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Infected Mushroom - Army of Mushrooms


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Artist: Infected Mushroom

Title: Army of Mushrooms

Label: Dim Mak Records

Date: May, 2012

 

 

1. Never Mind

2. Nothing to say

3. Send me an angel

4. U R so fucked

5. The Rat

6. Nation of wusses

7. Wanted To

8. Serve my thirst

9. I Shine

10. Drum N' Bassa

11. The Pretender

12. The Messenger 2012

13. Swingish (Bonus Track)

 

 

Elder statesmen Infected Mushroom are the Def Leppard of the psytrance genre.

 

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Minus the big 80's hair. And probably mother/daughter threesomes, alcoholic binges, and Behind the Music special. For hard rockers Def Leppard it was Pyromania and Hysteria that put them on the map and they've been riding that pony for 3 decades. After those two albums it was pretty much downhill in terms of quality as many a soccer mom could be heard rocking their latest ballad in the Honda Odyssey on the way to little Timmy's qudditch tournament.

 

IM's claim to fame was The Gathering and Classical Mushroom and after that depending on your point of view things may or may not have gone seriously wrong. While still clinging to their roots they seemed to veer off into commercial territory. I defy you to label their music other than what the haters would undeniably call crap. Their last album Legend of the Black Shawarma had it's moments and mixed results so do we have to put up with more singing or have they changed course yet again?

 

One thing you can say is that this project has a knack for pissing people off. As I mentioned with the last album it was the singing. Here it is the equally polarizing field of dubstep. You either love it or hate it. On this effort they combine the carnal robotic knowledge of dubstep with some of the Riddler's funky groove. This is evident from the 1st track Nevermind which will keep the toe tapping and head spinning when it morphs into the wobbly speaker shredding dubstep. Nothing to Say has plenty to say with a nice bouncy beat and melody. Which is then utterly destroyed by one of the worst buildups I have ever heard.

 

Ever.

 

But I love the smashing dubstep that comes immediately after, but why did they have to ruin it with that buildup? Because that's what they f*cking do.

 

Send Me an Angel- Is that Hebrew? Call me an anti-semite if you must, but it's not a very pretty language to sing. I bet he spit all over the microphone. Oh, and this track also has the second (it was very close) worst buildup of all time.

 

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U R So Fucked....

 

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yeeeeeeaaaaaaah....... Even if you ignore the title the Trent Reznor-like screaming his nobody loves me angst is absolutely horrible. Luckily The Rat follows and that is some toe tapping fun and a thumping you're only likely to receive if you ask a fat lady when her baby is due. Nation of Wusses continues the funk party forcing Soul Train lines to spontaneously erupt wherever you look. And an uplifting melody? Get the f*ck outta here.

 

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Must. Get Down. To Dubstep.

 

 

And the dubstep is never far behind. As the wobbly and squelchy short track Wanted To proves. The female vocal ain't bad and all I can say is at least it isn't Dudev singing. Serve My Thirst unfortunately sees a return to the singing and it, uh...it ain't pretty. There is more singing on I Shine, but truthfully it's not that bad. The beat is ultra catchy and when that happens you can overlook a lot.

 

At this point I'm still kinda numb but even I can recognize the harsh guitar leads and vocal manipulations that has been the calling card of IM for a while. But because dubstep is their shiny new toy they cram it into the Drum n Baasa track as well. Of course for me it was the most memorable part of that track. Oh, and the painful buildups.

 

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Please make it stop.

 

 

The Messanger is their epic track that shows how musical and theatrical they can be. Symphonic, classical, and very dramatic. Goes from downtempo to very uptempo and back and reminds me of Dancing with Quadaffi. Oh and you didn't think they would leave the dubstep out of this track did you? C'mon, they had almost 11 minutes to fill. The end reminds of some 1980's Jan Hammer soundtrack stuff. Pretty cool.

 

The final "bonus track" is Swingish and I'll be honest at this point my mind is overloaded and it sounded like all the rest of the tracks. Can I decline a bonus track?

 

 

Look this is what they do and who they are. Let go of the past because it doesn't seem like they have any interest in returning to it. Their style is un boxworthy and all over the place, but their sound production is still flawless. So take it for what it is. A good time. Sometimes I think they manipulate sounds and just make noise because they can. They still bring the beats and let's not forget this is still dance music. It's a lot to take in for one listening, but I enjoyed it.

 

Most of it.

 

 

Beatport

 

Goa Store

 

Saiko Sounds

 

Beatspace

 

Psyshop

 

Mdk

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  • 4 months later...

C'mon guys, do you still expect a return to the roots by the band? Enjoy the past and accept the fact IM are now producing music for the masses, they need to tour in big venues, have commercial music and pay the bills of their expensive house in LA. I admire the fact they came from the underground tracking scene and could make it to Hollywood, you gotta give them credit for this. Few acts went from rags to riches out of this scene.

 

I think some tracks are acceptable and the review above just sums everything up perfectly. Some melodies are good, there is dub-step there is modern state of the art production (well they can afford it) and then there is a vague reminiscence of some little psychedelic sonority here and there but that's all, this ain't psytrance, it is commercial dubstep/vocal/pop/electro/whatever you want to name it, but some may like it a lot. Especially if they have no clue about what psytrance is :).

 

Now I wonder, what would they do if I asked them to release some lost unreleased track of theirs on DAT :D ahahah I guess that won't happen though, too bad.

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C'mon guys, do you still expect a return to the roots by the band? Enjoy the past and accept the fact IM are now producing music for the masses, they need to tour in big venues, have commercial music and pay the bills of their expensive house in LA. I admire the fact they came from the underground tracking scene and could make it to Hollywood, you gotta give them credit for this. Few acts went from rags to riches out of this scene.

 

I think some tracks are acceptable and the review above just sums everything up perfectly. Some melodies are good, there is dub-step there is modern state of the art production (well they can afford it) and then there is a vague reminiscence of some little psychedelic sonority here and there but that's all, this ain't psytrance, it is commercial dubstep/vocal/pop/electro/whatever you want to name it, but some may like it a lot. Especially if they have no clue about what psytrance is :).

 

Now I wonder, what would they do if I asked them to release some lost unreleased track of theirs on DAT :D ahahah I guess that won't happen though, too bad.

 

i wouldn't be so sure fed, if you look at the ones who have gone on to be quite commercial (not many in our scene but the likes of oakenfold etc)

have and still are coming back to the roots.

 

they started their career as a couple of teenagers with a dream, and i think they have achieved it in one way or the other.

but am sure they havn't forgotten where they have come from, and they will come back, to some extent.

and am sure when the unreleased stuff from the better days comes out, dat will be there.

 

as far as the album goes, it has some great moments, but that fucked song, i can not stand it.

otherwise production is the best i think i have ever heard, and that carries this album along way.

good luck fellas

see you on the flipside, when hollywood don't want you no more!

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Infected Mushroom - Army of Mushrooms

2012

 

The Messenger 2012 (track) is well done.

 

The Rat and Nation of Wusses is pretty good until the last 3 minutes where the epic, dramatic feel is lost and exchanged for what sounds like a goofy version of the same song. These artists obviously know what works because they end their album with a solid song. Bursts of emotive moments off-set the badness, i.e: Serve My Thirst from 1:50 to 2:28.... <--- that's good! Why isn't the rest of the song this catchy?!

 

The lyrics on "U R So Fucked" come across as juvenile, just bad. No thanks!

 

Much of the album sounds like noise to me; it's not catchy. Too often they digress, such as in Nation of Wusses; they had a good thing going.

 

The goup has a chance to say aware stuff that's engages considering the vocals. Too often it comes across as egoic: shallow and superfluous. These guys have so much talent; I wish they'd just stick with stuff that's aware. Help make the world a better place. Write songs that inspire.

 

I won't even bother rating this album. It sounds like anxiety where a plethora of ideas, both good and bad infect the songs.

 

The Messenger 2012 is great though. Buy it for 1$ off Apple's MP3 Store, Amazon MP3, or the likes. Actually why am I promoting this album? Just hear the song(s) on youtube for free. You can always buy the album or the songs you like. Money is too tight now days to spend it on a bunch of average stuff that's disappointing.

 

Update: WOW. B.P. Empire automatically started playing in my iTunes after this album and sounds AMAZING compared to this...so imaginative, creative, catchy, and visionary. I love IM's first three albums as much. I'm open to their new stuff to like Legend of the Black Schwarma too and find that LOTBS is significantly better than this convoluted mess, though it has its moments.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I still like the infected sound, even in a dub step way, and the guitars but with all the singing or is it rapping, shouting?
I don't know, I don't like that. I would love to hear a non vocal dub step album with just the infected sound, twisting around!

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  • 2 years later...

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