Various - Phaethon's Voyage

Greek Oktava Records released two cds during Samothraki Dance Festival 2003. It was the Dino Psaras album, and this compilation compiled by dj Marios, full of big famous acts that performed on the festival. Inside the cd booklet, you can read a story about Phaethon`s voyage and a little bit about the Samothraki Dance Festival.

First out is Tristan Cooke who finished the entire festival by playing for four and a half hours! The track we get here is made together with someone called Psyberant (Budse) which I haven`t heard anything from before. It sounds very much like most other Tristan tracks. Very little varied, just very drifting all the way with just a few small changes during the track. Not among my favourites, but he sure can mix good as a dj. Track 2 is by one of my favourites these days, Orion (Jean Borelli) from Denmark. He played really good at the festival. The track we get here is pretty dark and full on with some really cool sounds. Track 3 is by another favourite of mine. The Antidote, with a track sounding very much like his last album Close Encounters. I liked the style on the first album better. This has the cool Antidote groove, but I miss some more sounds and melodies like he used to have before. Track 4 is by another well known name in the psytrance scene. Space Tribe (Olli Wisdom) from Australia, with a typical Space Tribe track. Full on melodic psytrance with a few voice samples. Pretty cool track if you like his style.

Eat static gave us a wonderful show at the festival. Here we get a track they have done together with Manmademan. It starts slow, with some break beats, before a really fast typical Eat Static rhythm hits in (no one sounds like Eat Static..). The track varies a lot through the track with several twisted psychedelic sounds and a really beautiful melody. Nice one. Track 6 by Tube (Pini Alon) from Israel starts pretty weird, with a funky sound, tribal drums and some didgeridoo. Then we get some really stumpy heavy rhythms, rolling through the rest of the track. Track 7 is a new track by Koxbox. Their live show at Samothraki this year didn`t impress me much with their new tracks. Too much vocals in my opinion. The heavy beat is dominiating the track so much that the cool psychedelic sounds drowns! Prisma from Greece finishes the compilation with a drifting dark track. This style reminds me a bit of Orion. I like the way it builds up to really full on.

This compilation is actually pretty good! Maybe not a surprise when you look at the list of artists on this compilation. Recommended if you want a little overview over what those big acts is dealing with of styles these days.