Goblim

Just got a flyer today, pretty funny, though I probably didn't get it right cause it seems a bit "tilted".

I loved the old Pleiadians, one of my favorite goa bands ever actually, but I think I'll skip this album, as I don't wanna ruin my view of them... Like many other bands, it seems they have jumped on the full on-trend. And I still ask the same question that I asked back in 2000: Why? WHY DID THE OLD GOA DIE? NP: MFG - Why

S-range - Space Artist: S-range Title: Space Label: Spiral Trax Date: 2003 Track listing: 01. Ten 4 02. The One 03. Freak Out 04. Test Tones 05. Space 06. Ilha Bela 07. Star Alliance 08. Dimension Jump Review: Second album from S-Range. Before this album I didn't like S-Range and I didn?t enjoy his last album 2001 very much, thought it was quite boring and low quality. But after hearing SRange live in December where he played these new tracks I changed my mind. This is a very melodic album, some mixture between 2001 and melodic/morning trance. At the same time it's pretty full on in its style. Ten 4 begins directly with a 'pling-plong' melody with a full on bassline. Very uplifting. The One is darker, but kind of the same style. Very good. Freak Out sounds a bit like Human Blue, nothing special to say about it. Test Tones is the highlight on the cd. A lot of space-samples used, including ?the five tones? from movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. At the end this track sounds a bit old school, very nice. Space is also sort of Human Blue style. First half of the track is pretty calm, but second half is pretty cheesy with its kind of hoover-sounds. Ihla Bela (whatever that means) is a slower track, which makes it a bit boring. Star Alliance is again a very good track. Very uplifting. Dimension Jump is kind of cheesy, but not bad. It ends this album with a nice anthem. Overall a very uplifting and melodic album, which hopefully can help bring more melodies to the psytrance scene. The whole album is very Space oriented (surprised?) - A lot of samples and spacey sounds. Not overused samples though, they fit in well. Best tracks would have to be 1, 2, 4(!) and 7. If you like Human Blue's last album or morning/melodic trance, buy this one. But don?t compare it with 2001 because Space is a lot better, especially the production quality which is great. I also want to recommend the SRange track on 'Ease Division' compilation, which is the best track on that comp. Hope for more from SRange in the future. Overall rating 7/10.

Lime Structure. Track #1 I wouldn't call a real track; it's more like a long intro and it suits well as that. It's just preparing you, a beat every now and then; you can feel that something is coming. And at track #2 it does. A beat begins, and an already a melody in the background. It's soon replaced by a build-up though, a beat and some sounds. You can notice this very excellent production. A few almost not hear able and incomplete melodies are heard and at 02'42 there's a sample "This is about the ...great stuff" (I think) and a wonderful melody begins. The beat has stopped, and it’s a long pause before it starts again. At 03'40 it does and kind of you get an idea about this album. For me the melody is doing everything here, and it makes me think it's a shame there are generally so few melodies in psytrance nowadays. Track #3 is next and it's the already famous Newport from Digital Emission. It has kind of the same type of build-up as the previous one, a "cracked" melody in the beginning built up, until it starts in the end, this time not until after 6 minutes. But when it does... well, listen for yourself! Soon gone though, why…? Woah after two such marvellous tracks, can the rest of the album keep up? Track #4 is more proggy. Has no clear melody as the previous tracks, so I find it a bit boring. Track #5 is Manzanilla and the chill-out track of the album. I loved it already from the start. When I listened to it I just had to smile! :-) This is what I call a great chill-out track! This sure makes my wonder, why doesn't Vibrasphere make only ambient?! They have made many great ambient tracks, San Pedro, 33000 Feet Over and The Big Sleep to mention a few. And now Manzanilla. Vibrasphere, please make a downbeat album! Track #6 is again proggy and sounds really 'naked' after the ethereal Manzanilla. After three minutes or so something happens. There's a pause, and a really groovy sound enters. This is progressive trance at its best. Track #7 Purple Floating is next, same proggy stuff again, but this time with a little subtle melody. The longest track on the album, and pretty good. Then we have track #8, Infusion. Begins with a lot of percussion, and continues with that. Pretty good too, but not excellent. Last track #9 is Silver Sun, I get the feeling that it’s there just to fill the album. Same style as before, nothing special I would say. Well this album started out so great, but got a bit worse after track 6. Overall a good album with an excellent production. Favourite tracks: 2, 3, 5(!)Final grade: 6/10

V/A - The Delta Force Artist: Various Title: The Delta Force Label: Phonokol Date: 2003 Track listing: 01. Der Interpret : Wechselstorm 02. Authentic : Vampires 03. Spirallianz : Battlejuice 04. Midi Miliz : Aeromoda 05. X-Dream : Thorazin 06. The Delta : Low Level Format 07. The Delta : Send In Send Back (Atmos Rmx) 08. Midi Miliz : Intermediate 09. The Delta : Standby 10. G4 : The Final Conflict Review: I heard about this comp a long time ago, but only now it was released worldwide. That's maybe the reason that it has 4 already released and pretty old tracks. Anyway track #1 is from "The Interpret". It's only 3'49 long, and can be seen as an intro. It's not really trance, it even has vocals - Marcus Maichel singing (in German). I don't find it bad though, pretty cool actually! Track #2 is from Authentic with a powerful track. It's pretty much the same style as The Delta maybe a little more percussion. Track #3 is from Spirallianz. I think we all know this track by now. It has been released on at least five different records before, first time almost a year ago. It was a good track. Track #4 from Midi Miliz, also already released. It's almost techno, very hard and powerful. Track #5 is a one year old track from X-Dream. Good, but I would have preferred a new track. Track #6 is from The Delta. Finally a new track from them! Usual stuff - begins techno, ends trance. It could have been taken from their last album. Best track on this comp! Track #7 looks very interesting, Atmos remixing The Delta! The "tech" feeling is gone, replaced by a synth. Has not much in common with the original track, but still a good track. Track #8 is again from Midi Miliz, also their usual stuff that could have been on Passages. Track #9 from The Delta again. Probably the best track from Send in Send Back. Last track #10 is from "G4" and it's sort of breakbeat, I have nothing special to say about it. So this comp had 4 already released tracks 2 non-trance ones. Remaining are 4 new tracks, #2, #6, #7, #8, all of them very good. This comp should have had 10 such tracks instead. So only 5,5/10 for The Delta Force.

This is a long awaited album from Spirallianz. Since their last album 'Blast Food', released 2½ years ago Spirallianz have only released three EPs - the Silver Edition series. Not to forget though, that we have seen a lot from their other projects - The Delta and Midi Miliz - Midi Miliz last album released only one month ago. With Stereopark Spirallianz continue their special style, often referred to as tech-trance. #1. Hide and Seek begins the journey restrained. You can just slightly hear an aggressive sound in the background. After three minutes it gets the upper hand, which makes me think “evil” for some reason. It's a dark track, but in a groovy way. #2. Bitnapped is next with a pretty strange bassline. You hear some 'pling-plong' sounds that sound really cool but they are soon gone. Soon there's a robotic voice that continues speaking during most of the track, it sounds really silly and irritating to me. #3. Patchfinder is an old track but still a killer. This seems to be a bit updated version, it sounds more massive to me. A really aggressive track, hard slamming drums backed up with screaming horror voices that creates a melody. To quote Psyshop, Patchfinder is a "ground shaking tech trance monster"! #4. The Fuser reminds me of the Midi Miliz track Mrs. Vargas for some reason; it's kind of the same style. With distorted drums, and a dark string melody in the background this is a typical Spirallianz track. #5. Battlejuice is the second already released track on the album. It has a very long intro that sounds more like The Delta style - dark and scary. I love this intro and it turns out so well, that I'm almost disappointed when it's over at 02:40. Massive drums enter here that continue to the end when they luckily are merged with the intro and fulfil this killer track. #6. Stereopark is a groovy track; it has a subtle melody through it. It's pretty much the same style as Hide and Seek and it turns out well. #7. A23 is the strangest track on the album. I find it very soft and 'thin'. It has some progressive feeling over it. Unfortunately I don't find it good at all. They could have changed this track to 'Spotrunnerz' which is a killer track previously released on the same EP as Battlejuice was. #8. Neurosport starts by playing around with some drummy sounds until half the track when they are accompanied by an organ sounding melody, but it's soon gone. At the end it's back again and it seems to finally give the track a meaning. But now the track is over. #9. Soulprint is next with that dark and gloomy stuff I want to hear from the spiral alliance. The dark strings and a pretty melancholic melody make this a pure night track. #10. In.Out/Through ends the album with a downbeat track. It reminds me of The Deltas track 'Basic Beat'. Well after listening to this album a couple of times, it leaves me a bit unsatisfied. Where is the “One Way LTD” on Stereopark? Anyway altogether the tracks here are pretty much the same, except the last and A23 which also is very different. It disappoints me that the best tracks on the album are the ones already released, 3 and 5. Track 1, 4, 5 and 9 are pretty good too though. So far I've always liked Spirallianz tracks better than the Midi Miliz ones and this album seems to continue that trend. I give Stereopark 7,5/10.

How nice with some combustion in this arctic temperature. :-) Dark Soho sure have their unique style, full on / tech gothic trance. The ablum starts well with The New Age, there's a really nice melody 03:22 in the track, but unfortunely it doesn't last long. Why? DMISH (strange name) is a bit techno-like track aided by guitars. The 14th is the best track on the album but it's also already released (VA - Digital Tribe). It goes out hard and evolves to a real gothic stomper! Kerberos also starts techno-like until about half the track when the gothic strings comes in. Noise 6 is just... noise, almoust tech-trance, unfortunely not good though :-( Combustion is the album title track, it starts with a strange drum pattern that sounds really good, as usual a melody joins in after about half the track, but this time it's there a bit longer which makes it better. Save Me God (Remix), I haven't heard the original, but this track actually have vocals. Sounds like Marilyn Manson or something, but almoust whispering. I dont know if they improve the track... The H is a little bit calmer, but nothing happens in this track. My Wish is a short and downtempo track, wouldn't ever believe this is Dark Soho. It's pretty nice and relaxed. Uring Saracoma (Live MPEG Video), the original was one of the best tracks on Dark Soho's first album (though there it was called "Uine Saracomm"), here's an updated version, not better though. Overall it's impossible not to compare Combustion with Sun Spot. Sun Spot was much more varied, on Combustion all tracks are very alike each other. This is not the kind of music you hear every day though, as I said Dark Soho have their unique style, so it's nice with some variation. Some killers on this album are track 1, 3(!), 4 and 6(!) The others just lacks in something. Final rating 6/10

Juno Reactor - Luciana Artist: Juno Reactor Title: Luciana Label: Inter-Modo Date: 1994 Track listing: 01. 61'33" Luciana Review: Probably the darkest album ever made. At least I can't imagine anything darker. This album tells us what it's like in HELL. Seriously. The album is only one track, 61 minutes long. A 61 minutes long bad trip. The music is something like dark ambient. No beats at all, but you can't say it's any melody either. My advice is, don't listen to the whole album, then you will probably want to kill yourself. But put this record on if you get a visitor you don't like, and they'll be out in no time :-) 5/10

Morphem - Ambrosia Remixes Artist: Morphem Title: Ambrosia Remixes Label: Zillion Mental Anarchie Date: 2002 Track listing: 01. 05'26" Ambrosia (AM Synaptik Rmx) 02. 08'43" Ambrosia (Prisoners Of the Sun Rmx) 03. 09'43" Ambrosia (Son Kite Rmx) 04. 07'05" Ambrosia (Bitcrusher Rmx) 05. 06'44" Ambrosia (Midi Miliz Rmx) Review: The well-known track from Morphem, Ambrosia is here remixed by 5 different acts. Well I guess it could be good to start with the original track (from Morphem's album Monitoring) so we know the source of this stuff. The original track has one of the nicest basslines I have heard, and it's a good track. An original sound, and a "melody" looping through the track the whole track until you know it inside and out. Now to the remixes. AM Synaptik, I have never heard of them but it's a decent remix. In the beginning there's some experimental sounds and in the end you hear the well-known original melodie. POTS Remix sounds a bit harder and sounds more stiff, right until 04:40, where a soft "horn" or something enters. It sounds very relaxing which gives a good contrast to the otherwise hard track. Son Kite Remix start with the subtile anthem of the original track, but quickly a typical Son Kite tribal drum enters. You have some time to enjoy it, but after about 4 minutes you get that it's still a remix. At 05:50 there's some agressive sound I cant describe, I dont get what it's doing in the track, but its soon gone. Bitcrusher (haven't heard of) Remix sounds a bit cheesy, more progressive/clubby. But it still has some of the original spirit left. Midi Miliz delivers a really good tech-trance track, but it has absolutely nothin to do with the original. Overall an interesting album. Remixes can be fun when the original is a track you like, and this is such a track. The track I like best here is the one from Midi Miliz, but as I said that track have just nothing to do with the original. Son Kite gives a good production remix and POTS an interesting one. Final rating 7/10

This album Amen starts with the track Amen. Suits well as a first track, builds up good and have a good melody. Then it's Chaos, with a taking melody and groove, typical Astral style. Infinty Justice is a very melodic track, too much for me. Pure club trance. Nexus is faster (and better), builds up to a climax in about 4 minutes. Sticks and Stones begins with some indian (?) vocals and then reminds me of Life on Mars, no real melody, it leads nowhere. Techno Drome is a cool name and a dark track. Not much melody here either, but a driving good track. This track does not sound like the usual Astral stuff, I find this style better. 1.000.000 Years from Today is what I want to hear. A fast beat, more sounds are added as the track progresses. A very full on climax after 5 minutes, then a break and a climax again. Anything is possible is already released, this one also (as track 3) too melodic for me. Heavens Gate is also melodic, but in a lighter way, typical morning track. Electric Blue is perhaps a silly name but it's typical Astral Projection and it ends this album nicely. To conclude, on this album are a few old Astral style (1,2,4,7), a few club trance (3,8,9,10) and two with a different style (5,6). I hope Astral will continue produce music, but in my opinion, cut the club trance stuff totally, and update your sound, as in Techno Drome. The club trance tracks will perhaps be played by some club trance DJs, the others are very good and will hopefully encourage to more melodic psytrance. Overall a pretty good album, 6.5/10.

This is the album of the year. I LOVE the track names and theme of this album! If you dont understand the track names, search for 1200 Mics at Saikosounds where they explain. All tracks have samples explaining something about the drug. The theme is kept through the whole album. There should be more albums like this one, with themes. Not compilations of some tracks by that artist... Anyway this album is full-on style. Evolving from the GMS and Alien Project sound, but this one has a little more melody. I hope melodies can become more common in psytrance, that's really a big part of a track. But I dont like that the tracks are getting shorter. At least 7 minutes is what you want from a track. Not less than 6, like Ecstasy and DMT. The whole albums is also only around 64 minutes. There would have been room for a 2C-B and Ketamine aswell :-) There is not much to say about the tracks, they have all have the same theme and doesn't sound so different. Best tracks are track 2, 4, 6 and 8, but they are all killers. All tracks on this album are good, and that makes a pure 10/10 doesn't it? More albums like this one, and maybe we can get rid of that AWFUL minimal/progressive stuff that doesn't belong in trance. This is the album of the year, and the best album for a long time. Dont miss it!

Evolution - Oscillating Phenomena Artist: Evolution Title: Oscillating Phenomena Label: High Society Date: 1996 Track listing: 01. 09'32" Riding High (Bullet 350 Mix) 02. 07'47" Fifth-Dimensional Craft 03. 07'53" Flower Of Life 04. 09'59" Water Spirit 05. 08'07" Genetic Engeneering 06. 06'38" Alien Phenomenon 07. 09'06" Warriors Of Light 08. 14'45" Akhunathon Review: Here's some old-school Goa/Acid Trance. Repetative bass and sounds, very much acid sounds and lots of melody. Already from the start you realize what kind of music this is because the tracks are pretty much the same. Except for the last track, which is downtempo and also very long. However this is a 6 year old CD, so you cant compare it with today's music. The sounds are pretty simple, and some of the tracks are not so well constructed. The BPM could be faster too. On the other hand, there are nicey-nice melodies and acid sounds are never wrong. Rating: 5/10 (counted with that it's from 1996). For old-school lovers only.

I saw this album first in the Mushroom magazine, and I thought "Aztechno Dream", what a cool name, and I was glad to find out that it's a killer album aswell. Best album of 2002 so far, I must say! Together with GMS, this is the best full-on you'll find these days. But I like this album even more than the latest GMS album, because it has more melody and power. First track is actually the remix by Astrix, it's not the best track on the album, but still powerful. Track 2 (done with GMS) is very good, you'll notice GMS style here. Track 3 I like VERY much, it has a strange sound that sounds so cool, but it's hard to describe. Something like a watercreature that actually is a robot :-) It also has samples from movie Lord of the Rings, cool. Track 4 is another very good track. Track 5 sounds a lot like track 4, but more minimal (=makes it worse). Track 6 is also a good track. Track 7, Skunk is the BEST track on the album. I especially like this sample here ("do it, do it"!) and it has such a mindblowing melody that I wish there more tracks like this one. I think another name for this track is 1200 Mics - Marijuana which should mean it's gonna be on the upcoming 1200 Mics album... if the other tracks on that album is as good as this track and Salvia Divinorum... phew then I cant wait for that one :-) Track 8, a remix of the old classic tune is not so good. I don't think the original track is one of Astral's best, and the remix just uses som of the melody from the original track and added another bassline and sounds... It just doesn't work out. Track 9 is one of the weaker tracks, but it's not bad. Track 10 with it's strange title is also good, but it's a bit calmer than the others. As I said I find this the best album of this year so far, and as a grade I would give it 9/10 (10 tracks, 9 good and one of them (8) which is not good). Nicey-nice!