Prānā* - Geomantik

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.

Prana were one of the defining "goa" acts and what a great sound they had. So perhaps is it somewhat odd that I find it hard to listen to more than about four Prana tracks in a row. The Geomantik album, while being my favorite Prana album, is a problematic release as well. If only for the fact that despite being an album, there are only four new tracks on it, with the remaining five tracks being remixes (albeit good ones) of tracks from the first Prana album Cyclone.

All for of the new tracks are keepers, with Alien Pets being the stand out of the group. Boundless is also a well known and well loved classic. All of the new tracks feature that Prana sound that is simply pure goa to my ears. Lots of acidy, wiggling leads together with Tsuyoshi's distinctive percussive sense. The remixes are also all very good, but in hindsite, one can't help but feel a bit cheated by a new album with only four tracks. To recent psy-fans who came in in the last two years or so and grew up on the harder sounds of acts like GMS and Infected Mushroom, this album will probably sound a bit dated and fluffy, but for those who were around when before "goa" became a dirty word, this album is a sound that is sure to bring back happy memories and a smile to one's face.