This album summarizes IM's strengths and weaknesses perfectly.

It changes styles constantly, sometimes interrupting a really trance-inducing moment. This is good for those with short attention spans, but frustrating for people like me who like to flow with a track for longer. But at least you get tons of variety.

Unfortunately, they also show poor taste in some parts, like when elevator muzak will appear in the midst of an otherwise pounding track. I guess it's considered "cheeky", but is rather "cheesy" to me.

CM is definitely still rooted in Goa Trance, while all subsequent albums started to move into new areas. This album has tons of intricate, tweaky melodies, subdued kickdrums, groovy basslines, and trippy production.

I guess it really is a classic of the genre, though it does sound a bit childish to me in 2009. But it will always put a smile on my face, and I have to respect it for that.

Best moments are:

-"Bust A Move" (esp. the apocalyptic synth line)
-Beautiful, crystalline acid synth in "The Shen"
-Amazing build/acid line in "Disco Mushroom" (but it stops way too soon - again, short attention spans!)
-Melodies in "Dracul"
-Bassline and lead throughout "Nothing Comes Easy"
-Final tweaky melody in "Mush Mushi" (so damn good)

This LP comes with an accidental pressing of the Psysex "Electro Culture EP", mislabeled as a copy of the first record with reprints of the first few tracks on the IM album. WhenI first got this I was quite confused, and I thought that these tracks were IM. At any rate, the rest of the LP is quite brilliant, timeless and interesting. Perhaps the claim, "Classical Mushroom" comes not from a 'classical' type of IM sound, but rather a sort of classical-ist influence on the sound itself. This isn't really 'classical' IM so to speak, indeed, we can refer to "The Gathering" for that. At any rate, the extra record, along with these tracks really make this a classically interesting conversation topic and listening experience for any psy geek.