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Penta - All Shots Double (Auraquake Recs ) 2011
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kazuku
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Jul 27, 2011 21:00:46
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Artist: Penta
Album: All Shots Double
Label: Aura Quake Records
D.O.R: 07/2011
Where to buy:
http://www.beatspace.com/6470/AuraQuake+Records/PENTA/All+Shots+Double/detail.aspx
http://www.goastore.ch/product_info.php?products_id=4531
http://www.beatport.com/#/release/all-shots-double/397223
http://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/aqr/aqr1cd007.html
Links:
http://www.pentafiles.com/
http://www.auraquake.com/
Tracklist:
1. It Begins
2. All Those Things
3. Snapper
4. Please Could Have
5. Imagine
6. Computer Technology
7. Power Crunch
8. Trembling with Terror
9. Fantastic
Nikita Tselovalnikov is back with his 5th release on his own label, (6th in total)Auraquake Rec. For me, the best Penta sound was on the first 2 albums, Pentafiles and Funraiser, which were truly ground breaking imho, boasting great atmosphere and memorable melodies which occupied their own trademark Penta space. A crystal clear sound matched by twilighty moods, never fully descending into full darkness. From the later albums, Horn Please from 2007 also remains in good memory with some strong tracks, but imho there have also been some more dissapointing efforts, such as Portuguese Abduction and the most recent full album release, „Give me Five!“, which did not fully meet my expectations – perhaps they were too high in the light of the ground breaking releases of the past. There was nothing wrong with them, they just lacked a special or awe inspiring quality for me (Apart from a few really strong tracks like Time Jump). Hence I was interested to see if All Shots Double could succesfully ressurect some of the lost glory of bygone days.
The album starts off on a very high note for me – It Begins caught my attention with the first listen and remains a favourite. The frame of the track is haunting, industrial and occupies a sonic zone that seems to suit Nikita very well. If you listened to his earlier releases, you are likely to feel some heart warming nostaligia too, as a good portion of the fx that shape the character of the tune ressemble classic, vintage Penta sounds, You will recognise those trademark, metallic, somewhat dissonant leads and cinematic „scene setting“ pads that had a big influence on the unique sound of his early releases. The atmosphere is enriched by the distorted transmission samples which feed the brooding and occasionally epic sci-fi vibes. Great track which I am sure will find its way into many sets. Quality stuff  .
All Those Things packs an aggressive, driving full-on base line and rolls around in twilightish vibes, somewhere on the brink of night. Occasionally we get glimpses of Nikita´s genius, but for my taste these don´t persist long enough. An example what I mean are the melodic elements and recognisable leads that emmerge in the second half of the track, but leave us all too quickly. I missed suprises or persisting elements that make the track memorable, I also found the „mushroom“ sample a little overused and cheesy, a modulated voice repeating mushrooms didnt do it for me this time. For me this was an average track that develops some remarking atmsopheric density towards the end.
Snapper continues the journey on an up-beat, cheery note with quirky video-game full-on ala Penta. Reminds me a little bit of some old Crazy Ducks stuff at times in terms of really oddball comic fx choices, and in the way it takes the mood a whacky caroonish direction, but the base line and development is a little too preictable for my taste. Could have taken the melodic factor a bit further, but on the whole I enjoyed this after a few listens, as it has its unique, stubborn kind of metallic funk. Would I have guessed its a Penta track? Propably not. Is that bad? Propably not.
With Please Could Have we move back into grittier and darker territories, at the start of the track we are engulfed by melancholic, mysterious, eerie vibes that hover around our heads and drags us into a Pentaesque Sci fi drama, with cold-as-liquid carbonite, industrial style percussions and epic movie elements. The „please could have“ sample is infectious and worked for me, at least it stuck in my mind.. Represents the more twisted side of the proceedings thus far with plenty of freakyess , demented, dissonant leads and somewhat foresty effects. When compared to typical „forest“ sounds this feels much more techy, inorganic and to a certain point, minimalistic. The mood reminds me vaguely of the wierdness generated by the stringy dissonance in early Xenomorph tracks. (eg. Satans Prescence). Good track!
Next up we discover the more melodic sides of this album with Imagine, a dreamy, floaty tune where soft, surreal elements intwine with the industrial coldness and techish minimalism outlined earlier. For me, it manages to recreate some of the magic from the second Penta album, in the way there seems to be a clear story line an plot, a marriage between cold, futuristic Sci-fi beauty and shiny, glassy melodic elements that create a movie plot of their own. Here the melodies have a futuristic yearning that really pulls on the mind.
After a brooding melodic intro and some energy build up, Computer Technology takes us back into more full-onish territory. The drive and development are more transparent and single minded here and to me it seems to be a very dancefloor orientated tune that loses a fair bit of potential when listened to at home. In the beginning we can still witness atmospheric density brought about by icy sweeps and pads but these moods quickly fade away, leaving something that sounded disspointingly generic and shallow to me, and the repetitive samples did their fair share to enforce this feeling. Didnt like this much.
Power Crunch has a strange distortion effect to it which give feeds it with an innate instabile trippyness. Turns out to be a strange blend of styles and a positive suprises for me, and a reminder as to „not judge a book by its cover“ or more precisely not to judge a track by its name. I had expected Power Crunch to be more in the style of the previous track, but as it turns out it turns to be a complex sci-fi adventure in fine Penta tradition. A colorful and imaginative track with numerous twists and turns whos story is told piece by piece – there is definetly no fx overload, instead each element is sparingly and carefully placed, with emphasis on beforementioned cinematic drama, which is also evident in the voice sample choices. These tend to go in a thrashy B-Movie direction, and for my taste, on a whole, they turned out a little too simplistic and forced.. Oh well, can´t always please everyone  Overall a solid piece with the typical crystal clarity and twilighty melodies, but nothing too memorable here for me in the end, although the ride is pleasant.
„Trembling with horror“ is the „guitar track“ of the album - one of its key features is the Spanish style guitar (Cosmosis like) which plucks its way mysteriously through the tune, accompaied by riffy leads. Again, to me this presents itself as a mixture of trademark smooth, chilled atmospheres (Neurotic Call style) with a slightly more full-onish feel, and some wierd, off beat samples.
I didn´t like the quirky female voice sample much, it came across as a little too „forced funky“ to me. I am normally not a huge fan of guitars in tracks, but this actually worked ok for me, it is pretty trippy. A fine track, but not very original imho. I am sure the opinions will vary greatly on this one.
The album draws to a close with Fantastic, a track that ends up being a wierd masala of elements, but generally follows a full-on style pattern with lengthy breakdowns that display laid back/loungy characteristics at times – in combination with video game touches and the „epic“ cinematic story telling this rounds off the album on a solid note.
Conclusion
Imho, „All Shots double“ is a good album, but falls short of epic greatness. Stylistically, the album goes in many directions – at moments we witness a return to the early cinematic Penta sounds that really bring back good memories. For me, the best example of this is It Begins, combining recognisable, nostalgic elements (metallic echoey leads, icy Sci-fi scapes, industrial sounds) with the rough attitude one could likely have encountered on Horn Please. I rarely comment on technical qualities of the production, but I will here because it stood out to me as being very lucid and crystal clear, almost „hyperreal“ - comparable maybe to the last Dissociactive album I reviewed in terms of stlye and translucent clarity. Some of the fx quality and impact is amazing, especially the „machanoid“side of things, you might end up thinking you are standing next to a robot...
On the downside, I find relatively few tracks truly stand out- although they make for smooth listen, I feel some lack depth though and do not remain in my memory. Even if it is being picky, I did not get into some of the voice sample choice – I felt somehow they were overused (Pavel, wanna come beat that dead horse? Heres a stick! ). Personally I also don´t like the full-on inspired tracks so much, they kind of stick out like rusty nails in the otherwise sound ambience for me, kind of prevents it from being a holistic, rounded-off package.
Still, I would suggest Penta afficionados give it a spin because it definetly has its moments and at time marks a return to the early, very cinematic, dramtatic and Sci-fi influenced sound that can be remembered from Pentafiles/Funraiser. This slots in somehwere behind the those 2+ Horn Please for me, maybe need to listen some more
How do you lot feel about this?
Favourites:
1(!!!), 4 (!!), 5, 7
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a3k
IsraTrance Team
Started Topics :
269
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Posted : Jul 28, 2011 19:17
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honestly i have not listened to the samples yet, but since i have witnessed the changes in Nikita´s sound throught the years, i am in doubt he will ver be able to create such a good album such as Penta Files
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Upavas
Upavas
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Posted : Aug 11, 2011 13:39
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Adigroovy
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Aug 11, 2011 15:04
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Quote:
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On 2011-08-11 13:39, Upavas wrote:
My favorite album by Penta is Fünraiser, a classic ...
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+1
to use your head you have to go out of your mind |
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aXis
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Aug 13, 2011 20:17
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really bad. |
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Perma Fry
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Aug 17, 2011 07:03
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+1 for Penta Files
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Ellon
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Sep 3, 2011 15:25
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TimeTraveller
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Sep 7, 2011 03:03
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one of the best albums I've heard for long.Killer stuff! Definetly a master work.
Great review kazuku  even though I love each tune of this album for me it is his very best album by far.
I love tracks : imagine (! psyccco melodies and atmosfears) ah no actually all tracks are cool ,also the question and answer melodies in 'computer technology' ah the whole track is fun.
Power crunch !!! is so extreme it evolves so nice.When I hear this album I wanna to fly to it on a big party with hardcore loudness monitoring system. Its great magick with quality. Cheers and good night  https://soundcloud.com/shivagarden |
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Ellon
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Sep 7, 2011 13:57
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Misha_
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Sep 7, 2011 17:38
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