Sonic Dragon 04 - Various Artists - Lo-Land Hi-Tech

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lurk

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this one's fairly close to my heart hehehe... should be very interesting, a good mix of styles on it :Smile3:

Sonic Dragon 04 - Various Artists - Lo-Land Hi-Tech
Release Date: July 2005
Distribution by: Arabesque (worldwide)

1. Liftshift - Contracting Waves
2. Drexl - Eating Movies
3. Zen Mechanics - Dolly Dots
4. Cyrus The Virus & Sono Loco - I Robot
5. Loki - Lagomorph
6. Rev Particle - Scheldezoi
7. Synchro - Star Spangled
8. Zebra-N - Souperman
9. Jocid & PsychoBit - Global Control

Release Notes
Deep in the far north west corner of the European continent lies the low lands, a country built by people over the centuries from swamp and built up from the sea. They call it the Netherlands, and it has grown to become known across the planet as a country of tolerance and open-mindedness. A hub for travellers, both physical and mental, Holland has long been a melting pot of psychedelic ideas, and from this pot Sonic Dragon has served a balanced meal of healthy trance goodness to suite any palette.

We begin with Liftshift, one of Holland's most promising progressive artists, with a release due later this year on X-Dream's G-plus label. Here he gives us "Contracting Waves", a hypnotic driving tune that builds and pulls, leading smoothly into "Eating Movies", from Drexl. Drexl is the solo project of Bart Mattias, a long time collaborator of Jocid, with whom he has compiled this album. His track is a slow building number with a pushing bassline and soft melodies. Next, we have a rocking, funky track from Zen Mechanics, without a doubt one of the hottest acts from Holland right now, with releases on labels such as Crystal Matrix and Iboga, and is now signed to Neurobiotic for his debut album.

Following on from this is Cyrus the Virus + Sono Loco. Cyrus the Virus needs no introduction, and his many tracks from compilations and his own album on GMS' Spun Records have been played by DJs on dancefloors across the globe. Next is Loki, the solo project of Alistair Johnson, co-promotor with Zen Mechanics of the Triphazard parties in Amsterdam. He gives us a twisted track with staccato rythmns and a pumping bassline. Then it's on to the Rev Particle, the new project from Troy Leidich, who is well known by his previous releases as Fungus of Light on Doof Records. Here he brings us the dripping, rolling "Scheldezoi".

Then we see the return of Synchro, already a legend for his ten years at the cutting edge of psychedelic trance music. "Star Spangled" is a rolling, psychedelic guitar-driven track that may sound a little familiar to any Hendrix fans. Next we hear Zebra-N, another of Holland's emerging underground trance stars, with tracks appearing on Doof Records and Ketuh Records compilations. "Souperman" is in his trademark twisted psychedelic style, and should please fans of the darker night sound. Finishing off the compilation is Jocid, collaborating here with PsychoBit (expect an album from these two soon) for a melodic, stomping full on track to finish off the journey with a bang!
 
all sounds very interesting......shall be keeping my eye out in July
 
V/A – Lo-land Hi-tech

cs18733101abig7sm.jpg


Hi-res cover: front + 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
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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
 
another good review, martin :Smile3:

i have a slight bias here, cos i have partied with a few of these artists for some years, but i was surprised by how much i liked this too... and i agree with you totally about the diversity of the music on there, it's really refreshing :Smile3:
 
love the first tune me but was expecting more overall

but liftshift fuck yeah
 
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