spongemonkey

almost every music scene seems to have a dark phase spin out of it at some point. it is really a natural progression in many ways. however, the "hellish" names and goats heads are most likely just there for the spooky silly scare effect, as has been pointed out. if you actually do a little research on Satanism you will find it really has zero to do with "being evil". it is really just a different philosophy of an individuals place in the universe. cripes. i went to a rave in 1993 in New York called HellRaver, which had tons of Clive Barkers artwork projected on the walls. this is nothing new and is just as much a marketing tactic plopping a Led Zepplin song on a car commercial. it appeals to some people and some people will buy into it. but calling it evil and such is about as reactionary as people getting upset about Elvis almost 50 years ago.

Not that anyone needs a review, but last friday night I saw my third Infected Mushroom performance in San Francisco. It was, well, it was fine. Nothing mind blowing or anything. They played a bit too much of the newer stuff, which is to be expected, but which is also a bummer to me as I find most of it uninspired. The second half of the set was better, as things became more cohesive and the set really gelled. I had fun, but to be honest, unless their next release is something really good, new and amazing, I don't know if I'll even bother to go and see them. Part of the problem with the show was similar to what I have heard from other people at recent IM shows. That being the crowd. Not to be all snobby, but it was the most "clubby" crowd I have been crammed inside for years. Way too many button down shirts, double-fisted drinkers, and nimrods standing perfectly still on the too packed dance floor! Fucking move your ass to the beat or get off! I guess that is what they have come to now. Sigh. Oh well. It was fun while it lasted.

HEY travbrad1001 - i used to live in Minneapolis myself - I just moved out to San Francisco a little under 2 years ago, so i completly understand your frustration with the complete lack of psy out there. i assume you are contemplating Chicago to see em? dude. DO IT! i used to travel to Milwaukee and Chicago to see electronic and psychedelic bands all the time. Ozric Tentacles, Eat Static, Banco De Gaia, The Orb. and it isn't a 10 hour drive. you can do it in 6 to 8 easily. i have driven that stretch of 94 so many times it hurts to think about it. anyhow - if you can afford the time and the gas money, do it and go and have fun, because you KNOW they aren't coming to Minnesota anytime soon, and you might as well catch them while they are still at least playing some cool stuff. by the way - psytrace scene out here is great... (and it doesn't snow!)

screw the doomsayers! if YOU enjoy them (even if the last album was sub-par) go and see em and judge for yourself! i saw them back in January and despite my dislike of the last album, they still rocked it pretty hard and they crowd loved it and a blast was had by all. i'll continue to see em if they come around here (san francisco). go! enjoy! dance!

I am pretty buzzed about this album as well. I thought his first album was quite brilliant. It may not be 100% killer dance floor fodder, but it is such a creative, energetic and wholly original album. And it works as a "whole album" - not just a collection of tracks. I enjoy that aspect immensly. I am surprised by the animosity I hear from some people towards it - but I guess there is no pleasing some people. One of the things I really enjoy about RFD, aside from interesting song structure, is the use of different drum sounds and samples. So much of what I hear these days all sounds like it was crapped out by a gameboy on auto-pilot, so it was very refreshing to me to hear someone gathering varied and un-used sounds and crafting them into a very intelligent and interesting piece of work. Oh well - I hear there is a new Backstreet Boys album out soon - that should make some people happy.

From what I can tell, there are two seperate "soundtracks" for Gran Turismo 4 - one is the standard, and one is the "kicks" version. They are sold as seperate CD's from the game itself. I can only assume the music is also in the game, but I am not 100% sure - but it seems logical that this would be the case. It does seem like a good meeting of music and game. On my roomies Xbox, we uploaded our own soundtrack (mainly psytrance and breaks) to play with the race/crash game "Burnout 3". I do like that feature of the Xbox.

Erpland is the Ozrics masterpiece IMHO. Pretty much their "concept" album if you will. And no, it isn't psytrance, but as it was pointed out, it is psychedelic as hell and definatly has moments of dance and trance. Plus, man cannot exist on psytrance alone - if ya do they you need to expand that musical mind, and the Ozrics are a wonderful direction towards expansion. For a more synthy Ozrics feel, try Jurrasic Shift.

Children of the Bong, Eat Static and Banco De Gaia were all lable mates at one point on Planet Dog records and I know they used to perform together and Planet Dog gigs back in the mid 90s'. I saw all three perform in New York back in like 1994 or something at the LimeLight during CMJ - I hardly remember it, but it was cool. Anyhow, Sirius Sounds is a killer album and quite unique. There really is nothing else like it. Still stands the test of time if you ask me.

I'm new here, but kinda of wanted to chime in anyhow... It is kind of a let down when genres of music and culture that were underground end up creeping into the mainstream, but with almost everything these days, it seems inevitable that it will happen at some point. I was pretty surprised at the line up for thsi video game soundtrack, but at the same time, I know that guys like Simon Posford and Merv & Joie from Eat Static have a tough time making money these days. It is really hard to make a decent living while not being in the mainstream and having a music label that doesn't get seen or heard by many people. So on some level it is cool that they being allowed to make the music they like, which hopfully getting a few bucks for and quite possibly getting some new fans. I think these guys have to walk a pretty thin line between staying true the underground that has supported them over the years, and also making enough money to keep on making the music we all love. Trust me - I hate it just as much, if not more, when an artist I love "sells out" - but if they can pick the right people and companies to work with it, I can usually jive with it. Also in the case of a video game soundtrack like this they are lucky to get such a gig. A video game company could just as easily gone with a bunch of no name hacks to crank out a few cheesy tunes for pennies and it wouldn't affect the sales of the game one bit. So for them to pull together so many good musicians and pey em for some good new tunes, is not only a testament to how far some of these guys have come, but the fact that someone at Sony has a good ear.