DJ TV (2) - Satellite

Oxygen Records is a new full on trance label based in the Czech Republic! Their first release is a compilation compiled by dj TV, who seems to be playing in several interesting countries these days, including my home country Norway in a couple of weeks. Here he has picked out both well established names and more unknown artists.

First out is one of my absolute favourite artists when it comes to full on trance, Mr. Peculiar (Dustin Saalfield) from Australia. He manages to make his full on much deeper than most other artists making this kind of music, and you never find any clubby cheese in his music. The track he gives us here is no exception. Deep, drifting trance going trippy as hell. Sort of dark and light at the same time, with a massive sound picture. One of my favourite tracks on this compilation. Track 2 is by Setherian from Brazil who released his debut album (Multiverse) on Glowing Flame Records last year. The track he gives us here is really great. He has this typical Russian night time, darkpsy rhythm drift, but the floating, trippy vibes he adds on top is really incredible! One of the best trance tracks I have heard lately, and I’m sure this one will do well on the dance floors this summer. Track 3 is by Audialize (Joao Apell) from Portugal, who released an album (Wanted) on Ketuh Records in 2003. His album is pretty cool, and he makes his full on more crazy than most other artists in this scene. The track he gives us here goes pretty dark, with swirling, psychedelic sounds going in and out of the track. As usual, we also get some crazy melodies in there. Not among the best tracks I have heard by this guy, but okay. Track 4 is by E-Jekt (Nir Shoshani & Uri Azene) from Israel. This duo has released a couple of tracks on various labels lately. This is a pumping, pretty dark track, with some nice psychedelic sounds playing above the bass line. Also some floating parts, which makes the track pretty trippy.

Track 5 is by a new artist called Gappeq (Jiri Tomasek) from the Czech Republic. Here we get a pretty massive track, with some playful drums above the bassline. Also some intense sounds making it quite dark and intense, and in the middle we get some weird, funny polka alike sounds, before the pumping beat continues again. Not bad. Track 6 is by Vibra (Daniel Costa) from Brazil, who is allready well known in the full on scene. He gives us a quite deep, drifting track as usual. Some voice samples and cool, trippy melodies. Massive full on trance, but also with some quite clubby ingredients in there. Track 7 is by Spectra (Paulo & Francisco Oliveira) from Portugal. This one is definately among my favourites on this album. It starts floating and beautiful. Then sneaks a pumping, groovy beat in. Very trippy track that will work really well on the dance floors this summer. The kind of track that makes you jump out of your chair and start to dance. Deep and trippy as hell. Track 8 is by Alternative Control (Rastko Palikuca & Goran Toprek) from Serbia. Here we get much more melodies. Pure morning trance, with quite fluffy, uplifting vibes. A little bit too clubby for my ears. The last track dj TV gives us on this compilation goes really melodic too. This track is made by a duo from Israel called Sound Field (Andy Yakovlev & Liron Atia). You get some rock guitar influences here, and after a while some old school goa vibes, but not exactly my cup of tea.

This compilation has some really great tracks, especially those by Mr. Peculiar, Setherian and Spectra. We also get a nice variation of tracks here, everything from darkpsy for the night, to melodic morning trance for the sun.

Oxygen Records, a brand new Czech Psytrance label bring us their debut compilation that showcases mostly fresh artists from all over the globe. Although the general direction of this compilation is morning full on it remains quite eclectic and doesn’t stick to one specific sound like most of the compilations nowadays. So here’s what you get on this CD.

Mr. Peculiar is possibly the best known name on this compilation. One of Australia’s best known psy producers starts the compilation with a very nice, floating tune with a lot of attention on the atmosphere and tight percussion. Sounds to me like something that would come out if Sub6 would make a tune with FreQ. Kick ass! Setherian is DJ Seth from Brazil and he’s most known for his dark and powerful sound. Not as dark as Psychotic Micro, but more like the old Double Dragon with full on rhythm. This is a nice tune but I think that he can do much better. More variety in sounds could do the trick here. Portuguese Joao Apell, Audialize, is the next artist (T3). He already released an album about 2 years ago on Ketuh records and if you heard it, you should already know what to expect. This is a serious smasher with strong percussion and evolving Goaish melody. One of the strongest tunes here. E-Ject actually is a collaboration between Nir Shoshani (Hujaboy) and Uri Azene. Although I usually like Nir’s output, lately, perhaps because of his joining to the Spun family, he sounds like he’s losing his dark edge. Nevertheless this is a good tune that should do the work on the dancefloor. Gappeq is next with possibly the best tune of the compilation. Gappeq (T5) is the Czech representative on the compilation. And he's not just the token Czech guy. This tune kicks some serious asses. Jiri Tomasek is the name, and you’d better start to learn how to spell it cause what we have here a hit. Solid rhythm that reminds me a lot of 1200 Mics first album (and that’s for only good reasons), accompanied with weird sounds and funny samples and melodies. Good stuff! Vibra, another Brazilian representative on the compilation, continues with strong and grinding vibe. A lot of typical full on sounds with some sci-fi samples in between. In the middle the bassline starts to be more dynamic and a melody is introduced. Definitely an effective dancefloor number. Spectra are up next with Radiation Status (T7), another powerful tune, but for some reason I find it really hectic and not leading anywhere. Sounds like a filler to me. Serbian Alternative Control with Esperanto (a proper name for compilation like that) are next. I heard a lot of good things about Alternative Control prior to listening to this tune and I must admit that those guys indeed have potential. Very melodic tune but with strong beat and bruising bassline. Think of it as Protoculture vs. Logic bomb. Good effort and I hope the future releases will be good as well. For closure we are served with something completely different. Sound Field are an Israeli duo that consists of Andy Yakovlev (aka Prosect) and Liron Atia. They share the ideology of breaking the walls between progressive and full on trance, and this tune is their debut release. Epic, long, evolving tune that has a fierce beat but totally soft pads and leads. Keep your eyes on those guys they surely have a very promising future.

Recomendation: Solid debut compilation from Oxygen Records. Kudos for pushing some new names with fresh ideas and emphasizing the multi nationality of the artists on the compilation. The artwork is very clean and nice as well. Kudos for that as well! Favorites: 1, 3(!), 5(!!), 6, 9(!!).