Parsec

Sunrise music!

The parsec is a unit of length used in astronomy. It stands for ‘parallax of one arc second’ and now it’s also the name of a morning trance compilation. Czech label Oxygen Records is out with their 2nd release – compiled by DJ T.V. The first release Satellite got rave reviews, and by the looks of the tracklist on this – the second one – it’s another batch of jolly morning trance… Let’s find out!

Let me take you thru the tracks…

#01: Braincell aka. Rastalians – Underwater
Braincell equals Rastalians minus Jürgen Kassel equals German producer Ralph Knobloch… This guy knows his shit – he’s been in the game for a long time and has countless releases under his belt… This is liquid space trance – uplifting, banging and full of nice little melodies… Not overly exciting to be honest, but good solid music… Would come in handy as a DJ tool for building a nice, uplifting morning set… An ok track!

#02: Aphid Moon vs. Protoculture – Systematic Anomally
“There are only two possibilities – either no one told me or no one knows!? …Precisely! As you are undoubtedly gathering the anomaly is systemic. Creating fluctuations in even the most simplistic equations!” Now here’s a very interesting collaboration between Jules Hamer from the UK and Nate Raubenheimer from South Africa… Between them, these guys have produced some of the most critically acclaimed morning trance in recent years… And now they are in cahoots! This sounds just as you’d hope – the phat, wall-of-sound signature sound from Aphid Moon mated with the unquestionable, melodic morning appeal from Protoculture… A match made in heaven! This is highly melodic, futuristic full-on – skilfully executed by these sound magicians! Check out the trippy break-down + following climax… Pure bliss! A sweet, sweet track!

#03: Ninja – Show Time
Woow – it’s been quite a while since I last heard anything from French producer Stéphane Djani aka. Ninja… But this guy still masters the good old, clinic sound from the early millennium… This is crackling, bubbling and stiff psytrance – with both hints of progressive and epic, melodic full-on… A hybrid really – leaning mostly towards the epic, uplifting side… Pretty good, but not a stand-out track…

#04: Hydraglyph – Aural Sex (Rmx)
This is actually my first encounter with the works of South African producers Mark Ackermann & Andrew Morgan, but I’ve heard good things about them… And rightfully so – this is very nice, colourful morning trance… Full-on in structure, but instantly trippy! Experimental to the core and has a massive acid mid-section…. Reminds me of the Digital Psionics sound – sweet stuff! A very nice full-power, blasting track…

#05: Freakulizer & DJ Moodra – Freaky Mood
Another collaboration here. This time between Swiss producers Simon Schwendener & Martin Baur… I haven’t heard much of their previous stuff, but I can tell you that this is more uplifting morning trance… Very reminiscent of the previous track and almost as good – almost! It’s gets a little too happy towards the end of the track… But still a nice little track!

#06: Setherian – Angelic Debris
Setherian is DJ Seth aka Christian Zahn from Sao Paulo, Brazil. His debut album Multiverse was a balanced mix of progressive and full-on – and so is this track… Kinda like Etic really! And yeah, this is pretty good too – I like the soft, yet murky voice samples and the nifty progressive reverb effects… But still I feel something’s lacking here… Can’t quite put my finger on it though… Decent track!

#07: Sound Field – No Roots
“Some journey never meant to end!” This is Israeli producers Andy Yakovlev (ProSect) & Liron Atia… ProSect really, really impressed me with his progressive masterpiece on the recent Tribal Vision compilation Inner Circle… And sure enough, this track has enough progressive touches to qualify as a true hybrid track… I mean, just check out the impressive percussion section here – mated with big, fat uplifting melodic pads… Nicey nice! Sunrise music for sure! A totally unique track – and totally sweet!

#08: Lucid SounD – 8.5 Light Minutes
To my knowledge, this is the first track released by Hungarian producer András Benkóczi… This is something close to minimal morning trance! Sounds weird, but so is this track… I mean, sure it has some nice moments but generally I have a hard time connecting to this track… The kick sounds blunt and the melodic pads don’t do much for me… Sorry, I don’t like it – at all!

#09: Spectra – Split
Paulo Oliveira & Francisco Oliveira from Portugal finishes things off – and if it wasn’t morning before, it’s definitely morning now… This is by far the most uplifting track here… Easily crossing over into fluffy, commercial stuff… To be honest, I don’t really like this flavour of cheesecake – I liked their tracks on Ketuh Records better… They were a little more edgy than this…

Well, well – this is actually a very mixed CD – despite the overall framework being uplifting morning trance… We get all kinds of acid-, progressive- and cheese influences here… It doesn’t come as a surprise, that I’m not particularly fond of the most cheesy bits here… And the last two tracks don’t really do anything for me… But I do like edgy, futuristic morning-trance – and thankfully we’re treated to a number of really good tracks too… And the great stuff here really *is* great!

The artwork by Mike Comandeer is really excellent and stands out nicely from the crowd. I’m impressed! To conclude, there are a handful of really excellent morning tunes here – but unfortunately also a couple of less-good, cheddar-tracks… But it still beats the crap out of most full-on compilations coming out of Israel these days… So - it’s not the best compilation I’ve heard this year, but it’s not the worst either… Fans of uplifting, joyous morning trance with a pinch of psychedelic will most definitely take well to this… Enjoy!

Favourites: 2(!), 4(!), 5, 7(!)

DeathPosture


External links:
Oxygen Records: www.oxygenrecords.com
Discogs: www.discogs.com/release/540821
Saiko Sounds: tinyurl.com/cq72z
TranceShop: tinyurl.com/b27ev
Beatspace: tinyurl.com/dnp3y
Wirikuta: tinyurl.com/86d33
Psyshop: tinyurl.com/df37r
Chaos: tinyurl.com/8qu3u
Ajuca: tinyurl.com/buy6h
Juno: tinyurl.com/ccwpg