Avi Shmailov from Israel is out with his second album on Hommega Productions. It is also released in collaboration with Vision Quest in Japan. He gained huge popularity after his debut album called Eye To Eye released in 2002. That was mainly because of his quite clubby, powerful style, which made people easy going on the dance floors worldwide. He has played in about every corner of the world, and here is finally a new album full of new tracks for his fans.

As already mentioned, this guy make trance for the masses in a clubbier way than most other Israeli full on acts. The first track starts slow with an atmospheric, floating vibe before the full on, rolling, heavy bass line hits in. Drifting, trancey, morning trance with some pretty nice melodies, and luckily this doesn’t fall over to the cheesy side. We get some relaxing breaks in between and there is a nice variation all the way through. A pumping track I’m sure will be a hit on the full on dance floors worldwide and among Astrix fans. Track 2 is originally an interesting collaboration between Astrix and Infected Mushroom (Amit Duvdevani and Erez Aizen), but here is the track remixed again by Astrix. Still, you can easily hear the influence by Infected Mushroom in there. This track sounds very massive and you get some typical Infected riffs and even some vocals. This is also one of the fastest tracks on this album (147bpm). Full on to the bone, but in a quite clubby way. Track 3 has a more dramatic sound. Very pumping beat with a drifting vibe. You get some vocals in this one too, but not annoyingly much. This one becomes very melodic too at the end. Track 4 called Techno Widows was released about a month ago on an Astrix CD single called Coolio, which was some kind of teaser for this album. That was actually the best track on that CD single in my opinion. Very drifting track, which builds up all the way. You get some guitar in there too, but not in a bad way. He has made this track together with Ido Ophir and Ohad Aharony.

Track 5 has the album title Artcore. This one starts with a fluffy melody. Now we are over on the totally clubby side of full on trance. In my opinion, you get some quite cheesy moments in this track, with a lot of uplifting, fluffy melodies playing around above the beat. Track 6 is the other fast (147bpm) track on this album. Here, things get better. A massive full on, very intense track, with a much darker vibe than the previous tracks. In the middle of the track a heavy guitar jumps in and take the show. I’m pretty tired of bad rock guitars like this in trance, and it reminds me way too much of bad full on like Skazi, Exaile etc. Track 7 slows a bit down. A stumping track with a groovy bass line. I also like the sounds in this one, which sounds a bit more psychedelic than most other tracks on this album. It is a pretty dark vibe in this track, and when a floating evil sound sneaks in on the break at the end of this track, things almost sound a bit scary. Track 8 jumps back to clubby land again. It starts with a fluffy melody and the track continues in an uplifting, sort of happy style. A stumpy track with groovy beats and an easy digestible melody that might become a hit in the more clubby crowd. There is also some nice guitar in this one. The last track slows things totally down. This is a relaxed track with bpm varying from 100 to 130 beats per minute. It starts nice and floating and we get a quite atmospheric vibe through the entire track.

Astrix delivers an album with good production and tracks that for sure will hit the masses in the more clubby part of the psytrance world. His music isn’t very deep or experimental and might sound a bit polished. With other words, quite easy digestible music. Personally, I have seen this guy live two times in Sweden and Germany, and people went totally mad on the dance floor, so he sure knows how to move the crowd.

Ah, another full on release from Hom-mega Productions this time from full-on novelty Astrix. I really liked his debut album Eye to Eye so my expectations for his follow up were high. I'll give you a brief rundown of the tracks.

First up is Poison. Astrix sounds as expected - 1 minutes intro and then we're on track with a kick ass bass followed by effects to keep the groove rolling. All right! And the track works fine with a nice lead theme at 3:59, a long break and then a build up to the end where Astrix delivers yet another great end. Nice typical Astrix opening track. Not amazing but promising.

Track 1 safely in the bag I am expecting Astrix to start kicking serious butt now. Track two Monster introduces vox! Well, does it work X-dream "We Interface" like then? Sorry to say, NO!! When a song kicks in at 4:15 "Every time I close my eyes, I have visions" it takes brasballs not to skip forward immediately. I hate those vox which is really sad cause the rest of the track is actually quite nice.

Track three Tweaky also starts with some vox samples I am not to fond of and I fear for the rest of this track. Which turns out to be completely unneccessary. This track kicks ass big time and is even better than Fee.L.S.D. from Eye to Eye. Hence the best Astrix track ever!! This track is unbelievable!! Check the melody at 3:19. Does it get better than this? Astrix proves it can at 3:43. Motherf..... And then again at 5:41. Unbelieavable! No matter what is on this album this track makes it worth every penny. On my all time track top ten right away!

Which is a good thing cause it goes downhill from here. Let me just say that track 4 Techno Widows has two major problems. One of the worst samples I have ever heard "what the fuck is going on" in a kids voice. Am I supposed to be impressed, scared, or what?! And guitars! And the sample is repeated! AAARRRRRGH!!!

Being the title track my expectations for track five are somewhat high. It turns out to be an Astrix trademark track. Well, too Astrix trademark like. It rolls nicely along and introduces the Astrix trademark major break, only this time the break lasts two minutes. This IS supposed to be full on, right?

Track six On Fire has one major problem. A terrible Deep Purple wanna be guitar sample which ruins everything for me. I hate those cheesy guitar sounds. If I wanted rock I'd buy that!! Besides that the track isn't impressive either. To the point of being boring. Oh, and yeah, the guitar sample is repeated. Together with a german sounding "Fire" sample. Why you little ...!

Track 7 Underbeat has a more relaxed sound to begin with and works much better than the previous ones. And I like the fire sirene like synth lead from 4:22. Not simple full on anymore, more scary, more daring, more noisy. Track eight Sex Style has a nice intro everytime reminding me of Pet Shop Boys "Home and dry". This track delivers at the end but not that interesting along the way. And track nine Beyond the Senses ends this album with the proto chill down track. And does this less impressive than Freestyle Cafe on his former album.

To be honest, I think this is a very mediocre full on album and certainly a great dissapointment from Eye to Eye. But if you like full on, if you like guitars, and if you like a varied use of vox samples, you may enjoy this album. It still has a lot of the features I like about Astrix, notably, the breaks and they're still here. And in any case you will enjoy this album for track three Tweaky. This is a mega-blaster hands down. I've played it at no-trance parties and it still sent the crowd ballistic.