pedro

As others have pointed out, Simon Posford's (Hallucinogen) albums Twisted and Lone Deranger were milestones in the history of our beloved trance. I still remember the day I heard 'LSD' for the first time...about 10 years ago. Time passes... When judging music, it is helpful to be kind enough to take into account when the tracks were released. If one listens to them nowadays, one can complain that Phuture's Acid Trax sounds boring and Afrika Bambataa's Planet Rock sounds amateurish...but that is missing the point is it not? Of course, Hallucinogen's albums have dated somewhat and production, techniques and technology have moved on. And no, his albums were not revolutionary in the same measure as the two examples that I gave. But they were damn good and innovative when they came out. Pedro

Very nice CD. It is crazy, but not in a typical full-on way. Works very well for home listening - in fact, I am not sure if all the tracks would be winners on the dance floor. One of the best comps released in 2004. I am certainly looking forward for the next Gi’iwa compilation. Some more please. Pedro

I really did enjoy Digital Psionic's Psionic Storm and Psionic Earth compilations. So it was with high expectations that I listened to Xatrik's album. Sadly, I did not like it enough to purchase it. Yes it is dark and it is certainly intense. But not so interesting that it would merit more than an 'OK' from me. I might enjoy this album better at a party at night. Pedro

My favourite Finns last year were Texas Faggott and Haltya. Texas Faggott is worth mentioning because I did not enjoy their earlier output and was very pleasantly surprised with Pilluminati Cunt Roll. Looking forward for some more Finnish craziness this year. Pedro PS But I do hope for a measure of restraint in some cases. Some of the Finnish tracks tend to degenerate into a soundboard wank-o-rama.

A very well written review that matches my experience. Thanks. Pedro

I usually listen to psy trance when I am combing my beard or trimming my nails. I also enjoy playing loud psy trance in my car, driving around the neighbourhood with the windows rolled down. I like to see the look in the faces in some of the people. Pedro

Two of my favourite labels for dark psy have already been mentioned - Boshke Beats, Horns and Hoofs. I would also recommend some of the releases from the Hadshot label. Pedro

You need to clean out your ears old man 204955[/snapback] Blumenkraft is certainly above average as far as chill out is concerned (is this damning it with faint praise?). The problem I have is that I find a lot of ambient psy trance quite 'unintelligent' and not very compelling. Maybe it is okay to listen to while I do my cooking or cut my toenails. But if I am going to sit down, have a smoke and listen. Well...I do get bored. Take a track like Somersetter. It has a decent crazy dub feeling to it. But it is really not that special. I have so many more interesting dub stuff around - classic dub, modern dub, minimal dub techno. And I prefer it. Maybe I am just old-fashioned. Nevertheless, I hate to be so negative. I will just have to allocate more time in the next few months to listening to more ambient psy trance. I will then be able to give positive recommendations regarding ambient psy. Pedro

I have to confess to being a bit grumpy when it comes to ambient trance. It seems to me that too often these CDs are a bit bereft of musical ideas. In some of the worst cases, they are little better than glorified muzak. Unfortunately there is no single recent ambient trance CD I can heartily recommend. On the contrary, I am on the lookout for suggestions... In the past, the two ambient trance CDs which impressed me the most (at the time they came out; they have both become somewhat dated) were Saafi Brorthers: Mystic Cigarettes (!!) and Saafi Brothers: Midnight's Children. released in 1997 and 2000, respectively. Unfortunately, Saafi Brothers' last offering, Liquid Beach, did not excite me as much. Pedro

Oh dear...this old memory of mine. I should have added Rinkadink's Rabbit album as my joint (no pun intended) favourite for best 'debut'. Pedro

The Good (i) Release that has tickled my beard the most - Funf D : Angelheart. What a quality CD! (ii) Best 'debut' full length CD - Talpa: Art of Being Non. (iii) Progressive CD that made these old knee caps move the most - Haldolium: Haldolium. (iv) Compilation of the year - JP Noir. More stuff from Japan please (Phi was good too!). (iv) Winner of the "I know it is not a gem, but I listen to it more often than is good for me" winner - Lani: Our Way to the Sun. Simply delightful light stuff. The Not Good (i) Most over-rated cane-shaking rubbish - the Misguided Muppets. Uninteresting full-on. I suppose some people might even call this a 'concept' CD (and the cover is so 'wicked' - it is so 'dungeons and dragons'). Oh well. The Muppets are young. Maybe they will improve. (ii) Most over-rated chill-out: Abakus: That Much Closer to the Sun. Worse than even OTT: Blumenkraft. Pedro

Cubensis, I do not claim to understand (or indeed care to understand) how discogs.com works. Whether the information is wrong because of input mistake or because of the way the site works is irrelevant to whether or not the entry is correct and not confusing. I made a comment regarding the latter and you disagreed with it. It is about whether the entry is wrong or not, and not why this is so (or indeed assigning blame). Furthermore, it would have been far more 'constructive' (to borrow a term from you) of you to have informed me right away that the information can be corrected instead of using an obtuse arguement to justify why you were right to say that the information was not wrong. Feel free to answer this message, but please do not take offence if I do not respond. This arguement is becoming a bit of a bore. Pedro

That was a very childish post, Cubensis. I actually do not have the foggiest idea of how info gets on discogs.com...and I do not really care. The discogs.com entry ascribing certain Levy (the Psy Trance Sandman) tracks to this 'other' Sandman is clearly wrong. However, it is not such a big deal and I fail to see your interest in insisting that particular entry is correct. Pedro

Thanks, Zak. That looks more like the Sandman we know. The other discogs.com entry is quite confusing with several Izik Levy compositions in compilations for Matsuri, TIP World, Dragonfly and MDMA seemingly being allocated to this other Sandman (Patrick Prins). I suppose these types of mistakes are inevitable. Pedro

I tend to find discogs.com is sometimes incorrect/incomplete. In this case they claim that Sandman is a so-called Patrick Prins, not Izik Levi. Furthermore, they do not credit Sandman with his two most important CDs (Witchcraft and Psychotoons). On the other hand, they do correctly state that Mushroom Symphony (the last track on the Witchcraft CD, an ambient track) appears on Matsuri's Excerpts from ther Chillspace. So an inaccurate entry on Sandman in discogs.com. Looking into the matter, however, it does seem that Izik Levy had indeed produced a partnership with Chakra also called (confusingly) Witchcraft before he launched the Witchcraft album as Sandman, a sole project. Hence the Witchcraft discogs.com entry that Cubensis kindly provided. I had not been aware of this. I would venture to say that Izik is more famous for his Sandman Witchcraft CD than his Witchcraft partnership. Pedro