Digital Mystery Tour – D.M.T Express

Interesting, abit like mystery of the yeti. it's somewhere in between background funk trance, complete with dubby and guitar wawa loops, and great ethnic techno ambient. it has excellent production abit like shpongles best tracks, abit less hifi, and abit less synth whizardry, melody, and emotional leverage. great album definately worth checking it. it tends to be abit lackluster loops.

Holweck hauling ass…

Sofa Beats is a new downbeat sub label to Danish power house label Iboga Records. As the first release comes the second album from Digital Mystery Tour, which is a French downbeat collective spear headed by goa trance legend Stephane Holweck (Total Eclipse, early Juno Reactor, M.O.T.Y., etc). In D.M.T. Holweck is joined by a number of collaborators including Florian Seriot (Toirés, Asia 2001) and other notable chill/trance big-shots… D.M.T.’s self-titled debut album was released on Twisted Records in 2001 to much critical acclaim, so the expectations for this follow-up have been huge… Let’s find out if they were met…

#01: D.M.T. Express
Holweck starts the journey with a deep, dubby and melodic downbeat piece… Lazy beats, slow pace and distinct floating melodies… The kazoo-like lead took me a while to get used too, but I’ve actually come to like it… It’s the DMT theme! A nice track, though too short…

#02: Rue Des Roses
We continue the journey down the pink street… Which is apparently located somewhere in Asia – this is ethno-chill reminiscent of Kaya Project or Asura… Beautiful, soothing, virtually beatless ambient focussed on acoustic guitars and long floating, organic pads and harmonic voice-samples… Very dreamy, and very nice! Stunning track!

#03: Caraibo Grove
AFAIK Club Caraibo is a club somewhere in France… The name comes from an early Berlioz composition… Anyway, this is digital space chill – still maintaining the ethno-tribal feel from the previous tracks… The pace has quickened and in general the rhythm-section here is very lively – sudden burst of energy are always welcome, and I really like the ever-changing nature of this track… Groovy!

#04: Voodoo Love
This is the first track where Holweck is joined by the rest of the DMT collective… And boy, things are really happening now… The pace is increased a great deal, and this is evidently dance music – albeit chilled dance music… Tribal drums, groovy pads and even saxophone! The Juno Reactor-link is apparent, but I’m not sure how much I like the comic, carnival bits – and the voice samples aren’t exactly helping… But that doesn’t ruin an otherwise interesting, unique track…

#05: Hikari Land
Holweck is joined by Guillaume Thevenin on guitars on this magnificent track… We’re still in the faster end of the downbeat scale… The ethno-touch is back - complete with chanting, Raja-flute and all kinds of funky FX… I hate to compare this to Shpongle, but that’s about the best description I can come up with… A very nice, uplifting track…

#06: Toirés - Kia (Toirés Remix)
This is Florian Seriot (Toirés) remixing on of his older tracks from the 1999 album Oued… And oh my, this is an amazing track… Rich, subtle, world-music – perfected by Florian… Reminds me a great deal off Asura and other French chill-masters… The vocal work in this track is simple amazing – shivering even! Beautiful!

#07: Dematerializer
“Welcome to the […] 2003! It’s hot here! … We’ve got a special download for you that is irresistible. Free trial versions are available at dmt-dot-com-slash-download-slash-kissmeplease-slash-stopit!” Holweck is joined by Michio Baba on this track with the weird robotized voice-sample and the bleak, metallic atmosphere… Cold and kinda static, though with a certain appealing factor… It’s groovy and bubbly, but not really a stand-out track…

#08: Pneumatic Bleeps
Holweck is on his own again on this aptly named track… Yeah, this is exactly how I’d imagine pneumatic bleeps to sound… This track is built around a dubby foundation, with cut-up beats and breakz sprinkled on top… Add some synth experimentation and you’re pretty much there… Interesting, but not nearly as good as some of the previous tracks…

#09: Spirit Of The Deep
Holweck is joined by someone named Florian Leniaud on this track… Deep being the operative word here, this is gloomy, deep ambient… Beatless for the most part, and hugely atmospheric… Reminds me of Ishq, though this is slightly darker… Nice track!

#10: Sleeping Among Trees
Holweck puts this baby to sleep on his own continuing the dark ambient feel from the previous track… Eerie, outer worldly digital and harmonic sounds make sure you don’t get any sleep among those trees… Spooky, but nice!

This is definitely a fine album – and it’s nice to see that an acclaimed veteran like Holweck still can compete on such a high level… He sure hasn’t lost his touch, and a solid half of these tracks are really, really good… There are no bad tracks here, but some of them don’t really do that much for me… Journey-wise this album also works pretty well – peaking towards the middle…

The artwork is very… Errmm…Orange! And that’s all I have to say about that! Anyway, this is not the best downbeat album I’ve heard this year, but the stand-out tracks are indeed excellent and validate a purchase! This should appeal to most fans of chill, ambient and experimental downbeat… Enjoy!

Favourites: 2(!!), 3, 5(!), 6(!!), 9