Stereographic Vs. Smoke Ship - Audio Acupuncture

[Trance2MoveU]

 

 

Stereographic Vs. Smoke Ship- Audio Acupuncture

Mindfunk Records

September 2009

 

 

1. Stereographic- Illusion Modes (7:40)

2. Smoke Ship- Predator Squeak (6:57)

3. Stereographic- Mistress Delia (6:36)

4. Smoke Ship- Leuscalina (7:52)

5. Stereographic- Techno Drama (9:12)

6. Smoke Ship- Unknown Territory (6:47)

7. Stereographic- Pandora (8:15)

8. Smoke Ship- Hallucination Zone (7:29)

9. Stereographic- Obscure Anderground (7:01)

10. Smoke Ship- Full Projection (6:21)

 

 

Ooh boy, I'm outside the box on this one. Normally I don't go in for any darkpsy or forest trance as it is a wee bit chaotic for my tastes, but I figured I would give it a go to try and stretch the reviewing skills. So bear with me, here it goes.

 

Venezuelan Mindfunk Records brings us a mixed album from two artists currently residing in Brazil. Psyshop tells me that Stereographic (never heard of him) is a night-time trance guy while Mr. Ship (don't know who he is either) dabbles in the foresty pixie weirdness. There are 10 tracks on this album and each artist provides 5. Starting with the cover, it is a brilliant hue of blue neuronal appearing structure with radioactive green slashes which I assume are stabbing the aforementioned neurons in an attempt to stimulate. Pretty sweet.

 

Right of the bat, the music doesn't beat around the bush. As promised Stereographic brings a more accessible nighttime sound that is riddled with dark effects adding to the mood. There are some melodies here, but they are slight. His bass line drives the track with authoritative groove. Mr. Ship on the other hand is total random (to me) forest trance with not much in the way of melody. Normally that would bother me, but oddly enough his music is strong enough to be sustained without it. The only experience I have with Forest Trance is Derango's brilliant Tumult so I compare all of this type of trance with that album. That may or may not be fair, but that's all I got. The effects used here are sometimes slightly harsh, but they are effective in carrying the track. Maybe this is forest lite, I don't know, but I like it. Of note, the sample in Leuscalina about torture was awesome and perfectly placed.

 

Normally I don't agree with Psyshop's overhyped descriptions of releases as they all are full of hyperbole. They rarely deliver what is promised. While I wouldn't call this essential like I would I.F.O., this was still an enjoyable listen. I felt most of the tracks were good, not too heavy, but clearly dark. Where a lot of so called psy is very formulaic, this was a surprise around every corner. And this is from a guy clearly out of his element. Perhaps Rotwang (I believe he likes the dark side) or any other Darkpsy aficionado would completely disagree with all I have written. But for me, I was glad I gave this a listen.

 

Psyshoppage

 

 

Mdk