Various - Air Born

maroko, May 26, 2008

Back in their hey day, Flying Rhino Records had pretty much a constant output of top notch various artists compilations, and "Air born" is right up there with the rest of em!
First of all, you get a trippy cover art, which has a bunch of pretty cool and pouring contours of colors luring your eyes to get lost into a dazzling collage of indiscernible visual treats.

Now to the music, which is, few missteps aside, some of the finest ever released on this label. The two openers are prime examples of the darker aspect of goa trance, more focused on texture and intricacy than outbursts of melodic passages. The latter is especially impressive with a great break-beatish pause and a TNT packed grand finale!
Were back to old school basics with Cyclothymic, which is arguably the greatest contribution Blue Planet Corporation made to music. Back to basics, fantastic and energetic goa trance. The entire second part of the track, consisting of a long beatless break followed by a breath taking melody, is one of the genre defining moments! A stellar tune.
Speaking of which, next up is a Slinky Wizard classic getting remixed by none other than Koxobx. Nuff said. Take a seat, crank it up and take notes. Its a dream come true collab which doesnt fail.
Stripper doesnt live up to the previous tunes, actually I find it to be a weak link here. It focuses more on staying somewhat psychedelic and sinister, but when compared to the openers, it fails.
Psychaos, aka Joti Sidhu, delivers his tightest number ever, and no doubt about it, Dense Dawn is one of the most straight up opaque and agressive tracks from back in the day. It also marked a huge leap forward when compared to his previous work.
Syb Unity Nettwerk Experience, which is yet another alias of the great Kris Kylven, stays true to his always present dark style and delivers another tune in the same vein as for example Space Puppy or Lost World. But Morphogenesis doesnt impress me as much as his other work, and the misfortune of being placed between two absolute bobmbs, by Psychaos and Darshan, doesnt help either. It isnt bad, but regularly takes a back seat here.
With Tranceformation, the aforementioned Darshan dropped their finest tune ever, period. The whole technoish attitude, occasional intrusions of acidic synths, breaks, eery background melodies - all is brought to perfection here. If for once they did it, its here no doubt.
Process is Sean Williams, and this is the third track he works on. Great piece of music sure, more on the thought provoking and deep side than dance floor mayhem, but very well done. Force me to it, and Ill say its my least favorite of the tracks he works on here, lacking the punch and the intrigue of his other work.
And best for last: the track which made history! The wicked minds of Slinky Wizard remixing Monty Normans James Bond theme, and it might sound like a cheesy attempt to connect to the Top Of The Pops crowd, but the execution is flawless. Dipped in psychedelia, with long, building and apparently never ending segments of seemlessly blended modern electronic audio insannity with the original Bond melody! If you have the vinyl release of V/A "Air born" as well, then youre in for even a bigger surprise, as there is a longer version of the this track, clocking in at a little over twelve minutes! Anyways, what a strong way to end a compilation of such magnitude.
Not everything here made history, but there are enough top drawer tracks here to validate the purhcase no matter how you look at it. Certain numbers here will have you orbiting Milky Way halfway through them. Flying Rhino Records had a reputation of releasing only the best psychedelic music around, and by buying this one, it should be pretty much clear why. Recommended for those seeking out intelligent and profound electronic music as well as those who are in search of competent vintage party crackers.

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