| Author
|
VA - Lo-Land Hi-Tech (Sonic Dragon)
|
psyreviews
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
71
Posts :
204
Posted : Aug 23, 2005 16:12
|
Various
Lo-Land Hi-Tech
Sonic Dragon (Australia)
Holland! Land of porn, pot, and chips with mayonnaise. Okay, now we’ve reduced a lovely nation of lovely people into a cultural stereotype, our minds are more or less ready to deal with an album compiled by and consisting of music from the Netherlands.
Liftshift’s Contracting Waves is just pure brilliance… the sound will knock you off your feet, it’s so deep and so fluid… it shifts and schnooks its way along, before bringing out some wonderful little melodies and tickles that just sound so.. I mean fucking hell! Just listen to it: hypnotic, weighty, gravitational. Apparently Liftshift has an album forthcoming on GPlus records, and ah cannae fickin wait. The sound synchs well with Drexl’s Eating Moves, rooted in the same sound but with a more conventional psytrance movement. It drives laconically up to a breakdown, then picks up more kicking energy – very well produced and with a deceptiveness to it: its 144 BPM sounds much slower. Zen Mechanics is up next with Dolly Dots, and it’s one of the best tunes of his I’ve heard. The sounds in it are great, and the off-kilter lead line in the midsection is great. The rest of the track is all about a hung-togetherness, like there’s a sphere of sound around you… deliriously well-produced. This is bloody amazing. Cyrus The Virus teams up with Sono Loco for I Robot, firmly in standard fullon territory with the Spun bassline in full effect. I’ve always liked Cyrus’ ability to bring out emotion in his tracks, which he manages here with great effect – a wonderful melody keeps it moving along, but it all ends rather too quickly and you’re left with the impression that he could have taken it further. Loki has an intriguing sound with Lagomorph, a right old bubbling broth of progressive and fullon sounds, jostling around and releasing energy like a Frisbee-throwing machine on malfunctioning overdrive. Rev Particle used to record with Bonky and as much is evident form the sounds on Scheldezoi, a burping and slurping tune that has a heavy bottom end, and a sort of autopilot feel to the sounds across the top. As for Synchro… well, I remember hearing that first 12” of his on Tip and being initially very very crossed (“this isn’t tip. The pressing plant must have put the wrong sticker on the middle of the record”) and then, after several listens, being very very impressed. His silence has been too long for me – Star Spangled here is delightful, it’s cruisy and mechanical and effortlessly… well, effortlessly Synchro. There’s surprises and twists and turns and flits and fits and naked tits… okay, I’m lying about the last one but my point is, the invention and bravery that he’s always exhibited is still here, maybe a bit covered-up here, but it makes for a wonderful return. And I’m not giving anything away about its sample neither =). Zebra-N’s Souperman is a full-throttle, nighttime-ish belter with some hilarious samples thrown in, but final hats-off must go to Jocid & Psychobit for Global Control… think Jocid’s style but intitally shifted into morning, melodic territory before leaping out into manic magic evil, hair-standing-on-back-of-neck stuff, cascading into a huge finale that’s hard to believe was only made with sounds. Phew. Is it just me, or are things getting much more varied at the moment? If you moaned last week that it all sounds the same, check this. Because it doesn’t. And that’s a good thing.
8
1. Contracting waves - LIFTSHIFT
2. Eating movies - DREXL
3. Dolly dots - ZEN MECHANICS
4. I robot - CYRUS THE VIRUS AND SONO LOCO
5. Lagomorph - LOKI
6. Scheldezoi - REV PARTICLE
7. Star spangled - SYNCHRO
8. Souperman - ZEBRA-N
9. Global control - JOCID AND PSYCHOBIT
 
http://www.psyreviews.com/clothing/ |
|
|
|
DeathPosture
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
142
Posts :
547
Posted : Sep 16, 2005 20:58
|
V/A – Lo-land Hi-tech
Cover: http://tinyurl.com/dkbwq (front) + http://tinyurl.com/d5pz9 (back)
Artist: Various (The Netherlands)
Title: Lo-land Hi-tech
Format: CD (digipack)
Label: Sonic Dragon (Hong Kong)
Cat. #: SDREC-04
Distribution: Arabesque
Date: July 2005
Track listing:
01. 08’45” Liftshift – Contracting Waves
02. 08’26” Drexl – Eating Movies
03. 08’34” Zen Mechanics – Dolly Dots
04. 06’15” Cyrus The Virus & Sono Loco – I Robot
05. 07’20” Loki - Lagomorph
06. 07’03” Rev Particle - Scheldezoi
07. 07’41” Synchro – Star Spangled
08. 08’53” Zebra-N - Souperman
09. 08’39” Jocid & Psychobit – Global Control
.m3u-playlist: http://tinyurl.com/8ubmv (all tracks!)
Review:
Toit like a toiger!
Dutch psytrance? I’m sure everyone agrees that The Netherlands is far better known across the world for its liberal, open-mindedness and general tolerance concerning drugs, alcohol and pornography – than for its vast psytrance scene… But the psytrance scene is indeed very much alive and kicking in Holland – and this compilation from Sonic Dragon is here to showcase the Dutch psytrance producers currently active… Let’s find out what this is all about…
Let me take you thru the tracks…
#01: Liftshift – Contracting Waves
First track is by Eric Bijl who has his debut album signed to Gplus Records due for release in late 2005… And by the looks of it, that’s an album to look out for – this is some deep, serious shit… In the best possible way! This is deep, funky, progressive trance… Starts out rather bland and yeah – pretty boring actually, but luckily things shape up as the track progresses… I’ve always been a sucker for the good old FREq-reverb effect, and that one is cleverly used here… Don’t expect big wall-to-wall madness – this is a clever little tune packed with morphing sounds and little cool, naïve melodies… I’m impressed by just how trippy this is – with so few elements… Funky minimal trance! Cool track!
#02: Drexl – Eating Movies
“Check it out Butthead, this chick has three boobs… How many butts does she have?” Bart Matthias is both a DJ and a party promoter in Holland – and he also compiled this CD along with Jocid… And now he’s a producer too! We stay on the same path – deep, simple progressive trance – though we’re approaching a more psy-trance edge here… Reminds me of some of the early Candyflip stuff really… The rhythm-section, the experimental intro and the subtle climax-part are down-right brilliant and it works perfectly with the naïve, uplifting melody… This took me some time to fully get into, but now I adore it… Simple, but oh so addictive… What a charming little track!
#03: Zen Mechanics – Dolly Dots
“This shit is starting to freak me out man!” Wouter Thomassen is the first artist on this compilation, which I’ve actually heard of before… I really, really enjoyed his remix on the recent Iboga compilation Set/5 and I’ve also really enjoyed his chilled tracks lately… His debut album is signed to Neurobiotic and should be out some time next year… Looking forward to that one too – as this is another pretty damn good track… It fits in perfectly after the two previous tracks, as this is also highly addictive, deep progressive trance – with rich psy-trance influences… Very full on’ish in structure and with big phat reverb FX all over the place… The pads here are huuuuuuuuge – wall-to-wall groove… Also the climax is spot on - will work absolute wonders on the dancefloor! Kick-ass track!
#04: Cyrus The Virus & Sono Loco – I Robot
Cyrus is GMS-padawan Jan-Willem Bot who released his debut album Subliminal on Spun Records in 2004… So, as you might have guessed we’re heading toward formulated full-on here… Epic melodies and over-the-top full-on basslines… Bleh – we had such a great progressive thing going, I wasn’t hoping for the transition into full-on to sound like this… It’s not a bad track per se… I’ve heard much, much worse full-on coming out of Israel… But still…
#05: Loki – Lagomorph
Loki is Alistair Johnson who runs trance.org… The style of this track is not easily categorized – it’s a hybrid somewhere in between progressive and full-on… Though with more full-on in the mix than progressive… The energy-level is impressive – but I can’t help feel that this is a little too chaotic… It lacks somewhat structure and an overall sense of direction… It has its moments though – the staccato rhythms are pretty cool and so is the melody that swings in, in the last half - I just wish the rest of the track was as intriguing… Good, but not stand-out good!
#06: Rev Particle – Scheldezoi
Rev Particle is Troy Leidich of Fungus of Light fame… And that connection reveals it all – gone are the fluffy, full-on tones – enter the hard-core, nocturnal hyper-trance! Yeah – this is dark, hard-hitting stuff – So damn powerful and hypnotizing… Music to be played in the darkest hours of the night! The groove here is fucking immense… I can vividly imagine dancing my ass off to this one in a dark, abandoned warehouse somewhere… Crackling, bubbling, bursting with energy… What an absolute smash of a track!
#07: Synchro – Star Spangled
“Where is he? I dunno – your guess is as good as mine!.. What’s wrong? What the hell – where am I?It’s the million dollar question…” Woow – good old Synchro is back! Jeroen van Garling has been in the game for over a decade and has released four albums… The oldest ones being the best! Anyway, this is also deep, darkish trance – though not as dark as its predecessor… I really like it in all its forest-like madness – the trip factor is fucking high here, and this reminds me of why I like the old Synchro albums… As the title suggest, this track has a bit that uses the old American national anthem – executed by Hendrix guitar… Kinda cheesy yes, but it doesn’t ruin an otherwise brilliant track… Cracking, atmospheric stuff!
#08: Zebra-N – Souperman
“Presenting superman! Look, it’s a bird; it’s a plane, its superman!” Paul Elferich is another familiar face… I’ve pretty much liked everything he’s released on Ketuh and Trishula Records compilations… He’s got a certain dark, twisted style that I seem to enjoy… And sure enough, this is as dark and twisted as I could have hoped for… The changes in paces are very well executed and will freak people out… Nice! There is a bleak moment or two here, which prevents me from giving this the double thumbs up… One thumb up is pretty nice too though… ;o)
#09: Jocid & Psychobit – Global Control
Jocid (Joshua Gablan) just released his third album Sonic Addiction on Manic Dragon Records – and he’s working with Psychobit (Rolf Bussink) on the next… A productive guy for sure! Anyway, just as this very compilation, this track is very diverse… It starts as soft, floating morning trance – but something is lurking under the surface… Slowly penetrating, bubbling with life… And before you know it, this track is in full effect… Holy shit! Eventually this is an acid-ridden, full-power night-time bomb… Extremely twisted and trance-inducing! Stellar!
Flying, floating, trippin’ Dutchman! Who would have thought that there was so much talent lurking in The Netherlands? I’m really impressed here – both by the scale of obvious talent, but also by the sheer diversity of this compilation… We go from deep, minimal progressive trance – over full-on – to dark, acid-driven hypertrance… In nine easy steps! …And the best thing is that is actually works as a journey… I don’t care about CDs having to stay within a certain genre – this compilation has loads and that’s brilliant!
Also the mastering by Xenomorph sounds pretty damn good to me, and despite the tacky cover-art I like the cool artist bios inside the digipack… All in all, this is a pretty tasty compilation. It took me completely by surprise, but I really like being surprised… Especially when its positive surprises like this one… Check it out, if you like a broad, diverse spectre within progressive/psytrance… This one crossed over successfully! Enjoy!
Favourites: 1, 2, 3(!), 6(!), 7, 8, 9(!)
DeathPosture
External links:
Sonic Dragon: http://www.sonic-dragon.com
Saiko Sounds: http://tinyurl.com/bg4kv
TranceShop: http://tinyurl.com/78l9p
Discobole: http://tinyurl.com/9j7s7
Wirikuta: http://tinyurl.com/aux5p
Psyshop: http://tinyurl.com/cf272
Wakyo: http://tinyurl.com/cxfpz
Juno: http://tinyurl.com/9bv4f
On really romantic evenings of self, I go salsa dancing with my confusion... |
|
|
|
DiMiTry
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
70
Posts :
2299
Posted : Sep 16, 2005 23:59
|
didn't like this one very much. has its moments, but that's about it.
..it's just another party.. |
|
|
|
Mat N
IsraTrance Senior Member
Started Topics :
272
Posts :
1211
Posted : Oct 14, 2005 01:41
|
|
i think only tracks 5 and 7 by loki an Synchro left some impression on me. Manic/Sonic Dragon's other releases are better imo.
|
|
|
|
Basilisk
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
168
Posts :
2984
Posted : Dec 16, 2005 00:44
|
Sometimes I really fail to understand the enthusiasm. Synchro's track is the only notable piece here really - most of it's quite dull I find. The guys that are good have better stuff elsewhere i.e. Zebra-N's work on Ketuh, or Zen Mechanics slick stuff on Iboga.
I think a compilation of this nature works when the artists display a national sound, but as far as I can tell the lowlands do not have one. It's all over the place, without having much that stands out. Pass.
|
|
|
|
|
