Well this is one of those albums, at least for some it takes multi plays to get it completely. One might ponder what about all these high praises for the album, until the discovery is made.
You may hear many things some very positive & great and some not very positive, about this album. Never Mind, if you are into trance and especially GOA just hold on, you will be thankful you put the effort if you can’t get it in the first go.
IMHO, this is one of those creations, which might prove very difficult to better.
There are 7 tracks in total, with 6 of them on higher bpm's with the last down-tempo track Celaeno rightly placed to help us come down after the amazing high energy cosmic travel which is about to take place.
Maia- The gem which starts it after all, awesome acid line synths to begin with and the keyboard melodies starts rocking in few moments and start pushing us in to the cosmos. That roaring vocal chorus towards the end is just amazing and something special. The restart at 9.15 wow. The sound barrier has just been broken and that feeling that a high velocity travel is awaiting us starts to sink in.
Taygeta- Layers and Layers which are so wild and intense! With all the complex multi layers, melodies and mixing this is a total masterpiece. Not to miss the quality of production put across. That out of earth melody introduced at 4.03, we are practically now at speeds more than Mach 4.
Merope- Very deep and powerful bass lines with powerful melodies and energy tailored to perfection. The layered lower bpm phase in middle of the track leads to magical places before the take off at 6.00. Another crushing melody from 7.10, getting prominence from 8.07. Cruising now at Supersonic speeds greater than Mach 20's. :-)
Aclyone- Well just while we start summarizing up that it couldn't be any better, Aclyone steps in with the screaming acid line and that boiling up beat effects. Not much time is required to understand where this is taking us. The accelerator is pressed at 1.30 and we gain more and more speed. Sonic Layers and its complex orchestration starts at 2.10. By around 5.13, its clear and all of sudden we start to realize that this entire album is on a totally different level . Moving on have now officially passed over the heliopause and that shock center crossing at 3.55, simply amazing. From 7.13 cruising in some space craft, at Mach 40+ speeds, asteroids and planets seems to fly past in micro seconds.
Electra- The Emperor & the Heavy weight champ of the entire genre. Audacious Intense Beautiful Powerful Awesome. No drop in speed here, just pushes and pushes to unimaginable fastness. Layers are intelligently and beautifully woven over and over, setting us up for the fantastic climax. High energy bass kick set in immediately & The gears are shifted at 1.30. We slowly realize we are approaching Light speeds at 2.04. What follows has to be just experienced.
At 5.32 we are traversing the cosmos at light speeds and readying ourselves for that unprecedented climax. But then just when you think you can’t take more of this intense energy, standby for classical climax Mayhem which starts at 7.35. Oh! What an energy. Ears are burning. I have seen people unable to move by now, on dance floor for the sheer intensity.
Asterope- While we all try to figure out where we have reached after that high energy travel, 'Asterope' is just the track to guide us where we are by now, by slowing us down just a little. Post that Alien breaths at the beginning and the picture starts to clear before us, revealing the amazing place we have been taken to. Beautiful melodies build and build over one another, and guide us deeper and deeper and at 9.25 its pure bliss. Long track.
Celaeno - Just one beautiful musical piece of blissful melodies placed into the end carefully, to help us to someway reach back onto ground. Amazing level of intricately composed down-tempo layers. But most of us by now would be pondering what has just happened before this & trying hard to get ourselves grounded somewhere to make a sense of it all.
The complex layers, melodies, synths, energy and more importantly the intelligence and ideas embedded is just on the different level in this epic piece of musical history. It does so in an extremely audacious, provocative, classy and highly intelligent way.
Something must have got into Carlo's mind while he begun writing these songs, while one of his hand was broken in 96.That unusual something combined with effort from entire team is what has ultimately paved the way to this "Undisputed Heavyweight Champion" of Goa Trance to emerge. 20+ years of its release, it just continues to stand and deliver.
Just praying if they could regroup together somehow and create more.
A+
