Domestic - Art Making Machine

This is perhaps the best album I know of in any genre.

Psychedelic and Goa aficionados are often scornful of the “full-on” genre, due to the shallow, one dimensional approach that many producers pursue, and an abundance of vocoded vocals, guitars, cheesy melodies and other undesirable rubbish. I identify with this sentiment completely. This album, on the other hand, dispels those thoughts instantly.

It’s only real weakness is a sameness between tracks; big rolling bass lines, minimal, catchy hooks, perfectly positioned vocal samples, and magnificent builds and breaks. When you get a formula so utterly correct, there’s not much point in deviating.

Besides the ambient “Cannibal Archive”, Every track on the CD is a complete bomb; all floor stompers designed to rip crowds a new sphincter at the peak of a set (all are above 140BPM). However, don’t let this statement lead you believe that this album is made by a producer with no sense of flow, subtlety or creativity. On the contrary, this masterpiece is full of layers of sound and slow evolution of ideas over time.

Don’t expect a true psychedelic sound though – the main ingredient is traditional “super-saw” style arpeggio trance leads, but with a uniqueness of melody that very few producers are able to achieve, making them sound anything but generic.

Besides fat bass lines and clever melodies, the tracks are given extra drive by what is arguably Ido Ophir’s strongest suite; percussion. A range of unique and subtle sounds are added and subtracted bar to bar, backed by more mundane but well executed elements such as raspy hi hats and reverberating snares.

Topping off this great release is the incredibly high production quality. Such is his skill that Ophir has mastered at least twenty releases that I know of alone. His usage of compression and equalising is perfect; giving his tracks a clarity that I’ve rarely found elsewhere. Though some may find them “overproduced”, I like this style.

It’s hard to pick a single winning track from this, as like Hallucinogen’s “Twisted” album, everything is of an incredibly high standard.

However, “Non-Human” is a stand-out, with an absolutely unique and thumping bass line, euphoric melody and excellent eerie vocal samples.

Most important of all for this album is that it contains no over-usage of vocal samples, no cheesy guitars, no “dreamy” melodies and no extended emotional breakdowns. It’s just pure energy – pure dance music.

A must have.

It’s a pity that Ophir has switched to producing tech/progressive house in the past year – I will miss his talents immensely; there’s not one producer in the genre that even approaches his level of genius.