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V/A - Rhythmic Images


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Artists: Sunhize, Aviron and Eniak

Title:Rhytmic Images

Label: Unicorn Music

Catalog: UMCD009

Format: CD

Released: 2006

 

Posted Image

 

Tracklist:

01.Aviron - Nostuc

02:Eniak - Disturbed

03: Sunhize - Firestorm

04: Eniak - Solidify

05: Aviron - Freaky Dreams

06: Sunhize - Darkplay

07:Eniak - Liquid Ice

08: Aviron - Strange People

09: Sunhize - Seduzione

10: Aviron - Pretty Noise

 

 

Unicorn Music is out with their second effort concerning progressive trance. The concept here is simple, yet pretty cool - Three up and comming local greek producers get the chance to show the rest of us what they've got cooking. So it's sort of like a compilation with a dash of an album-feel. Let's check out the tracks and see what we've got comming our way!

 

01: Aviron - Nostuc

This is my first encounter with this greek producer, so no expectations on my behalf here. The track opens promising with some floating synths and some nice, fluid melodies. Unfortunately it turns a bit to clubby for my taste as the beat kicks in. "Hands-in-the-air-sirens" and some to me out-of place voice-samples sort of ruins what might otherwise be a nice and steadilly grooving progressive track well placed on the trance-side of the scale.

 

02: Eniak - Disturbed

As with Aviron, this is my first encounter with Eniak. Again I have much of the same problem with this track as I do with the first one. It opens with fluid and ambient soundscapes and then turns more to the really clubby side of things. That said - this might very well be what your looking for if you're into the more comercially oriented end of prog. trance. I'd like some more 'edge' though as this sort of bores me.

 

03: Sunhize - Firestorm

Sunhize is the last to be introduced of the trio. This fellow I've encountered before on the 'purple energy' - compilation released on the same label where he joined mendark on the track 'three on a three'. This track is more to my liking than the two previous ones. It's a tad harder and avoids the use of simple melody. This is more subtle and the art of hinting and gradually showing you where you'll be taken is performed well!. There's also a breakbeat-section of the track that works nicely. Very nice track!

 

04: Eniak - Solidify

No time for a floating intro this time - we head straight into 4/4 dancefloor-stuff. In this track Eniak chooses a more minimal approach than he does in his first track, and he does so with luck. A few liquid-sounding sounds merges nicely with the beat. After a while you also get about a minut and a half of really, really nice downbeat music. I'd like to see the ideas here explored further and brought into the rest of the track, but no - the last few minutes turn into pretty safe and straightforward 4/4-stuff. Nice enough, but not really very exciting...

 

05: Aviron - Freaky Dreams

Aviron returns halfway through the album with his second effort. This time the intro creates a darker atmosphere with some eerie syths and strange mechanics. The track is also far from his first one - it's a bit harder, it's a bit more groovy - and most importantly - the melodies here aren't of the simple siren-like kind. the use of voice-samples is also reduced - and voila!!There you've got yourself a nice track! The Gripe here is that where the first two thirds of the album actually dares to move around and touch alot of terretory, the ending is played out very, very safely. Still - very nice track!

 

06: Sunhize - Darkplay

As the first Sunhize-track was the first one to actually get to me on this album, I was hoping this would have a simular effect . As the title indicates this moves around in a more sinister mood(Don't get me wrong...this isn't Gherg on earth...). Again this track is above the standards presents on the album. Alot of ideas are played around with and with a sonically plesant result. Solid track!

 

07: Eniak - Liquid Ice

Eniak moves into the safe-house with "liquid ice". This is what you might call 'uplifting' with alot of melodies and a straightforward clubby beat. It doesn't really challenge in any way, though - there are noe suprises around the next corner and little variation throughout. Fair enough as background-music while getting drunk on fancy red and bluen drinks in cocktail glasses I suppose.

 

08: Aviron - Strange People

Avioron must be the king of intro's! This time he features human beat-boxing, something I think it's pretty safe to say you don't find everyday in your Trance-music. This is a tad more experimental than say - the liquid ice-track by Eniak, and I won't hessitate to encourage more of this! Groovy, somewhat strange and this time with a well-executed use of voice-samples. Good track!

 

09: Sunhize - Seduzione

"Seduzione" is Sunhize's final effort on the album. This is one of those really melodic pieces again. Bright, pretty "fluffy" and once again I think it lacks the originality, edge and complexity to really stand out. Oh - and that break mid-ways through.....It sound like it could have been taken straight out of some Tiesto mix-cd or something like that. Next!

 

10: Aviron - Pretty Noise

Aviron has (whit the exception of track #01) turned out to be my definite favourite throughout this album. Here he finishes the album, and he does so properly. Once again the buildup and introduction is essential here. Nearly two minutes of relaxed, laidback and somewhat corky electronica sets the mood. Later on we move into rather funky progressive soundscapes. This turns out to be a feelgood-track of proportions and all in all it's a very solid way to end the compilation. Good going!

 

Final Remarks:

So there you have it! Rhytmic Images is far from being a masterpiece of progressive music. Some of the tracks I really dislike and some of them are rather average. On the bright side there are also some very well constructed tracks here. Especially Aviron stood out in my book with three strong pieces. Unicorn music is moving in alot of different directions and ceirtanly has alot going for them. It's really nice to see that they're giving the chance to producers of alot of different generes and that they are not afraid of expanding their musical horizons.

 

Tomas (Psychedelic Mustache)

 

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  • 2 months later...

thanK you music mates for the feedback!

 

Review from Etch

writer of 3D World, InTheMix, Resident Advisor, FasterLouder and Vibewire.

========================================================

Rhythmic Images is the second release in the new In Progress series from Athens-based Unicorn Music. This ten track album is brimming with intricate progressive numbers from three of the scenes hottest talents - Grecian producers par excellence Eniak, Aviron and Sunhize. You can be sure that if Plato was still around he’d be staging killer parties at the Parthenon with these three as headliners!

 

New talent Eniak (George Belesis) is the clear star of the album. No relation to the vacuum-powered old school computer, Eniak is a producer that loves ultra bottom-heavy bass and intricate programming. Subtle timbral variety is the aim of the game for this innovative producer and psy-lovers will lap up his loud and bold sound.

The first of his tunes is Disturbed. It starts slowly, heavy on harmonics and ingenious subtle resonance filters that complement a kicking bass and percussion duel to the death. Pure high-quality dance music. Solidify is equally concerned with unyielding bass. Featuring the phattest of phatt b-lines that drops in around the five minute mark, this track will drive psy-lovers mad with glee. The last of his productions to feature is the frosty Liquid Ice. This tune slowly builds into a monster of crystal-tipped ambient washes that float around booming bass and twinkling sine-like melodies.

 

Equally impressive are the productions of Nick Petris aka Aviron. With numerous trance releases on the respected Discobole imprint, Aviron’s latest work is a continuation of his unusual sonic experiments. Each Aviron track included on Rhythmic Images goes beyond a simple interplay of bass, percussion and synth work. Instead, his tracks incorporate complex layers of sound that battle to the death for aural supremacy.

The first of these is Nostoc. Modelled on a day in the life of an aquatic bacteria that loves kicking back on the bottom of freshwater lakes, this cyanobacterial fusion piece is as odd as it sounds. Freaky Dreams is equally strange, a slice of pure twisted psychedelia that is as dark as it is unsettling. Aviron wisely changes tack with Strange People, a tune full of trippy vocal snips that glide over rich keys and sweeping synths packing enough reverb to kill an elephant.

 

Leading the final charge are Sunhize (Mike Petropoulos and John Dimitropoulos.) The most experienced of the bunch, their lifelong passion for goa still guides their productions, though the latest pieces to emerge from their talented fingers have been slowly moving toward a slightly groovier prog style. Tracks like Firestorm duck and weave through realms of pure consciousness while the slow burner Darkplay broods along for seven intense minutes. Their last piece, Seduzione, consists of punchy drums and a tight snare lead that floats around a warbling psychedelic synth whirlpool.

 

Entrancing stuff - happy listening!

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