Phyx - Kiss The Blade

DeathPosture, Oct 12, 2006

Phyxed acid…

Ian Summs aka. Mr. Phyx himself has been a personal hero of mine ever since I stumbled across his work 3-4 years ago… His impressive back-catalogue of tracks always stood out on whichever compilation they were featured on… Ian knows his way around a studio and his consistently high quality level has made the Phyx moniker synonymous with stand-out tracks on many a compilation… His release frequency slowed down under the Phyx alias in recent years though, but his output continued in the elusive constellations Breathen (with his brother Joseph) and Twisted System (with Chris Hoy & Craig Hudson). All of which has been good, wholesome South African psytrance. Now the time has come to finally release the Phyx album and I’ve been excited ever since it was released. Let’s dig in.

Well, after waiting for this album for almost 5 years I can’t help but feel somewhat disappointed by the limited number of really excellent tracks here… There are only 4 really great tracks here and in that regard Phyx’ debut album didn’t live up to my expectations. Maybe they were too high or maybe I just didn’t get some of the musical directions this album took… But it’s not all bad. Far from it actually. Those four stand-out tracks certainly are great and they underline just what a talented producer Phyx was and still is. Too bad I didn’t really dig on all his new ventures.

To break it down, it goes like this: The first three tracks are so-so, the middle three tracks ROCK and the two tracks I don’t really like… The cover art is subtle and minimal and will not turn too many heads.

So, all in all this was an average album with less awesome tracks than I’d hoped for. Timecode fans and fans of South African psytrance in general will not be disappointed though. Enjoy.

Favourites: 1, 4(!), 5(!), 6

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