johnb820

When something has poor production quality, it becomes instantly noticeable. Usually it's because the artist chooses to place too many layers of sound around the same frequency which tends to drown out the sound. I believe the term is bleeding. To the listener, they may have a hard time separating the sounds in their head. The next most common problem is an overemphasis on particular parts of a song, such as too much low frequencies, or too harsh higher frequencies. Finding a delicate balance is the work of a genius. Of course then when you send it out for mastering they could choose to destroy all that hard work in an effort to make it louder. Overall I think most commercial releases in goa trance sound great. Commercial fullon and trance, not so much because they are really pushing the limits of loudness. Compare the new Electric Universe EP to any of the older releases. It's like night and day.

So I am sitting here on a dark, stormy October night listening to Patience For Heaven for what seems to be the millionth time. It can't leave my ears like a parasite sucking on my brain and I get to wondering why something like this doesn't have more popularity. This isn't to say goa trance or Mindsphere are unpopular amongst people like us, but for those whose ears have never been graced by these sounds, what do they think about this album? So I place myself in the mind set of someone who has never really listened to goa trance before. I listen to the latest Muse album (garbage by the way) as a reference point to what people are more accustomed to. In To Reality starts playing. I hear little electronic pieces of wrapping paper dancing around my ears, the melodies feel soft, warm, and inviting. It's all a little complex and somehow I find myself staring at my computer monitor paying close attention to a certain melody but then I quickly lose focus on it and my mind wanders. Then the soft, distant strings come in and there is a calmness to it all. It's hard to believe this is dance music when it doesn’t have any obvious hooks or grooves. The kick sounds synthy but not over the top, distorted or plastic like other electronic music, the fills are interesting. Overall Patience For Heaven sounds pretty nice. It's not too extreme and certainly by comparison to a lot of other artists, there isn't an emphasis on purely psychedelic sounds. Instead Mindsphere has chosen to caress my ears, tickle my brain trying to follow its complex melodies, and provide me a nice, smooth, somewhat puzzling experience. Huge thanks to Ali for all the time and dedication to making this album really special. Thanks to Suntrip, Tim Schuldt, and all the usual suspects. Keep on suntripping.

At least you have a train station in your town. Here is my city's "train station" here in Buffalo, New York. Notice the single track, lack of elevated platform, lack of proper drainage, and the brilliant concrete pillars of the highway where car parts commonly fall from.

I will have to respectfully disagree.

Haha that's ok. Sometimes that's how you have to describe this music. Mahabharta is a great song by the way, I lost track of how many times I listened to that one last summer and now you've given me reason to go listen to it another 30 times. I totally agree with you on the bassline. The kick has a fairly long decay down to the sub frequencies while the bassline sits slightly above it with a nice tight roll off the kicks.

Just curious, why wouldn't you play it as a DJ? This stuff sounds like it would be great and would work well with a variety of other songs. Take out the melodies, and I would likely mistake this album for full on.

Looking good Richpa.

So I had a listen to Inner Cyclone on ektoplazm last night. It's amazing what a difference the two masters have. The old one blows out the kicks, boosts the bassline, and generally sounds muddy while Tim Schuldt's master shines by comparison.

Naturally. Personally I love this new Mindsphere style. It sounds trancey, euphoric, dreamy, yet subtle and complex. I've listened to Shape of Imagination sample more times than I'd like to admit.

This is such a hard question, but I think I'd go with Man With No Name - Teleport (Original Mix). Martin Freeland was a genius and had what I'd still consider some of the best production values ever made in edm. The bass is deep, the leads are bright, everything is placed perfectly in the mix. Not a whole lot of people could pull that sound off so effortlessly.

It's all on http://omarrodriguezlopez.bandcamp.com/ In terms of what sounds most like The Mars Volta? I'd try Se Dice Bisonte No Bufalo, Old Money, or Megaritual for stuff without vocals and Cryptomnesia, Xenophanes or Un Escorpion Perfumado for vocals.

Possibilities

What is this nonsense?

Yes, this album is brilliant! Sure, it's not exactly subtle. All the elements in the mix are right there, nothing too trancey about this release, but Innerspace's strength comes purely from the energy each track contains, especially those wicked break beats. His style is intense, trippy, deep, and positively fun. Innerspace definitely knows how to produce and this album is a great 70+ minute journey from start to finish. Highly recommended.

New samples are up, including the final track titled Life Thread? I guess that's different from Lifethread released on Shaltu which is obviously not the same song. I need ear sex with this album right now.

Yea I mean you will probably be physically turning knobs, adjusting levels, etc so there is a fair amount of human control over these elements. I think it's just as valuable as any human playing a real instrument and using all the playing styles available to them to get a unique sound. It's not really just "an effect".

That's a really good question. Such a manipulation of sound was not really possible until the creation of synthesizers so there really isn't a term for it. I suppose I would use the phrase modulation.

That doesn't sound suggestive.

I love Innerspace's style, it's very energetic and well thought out. I really enjoyed his track on Shaltu. I do think some more diversity would be nice in terms of sounds, melodies, kicks, basslines. They all sound similar from the samples but it's hard to judge right now without hearing the whole album.

I think Astral Projection had intended Open Society to contain political or social messages. I think it could work if it says something about who we are and what humanity is about. One thing that would be really cool is if an album had a story or narrative that was conveyed to the listener through short simple voice overs, song titles, artwork even a little booklet that came with the album describing the story. And yes I agree that in terms of conceptual albums, Ra's 9th is the best. Everything about that album from the intro to the bonus track at the end is a journey and it should absolutely be viewed as such.

I am kind of surprised to see someone else interested in The Mars Volta around here. I've been a fan of them longer than my love for electronic dance music. Unfortunately I've had little luck trying to get anyone over at the Mars Volta forums to take an interest in psytrance. Have you ever listened to any of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's solo albums?

For the next RA release Suntrip may have to do 2000 or more!

Excellent! This is going to be amazing!

Is there any more info on this, release date, samples, etc? Someone should ask Christer or Lars.

Wow! The store appears to be closed right now, I hope they didn't sell all 300 of them yet.