Artist: Blowfish (Graham Wood & Tony Stapleton)
Title: Puffed Up
Label: Surreal Audio Recordings
Release Date: December 2003
Cat: SURR004CD
Total Playtime: 76:52
Genre: Psytrance
Tracklist:
01 Intro 00:59
02 Cycles 06:56
03 Active Compound 07:53
04 Liquid Eyes 07:53
05 Grey Tone 07:32
06 Movin’ 05:15
07 Scope 05:46
08 Fat Controller 05:58
09 Stoned 07:00
10 Not The End 05:33
11 Trumpetfishology 16:07
Every self respecting trancer should recognize (and praise) the name “Graham Wood†for he was the co-founder of “The Infinity Project†which -as we all know- later morhped into TIP World. Back in the glory days of TIP when psychedelic trance was psychedelic trance and 303 leads were the shit Raja Ram, Simon Posford, Martin Freeland and Graham Wood along with the Total Eclipse gang were right in the middle of it. They are the dinosaurs!
We all know what Simon, Raja and the others have lately been up to but no ones heard of Graham for quite some time. Well anyways here he is along with Tony Stapleton who apparently is quite known in the UK trance scene.
As bizarre as it seems they’ve chosen the Finnish Surreal Audio Recordings to release their debut at. The artwork is, I’m looking for a word, ah different. Maybe half of it is done with Paintshop, the other half is hand drawn. The blowfish on the frontcover looks pretty twisted. The expression on its face is quite er, twisted.
Name your poison. Full on? Progressive? Night? Morning? Downbeat? Ambient? Tech? Minimal? House? Breakbeat? Something else perhaps? Whatever the case as long as it’s electronic I’m pretty sure it's here. What’s the drink you never have? Tasted it once and almost puked, couldn’t even finnish the fucker. Mine is “Bloody Maryâ€. How retarded must you be to come up with such drink. I mean tabasco, pepper and salt, those are ment to be eaten not drinken. Well anyways my poison is here, but so is the Bloody Mary. I’m pretty sure the same thing will apply to you.
We start from the dancefloor, stay there for six tunes or so, and then slowly find our way to the chill out. As much as say the last tune is a complete paradox of the first tune they still bear some similarities. You can hear that they’ve been made by the same guys in the same studio and the mastering guy has not changed either. The tricks (effects etc), no matter what the track is like, pretty much remain the same. Or well, lets say they play for the same team.
So in a way it’s a complete journey. I however prefer the second part by a factor of “insert big number hereâ€. Then again I’m a chiller, always been and will always be.
Atfirst I found this album a huge dissapointment. I guess I was expecting for a breed inbetween “Mystical Experiences†and “The Mystery Of The Yeti†with the whole 2003 mastering thingy. So to say the least my expectations were next to the Moon. That’s how high you have to travell before meeting them. But, well, the music isn’t bad. It’s nothing groudbreaking from another dimension, but it’s not bad either. It’s pretty good actually. Perhaps even a little more. One thing I have to say in favour of Blowfish is that they aren’t trying to be “Astrix†or “GMS†or “X-Dream†or “Hallucinogen†or “Shpongle†or whoever else that might be targeted by the cloners. They’re definetly doing their own thing, and the chilled tunes are fabulous!
10/10 for the chilled tunes
7/10 for the album
i'm pretty good thanks! life continues and me along with it! how's you? been up to much?
