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The Misted Muppet - From The Legend (Trancelucent Prod. 2004


DeathPosture

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Following older, non-bumpable threads about this release, here's another review...

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The Misted Muppet – From The Legend

 

trl1cd008_b.jpg

 

Format: CD

Artist: The Misted Muppet (Dagan Israeli & Tal Hassidi)

Title: From The Legend

Label: Trancelucent Productions, Israel

Cat. #: TP008

Year: 2004

 

Track listing:

 

01. 06’36” The Mist

02. 07’37” Machine Forest

03. 07’30” Cat Visions

04. 06’09” Midnight Tales

05. 07’20” Innocence

06. 07’24” Towards the Castle

07. 07’34” Mercenaries

08. 06’39” Might and Magic

09. 07’58” From the Legend

10. 02’18” Defender of the Past

 

Review:

 

Medieval horror muppets!

 

Bit late on this one, but this album is so frickin’ superb, I just have to express my feelings towards it… After repeated listens, I have totally surrendered to the magic sound of those insane muppets… Many have pointed out the obvious similarities to early Infected Mushroom material, and yes this is what IM’s 3rd album could’ve sounded like… This is far from plagiarism though – this is highly original, flawless, ground-breaking material…

 

Think medieval. Think eerie, spooky horror-flicks. Think big orchestral compositions. Think full-blown multilayered trance-inducing goa-trance… And you’re still nowhere near the sound of this truly outstanding album… Each track is a little masterpiece by itself…

 

From the extremely well-crafted multilayered melodic mayhem of ‘The Mist’ to the bombastic orchestral sonic horror sound-manipulations with super-catchy driving acid-driven melodies of ‘Machine Forest’

 

From the wicked stomper ‘Cat Visions’ that incorporates the sound of a pissed-off meowing cat, to the deep, dark, percussion driven mayhem that is ‘Midnight Tales’ …With the stunningly beautiful break, before the final full-on part… That track has it all… Perfection…

 

From the phat, ballistic grooves that define ‘Innocence’ to the dark, scary Halloween night-time trance in ‘Towards the Castle’ – those high-pitched acid-lines WILL mess with your head… So beware!

 

From the perfect blend of eerie, merciless night-trance and energetic, twirling acid-lines combined with demented piano-riffs in ‘Mercenaries’ to the hard-hitting, relentless full-on goa-trance beautifully presented in ‘Might and Magic’

 

From the experimental wizardry and well-crafted haunted melodies in ‘From the Legend’ to the soothing, coming-back-to-reality trip of ‘Defender of the Crown’

 

This album is near perfection…Nice long build-ups and breaks that are actually long enough to be trance-inducing… Extremely well-produced, with nice, clear and crispy sounds… I really dig the medieval ‘theme’ of this album – both musically and stylistic… A big old FUMS UP to Trancelucent Productions for bringing us such a wikkid album... ;o)

 

Highly recommended!

 

9.5/10

 

Favourites: All

 

DeathPosture

em-shodan.gif

 

External links:

Trancelucent Productions: www.trancelucent-zone.com

Psyshop: www.psyshop.com

Saiko Sounds: www.saikosounds.com (Audio samples available!)

Chaos Unlimited: www.chaosunlimited.co.uk

Trance-shop: www.trance-shop.com

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

THIS ALBUM HAS RESTORED MY FAITH IN PSYTRANCE!!!!!!!!!

 

To tell you the truth, I was so fed up with the full-on clones that I kindof stayed off psytrance all together for a few months. Now I wanted to get my hands on something new and read all the positive reviews on this album. First of all, the album cover and the term "epic" which is often mentioned when describing the album left me thinking it would be some black metal- trance mix which wouldn't (couldn't?) sound good IMO after hearing Dark Soho's attempts to do the same thing. Well I got the album anyway and yes, it DOES have the epic parts just like some black metal. But it stops there, no guitar riffs or anything. Instead, and contrary to what many psy artists today claim to do, this album REALLY is a modern reinterpretation of oldschool! Allow me to explain with examples from other artists that supposedly "revive the oldschool feeling": Battle of the Future Buddhas (yeah, I know that they've always had a style of their own but I personally read in interviews with D-Dave in which he said that his "objective" was to revive that 96 feeling) put in those mystical synth lines that do wonders when you're on acid (Hippy Crack Panic is a good example). Tikal had the good idea of mixing oriental/ arabic music and chants samples in his full-on style. Phi made music with VERY dynamic progression with screaming acid lines all over. Ypsilon 5 put some nice melodies in their tracks.

 

All this is good but oldschool is a mix of ALL these ingredients and since all the forementioned artists only used ONE ingredient, they fell short of truly reviving THEEE oldschool feeling IMO (which doesn't mean that they don't make very good music!). However this album has it all: the dynamic progression, the airy synth lines, the memorable melodies, the screaming 303s... IT'S ALL IN THERE!! Well, maybe not the oriental samples but you can't have them all . Those were replaced by the "epic" parts which is a nice addition to it all, although sometimes it really sounds too much like music taken out of some movie. Anyway, I guess that's more a matter of personal taste.

 

I won't comment on each track in detail cause personally I find it isn't that informative. But I will tell you my highlights: in The Mist, around minute 3 there's a breakdown with a nice piano melody which ressembles very much (too much?) to Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, on top of that a nice airy voice + another distorted voice that sounds like some gnome singing or something. Then it's back to full-on madness. And starting from minute 5 a very original reinterpretation of "the up and down sound" (you know the synth pitch that goes up and down and then up again and so on). This has been done in almost every oldschool and full-on song so to me it's a surprise that someone can still find an original idea on how to do it. The melody kicking in around 2:40 and then again around 6:00 in Towards the Castle sound very "Astral Projection-like", but it evolves nicely from there, it's not some clone or something. Makes me wish Misted Mupped made some remix of AP on their album Ten at least he would've made something original... Finally I must say that the last down-tempo track (or is it an outro?) sounds WAY too melodramatic to me. It gives me mental images of a camera panning out of a scene showing the main carachter lying on the ground with a pool of blood next to him with the film credits rolling on (yeah I told you the epic parts sounded too much like they were taken from a movie). However that only lasts for 2 minutes and a half so no point in making a big deal here, you can just skip it.

 

Well these are just the the moments that got the most of my attention but it's all good! you have 9 tracks of pure joy, dynamic progressions, nice melodies, crazy 303 lines, it's all soo damn good!!!

 

Fave tracks: 1 (!!!), 3, 4 (!!), 6 (!!)... but like I said, they're ALL good!!

 

10/10!! BEST 2004 album so far (and since we're nearing the end of the year I think it's a pretty safe bet to say that this will be the best 04 album period!).

 

 

Lemmiwinks (aka moondancer from psynews)

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  • 2 weeks later...

There is nothing else I can do than agreeing to what the other reviewers allready have told about this album. It is an absolut masterpiece, even better than Synsun. It doesn't remind me as much on Classical Mushroom as Synsun does, but it is abolutely epic in a different way. All the tracks sound so complete it's perfect. Not the normal full-on clones we get today (even if i like some of those). This really seems to be a good year, hanging around again at Psynwes for maybe about two weeks and I discovered a shitload of great new albums.

 

My rating would be also 10/10 and my favourite tracks would be 8, 9 and 10. Defender Of The Past is more ambient, but what a killer piano line it has in it. Amazing...

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  • 1 month later...

There is nothing else I can do than agreeing to what the other reviewers allready have told about this album. It is an absolut masterpiece, even better than Synsun. It doesn't remind me as much on Classical Mushroom as Synsun does, but it is abolutely epic in a different way. All the tracks sound so complete it's perfect. Not the normal full-on clones we get today (even if i like some of those). This really seems to be a good year, hanging around again at Psynwes for maybe about two weeks and I discovered a shitload of great new albums.

 

My rating would be also 10/10 and my favourite tracks would be 8, 9 and 10. Defender Of The Past is more ambient, but what a killer piano line it has in it. Amazing...

197233[/snapback]

after heard talpa, infected and astrix albums

 

this is the best album 2004 now for sure.

 

what amazing creativity !!!

and what a great music this year

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I simply don't get it... I've listened to it a thousand times and still don't like it... Sounds pretty cheap to me... melodies seem like they're thrown in and overcooked, production is too "metallic", etc.

 

All my oppinion of course. I love melody, I love Classical Mushroom, Talpa, SynSun... but not this... I must be broken.

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alek, u are fine...

but

this is the must brilliant album i heard ever!

cinematic psytrance full time power

tons of exciting melodies

and amazing rhythms

and all fit together in the best way i could imagine

i can't ask more than this

i just can't wait for more and more!!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Baaaaahhhhhhh!!! IMO this album has the word full-on written all over it! Come on....... the GMS kick and bass, the built ups, the "crazy" melody on top........ It may sound nice at the begining but that's just it. Buuuuuut, one great, great track; Toward the castle. Beautifull uplifting melody at the end, just perfect to mix with IM - Missed Symphony, eheh :P

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my fav group these days

 

Toward the Castle and The Mist ahhhhhh i love it

the album has dark feelings, uplifting, emotional and whatever else..it has it all... special melodies, kicking base, complicated rhythms amazing pads...everything i love...

so hard to express what i feel when i listen to the tracks...storm of emotions!

 

10/10

for me, the best album 2004

one of the few which i bought and i happy with that!

 

i was wondering .... if this is the first album and already make such a big strike on the psy scene...so i have no idea what to expect in the second album, also because their music is not formulaic and they have lots of surprises.

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Nuff said already about this truly great album by The Misted Muppet. This is for sure one of the best psytrance albums to come out in 2004.., what an amazingly high energy level to be found here!!

 

Some comparison to early Infected Mushroom has been made but I also found that some of the energy, sharpness and variation in this album actually reminds me of good old Pleiadians(i.f.o - 1997)!!!

 

I have been home listening since 1994 and therefore I have both heard and bought many psy/ goatrance albums doing the past 10 years, this one gets to thumbs up for creativity and dare in the full-on year 2004!!

 

Just great music

 

9.5/10

 

Psygreen

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The misted muppets deliver us an excellent and violent album ... very fast and rich, and it greatly evolve in my mind after 3-4 listening, i am impressed. It seem they worked hard to close this great album. Nice

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The misted muppets deliver us an excellent and violent album ... very fast and rich, and it greatly evolve in my mind after 3-4 listening, i am impressed. It seem they worked hard to close this great album. Nice

201000[/snapback]

word!

 

i think this is one of the only album that it easy to notice that the artists really spent lots of time in the studio to write it.

lots of great substance invested.

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The style is pretty the same in the whole album but the structure drum bass is pretty innovative and very powerfull, Cat Vision have evolved on my mind, and is one off the best track off the album for me for the moment, ... and the first track host some incredible variation, and synthétic line coming with effect ... very nice work. Off course one off the best album off 2004 for me.

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Guest Le Lotus Bleu

About the older review Deathposture is referring to & if you haven't read it yet, here's the link on the forum:

http://www.psynews.org/forums/read.php?f=6...i=94528&t=94528

65108[/snapback]

I just realize that my link to the old forum doesn't work anymore, so i dedice to repost the original launch thread review here:

 

The Misted Muppet – From The Legend (Trancelucent)

 

1. The Mist 6’36

2. Machine Forest 7’37

3. Cat Visions 7’30

4. Midnight Tales 6’09

5. Innocense 7’20

6. Toward The Castle 7’24

7. Mercenaries 7’34

8. Might & Magic 6’39

9. From The Legend 7’58

10. Defender of The Past 2’18

 

Dagan Israeli & Tal Hassidi are The Misted Muppet, From The Legend is their debut album, the style is dedicated to acidic-energic/crazy full on, i would say that if Infected Mushroom has continue their original musical direction today (the one present in their 2 first albums) it could approach a bit the content of the Muppet’s one.

 

In The Mist, you can easily catch the movie soundtrack’s culture of Dagan, as the melody is clearly inspired by famous theme from The exorcist (i don’t say sampled or copied but i mean ‘in this way’). No too long introducing as you you plenty enter The Muppet sound in half second, the tone is given : their strong crazy acid full on style is completed with heroic fantasy-medieval atmospheres as sugested o the cover art.

 

The intro of Machine Forest reminds me to tell you about apart the movie soundtrack culture , you’ll also notice a traditionnal classical music background. Furthermore, sometimes here softly & in some others tracks (5 you see the impact of Tal’s loves for Drum n’ Bass in the rythmic.

 

I don’t know what kind of visions can appear in cat’s head but seems very intense & tormented through what you can listen in Cat Visions. Indeed i suspected someone putting sort of poison in the cat’smilk , but cats got 7 lifes so the animal is just drived crazy,getting counscious of his hard destiny & isn’t dying at all ; result at the counter, 6 lifes remaining for the cat, the cat wins.

 

Midnight Tales contains some nervous electric riffs, at 2’45 a break composed of a church organ melody & woman voice for a full medieval-gothic ambience before rebunding to the extreme-acidic usual Muppet soundscape.

 

Your spirit gets hanted by darkness forces, that’s what happen in Innocence, will you be strong enough to resist to their call ?

 

After a foggy intro, you understand the way to the castle isn’t free , some fightings are needed to reach the place. Riding your horse , holding up your sword, goahead Toward The Castle, you shouldn’t worry !

 

The castle’s den is more peacefull nevertheless there are always some people you should beware of :Mercenaries. Keep your gold’s purse in a safe place & if needed let’s go for a blade-battle.

 

Might & Magic has a tyîcal medieval sounding intro. It’s time to see this dear old Merlin & drink some of his new potions creations, major transformations, mutations or alterations good or bad are all possible. Take the liquids at your risk & peril, just let’s try & see the result…

Merlin still have the knack hopefully !

 

A screaming siren lead is quite present all along From The Legend, it’s probably the most nervous-excited stuff of the album which don’t obligatory means the best, no time to chill here, you must save your kingdom.

 

You have now reaching your graal, chill time in a mix of medieval & cinematic tones, you can rest

in peace with Defender Of The Past.

 

Favorites :1,3,4,6,8,9

 

9/10

Recommended for all Full-Oners

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i dont like this album at all, it lacks of depth,, sounds to me like any average israeli project.... that is for most of the album 90% i have cool little moments...

202544[/snapback]

I agree, don't get what's the big deal about this album. All tracks sound the same, and I couldn't even stand to listen to the entire album. I can just conclude that full-on is definately not my style of goa.

 

Comparing this with old-school is pretty far-fetched. This doesn't even come close to the great artists of the mid nineties - all IMO of course.

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I agree, don't get what's the big deal about this album. All tracks sound the same, and I couldn't even stand to listen to the entire album. I can just conclude that full-on is definately not my style of goa.

 

Comparing this with old-school is pretty far-fetched. This doesn't even come close to the great artists of the mid nineties - all IMO of course.

202952[/snapback]

fuck who cares what you think

 

Misted kick ass!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

i love their melodies and their skills with the fx and all the power they have in their music with the epic melodies

 

RULEZZZZZZZZZZZ!

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I agree, don't get what's the big deal about this album. All tracks sound the same, and I couldn't even stand to listen to the entire album. I can just conclude that full-on is definately not my style of goa.

 

Comparing this with old-school is pretty far-fetched. This doesn't even come close to the great artists of the mid nineties - all IMO of course.

202952[/snapback]

:blink:

you should check yourself...

 

I adore the misted muppet, and reading some review like this make me think if you heard the album at all... <_<

because your review doesn't fit to the album's content at all.

 

for me this is the best album and for sure the best debut!

 

exciting

uplifting

climax!

acid

smooth baselines

kicking rhythms

atmospheres

...

multilayered psytrance !

 

it has everything in its best and everytrack is a different story!

They are a gift in our scene!

 

Respect!!! B)

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  • 1 year later...
  • 2 months later...

This album was very cool, one of the best releases of 2004. I love the opening track(!) .. high octane stuff. Yet a handful of the following songs never achieve the greatness of a handful others. It's NOT a great album, but there is occasional greatness. And the IM-influences are ever so obvious.

 

 

 

My favorite albums of 2004:

 

 

Filteria - Sky Imput ... A-

 

Talpa - Art of Being Non ... B+

 

Four Carry Nuts - Mechanical Age ... B+

 

Ypsilon5 - Binary Sky ... B

 

Electric Universe - Cosmic Experience ... B

 

Space Monkey - Psychotic Episode ... B

 

The Misted Muppet - From The Legend ... B

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