry, 4x4 tech-trance punching-kicking mix of it, a la MOS or Spirallianz. Would love to hear it.

     

    Get The Delta to do a guitar riff version. ;)

    Re-evaluation of older psy releases

    in General Psytrance

    Posted

    As far as albums go, for me it's Process - One Drop Or Two. There was a time when I was naive enough to think how a lack of proper, obvious melodic structures in psy trance implied a lack of talent, laziness if you will. Damn, was I wrong... :D

     

    Oh yes. As a teenager I thought ODOT was good but nothing special, and then at a party a couple of years later I heard "Psychobabble" and I couldn't believe what I was dancing to. I had a similar experience with Double Dragon's album.

     

    Also Saiko Pod - Phutures And Options. :) I thought this was a complete betrayal when I first heard it, but now I can appreciate their attempt to make a new kind of psychedelic dance music. It's still a pretty unique album.

     

    I used to read Wax magazine religiously. This led me to believe that Johann - Blow Your Mind was awful awful awful and Quirk - Machina Electrica And Fornax Chemica was a work of misunderstood genius. Now I think Johann is good fun while I find Quirk (apart from a couple of tracks) distinctly unmemorable. Anyway, later I started reading Dream Creation and got on the road to recovery. :)

    Dance tracks by non-dance artists

    in Other Electronica

    Posted

    Something I've noticed is that a lot of my favorite dance music was made by artists who typically don't make dance/techno, but make rock/pop/slow electronic music and dabble in techno sounds from time to time. I'm thinking of stuff like this:

     

    Ozric Tentacles: Psychic Chasm, Dance Of The Loomi

    Controlled Bleeding: The Fodder Song

    David Bowie: I'm Deranged

    The Fixx: Built For The Future (No Formality Son)

    Tangerine Dream: People In The News

    A Certain Ratio: Spirit Dance

    Ryuichi Sakamoto: Riot In Lagos

    John Carpenter: some tracks from Ghosts Of Mars

    Porcupine Tree: Dislocated Day, Idiot Prayer, Voyage 34

    Pete Shelley: Witness The Change, Homosapien 2

    Mentallo & The Fixer: Abominations Unleashed

     

    What are some other names who do/have done this kind of cross-over?

    That rare 2001 sound

    in General Psytrance

    Posted

    Necton, Matenda, Morphem (2nd album), Segment, Shakta, Funf D.

     

    I don't care for minimal that puts a lot of emphasis on the bass drum (e.g. that Xdream/Delta/Spirallianz style), but I do like hypnotic progressive psy from the period you mentioned.

    All-time favorite Techno tracks

    in Other Electronica

    Sci-Fi Movies

    in Movies

    Posted

    The Brain From Planet Arous could make for a fun psy-sample drinking game. ;)

     

    Others I didn't see on the list:

     

    Liquid Sky. Interesting low-budget eighties flick, kind of a satire on the post punk electronic music scene. There are aliens but they're secondary to the 'plot', which is essentially crazy doings by crazy people. Nihilistic, but a fun film.

     

    Enemy Mine. Another good B movie from around the same period, with an unusual plot and some nice atmospheric touches.

     

    Dreamcatcher. One of the oddest movies I've ever seen. Scatological comedy meets alien body horror meets supernatural fantasy and... I don't even know. It's just odd.

     

    Wonderful Days, a Korean animated film, really impressed me with its visuals, themes, emotions and message. A lot of people will say that it lacks in story but I thought the film had a real heart to it.

     

    A Tree Of Palme, although demanding to watch (it's long, angst filled, and at times very obscure), has stayed with me more than any other animated film. SF/art-house anime with some fantasy touches.

     

    Also while I'm mentioning anime, the animated Metropolis, Jin-Roh, A Wind Named Amnesia, and the two Vampire Hunter D movies (setting is science fiction) are all worth checking out.

    Good setup for a beginner?

    in Music Making and Production/Industry

    Posted

    Just did some research and am I right if I say it's a 2.4 ghz core 2 duo processor? That should do nicely for quite a while. Memory could be a problem at some point, but to start with seems quite appropriate. I've been told Reaper is extremely good with resources. You'd definitely struggle sooner rather than later with Ableton and 2GB of RAM.

     

    CD-R a non issue really, I very rarely use optical drives these days unless I'm burning a CD.

     

    *checks* Yeah, you're right.

     

    Ideally I'd have an 8GB computer but I'll need years to learn the basics, also in music theory (I haven't had a piano lesson in years) and synthesizer theory, so a pro level studio setup is a long ways off.

     

    It is a non issue, except that I record my DJ sets direct to CDR; I have to borrow another computer to upload them. :angry: This also sucks if I'm jamming my synth on the same analog mixer and want to record some noises. Hopefully the audio interface will take care of that problem and I can start jamming into Reaper instead.

    Good setup for a beginner?

    in Music Making and Production/Industry

    Posted

    Your computer might hold you back, what's the spec on it?

     

    So yeah: decent computer + decent cans + decent audio interface + midi controller + daw and virtual instruments and you're set.

     

    It's a 2010 Mac Mini running Snow Leopard; the processor speed is 2.4 Ghz (don't know how that stacks up) and it has 2GB of RAM. The CD drive is slightly defective (because cheaply made) and won't read CD-R media anymore, but that doesn't affect me too much since I have my DJ setup close by. Still annoying.

     

    I hope the RAM is enough to run several programs at once on a DAW; as far as I know it's one of the Mini's biggest limitations.

    Good setup for a beginner?

    in Music Making and Production/Industry

    Posted

    OK, the bug has bitten me, and I want to try my hand at producing... I have the interest but no real experience. For hardware, I have a couple of synths (1 digital, 1 analog) along with a multieffects unit, and a Mac Mini with 2GB RAM.

     

    I'd like to get:

     

    Reaper as an entry level DAW

    M-Audio Oxygen 49

    M-Audio Fast Track Pro interface

    Some drum/synth AUs... I like old school techno, so I've been looking at programs like Microtonic and Imposcar.

    Monitoring headphones (I'm a bedroom musician, and live with my parents, so studio monitors are impractical)

     

    Does that sound like a good start?

     

    Also, would you recommend a sampler? Why/why not? At the moment I'm using Audio Hijack and Audacity for my sample grabbing needs... my history with hardware samplers is tragicomic. :rolleyes:

    nighttime full-on: what happened?

    in General Psytrance

    Posted

    If melody and harmony are the only elements of music you're able to recognise then yes, you would think that. But obviously the people who enjoy the kind of music you write about enjoy it for reasons other than its non-existent melodies.

     

    Hey, I like noises too. :P By 'anything like a melody/harmony' I mean tonal variation. It doesn't have to be melody or harmony in the conventional sense but can be timbres/textures, like darkpsy. But in darkpsy the artists tend to have their own style and play around with the sounds they use, whereas peak time full-on has been using the same buzzy electric sound for years. I can tell the difference between for example a Savage Scream and an Ocelot track, but I couldn't tell you the artists behind two night full-on tracks because they're all made to a certain standard.

     

    AFAIK people enjoy it because it's fast and energetic. And that's fine. I like fast stompy dance music. But if you don't have something to go with the energy, then it is sugar icing without cake.

     

    I tend to avoid parties with music I know is not my taste. Much easier :)

     

    The party wasn't all bad. I was really grooving on the music played in the first few hours, which was dark, kinda tribalish progressive.

×
×
  • Create New...