Quadra (2) - Serotonia

Question: What do you do when your favourite full-on artist, Astrix, stops making the type of full-on you like after his debut album? Answer: Start looking around for other quality full-on artists! Altom showed up some time ago, Rinkadink recently, and now Quadra! Like full-on with a dark twist? The rolling bass and the energy, but not the cheesy elements so often accompanying? Then you wanna check out Quadra's Serotonia.

Yep, I've said so before in my reviews of full-on albums: When these starts challenging you with some dark influences, this music is so rewarding. Forget about difficult patterns and psychedelic sounds you have to decipher. Forget about funky, progressive basses, you have to appreciate. When full-on takes me on, it always has to do so full handed. You can't be almost pregnant, and I can't be ALMOST on the full-on wagon. I have to go all in. Well, Quadra is selling, and I'm buying the full ticket here. Full on at its most exquisite, insisting, formula true, mind consuming self. And with a force here and there so freakingly strong it knocks me over. Check out for instance Epicycle at 4:53. If it needs to be done any more difficult than this, don't tell me when I'm tripping ;o).

Rating this 4 or 5 stars is all a matter of how you rate. This album contains 9 full-on megablasters, but if you wanna be really picky, you might say there's not much new here. But who fucking cares when it's so well carried out and so freaking pleasant to listen to!?

Quadra (Ido Liran) based in Los Angeles, USA, is out with his second album, this time on Solstice Music. He has got pretty good reputation lately for his strong, full on tracks. He also performed at the Boom festival in Portugal 2004...

The first track is a massive full on track full of morning melodies. Music that is perfect for the dance floor at sunrise, but might become boring pretty fast for home listening. Track 2 goes the same direction, but faster and a little bit darker. Still melodic, morning trance with beats that will make people kick up some extra dust on the dance floor. Track 3 is one of the fastest tracks on this album (147bpm). Drifting, full on, with a bass line that we have heard a million times before, but this massive sound sure works on the dance floor. We get a nice melodic break in the middle of the track, but there could have been some more variation. Track 4 is another full on monster. This one goes a bit darker, and we don’t get those light morning melodies. Perfect for working out on the dance floor at night. Track 5 is another fast, pushing track. Very pumping, with some nice, trippy psychedelic sounds jumping in there. Another night time stumper with a very massive sound. One of my favourite tracks on this album.

Track 6 goes the same direction as all the other tracks on this compilation, but with a bit more intense, nagging sounds. This guy has a very strong, full on sound, but he should definitely try to make some more difference between the tracks when he releases an album. Track 7 has some more cool, drifting melodies. This one goes more towards morning trance again. Full on to the bone trance that makes my feet move quite easy to the drifting vibe. Another favourite on this album. Track 8 has some twisted voice samples, but the rest sounds very much like the rest of the album. Track 9 is a really groovy, stumpy track with some pretty trippy sounds. We also get a quite fluffy morning melody in there. The last track we get on this album is the only one that doesn’t go over 140bpm. This is a nice, floating chill out track, with some nice, relaxing melodies and dubby beats.

This artist knows how to move a dance floor with strong, full on stumpers, but I would be happy to get some more variation between the tracks on this album. The tracks sound too much the same, except for the last one. Track 7 is my favourite track on this album, and I’m sure several of these tracks will make some fun on dance floors worldwide.