Shakta - Out Of Sight

[Guest russ]

this album is so good, much better than previous shakta releases. i just can't

bring myself to understand how close-minded the fluoro fascicts can be. the

production on this album is as good as it gets--the sounds are incredible, the

grooves are tight, and it is very musical in places. why anyone would slag

this is totally beyond my comprehension. it covers a lot of ground from trance

to progressive house without ever cheesy. one of the best artist releases from

last year.

[Guest niels_knigge[at]ofir[dot]dk]

I've changed my mind.... Yahel is great! Israel rocks! (Why wasn't I born

Jewe??)

 

I've also changed my mind on this album. The style is dark and minimalistic,

but if you listen to it is actually good relaxing. But too boring... ( I use

it when I can't fall a sleep ;-) )4/10

[Guest Booooink!]

Pumpin' Hard Excellent! I love it! Not too busy, not too sparse... Up to Date!

[Guest hypnOBI]

fuckin great album! quiet science is sooooo driving! best song here imho. all

traxx are good (when taken not too seriously )

[Guest subspirit[at]hotmail[dot]com]

Just as the world constantly evolves, music also does. Today´s rock´n´roll

doesn´t sound the same as twenty years ago. Today´s goa/psytrance doesn´s

sound the same as 5 years ago. For a couple of years ago people wanted harder

and rougher goa so goa evolved. Minimalistic psytrance is as much "real goa"

as the "real goa" 5 years ago, so cut the bullshit and buy a great album. Seb,

u rule!!!

[Manuser]

The disappointement of some reviewers on previous page is understandable. This is extremely forgettable. The production is very good as expected... as for the music itself, nothing stands out. Reviews would be less harsh if it was not Shakta but the disappointment was legit. It is not bad if you like minimal progressive psytrance without melodies, but even then it is far from being among the best in the genre, it sounds too dull and bland. Most interesting for me is #7 "Answers", it has some kind of energy missing in most of the other tracks. Overall rating: 5/10.

 

 

 

 

By the way I think Shakta, goa trance or not, has always been slightly overrated but that's another topic

[abasio]

0nce you get a standardized idea of what to expect, for example, "real goa"

whatever that means, things stagnate and stop growing. If you got your wish

for 1996-97 style melodic twisty goa trance in every new album, pretty soon

this music scene would shrivel up and disappear. The greatest thing about goa

trance in years past was that it was so NEW, so fresh and young. And I feel

the same way about what we're seeing right now in the rhythm and

timbre-focused, less melodic sounds we hear from Atmos, Ticon,

Spirallianz/Midi Miliz, MOS, Noma, Planet BEN, and others. Music itself and

what we like about it is being picked at and dissected.

For thousands of years, before we had electricity, people had to resort to

hitting, blowing on, or plucking material objects to make sounds. These sounds

were as inflexible as the instruments themselves, and hence, an acoustic

instrument basically can only make one sound but at different pitches. With

pitch being the only thing one could mess with, a whole school of perceiving

and writing music grew around melody as the center of musical composition...

and when I listen to classical and other music all I hear is a bunch of note

pitches changing tediously on otherwise dead sounds. Now that we have

electricity, we can explore all sorts of ways to make sounds come alive and

grow and change, and a new approach to music-making is coming out of the

psychedelic trance scene as composers are exploring all sorts of new musical

concepts other than melody.

My point is that while there is a lot to like about the sounds of a few years

ago, we should all remember that there is a completely new breed of music

being born, and 2000-2002 is the time period in which these "minimal"

stripped-down psy-tech-trance etc. people are experimenting with many new

forms and ideas, and I know in a couple years, when we've seen all sorts of

new avenues and directions taken in this minimal vein, the colorful goa

goodness will return atop a much more sophisticated, advanced, and rhythmic

trance structure. So don't discourage these people such as Shakta from

wandering off for a bit from the traditional goa trance sound. They'll be back

soon, and goa will be better than ever.

This was a great post. Needs reposting

 

I liked this album. First listen was disappointing, like so many later Dragonfly releases they were not the same as the earlier ones and young me did not like that, did not like it at all. But when I revisit these albums with their "minimal" goatrance style I am much more impressed. The music is quiter, more introspective, less balls to the walls and with the foot off the accelerator artists find the room to create some nice atmospheric trance. Out of Sight is not my favourite Shakta album, I prefer Feed The Flame, but it's a good album. Favourite track - Next Stop Kawaguchi