Josephschembri, May 01, 2006
What a wicked album is this!!
Prana was one of the originators of the style. His Matsuri label was founded in 1994 and sadly defunct in 1999. Releases from this label are amongst the most sought unsurprisingly.
Geomantik is one of the wickedest, mind-bending, totally tweaked-out and mental albums money can buy. It starts off slowly with the breakbeat-mid-tempo-trance crossover “Geomantik”. Tsuyoshi and his label always liked to experiment with breakbeats. Album then progresses with Alien Pets, Primal Orbit and Boundless, with each track being more tweaked and mental than the other!
The curiosity of this album however is that 5 out of 9 tracks are remixes (amazingly good) by other well known artists. Tracks 5 and 6 are remixes of the A-side of the first 12” by Matsuri, the legendary “Scarab”. Remix one is by Nick Taylor under the Snake Thing moniker; remix 2 is by one of my all time favourite acts, The Green Nuns O.T.R. The latter act have always had mind-bending, totally freaked-out and acid infected productions, and hearing them remixing a track by Prana I think happened only once in a lifetime. This could easily be the best track ever from the G.N.O.T.R.
Next come the godfathers of Goa-trance, Total Eclipse, remixing “Starchild”. The beat is typical Total Eclipse, but of course Prana’s tweaked out sounds are still very recognisable throughout. Has a thick acidic sound too.
Next comes a remix of “Kiba” by Process and Tristan.
However the closing track “Taiyo” remixed by Chakra (Israeli Rami Shapira) is easily the monster track here.
The good news is that this album has been re-released on Avatar in 2004 and is very widely available. So, if you don’t have grab it online now.
Trust me, this album is one of the best albums from the golden-era of trance.
4.3/5 (