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Embryotoxicity…

An embryo (Greek: έμβρυον) is an animal or a plant in its earliest stage of development – and Electric Embryo is such a well-fitting name for this first compilation from Yage Records. This is a new label operating out of Gothenburg, Sweden… It’s run by a group of friends headed by DJ Bröte (Mikael Löfgren) who also spins this kinda music at parties… If you haven’t guessed it already by looking at the track listing, I can reveal that the style here is raging dark, hard night trance – and that tracklist sure looks interesting from where I’m sitting… And with mastering by none other than Tim Schuldt himself, I’m putting this on with an optimistic mind…

Let me take you thru the tracks…

#01: Mechanix – Life Lines
“Unidentified aircraft. You’re ordered to descend to 20.000 feet. […] You have ten seconds to comply… Repeat: Lower your altitude to 10.000 feet. This is your last warning!” Mechanix is Eldad Ben-Ezry from Israel… He’s a Yage Records label DJ and has already released a number of compilation tracks and his debut album Illegal Dance was released on Doof Records in 2003… He starts his track with an archetypical movie sample and within 30 seconds the bassline is kicking hard already… This is a darkish track, though with a melodic edge… I really like the neat little acid twirls that Eldad so generously has sprinkled throughout the track… Nice! Also the there is a certain drive to this track that I dig – it keeps building and changing direction… The break is particularly well executed! Overall a very nice track and just as with Eldad’s track on the Peak Records compilation Peaking in Tongues this is funky as hell!

#02: Toxic – Katarzis
Toxic is Alon Atias & Avi Aboresi from Israel who’ve released tracks on classic hyper trance labels such as Timecode, Nabi and Parvati … I was pretty impressed with the techy track on Psychedelically Yours 2 released last year on Parvati… And this track is very similar to that one… The intro is brutal here – almost gabbaesque and very spooky! The pace is incredibly fast and basically this is a wall of sound … No-questions-asked hyper-trance that will repulse some and makes others cum in delight… Generally I like it, although it’s a little too intense for home listening… But a good track nevertheless!

#03: Electrypnose – 6th Debut Indux
Vince Le Barde from Switzerland released his debut album Brain Stretching on ResonantEarth.com earlier in 2005 – and the Swiss wizard has also impressed me with his compilation tracks on Peak Records… As always with Electrypnose the sound is very unique – though darkish and eerie, it’s also very well-balanced and has squeaky melodic elements… Darkish, yet uplifting – squeaky and bubbling… Nice track!

#04: Baphomet Engine – Screams
Fábio Aurelio S. Japiassu & Luiz Fernando Secchinatto from Brazil both derive from rock backgrounds, but eventually found psytrance. The duo has released tracks on Alkaloid and Nabi Records, but this is my first chance to listen to their music… The bassline here is pretty static – but is supported by a strong array of digital twists and turns… I think this is meant to be scary, but the freaky screams the title refer to are only introduced in the very last seconds of the track!?… A decent track…

#05: Wizack Twizack – Hallucination
WT is Tommy Axelsson from Sthlm, Sweden and this is his first track ever released… He seems to have picked up the let’s-sample-The-Simpsons trend – and he does that pretty well… I like a little humour in psytrance, and Tommy does that well for a n00b… He’s also a talented producer with his rolling sequencing-work and distorted melodies… This track has a very deep, raw underground sound… When you close your eyes you can almost feel the Swedish forest trolls crawling up your legs… Could easily have been released on Trishula or Stoneage Records… Tasty!

#06: Psychotic Micro – Face of Fear
Psychotic Micro is Mickey Lellouche & Kobi Stavi from Israel… They’ve released a number of tracks as Psychotic Micro and they are partly responsible for the tracks by Psycho Talk, Catla and The Chemical Mafia… A couple of very productive guys indeed! This track is just what you’d expect from these guys – dark, gritty psytrance to be played during the darkest hours of the night… With all kinds of weird twists and turns to accompany the minimal bassline… The first half of this track is good, but for the last couple of minutes it tastes too much like Skazi for my taste…

#07: Damage – Resurrection of the Nothing
Though Dean from South Africa is also a Skazi disciple, I like this track better than the previous one… It still has too much fluff to score top marks in my cool-book, but there are interesting ideas here to justify repeated listens… For instance, I like the sample of the old Neverending Story track that pops up suddenly from out of nowhere… Funny! But as a whole, this is simply too hectic and has too many fluffy elements… Decent track!

#08: Dark Nebula – Melding Plague
“Invisible mutant, eradication, extermination, annihilation, invisible mutant, eradication, extermination, invisible, unstoppable...” Aussie Luna Orbit has also been very, very productive over the years – with four albums and countless compilation tracks… We’re dealing with a true darkpsy veteran here! I’ve always liked his style and this is no exception… I dunno what’s in the water supply downunder (Well, GHB supposedly…), but those Australians are producing some of the very best hypertrance around… And this is a very cool track too: it’s fast-paced, humorous, relentless psytrance with darkish elements and a ton of psychedelia… The computer-samples are funny and my overall impression of this track is very positive!

#09: Procs – Jerry, Här Är Din Fremtid
Procs is Mikael Stegman from Sweden and he is know for his extremely psychedelic-slash-weird tracks on Shpastic Elastic, BooM!, Digital Psionics, Altitude and Sonaton… And when I say weird, I mean weird… This track here strays very much of the beaten path – it even stands out on this compilation – the closest would be the Wizack Twizack track… This is extremely psychedelic, hectic, multilayered, unstructured trance… You can’t get much more underground than this! If I had to compare it with something it’s somewhere in between Finnish/weird Australia – with a big splash of Schlabbaduerst… The title translates into “Jerry, this is your future”… I foresee Jerry eating a 4.000 kilo shroom/LSD cocktail in the future – be careful Jer! …Very original, and very trippy!

This is certainly a very interesting first release by Yage Records – and this is a label I’ll look very much forward to hearing more from in the future. There are at least a handful of very good tracks here – and I’m sure even the tracks I personally like less will find their audience… Perhaps the general flow of the compilation is a little off at times, but generally I like it and I’m sure Yage will find its way once more experience is gained… A very solid foundation has been laid with this compilation.

The cover art kicks major ass, though the spelling errors could have easily been corrected with an extra proof reading… I will not hesitate to recommend this to fans of the darker/weirder realms of psytrance… If you’ve enjoyed Parvati, Trishula, Ketuh, Gi’iwa, Digital Psionics or Schlabbaduerst releases I’m sure you’ll find something here you’ll like too… Enjoy!

Favourites: 1(!), 2, 5(!), 8(!!), 9(!)

DeathPosture

Electric Embryo

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