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Wov! New X-Dream album is not an everyday happening. X-Dream (Marcus C. Maichel and Jan Muller) is for sure considered to be two of the most talented artists we have in the psychedelic trance scene. They are said to be one of the major reasons for why psytrance sounds like it does today, because of their groundbreaking album Radio, released on Blue Room Released in 1998. But they were also a big inspiration to the entire scene before that, with their trippy, melodic, drifting trance, released on several albums and singles, mostly on Tunnel Records from 1994 to 1997. After the Radio album in 1998, they went another direction, and released the Irritant album on GTN in 2002, which put minimal trance to a sky high level, with massive, filmatic, dark themes etc. Now they are back, this time with their sixth album! Now they are releasing it on one of the most respected psytrance labels there is out there, Solstice Music.
X-Dream "We Interface" Solstice Music 2004 (SOLM-CD013)
1. The 1St
2. We Interface
3. Superintelligence
4. Try To save Your Song
5. Ultratube
6. Quantum Lab
7. Virus
8. Distressor
9. Slim Drum
10. X-Ray Eyes
11. The 1St (Fluke Remix)
I was lucky enough to see X-Dream live at Samothraki Dance Festival in Greece last year, and heard some new tracks that gave me a little sign of what their new album was going to sound like. The first track we get here was actually one of the last tracks they gave us on the live set. As you can see on the cover art, they have brough a girl (Ariel) into the band this time. She was singing on stage at Samothraki, and here we get her vocals too. They have twisted the voice quite a lot, so it sounds like some kind of evil computer voice. The first time I heard this track, I hated it. After a few listens, I’m actually starting to like it…! We get some massive, rough, swirling sounds and a heavy break beat banging through the track. Dark and very different from all previous tracks by X-Dream. Track 2 starts with some sounds from a phone or something. Then we get a rough kind of melody that reminds me of a electro melody from the eighties. You find influences of 80’s electro in many different music styles these days (trendy…), and here it has definitely found it’s journey to trance too. Personally, I don’t like this track very much because I find the melody kind of cheesy. You also get the vocals in this one. Synth music meets trance… Track 3 is a fantastic trance track that shows us why X-Dream is as big as they are. Very minimal, but they build it up in a drifting way like no other has managed to do. This track sounds a bit like the Radio album, but a bit more minimal. I think somewhere between Radio and Irritant would be a good description of this track. Fantastic!!! Best track on this album in my ears. Track 4 takes the rough, eighties sound and tweaks it into another, quite cheesy melody again. This track sounds more like some very bad hard house than psytrance to me. This is actually the worst track I have ever heard by X-Dream! I just can’t understand why they would release something like this? This is what hard house sounded like five years ago!
Track 5 is a really pumping track. We get some of those rough hard house sounds in this one too, but not as nagging. This track is actually a techno track, not a psytrance track. But X-Dream is one of just a few groups that have a fan base in both scenes, and here you get the reason why! Pretty good, minimal, drifting techno track. Track 6 is another masterpiece. They played this one in the live set too. You get the vocals, but not in a nagging way. Here it sounds just cool, and the drifting, totally stumpy beat is as typical X-Dream as it can get. The trippy melody you get in this one is really great. Another favourite on this album. Track 7 is a totally pumping track working it real hard. This one sounds like it stays somewhere between hard house and techno. Not among the worst, but not among the best tracks either. Track 8 is extremely heavy and hard pumping! This is a pure, evil, minimal, techno track. I think this could actually go under the gabba techno category! Something for those who wants to work it out like they’ve never done before. Track 9 is another drifting techno monster. This one has the vibe I like in the Irritant album. Dark, trippy and a massive sound, but in a minimal way. Track 10 is a pure electro track. Some kind of experimental break beats, evil voice and rough sounds that could have been in a drum’n’bass track. Very dark, but cool and very different from what we are used to hear from these guys. The last track we get on this album is surprisingly a Fluke remix of the 1St track! Fluke is among the most talented groups in the electronic music scene, and have gained huge respect in many scenes. Here they have made a drum’n’bass version of the track. Pretty cool, with playful bass and funny sounds. This version is also more melodic than the original. Nice one.
X-Dream delivers some fantastic monsters as usual, but they also disappointed me with the hard house tracks. This album was more varied than usual from these guys, so it might catch more peoples attention. Hands up for X-Dream for finding new directions in each album. This time they deliver great quality when it comes to the trance, the breaks and electro was okay, but the hard house was wrong… Check it out! It’s X-Dream for god’s sake!
PK (shivapks@hotmail.com)
