Sweet fancy Moses – Digital Psionics have done it again!

This is quickly becoming one of my fav’e labels… In the endless stream of boring full-on releases it’s nice to see a label like DS releasing very interesting, fresh stuff like Scatterbrain, Dark Nebula and the cool Psionics compilations… And here’s another great one! Packed with tracks by innovative producers from all over the world. Let me take you thru the tracks:

#01: Damage kicks things off with this wicked tune (Argh sorry; pun too obvious!). This is some scary shit. Seriously – we’re talking horror trance here… This track is shrouded in a very spooky, yet unbelievably cool atmosphere… Be careful if you listen to this in the dark… Boooh! Dark, powerful, extremely energetic night trance here from South Africa! Very, very cool track!

#02: “Take me down to the Vampire City, where the grass is red and the girls have fangs!” … Safi Connection kinda continues in the same dark thread, though this is not as spooky! In fact, this lacks some of the craziness I like so much… Average track!

#03: Oh baby, this is awesome… Scatterbrain – Best thing outta Australia last year! Working together with Dark Nebula – the spearheads of Digital Psionics. A match made in heaven… This is definitely the best track here… It’s so fucking huge. “How would I describe it? Terrifying. Enlightening. But utterly terrifying. You swear you'll never go back. Ever. And the next thing you know, you're taking it again. You're going down that tunnel”… Ooops, I accidentally quoted Scatterbrain from their excellent track Mexican Jesus [Scatterbrain – Infernal Angel, Digital Psionics 2003]… But that’s exactly what this track sounds like… Like a gigantic monster… A wall of sound thrown coming right at you! Deeply psychedelic, highly intoxicating, truly a wonderful experience! Amazing track!

#04: This must be the psy equivalent of Josh Wink’s classic “Don’t Laugh”… Funny laughing samples in the intro… Dark, Swedish forest-madness here… Huge electronic sounding bleeps and acid twirls, seasoned with hillbilly voice samples… Nice track!

#05: The Italian problem child… So, is that Berlusconi or Stallone? Whatever, the case might be, this is another neo full on, dust driven, propane injected trance track! The promotional text hits it spot on, with that description… Again, loads and loads of acid… It’s mayhem, it’s good, it’s goooood!

#06: More madness from the deep forests of Sweden… Heavy use of cut beats, the random madness and twisted psychedelia… Also, good stereo effect in parts of the track!... The sample annoys me though… What the hell are you looking for? Average track!

#07: The nutcases from Poland are here with another crazy ass tune… Apparently “Mowa Trawa” loosely translates into “talking rubbish”… And that’s an apposite title, ‘cause I’m not getting any of this…That’s not necessarily a bad thing, I’m just having trouble really getting into this track… It’s not bad or anything, in fact it’s very psychedelic… But somehow it just doesn’t DO it for me… Perhaps it’s too minimal or something… Average track!

#08: So, we’re back in bush country… And now things are picking up. This stimulates my taste buds in just the right way… So what’s in this dish? A decent bass line, happy, melodic, acid synths, well-chosen voice samples… This is not groundbreaking in any way; it’s just straight forward happy psytrance… Decent track!

#09: Ahh, good old Silicon Sound… When has this Frenchman ever let us down? Never! Good, so we agree… And Mr. Regier certainly does not let us down this time either… What we have here is something as rare, as a dark melodic piece… A driving, energetic melody bomb of a track, that takes you on a journey…. Oh, the melodies are soooo good here… So twisted, so driving… Johannes my man, great track!

#10: A Danish Navajo indian? I’m Danish, and I’ve never seen oneof those… Perhaps I hang out in the wrong places? Anyhow, we’re back in the horror trance category… Man, this is dark, but in the best of ways… Remember the atmosphere in The Delta’s “Thing”? Almost the same thing here… This could easily be the soundtrack to some horror movie… Again, do NOT listen to this in the dark… You’ll wet yourself! Check out the moped near the end! Funny stuff! My compatriot has done a great job here, this is a wicked track!

Woow, what a great compilation this is… 3 tracks that are average, but by no means bad… The rest is just better (Well, duh!)… And when the standard is this high, competition is fierce! I would have changed the order of the tracks though, so the 3 horror tracks were placed together, but again, that’s nitpicking… If you like the neo trance sound of Digital Psionics, this will not let you down… Pure trance floor fuel! Recommended! 8.5/10

Favourites: 1(!), 3(!!!), 4, 5, 9, 10