Talpa ‎– The Art Of Being Non

I bought this album purely because of a series of great reviews everywhere I turned on the web. I can now safely conclude that critics may not always be right ..;o)

Sure, I can appreciate reviews praising this album for its courage to incorporate new sounds in psytrance. Track 1 introduces some sort of folk music, track 2 has a kind of soundtrack melody going on, track 3 goes up and down in intensity and is almost made up of voice samples, etc. Innovative, fine, but innovation alone doesn't do it and this is just going nowhere. Complex for the sake of complexity and without rewards, innovative without real depths, noisy without kick-ass moments.

Funniest of all, however, is that I have seen track 8 "The Moon" everywhere being praised as a masterpeice. The biggest, most beatiful bla bla bla .. hit of 2005. Far and away I hate this track more than anything on this album. Hell, possibly in all trance I've ever heard! How any trance lover can appreciate the awful and extremely cheesy opera singing in this track is beyond my understanding. It sounds exactly like the very mainstram and very popular metal/opera hybrid you may hear on mtv these days, only here trance music is the genre that's being raped by a female screamer. Yuck!

But hey, I've only seen good reviews of this track so maybe I'm the one who's off!

In all fairness, a couple of tracks works alright. Track 4 and 5 are less experimental with a psy-quality to them. Still, at a festival I know I would find these trax too noisy and in the situation possibly label them border full-on! Track 9 might work festivalwise, but there really is only one track on this album I'd fancy hearing at a festival, track 6 People Are Animals. This track starts off with the coolest sample telling the story of a person trying LSD for the first time and experiencing a bad trip. Very bad, I'd say, but the story is fantastic and told in a cool male voice. After 15 listens I still enjoy this story.

I'm not sure what to conclude here. Some love this album, I don't. I suggest downloading some samples before investment. And if you don't have the time for that, let me just say: People Are Animals make the album worth having. The Moon makes it worth getting rid off faster than the fat lady can hit another f... note. ;o)

My opinion: The Moon is simply one of the best psy trance tunes of all time. No less - very well worth buying the album for in itself. Twisted, lovely madness - multilayered as Dante's hell and with neverending beautiful vocals. As one sample says - "What the fuck are those noises?!!". Perfect fusion of goa and full on psy. Rest of the CD is also brilliant, extremely creative but a bit too chaotic at times. Many of the tracks are pretty useless DJ-wise, as they are simply too dynamic. Trust No Goblin comes to mind.

So i've been visiting my Psychiatrist lately. He's always been very kind to me and giving me the best medicine available to suit my musical craving.
So he recommended me the new compilations from 3D Vision and Mind Control. I refused and told him that this stuff doesn't do it for me anymore. It softens the pain but it doesn't do anymore than that.
I told him, stop giving me fluffy placeboes, i want the real stuff! I want something to remind me the old days, when i started to listen to Psy Trance. I want the madness of Infected Mushroom's Gathering, the twistedness of Hallucinogen's Lone Deranger and the melodies of Classical Mushroom.
Last weeks he recommended me Misted Muppets and Synsun. It worked well, especially Synsun, but the comedown was painful. It still lacked the depth of the stuff that i was looking for.
But today the Doc had a big grin on his face. He told me that he might have something that just might move some cells in my beaten brain. With quick yet determined move he pulled a CD from his “special patients” shelf and it had Talpa written over it.
Who’s Talpa I asked the Doc. “Trust me man”, he replied. It will only do you good.
And it did. This CD returned the smile to my face. It’s twisted, it’s melodic, it’s full of surprises and ever changing melodies, percussions, basslines and whatever. It’s evil, happy, dark, light and most of the time it oozes talent and unbelievable skills. Something you might expect from experienced and aged producer, but this is Talpa’s first album. The most surprising bit is that Talpa, Goran Juric, is from Serbia. Not really a place yet known for its Psy Trance artists, but I hope that Talpa paved a way for more Serbian talents.
So, is this album any good? Yes, it is. This is true Psychedelic Trance, with capital P.
This is by no means a copy of Infected Mushroom or Hallucinogen like some people tend to think. It does indeed borrows some influence from IM and Simon Posford, but it has plenty of fresh ideas inside. There is no point in going track by track review here, because I see this album as one big master piece. But if I would be asked what are my favorite tunes here I’d mention: 1,3,4!!!,6 (starts off with amazing sample), 8!!! (One of the best vocal tunes this year. Really reminds me Fly Agaric – I see myself), 10!!

This album sounds like Infected Mushroom *on* mushrooms. Older I.M., that is - none of this singing stuff they have coming out nowadays.

Sometimes a tad campy and goofy, but taken as tongue-in-cheek this album definitely fun. The whole disc is really damn psychedelic and doesn't sound all cookie-cutter like so much of the stuff releasing nowadays. There's a few parts that just playfully fondle at my cheese-o-meter switch, but oddly (and thankfully) it never quite gets flipped all the way.

Recommended if you're looking for something a bit different, yet still danceable and heavy on the psy. Or, if you wanted a cool I.M. album after "Classical Mushroom" and were disappointed by "BP Empire" and everything thereafter, this is your disc.