Dolmot

Found today in my mailbox... Etnica - Live in Athens (2 copies, just in case) Jikooha - Sirius Rising Hibernation - Second Nature Voxel9 - Beyond Koan - Argonautica VA - Special Places Mindsphere - Patience for Heaven Connect.Ohm - 9980 Ishq - Bloom And I still have a bunch of semi-recent purchases in the "incoming" pile. I guess my weekend program is largely booked.

So I've been paying quick visits to various record shops in Munich. The more famous ones didn't really provide huge inspiration, especially as I wouldn't like to shove too much vinyl in my luggage. But yesterday I visited an all-genres second hand store just before the closing time. As usual, most of the stock was classical vinyl, standard jazz and pop/schlager. However, in the short electronic section (excluding top-10 dance) I found an original em:t copy of Woob 1194 for 10e. That was nice. They also had Nova Tekk's Chill Out 6 for 10e, which wasn't that bad either. Should I visit again and see if there's even more useful loot? Also, my numerous online purchases should be waiting for me when I return.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxQqWSnsHoA For reasons I can't remember exactly, I got myself a Gemini PDT-6000. It's basically a heavyweight SL1200 clone with extra gimmicks of questionable importance, such as independent pitch/tempo shifting, reverse, huge speed range and digital output. But the cartridges, Grado DJ200i. Oh boy. Probably the best you can get in the "DJ class". Real hi-fi stuff is another story. There's no end in its high end. Of course, it gets ridiculous very quickly...

One player software refused it, another accepted. There may be some file corruption or nonstandard encoding involved but I didn't dive very deep into the problem yet. I think it's just tracks 1 & 2 in a merged MP3 so you're not missing any huge secrets. Personally, I'll just wait until I can spin the whole disc(s) in full quality for a proper gig experience.

Alright, there's some confusion on the purpose of that "short review" topic. I've been asked about it, more or less directly, so let me elaborate a bit. (As a side note: regardless of the ultimate purpose of that thread, surely we can agree that it's not the place for meta-discussion on review philosophy. Post that in here or start a new topic.) The primary problem is that plenty of releases get no attention whatsoever. One reason is that the proper review topic rules, no matter how well-intending, form a considerable barrier to posting. You can ask for a cover pic, a track listing and a long review but more often than not they're not materialising. I guess this topic we're in right now is attempting to address that. Meanwhile, there's another reason. Plenty of releases are a bit off-topic or uninteresting. Who's going to jump through the hoops only to state that "this is yet another cheap compilation, didn't buy it"? The review topics are biased toward five-stars, because those are the releases people end up buying, listening thoroughly and hyping. Occasionally we get a negative initial post but not too often. Or maybe people just don't have much to say. Consequently, it's easy to remain entirely unaware of most new releases out there. Sometimes I have the energy to browse the news lists of various shops. More often I don't. Label blurbs are 100% useless. Everything is advertised as the second coming of the Christ and the most omgest dancefloor stormer ever. In reality, it's probably just mediocre junk. We need honest opinions and pointers for informed browsing when the time is limited. I had a few different visions of that topic. One was something like "recommend stuff here". However, I suspect it would have instantly turned into yet another zero-word YouTube spam thread. I'm tired of waiting for a dozen applets to load (if they load at all on mobile platforms etc.) only to get some obnoxious shite blaring until I can catch the pause button. Or maybe we would get copy-paste lists of 200 titles or "try IFO". I may be pessimistic or realistic here. You decide. Nevertheless, the point was to get quick tips on recent or obscure stuff, which isn't getting noticed elsewhere. If people become aware of it first, there's a better chance that someone will bother really reviewing it. It won't happen if nobody has heard about the release in the first place. For a quick pointer, it's OK to say that "this feels mediocre" or "this is crap". Well, maybe slightly more than that would be helpful but you don't have to go into details there. It's enough that the audience gets an idea of the basics such as artist, label, genre, approximate style and quality. Also, it helps if you can tell why it is good or not. A title or a link alone won't do that. So you can read it as "post a quick heads-up on stuff that's not been noticed yet". Or "recommend something". Or "counter-recommend something". The current wording is there only to encourage posting a few informative words too, instead of slamming in that YouTube blob and/or your own affiliated stuff and walking away. Sure, it would be nice to get those tiny efforts directed into full review topics, but I'm not sure whether it's going to happen. For off-topic releases it's not even a desirable option. That's why I think it's justified to have a drive-by topic for random findings. It's not supposed to be any high quality archive. Just a topic for finding out, what might be fresh or rotten right now. The word "review" is essentially just bluff to get a few actual words in. That's all.

And now I notice that I fell in my own pit by jesting about multiple listings. Gah. I say...Radical Distortion - Psychedelic Dreams. It's rough and tough and doesn't sound like listening to a Tiësto CD at 145 BPM. It's the CD you can mosh to. There's no chance of confusing it with any other newschool release. But of course, some other day the answer might be Filteria, PortaMento or Artifact303. That's the pitfall with choosing a single release...

So does "the absolute best" really mean "list them all and the kitchen sink"?

Reggae, well it's alright. Basically it's pop music with a different basic rhythm - and a good one too. Western music transformed from big band swing to half-groovy classic rock and eventually to very straightforward first-beat oriented pop/rock. It still remains like that. Meanwhile, Jamaica went for a back beat and double back beat. I've often thought that basic 4/4 is dance music for people who can't dance. Lack of real rhythm is often compensated with speed and a heavier kick. Reggae slows it down, letting you to discover the different rhythms and improvise. Anyway, apart from that it's Jamaican pop. Sometimes it's religious but often simply about partying, boozing, driving, working, shooting people, getting rich, looking for girls, banging girls, losing girls and missing girls. Not too different from other pop. Well, it's also a licence to smoke pot. Putting on a Marley record still turns you from a random loser into a deep, religious, multicultural and conscious thinker. BUT the greatest feat of reggae is that it gave us dub. Seriously. Again, if we look at western music, in the 40s it was often instrumental. We had big bands, excellent musicians, exciting solos and all that. Singers often performed only one verse. Then it was all about music again for the rest of the "song". Since the 50s, it's been all about lyrics and occasional guitar solos. Well, early ska and reggae was a lot like that. Then guys like King Tubby and Lee Perry came up with dub. Suddenly the focus was on rhythm and sound again. Dancers loved it. DJs (or MCs in today's terminology) loved it. And it was half-electronic music twisted by engineers - strange, eerie, deep, catchy, hypnotic. You take this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9h3Xx-MmpBs And turn it into this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9gPuh80ByI And that's what true electronic music is all about. What they did was vastly more important than replacing dubbed disco beats with a 808. Your modern psydub artists may have craploads of high-end gear but often they just try to replicate the weirdness of original dub created with two buttons, three pieces of wire and a tape recorder cobbled together. I'm not sure if they're really successful in that. All hail King Tubby. We owe everything to him. That's all.

I think the genre would be vastly improved if people would forget the terms "production quality" and "mastering" altogether for a year and concentrate on making interesting music instead. Currently way too much time is spent on fiddling with the icing while there's no cake. If you have a track on a worn cassette recorded from radio with a mic in the 90s and you keep listening to it, it's probably good.

An acceptable coaster for your drink while you listen to Synergy. Unless you really want to hear 75 minutes of overused-to-death pop-full-on reverse-drum fills and little else.

WHAT?! No, seriously, I should get my ears professionally cleaned. I've been postponing it for ages. If I finally manage to get that arranged, I'll report the results...

(Disclaimer: all trends described here obviously apply only to a fraction of all stuff produced in each country. There are always huge deviations and of course boatloads of uninteresting or generic me-too music produced everywhere. Nevertheless, that interesting, characterful fraction is all we can use to answer a question like this in the first place.) 1. UK: The most advanced, cosmic and mind-boggling synth mayhem of the classic era (Dimension 5, Cosmosis, all things Posfordian, Technossomy, Doof, a lot of other TIP, Twisted, Dragonfly, Flying Rhino, Transient, Symbiosis and so on. You get the idea. No contest here.) 2. Germany: Some melodic goa acts, but especially groovy stuff leaning toward techno, progressive, house and acid with psy elements still firmly in place. They managed to produce interesting grooves in the 2000-ish period when British producers tended to go ultra-dry or quit altogether. (Planet B.E.N, Blenn everything, Biot, High Society, Spirit Zone, Plusquam, Midijum, Free Form... and especially numerous genre-defining DJs like Antaro) 3. France: Plenty of curious and surprising stuff originated from here. There were mystical and ethnic sounds, relentless screaming synth tracks and maybe thinner, quite fast and high frequency oriented production as a broad trend. (Asia 2001, Joking Sphinx, Toï Doï, Underhead, Distance, POF) Israel undoubtedly produces a lot and has an iconic position, but to me too much of it is simplified anthem trance. I guess it works on clubs and in beach parties. However, my consumption is 99% home listening so I don't feel like throwing my hands in the air. AP and Avi were cool, though. Sweden deserves a honourable mention, although its greatest stars are essentially techno, house, downtempo and ambient. You can call it "progressive" but it's still house, not psy. Filteria does not count. Japan, Finland and Australia surely manage to surprise, but often the product is completely random, which doesn't automatically make it brilliant. I just don't feel like listening to it and that's all. Benza and Fractal Glider were entertaining while everything else was full-on and hence pointless. North America is largely a black hole regarding psy music if you consider its size. I really don't know why. Maybe they have so much good house and legendary hip-hop that nothing over 130 BPM makes it. Well, Detroit techno fills that void... Italy is a complete oddball case which gave us Etnica and little else (that I manage to recall, at least). New school producers are scattered all around with some bias towards Eastern Europe. I cannot name any single country for that. Q&A: Q: How can you ignore/forget X?! A: Easily. Either intentionally or accidentally. Q: Y does not apply to X! A: See the disclaimer.

Just out of general interest, how?

All appreciated, but concerning entries like this: Could you try anyway? I don't know the artist. I don't know what genre it is. There's no link or other hints. This is mostly infomative to people who...err...already know everything about it? It's approaching the one-worder "rocks" which is too little.

Various - Special Places (Sentimony 2012) OK, we already have a review of this but now it's available for free on Ektoplazm. What a listing it has. Cygna's album was in heavy rotation around here last year. Speaking of rotations, Field Rotation's 100 CD limited editions sell out in mere seconds. You probably know Chronos and AstroPilot if you've been following psychill scene in the slightest. Some of the names are less known but no less worthy. What we have here is chillout leaning towards the ambient side. A lot of it is beatless without being just pads and drones. It has classical hints and thought-out compositions. The places seen in the music are special indeed. If you've been under the impression that chillout only means Ultimae's latest and that slowed-down-to-100-bpm 4/4 track they put last on goa CDs, try this and expand your views. It's great and it's free. If you already recognised the names and didn't have the CD, get it now. It's still free...or available physically. Ektoplazm Discogs

OK, we have those full review boards but let's face it: nowadays only 1% or something of all new psy-related releases get their own topics there. Many of us can't be arsed to go through the whole process of cover pics, track listing, detailed commentary and whatnot. Consequently, plenty of releases go entirely under the radar. You can wish for more full reviews or a pony but that probably won't make it happen. So, let's try something different. Post here brief commentary on any release that deserves a mention. It can be a new one, an old one, a gem, a disappointment or even a non-psy release if you think people here might appreciate it. Albums, singles, free downloads etc. are all fine. If it's a music release, you can review it here. The rules: Keep it informative and readable. Keep it text only. No YouTube blobs. No cover art. No full track listing. Those can be found elsewhere. No links to external reviews. No other pics either (including but not limited to "funny" response pics). Maximise your own output. 1-3 paragraphs should be enough. "Rocks" or "sucks" is too little. Ten paragraphs probably justifies a full review topic instead. It's fine to post first impressions based on samples. We're trying to give quick glances to interesting stuff here so you don't have to own it. However, if it's only announced without any audio samples, it's too early to review it (even under this broad interpretation). Absolutely no advertisement or spam. Do not "review" your own or affiliated stuff. Yes, of course it's the most OMGest dancefloor mega hot guaranteed to blah blah whatever. Does anyone even read that drivel any more? We have at least two boards for that already so don't bring it in here. In this topic we want real finds and honest opinions. Apart from reviews, preferably post only comments which add something helpful (such as your own short opinion). Longer discussions and dick fencing should be taken elsewhere. What you could/should include:Artist, title, label, year. A single line in bold should be clear enough in a thread like this. No need to make it huge or looking like a christmas tree. What is it? Goa, house, bog trance, glitchcore, death disco, speedambient? Album, compilation, single, loose track? Real, virtual? Is it any good? A few notable and/or informative aspects of it. Who should check it out and who shouldn't? A link or two to useful sites, probably Discogs or label site first, others if necessary. So, it might look something like this: Got it? Let's see if this works.

What does this mean?

It looks exactly like a 1996 release should. Remember to swap two tracks in the listing, get the durations wrong, and glue the LP stickers on wrong sides. Then it's precisely like a proper 1996 release.

Retrospective/related... Your alltime favourite compilation, 2002 Best compilation ever, 2009 Best goa trance compilation, 2011 So is this post a compilation of compilation post compilations?

Everyone got copies according to the sum contributed to the initial funding pool. Some were handed out to friends, some sold at festivals, some sold online and so on. They were effectively additional points of distribution around the world.

It's true that CD sales are down and likely to follow that direction. While piracy is often blamed for everything, we have a whole new generation who gets everything digitally, and there are completely viable legal routes for that too. Let's face it - files are extemely convenient. I still buy plenty of CDs but rip them instantly into flacs and play those. The disc itself is rarely needed today for any musical purposes. It's a collectors' item and a proof of purchase you can re-sell later (unlike downloads). That's all. Maybe a handy back-up too. (OK, in our local, utterly retarded legislation it is often cheaper for DJs to buy CDs and spin those than buy files but that's another story and a special case.) I see more and more releases which are essentially just gimmick items of some kind or another. Many vinyl releases are expensive 180g discs that might sound fine but in reality 50% of them can be found on Discogs marketplace as "still sealed". People are simply shifting them from one collection to another. We have novelty packaging, mini-CDs, cassettes and whatnot - stuff meant for collecting, not playing. Oh, and limited editions. Plenty of them. It's basically a way to hint that you really should buy it right now or risk the chance of never seeing it again. Labels trying to get rid of their stuff more efficiently. I guess it works to some extent. However, I miss the days when you could just wait for a few weeks, let the good stuff flow into Psyshop or whatever and then order the whole bunch from there. Now I find myself filling separate (pre-)orders in ten different micro-stores, all for single CDs. Sometimes even the same label cannot combine stock items and pre-orders. It's getting difficult and wasteful. Besides, the "limited edition" tag is losing its meaning as a single pressing of 300-500 copies is nowadays the normal edition. It's CD buyers who are really in short supply, not the goods... If you finished that, you can try asking me about MR.

Pretty much every animal and plant grown for food in the last few centuries is a result of heavy selective breeding. Compare a chihuahua to a grey wolf or a bell pepper to a bird's eye chili to get a slight idea, how far all genes around us have been manipulated. Modern orange carrot may be a symbol of healthy, natural food but as a plant it's less than 400 years old. People created it. Natural equivalents simply don't grow so big and sweet. I find it curious that people have no problems with rather unnatural stuff like seedless cultivars as long as it's achieved by "traditional" means. Meanwhile anything happening in a lab must be evil and scary by definition. I guess it's a combination of fear of the unknown and uninterest in finding out. I'd like to find out, but publishing fraudulent fear mongering as science and getting it circulated in popular media definitely doesn't help.

So what is psy swing? Is it half Shpongle and half glitch house? For this sort of swing house where short interwar jazz samples are repeated too many times over cheap trend house backgrounds, try the "White Mink, Black Cotton" compilations. They're some kind of who's who in that genre. Find a good artist and browse on from there. Even if the 1st discs disappoint, you get a nice selection of originals on the CD2s. Anyway, occasionally it can be awfully fun... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a07LlJrDQJA As a bonus, you can dance to it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twqM56f_cVo None of it is intentionally psychedelic, though. You can occasionally find better bits on lounge / triphop / illbient / coffee shop / pot compilations like EtnicaNet's Macao Cafe series and such. I haven't found any 100% solid source yet so typically it's a lot of browsing and cherry-picking. Then again, isn't it the same for every genre?

So in that corner of the web we have an extremely biased nutjob quoting Daily Mail for scientific results? While in slightly more sensible media, we have something like this: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/09/19/us-gmcrops-safety-idUSBRE88I0L020120919 I think I'll wait for better reviewing and reporting.

I thought Love Dub So was mostly (completely?) old material. This was new, however... As for the main question, I guess it would be Star over Parvati, the upbeat version from TIP Blue and whatnot. http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzJAMLwM3lA Destination Bom makes a nice end-of-set stormer too.