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Dragonfly Records has started releasing other music than housy progressive trance, and has come out with a couple of good quality full on releases lately. Now they are out with a new compilation full of the new NEO trance we are getting a lot of these days. It is compiled by dj Pogo (Jamie Patterson).
Beaches And Cream (Dragonfly Records) 2004 (BFLCD69)
1. Silicon Sound – Shodan
2. Laughing Buddha – Fractal Tonic
3. Vatos Locos – Swimming With Sharks
4. Protoculture & Pogo – California Sunshine
5. Brain XL – Rodeo Driver
6. Atomic Pulse – Ground Beat
7. Graham Wood – Freedom From The Fresh
8. Bioeclipse – Totally Degradable
9. Bamboo Forest – Bass Trap
10. Laughing Buddha & Aphid Moon – Crystal Clarity
First out is Silicon Sound (Johannes Regnier) who had great success with his album Pure Analog on Moonspirits Records last year. Silicon Sound is a master in melodic morning trance, and that’s what we get here too. Very floating trance, without getting too cheesy. Pleasant for the dance floor at sunrise and for home listening. Track 2 is surprisingly by an artist we haven’t heard much from since he was a member of Cosmosis. I have always been a big fan of music done by Laughing Buddha (Jeremy Van Kempen), and he doesn’t disappoint with the track we get here either. Here we get a really melodic full on track. Melodies that reminds me of those old goa melodies, and a modern full on rhythm drift. Nice one. Track 3 is by Vatos Locos, which is an interesting collaboration between Nick Barber (Doof), Celli Firmi (Earthling) and Xavier Flux. They released a Vatos Locos album (Welcome 2 Da Barrio) on Sony Music in 2001, but it was only released in Mexico. Here they are back with a new unreleased track. This is a massive, darker full on track. Not among the best tracks I have heard from them, but not bad. Track 4 is made by Protoculture (Nate Raubenheimer) who released his debut album Refractions on Nano Records last year. Here he has collaborated with dj Pogo himself. This track has a rolling, heavy bass line, but doesn’t vary a lot. After a while it builds up a little bit, but it isn’t among the best Protoculture tracks I have heard. Then we get a track by Brain XL, which is a collaboration between Wrecked Machines (Gabriel Surrasqueiro) who released an album (Blink) on Etnicanet Records and a guy called Mack. They give us a massive, rolling, full on track. It sounds pretty monotonous in the beginning, but builds up and become nice and melodic.
Track 6 is a new track by Atomic Pulse (Tamir Ozana and Yair Baron). This is one of the better tracks I have heard from these guys. Melodic and drifting full on. Not very different from the majority of full on tracks coming out these days, but not bad. Then we surprisingly get a track by the old master himself, Graham Wood! He was one of the members of The Infinity Project, but we haven’t heard much from him after that until last year, when he released the Blowfish album (Puffed Up) on the Finnish label Surreal Audio Recordings. Her he gives us a track he has done all by himself. A hard pumping cool track, pretty different from everything else coming out these days. I love all those totally weird sounds he puts into his music! Great track! Track 8 is a new project. It is a very interesting collaboration between Loic Vanpoucke and Stephane Holweck, better known as Total Eclipse, and Samy Guediche from Biodegradable. This track is also released on the Total Eclipse album Update Files on Arcadia Records this year. The rhythm drift reminds me of The Antidote, and the style is a bit more full on than we are used to from the Total Eclipse guys. Track 9 is a new track by one of my favourite groups these days, Bamboo Forest (Yann Hennaf and Stephane Dureisseix). This is one of the best tracks on this album in my opinion. Totally drifting psychedelic trance, with great melodies and sounds. The last track on this album is a collaboration between Laughing Buddha and Aphid Moon (Jules Hamer). Laughing Buddha likes it melodic and varied, while Aphid Moon likes it minimal. Here it seems that Laughing Buddha has got his will, and made it really melodic. Full on with cool melodies and nice variation.
Dj Pogo sure has done a good job compiling this! This is definitely one of the best full on compilations I have heard for a while. Recommended if you are after some quality full on psytrance.
PK (shivapks@hotmail.com)
