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Proxeeus - Weird Tales (Goa Madness Records)


MrAnarchy

Proxeeus - Weird Tales  

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  1. 1. How would you rate this album?

    • 7) Amazing
    • 6) Great
    • 5) Good
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    • 4) Mediocre
    • 3) Lousy
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    • 1) Horrible
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Artist: Proxeeus
Title: Weird Tales
Label: Goa Madness Records
Release date: 02.11.2016

Track list:
1: A Lone Mi Go
2: The Shoggoth In The Mirror
3: Something Lurks On Yuggoth
4: He Waits Dreaming
5: Tekeli Ii
6: What The Moon Brings
7: Let's Goof
8: The Mad Poet Of Sana'a
9: Fhtang No More

Who Is Proxeeus? Well, Jerome Lesterps is his name and he is a guy from France. Pretty new to the scene but he has made quite the name for himself and that is "The dude who has some serious 303 issues."
In the summer of 2015, he released his debut album called "At The Mountain Of Madness" on Ektoplazm (download it for free here: http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/proxeeus-at-the-mountains-of-madness) A release that standed out and had a few of my favorite tracks like Vimanas and Chandra Knows. I, unfortunately didnt have the honor of hearing him live but I did listen to his gigs online and just by looking at him you can feel the serious vibe that he emits! I like that.

Now that we've introduced ourselves, lets get back to business! The album cover has the Lovecraft motif (like the previous album as well) and I actually got introduced to Lovecraft's literature quite recently so this set the theme for me perfectly!

As you people know, I'm not good with technicalities so I'll write how tracks make me feel as I'm writting this as I listen to the album for the second time. Bear with me! :)

The story begins with A Lone Mi Go and it kicks of with quite the energy. A catchy razor sharp electric melody gets introduced with a lot of ambient noises that set the mood vey well for the rest of the album to come. Next comes The Shoggoth In The Mirror. Just like in Lovecraft's short stories, everything goes awry very quickly, and so does this album! The track has a dark and hypnotic pounding tone and is riddled with acid and the track ends with a BLAST! There is something calling to us from the depths and who are you to resist? Something Lurks On Yuggoth. The crawling chaos. . . creeping and building up as the track progresses. I thoroughly enjoyed it. A story of its own. He Waits Dreaming this track sounds so oldschool to me, which is of cource a good thing! On a few notes some sounds gave me the "NDMA - The Answer" feel, maybe Im tripping. But then again, what IS real? You have been seeing strange silhouettes and weird noises all day. The second half of the track gets pretty aggressive. Jerome definitely likes to end his tracks with a blast. With Tekeli Ii I hear how Jerome's sound matured compared to his previous album. There is a lot stuff to hear yet it's all tidy and organized. Just pay close attention at @4:55! Words are starting to fail me... What The Moon Brings... Well it brings a perfectly balanced combo of melody and acid. One of my favorite tracks! Let's Goof is pretty straight forward. A dance-floor oriented track I think. Didnt like it as much but its still great. The Mad Poet Of Sana'a has an easternish melody. He had an obsession with instruments made of glass and metal and had used them to combine them into yet weirder objects. He was known for doing strange magic involving electricity and people were as much as in awe as they were afraid of him... The album ends with Fhtang No More. A more melodic and brighter track, and a last stand against the eeriness. A hope for dawn.


Jerome is a bard that sings his songs through the TB-303. His tracks are interchanging constantly. A lot of peaks and a lot of lows. A lot of thought was invested into the ambient which is then followed by a lot of entropy. A balanced chemical reaction which is then disrupted just to be returned to its calm and stable state again.

 

Favorite tracks: 2!, 3, 4, 5!!, 6 

Edit: I tried to figure out what my favorite tracks were, but I literally think that all of them are standouts except Let's Goof which isnt AS amazing as the rest.

Its a wonderful album and a worthy successor! Grade 7/7 from me!

You can buy it here:
http://www.beatspace.com/9800/Goa+Madness+Records/PROXEEUS/Weird+Tales/detail.aspx
https://goamadnessrecords.bandcamp.com/album/weird-tales

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Wow, what a big step forward from the previous album. At least that's how I experience it.

 

Proxeeus is all 303 you can get. Acid blips, acids screams, clear kicks.... all harmoniously blended together.

The album is an energy boost from start to finish.

 

Perhaps some more pads, or atmospheric breaks could make a next album more complete, but that's me.

 

Proxeeus has his own style and so far it's just freakingly good!!

Every track on this new album gives me a boost of energy, it's so addictive.

 

Well done Proxeeus! You have a new big fan! :)

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I agree that the progress from the debut album is clear and in the right direction! Having said that, I still think the tracks are somewhat held back by pretty static and simple rhythm section (bass + drums) while some of the non-acid melodies are IMO just plain annoying: repetitive, off-tune, often to fast and chaotic; even if markedly improved over the debut (e.g. Let's Goof). I also miss some key changes in there, that'd add more "drama" to the arrangements and contribute to better storytelling. The acid lines are obviously top notch, varied and tonally diversified which is great for such acid-focused release but - surprisingly - despite this it's pretty flat in terms of carried energy, i.e. the peaks & valleys (so to speak) are not sufficiently distinguished.

 

Still, I'm glad I bought it & am looking forward to further developments!

 

3/5 (or 4/7 in Mr. Anarchy's scale)

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I agree that the progress from the debut album is clear and in the right direction! Having said that, I still think the tracks are somewhat held back by pretty static and simple rhythm section (bass + drums) while some of the non-acid melodies are IMO just plain annoying: repetitive, off-tune, often to fast and chaotic; even if markedly improved over the debut (e.g. Let's Goof). I also miss some key changes in there, that'd add more "drama" to the arrangements and contribute to better storytelling. The acid lines are obviously top notch, varied and tonally diversified which is great for such acid-focused release but - surprisingly - despite this it's pretty flat in terms of carried energy, i.e. the peaks & valleys (so to speak) are not sufficiently distinguished.

 

I actually get where you're coming from (I usually dont since I dont have such good ears :P ). A few of those flaws I heard as well but I decided to give it the biggest grade because I enjoyed it immensely. Couldn't stop listening to it for days. Empirical bias I guess but I still think it deserves it IMO.

 

Thank you for your review antic as always!

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@MrAnarchy, thanks! You know, this style (more trance-y, static progression), can obviously work - e.g. BPC's "Micromega" or Electric Universe's "One Love" are perfect examples - but in order to get there the pacing must be just right, the intensity / energy of consecutive layers needs to be gradual, the cut-off / resonance / drive on filters needs to accentuate the progression and - in case of "One Love" - the melodic underpinnings need to be very solid. I think Proxeeus goes all-out a bit too soon and is then left with nowhere else to go, which leaves the tracks slightly "flat" in terms of energy. Also, if you're not confident about a melody or chord progression - avoid them, although (admittedly) this part gets difficult when you hear certain sequence for the 50th time.

 

Still, I hope this is taken as a constructive criticism because - as I said - the album shows a huge progress, regardless :)

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  • 4 weeks later...

When the first synth lead appears in the whole album mang...

 

So good.

 

@MrAnarchy, thanks! You know, this style (more trance-y, static progression), can obviously work - e.g. BPC's "Micromega" or Electric Universe's "One Love" are perfect examples - but in order to get there the pacing must be just right, the intensity / energy of consecutive layers needs to be gradual, the cut-off / resonance / drive on filters needs to accentuate the progression and - in case of "One Love" - the melodic underpinnings need to be very solid. I think Proxeeus goes all-out a bit too soon and is then left with nowhere else to go, which leaves the tracks slightly "flat" in terms of energy. Also, if you're not confident about a melody or chord progression - avoid them, although (admittedly) this part gets difficult when you hear certain sequence for the 50th time.

 

Still, I hope this is taken as a constructive criticism because - as I said - the album shows a huge progress, regardless :)

I agree, although he has many tracks that avoid this pitfall. However you never get to notice that in the live sets, honestly..

 

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i9pfvPR.gif

 

*Whew!*

 

Power, aggressive, melodic...this album is goa trance napalm even if the tracks sound very similar.  And they do.  He's not trying to weave an elaborate tale or mix genres.  He's coming out swinging like a boxing octopus.  And if your face just happens to be in the way then so be it.  This is the hulk in full beast mode until the final two tracks when he turns back into Dr. Banner to sleep it off.

 

One thing that I always wondered...how come he never shredded his pants into bits when he transformed?  Am I to believe that everything but his junk grew?  And who the f*ck wears purple pants anyway?

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