freak51

Nice trancey influences but not too cheesy; I hope the Israliens keep on evolving. Good enough to borrow, at the very least. 6.5/10.

This release requires a good stereo, or good headphones at least. It took a while to grow on me, but it's definitely a keeper. The banjo kicks ass! The "Pandora's Box" sample is really well done, too. This is well worth owning. 8.5/10.

I was right, it did grow on me. It takes a long time to understand this excellent release. Some of the stuff at the end is superfluous, but Badimo, Hule Lam, Insects are killers. The ambience at the end is really nice and deep. 8.5/10 because some of it does go on too long, but definitely worth owning.

What a shame what Christoff eventually devolved into. For a brief magical period though, Transwave was Special. This record is worth 9/10.

This has become, after dozens of spins, my favourite record in the genre, one of my favourite CDs of any kind. With trembling hands dare I type 10/10.

This is a nice one. It's just like Anoebis said. The first track is my favourite so far, its solid cuteness-free tribal drums at about 128 BPM for several minutes mean that one can use it for a segue from lots and lots of styles of music. The other stuff I listened to in a very long shower. Yum! This is probably too cheesy to listen to more than once in a row, but first thing in the morning it's nice. 8/10.

I swore off Flying Rhino after the Live In Germany 2000 crapfest, but I reckoned this release to be special, and made an exception. Don't get me wrong, I still think Flying Rhino is doomed - has anyone checked out the blatant cheesecake/porn on the cover of 'Something for the Weekend' (they shaved the stylised 'Flying Rhino' emblem out of her pubic hair) - but this release is excellent. Those who mourn the loss of Planet B.E.N., now replaced with merely Planet Ben, do have a point: the personality is gone. It's 'only' very good psy-techno. Gone is the quirky 'Ants Invasion' feel, but it takes nothing away from the superb production. At least one English artist is learning from the Germans rather than just going through the motions and producing a neon pink Trocadero-worthy abomination of saccharine and rave kitcsh. Take notes. 9/10.

Why isn't this one in RED at last? It eats Classical Mushroom for breakfast.

The Etnica remix is dreeeeamy. The rest of this that's any good has already been released. How long can Nova Tekk keep caning The Delta record? Let it go already - anyone who's picked up a comp in the last two years has something from this disc on it. Enough! 3/10.

I listened to this, and found a few tracks interesting. Every Woob track I've heard so far has been really, really deep. Get it if it's basically free.

Since Christoff has been around since the olden days - I think he was half of Transwave? - he should be old enough to know better than to make this record. These are engaging, disposable chewns with no staying power. In two years or even in six months, we'll wonder what the controversy was. This is a capable, if unspectacular Wizzy Noise rip-off. If you collect all the 3D Vision releases, you'll want this. Calm down already, Christoff, there's plenty of time to work in all the noises in your bag of tricks - you know, the one you bought secondhand off Wizzy Noise, Yumade and Talamasca. No need to throw every sound in every track. Except for the very good first track, this is nowhere close to memorable. Sorry, but anyone who compares this favourably to Midimiliz needs some intensive schoolin'. I hate to quote Green House Effect taking the piss out of us oldsters, but "ees not mooseek - just making noise." 4/10.

I thought this one a bit overproduced though, too glossy for my tastes. If you were hoping for something minimal, I wouldn't bother. Good call on the Sven Vath-type influence; I'm really sick of this sound. It's a very good work of what it is though.

Tunnel records cashes in here on their salad days, when the label mattered to anyone. They could have still been with us, but chose long ago their path to commercial overproduced garbage. This record is worth getting for any fanatic X-Dream collector, but otherwise you can skip it. Overall a nice collection of old-school stuff, top-drawer back in the days (1994-97ish) It doesn't sound fresh anymore, but makes sense to those who were then, way back then. It's also nice to get Clone III unmixed; I can't believe I'd never made the X-Dream connection. When you play the Pollinator next to old X-Dream, it's obvious. 10/10 in 1995, minus half a point for every year that follows. By 2005 this will expire, even for grumpy old trancers.

Very relaxed, dreamy disc that I've had for about six months, but have never managed to listen to end-to-end without falling asleep. There's nothing wrong with that! 9/10.

Not bad old-school comp. "Between the Nothing" is one of the all-time greatest tracks around - that twisting keyboard gives me the shivers just thinking about it. The Lepton Head remix is also real nice; so is "Iron Sun", one of the least flamante melodic tracks off the first Dimension 5 record. Otherwise, it's awful. The cover art is very well done, I must've stared at it for hours. 5/10.

Some really great elektrodubby releases from Etnica, then a whole lotta filler from other acts, "SA2000" from Total Eclipse excepted. Everything else is either released multiple times already or forgettable. I can't find the track listing printed anywhere on the cardboard. Maybe it's on the multimedia CD that I just can't be bothered to make time for.

OK, the Trip Tonite mix is really good. The Jim Morrisson poetry samples and breakbeats are suave elements. Actually I imagine if you take any ambient psy-trance from 1995 and tweak it a bit and drop in breakbeats, voila - bleeding edge breakz. Nice to see that at least we were kind of right about this being the future of music, though not quite like we had in mind.

Adequate release. But what would have been better IMO would have been to package the good stuff from the otherwise useless SA2000 comp, plus Nitrox, Sambadrome and Ritual Plants. I expected more magic. Technoshit is not that great a tech-trance release; it's all noise and no soul - guys, listen to MOS or MidiMiliz before criticising the genre. 6/10.

I file this one in the same bin as the Parasense release earlier this year. While it's not always my cup of tea, Infected Mushroom has put out a technically skilled production. The Spaniard, from about 2 minutes to about 6 minutes, is perfection. This one will probably keep giving surprises with several listens - there's a lot of complexity here. An out-of-ten score would be beside the point for this disc I think.

Very Gothy. It's like what VNV Nation wants to be, or an updated Ministry from the 'Every Day is Halloween' era. Not bad, if this is your thing, but it's kind of angst-ridden for my tastes these days. A whole party of this stuff - well I'd have to get my hair done Robert Smith style first. 7/10.

jyri_k, you may need better headphones or stereo gear. Keep at it, this one is worth the effort. Maybe listen to it in a different state of mind, where you have an hour with no hurries, no worries.

This may just have bumped the MOS release as my favourite of 2001. I hope Son Kite keeps releasing music. This act has got its finger on a gorgeous pulse. Serious, mature construction with warm richness throughout - yet wonderful to move to, or just put on headphones and let it take you to the Other Place. Not much spare, close to every sound is essential. Wicked head trip. Genuine. Get this. 10/10.

This is a step forward ... straight into the shopping mall. I found this to be too much gloss and no soul at all. There are some nice grooves here for the morning as long as you're not actually listening to it. Between this record, the Firewire comp, Movers & Groovers etc I'm not liking the direction the psy-trance sound is taking. Blecch. 2/10.

I finally got a chance to listen to this one. Mental Luggage is a great track. Klein Aber Doktor is really tired, put it to sleep already. I have no time for Red Seal. Random Landlord is not bad, but not good enough to rescue this CD. Leftovers, for the true fans of Atmos only. Otherwise, better to spend the bucks on something else. 4/10

I thought this one too much like Robert Miles stuff without the kick-drum. I half expected a breathy female voice with a cultured French accent to whisper, 'tell me ... a SECRET' and then with the Yanni-like triumphalist swell of demagoguery. I ... was blind ... but now ... I seeeeee ... . Pass.