Psychaos – Cause And Effect

Psychaos is an old favourite in the psychedelic trance scene. His name goes back to 1994 when he was a member of the group Ayahuasca, a band which had a very little but influential output back in 1994. He released a couple of singles between 1995 and 1998 and had some tracks on compilations. A lot of his tracks have been massive favourites of many throughout the years but his first full length album was only released in the fall of 1999. Interesting to know that according to issue 15 from 2000 of Implant Magazine Blue Room was due to release an album of him sometime between 1996-98 but it never happened.

Album starts with ‘Electronic Uncertainty’, a track slightly slower than the rest with a moody melody giving it a sinister atmosphere. I find this track the one resembling most to the old Psychaos sound. The following tracks from track 2 right to track 6 are hard, metallic sounding, Techno influenced tracks. There isn’t much variety between these 5 tracks; they are all linear, ruthless, pounding tracks which I guess worked well at night time back then. Track 7, ‘Power Trip’, is quite different: it’s a Drum n Bass track. It still recycles elements from the other tracks but it’s a good break to the album. A year after ‘Power Trip’ was released as b-side to ‘Techno Logical’ and remains the only track from this album to have been released as a single. The next track ‘Esoterical’ is again Psy-trance, slightly slower but still rough. The end track is breakbeat and once again uses elements from the other tracks.

In my opinion Psychaos falls in that category of artists which had a string of great singles and EP’s but failed to release a solid full-length album, at least under this alias. ManMadeMan is another in this category if you’re asking yourself which other artists I place in this bucket. This because Cause And Effect is not a good album if you ask me. You might argue this was released long time after the real Goa Trance era and being released on a label which started in late 1998 and brought a futuristic sound it couldn’t have had the good old Psychaos sound since it wouldn’t have fit. Fair, but thing is that this album is lacking something, maybe variety, maybe something else.

Cause And Effect is the most sought CD from this label and the only disc which can sell for a 2-digit figure. It’s not because it’s the best but merely because of the artist. Like anything else from this medium-lived label production is extremely good and this album has aged very well, maybe because of the good production and mastering?