Artist: Principles Of Flight
Title: Smash EP
Label: Timecode Records
Released: 9th April 2010 (Digitally)
Style: Psychedelic Trance
Tracklist
1. Smash (9:58)
2. Bubble Up (7:51)
Hot on the heels of Principles Of Flight's great album Chaos Opera on Timecode Records last year is a digital EP release, Smash. There are two tracks Bubble Up & Smash. Both are everything I expect from PoF, they are energetic, have great basslines and atmosphere that tells a story. And in true PoF fashion that story is like a dark, fun, twisted fairytale without any of the things that make fairytales childish and with everything that makes them pure fantasy.
Smash holds onto the fantasy atmosphere created in PoF's previous two albums with a thunderous beat and crunchy bassline. The melodies and sounds put me in mind of being in the forest outside a town in the middle ages, huge gates in the distance separating civilisation from the darkness outside. I feel firmly outside with the darkness but as usual for PoF this darkness is like a warm comforting blanket, the twisted monstrosities I dance with all have more humanity than humanity does and while everything look nightmarish on the surface it is really a wonderful dreamlike experience.
Bubble Up is particularly bouncy & I can picture a huge castle in some fantasy wonderland filled with dark shapes and Burton-esque characters. In the centre of the castle is a large hall filled with masquerading party goers but unlike a usual black tie ball room dance everyone is off their nut dancing like nobody is watching. The dancefloor slowly gets fuller and fuller and eventually there are people being dragged under making the floor a living thing that crunches as the still upright dances smash their feet down.
I am a big fan of PoF's sound, I love their take on darkness, I love their beats, their basslines and melodies but most of all I love how their music conjures such wonderful images in my head. Most modern psytrance doesn't do that for me & I find myself always looking to ambient for a really trippy, painting pictures in my head experience but PoF manages to paint those pictures while remaining extremely upbeat and dancefloor friendly. The only problem with this is that it is only an EP and is therefore over before I know it, I feel like a child falling asleep a few chapters in to his bedtime story and not knowing what happened in the end. This has wet my appetite for more from PoF and has made me listen to Chaos Opera again.
Links
Timecode
Principles Of Flight
Juno
emusic