Spectra (2) - Beyond Belief

Good morning Portugal!

As the 3rd release from Czech morning trance label Oxygen Records, we get the debut album from Portuguese psytrance duo Spectra… The tracks I’ve heard from Paulo & Francisco Oliveira have had varied impact on me… Some of the stuff released on Ketuh has been really nice, whereas I wasn’t too thrilled with the cheesy track on the Parsec compilation… But hey, I know these guys can pull off some proper stuff, so let’s dig deeper into their first full album…

Truth be told, I usually stay clear of blatant full-on albums… But there was a certain appeal to this album that was too good to miss – there is indeed a handful of nice, energetic tracks… And as much as I’m sure, they’ll work wonders on the dance floors, they also did pretty damn well in my living room… Sadly, there are also too many tracks with too many boring parts… Not boring as in event-less, but boring in the sense that they lack individuality… That being said, I must also stress that Spectra certainly has unique moments... Indeed! I just wish the entire album was like that! The good tracks are indeed good – and they distance themselves from the vast pool, of copy/paste full-on from Israel… The cover art is lovely – as always with Oxygen Records. Nice work!

To conclude, this is an album for fans of uplifting, melodic morning trance – with a little bite… Not among the best melodic albums of 2005, but certainly not among the worst either… Enjoy!

Favourites: 2, 3(!), 6, 9(!)