Various Artists – Set:4 Essentials (Iboga, 2005)

On 2005-03-18 19:40, aje wrote:
Even though this was released on danish Iboga records, this seems to be a showcase of israeli progressive. I dont know why, but IMHO when Israelis do or try to do progressive, it tends to sound superficial and plastic. Even though there are some very good tracks here (2,6,9), they somehow lack the deepness of euro/australian producers. Its all bubblegum music, tasty and progressive bubblegum that i dont necessarily dislike , but still bubblegum. Israelis seem to have heard so much fullon that they cant get rid of these full-on influences and that can get very annoying.

Dont take that as an offence my isralien friends, I dont wanna start a war here, but its something I have noticed in various israeli progressive projects or side projects. To give an example what I mean, when I first got this CD i thought, "cool, this moves and grooves along nicely, I like it!" But then I quickly became annoyed with the plastic sounds used and I found the "half-life" of this record to be very short. After two listens I already skiped half of the tracks here. This is in big contrast to how I usually listen to progressive albums. Especially with Scando or aussi stuff i like it more the more i listen to it, Frogacult is probably the best example of that. At first it was boring, now I cant get it out of my head. Antix was the same experience. Its hard for me to explain in more detail what I mean here, because Im not good at putting music into words butI have been feeling that way with many israeli progressice releases.A possible explanation might be that Israeli progressive is designed much more for the floor, and Ive seen these tracks played at parties, they do work magic. But for home listening they just dont stand the test of time.

However, I must say the the compiler of this CD, Yuli aka Perfect Stranger, provided the strongest track here, proving again that in terms of deepness and feeling he stands way above the rest of the israeli crowd, something hes already proven with his BLT project. To bad he couldnt find enough tracks that live up to his own standards.

BTW, Im also quite disappointed by that Freq track, its very well done and all that, but its way to fast and noisy, it fits seemlesly with all the bubblegum here. Someone should hack Freq`s Logic or Cubase and manipulate it so he cant go faster than 135 bpm any more, his slow tracks are always a lot better, like Return to the Masters or that Frogacult Remix.

(On a side note there are good israeli house producers, like Moshic or the Flash Brothers, so its just those israelis from the trance scene im talking about here.)

On 2005-03-20 13:48, IntelabeaM wrote:
Hi aje !

I read ur post here and i have to say a few things .

there is some true in ur wards , israeli progresive sounds difrent then the eur prog , i dont know if it is "plastik" as u say , but most of the prog music that is produced here in israel has full on roots . it is the leading line here in partys and radio's and iven TV in some cases , so when ppl make prog music here , iven if thay listne only to "True to nature" all the day , thay r still influensd by the seen out there ( and im talking about my self here as well ofcours ). difrent then whats going on in denmark i blive , where the leading line of music is 134 bpm tops ...what im trying to say is that there is no reason for music from israel to sound like music from europe , we live in difrent atmosphere's that make us make difrent music

one more thing about what u said that israeli prog has a feeling that its more for the dacnefloor then for home listening ..i agrea with u on that as well ecualy , i just belive that the reson is the same as why it sounds the way it sounds ( wich i said here befor ) ..
but !! i do belive that this cd does a grait job by cetching ppl's atention like it couth urs ( aje) that israel can bring out to the world abigger veraiety of styles ..and i can tell u that theres much more from that to come soon . ..so dont give up yet on israeli prog

cheer's all

boom boom yuli !!

On 2005-03-18 20:07, The Green Channel wrote:

Quote:

On 2005-03-18 19:40, aje wrote: Even though this was released on danish Iboga records, this seems to be a showcase of israeli progressive. I dont know why, but IMHO when Israelis do or try to do progressive, it tends to sound superficial and plastic. Even though there are some very good tracks here (2,6,9), they somehow lack the deepness of euro/australian producers. Its all bubblegum music, tasty and progressive bubblegum that i dont necessarily dislike , but still bubblegum. Israelis seem to have heard so much fullon that they cant get rid of these full-on influences and that can get very annoying. Dont take that as an offence my isralien friends, I dont wanna start a war here, but its something I have noticed in various israeli progressive projects or side projects. To give an example what I mean, when I first got this CD i thought, "cool, this moves and grooves along nicely, I like it!" But then I quickly became annoyed with the plastic sounds used and I found the "half-life" of this record to be very short. After two listens I already skiped half of the tracks here. This is in big contrast to how I usually listen to progressive albums. Especially with Scando or aussi stuff i like it more the more i listen to it, Frogacult is probably the best example of that. At first it was boring, now I cant get it out of my head. Antix was the same experience. Its hard for me to explain in more detail what I mean here, because Im not good at putting music into words butI have been feeling that way with many israeli progressice releases.A possible explanation might be that Israeli progressive is designed much more for the floor, and Ive seen these tracks played at parties, they do work magic. But for home listening they just dont stand the test of time. However, I must say the the compiler of this CD, Yuli aka Perfect Stranger, provided the strongest track here, proving again that in terms of deepness and feeling he stands way above the rest of the israeli crowd, something hes already proven with his BLT project. To bad he couldnt find enough tracks that live up to his own standards. BTW, Im also quite disappointed by that Freq track, its very well done and all that, but its way to fast and noisy, it fits seemlesly with all the bubblegum here. Someone should hack Freq`s Logic or Cubase and manipulate it so he cant go faster than 135 bpm any more, his slow tracks are always a lot better, like Return to the Masters or that Frogacult Remix. (On a side note there are good israeli house producers, like Moshic or the Flash Brothers, so its just those israelis from the trance scene im talking about here.)

I dont know if i completly agree (i know that you didn't mean anything by it ), i think AKD debut album is quite deep, if you listen to the progressive (their are some tracks which are a combination of full-on and progressive) tracks from lish's two albumes i think that they are quite deep also... and i could name more, but in the end it's about taste, and i agree with you about this release, not as good i have come to expect from the Isreali progressive scene although their are some tracks which stand out, perfect stranger, Yotopia, sunseek...