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Yahel - Xport


Lemmiwinks

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1. Fear Of The Dark (VIP Mix) (7:56)

2. Inti Zar (6:46)

3. Anoni (4:04)

4. Beyond (7:05)

5. Simple Mind (7:16)

6. Save Me (6:53)

7. Reach 2 Me (6:32)

8. Oxygen (6:55)

9. Beijar (6:59)

10. Do U Believe (6:54)

11. Xport (7:07)

 

 

I know that I should stop living in the past and just live with the fact that neither Yahel or Phonokol will probably ever release anything worthwhile again since the demise of oldschool in 2000... but when I see an established oldschool name I just have to check it out ;)

 

So anyway as one would expect, nothing in this album even comes close to the oldschool sound for which Yahel and Phonokol used to be known for... except for some massive oriental influences in some tracks, although the end result is VERY different from the kind of oriental influences we're used to hearing in oldschool. But still, when you listen to it with an open mind you realize it's not all that bad ;)

 

The album starts off with Fear Of The Dark in which the main guitar melody hook is nothing else than a blatant ripoff of 1200 Mics - High Paradise and absolutley no credits are given to the original artists... I think someone will have an army of lawyers knocking on their door in a short while ;) [EDIT: someone kindly pointed out to me that 1200 Mics themselves ripped it off Iron Maiden] Still, copyright issues set aside, this is a pretty nice interpretation of the theme. It actually has some female singing but if you think of it as some vocal trance it's not that bad.

 

Inti Zar brings back some oriental melodies... but don't expect anything oldschool in there, this is a completly different interpretation of oriental melodies. It sounds more like some oriental pop dance track than anything else. Sometimes it is good, other times I feel it's going a bit overboard into commercial territory...

 

Anoni has some eerie oriental female voices. Would you believe me if I told you that for a minute there this made me think of Indoor - Shiva? But I think it's more my imagination than anything else. And there is also a little melody starting 1:02 that sounds almost exactly like the rave classic Members of Mayday - Sonic Empire. Still, this is a nice tune and definatly one of the best on this album.

 

Beyond is basically a vocal trance track and I must say that I have heard better vocal trance tracks out there... Interestingly enough this one uses the same synth presets as Sash - Encore Une Fois (but just the presets, not the melody thank God ;) )

 

Simple Mind is... a simple track... not really anthing that catches my attention in there.

 

Save Me is a more interesting experiment. It sounds like some sort of crossblend between commercial trance and goth (including the female voice). I can't say I like it but it is an interesting listen nonetheless.

 

Reach 2 Me is a more conventional laid-back vocal trance track with some guitars a nice female voice and a less nice male voice ran through a vocoder. It reminded me a lot of Armin Van Buuren's new style.

 

Beijar would actually be a good track if it wasn't for the singing.

 

Do You Believe brings even more voices, this one actually made me think of some Depeche Mode lol Again, if it wasn't for the voices, this would've been much better IMO.

 

XPort finally some more action ;) There is a pretty catchy guitar riff in there, a nice track.

 

 

The Good: Yahel is definatley experimenting with some new sounds, and also brings back some oriental sounds that will bring some good memories to any oldschooler like myself :)

 

The Bad: Like always, Yahel is always aiming for a large commercially-oriented audience which kindof ruins some tracks (like for example adding cheezy vocals on top).

 

Conclusion: I never really was a big fan of Yahel since the change in style from 2001 and this is no exception... But still, it is a nice listen when you're tired of the typical psytrance rolling-bassline sound :) 7/10

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The album starts off with Fear Of The Dark in which the main guitar melody hook is nothing else than a blatant ripoff of 1200 Mics - High Paradise and absolutley no credits are given to the original artists... I think someone will have an army of lawyers knocking on their door in a short while ;) Still, copyright issues set aside, this is a pretty nice interpretation of the theme. It actually has some female singing but if you think of it as some vocal trance it's not that bad.

Actually the main melody in both Yahel and 1200 Mics tracks is taken from the Iron Maiden-Fear Of The Dark song.

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Haha, an artist ripping off another artist, which in turn ripped of another artist to start with... I am definitely going to check out this album, but what I read, and what I hear in Samples, does not appeal... but then again, I will prolly end up buying it out of old habit of getting all Yahel stuff haha :)

 

(and yeah, shame on you Lemmi for not knowing your facts, but hell, no need to pwn you more than Ormion already did)

 

7/10 is a pretty high Score though Lemmi, are you sure about the rating? Cause that is the only thing that got me a BIT interested in the release... your scoring!

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Haha, an artist ripping off another artist, which in turn ripped of another artist to start with... I am definitely going to check out this album, but what I read, and what I hear in Samples, does not appeal... but then again, I will prolly end up buying it out of old habit of getting all Yahel stuff haha :)

 

(and yeah, shame on you Lemmi for not knowing your facts, but hell, no need to pwn you more than Ormion already did)

 

7/10 is a pretty high Score though Lemmi, are you sure about the rating? Cause that is the only thing that got me a BIT interested in the release... your scoring!

 

well sorry for being a psyhead and not being into rock music ;) As for the rating well I gave it a rather high rating because he's trying new things and IMO originality is a very important factor when rating an album. And like I said, once you're tired of the usual rolling bassline trademark psy sound, this is a welcome listen. But yeah, for people who have been into the scene for some time, I think that the main factor behind buying this album is force of habit as you say :)

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And like I said, once you're tired of the usual rolling bassline trademark psy sound, this is a welcome listen.

But Lemmi mayn, this is not psy? I just skimmed the album, it sounds a little to cheesy for my taste.. To bad, he was really good once.. Intelligent life and last man in the universe are still being played from time to time, even though they were some of the first trance tracks i ever listened to..
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But Lemmi mayn, this is not psy? I just skimmed the album, it sounds a little to cheesy for my taste.. To bad, he was really good once.. Intelligent life and last man in the universe are still being played from time to time, even though they were some of the first trance tracks i ever listened to..

 

I wouldn't call this psy, no... it has more in common with vocal trance like Tiesto and Armin Van Buuren than with psytrance. On the other hand, people still keep calling Infected Mushroom psytrance producers so make what you want out of it ;)

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