Sattel Battle - SoundsCool

Glow stick repellent

Last year saw the resurrection of Australia’s Gi’iwa Production which finally surfaced again after a lengthy hiatus with their enthralling, genrebending Musica Discordia compilation. One of the most important compilations of 2006.

Elad Weinberg from Israel (Tsabeat) catapulted into the scene with his infectious, suomi-saundi track Dotman off the legendary debut Gi’iwa release Schizm released back in 2004. Since then his only Sattel Battle output were the two wacked-out gems on last year’s Musica Discordia + a bunch of releases under his darkpsy moniker Tsabeat. I’ve always preferred his wackier, more uplifting Sattel Battle style and ever since I found out about this debut album I’ve been excited…

Another fine Gi’iwa release draws to a close after the dramatic, side-splittingly funny bonus track. I like most of the stuff here – Elad manages to walk the tightrope between sheer excellence and bizarro-schranz like few others. A couple of the tracks didn’t agree with me, but they were scarce and more than outnumbered by the many brilliant tracks. Versatility is also a keyword here, as Elad ensures maximum attention from the listeners by never taking the easy way out or retorting to predictability. The sheer, eclectic force of this album makes it an a very interesting acquaintance alone – and the many stand-out tracks makes it even more kick-ass. The lush, urban artwork by Jason Hueman & T-Bone is the icing on the cake.

To sum up: A very fine debut album by Elad. Eclectic as always from Gi’iwa Production – and with enough depth to keep open-minded fans of versatile trance entertained for a long time… Picky neo full-on purists need to look elsewhere though… This is glowstick repellent. The rest of us will treasure this for a long time. Enjoy!

Favourites: 2(!!), 3, 6(!), 7(!), 10, 11, 12 + the hidden track (!!)