freak51

He can construct lovely groovy minimal Scandinavian cuts, but then he often segues between them with amateurish way-too-cute kid stuff. Might as well use a kazoo. Still, there are some nice tracks on here.

It's not as solid track-for-track as Mystic Cigarettes. In places it sounds too much like Gab's Gift/Gab's Lab. In others it just gets repetitive and bland. However, when it's good it's excellent! The record is especially strong towards its middle (tracks 3-6).

If anything, this is trip hop not trance. However, it's a very good record regardless of genre.

I respectfully disagree. The Snake, Toxication, Electropolis and (especially) Atomic Children work really well for me. 8/10.

The Tarsis track is discreetly mindblowing. Pity about the SUN Project track's childish percussion of bump-tsiss-bump-tsiss. The Chi-AD and Atmos tracks are spellbinding, though I haven't figured out how to enjoy the KoxBox sound everyone else is raving about in that album review. The California Sunshine is not Miss Right, but it's definitely Miss Right Now. The Human Blue track made me buy the record. The Delta track is a stormer, and the Synchro and Digital Sun tracks are worthwhile. Very good comp, these guys get stronger with each release (except 9 IMHO).

Tasty electro influences. No time-wasters, but some tracks take too long to build. When it's good, it's very verrrrry good. Buy it.

OK, Skywalker and Evil Turkeys both rock. Although the samples in Evil Turkeys are waaaaaay overdone: the mix on Psy2K is way better.

Sounds a bit dated now, too much use of the same 303 sound. However, this was a heavy-rotation killer for several years and still has much nostalgic appeal. At the time, this was the most expensive disc I'd ever bought ($48 to get it out of England), it was totally worth it. Get it if you still can.

This record is great, if only to give record store managers fits as to where to file it. It's by Total Eclipse, whome only Goa-Heads will have heard of, yet it's by no means any kind of Trance. As Acid Jazz, it's a pleasant spin, good for summer or entertaining non-fans of electronic music. My guess is that the Total Eclipse crew got bored of Trance and wanted to do something else - so if you're looking for a sequel to Violent Relaxation or Delta Aquarids, you will be disappointed. Screenager and XXL Files are lovely. I just like to say 'screenager'.

The Passenger and Dark Soho tracks are both killers. The Oforia track is not bad. The rest is disposable, but the Dark Soho track at last lives up to the huge expectations people on this board have built up around the poor guy. I wasn't sold on "The Fusion" (too noisy for my taste, and breaks into triplets - which I don't really enjoy). Whoever designed this cover has some important psychological issues. It's very, very hard to look at. More art from this fellow, please!

Ehh. 7/10. It's definitely a nice departure for Krembo, much more complex than their usual releases. However, it all kind of sounds the same, and several tracks are just really repetitive. I get the sense that it's building towards something, building and building but it never really figures out what. Nice German-style spooky mood though, and this would be splendid with something melodic overlaid. However, this is way better as a complete record than as a a source of individual tracks.

The Tristan and Younger Brother tracks are excellent, IMHO. I also enjoy Beautiful People. But the Doof track is awful, and the rest is ordinary. Still, the last five minutes of Small Paper Squares is so good I just about wet myself.

Ehh. FR has released far, far better stuff. This is choc-full of progressive. Highlights include "Always in Control", "Osman 2", "KTT", "Desire", "Goodwind", "Osmose". There is enough here for one great CD, or three basically poor CDs with a couple of good tracks on each one. Implant, I notice the only track you didn't like is the only one that blew me away. So it's not surprising I wasn't keen on this one while you adored it. I find the "Psy - psy - psy - psychological effects" sample very, very annoying and the keeping-it-real[TM] singing on Cool Down made me want to hurl all over my disc player. HOWEVER, I must give full points to FR for trying a truly different thing though. If they keep up with this kind of innovation, they're sure to hit on something that grabs me by the shorts again, like Darshan - Awakening or First Flight did all those years ago. 10/10 for effort, 4/10 for achievement.

Washington is a good track, if you like it shamelessly goa-cheesy with a very simple bunga-bunga bass line. The rest, I just can't even get into in a slumming-kind of way. SSO is not my thing, but if it's yours, you'll like this record.

I too find this a bit boring. They have nice dark atmospheric legato sounds throughout, sounds kind of Dutch to me. If I had heard this five years ago it would have knocked me over. Now I'm kind of spoiled I suppose.

the cover is supposed to be a creature but made entirely of gears and wires and stuff, kind of like what creation would be like if God were a German. The best part of the cover is the centre, when you open it up: is it a spinal column of some predator? Nooo - it's a model made entirely out of cabling, a wonderfully mechanical world-view. Mars - I think I like the noisy sounds because I came fairly recently from Industrial/Gothic on my musical journey, so this feels almost like a sick comfort food.

Interesting comp. There are a few poor tracks and a few very nice ones (from Kopfuss Resonator, Blue Planet Corp). Otherwise, I believe this is one of the earliest records that blatantly retrofits influences from other genres (well, mainly house) into trance. Sometimes it works (track 2) and sometimes it's just boring. Worth the money if you can find it locally (i.e., no postage/customs).

Message to Future Prophecy: who the Hell do you think you are, covering X-Dream? What do you think you possibly have to add to this track that Rough And Rush didn't think of already? Write your own music please. Covers are weak.

Ubar Tmar - Fusion Artist: Ubar Tmar Title: Fusion Label: BooM! Date: 1997 Track listing: 01. 00'51" Welcome To Our Space 02. 08'32" Flying Saucer Landing (Dancing Yoda Mix) 03. 06'21" Transformer Synthesizer 04. 09'04" Electric Voodoo Man 05. 07'18" Eternal Return 06. 07'22" When The Light Is Gone (Live At Arasaki Beach, 96 Summer Of Love) 07. 09'29" US 08. 07'52" 3D Heaven 09. 06'43" The Prophecy 10. 07'33" Tale Of The Taketori Review: He's definitely not ashamed of being Japanese. The best way to listen to this is to rent some Anime, turn the volume on the TV off, and eat a lot of mushrooms. It's really good in parts although throughout it does remind me of video game music. Some of the samples are nice and spacey, some is over-the-top unabashed cheesecake. However, Tale of the Taketori is beautiful (but very fast: 152ish BPM) and several other tracks are at least worthwhile. The best part of this is the cover art though. Take out the inner tray and stare at the genius of the spiralling worlds, the game is to try to guess what the next pattern will be. Spirals within spirals, yummm. 6/10 for the record, 10/10 for the art.

This is very nice record, mainly for tracks 1, 4, 6, 8. And yes, Seb Taylor is not only Shakta and Digitalis but Somaton. He's nothing if not busy!

Kopfuss Resonator - Spect R Module Artist: Kopfuss Resonator Title: Spect R Module Label: Nephilim Date: 1998 Track listing: 01. 07'28" VPM Groove 02. 08'00" Redsprite 03. 07'42" Reboot 04. 07'09" Kein Traum 05. 07'25" Module One 06. 08'16" Whipbird 07. 05'21" Cold Fusion 08. 06'15" Tommis Machine 09. 08'19" Go There 10. 04'32" Antigravity Review: "Now I want you to take yourself back to that spot. When you close your eyes and go to that place. Now look again up at those pink clouds. Pick one, and go there ... Go there ..." Who is this? Blavatsky? Some ancient mystic gypsy woman intones this again and again over the hardest, heaviest, most merciless percussion riffs I have ever heard in trance. This record keeps giving and giving too, with several other A-list tracks for those who like it dark and sci-fi. From Module One ("I - am - beeeeeeeeent") to Kein Traum and VPM Groove, the record is mainly percussion-driven, but somehow I enjoy it anyway. Fans of Astral Projection/Man with No Name type stuff will not like this at all. The best part about this one is the bang for the buck. Someone actually sold this back and I found it second-hand for 10 bucks, probably some happy hardcore PLUR child scared witless by this savage, brutal release. But they pretty much had to turn out some pretty evil noises to live up to the name 'Kopfuss Resonator'. 9/10.

V/A - The Arrival Artist: Various Title: The Arrival Label: Terrestrial Music Date: 1998 Track listing: 01. 08'44" Syb Unity Nettwerk : Limited Access To The Files 02. 06'32" Psyche : Programs of Music 03. 08'52" Slinky Wizard : Slick Witch 04. 04'40" Dakota Harris : Back to Future 05. 06'00" Junk Project : Brain Train 06. 08'21" Equinox : Obedience 07. 07'53" Slide : Saturnalia 08. 03'49" Rest 09. 04'42" Octodred : Jungle Hooliganism 10. 05'14" Octodred : 5-T3LOE3T- 11. 05'49" Darshan : Ephemeral Review: OK I bought this comp strictly to get Ephemeral on CD, after having spent hours of my life listening to it on crappy RealAudio at Flying Rhino's sample site. The bastards never did put out Wind Chime or Mind Merge on CD either. GrrRRRrrRRRrr. Also, I had wanted to hear Slick Witch at last, having never heard it but read a bunch of press a couple of years before (1996 I think it was released). Well Slick Witch sounds pretty dated now, and the rest of the record is kind of pointless. Ephemeral kicks ass as well as I remember, but towards the end of the record before this track Terrestrial Records kind of gets lost in Jungle-Land. I kind of like the cover art, windblown manga drawing. 3/10.

V/A - Trancentral 8 Artist: Various Title: Trancentral 8 Label: Kickin Date: 1998 Track listing: CD 1 01. 05'33" Twisted Travellers : Twisted Travelling 02. 08'41" Miranda : Gnocchi 03. 07'03" Digitalis : Mind the Gap 04. 06'29" Somaton : Mutate And Survive 05. 07'05" MOS : Xone 06. 08'28" Tufaan : Boxed 07. 06'25" Cybernaut : Hydrophonics CD 2 01. 07'21" Aphid Moon : Electronic Membrane 02. 09'03" SETIAnd Tim Schuldt : Drop Out 03. 05'41" GMS : One Small Creature 04. 09'46" Nervasystem : Stardust 05. 08'04" Children Of Paradise : Alien Nation Part 2 06. 05'11" SUN Project : Sex, Drugs And Acid Trance 07. 05'44" Lords Of Chaos : Machine Head 08. 05'15" Stars Sounds Orchestra : Aruna Review: This one seems to be the last gasp of anything decent Kickin has kickin' around. There are a lot of very forgettable tracks here, with a few good ones (Mind the Gap, Alen Nation Part 2, Sex Drugs And Acid Trance) and a few standouts (Hydrophonics, One Small Creature: attention GMS, more like this please). The discs are about 55 mins each too, so it really seems they just stopped caring. This isn't worth the money. It's nowhere near as mindbending as TC4, 5, 6 or 7.

When this came out, many were billing it the greatest psy-trance ever. So I bought it and hated it. The cover is nice and freaky, pity about the record. I found maybe 2 minutes of decent stuff in the 64 or so. Avert your ears. This is what the death of TIP Records sounded like; it sure wasn't a love story.

I just saw these guys live in Toronto, eat your heart out. "Holy living fuck!" is all I've been able to say for the last 2 days. Not good for the Mother's Day phone call.