Back in 1996, when Goa trance was just lifting off, Man With No Name produced one of the most influential albums of the genre. Alongside Astral Projection's Trust in Trance, this album helped define the Goa sound and is one of the most best-selling to this day. One of the reasons why this is such a landmark album is the range of tracks - from the psybient Azymuth to the club killer Dayglo, the ethnic Cairo to the pure Sugar Rush (Refined Mix), there is plenty of variety and all the tracks are good.

Perhaps one of the only pitfalls is that MWNN uses a similar, more orthodox song structure for each track and they all fall around 7 minutes long, but in this way the tracks are a refreshing break from normal goa - Moment of Truth is much easy to listen to the whole way through than say, Trust in Trance. Another problem is that this album doesn't include perhaps MWNN's crowning achievement, the track Teleport.

Luckily, Moment of Truth is still widely available today; you could pick up a good condition copy for £7 if you were lucky. It is a defining album, and remains one of the top of the genre.

Bought this album back in the 1997 and it instantly became one of my most played trance albums. There is something special about every track. The retro feeling in Sugar Rush, the hard hitting tribal sound of Subterfuge and the ever so epic Floor Essence. It's all there in one album. Essential!

First off, I'd like to say that I really like this album, but the general praise it receives from everywhere is overrating it.

First, I have to object to those who call the music goa/psytrance. I find most of the tracks do not sound like they were aiming specifically at the goa community. The follow-up album "Earth Moving the Suns" leaves an even stronger impression of Martin Freeland never wanting to limit himself to being a goa producer, but more of a general electronic/trance producer. Somewhere in-between the commercially exploited trance genre and the (at that time) more underground-ish goatrance scene (where the goatrance scene has always happily adapted music from its borders or outside - X-Dream and Kopfuss Resonator come to mind).

Looking at Moment of Truth, one just has to admit it is a rather euro-trance style release: the melodies are partly sooooooo cheesy (Sugar Rush for example), and the tracks are all so carefully crafted, it often sounds as if everything was made really on purpose, and not only by a flow of imagination/inspiration.

Take "Floor Essence" for example. It really has ALL the ingredients for a dancefloor hit: cheesy pads, stomping bassdrum, fat bassline, an acid hook, etc. etc. - and looking at the title of the track, there can be no other conclusion that all the elements were placed there on purpose, like a showcase. This is not a bad thing: other artists make three rather boring tracks out of the ideas and elements that Martin Freeland melted into this one single track!

All in all, it leaves me with a similar feeling of other releases (like Shakta of Doof, for example) of that time: if you pick a single track, its ace. If you listen to the whole album, it gets repetitive and a little boring. Its sheer nostalgia that lets me play it every now and then again - and its sa-weeeet! :-)

This album is amazing. From you border to you start to fathom what is going on your are overwhelmingly welcome on this album. M.W.N.N. is all about giving you a good feeling on the journey he wants to take you. He does that in a very smooth and happy way and if you follow the rhythm M.W.N.N. will come on and now let you down.
I guess this would be catalogued as Psy and a heck of Goa ... alas early beatiful Goatrance, Psytrance .. whatever we'd call it. This album is from 1996 but easily has stood the test of time. In fact, when you hear it now this album reminds at least me what it was that got me onto Psytrance back then. Nothing else came close to this intensity and mad dance music. Very dark and creepy bass's on this album. Come up on you creepy but still they have that could-be-good thing about them. You just have to go with the flow and the reward is instant.
This album proofs why so many of us started loving trance back in 1996. The album is a milestone. Dance or die !

Smashing!

Another trip down memory lane with this truely amazing album from Man With No Name... Released back in 1995 this has stood the test of time, and just take a look at the tracklist... Tracks like Moment Of Truth, Evolution, Floor Essence [Dayglo] & Sugar Rush [Refined Mix] are just as hypnotizing now as they were back then... Magical! This album is still widely available, so I encourage everyone who hasn't got this to get it... It's very good! 9/10

This album was the first solo effort from DJ/producer Martin Freeland AKA Man With No Name.

MWNN came to prominence via his many remixes of trance and house tracks for labels such as Dragonfly, Platipus et al. However, apparently suffering from self doubt, he had to be encouraged by his friends (amongst them Paul Oakenfold) to go for it and release an album under his own moniker. And what an album it is :)

'Moment of Truth' is the quintessential psychedelic trance album of the 90's. The multilayered tactile sound in evidence on this disc essentially defined the post-rave trance scene. The influences are obvious - straight up Ecstasy-influenced trance/house with a hefty dollop of LSD-influenced Goa psychedelia.

(Sidebar: the tempo / feel of the album is carefully arranged, via the track order, to mimic a drug trip. The early tracks build to a plateau, there is a sustained high, a chill stage and a come down.)

The album isn't just a collection of dance floor bangin' tunes. It contains a mix of track styles, all with that distinctive MWNN sound. Listen to 'Low Commotion' for the trance version of a train leaving a station for a lengthy trip, or enjoy the euphoric chill of 'Skydiving'.

Some of these tracks will be familiar to regular clubbers of the era. In particular, the classic 'Floor-essence' became something of a dance floor anthem thanks to the MWNN association with Paul Oakenfold and his Perfecto label. 'Sugar Rush' was a popular fave too, and there is also a reworking of the early classic 'Sly-ed' :)

This album ranks up there with genre-defining output from acts such as Shpongle and Astral Projection.

Any real trance fan should have a copy of this album in her collection. The production is top notch, the multilayered tracks are lush, and the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts.

Go on, try it, the first one is free...