DoktorG

Super track with good production and lovely smooth and delicate synths. I don't know the track and I don't have time to help you search, but for what it is worth the style reminds me of Cass v Slide. Around the millenium Christopher Cutbush and Peter Martin were known as Cass v Slide and they did similar sounding melodic and gentle prog tracks and remixes; the style is similar.

I am not a fan of full on, and there's a lot of South African stuff I'm not really into, but both of these Shift tracks are good and my vinyl sounds fantastic - excellent recording, mastering and pressing with kicking bass. Shiva Space Tech didn't put out many vinyls, but the ones they did sound fabulous.

Super beat in this track; I'm not so keen on the melody that comes in at the 3 minute mark because it sounds nintendo plasticky, but otherwise this is a winner Astral Projection-style track and I appreciated the breathing sounds at the end - nice touch. It strikes me that mastering and pressing to vinyl in this era helped to make early Goa sound less like arcade games because all the sounds became a bit warmer, more organic, more delicate.

Xenomorph Netherverse 2024 Suntrip Records 1 Sinister Contours 9:17 2 Dying Sun (Sol Aeternus Mix) 8:03 3 War In Heaven 8:35 4 Negative Time (-L Di/-Dt Mix) 8:20 5 No Beginning No End 8:39 6 Nebula Of Souls 7:47 7 Subdimensional Anomaly 8:38 8 Abode Of The Damned 8:46 9 Netherverse 8:38 So Mark Petrick comes in 2024 with Netherverse, his fourth album and the one to accompany 2023's superb ep "Negative Time". Is it any cop? "Sinister Contours" telegraphs Petrick's self-evident intention: he is for sure following the left hand path. This means a heavily arpeggiated track with a threatening minor melody. There'll be no easy upliftment on this album; and no cheese! But isn't the whole gothic darkness thing quite cheesy? Well yeah, if we are talking Twilight movies with aristocratic pretty boy vampires who bling in the sunlight, or perhaps campy Tim Burton style goth-lite. But we are not talking that here. No easy joy, no happy endings, on this sinister path, but plenty of eerie and other disquieting feelings. A "Dying Sun (Sol Aeternus Mix)" is probably my favourite track on the album. Here we seem to be on a space ship on a quest for a new home and we dive deep into a black hole, or something like that, indicated by the "our sun is dying... we are dust" sample and another spaceship sample (Petrick is a master of the appropriate sample - he really tells stories with his samples, which are carefully chosen). We sense here how cosmic Xenomorph's vision for this album is. The production quality on this track has to be heard on a good hifi to fully appreciate it - mindblowing. EPIC! A+++ "War In Heaven" starts off with a simple four-note melody that summons up fairy tale horror, but at the half way mark the track shifts up a gear and achieves take off with sawing synths. The "war in heaven" sample states succintly Petrick's apparent philosophy that the tension between good and evil is the propulsive force that drives the universe. A dance floor monster! A+ "Negative Time" is from the accompanying ep of that name. Plenty of pretty tinkles and juddering synth melodies here make for a track that is almost progressive trance - a more mellow track than the ones that preceded it, quite blissed out and dreamy. A "No Beginning No End" is an ourobouros in both concept and in big swirling melodies. These melodies do seem like spiralling nebulae. At 3.15 it turns darker with some delightfully chewy bass 303 and then the spiralling begins again, growing out of the darkness. Another epic trancer with massive melodies. Petrick has worked hard on making these melodies as echoing and big in scale as possible. A "Nebula Of Souls" - I love this slightly more minimal track. It features mysterious vaporous synths at the start, which are utterly beautiful and uplifting in a creepy way. There's a whap-whap sound that continues throughout, giving propulsion; it builds to a grinding climax and then ends on moody cello - simply stunning. A+ "Subdimensional Anomaly" starts with twinkling synths (lots of those sounds on this album) and then builds towards twisting leads against a stumping beat. There's a lovely sense of calm and observation behind this track. A "Abode Of The Damned" is as dark as its title, beginning with a sample about a graveyard and its ghosts. There's a great climbing bass arpeggio that kicks things off and then we have minor key choirs so beloved of dungeon synth and black metal and used quite regularly on Cassandra's Nightmare. This track could easily have been from that first album. At the four minute mark the bass goes into double time and here comes the growly acid that slowly morphs into long pads. Yo party people, are you ready to chew your tongue off and lose your shit? I'd love to see what this track would do to a dancefloor. A+ "Netherverse" - the come down track. Vaporous spacey synth, twangy echoes, a slow beat, eventually builds to the expected long and melancholic pads. I'm a huge fan of sloa Goa, but this is not an especially outstanding example, coming across as an unfinished fragment, and is the least good track on the album for me. B So is it any cop? You betcha it is. What I particularly liked about this album is that Xenomorph has not stood still, unsurprisingly perhaps as so many years have passed. This is a unique lighter and more cosmic album in his discography. Terrifying, eerie, haunting, sinister, at moments, but also full of cosmic beauty, Xenomorph's vision achieves maturity here. It seems that his albums are all quite different, despite there being strong similarities (not least the superb production and sound quality of all of them). I characterise them like this: Cassandra's Nightmare 1998: cinematic horror trance Qlippoth 2003: spirit possession Demagoguery of the Obscurants 2007: the conspiracy album Netherverse 2024: cosmic darkness and light In this fourth album, it seems to me that Petrick goes scifi and reaches for the stars, seeing the dialectic between light and darkness, matter and antimatter, creation and destruction, as the cosmic turbine that powers all. His vision has become epic and fully realised by this point it seems to me in that it appreciates all, including the disgusting and repressed, and values all equally. A divinely balanced cosmic vision. Does such a vision appeal to you? It is a bit early in the year, but I have no doubt that this is already one of my records of the year. Actually, my only strong criticism of this album and the ep is the cover art - weak in both cases. Finally, I am inspired to look back over his oeuvre as the body of work that triggered an entire (sub-)genre: darkpsy. You could argue against this notion, pointing out the other great dark Goa albums that helped ignite darker psychedelic trance: Sandman's Witchcraft, Orichalcum and the Deviant Orichalcum and the Deviant, Cydonia Fear of a Red Planet, UX Ultimate Experience, and so on. This would be correct: all played their part. Nevertheless, nothing was nearly as dark and scary as Cassandra's Nightmare and it remains the keystone album. So Xenomorph's latest album deserves to be seen in this wider context as part of the genre that his first album kickstarted. Amazing what can come out of watching a few horror movies and being open-minded enough to meld trance with the gothic, industrial, and metal. ~*~

I can't help but comment on the cover art. A cartoon banger on chitty bang bang? What looks like a giant sausage is tied to the roof of a VW Beetle. And then a gaggle of aliens and freaks watching some Victorian gentleman wrapped in a saddhu's cloak presenting a chalkboard lecture next to a supposedly Hindu temple on "No karma, just physics"? But physics is karma; Newton's third law "action and reaction are equal and opposite" is as concise a statement of the law of karma as any. I thought hey maybe I'm being uncharitable so I took a brief listen to the first track - I'm afraid I didn't last more than about 15 seconds. Wtf that is some hilarious cover art and it seems the contents are equally dire🤣

Psychoid "Manic Organic" Koyote Records 2000

I listened to Codex last night on vinyl - I love this album and it is the one closest to the first, as I said. Brian Eno? The golden era for this artist is 1978 to 1984. Anything from then is great. My personal favourites include "Ambient 1: Music for Airports", "Ambient 4: On Land", "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts", "Fourth World: Possible Musics", "Apollo" and "Pearl". However, he's been having an Indian summer of sorts in more recent years, and some of these releases like "The Equatorial Stars", "Small Craft on a Milk Sea", "The Ship", and "Foreverandevernomore" are good too. I highly recommend O Yuki Conjugate, especially Equator. Have fun listening...

All good; I will listen to Flux again. As you say it is a departure and I wouldn't really compare it to Shpongle in that it is mostly a fully ambient album - I just thought it was quite limp compared to Klaus Schulze, or Tangerine Dream, or Brian Eno, or Lustmord, or O Yuki Conjugate, or other ambient greats. All the Shpongle albums are excellent and Nothing Lasts might be the most obviously psychedelic of them all. I liked Codex VI because it is dubby and a bit darker and reminds me of Are you Shpongled?, which is still my favourite and the one I listen to most. I've also listened a lot to Ineffable Mysteries; I'm not sure why.

Thanks for alerting us to this. Lots of brief, flippant answers in this interview. Simon is a proper humble human, so of course he's hypercritical of his own work. Also, he has genuinely moved on from the Hallucinogen days so it is faintly embarrassing juvenilia for him. Ironically, however, for me "Flux and Contemplation" is by far his weakest work yet. I couldn't even bring myself to buy it, and I was really keen to do so until I heard it. Similarly, Underworld's "Second Toughest in the Infants" and Leftfield's "Leftism" and "Rhythm & Stealth" are classics, but since then...

Ooo the speculation is tantalising...

Thanks for those replies. "Vinyl-only" would be more grammatically correct to indicate tracks released only on vinyl before, but hey the Twisted copywriter might not be either the most grammatical or the most correct writer ever 😉 It seems we will just have to wait and see in the absence of more specific information. Everyone seems to have loved the album remasters, so hopefully this will be just as good. Now could we please have a vinyl release of "In Dub" and "In Dub (Live)"! ~*~

The press release for the Hallucinogen singles box set states: "You won’t want to miss this phenomenal collectors’ edition, which will include the only vinyl pressings of some obscure Hallucinogen masterpieces alongside familiar favourites, all beautifully remastered and in gorgeous sound on 180g vinyl!". I'm curious as to exactly what tracks never before released on vinyl it will contain - does anyone know? ~*~

Back cover of 3xlp Transdimensional signed by Nik Wenham and Kerry Palmer.

If you listen to Hawkwind and Ozric Tentacles, then those vibes are clear in the intensity, the loong progressions, and spacey elements in Transdimensional. Goa didn't come from nowhere... I also love Second Phaze by the way, not to mention RA, but these have less of those prog/space rock aspects.

Loving the home made "decor" - reminds me of the diy parties we threw... I'm just wondering what track had guitar on it? Perhaps it was just played live? This is not an entirely arbitrary question - D5 had their roots in psychedelic space rock (think Hawkwind, Ozric Tentacles etc that morphed into Planet Dog and the crusty festival tradition in the UK). This is perhaps especially apparent on the brilliant and highly desirable 12"s that came out on Intastella Records around the time of Transdimensional. If you listen to tracks like "Transfix" and "Trans Xpress" this space rock and prog rock influence is clear, though it is there in the epic aspect of all their tracks. ~*~

Ok, thanks so much for clarifying. However, I don't see the point in going for this ultra-expensive option, particularly if "the sound quality does not differ from pressed vinyl". One thing is for sure, I won't be paying E185 for any 2 x lp of any sort.

Lathe cuts are typically into polycarbonate rather than vinyl, and usually cost in the region of 30 Euros for a double-sided 12" disc.

Ok, but then why exactly is it so expensive? 185 Euros on the Bandcamp page.

Yes, the next two Xenomorph albums or tracks could be titled: "The Dunbar Number Theory" "The Cult of Alienation" 😅

Suntrip Classix Vol. 2 - Mars 2023 Battle Of The Future Buddhas – Into Heaven 8:45 MFG – Pure Energy 9:23 Denshi-Danshi – Mariposa (Live Remix) 7:56 Morphic Resonance – Psychedelic Hell 8:13 Radical Distortion – The Dreamer 7:34 Khetzal – Gather Your Herds 9:12 Nebula Meltdown – Alnitak Sunrise 7:29 Asura Vs. Aes Dana – Elie 9:58 Super compilation from Suntrip, the second in their Suntrip Classix series. I can sum up my feelings on this one by saying what a bliss it is to have Battle of the Future Buddhas on vinyl, but plenty of other great tracks too. I feel that this compilation is better than Vol 1, mainly because the tracks are all corkers, but also because it is quite carefully curated and has flow. Battle of the Future Buddhas "Into Heaven" - What can I say, Songs From a Forgotten Memory is a titanic release and the best album of 2021 for me, so this is just a beautiful track that sounds incredible on vinyl. Please Suntrip release the whole album on vinyl. A+++ MFG "Pure Energy" - I'm also a big fan of MFG and rate The Prophecy as one of the greatest Goa albums. Happily "Pure Energy" does not disappoint. Once it gets going after a dreamy intro that modulates between the pretty and the eerie, this track has a slapping rhythm section and bubbling synths leading to the main 303 melody that rips along with, you got it, pure energy. This is quite a blissful track very much in the Israeli tradition. A Denshi-Danshi "Mariposa (Live Remix)" - That Denshi-Danshi's "Mariposa" is probably the weakest track on the album shows just what a quality compilation this is. A swirly track with a memorable pixie-like main melody, I have nothing critical to say about it. A Morphic Resonance "Psychedelic Hell" - What a storming track. Now we see that the 3 openers, excellent as they were, were just an extended bubbling build up and we reach boiling point with Morphic Resonance's heavy duty stomper. This track comes from City of Moons, still Morphic's best album in my view, and takes no prisoners - there's a relentless, pummelling, punishing heavy metal quality to this track that whilst dark in a sci-fi way bursts with energy and confidence. Great track. A+ Radical Distortion "The Dreamer" - The segue between "Psychedelic Hell" and "The Dreamer" is perfect, both tracks are in a similar tempo so djs can very easily mix the two together. I love the slight waver on the lead 303 melody - o'er am I getting the psychedelic shivers? A Khetzal "Gather Your Herds" - We come down from the peak of the Morphic Resonance and Radical Distortion tracks to the blissed out Khetzal track. This track features one of those melodies that once it gets lodged in your head won't get out - a joyous ear-worm melody that reminds me of the happily naive days of Platipus Records. Luckily this bliss is balanced by the fact that this track is quite long and unfolds in an epic, almost stately, fashion, or else it might have been a nursery rhyme. A Nebula Meltdown "Alnitak Sunrise" - The revelation of the compilation for me as I hadn't heard it before. What a flipping great track this is. The production values are superb and it sounds just glorious on my system on vinyl - an audiophile experience. Featuring a slapping beat and gated choirs, this is a very old school track that also reminds me of Platipus Records. A+ Asura vs Aes Dana "Elie" - The comedown is this beautiful track with Indian chanting and an epic quality. Classic track. A+ Not a single track that I don't rate at least A - impressive. Just as impressive is how carefully curated this VA album is, slowly building towards a peak and then slooowly coming down from that peak into relaxation. If you want a party at home, you can do a lot worse than just putting this compilation on. It is also noteworthy how old school this compilation is - it even has Platipus Records style vibes towards the end and it doesn't get more old school or more childishly happy than that! Good job Suntrip Records! ~*~

You make an excellent point about the power of the herd mind Kriestof. I too have experienced a disappointing level of fashion bitchiness at trance parties - leaving aside appearance, one I remember so clearly had everyone marching like zombies staring at the "superstar" djs and if you didn't "dance" in the same way people would look nastily at you. To be fair, plenty of other parties have been happily wilder and freer. I have my own theories about this, but if you are interested check out "Dunbar's number", which is fascinating scientific research into the human brain and herd mentality.

Great news that there is a new album on the way; if it is anything like this ep it is going to be good. As you point out Kriestof, the three albums he has done are differently themed: Cassandra's Nightmare is cinematic horror, I would describe Qlippoth as spirit possession, and Demogoguery of the Obscurants is the conspiracy theory album. What is constant is not only the creepy gothic darkness, not only Xenomorph's ability to conjure clear feelings and images in the imagination, but also the strong minor key melodies (perhaps it might be true that "the devil has the best tunes"?). Even if you don't like darkpsy, like the one commentator on the first album who described it as "painful to listen to", it still has its place in the darkest hour before the dawn in the all-night trance dance ritual. ~*~

Xenomorph Negative Time 2023 Suntrip Records Negative Time 8:20 Danger On The High Seas 8:27 Lost In An Old Junkyard (Tow Hook Mix) 8:08 First up a complaint - I wish Suntrip would use vinyl mailers with corner protection and a STRONG box - this is the third order that has arrived with battered corners. Still, the vinyl plays with rich, warm, powerful bass from Tim Schuldt's mastering for 45rpm. Mark Petrick is Xenomorph, the first horror trance or darkpsy act. I wonder who had the guts to play out Cassandra's Nightmare (Koyote Records, 1998) in the late 90s? Oh boy, there may well have been some E'd up or acidified hands-in-the-air ravers chundering in the loos if someone put on any of the tracks from this album or the 12" that accompanied it. Sure, there were also UX, Orichalcum and the Deviant, Cydonia, and Planet Ben back then, but they didn't go for the jugular in the gothic fashion of Xenomorph. Influenced by metal, industrial, darkwave, classical, film, he was a unique artist and that is invariably inspiring. How many artists have the distinction of inaugurating a whole genre? "Negative Time" features midrange 303 fluttering and weaving, and then a simple 5 note melody towards the end. Nice subtle track and quite mellow for Xenomorph, verging on progressive. It reminds me of a lesser-known track called "Inner Spirits", a once off collaboration between Mark Petrick and Dominic Sangeet (not to be confused with DJ Sangeet) on Organic Records in 1998. Both tracks are quite chilled, but have an epic quality from spiralling melodies that culminate in an uplifting explosion towards the end. Petrick can easily do Goa bliss, though he is not at his most original doing so. "Danger on the High Seas" is darker, featuring a chewy bassline, and reminds me of Xenomorph's brief incarnation as the Brighton Trash Department, which was a short-lived collaboration with Dara Lee of Koyote Records. Brighton Trash Department did one 12" in 1998, featuring the awesome track "Costa del Goa" which is a dark sea shanty featuring a wonderful spoken word sample. "Costa del Goa" summons a spectral shipwreck through swirling mist and features clanky, twinkling sounds building to a massive minor key melody. "Danger on the High Seas" is nearly as atmospheric, which is saying something. It achieves this by similar salty sea dog samples, but also by carefully chosen sinister synth sprinkles. As "Costa del Goa" has it: "this is some spooky shit we got here". "Lost In An Old Junkyard (Tow Hook Mix)" is my favourite track on the ep. This track has such a great industrial rhythm section with the metallic percussion and foursquare beats that Xenomorph is well known for. Then sulky bass moog creeps in stealthily. Then the eerie treble melody rains from an empty sky. Then comes the haunting ghostly acid. Moody voodoo from the master. So there we have it: another devastatingly great dark Goa trance production by the ever-reliable Xenomorph. It is a wonder that Mark Petrick continues to make great tracks that barely glance at fashion ("fashion is something so hideous that we need to change it every six months" Oscar Wilde). He just continues in the forever-now of timeless trance. For me, this is apparent not only in the notion of "negative time", but also in the uncompromisingly uncanny Xenomorph sound - any of these tracks could have been on Xenomorph's first album. Don't you go changing now Mark, y'hear. ~*~ PS - I would be keen to hear about people's favourite Xenomorph tracks. I would include the aforementioned "Costa del Goa", "Antimatter", and "Dying Sun", but my favourite may be "Malkuth Temple" (not that I've ever heard a less than very good Xenomorph track).

His music will live on, echoing in the 5th dimension... 🙏

Here's what I enjoyed of 2023, ignoring all distinctions between singles, eps, albums, compilations etc and not sticking to the format. Some merit. ~*~ 1. Prana Sense of Unity Matsuri 2. Xenomorph Negative Time Suntrip 3. Triquetra Access Denied Suntrip 4. Vaporized Human Odyssey Digital Reprints 5. VA Suntrip Classix Vol 2 - Mars Suntrip 6. Morphic Resonance Extrasensory Perception Suntrip 7. Proxeeus Weep From Within Goa Madness 8. Fractal Glider ZactoGlider DAT Universe 9. Artifact 303 A Trip Down Memory Lane Global Sect 10. MFG MFG World MFG Music 11. Alienapia & ShivaOm FOA Global Sect 12. Ovnimoon & Atlantis La Esperanza Ovnimoon Records