freak51

On further plays, this one has excellent sounds but somehow it lacks a certain Magic Ingredient. How can the tracks be so boring yet be made of such good stuff? 9/10 for creativity, 5/10 for end result. Some day, when this act gets everything together at the same time, it will produce a monstro record.

By now one has to acknowledge Shiva Chandra as one of the most prolific psy-trance producers, and he has his own minimal-progressive pumping style with meticulously crafted, hospital-clean sounds. I'm not personally a fan, and I don't think this disc will make any new converts or lose any of his existing fan base. But that's OK, he's recording for his faithful audience, not me. 7.5/10 if you're dying for more Iboga-like sounds; 4/10 if you aren't.

Hujaboy continues to grow with this release. This solid effort explores a dark, deep and atmospheric spacey groove. A well-developed, well-rounded feel pervades the whole album. Good work! 8.5/10.

Nah - not growing on me. A couple of really nice tracks and the rest is too repetitive and formulaic. 5/10.

Not quite the worst California Sunshine release yet! For a while it looked as though this outfit was interested in at least tracking new developments, if not actually advancing the sound at all. Now it appears they're even less interested in actual progress than Astral Projection. Nice fluffy, lightweight chewns for nostalgia, but as useful and relevant as glow sticks. They could have released this one straight to the Trance Museum. 1/10, because I reserve zeroes for the truly putrescent rather than the merely insipid.

Klangbilderzeuger - Frankfurt A.m Artist: Klangbilderzeuger Title: Frankfurt A.m Label: Prosolation Date: 2003 Track listing: 01. Conscious Call 02. Akustikkoppler 03. All I Offer 04. Strahlenherd 05. Startbahn West 06. Doppler Effect 07. Polytox 08. Paradoxon 09. Lomax 10. Nachtflug Review: If you play prog-techno, and you play minimal psy-trance, this CD is for you. It has several in-between tracks that will mix into either kind of set, or work as a segue between the two. This release offers 10 fairly straightforward 4/4 dark, deep growly thumpers with plenty of high-hat. The formula is nothing new, but the execution is pretty good. One small complaint is that many tracks are very similar. 7/10 from me.

I didn't like this one at all. Most has been said already, above. 'Converting Vegetarians' and 'Deeply Disturbed': are they using an Israeli Grover muppet for the voices? Painfully embarrassing tunes both. If we are going to have psychedelic hip-hop, let's at least try to learn a thing or two from decent hip hop acts. Pretty amateurish release, IMHO. 3/10.

This release delivers what we've come to expect from this crew. Hard-driving, fast, relentless acid psychelia for drugs and motion on the floor. I think this would work well outdoors. Not much new or surprising happens, but that's just their style. This solid effort gets a 7.5/10 from me.

Tim Schuldt - First Error Code Artist: Tim Schuldt Title: First Error Code Label: Aurinko Date: 2003 Track listing: 01. Prologue 02. Stained 03. One Step Closer 04. Search For Salvation 05. Tearing The Fright 06. Constant And Sharp 07. First Error Code 08. Pick To Pieces 09. Traced Back 10. When Anger Cries 11. Deceived 12. Forget Review: Tim Schuldt succumbs to the seemingly-universal temptation of putting up on a pedestal whatever one listened to during puberty. Gloomy, hand-wringing, ultimately self-indulgent angst results. There are vocals. The very reason I can't enjoy Industrial anymore - it's back in full force. The result is, to his credit, different from any psy CD out there. Is it any good? A thousand times no!, says me. A few marginally listenable tracks raise the interest meter to 3/10 for me.

Charm - Pathfinder Artist: Charm Title: Pathfinder Label: Psyristor Date: 2003 Track listing: 01. Retrospective 02. Parallux 03. Inside Man 04. Emanations 05. Prime Factors 06. State Of Flux 07. Learning Curve 08. Metabolic Review: What ever happened to Kuro? After a couple of spellbinding releases that still count among my all-time favourite singles (Ghost, FreeXone on Flying Rhino in the late 90s), then the shorter KTT track that was maybe not as groundbreaking but still ahead of its time, this act seemed to fall off the Earth. Well it's back now under a different name. This is another solid addition to the spate of tech-trance releases in the last quarter year or so. It's got rich textures of squelches and noises, full-on fat percussion and leaves just a hint of space. I'm not sure how well this would mix, it's pretty busy for no melodies. However, it plays just fine. I like it. The only complaint might be that it seems at first go to be 8 copies of basically the same track. That's what I thought originally about Three Point Turn: "Explicit", and changed my mind, so we'll see. 8/10 so far.

What is a continuous sound? What is a repeated discrete sound? What frame rate does it take for the mind to interpret a repeated discrete sound as a continuous sound? If it starts "clearly" continuous and slows down, is it the same threshhold as if it starts "clearly" discrete and speeds up? Much of the psychedelia on this release comes out of variations on this theme. The result may not be to the taste of those listening for twist/morph activity, and much of the overlays are melody-free dirge-like drones with percussion. So, yeah, I can get into this, but do try before you buy. 8/10.

It took me a while to get around to ordering this -- I'm happy to report that it's as good as everyone above has already said. It's not necessary to know Hallucinogen's early work, but as it drifts in and out, if you do, you'll get extra grins. 9.5/10 for this outstanding effort: essentialicous.

I hate to disagree with RX7Style, who has been making excellent recommendations for a long time now, but this sound really appeals to me. The sounds are crisp and precisely crafted. The syncopation is exacting. There is enough freakout material to move any floor and make this purchase worthwhile. 9/10 from me - will write again in a few weeks once it's had time to soak.

I keep coming back to this release, it gets better and better. Green and Blue has grown on me - sounds like Amon Tobin vs. Ed Rush/Optical, but it really really works. It scratches that itch like few others can, time after time. Cruising at 9/10.

File this one next to Timetech. Clever minimal progressive pumping psy-trance, but I got nothing particularly special out of it. I was hoping for more variety after all the singles they've released. 6.5/10.

OH ... MY ... GOD !! This release tops their last one and becomes my new favourite psy album of all time. Hypnotic, revolutionary, brilliant. 10/10. This crew leaves everyone else behind except (arguably) Kopfuss Resonator, X-Dream and various side projects.

Tegma - Encoded / Decoded Artist: Tegma Title: Encoded / Decoded Label: Digital Structures Date: 2002 Track listing: 01. Refractor 02. Tribe Of Akabar 03. Moelleswinger 04. Skyline 05. Funkboom 06. Spread Out And Skelter 07. Sofa Beats 08. Encoded 09. Flash Dance Review: I'm happy to start the reviews off on this sleeper-pick masterpiece. The earlier Tegma releases didn't do anything special for me, but they have gone into some undisclosed lair to tweak this big one to within an inch of its life. The production quality is excellent here, and they bring back some of the just-under-control snarling chaotic element that makes psy interesting for me. Funkboom is a gem. Refractor and Moelleswinger are very good too. I'm not keen on the retro-80s elements in Flash Dance, but there is enough really, really good work here to justify the cost. 8/10 from me.

This one was a surprise for me. Serious attempt at multiple layers of trance that all works together in the the old-school UK spirit, yet it doesn't feel like a knockoff. Carefully constructed sonic unsanity. 8/10 from me.

Astral Projection - Amen Artist: Astral Projection Title: Amen Label: Nova Tekk Date: 2002 Track listing: 01. Amen 02. Chaos 03. Infinite Justice 04. The Nexus 05. Sticks And Stones 06. Techno Drome 07. 1.000.000 Years From Today 08. Anything Is Possible 09. Heaven's Gate 10. Electric Blue Review: OK, Technodrome is a nice piece of work. Everything else here has way too much top-end sugary icing for my taste. Still, at least the rhythms are good if you listen for them, and they've worked in lots of layers without it sounding chaotic -- but it still sounds too close to 1996 to keep me interested: I've already owned dozens of CDs with this sound. To say something positive, these folks clearly have risen above what their detractors say and continue to advance their own message of melodic Goa sounds. Therefore it won't bother them at all when I offer my opinion of 3/10. Again, it's not all shit: Technodrome is worth playing.

Been here, done this. More more of the same same, sounds just like you'd expect. If you have all the GMS records then you're obviously a collector; you need this one too. If you have only one or two from 2000 forward, you don't need this at all. If you have none, there's no special reason to check this out over any other GMS record. Isn't this sound one of the presets on the $40 CasioTone now? 5/10.

Well-constructed straight-business noisy psy-techno, a bit rounder around the edges than their earlier stuff - still, their fans need not fear; it's nowhere near Atmos or anything. Contrast their first two, this disc finally starts to lean a bit more towards "A NOISE" than "ANNOYS". This is definitely their most professional work so far, with the possible exception of a few tracks on (Authentik's) Preamplified. Be warned, some of the sounds in Thriller are on the experimental side, and Green and Blue is kind of messy. However, this release is worth owning. 8/10.

Be warned that this is a fairly gentle, lightweight release, better for daylight. Mixing it with heavier fare will pretty much shred it to tatters.

Airy and precisely timed, guaranteed to raise a smile. 9/10 from me. Definitely ZMA has raised their game with this release.

Definite older influences here, it sounds like what Flying Rhino could have become if they had stayed on the same path. This work has loads of layers and subtlety, and the percussion is not boring either. Very solid job.

This is heavy, intense stuff. The craftsmanship lives up to what you'd expect from the names on here. Obviously, if you're into melodic stuff, you won't like it. It's very minimal and dirge-like in most places. Still, this is my kind of thing and it mixes exquisitely. 9/10 from me.