Future Prophecy - Future Prophecy

By this day and age most goa trance followers have become aware of the extreme rareness and hard to come by status of Future Prophecy's self titled debut album. Plain and simple, as far as israeli releases are concerned, this one belongs amongst the scarsest of them all. Is the hype justified?

In this listener's ears, no. The main problem with "Future Prophecy" is the absolute lack of depth and edge. Very often do I ask myself how did the goa ticket get in the mix here? And don't even get me started about the psychedelia these two talented musicians have obviously not been acquainted with, at least back in 1997. To begin on a good note, the title track and the opener, Future Prophecy, sounds quite decent. It is long, has a fairly simple, but infectious melody which goes too clubbish near the end, but by that time I was more or less dragged in to succumb to its flow so I did not mind too much. Tracks like Sunrise, Peace Conference and Vertigo all have outbursts of melodic segments which would suit "Viva Top 40" double CD compilations. I mean whatever that thing is flying in at 04:48 on Peace Conference it just cannot be psy trance related. And the nitzhonot influenced Ritual and Yesterday? The first must have the worst set of modulations over a stone hard kick I have ever heard, while the latter has an annoying background melody consisting of a sound of a siren, giving me the feeling as though it was a remix of an ancient Praga Khan rave track. While Yesterday has some dance floor potential, its simple sound and structure with its run of the mill tricks and treats make it all the harder to be properly introduced. And wait for that melody to start screaming at ya right somewhere after the 06:00 mark! Sounds like regular goa trance on amphetamines. Bizarre attempts to head in a darker and more sinister direction, but fails. It sounds... Well, quite bizarre.

All in all, a pretty disappointing release considering its scarsity and how many people are after it. I really don't see anything special about this one. The poppish influences are way over the top, making this a hard one to enjoy even for people who usually dig the happy and joyous israeli morning sound. I for one don't. But I can sense quality, and there is none here. Cheesy and clubby leads, unimaginative beats and bass lines with sounds and FX used over and over again throughout the old school era, and it was all said and done a thousand time better than on "Future Prophecy". Best of all is that most of it is much easier to grab hold of than this overrated album.