V/A – Buckle Up
Cover: http://www.saikosounds.com/covers/TP-006.jpg
Format: CD
Artist: Various
Title: Buckle Up
Label: Trancelucent Productions, Israel
Cat. #: TP-006
Year: 2003
Track listing:
01. 10’31” Cosmic Tone – Your Destination
02. 07’03” Ultravoice vs. KYO LOG – Take-no-Logic
03. 07’50” Illumination - Meditation
04. 07’53” The Misted Muppet - Amsterdam
05. 07’02” Visual Paradox vs. Perplex vs. Jeremy – Buckle Up
06. 08’50” Noga – Extensive Survey
07. 08’28” Evil Drug Lords - Feedback
08. 07’07” Electro Sun
Review:
Independent Israeli label Trancelucent Productions released this “theme compilation” late last year, compiled by Homsy of Psymag-fame …and I completely missed it… Now I’ve got it, and its time to find out what formula one trance is all about!
Let me take you thru the tracks…
#01: “My mind is going”… You don’t expect smooth, funky progressive trance from Cosmic Tone now do you? Well, that’s what were getting here and what a relief that is… This long opener chances pace a couple of time, but it cannot run away from its proggy roots… I like the very well-made, building percussion work in this track... However, it does move a little slow at times… If this was two minutes shorter, it would have been even better! Decent track!
#02: This track takes a distinctive turn from progressive to max power neo full on… And back again… A nice hybrid of genres makes this stand out a bit… But I’m not sure it’s for the right reasons… Notable parallels to old Infected Mushroom at places… Ok track!
#03: Definitely NOT meditation music from Illumination here... Fast paced, in-yer-face bouncy trance here… First track to really grab my attention on this comp – suddenly my head was bobbing along to this sweet tune! Cool track!
#04: I’ve only been to A’dam once… It was a 6 hour stopover waiting for a bus – and it sounded nothing like this! If it did, I’d stayed longer, ‘cause this is some spacey shit! ;o) Weird, off key acid melodies with an underlying groovy present throughout the track! Cool track!
#05: 3 second intro vs. space samples vs. dark atmosphere vs. gloomy sounds vs. acid synths vs. your usual Israeli night time stomper… Argh, what’s with all the versusses? Well, it’s not a bad track at all… Better buckle up! Nice track!
#06: I’ve never heard of Noga before, but I’ll keep an eye out in the future, ‘cause this is not bad at all… We’re on the progressive side of things with underlying Israeli full on kicks and bleeps… Nice, smooth and groovy morning tune! Cool track!
#07: Ahh, the masters: those evil drug lords! In fact this isn’t very evil at all…It’s a very interesting track – Ranging from powerful, dark night trance, to sweet innocent melodic epic trance… That recognisable simple melody in the middle of the track will leave you thinking: What the …? But it rocks, that’s for sure! Cool track!
#08: Young star Electro Sun winds things up with this distinctive morning tune… Nice psychedelic effects, but when it comes down to it not much is new under the electro sun! Decent track!
For an Israeli compilation, this isn’t half bad… Most of the stuff is well-produced and basically does what it’s supposed to: Entertain the listener… The cover art is nice and different… However I could have wished for more coherence between the theme of the compilation, and the actual tracks… Frankly, when listening to this, I don’t get a formula one race kind of feel– whatever the hell that is!? Most tracks are good; however there are no essential tracks on this… For my taste at least - but I’m sure the many fans of the modern Israeli full on style, will appreciate this…
7/10
Favourites: 1, 3 (!), 4, 7
DeathPosture
External links:
Trancelucent Productions: http://www.trancelucent.com/
Saiko Sounds: http://www.saikosounds.com/english/display_release.asp?id=3695 (Soundclips available!)
Chaos Unlimited: http://www.chaosunlimited.co.uk/cgi-bin/product.asp?LR=TPCD06
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