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Jaïa - Fiction


pr0fane

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:huh:  :blink:  :huh:  :blink:  :huh:  :blink:  :huh:  :blink:  :huh:

 

NOW THIS SOUNDS LIKE A EXCUSABLE REASON FOR BAN...

 

LEMMI, DO YOUR BEST, WE DON'T NEED FILTHY PEOPLE HERE...

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:lol: true :ph34r:
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  • 2 weeks later...

NOW THIS SOUNDS LIKE A EXCUSABLE REASON FOR BAN...

 

ah fuck I only read this now and I'm no longer a mod :( anyway, I guess his post was more of a joke than being serious...

 

just to add that I'm only 25... is it that old?

 

and the "new wave" usually means "the most apealing music to the masses"... which is the exact contrary of uncommercial music which is what goatrance was supposed to be in the first place. So excuse me if I prefer sticking to my oldschool... :rolleyes:

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

I thought this album is of quality in production, however, it lacks emotion, bite, and soul. I can easily say I was disappointed, considering the groups monumental previous works. Addin them to the list of dead BIG NAMERS.

 

R.I.P.

Bamboo Forest

Jaia :angry:

 

Final Verdict: 4/10 (Sub-par)

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After having the pleasure of having Yannis as a guest in our house last week-end, I'm even more impressed by this album.

It was a huge struggle for him to get this released (the music was already finished in 2003) & now it's sold out. In case you're wondering, sold out means "all" of the 2500 copies are gone. It's a sad thing that one of the progressive highlights of 2005 sells only 2500 pieces, no?

 

& a nice fait-divers for all the oldskool-druggies: the guy has never-ever touched ANY drugs, not even smokies. Christ, he didn't even have a drink with us ;)

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

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I thought this album is of quality in production, however, it lacks emotion, bite, and soul.

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Funny, I actually consider it one of the most emotional albums released in the last couple of years. Taste differs :)

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Right from the beginning, I had the impression that Jaias album was "over-produced", which is not untypical for releases from Digital Structures. In the attempt to be overly innovative (for example, the "gates"), the musical concept became harder to understand.

 

The same effect happened with the emotions, Jaia used a bit too much of them (see for example "orchestra") resulting in some sort of "emotional clipping" that spoils the flow.

 

These criticisms aside, Jaias album still bears a beautiful summer sound and remains a favourite in my collection. May be, Jaia next time understands that sometimes, less is more!

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Right from the beginning, I had the impression that Jaias album was "over-produced", which is not untypical for releases from Digital Structures. In the attempt to be overly innovative (for example, the "gates"), the musical concept became harder to understand.

 

The same effect happened with the emotions, Jaia used a bit too much of them (see for example "orchestra") resulting in some sort of "emotional clipping" that spoils the flow.

 

 

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I really do not get your point here :)

 

What is so hard to understand in the musical concept of the album? IMO it's all about the jurney from one musical style / place to the other, with a little gates to save you the shock at the transitions. I'm sure that if the transitions would not be separated as individual tracks and just mixed in as intros, you wouldn't even notice them (I did this when I ripped the CD to mp3 for my car).

 

And the "emotional clipping" you mentioned fits rather to some full-on artists that make their music so emotional, that it becomes cheesy. IMO this isn't the case with Jaia's CD. I heard many attempts to combine live / orchestral music into psytrance and 99% of them failed miserably, but Yannis pulls it off quite masterfuly. In fact "Serial Groover" and "Orchestra 2.0" are my faves here.

 

I've listened to most of progressive releases from last 2 years and that is the only album I really like from the beginning to the end. It's very musical, smooth, groovy and varied, with a lot of detail and clever arrangement. Definitely worth checking out :)

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And the "emotional clipping" you mentioned fits rather to some full-on artists that make their music so emotional, that it becomes cheesy. IMO this isn't the case with Jaia's CD. I heard many attempts to combine live / orchestral music into psytrance and 99% of them failed miserably, but Yannis pulls it off quite masterfuly. In fact "Serial Groover" and "Orchestra 2.0" are my faves here.

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Antic, the full-on stereotype does not even come as far as to "emotional clipping", it already chokes at acoustic clipping before reaching those regions in my brain that are responsible for understanding music. Just try to view a full-on track as a waveform on the screen, and you will see a sausage-like structure, that's why we call it "Israel-Wurst" here.

 

So don't misunderstand me - I am far from comparing Jaia's album to cheesy fullon-or-whatever-stuff, my points are to be taken more subtly... for example, Ticon just stopped right before they ran into over-production. That's why their album works so well and Jaia's has to be treated more carefully when used for the dance floor.

 

But anyway, it still stands far out of the crowd, no doubt about this :-)

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@firebreath

 

I don't really know what you're talking about. :huh:

 

If you try to say that Jaia's album is overproduced in technical terms and compare it with Ticon, than you're way of base, since Ticon's album is much more compressed and louder (closer to "sausage full-on trance" you described). Even the music is much more complicated in terms of programming and effects (just look at the 80's track or this electro-ish one - they're made to impress).

 

But my first impression was you're trying to say that Jaia's album is too emotional, so I kinda lost you ;):)

 

But, I see we agree that it's a good album and let's end it with that conclusion :D

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Good album. Unique, different, and pretty catchy. This album's chill, prog, trancey, world-influenced maybe downtempo and something else too. Glad to see him go in a more individual direction down a less common (full-on) path and not sell out his name from his masterpiece debut (Blue Energy) popularity. Lot's of work and feelings seemed to flow into this JAIA album.

 

I realize the new direction, style, and sound on JAIA - FICTION is totally different from JAIA - BLUE ENERGY, which is a great album, period. .

 

But for the record, I think for some it will be harder letting go of the older JAIA goatrance sound, because that's what is so strongly remembered for many. However, times change and so I think it's productive to judge this for what it is, and not in comparison with the original because both albums are in two seperate digital genra's now, if that makes sense.

 

For the record: I wish this artist would make a goatrance follow-up to Blue Energy, the classic album almost everyone seems to love.

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  • 2 weeks later...

... months later, sadly, I'm not finding that this holds up to repeated spins.

 

It's probably my anti-prog bias more than the record itself.

 

It's sounding more and more like Son Of Pet Shop Boys bombast to me. This will end up in the giveaway pile very soon.

 

Pity - I had wanted to like it, but it keeps making me roll my eyes.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Listen to blue energy and be astonished. :ph34r:

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Blue Energy is an untouchable classic. I listened to this again a few weeks ago right through in a dark room and was (as usual) blown away.

 

The new album is half of the old Jaia and it is different. I thank god he wasn't corrupted by the cheesy gay full on wave coming out of Israel and South America these days. If he had to be influenced by a new sound, let it be prog, and it was.

 

This album is still awesome for me. It's not psy, but it has enough complex elements, that I can still appreicate it. Solid release. Well worth the money spent, which is hard for me to say these days.

 

I give it 8.789 out of 10.

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  • 3 weeks later...

It's still a solid 10/10 from me, no spoilage here.

 

However, I am wondering if anyone has a weird little blip on "From Tokyo" just after the break when the tribal drums come in full force... pressing error?

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Talking about processing errors - did anyone noticed that there's always a little click between tracks on CDs (for those who actually have the CDs :)). It's because they fucked it up at the CD-pressing plant, and DS couldn't do nothing about it because it was already pressed when they found out :)

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This is an interesting release to comment for me. I bought it only because of reviews here on psynews saying this, Phony Orphants' It'cetra and Antix' Twin Coast Discovery were competing with only a handfull of other releases to be best progressive release of 2005. Well, not having heard any of these and just having received them what a splendid opportunity for me to unbiased compare some of the reportedly most outstanding progressive trance releases of 2005!

 

I might be a little carefully categorizing Fiction as progressive trance, though. I find it more deep/electro house like. Still, here we go.

 

Let me just say, that I am not to fond of the bridges/fillers between the main songs.I appreciate the idea trying to create a journey with down-tempo fillers and sounds between the main tracks, but this could have been done differently. In any case, this cd rocks and I would rather have had an extra track or a rmx.

 

Like I said, Fiction has a very housey vibe to it and fits in the house/trance/club hybrid. But don't worry - no cheese alarm setting off here even if this album won't intimidate your average club people (aka trance no'ers)!! I wouldn't be surprised to hear any of the tracks here in a club, and I'm sure they would pack the dance floor. Like track 2 serial groover. Smooth, energetic, sexy. Or the single Orchestra with its Wagner inspiration.

 

In a trance perspective, this music would be played on main stage on festivals, I presume. Personally, I'd rather hear it at the chill out stage, though, just around the time when it's getting dark. The tracks here have all the energy you want for recharging your batteries. Relaxing, chilling, chummying. Or make your body start twitching, even if involuntarily. And set you gently off if you feel for it. Cause it's smooth. It's controlled. And it's so damn freaking pleasant to listen too!!

 

One of the best progressive releases of 2005 in my opinion. Gotta check out Phony Orphants and Antix now ... <_<

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  • 1 month later...

I'm in the middle of this right now and it seems to be a totally stunning journey! One of the best ever perhaps.

 

And then I can't see a single reason to compare this to Ticon :o This is textured, complex, beautiful music, while Ticon just collected a bunch of "stormers" with no emotion or progression or FEEL! Don't anyone agree that everything Ticon's ever put out sounds cold and dead? Well, they're competent still, and not too bad.

 

But this is masterwork :)

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  • 7 months later...

Most people seem to dislike Orchestra 2.0 for some reason. It might be the most "housey" track on this album, yet it is my favourite. The rush I get when listening to it, getting to its ravey uprising part, can only be compared to the joy I get when listening to 6 on Artifakt's Artifakts II.

 

This album, and Artifakts II, are definitely my favourite two or 2005.

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I'm in the middle of this right now and it seems to be a totally stunning journey! One of the best ever perhaps.

 

And then I can't see a single reason to compare this to Ticon :o This is textured, complex, beautiful music, while Ticon just collected a bunch of "stormers" with no emotion or progression or FEEL! Don't anyone agree that everything Ticon's ever put out sounds cold and dead? Well, they're competent still, and not too bad.

 

But this is masterwork :)

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Ticon is a masterpiece..

 

and this is very nice too, but i prefer Ticon far above.. Ticon is one of the only albums i can listen on my computer in one time (on cd it is different, don't know why :s)

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  • 9 months later...

like it all less or more, love out of control.

however, i found that orchestral track with all those orchestral instruments to be quite unpleasant to listen to and too chaotic, far fetched.

id give it, if i had to, lets say 7 or 8 out of 10 :)

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  • 4 weeks later...

And then I can't see a single reason to compare this to Ticon :o This is textured, complex, beautiful music, while Ticon just collected a bunch of "stormers" with no emotion or progression or FEEL! Don't anyone agree that everything Ticon's ever put out sounds cold and dead? Well, they're competent still, and not too bad.

OT

 

No! Ticons album has it all, Progression emotion and Feel, loads of it. Period. Nothing Cold and dead here....

 

The Jaia Album quality wise is on par with Ticon, together they are the best Progressive releases of 2005, not a songle bad track here. I still listen to it regulary and still N-Hjoy teh Journey :)

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  • 5 years later...

It's funny read to debate back when it was released (good old psynews)

and it seems my opinion hasn't changed after all this years.

 

Jaïa - Fiction (2005)

 

This is a masterpiece. Jaïa has already proved his talent back in the 90's and he does it again.

This time he is using progressive instead of goatrance to produce what doesn't surprise me.

He always liked a minimal approach so I can imagine this french artist enjoyed created this album.

This is not uptempo progressive that's aspiring to be strong and hard.

It's a very smooth and gentle way of revealing progressive in an original form.

Already from the beginning you can notice that Jaïa hasn't lost his talent.

He still uses many influences, I hear nature elements, storms, rain falling, Indians speaking,

tribals etc. Even effects like clocks ticking and short pauses with violins make this concept album

highly recommended. The baselines has a soft beat and at the end Jaïa switches one time

to a fullon pattern very slow. With the result that this is a variated album and perfect

for home listening. If you hear very closely you can sometimes recognize the typical

Jaïa melodies (choice of sounds) in the background from 1998 what is super off course!

 

Discogs: http://www.discogs.com/Ja%C3%AFa-Fiction/release/477475

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  • 9 years later...

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