Scare tactics…

Nocturna is a project by Ibiza-based producer Willie Buetas… Supposedly he’s a successful house producer and this darkpsy alias is his aggressive outlet… Released by Italy’s Inpsyde Media, this album is, like Derango’s excellent debut album TuMuLT was, a departure from the label’s usual very dark, aggressive night time style… This is still darkish trance, but it’s has a more uplifting nature than some of the earlier, hard-hitting compilations… Let’s avoid looking at the hideous cover and focus on the music…

Right, when I first saw this album announced I laughed hard at the crappy artwork – and I was expecting a pretentious, hard-as-fuck technoid darkpsy album… But trust me – this is *not* darkpsy… This is psytrance which crosses well over into both darker night trance, but also uplifting melodic morning trance… Like a cross between Penta, 12 Moons and Drumatik – and a whole bunch of other artists… The BPM range is somewhere between 140 and145 (I’m guessing here, as I don’t have a BPM counter) and generally I was positively surprised – this album is much more versatile than I would have hoped for…

There are a couple of tracks that didn’t really do much for me, but luckily also quite a few tracks that took me by storm… The cover art sucks royally! Sorry Willie, I’m not dissing your mug – but your yellow zombie looks doesn’t correspond with the actual music. And that’s a compliment! So, don’t judge a book by its cover – give this CD a shot, and you might get a positive surprise! I know I did… Recommended to fans of darkish, cross-over psytrance with evident links to both morning and night trance… Enjoy!

Favourites: 1, 2, 4, 7(!), 10