ukiro

The track is "Our Darkness" - the original from 1984 (!!!) sounds like goa trance, which is fucking amazing considering its age. Sure it has vocals and a saxophone, but compare it to the early dragonfly stuff and you'll see a distinct link. This is where goa trance began, and apparantly home-made edits of her tracks were big in goa in the mid 80's. The remix is released on these records (I have the first in the list): http://www.discogs.com/release/83870 (original 12") http://www.discogs.com/release/50618 (original CD5") http://www.discogs.com/release/121916 (full remix album, vinyl) http://www.discogs.com/release/43831 (full remix album, CD) http://www.discogs.com/release/167438 (full remix album, CD, re-release) http://www.discogs.com/release/356429 (some compilation) http://www.discogs.com/release/83824 (some compilation) Note that she has been remixed by Saafi Brothers and Juno Reactor as well. The Juno Reactor remix is on Pulse 8 I think.

One today: VA - Sympathy In Chaos ...another one to the Matsuri collection... but I'm painfully far from completing this label, as I've got tons missing from their later CD releases and many of the later vinyls too - I'm still missing 10 of their singles... and for CDs I'm missing 09, 11-12, 14-15, 17-21, 25-26 & 28, which makes 13 in total. But I have re-release versions on other labels of MPCD12, MPCD14, MPCD20 & MPCD26 so one could say I'm just missing 9 =)

...while I, on the other hand, find Spiritual Healing (the track) to be so painfully cheesy I cannot force myself to listen to it. I really can't stand it, I find it THE most overrated track in the history of the genre and it has made me stay away from the full album - I have actually never even hade a quick listen to the MP3s... Spiritual Healing is beyond dull or plain to me, it's offensively bad, it makes me squirm. How so many people can find this track special is a mystery to me. But whatever floats your boat...

Blade Runner, as mentioned by Seraph, is awesome... I really like that track. And I seem to be the only one that enjoys Sound Is Solid more than Aliens =) But I only like the original version, not the one on the 12" that Simon Posford remixed, the original is more chaotic which is what I love about it. But yeah, they're pretty hit & miss... they played here recently, with Antidote too so Serge was there as well (which is quite unusual seeing as they split up looong ago), but I actually didn't go... would have been cool to see them, but the venue has bad acoustics and I was very tired so I stayed home instead. Besides, their releases this side of the millennium have failed to grab me.

I have an IKEA shelf, the full-size BILLY bookshelf (202 cm tall I think, 80cm wide), with CD storage inserts creating 12 rows of CD's. It's completely full now and I have record piles all over the place, so I need to buy another one. But this is an older picture: As for vinyl, I have another IKEA shelf, called EXPEDIT. It's really perfect for storing vinyl and holds up much better under the enormous weight than I thought it would: This one isn't full just yet, but my girlfriends vinyl is in 5 crates on the floor so we should probably get another one of these too. Money money money...

My financial drought continues, but two records arrived recently: Progressive Transe - Black Sun (Still missing LOTS on this label) http://www.discogs.com/release/109640 Steve Roach - Space And Time: An Introduction To The Soundworlds Of Steve Roach (VERY cheap, as it's sort of a promo) http://www.discogs.com/release/258684

http://listen.to/schlab

Some constructive criticism: - Your kickdrum sucks, it's really awful. - The lack of filter tweaking makes it feel too static, it's like tracker music. - The percussion is too standard for my liking, do something more interesting with the drums. - While I certainly enjoy hypnotic music, this is too flat and needs more dynamics, both in production and arranegment. - Is there a limiter on the master channel? If so, drop it. and please google for tips on mixing and mastering. - I can love "muddy" music, but the production here damages the track more than it helps it. I found the track to be quite dull, and saying "take that filteria" is uncalled for - his stuff is much more intense than this. For a fifth track it's not all that crappy, but you have a long way to go. Keep at it, and do more daring stuff... that way I'm sure you can make some interesting tracks one day. This wouldn't get me very excited on the dancefloor.

As a collector I have plenty of records that I consider to be next to worthless musically, but they are still worth something to me since I value having a complete discography from an artistor label, etc. I never sell music unless I have duplicates or get offered insane amounts of money. Now that I finally got myself an MP3 player to replace the old MiniDisc earlier this year, I listen to music while out & about a lot more. I try to always have some stuff in there that I've only listened to once or twice, to get to know the music better. Most of it is played very little for a reason, but sometimes I find gems that I didn't "get" on the first listen, or that I was in the wrong mood for. Enjoying music depends a lot on context... I have this rule that when I buy a record, I can't stick it in my shelf until I've listened to it start to finish at least once. So due to my high purchase volumes I end up with big piles of unplayed records sometimes, which I then go through in long listening sessions. If I've been playing mediocre "for-the-collection" stuff for hours and hours, even a good record can be a chore to listen to since the ears are tired... thats why going back to the record a month or two later can be a good idea. Since I've been short on money lately I've been doing a lot of this, which has given me plenty of ideas for new "themes" in my DJ sets =) Re-discovering old records is a very nice feeling that the MP3 kids miss out on - if it doesn't sound good right away, they toss it in the bin. But the best music is almost always the "acquired taste" stuff that you get into after repeated listenings.

You are joking, right?

I got curious too. They have released 39 retail CDs (and at least one promo only) as well as 2 CD singles. Having them all would be very cool.

Goa Experience - Ekinoxe (Doss House 004) - Now I have all releases from this label. ...and a duplicate of an O.O.O.D. 12", (Cabbaged 003) which was an error made by the seller since I expected a duplicate of Cabbaged 002.

WOOHOO!!! Industrialismo is very very nice... If "nice" is an applicable word here =) This what I want on the dancefloor at night - PSYCHOSIS! The others were *very* experimental though, hehe.... Too bad ka-swing is distorted. now, back to making music, with some fresh inspiration ;-)

You sir, have not heard a Ka-sol live set. Don't judge him by the released stuff - no label dares release his more sinister music (except perhaps Schlabbaduerst), thats why people generally haven't heard it. It's generally leaning more towards psychedelia than this stuff though, this is more "pure" darkness. Procs is also way more psychedelic IMHO, and more "crazy dark" than "sinister dark". Also, I must add that when I saw Procs live a while back, he was way beyond this in terms of weirdness, darkness and most of all energy. His album should be out this summer and I have enormous expectations after hearing him... That said, this isn't bad at all and the scene certainly needs more mindfuckery and less club-styled "sober" music. And yes, it can get darker than the stuff in the samples linked above, believe me =) (though tracks 6 & 7 are fairly dark)

I finally got my copy of Apsara.

Bass drum. It's called kick since on real drum sets you play it with your foot. I usually say kick drum to avoid confusion between bass drum and bass line.

I also have to add that Son Kite have great variation and very nice kicks, allthough perhaps not the fattest or biggest, but that is more due to the overall production than to the kicks themselves. Tim Schuldt have had awesome kicks since 1997 as well - before that they were pretty bland. I think I have to go reproduce some of his kicks actually, his kick attack sound is always perfect.

An attempt to take this topic seriously: If we limit ourselves to undistorted kickdrums, and more specifically the sinewave-based ones common in psy trance, x-dream would be prime contenders for the award. But it all depends on what system you're playing on - on my alarm clock radio, I bet a high-pitched clicky old koxbox kick would sound better... Since most speakers can reproduce mid range frequencies better than bass and since our human hearing picks up mid better, most "big" kickdrums actually just have a lot of mid. For an X-dream kick in this style, check that track Marcus did with Atmos for the Irritant album, "No Process". X-Dream also deserves a medal for continously experimenting - most artists today use the exact same kick in every fucking track of an album, while X-Dream have enormous variation. Compare previously mentioned "No Process" with "Peters Hoover" for example... Actually, from the Family Of Light era Pleiadians had some very fat kicks too... As for worst kicks, I'll vote Astral Projection. I can't stand their standard ones.

Lifeforms is for many of us intimately connected to our early teens, and experiences set in a time where there was pretty much nothing else that sounded even remotely similar to that album. Today, 11 years after its release, it's not as unique any more and in some ways the production is beginning to show its age. Because of this, the impact of this album is probably a lot smaller on you than it was on many of us older FSOL fans. When I bought it in 1994, it brought immense amounts of sounds and emotions into my life that I had never encountered before. It was a revelation, and as such has remained extremely important to me forever since. Another factor is that I think Lifeforms needs to grow on you. Papua New Guinnea has much more of an instant appeal, while Lifeforms is less about a "hit track" and more about the overall journey. There are less stand-out elements in Lifeforms, less hooks to cling on to. This could mean that it will take you some time to fully absorb and appreciate it, but it may also be that it's simply not for you, at least not today. Perhaps in a few years, perhaps never. You don't HAVE to enjoy it, even though admittedly I find Lifeforms to be one of the most amazing accomplishments in the history of electronic music. To me, Lifeforms is not music you consume, it's music you experience.

I think you're missing the point - if the label or artist is not Belgian, what can a Belgian court do? Surely there are similar things in other countries, but if the label has no money, how does it matter wether you have the contract and court on your side or not? In fact, plenty of labels of today aren't even proper registered companies which makes it even harder to go after them with legal means. I know of one fairly large artist in this scene that got sick and tired of his label not paying, so after about a year of the label managers stalling, he reported the label to the authorities to force them to pay. Well, frmo what I heard he eventually got most of his money, but he obviously didn't get to release on that (big) label again. After this, the word about what happened apparantly got spread among labels has kept him from getting a new contract elsewhere. So by going into a fight with the label you might harm yourself more than you think. In 12 Moons case he is pretty much giving up producing trance, so he doesn't care about this bit, and that's why we get this rare look inside the machinery behind the labels. So, essentially, a contract is no guarantee, no security. Not in this scene at least. Obviously you should make sure the contract is correctly written and perhaps even have a lawyer look at it before you sign, because that won't hurt even if the lawyer will charge you 100 euro, but there are still so many things that can happen that will render you unpaid and with no chance of fixing the situation.

As is evident from the 12 Moons case, no contract in the world can save you from a non-paying label... So with all due respect, I think you are being somewhat naïve here. But as there is no certain way of avoiding all such risks (even self-publishing might go wrong if the distributor(s) start trouble), I think you will simply have to face these risks as a producer, or chose to not release any music commercially at all.

Good point - arguing against copying is pretty futile when even the labels screw artists over. But I'd like to think that those cases are in minority. Regarding the 12 Moons case - The label made a very generous offer, which is why he signed with them in the first place. I've heard some people say that maybe he should have known there would be trouble with the payment of such a contract in times like these, but a contract is still a contract. And up until then, I had the biggest confidence in Candyflip so I could never have guessed they would offer something they can't hold, and neither did Michael. Now, to play the devils advocate, I must add that Candyflip is in a tough spot regarding this as well - If they never intended to screw him over but later realized that they could never fulfill their part of the agreement, I guess they were struck by panic and made some poorly thought-through decisions. After all, the margins are extremely slim in this scene and I doubt many labels have all that much in the bank, so if they can't pay, they really can't pay. In an optimistic attempt to stall for time while trying to get the money, they made further promises to Michael that they ended up being unable to keep, making the situation even worse. Since he's a friend of mine I'm very biased in all this, but the above is pretty much just a re-cap of what has been said on Istratrance combined with my own theories, so I'm not speaking on behalf of him or on basis of some insider information. Those who are curious should dig up the threads on Isratrance and draw their own conclusions. (For what it's worth, I actually bought a Candyflip CD after this debacle...)

WOW! I already have it, but you do know this sells for like 200 euro, right? =)

Candyflip never paid 12 Moons fully for his two albums on their label - he got SOME money, but not all of it. There is more about this on isratrance, search for the user Tolvan and you'll find it.

Psychonauts - "Alchemy" (Ultra-dark atmospheric experimentalism on on Re-Load Ambient, had the super-limited triple vinyl version from before but now I don't have to risk damaging it since I can play this CD instead...) and also: Various - Psychedelic Activity Vol. 1 (Tunnel Records)