Fractal Glider - Digital Mandala

[Jalliuz]

Fractal Glider - Digital Mandala

 

 

Artist: Fractal Glider

Title: Digital Mandala

Label: BooM!

Date: 2003

 

Track listing:

 

01. Tabla Trek

02. Megatonne

03. Titanium Walls

04. Striker

05. Things That Go Bump

06. My World

07. 6 Degrees

08. Mezmorized (Rmx)

09. The Stem Cell

 

Review:

 

Very very very nice album. Where oldskool meets quality is what I can say from

this one. Very enjoyable structures and ideas like their previous album but

with better fresher sounds and worked out much better. It has these original

goa things in it again. Things that get lost some times when theres an

overload of new music. This is again an album filled with potential and pure

psychedelic power! All the tracks are good but i have these 2 favoutite

tracks. Those are 'Megatonne (2)' and 'the stem cell (9)'

This CD is worth 9.5/10!

[Lemmiwinks]

IMO you really have to be in the right mood to like Fractal Glider...

Personally I found that the tracks here simply had too much sounds thrown in

my face. I mean, lotsa layers are a good thing as long as they're made with

thought, but this is not the case here. I'm getting the impression that

Fractal simply added sounds just so it could be said that his music is

full-on. The only track I really like here is the remix from Mezmorized which

is even better than the original IMO!! As for the rest.. I guess they have

their value on the dancefloor but for home listeing I don't really like... 5/10

[Guest Dr G]

An excellent follow-up to Fractal Glider's awesome "Parasite" album. Fractal

Glider is still making "proper" goa tunes which stomping kicks, agile snaking

bass lines, hard melodies, zero cheese, and I for one am very glad; in fact,

I'd say that Paul McCosh is the best trance artist in Australia. All the

tracks are similar full-on outdoor party type tracks, and all are similar in

quality. However, I particularly rate the first track "Tabla Trek" and "Things

that go bump" which features a lovely haunting flute-type noise. "My world" is

somewhat spoilt by a really crap sample and the remix of "mesmorized" doesn't

add much to the already wicked original. By the way, I highly recommend

chasing down the "Chasing Ganesh" track on the Boom! compilation "Ice-o-lator"

- this track has a really killer bass line. Fully recommended - excellent

stuff. 9.5/10 ~*~

[Guest LoneDeranger]

Things that go Bump [in the Night] (5) - Wow! - this track absolutely blew me

away. This is not your usual Fractal Glider style, it's much more emotional

and sophisticated, yet doesn't sacrifice those full-on Goa melodies his music

is known for. Tabla Trek (1) another amazing track. In the beginning I even

thought Shpongle or something! All other tracks are awesome too. The only

tracks I thought were a little weak were My World (6) and 6 Degrees (7). Of

course I always expected another great album from Paul McCosh, but nothing

like this. I really hope he sticks to this new style. Not only is this

better then his first album, this is way better then anything I heard in the

last 2 years. 10/10!

[Trance2MoveU]

 

Artist: Fractal Glider

Title: Digital Mandala

Label: BooM! Records

Date: 2003

 

1. Tabla trek
2. Megatonne
3. Titanium walls
4. Striker
5. Things that go bump
6. My world
7. 6 degrees
8. Mezmorized (rmx)
9. The stem cell

 

"Anyone who isn't dead or from another plane of existence would do well to cover their ears right about now!"

 

Oh boy that was your warning, not mine. Time Bandits...was there a movie that kicked more ass? It had it all. Magic, sci-fi, and all the midgets you could want. Fractal Glider is Aussie Paul McCosh and this is his 2nd album. His last track according to Discogs was 2008 so the project appears to be on hiatus. Maybe he got married and had kids. That'll f*ck with your plans let me tell you. I love goa trance as well, but if it's a choice between making music and taking care of the fam, y'all can suck it. You probably just downloaded my sh*t anyway.

 

His first album Parasite was psychedelic goa trance and I shall review it shortly. This however leaves goa in the rear view for the most part. And that makes me sad. He still spins tales of psychedelia, but something is lacking. Nothing here sticks with me. Usually there are tracks I'm just waiting to repeat, but not here.

 

The beginning of Tabla Trek? Great, but then it's just full-on nonsense. What's with the 1980's electric boogaloo scratch sound effects precisely on beat? Megatonne sounds like he made his hardware cry. I liked the groove of Stem Cell, but not a lot else. With Titanium Walls he shoulda built around the funky bit instead of the rambling mess it became.

 

Striker strikes out on a slow full-on pitch and Things That Go Bump struggles to implement its good ideas. My World suffers greatly from a cornball sample while bright spot 6 Degrees shined with its throaty leads and wild intensity. The Mesmerized remix is chock full of darkpsy scratchiness and a goa vibe so that's cool. Probably my favorite here even though it becomes quite noisy at the end.

 

And that's the story here for me. Too many, 'Cool, but..." tracks A lot of times with an album there will be parts in every track I like. But here I disliked parts of all the tracks. It's an also ran for me, an album that will get lost in the untold amount of releases I'll hear. It is now a decade old and while not terrible by any means it unfortunately doesn't distinguish itself and therefore cannot hold up.

 

Mdk

[Ormion]

I think it's an album that you had to listen to its era you fully appreciate it. I love it, it combines great melodies with power, it's full on without sounding cheesy at all. Funny that I never liked the mesmerized track (both original and remix). Something in this melody annoys me.

[Jon Cocco]

Fractal Glider - Digital Mandala

2003

 

01. Tabla Trek
02. Megatonne
03. Titanium Walls
04. Striker
05. Things That Go Bump
06. My World
07. 6 Degrees
08. Mezmorized (Rmx)
09. The Stem Cell

 

March 3rd, 2013 - I heard this album for the first time, 10 years after its release!

 

Over the years I avoided this follow up due to getting the impression that it lacked Goa-influence, or was more mainstream full on (means generic to me). This isn't Goatrance; there's influence I think. I didn't consider the first album entirely Goa anyway.

 

01. Tabla Trek - I love how this starts out, and wish he found a way to show case the beginning two minutes sound more throughout the song. Overall a pretty good song.

 

08. Mezmorized (Rmx) is an awesome remix. It's "bird chirping" sound effect I find irritating (as it progresses) though, and the end's a little messy (over-layered, muddled) sounding. A-

Conclusion - There's lots of catchy stuff here. Digital Mandela is NOT generic Full On. It IS Psytrance with some Goa-influence here and there, more or less like Parasite. The debut is more intense, chaotic; his sound here stands out more on certain tracks; it more refined. The artist produces such a nice, catchy, and unique sound in the beginning of Table Trek. That creative, harmonious influence unfortunately does not take place again in the sound once it exits at 2:14. It could have developed to avoid sounding repetitious. That said, it flows into the music that's quite catchy. I agree with Trance2MoveJ about track 2, the strange synth work early on (like an instrument crying) I don't find appealing. The album has moments that work better than others in that sense; thanks to experimenting, he produced some really fantastic work. This follow up doesn't have the powerful intros as few tracks on the debut had. There are some great intros and songs nonetheless! This is a solid follow up.

 

Favorites - 1, 5, 8, 9.

 

B