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Author: Per Kristian Slagsvold

Publishing date: 19.05.2005 00:50

Agitato Records in Israel is out with a new full on compilation. As usual we get mostly Israeli tracks, but also a couple of tracks from other countries.

Stereo Activity (Agitato Records) 2005 (AGE1041)

1. Bio-Tonic – Cosmovision
2. Space Monkey – Bonanza
3. Toasted – Star Guitar
4. Trauma – Century
5. S-Range – Looking In
6. Indica - Civilization
7. Beat Hackers – Tiger Rock
8. Psycraft – Alone
9. Point Vs. Golum – Revenge Of The Benos

The first track is by Bio-Tonic, which is a group from France that mostly releases on Solstice Music (three albums) and rarely on other labels. They have gone a more and more clubby, quite commercial direction, which we definately hear on the track we get here. Quite cheesy club trance influences all the way through. I really enjoyed some of the earlier stuff from these guys, but now they have gone over the top, to the fluffy side. Track 2 is a new track by Space Monkey (Kfir Shlomovitz) from Israel, who released a very strong debut album (Psychotic Episode) on Agitato Records last year. His album had a nice balance between melodic and dark trance. The track we get here is not as good as the tracks on the album. A little bit more clubby. We get some voice samples from the movie Waking Life and lighter melodies, but it is a little better than a lot of other Israeli full on these days. Track 3 is by a new Israeli duo called Toasted (Eyal Arbuz & Ezra Arangi). They give us a track with some eastern vibes, flute etc. above the massive, pumping bass line. The rest sounds like a very typical Israeli full on track, of the kind you might find on the TIP.World label these days. Track 4 is by Trauma (Guy Peled), who is also known for being one half of Beat Hackers. Trauma released an album (TB-O-Not-2B) on Agitato Records last year. The track we get here is very melodic, with some kind of old school goa trance melodies that I haven’t heard in a long time. The rest sounds like a typical full on track, but it might be something if you are seeking for old school vibes.

Track 5 is surprisingly by S-Range (Anthony Sillfors) from Sweden. This guy has mostly kept his music somewhere between full on and progressive trance. Lately, he has fallen more over to the full on side, which is what he gives us here too. Not the most impressive track I have heard from him. Now he sounds more like most other full on artists. Melodic full on for the morning. Track 6 is by Indica (Eliad Grundland) who has been involved in Agitato Records from the beginning, including two albums. He is also known as Space Buddha. The track we get here is a massive, full on track with Indian influences. I like the Indian vocals here, the rest sounds like millions of other full on tracks. Track 7 is by Beat Hackers (Guy Peled & Itay Needlman). Here they give us a guitar trance track that reminds me way too much about Skazi, which I can’t stand. Hit for kids maybe. Track 8 is by Psycraft (Alon Algarisi & Nir Sidon) who has shown some great talent in several tracks. Here they give us a massive, full on track with some scary samples, echoing effects etc. As usual they give us a lot of guitar, but the guitar play in this one sounds a little bit better than the riffs you find in most other guitar trance tracks these days. The last track on this compilation is a collaboration between Point (Nadav Bonen & Eran Ben-Gaon) who released an album (Do You Believe?) on Phantasm Records last year, together with Golum (Barak Argaman & Amos Turin). This is the most massive track on this compilation, and also my favourite. Very drifting track.

This compilation follows a very typical Israeli full on pattern. With other words, no surprises here. But, if you have enjoyed the previous full on compilations from Agitato, you will probably enjoy this one too.
PKS (shivapks@hotmail.com)

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