Dimension 5 ‎– Second Phaze

Due the lack of proper reviews (or at least mildly lengthy), I thought I'd share my opinion on this fine album.

Let's get this out of the way first - What Transdimensional did is not what Second Phaze does. Transdimensional is a full fledged, spaced, otherwordly themed goatrance album with fast, psychedelic and colourful melodies. It starts with a bang, maximizes the speed and then ends with a wonderful downtempo tune. Second Phaze has a fast tempo, even faster than Transdimensional probably, but everything feels very constrained in the sense it wants to really emphasize on an ever moving journey aspect. Honestly, you'd think these kind of tempos would make the album feel extremely fast and dance-floor oriented, but this really is not the case, it's sort of a component of some form of harmony, if you will. This album generally works you into cold, beautiful space with small planets that have a soft glow. Imagine what you see in a perfect earth night sky in cold winter, but in space. There isn't much, considering our minds have been spoiled by over-imagined space scenes, but what there is, is absolutely beautiful, natural, pure. Moon Cake sets you off wonderfully with one of the more faster tracks, showing you exactly what the new style of Second Phaze is all about compared to Transdimensional. Limitless Dimension has you at the edge of your seat with relentless pounding bassline and tempo, whilst showing off some of the prettiest scenes I've imagined while listening to goatrance. Beyond The Stars just lifts everything up, showing you utter beauty. No doubt my favourite track on the whole album, it does everything simply perfect. Absolutely a beautiful composition that manages to gracefully hypnotize the listener into it's void. I'd like to add that the first three tracks feel like one big whole with 3 amazing segments, I don't know if this was the intention or not, but it surely feels like it was.

At Bombed Out, the feel changes into a much more bright, colourful, psychedelic, though still remaining the atmosphere we've been witnessing up until now. Probably one of those tracks that the Transdimensional fans initially really like. After Bombed Out I usually press skip. I'm not saying Transformation is a bad track, it has some wonderful moments, even for me, but the melodies breach the "cheese" territory at times, by trying too hard to sound emotional. They really aren't my cup of tea, but one fault in many is not much to complain about. Y Principle is an older track, Zarkon Principle, re-imagined in Second Phaze style. Darker more uncharted atmosphere, really fast tempo with a bombing bassline and vortexing melodies, like in the style of Electron Wave. Feels like the track to put you through a wormhole. Polaris 1 and 2 are quite a bit slower, though still ending up with a fast tempo. Polaris 1 setting up to tell some form of a tad darker story, with a small reminescent of the more ancient/earthy style of Ra - To Sirius, which is wholly rewarded towards Polaris 2's end where the conclusion just lifts you up extremely high. Such uplifting moments. Mind To Mind is a bit of an odd downtempo track, considering everything up until now has been generally uplifting or neutral but beautiful, but here the mood swings into a dark mysterious journey that progresses into these superB experiemental echoing synthsoundscapes. Talk about a heavy atmosphere that sends you straight to the edge of the black hole.

Just another side to this somewhat of a sad story of Second Phaze where it feels like it's way overshadowed by Transdimensional. They are both are excellent albums, but represent different styles. If you are a die hard Transdimensional fan, just forget it when you listen to Second Phaze. Open your mind, and ears, and let this unique journey draw you in. Same goes for everyone else, as well. A great album!

Colorful and hypnotic goa trance tracks from the melodic to the hypersonik.

Not a bad CD all in all, but somewhat of a disappointment for me after the hypnotic energy overtures of "Transdimensional". Starts out (and, to a certain degree continues) in a very very laidback and ambient/atmospheric style. Extremely well produced and nice enough of course, but in my opinion the only tracks suitable for a dancefloor would be "The Y principle" and "Polaris 1" and 2.