abasio

Zero Cult Ikebana Cosmic Leaf Records 2007 Tracklist 1 Nitrogen (7:59) 2 Part Of Rapture (7:54) 3 Violet Room (7:05) 4 Echoes (Cydelix Remix) (7:23) 5 Z-51 (7:05) 6 Utopia Train (Side Liner Remix) (5:42) 7 Chemicalove (8:23) 8 Serenity (7:57) 9 Rainspotting (7:33) 10 Monolife (D. Batistatos Remix) (4:41) I remember someone recommending this to me but I have no idea what it was referred to & after listening to it I can't place my finger on what it was. This is different enough to most chill releases I have heard this year to make it worthwhile. The production is clean & at times cold. Crisp sounds with some melancholic touches. A few tracks err on the side of being too cheesy but somehow work. Some are decent without being mind blowing while others feel like they have been ruined by just one or two elements. 1. Nitrogen A great opener to this album. It has a kind of dark mechanical feel to the intro but this is overpowered by the beginning of the melody that just seems to come out of the starry sky. Combine that with the little Sci Fi noises floating about gives a really spacey atmosphere. A nice slow beat is very crisp. The sci fi comes to a head when it feels like electronic water floating through my brain. Very nice opener. 2. Part of Rapture The intro to this track contains a sample done just the way I like it. Distorted enough so I can't make out more than the initial work. For me this always makes it trippier, deeper with more mystery. A little acidic melody just precedes a clear slow beat. The background ambience really makes the melody stand out in a futuristic spacey way. I imagine impossibly tall buildings side my side for miles & miles when I listen to this. The melody that comes in at the end is what escalates this track from good to excellent. With the same atmosphere it creates a more melancholic feel. Really beautiful. 3. Violet Room This doesn't quite reach the rapture of the last track but it's an enjoyable little number. Interesting beats and a slow bassline that hums through the background. A melody that is subtle & spacey. Strings that come in over a female vocal stabbing in & out. Lots of cool little sounds, very nice for Christmas time (in my twisted little brain at least). Overall it's a pretty good track but just lacks something to make it stand out more. 4. Echoes (Cydelix Remix) A very cheesy but enjoyable vocal (still) dominates the track. It's fun if not very good. Like a guilty pleasure. I have no idea why I like it, it should by my own reasoning ruin the track which besides from this does everything right without blowing my socks off. Rather than destroying a perfectly nice piece of music it actually fits in well & give it a quirky feeling. I'll see how it holds up after the many listens I plan to give this track. 5. Z-51 This has a military feel to it. The beats & the bass all sound like they are marching forwards in an orderly fashion. The dark voice sample repeats give it an iron curtain air & when the longs synth drones come in the music really feels very cold, dark & soulful. An excellent edge of melancholy mixed in with the sounds of the process. 6. Utopia Train (Side Liner Remix) This has a very nice bassline. The beats are crisp & clear as well as intricate & the acid line in the beginning is triiiiiiiiipy!!! That makes way for a melody though which to begin with sounds like a mistake but it evolves into a very nice dreamy track. Just when you think it's gone on long enough it changes it's momentum & direction. This doesn't knock my brain out of whack but it's a decent track. 7. Chemicalove A simple melody stands out from the rushing spaciness of the background. It sounds a bit weird until the bassline comes which compliments it perfectly. Trippy little beats & a more subtle melody which seems to oscillate in and out of this dimension could have made this track great but the later melody is a bit annoying and is so prominent that it can't be ignored. I would have stuck with the subtle melody that feels like it's taking me between realities but he sticks with the other one & while it progresses into a nicer sound I could have been happier. 8. Serenity A serene sound indeed. Melody coming from piano & electronica twisting round each other perfectly. The beats are quite prominent & while standing out still manage to give this a very relaxed feeling. While very peaceful throughout some of the sounds that fly through it do not sound great when listening in headphones. The final melodic run while led into very well is exactly the same as at the start of the track. It sounds like it's going to be different but isn't. Damn tease. 9. Rainspotting More good sample work & cool strings, he should try strings more he's good with them. It all sounds very deep & with a slow plodding beat I get the feeling that I'm floating away. The first time I've had that floaty feeling on the album. Nice melodic touches here & there without any real melody. The bassline fills in here to keep it interesting. Not a melodic track but a subtle melody comes in towards the end briefly but fades out pretty quickly. The main problem is that it continues along the same lines for too long. It should either be shorter or change more in the latter stages. 10. Monolife (D. Batistatos Remix) A short punchy number to end on. The beats are strong & take over the track entirely. The seems to be some good stuff in the background but it's drowned out by the beats & the melody. Takes those out & I think you'd have a great little ambient piece. I wonder which way the remix has gone. All in all this is about half a great album. There is some good stuff & the tracks Part of Rapture, Z-51 & Nitrogen are excellent tracks but the remixes included are a let down. My main problem with the album is that non of the tracks flow into each other, when one track finishes the start of the next does not sound very good. To sudden, especially the ones that start quickly after an ambient outro. It either needs more space between the tracks ore to have light mixing to make this sound more than just a collection of tracks. It's a nice enough album without being a masterpiece. There is definitely potential for this guy to make a great album in the future.

I always mix these two up as well

Zero Cult - Ikebana

That's not bad Lu Bu, pretty good in fact! It lacks depth & I don't like the sample but the crunchy beats are nice.

Spielerei & Mantacoup - Cold War

Damn I hope so.

Sienis - Form Another Perspective

Various Artists Wabi Flying Rhino Records 2001 Tracklist 1 Healer - Ultrarapid (1:35) 2 Doof - Grantchester Meadows Remembered (7:28) 3 Gus Till - Bermuda (4:25) 4 Ivor Guest - Escapology (5:01) 5 Igneous Sauria - Momentary Distraction (8:30) 6 4D - Slivva (9:41) 7 Western Rebel Alliance - Medetity (5:58) 8 Healer - Halo (5:34) 9 Solar Quest - Trisine (14:04) A complete ambient compilation from the legendary labels Flying Rhino Records. Some artists I grew to love later appear here, both trance & ambient artists making some nice subtle ambient with very soft beats hidden beneath. 1 Healer - Ultrarapid ] We start of with a soft dreamy intro with a warm drone in the background & a pulsating sound. Little bells & a brief melody on the piano make up this mini intro. 2 Doof - Grantchester Meadows Remembered Nick Barber, better known for his trance has always made fantastic ambient in my book. From his track on MOTY2 to the end of his album It's About Time his ambient is soft dreamy & very psychedelic. This track is up there his best. Maybe the softest I've heard from him being quite minimal as well. A couple of cords repeat through the entire track and are briefly joined by other sounds that come & go. Some very soft guitar, some distortion and an oscillating sound like relaxed hyperspace which comes & goes & shifts pitch each time. Very nice stuff from Doof. 3 Gus Till - Bermuda Gus Till has mastered both upbeat & ambient music so it's always a treat to hear some of his work. I for one especially like his more relaxed stuff like this here. Bermuda is beatless melody & drones. A double drone in the background. One under the other so it sounds at once like an underwater track and an outside night time track at the same time. Lots of space with a soft, slow tune which sounds like it's floating on the wind or the current. 4 Ivor Guest - Escapology With the droning of the wind enhanced into a more solar feel we get a more spacey track here. Imagine flying high above the atmosphere around the Earth and out into the solar system. Through the vacuum encountering only the light of distance stars & the dark matter seeping through the walls of this reality. That is the genious of this track. In the midsts of all this beauty is a cold dark sound that seems to break through the music like it is coming from another dimension. Very trippy stuff. 5 Igneous Sauria - Momentary Distraction We are brought back down to Earth with the sounds of crickets on a summer evening. The drone comes up from nowhere and brings with it a very Earthy, tribal call and a lonely melody with our first hints of rhythm. No beats but a very ambient synth acts as percussion and gives this a bit of energy. Beats do follow & they are very tribal in nature. Slow beats like the steady drumming of a ceremony. Dark atmospheric sounds push this deeper into the night while the drumming seems to bring forth an almost menacing melody. The main melody is actually quite sci fi which amongst all this nature makes me feel like I'm staring up at the night sky from deep in the jungle marveling at the at the vastness of the universe. I love the subtlety of all the sounds used and the majesty of how they are brought together. Brilliant. 6 4D - Slivva Well that Earth brilliance did seem to be just a temporary distraction as Slivva seems to be back in outer space. Soft beats again are hardly noticeable yet integral. The beats seem to act like a gravitational force trying to ground the track while the rest of the sounds are trying to force the music deeper into space. The result is a track that orbits around our blue/green planet. Very spacey but with a constant reminder of home. The beats are just how I like them, there but very subtle. The melodies are fantastic especially the more prominent one which flows in regularly, eventually morphing into a more intricate one & on each pass I expect a beat to kick in but only after a minute or so does a beat arise and it does not kick but just flows naturally. 7 Western Rebel Alliance - Medetity Ahhhhh, Western Rebel Alliance with one of there best tracks. This was one of the tracks that made me anticipate their album so much. Shame that never really worked out.　Anyway, Medetity is a soft lush piece of work. Very natural from the start with birdsong & the drone manages to feel like the light cast by a setting sun on a warm winter evening. The atmosphere is definitely back on Earth with some watery sounds & summery sounds in the air. Nice beats too give this real life. I always feel like I'm in an orchard on a summer evening, watching the sun set. 8 Healer - Halo Some piano & lots of spacious sounds. The drones don't so much drone as they do play melody. That gives this track a fantastic feel like it's being played between realities. The beats act as a bridge for us to return but the mind stays trapped in the dimension beyond our rational thought. 9 Solar Quest - Trisine We end on an Epic note. Solar Quests 14 minute Trisine isn't so much a tune as it is a trippy journey through the the inner reaches of your mind & coming out the other side into the space beyond the universe. A place where there is no up or down, good or bad, warm or cold. Everything just feels beautifully right. The soft drips which initially sounded like water ring clearly in my mind & end up sounding like the ideas dripping through the fabric of space & into my thoughts. The thoughts are given space to move & evolve into ideas & finally fly away as theories into the ether beyond my cranium. A quality pure ambient number to end a great compilation. I have only one problem with this compilation & that is that the tracks do not flow into each other so when it is really focused upon it kind of breaks the flow of the music just a little bit. That is a minor gripe though & every track on here is beyond very good & they make a top notch journey somewhere between here & outer space finally going so far that it reaches our inner most thoughts. Almost beatless throughout with just a few tracks having very subtle beats. All in all a worthy purchase should you get it. So good I bought it twice. One is sitting in my parents house in England but I liked this so much that I had to get another copy to listen to here in Japan.

Cymphonic - Strataradialis http://www.discogs.com/release/1072889

I thought it sounded pretty good however it has not made it into my CD player many times since I bought it so I wouldn't put it top of a must buy list.

Nope! Can't wait. I'll post my favourites at this time & they'll no doubt change. But what's the point of waiting? Just so we have nothing to talk about? Let's not talk about anything! That would be fun!!!! :drama:

That's very nice indeed

Amos - Fläktsystem

Various Artists Oxycanta : Winter Blooms Ultimae Records 2007 Tracklist 1 Hybrid Leisureland - Strawberry Planetarium (7:31) 2 Solar Fields - Combination (On/Off Edit) (4:41) 3 Amos - Fläktsystem (5:05) 4 A. Testa & M. Piazza - Little Science (5:56) 5 Malik Trey - Sleepy Shadows (6:47) 6 Aes Dana - Nexus (6:56) 7 Mahiane - Thyrse (Interlude) (0:51) 8 Sgnl_fltr - Waters (6:26) 9 Subgardens - Asleep Clockmaker (7:07) 10 Mahiane - Spathe (Interlude) (1:59) 11 bOb tracKer - Little Voices In Operating Room (6:24) 12 James Murray - Nautilus (7:37) Here we have the second in the Oxycanta series, Winter Blooms. Released at the start of winter with cold beautiful sounds to match the season. Now the first Oxycanta was for me a masterpiece of subtle beats & natural sounds mixed with spacey atmospheres. One of my favourite compilations not only of this millennium but of all time. So the second installment had a lot to live up to, something I was sure it could never do but was hoping it would come very close. On here are some familiar names like Hybrid Leisureland, Solar Fields & Subgardens who I'm confident would deliver & some less familiar names to me like Amos, bOb TracKer & James Murray who I'm hoping have been well scouted by Mahaine. 1. Hybrid Leisureland - Strawberry Planetarium The only music I have heard from Hidetoshi Koizumi has been on Oxycanta so he was 1 for 1 before this. The track title sums up his style I think. Sweet experimental ambient with floaty night time atmospheres that creep into the mind & paint pictures of what lies beyond nature. This track is very ambient with long drones painting the night sky & a faint distant beat moving very slowly across the hills. This opener sets a cold mood, bleak & sparse with just enough to keep it alive. 2. Solar Fields - Combination (On/Off Edit) A quarter of the track that's on Solar Fields - Extended which is a bit lazy for a compilation 2 years later but it is of course a very nice track & it seems to be a portion of it that fits very well with this theme. Sounds of a storm without water, a soft thin melody & darkish sounds keep the cold atmosphere set out by Strawberry Planetarium. The soft percussion is really pleasant and just noticeable enough to breath life into the atmosphere of bleakness. 3. Amos - Fläktsystem Alright, we are really underway now! This track is stunningly beautiful. The melody is one of melancholic ecstasy & the beat vibrates as it rolls through the track. If you are a fan of melancholic chill then you will more than like likely fall in love with this track. Makes me feel like I'm in the part of a movie where everything in my life has fallen apart & all I can do is wander slowly around the city & see all the people going about there business totally unaware of my inner pain. Beautiful stuff. 4. A. Testa & M. Piazza - Little Science I had always assumed that Antonio Testa was a cheesy kiddie trance producer so I was surprised to see his name on this release. I never knew he was an ambient producer & this track has me curious about his other releases. The percussion has become a little more involved now but still very slow with a tribal feel to it. The melody is similarly slow and hangs in the air everytime it comes in like a lingering snowfall. 5. Malik Trey - Sleepy Shadows This is the first track I know of by Malik Trey but he's definitely an artist I will try & check into in the future. This track is a really nice piece of atmospheric music. The softly sighed vocal, the dark cold drone & the long synths give this a very winterly feel & the short bursts of melody feel like starlight on the virgin snow. With the trippy beats & the soft bassline this feels like it could be up beat without ever getting out of the blocks. Cold & dark ambience with an edge of urgency to get across it. Not as out of place as I first thought. 6. Aes Dana - Nexus Aes Dana & his ambient trance sound need no introduction but I did feel like this track was not in keeping with the rest of the compilation. It's a good track, don't get me wrong, with it's suspense building synth drones & the watery sounds at the start. The melody also is a nice glitchy one that seems to hum along like a ray of light through the darkness but the inclusion of the what I thought were very heavy beats seemed too strong for the compilation. But here's the weird part, after listening very carefully, the beats that seemed too heavy seem to have faded & although one of the strongest on the compilation are still very soft intricate beats and don't detract from the cold spacey atmosphere created. Like the previous track Sleepy Shadows this is not as out of place as I first thought. 7 Mahiane - Thyrse (Interlude) The sound of water in the background, some footsteps through snow & a drone is basically it. 8. Sgnl_fltr - Waters A wet sounding track with a 4-4 beat. While the beat is not quite in fitting with what I was expecting from Oxycanta, not as subtle and laid back as the rest of the music. The previous tracks have kind of lead up to this. The track by itself is pretty decent & I have planned to get his albums released on Databloem but the kick is just a little to heavy for this compilation in my opinion. I was wanting this to be a whole CD with the nice subtle beats, not so prominent like this. When in pure relaxed ambient mode even slightly heavy beats can spoil the mindset. Nice track but not for this CD. 9. Subgardens - Asleep Clockmaker Well, I had some really high hopes for this track after the brilliance of listen to the flowers grow & Subgardens manages to keep their hundred percent record with this track. Weird slick beats & rushes in the background make room for a lovely cold melody that falls all around me. It feels like standing in the middle of my field with snow all over the ground and a gentle snowfall coming down. I like the beats that Subgardens keep coming out with. Something different from you usual beats. More glitchy with echo, reverb or something damn good done to them. Would love to hear more from these guys. 10. Mahaine - Spathe (Interlude) Another interlude by Mahaine here, sparse again but much colder than before. This really puts me in mind of standing in a dead wood in the middle of winter. The strength of the 2 little interludes she's given us here has made me want a full, beatless ambient album from her. 11. bOb tracKer - Little Voices In The Operating Room The trickling of a stream leads into a cold bassline. Very chilled out like the wind gently chilling my bones as I stand outside in the winter time. The beats softly kick in & the melody that is suddenly there is a nice sad little one that snakes it's way through the music like an eel in a pond. The little sharp sounds add a little light & warmth to an other wise cold dark yet strangely comforting track. 12. James Murray - Nautilus A nice natural ambient track to finish with. The sounds of the waves lapping against a cold shore under a metallic melody give me the impression of a winters night sat on a rock beneath the cliffs, all wrapped up against the elements & listening to the sea call to me. When the sounds become grander halfway through I get the impression of a decision made & a move into the dark cold ocean. As I move further away from the shore the cold creeps higher & higher until it finally covers me completely & I sink down into oblivion. A very nice ending to a cold journey. Well this was never going to be as good as the 1st installment but it is a very nice collection of tracks. Myself I would have saved the Aes Dana & Sgnl_fltr tracks for a slightly more up beat compilation like the Fahrenheit Project or Albedo 2 & gone with a couple more tracks with more subtle beats. That aside though it's a nice journey & while the first Oxycanta was a nice summery album somewhere between our natural planet & the outer regions of space, this is a colder winter journey between the dark forest & the ocean. It has found it into my CD player a lot, a true sign of a good comp & I think this will be played a lot this winter especially when I'm out in it. Very cool atmospheric stuff & worth the money just for the track Amos - Fläktsystem which is one of my favourite tracks of the year.

Yeah, it's good. Curious about the music too

Subgardens - Asleep Clockmaker

Aes Dana - Nexus

Quite a bizarre request Well unfortunately discogs doesn't give you the date it was submitted. But, if you know the date a certain release was submitted, hopefully in early 2005 for your needs. Everything with an address with a number greater than that will have been submitted later than that. Understand? Ex http://www.discogs.com/release/34286 was submitted way after http://www.discogs.com/release/48 for this though you need to know the submission date of at least one release By the way.......Why?

Not the best example of Goa Trance is it?

The Herb Garden by a mile! Trippier with a more enjoyable atmosphere

Cheers