damion
Pound Shop Alex Petridis
Taucher
Progression Vol 1
Avalanche (Germany)
Taucher is fucking massive. Releasing trance since most of us were still in short trousers, his discography is only slightly shorter than a family-of –seven’s till receipt from a monthly shop at Aldi. And, folks, I love this. Yes it may just be because it’s miles away from the run of the mill psytrance, it may be because it’s combining a mature, techno-ey approach to progressive trance, and it may be that I’m getting old and no longer want to kick up dust at regular intervals… but, sheesh this is bloody good music. Fat Friday picks up this wonderful hooky loop, and moulds it subtley forwards. It’s one of those clever bits of music that’ll have you thinking it’s all pretty static, but when you listen into it, it’s morphing all the time and adding or losing little inflections. Classy. Waiting develops a housy, bass-driven groove that waits ages before fully dropping its beats, and I can see this having an amazing effect on the dancefloor. The breakdown is certainly sizeable, and the way it all comes back together again is a delight in gliding, soaring music. Ich Kenne is a more warehousey tune (don’t ask where that word came from) with a long, disconcerting break which drops into an equally unsettling final run, so it’s just as well that Mansonate takes things a little more organic… sheer class this one, perfect loops and hooks that suck you right in to them, so you hear the music from the middle of its belly… lush melodies come in but don’t dominate, and it floats off in a very individual way, with a crunchy bottomend preventing things from going too fluffy. Exultation takes things funkier with a more tribal, tecchy house vibe that’s once again all based on hooks and vacuums, and Five takes things into darker and thunkier territory, an epic cascade of low-set, less-is-more trance. Wet has a lovely bounce to it, sort of ADD-house that develops into this sweet-as-hell plateau of deep reverb acid, sleazy samples, all over this tuff-disco-extraordinaire backing. Bloody good, basically. Respect gets dirtier still, with deep and filthy future-guitars layered over a bustling percussive rhythm section. With riffs and sweet pads driving it along, it’s a very memorable eight-ish-minutes of music, still unmistakeably german, and still unmistakeably bloody good. If that’s not enough, final track Atmosfear is probably the friendliest one here in terms of fitting in with yer “standard†progressive-psy set. It layers incredibly sweet pads and melodies over a wonderful, outdoor-morning backbone that has a definite probability of bringing a tear to the eye if played at the right time. Crikey, then. I’m braced for people saying that it’s not psychedelic music… ooooh but it is. The way it moves, the way it sucks you in, the way it shifts around, all these used to be characteristics of bloody good psytrance (and, indeed, bloody good trance before the words “psy†or “goa†were coined.) Progression sits in there very neatly, and I urge anyone who likes music to check this out.
9
Progression Vol 1
Avalanche (Germany)
Taucher is fucking massive. Releasing trance since most of us were still in short trousers, his discography is only slightly shorter than a family-of –seven’s till receipt from a monthly shop at Aldi. And, folks, I love this. Yes it may just be because it’s miles away from the run of the mill psytrance, it may be because it’s combining a mature, techno-ey approach to progressive trance, and it may be that I’m getting old and no longer want to kick up dust at regular intervals… but, sheesh this is bloody good music. Fat Friday picks up this wonderful hooky loop, and moulds it subtley forwards. It’s one of those clever bits of music that’ll have you thinking it’s all pretty static, but when you listen into it, it’s morphing all the time and adding or losing little inflections. Classy. Waiting develops a housy, bass-driven groove that waits ages before fully dropping its beats, and I can see this having an amazing effect on the dancefloor. The breakdown is certainly sizeable, and the way it all comes back together again is a delight in gliding, soaring music. Ich Kenne is a more warehousey tune (don’t ask where that word came from) with a long, disconcerting break which drops into an equally unsettling final run, so it’s just as well that Mansonate takes things a little more organic… sheer class this one, perfect loops and hooks that suck you right in to them, so you hear the music from the middle of its belly… lush melodies come in but don’t dominate, and it floats off in a very individual way, with a crunchy bottomend preventing things from going too fluffy. Exultation takes things funkier with a more tribal, tecchy house vibe that’s once again all based on hooks and vacuums, and Five takes things into darker and thunkier territory, an epic cascade of low-set, less-is-more trance. Wet has a lovely bounce to it, sort of ADD-house that develops into this sweet-as-hell plateau of deep reverb acid, sleazy samples, all over this tuff-disco-extraordinaire backing. Bloody good, basically. Respect gets dirtier still, with deep and filthy future-guitars layered over a bustling percussive rhythm section. With riffs and sweet pads driving it along, it’s a very memorable eight-ish-minutes of music, still unmistakeably german, and still unmistakeably bloody good. If that’s not enough, final track Atmosfear is probably the friendliest one here in terms of fitting in with yer “standard†progressive-psy set. It layers incredibly sweet pads and melodies over a wonderful, outdoor-morning backbone that has a definite probability of bringing a tear to the eye if played at the right time. Crikey, then. I’m braced for people saying that it’s not psychedelic music… ooooh but it is. The way it moves, the way it sucks you in, the way it shifts around, all these used to be characteristics of bloody good psytrance (and, indeed, bloody good trance before the words “psy†or “goa†were coined.) Progression sits in there very neatly, and I urge anyone who likes music to check this out.
9
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