MFG – The Prophecy

The Prophecy is easily one of the top 5 best goa trance albums from the golden age. What really sets this one apart to me is how effortlessly MFG flows between these beautiful synth melodies right into these sick, twisted, modulated lines. I haven't come across any others that did it so smoothly. It's upbeat, dark, futuristic, and ancient all at the same time. I can't think of anything else I can describe like that. You can usually get one or two of those descriptors but never all together. In the same track. It simply does not get better than this.

One of my all time favourite Goa albums. MFG stood alongside Astral Projection as the best of the Israeli musicians in my view, but they were different from AP - a bit harder, darker and more industrial than Astral, though every bit as melodic in its own way, and with just as strong if not better storytelling in each track. Every time I went to Goa over a period of 10 years, this cd would be for sale everywhere, along with Rastalien's "Freestyle". There's something otherworldly about this album that I'm not sure they ever recreated in their subsequent work. Has strong claims to being not only their best, but the best Israeli Goa album period.

A note about the cover: let us be honest, most of the 90s Goa cover art was atrocious, especially early on. Really kitsch shiny early digital art with very low res and poor production values. On this cover the space ship, if that is what it is, is like that. But the background is great - quite subtle and carefully done. ~*~

Having studied every detail of the the original phonokol release of this album over the last decade or so, I am probably more than a little biased in my reaction to this, but I honestly just don't find it to be as rewarding.

Aside from the more obvious replacement of two classic tracks with two newer ones (which are still decent tracks) the remix/remaster is somewhat more muffled, feathery and reverb-y if that makes any sense and it very much detracts from that hard, gritty edge of the original analogue aesthetic somewhat.

The expectant buzzing angularity simply drowns out in reverb at certain points while various other effects have been overemphasised at the expense of others (those obnoxious snares on Alternate Dimension come to mind - a pleasant throwback to the EBM/Industrial roots).

The rearranged track-list just feels weird. It is an interesting idea for sure, but somehow it dulls the necessary build-up and release of tension between tracks. This coupled with the remixed sound has allowed for a somewhat smoother journey perhaps but certainly not one that packs as much sonic punch.

Don't get me wrong it's still great music, and in fact this version may be more appealing to some people; it could very well be a matter of taste and is by no means poorly done. However it is worth noting the difference for anyone looking to acquire a copy and for any newcomers to at least check out the original phonokol release is you don't find what you're looking for here, but if you do, well then, let's hope you get to enjoy both!

brilliant album! - where every track is a winner, arriving here from Dragonfly Oder Odonata i found this top of a 'top goa trance albums' by user 'augoust' and thought i would give it a try - have to say by track 4 I was looking to get the album and did!! - you should give it a blast

Absolute goa classic!

dear skeletonman
the reply button did not work so sadly you may never read this, but i liked reading your review as psytrance, especially in its orginal state of 'Goa' is a very sacred thought and taboo to many.
ppl are strange.. techno is techno to them.. same squarebeat that eventually gets outlawed in every 'civilized' country due to the debauchery it promotes. but with every garbage magnet of darkness it evokes, there is a pure sense of light somewhere deep inside. some ppl may call this nirvana.. others dharma.. karma.. however far your indian language goes. i have been to every kind of rave and the good times were great while they lasted, but now im just a isolated freak who feels nobody understands.. its a sad sick world.
back to the topic, i heard this album when it first came out.. i must say it was like having a bomb dropped on top of your head.. a feeling of ground zero-gravity perhaps. i figured the name was 'made from goa' but later i found its 'message from god'.. sadly this is where it takes a twist, since the last i heard of these guys one of them went totaly crazy religious (i think the aaron guy) he was actually a jewish purist underneath all the party smoke and eventually left the psytrance scene to pursue his religious roots.. later he came back and tryed to make a new MFG album on his own in which he used religious subliminal samples of jewish prayers and the sort in the tracks, which is what youd call true brainwashing. i was saddened when i read this, i think off an old psytrance forum post and left a long reply there as well.
the other guy (zukrel) stayed in the scene and released under other alias such as Passenger.. by this time psytrance had changed alot and was already in the mainstream of 'selling out' via TIP.. which was all inevitable.. every good thing comes to an end. to trancers like me this 'prophecy' era was like the first star wars movie you saw.. it changes your life completely. then u compare it to all the bigger better graphics of it today and often feel empty and hollow inside.. like a holographic avatar girl. times shift.. there was a time when the Goa raves got so corrupt ppl going back there to search for the vibe often only found trouble. i heard of cops digging trenches around the rave sites to capture all the 'sinners' in a paranoid frenzy.. many broken bones.
yet again times have changed.. in such short periods it only makes you wonder what this illusion is about. i still listen to psytrance nonstop and its become more of an obsession to me, since i like to look at psytrance as classical music 200 years from now. Mozart & Beethoven werent given much credit in their time, the fact that genius musicians are nothing other than transient bums never seem to change. its only today that society trys to remake Mozart etc in their own luxurious artistocratic ways.. makes you wonder who the sinner really is.. the ignorant human or the foolish shadow.
classic goa trance had this almost organic ultra-spiritual feeling.. perhaps this was the message from god within us. its a cruel uncaring world.. its not about the liberation or freedom anymore.. its just Balagan.. "one big mess"age

Some music is worth waiting for. I discovered this album 10 years after its release and it brought me directly back to the wonderful days of the mid nineties trance. Wow!

This is why I got into trance and the reason why I got into this mess altoghether. Israelian trance anno 1996 making us all go crazy at home during the week and mayheem on the dancefloor at underground parties in the weekends.

Listening to track 7 Hypnotised is like being taken back to a me 10 years younger in a trance somewhere ... somewhere in a field near New Hampshire. With loads of edge, psy elements and insisting bass, this tune will lift the truthful melodic goa trance follower to new heights.

If you don't know it, get it. If you know it ... you know what I mean ;o)