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V/A - Psionic Circus


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V/A – Psionic Circus

 

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Hi-res cover: front + back

 

Artist: Various

Title: Psionic Circus

Format: CD (jewel case)

Label: Digital Psionics (Australia)

Cat. #: DPSICD12

Distribution: Arabesque

Date: 16 May 2005

 

Track listing:

 

01. 06’34” Safi Connection – Albert On Acid

02. 07’07” Space Tribe & Psywalker – Space Case

03. 07’07” Tube – Land Of Reason

04. 06’10” Skazi & CPU – Highest Party

05. 06’50” Damage – Unspeakable Evil

06. 07’28” Shift - Corrosion

07. 07’15” Bon – The Only Escape

08. 07’09” Xatrik – The Spice

09. 09’15” Kluster - Walker

10. 09’22” Dark Nebula & Scatterbrain – Crash And Burn

 

.m3u-playlist: http://tinyurl.com/9zek7 (all tracks)

 

Review:

 

Cirque du Psionics…

 

Australia’s leading export, Digital Psionics, is finally out with its much awaited and heavily delayed 12th release... A quick glance at the tracklist reveals a close resemblance with the tracklist on last year’s Psionic Storm compilation – and what looks like too many Skazi disciples… Oh well, Luke Psywalker and Luna Orbit compiled this baby – and they rarely let me down, so let’s dig a little deeper and smell the saw dust…

 

Let me take you thru the tracks…

 

#01: Safi Connection – Albert On Acid

“…His family was away at the time, so he had a lot of fear, that he had perhaps damaged his mind by doing this. He lay in bed, at one point his consciousness was up on the ceiling, looking down on what he took to be his dead body… ” Mishel Bitton from Israel is a very productive full-on producer with no less than 4 released albums and tons and tons of compilation tracks… None of the tracks I’ve heard from him have been outstanding though – but this takes the cake as the best one I’ve heard thus far… The intro is very experimental and the overall groove is smooth and bouncing… I like the little melody and the many crazy FX sprinkled throughout the track… The drug-samples are perhaps a bit over the top (and also used by Vibe Tribe!?), but they don’t annoy me at all… A nice little track for sure!

 

#02: Space Tribe & Psywalker – Space Case

“They play music and meditate. And wait patiently for UFOs to appear…” Here’s another collaboration between Ollie Wisdom and Luke Psywalker… I really liked the collaborations on Psionic Storm and on the Space Tribe Collaborations album… Again we get Olli’s light, fluffy, melodic full-on mated with the harder, wicked input from Psywalker – a well-tested formula that works! Twisted, futuristic full-on… And whenever Ollie is about to get too fluffy, Luke saves the day… Another nice track!

 

#03: Tube – Land Of Reason

Enter the first member of the Chemical Mafia: Pini Alon from Israel… It’s no secret that I’m not particularly impressed with the whole Skazi spin-off hell circus… And this track is a good reason why – already within the first minute the track is drenched in the same mind-numbing heavy metal guitars we’ve heard over and over again… And as others have pointed out – the obvious Infected Mushroom-inspired reversed piano-riffs… Move on already! Filler!

 

#04: Skazi & CPU – Highest Party

“Welcome to the highest party in the world!” And now for the most hated man in our scene… Skazi! Before Shaffel Records turned into Chemical Crew and before every single Prodigy, Metallica and Britney Spears was brutally butchered, I actually liked some of his stuff… The first album was pretty good, but ever since I’ve avoided everything labelled Skazi Inc… Oh well, it’s not Skazi on his own here – he’s collaborating with CPU (Samy Guediche) so I’m gonna give this track a fair chance before I bash it… Actually it’s not as bad as I had expected… There are indeed interesting moments here – especially the breaks and acid-bits are pretty well executed… And it seems as if CPU was in charge of the track construction, as there are only a few obvious signs of Skazi’s usual arsenal of sing-a-long samples and electric guitars… Unfortunately the track seems to lack an overall sense of direction and as such the flow is a little off… Decent track!

 

#05: Damage – Unspeakable Evil

Third member of the Chemical Mafia is Deon Baard from Japan… The recent Damage track on the Electric Embryo compilation was so-so, but on the other hand the track on the Psionic Earth compilation released last year was awesome… And actually, this is a pretty nice track too… I’ve always been a sucker for squeaking acid-lines and there’s an abundance of those here… Deon twists his knobs like a madman on this flaring hard, acid-ridden night-time tune… It reminds me of Rinkadink/Time Code stuff at times – and I really like that! Solid tune!

 

#06: Shift – Corrosion

Next up is good old Chris Hoy from South Africa – an extremely productive guy who’s also one half of Twisted System… I really liked his track on the Ketuh compilation ALittle Lunacy released earlier this year – and this follows the same formula… An extremely demented acid-line hurts your teeth in the intro – you will either love it or it will annoy the hell outta you… I think it’s pretty cool – same with the breaks here… This is fast-paced, acid-ridden night-trance with enough stamina and dance-potential to last well into the summer… Good stuff!

 

#07: Bon – The Only Escape

“God is not here today!” Bon is Fausto Emiliano Gianni from Italy – he’s been a Digital Psionics regular for years and so far I’ve liked everything I’ve heard from him… As with earlier Bon material this is darkish night-trance with epic, melodic qualities…. The long pads in the background are beautifully executed and they are quite trance-inducing… Quite refreshing after the extremely complex, diverse Damage and Shift tracks, but somehow also a little anonymous… But for sure a nice track…

 

#08: Xatrik – The Spice

“The spice must flow…” Greg Hamber from South Africa released his excellent and extremely psychedelic debut album Project A on Digital Psionics last summer… An album I still get much enjoyment from when I want to challenge my senses… This track is a little less complex than the album tracks - actually it’s pretty stripped down for the first three minutes until the break… Greg plays around with filters and layers and manages to create a paranoia-like atmosphere… I’m not sure whether I like this track or not… For sure it has its moments, but somehow I find it to be a little too introvert and not very living room friendly… A decent track!

 

#09: Kluster – Walker

“You do understand that our time is limited don’t you?” Michael Petterson from Sweden released his debut album Bug Fix on Digital Psionics in 2002 – and has had quite a few tracks on darkish compilations… And sure enough, this is a darkish track too… With the trademark synthetic Kluster melody… Reminds me of Derango, Procs or old Hux Flux at certain places - meaning this is very, very trippy Swedish forest trance – shroomy and psychedelic! … Just the way I like it… Very nice track!

 

#10: Dark Nebula & Scatterbrain – Crash And Burn

“That’s weird… I’m loosing my mind. I must be imagining things… Hey don’t forget! This weekend – all weekend long, it’s a crash and burn weekend!” Just like on the last two DP compilations, here’s a collaboration track between two of Australia’s finest producers (Luna Orbit & Adam Walters)… Just like the last collaborations, this is a very, very sweet track… It’s just like you’d expect from these guys – weird! The intro is super-trippy and kinda old-school … The melodic lead is very Scatterbrain’ish – twisted and psychedelic… A dark, yet uplifting track – with a distinct drive and tons and tons of funny bits and pieces… I mean – check out the break – and the Gregorian chanting monks… It works! One of the best tracks here!

 

Digital Psionics is indeed one of my favourite labels and they have yet to put out a disappointing release. This is a very tasty compilation – well, I don’t like the lousy Tube track and there are a couple of not so good tracks here… But the rest is very nice, and the good/bad ratio is high enough to validate a purchase… Digital Psionics fans will not be disappointed, and I’m sure people who liked the last Ketuh compilation In Crypto will also find something of interest here… High quality, in-your-face modern hyper-trance… Enjoy!

 

Favourites: 1, 2, 5(!), 6, 9, 10(!!)

 

DeathPosture

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External links:

Digital Psionics: http://www.digitalpsionics.com

Saiko Sounds: http://tinyurl.com/a74c3

Beatspace: http://tinyurl.com/9mqlm

Wirikuta: http://tinyurl.com/a4d36

Psyshop: http://tinyurl.com/clc9e

Wakyo: http://tinyurl.com/8qkpl

Chaos: http://tinyurl.com/e3nyr

Juno: http://tinyurl.com/bhtml

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hmm the cover-art looks like some Cradle Of Filth CD and omg Skazi among names like Shift, Damage , Dark Nebula & Xatrik :o

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  • 2 weeks later...

OMG, i just got this album and it's great, other than 2-4 (esp 3+4). I kind of expected this to be good because of who's on it, with the exception of skazi of course. It's definately on the darker side, and there's some great twisted psychedelia on it. The cover suits the comp well. Overall, the songs have a lot of nice twists that'll make you keep wondering what's next. This is one of the best of 2005, if not THE best (although there haven't been too many good releases this year :/). Check it out! :)

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  • 11 years later...

"You understand that our time is limited, don't you?"

 

 

Not limited enough I'm afraid.  Another entry in the Psionic series and what the...

 

Is that...?

 

77ryh2l.gif

 

There is Highest Party again.  On another of your compilations.  In the same year.  Nah, f*ck that, within 6 months.  Shenanigans!

 

This came out before Psionic Tales and puts the lighter stuff in the beginning before getting dark.  It's pretty noisy to be honest.  Few good ones.  Like I've said before, Highest Party isn't bad (pretty good actually), but Corrosion shows why Chris Hoy will always be a legendary bad-ass.  Kluster's track ended up pretty good once you get through all the weirdness.

 

Once thing I will say about Dark Nebula.  I always loved the robotic or science fiction themes in Richard's music.  Unfortunately I have never felt that his execution was that great so I'm usually disappointed with his tracks.  Weird.

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