damion
Pound Shop Alex Petridis
Ticon
Zero Six After
Digital Structures (Sweden)
This has to be one of the most eagerly-awaited follow albums in ages. Two and half years since Aero, one of the finest progressive acts is back: and what a way to return, kids: Zero Six After is an utter belter. And yes, psyreviews is delighted to be able to offer you an interview with Ticon at http://www.chaishop.com/lasso/content.lasso?id=1518.
The cinematic Prologue warms things up a treat: warm pads and ticklish runs get larger and larger, before finally picking up some cheeky glitchatronic beats that form the backbone of Kids Of The 80s, a seriously good piece of work that slams hard with Ticon’s return. It’s full of energy, brimming over the edges with quality and life. The groove is a mishmash of house and cutups, with messy casio electro keeping it moving. It dips right out, and almost falls silent, before teasing back with a proper-job progressive run.. then gets breakbeaty, and then falls gloriously back into its screaming, driving housey origin.
Serious contender for Psyreviews’ favourite track title of the year, U Make Me Wanna Drink More has echoes of late-Motown to it; something in the high-end strings, maybe? All about housey drive and flair once again, this time with a huge lumbering elephant of a riff sitting in the low midrange. It’s dirty, sassy psybooty with a twist of lime.
In The Dirt takes things a shade more frantic. At 140bpm, it’s verging on a fullon track, and it does it bloody well. Think a tighter, fresher Silicon Sound at his best and you’re not far off. Huge breakdown, tight melodies, and more of these clean, sparky-retro-80s sounds. Poem For Granny has a great vibe going on, and escalates really nicely: it’s like a more fluid Minilogue with plenty of airy space all through the track.
In Stereo is a godsend, a truly dazzling piece of electronic music. It’s breakbeat, and it makes for a nice interjection in the flow of the album. But sit back and let it do its stuff… simply phenomenal, it picks up cute melodies and runs, and around the middle it picks into a sort of 4/4, wrenches out this melody that sounds like it could make you cry but then… as soon as you notice it, it’s gone. Truly something special. Rip It Up is like a fit bird in tight jeans… striding into the room, all heads turn, charged by this current of deep energy. Once again, it’s staggering – quite how they morph these sounds into such smooth layers is beyond a numpty like me. Some of the sounds here are maybe a little too in the retro-80’s, but for my money it works okay.
Chicken Shaker sounds a little like Underworld, with looped distorted vocals (nowhere near Infected Mushroom, yer’alright) and is made by it’s huge breakdown, with real-sounding drums; but for me, it’s all really hype up to The Anaolgue H. This is fucking blinding: very smoothly done, it’s the perfect energetic, melodic psytrance groover that unfolds like a dream, with some of the finest riff-based grooves in an awfully long time, and a hands-in-the-air melody that screams goa at you.
Finally, the emotions are running high with Six Years After… and again it’s amazing stuff, possibly the greatest ‘fin-de-albume’ number I can remember. It’s got more in keeping with the NakedNYC sound than anything psytrance, but fuck me is it gorgeous. Emotive, ticklish, smooth and inspiring, it rounds the album off a treat.
Zero Six After is a dazzlingly accomplished artist album. Ticon try their hands at a lot of styles here, and with each track you get the feeling that they’ve achieved something significant. In the long run, not everything they touch may turn to gold, but it sure as hell does here. A classic album, everyone should own a copy. And by that I mean: everyone.
10
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