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Music reviews
Review by PKS
Surprising debut album by Etic on Trancelucent Productions...
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Trancelucent Records based in Israel is out with a new album, this time by a new upcoming act called Etic (Etay Harari). Here they are taking a new direction towards progressive trance for a change.
Etic "Touch Ups" Trancelucent Productions 2004 (TP009)
1. Winter Intro
2. A-U
3. Deep Night Dream (D.N.D.)
4. Night Time
5. One Man Band (O.M.B.)
6. 1st Element
7. Human Voice
8. Touch Ups
9. Some Pieces In Half Speed
The first track is a really stumping progressive trance track that builds up slowly from start to end. Here he ads more and more sounds and melodies and there is a very drifting vibe all the way through. Not bad at all. Track 2 has a deep, pushing bass line. This is also a stumpy progressive track. Pretty rare to hear progressive trance like this from Israel. He has added some really cool, playful, twisted sounds in there, and we get a nice drift all the way through. No sign of cheese like in some of the previous releases from Trancelucent Productions, just pure psychedelic sounds jumping and swirling on the groovy bass line. Track 3 is a bit more hard going, with darker vibes. Some scary, but funny echo sounds popping in and out. Pretty cool track, almost bubbling of jumpy sounds. One of my favourite tracks on this album. Track 4 goes over to a more pumping night time style, still with a progressive vibe and not totally full on. He sure likes to ad a lot of psychedelic sounds in his tracks, and that fits my taste perfectly well! This one builds up all the way, and after a while we get some really refreshing floating melodies. Trippy as hell and about as psychedelic as it can get!
Track 5 goes even harder and darker. Hard, pushing, stumpy beats and some evil, but nice jumpy psychedelic sounds. You get some kind of bouncing melody in there too. These tracks have this nice trippy, drifting vibe and never gets nagging. Track 6 continues this hard pumping style, but here we get a bit more rolling bass line. Now we have definitely reached a really dark and scary night time vibe. Pure psychedelic night time music, but not as minimal and boring as full on horror trance can be. Nice one. Track 7 goes the same direction. These sounds are really crispy. After a while we get a trippy melody too. Everything is just bouncing in there! Great track! Track 8 goes a bit lighter. Still, we get these totally twisted sounds and it builds up in a progressive way. The melodies we get here really lighten it up. The last track this surprisingly talented artist gives us is some kind of weird chill out track. Not very relaxing, but very twisted and experimental with tons of weird, cool sounds. Nice experimental finish on the album.
This album is one of the most surprising releases I have heard this year! After some disappointing releases on the Trancelucent label, they are now really hitting back with some great quality stuff! An album full of progressive trance tracks reaching up to full on night time trance.
PK (shivapks@hotmail.com)
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Death Posture
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25.06.2004 16:15
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Etic – Touch Ups
Cover: http://217.160.138.169/pic_b/trl1cd009_b.jpg
Format: CD
Artist: Etic
Title: Touch Ups
Label: Trancelucent Productions, Israel
Cat. #: TP-009
Year: 2004
Track listing:
01. 09’05” Winter Intro
02. 08’15” A-U
03. 08’10” Deep Night Dream
04. 08’07” Night Time
05. 07’40” One Man Band
06. 06’59” 1st Element
07. 08’00” Human Voice
08. 07’45” Touch Ups
09. 07’43” Some Piece In Half Speed
Review:
Groovy hybrid trance…
Trancelucent Productions is out with the debut album from Etic (Etay Harari). This time the label strays from their usual full-on approach towards more progressive/deep trance… Nice to see that for a change… I’ve never heard any Etic tracks before, so I have no idea what to expect…
Let me take you thru the tracks…
#01: The intro-track starts with undecipherable female samples… I can’t make all of it out, but it resembles the good old Music Instructor idea where different musical elements are added through the track… “Add some bass!”… It’s a funny, yet not highly original idea… Anyway, the style is a mixture between full-on and progressive, leaning mostly towards prog… A hybrid really – it’s nice and groovy… “Take it up”… Very nice intro-track!
#02: Let’s dwell deeper into A-U… This is prog-trance with Israeli hints… I mean, it’s not progressive like Son Kite or FREq, the bass is somewhat more full-on, yet very groovy… It’s hard to describe really… Thumbs up for funky echo-effects and all the cool pads… Wicked percussion work as well… Sweet!
#03: Rich intro, with metallic digital drops and synth-effects… The bassline is deeper than the previous 2 tracks, so the title of the track is well-chosen!... I’m sure this will put a few sound-systems to the test… Again, the percussion work is really impressive – I really like how Mr. Harari has incorporated the percussion into the main “melody” - it’s a challenge NOT to move to this… Nicey nice!
#04: Again, the track title says it all… Its night time on the progressive trance floor now… The intro is dominated by hi-hats and a phat-ass bassline… Much more brutal than the previous tracks – and with the addition of all kinds of psychedelic FX this truly is a twisted track… There is a passage in the middle of the track, where it gets too minimal for my taste, but luckily it’s only for a short while… Though the samples might appear cheesy, I dig them… Especially the Shidapu’esque pitched up male voice… Another fine track!
#05: Still night and Hariri launches into a seemingly more minimal approach towards progressive nite trance… It’s dark and fast, yet somehow the groove is intact… There are no voice samples or random tweaking going on here, it’s just pure, smooth, building trance… This would mix well into a FREq-track… Nice!
#06: Continuing in the same vein, but more experimental – the bassline is run through different filters, and more twisted effects are added, making this track more psychedelic… The sweet percussion and voice samples are also back, added are a few subtle acid lines – and there even a little synth melody popping up now and again… Great combo!
#07: Digital drops, electronic farts and sonic burps… Always a pleasure! As you might’ve guessed, this is another progressive night stomper… Slightly faster than the last one and with a more clanging sound… And of course there is a computerized human voice repeated throughout the track! Halfway through, the track changes into a very psychedelic piece with rolling percussion and subtle acid melodies… Beautiful!
#08: The title track kicks off with a much more repetitive bassline – not as groovy as the others… Bummer! The surrounding effects are all nice though – we get some really nice floating melodies, epic even! As the track progresses the funk creeps in slowly, yet the paramount flaw is that it never reaches the high standard as the rest of the album… Decent track!
#09: Sonic manipulation - The last track is Harari goofing around in his studio, experimenting with all kinds of FX…This doesn’t really do anything for me, but it’s obvious that the man has talent… Average track!
Wow – I was caught completely off guard with this album… I mean, with most releases you kinda know what to expect… I figured this would be another semi-boring Israeli full-on album, but talk about being wrong! It was in fact one of the most positive surprises I’ve had this year… With the exception of the last two tracks, all tracks are above average standard… I love surprises like this… Hats off to Trancelucent – this is the best CD I’ve heard from them (though I’m reviewing the Misted Muppet soon – strong contender for that title)… I’d recommend this to any fan of progressive trance with a touch of nite-time full-on… Enjoy!
8/10
Favourites: 1, 4, 6, and 7 super-nice… 2, 3 and 5 are nice… 8 and 9 are decent. ;o)
DeathPosture
External links:
Trancelucent Productions: http://www.trancelucent.com
BOA Distribution: http://www.boadistribution.com
Psyshop: http://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/trl/trl1cd009.html (Audio samples available!)
Saiko Sounds: http://www.saikosounds.com/english/display_release.asp?id=4110
Trance Shop: http://www.trance-shop.com/de/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=3879&osCsid=6b5a3e37e836bb99e92f2510a590307a
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