Lemmiwinks Posted August 31, 2004 Share Posted August 31, 2004 1 A.M. 2 Roof Of The World 3 Positive 4 My Secret Garden 5 Phyquen 6 The Awakening 7 Sunshower 8 Turquoise 9 Aqua Divae This is DIVINE!!! This together with the Dance 2 Trance album are THE best early trance CDs I have! Aquila is apparently a certain Matthew Thomas, and a little search on discogs.com shows that he still was releasing stuff at the end of the 90s! I can't wait to get my hands on those albums, I wonder how his sound evloved. AM is an extremely dreamy downtempo track. It's so beautiful it brings tears to my eyes. I must've listened a million times to it and I'm still not tired of it!!! It reminds me of RA Wilson's saying that Beethoven somehow transcribed impressions felt with the 5th brain circuit into feelings perceptible by normal human beings with the 3rd brain circuit. (if you have no idea what I'm talking about, read Cosmic Trigger 1 ) If such a thing were true, than this track does exactly that IMO. Roof of the world is a repetitive track with a sample of a digeridoo, very hypnotic, very... trance inducing! Positive has all the ingredients of old acid techno (stuff like Armando): that tinny 303 line (not the kind you're used to in stuff after 96) and the overall moody feeling of the track (definaltey NOT positive as the name would suggest...). It's basically a more complex form of acid techno with atmospheres added to it My Secret Garden is another one of my favorites. The slow trance-inducing progression is simply incredible. Again, this is one I've listened to many many times and I'm still not bored with it!! I find Phyouen less enjoyable, The Awakening is a nice ambient track. Sunshower is the track with highest BPMs... one of the first morning trance tracks? It has 303s and a nice myserious atmosphere to it, but I found it less good than the other stuff here. Turquiose again has a very nice mystical melody, I like this one a lot as well The title track Aqua Divae is beatless ambient, it has 303s and a lot of nature samples in it (bird singing, dolphins...). Although it isn't really for relaxing, the whole track has a menacing feeling, sortof like a message saying that soon these wildlife animals will be extinct due to mankind's greed and stupidity. Gotta be a genious to send such a message without a single word in your track Conclusion 10/10!! This is GREAT for homelistening! Of course the production sounds dated (especially those very tinny 303 lines) but it is VERY good!! I wonder how geniuses like these just faded away and have been replaced by mediocre talents who copy-paste music that's already around. Keep in mind that not only is this good by today's standards, but that back in those days there basically wasn't anything to inspire the artist!! This is PURE genious and creativity. If you can still find a copy on eBay buy it now, you won't regret it!!! Lemmiwinks (aka moondancer on older psynews reviews) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cryion Posted August 31, 2004 Share Posted August 31, 2004 how to get this one is the question? cant find it; neither on cd in a shop nor as mp3 *cry* i want it after reading your review Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemmiwinks Posted August 31, 2004 Author Share Posted August 31, 2004 search a lot on eBay and one day you will stumble on it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visine Posted August 31, 2004 Share Posted August 31, 2004 Man you MUST hear his second "Observations On The Loss Of Culture" album. I like the first one (which you reviewed) but (at list IMO) the second one is much better. It's even deeper, hypnotic, emotional and more varied. The second CD is not even close to being outdated both idea and production-wise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemmiwinks Posted August 31, 2004 Author Share Posted August 31, 2004 BTW I have been having as a plan with koolaid to make available for free download (or small fee that would go directly to the artist) such rare and brilliant albums. I hope one day the plan will become reality The biggest problem is tracking down the artists after all these years and asking them personally... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cryion Posted August 31, 2004 Share Posted August 31, 2004 Man you MUST hear his second "Observations On The Loss Of Culture" album. I like the first one (which you reviewed) but (at list IMO) the second one is much better. It's even deeper, hypnotic, emotional and more varied. The second CD is not even close to being outdated both idea and production-wise. 196612[/snapback] could u guys PLEASE stop increasing my hunger for the music of this artist? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemmiwinks Posted August 31, 2004 Author Share Posted August 31, 2004 yeah I'm really trying hard to hunt down other albums by this genuis. IMO he should be way up there with Avi and Lior, Simon P, Juno, ... !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Naiman Posted August 31, 2004 Share Posted August 31, 2004 Offtopic: I downloaded this from dc++ after reading the review.. i admit that i have allmost all my stuff as .mp3 on my hd and not buyed.. :/ but those who can't live with having one album downloaded on their hd should give them self permission to dl this, because im sure this isn't even available anymore as new so the artist don't get any money even though you buy it second-hand. This sounds VERY outdated. ) But it doesn't bother me because i listen to this album in mind that this was made 10years ago, somehow it reminds a little bit of union jack, it has this electornic + organic feel in the tracks which is very nice compared to all new releases with good soundquality but with the lack of warmth and organic feel. this is again only my comments after listening about 30min to it, but i can tell this is good stuff. It got me much interested in other very old albums, Lemmiwinks do you have any recommendations of albums before '95? Tracks 1,3,4,8,9 are my favorites so far. edit: now i have listened a little bit more, this album rocks my socks off, this kind of emotion in sounds it's impossible to find these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lemmiwinks Posted September 1, 2004 Author Share Posted September 1, 2004 It got me much interested in other very old albums, Lemmiwinks do you have any recommendations of albums before '95? well I just finishied reviewing about all the old trance albums I could find... hope to get my hands on some more soon... anyway, search for old Nova Zembla and Psy-Harmonics stuff, they seem to be VERY good! and indeed, IMO one should be able to dload this kind of stuff freely hance my proposition to koolaid... it's been out of print for many many years so I really don't see what harm it could do to get it on your HD. It could only revive interest in such "forgotten geniuses" (maybe even spark a comeback movement?) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frozen dream Posted November 3, 2007 Share Posted November 3, 2007 i have it in mp3 and i like most tracks and the overall creepy feeling, but yeah, to today's standards this isn't something special anymore... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yathabhuta Posted April 19, 2008 Share Posted April 19, 2008 This is the shit! what a fantastic album, so beatefull and warm. can´t descirbe this gem with words... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
draeke Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 Quoting Lemminwinks: "BTW I have been having as a plan with koolaid to make available for free download (or small fee that would go directly to the artist) such rare and brilliant albums. I hope one day the plan will become reality The biggest problem is tracking down the artists after all these years and asking them personally..." this would be a nice thing to do. This artist must be somewhere, did u give this idea a try recently ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frozen dream Posted September 22, 2010 Share Posted September 22, 2010 i'd love to have this one in lossless quality, i was recently listening to the new suns of arqa album thinking how much it reminded me of this release it's been years since i've heard it but i still remember how much i liked rooftop of the world, outta hunt down a copy somewhere... if anyone is selling one feel free to contact me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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