Freaky Chakra - Blacklight Fantasy

The first time I heard this CD, it just bent my world in a serious way. Like B12's Time Traveller, Blacklight Fantasy creates a cohesive atmosphere across the songs that is so otherworldly you just marvel that anybody could have imagined it. Moreover, it's so distinctly different from Lowdown Motivator that I had to wonder if it was the same people in the group. Instant classic. It's a shame it was the last thing they did.

This is a hugely underrated album, although the term is far too often thrown around. The album, taken as a whole, is a long and strange series of tracks full of disorienting beats and breaks accompanied by synthetics that are no less than gratuitous, and rightfully so. It could surely be considered a concept album, but it's just so odd, I couldn't quite tell you what the concept might be. Each movement is primarily dance-oriented, and stands on its own for the most part, but the album as a whole is certainly more than the sum of its parts. Everything seems to fit and...and at this point I feel like I'm dragging this out, probably because I feel that a lot should be said about the album, Blacklight Fantasy. It's simply incredible, an album that has always stood out for me even more than it did for the ones who had just happened to be playing it that day. I could understand how this album was passed up by so many people, because it isn't your most accessible joyride. In fact, it's a very dark and uncomfortable piece of music, almost morbid. Very worthy or consideration/reconsideration, but don't expect to get the warm and fuzzies. Whatever was on his mind when he made this, he sure as hell wasn't in a garden.

Fascist Funk! What a great title and song! Freaky Chakra blew me away with this album. I own the first album but wasn't really liking it. This just sealed it for me. Permanently in my collection!!

I'm surprised this hasn't been rated higher. Listening to this album takes me to an entirely different place, and Freaky Chakra was way out ahead of himself with this album as compared with his earlier output which hasn't aged as well (writing this in 2003). He combines elements of electro, dark acid, house and techno with a flare for manipulating those little hairs deep inside your ears. The album flows the way you'd expect a great 70's prog rock album to get deeper and take turns, and progressive house finally started to catch up to his sonic inventiveness around 2001.