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Bio-Tonic is back with their third album, all three albums released on Solstice Music. Bio-Tonic is one of just a few psytrance groups these days with three members, Jerome Lecoq, Julien Lecoq and Julien Brizard.
Bio-Tonic "Divina" Solstice Music 2004 (SOLM-CD012)
1. Green Dreams
2. Blasting Plastic
3. Acid Explosion
4. Terra Incognita
5. Divina Musica
6. Divina Commedia
7. Storm
8. Humanimals
9. Aroma Divina
First out is a full on, melodic track full of some kind of eastern vocals. Not bad, but the bass line sounds a bit boring (since we have heard it thousands of times before), and some of the riffs might sound a bit cheesy to some people. Hands up for good variation. Track 2 is more drifting. Massive sound picture, with some floating atmospheric sounds and a female voice repeating some words many times through the track. Now and then the vocals become a bit too much, but it doesn’t hurt the floating, drifting vibe. Track 3 starts more like a cheesy euro dance track going the direction artists like Tiesto etc. played a few years ago. The rest of the track has quite clubby style too, but has some sort of scary melody and a heavy bass line. The kind of track Raja Ram would play these days I guess. Easy digestible full on. Track 4 starts with a tribal voice before the banging, heavy beats hit in again. Definitely one of the better tracks on this album, with a great trippy melody, a massive sound picture and some sort of electro influences.
Track 5 starts quite unusual for a trance track, with a women saying something and some opera singing! Almost scary and very dramatic vibe. Then the beat starts pumping again. The opera singing comes back several times during the track. Quite experimental, but not among my favourites on this album. Track 6 starts with a voice sample too. The bass line is really groovy in this one. This track has a quite dramatic vibe too. A stumping track with a floating sound picture and some guitar sounds that sounds a bit annoying in my ears. Track 7 starts like a euro dance track again, but that doesn’t last long. As soon as the full on beats jump in, we get a ton of tribal voices etc. We also get some riffs in there that sounds a bit over the top for my taste. Track 8 goes down tempo. Pretty good, experimental track, with a tribal vibe and big beat rhythms. Very different and surprising from a trance group. You also get a bit of 80’s vibe with this track. The last track on this album chills us down. Bio-Tonic has previously released a few very nice chill out tracks, and the one we get here is no exception. A deep, floating track with tribal influences.
This album is the most clubby sounding album Bio-Tonic has released so far. But, they manages to stay on the right side of the cheese in several of their tracks, and they get a plus for being creative and giving us great variation in every track.
PK (shivapks@hotmail.com)
