damion
Pound Shop Alex Petridis
Various
Beatport 2
Jumjam (Germany)
We know that the Germanic progressive take on psytrance is, at least, a little different to what makes the rest of the world groove; and even on this basis, it’s not easy to tell where this compilation is really aimed. The two tracks by Vaishiyas (who compiled this CD) are, both psychedelically and objectively, the best two on offer -- Babe Watch in particular, a wonderfully-layered piece of smooth progressive that’s full of groovy niceness. Sonus’ Upgraded takes psy-prog fusion and moves it along nicely, and really doesn’t need the cheddary glowstick melody that it ends up relying on for its larger part, and the “Protoculture mixed with Electric Tease†of Phonatic’s She Likes It hangs together well, but it’s too much. Recognising that this is an album perhaps aimed at the indoor floors, or metal-floored pre-club bars at weekends, it makes more sense but still Bitcrusher’s Really Sick is cringeworthy with its incessant circa-1989 “check.. whoo!†throughout, and once-great CON-Sequencer’s radio one amyl-house Moving Pictures, even a moderately-discerning club crowd will be frowning and wondering quite what to do next. Puzzling.
4
http://www.psyreviews.com
Beatport 2
Jumjam (Germany)
We know that the Germanic progressive take on psytrance is, at least, a little different to what makes the rest of the world groove; and even on this basis, it’s not easy to tell where this compilation is really aimed. The two tracks by Vaishiyas (who compiled this CD) are, both psychedelically and objectively, the best two on offer -- Babe Watch in particular, a wonderfully-layered piece of smooth progressive that’s full of groovy niceness. Sonus’ Upgraded takes psy-prog fusion and moves it along nicely, and really doesn’t need the cheddary glowstick melody that it ends up relying on for its larger part, and the “Protoculture mixed with Electric Tease†of Phonatic’s She Likes It hangs together well, but it’s too much. Recognising that this is an album perhaps aimed at the indoor floors, or metal-floored pre-club bars at weekends, it makes more sense but still Bitcrusher’s Really Sick is cringeworthy with its incessant circa-1989 “check.. whoo!†throughout, and once-great CON-Sequencer’s radio one amyl-house Moving Pictures, even a moderately-discerning club crowd will be frowning and wondering quite what to do next. Puzzling.
4
http://www.psyreviews.com
