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Hexfire's groups (3)
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Reviews:
Cosmic Iron - Psydrugs For Pain - 26-Aug-08 06:13 PM
Pretty weak album.
This is no darkpsy which is dark and trippy as supposed, this is merely a humble attempt to make something like that. Most tracks are very boring and tedious, without any atmosphere, without imagination and mostly without any perceptible direction as such. There's no a single track that can be considered above average in terms of originality and unique idea.
The only good thing about this music perhaps is that it can be recommended for those about to get into dark psychedelic trance. But if you consider yourself to be an advanced darkpsy head and looking for a dark trip to chaos blackholes with dark and twisted atmospheres from parallel dimensions, I'd decidedly advise you to look further.
W.O.R.M.* - Agogo - 09-Aug-08 01:47 PM
Some of you liked very much to talk about "the most underrated, the most unseen, the most underground goa trance project of “that” era", etc. I suppose this is apparently your time to exult, as you obviously got by the right address – Worm, full-fledged oldschool goa trance project, which, unlike most of your ordinary expectations, is not a project with a couple of random tracks spread through similarly random compilations, which was the reason of its total obscurity, neither did it suffer a label bankrupt issue or anything as similar and dire as that. Surprisingly – none of that. Let's take glance into the eyes of truth, what's actually up and what really happened?
We deal with a project that released an album called "Agogo" on a more or less renowned Belgian label called Nova Zembla. The biggest highlight about this label particularly for a goahead would be most definitely another goa project, called Elysium with an album Monzoon, cited to be one of those good underrated albums. And it's indeed a good album if you ask me. However, apart from that, I'm afraid, there would be pretty much nothing else worth mentioning.
Now let's get back to Agogo. What's wrong with it? It was the first question that sparked on my mind after I played it for the first 10 minutes. Basically, I could sit down on the couch and make a full detailed analysis of every track; however, I won't do it because it's not the case when it's required. And here's the reason. All the tracks on the album are very similar. And all of them have very similar drawback - occasionally dull and superficial melody, so much not peculiar to goa. The best track of the album is perhaps Euphoria, which is the track that brings all the confusion, basically because it straightly makes you expect something at least in the same vein and you seem to swallow all the drawbacks of the next tracks, figuring that things will certainly get better with from next track on. However, they don't; on the contrary, they get even worse and leave you even more saddened and disappointed. The peak is "Valhalla", the pre-last track of the album, which simply kills everything good that was before; it like opens your eyes and makes you realize that, perhaps, nothing was simulated neither went wrong that decade ago when the album was released, so the obscurity has actually been "pretty much" justified.
It's rarely, almost never, that I respond negatively in regards to goa trance astists. But sadly, this is the case. One of the better things to mention, perhaps, is that it's still goa, not anything else. Moreover, I shall add that I have never met plainly bad goa trance music in my life, and even this is not the case. Agogo has it's good moments and there would be even more if not those cheesy melodies... Still, an interesting discovery.
PhaseTech - Momentum Vol. 1 - 25-Jul-08 05:29 PM
Thank you so much for this wonderful compilation.
PsyTech is my favourite genre from the modern psychedelic trance scene at the moment (well, with a "slight" exception to goa ;)). I'm really starving for all these deep and intelligent mechanical sounds interlaced with dark, psychedelic, atmospheric pads. This music is ultimate and pretty much flawless. Old-school lovers will inevitably recognize here good old hypnotic techno from the mid of 90s. However, it's even better! It's dark, psychedelic and, damn – it's 10 times more hypnotic that any of your most exceptional techno offerings of those days. Because it's not techno, it's a revolutionary blend of psychedelic trance and something that some of you used to call deep techno back in the old days. It's called PsyTech, the newly appeared, innovative yet so far an elitist's edm genre.
Let's make a small brief flashback. Of course, we had Kuro, Triac, Midi Miliz and other stuff from that underground bandwagon. But let's be honest, these guys were really lacking something; you could hear all that banging stuff that could carry you far and away; however, you were hardly able to go through such a deep, dark yet atmospheric musical black hole while listening to that music that this compilation offers.
Several months ago V/A "Supermarket", a free compilation from Ultiva Records, brought us the prelude, the similar compilation with the same idea and concept, which is definitely going to be my absolute favourite V/A compilation of this year along with this one and, hopefully, a couple of more in the future. I was astonished having found out that such music is still alive, thanks to the artists who put their efforts in its creation and spread, and people who gathered it into one compilation. The good story seemed to be ready to be finished, but... not that fast. The logical sequel is called "Momentum; volume one".
The most precious thing about this name is its last word – "volume one" means the beginning of the story, not its end.
And I'll be waiting for the next chapter.
Bypass Unit - Dropz Of Obscure Eclipses - 21-Jul-08 08:08 PM
It's unbelieveable how almost a decade ago they managed to produce such a massive, kick-ass (excuse my bad french), full power banging goa, considering that such music hardly existed back then (well, something from the likes of Shakta or Prana might be a scarce exception). It sounds so tight and full-fledged so it only makes you wonder if the date on the cover was put correctly. And then you look at it, assure that there were no mistakes, and it only enhances your wonder. I'm talking about "Dropz Of Obscure Eclipses" album of course, which, by the way, is not even my favourite.
Virtually, things pertaining to Bypass Unit can be summed up like follows: awesome stuff and one of the most underrated and unfairly unexposed goa groups ever.
Notably, this is not even my favourite kind of goa. Essentially, I prefer more intelligent, more deep and dark sound to those melodic, positive and funky stuff, which probably Bypass Unit could be referred to in a way. However, what they did in due time is something I can openly call "innovative". And it sure deserves some reasonable credit.
Darshan - 16-Jul-08 07:24 PM
Darshan was a pioneering dark goa trance duo started in the mid of 90s, consisting of Grant Collins and Mark Robinson.
This is one of the most esoteric, obscure and peculiar goa trance groups ever existed. Unlike most of other goa/psychedelic trance artist of that era, Darshan provide unique dark and spacey vibes, full of energy with their tracks.
They released a number of EPs, two albums and were featured on various compilations throughout the years.
Sadly, after the millennium the project started its gradual evanescence and since 2002 has had no more output.
In the early 2008 in some compilation called "Echo" there appeared a track called "Darshan and Hopi - Freefall". A revive of good old Darshan, you ask? Well, so to speak. To be fair, it wasn't bad at all if you don't look back to their dark goa past. Or his past... because only Grant Collins was credited on that track, without Mark Robinson. However, if you try to compare it with the former work of the guys, you'd possibly be a bit disappointed, even though, as I said above, it isn't bad at all.
But the last and the most interesting thing for all the Darshan fans, who - like me - were guessing as to where this project has actually gone will be glad to hear that. Well, I'm not actually going to answer the question where's something gone because in fact it wouldn't matter much when you see it back to life.
The place to be is [myspace]/skeinmusic. A new(!!) project by Grant Collins and... Loren Warn (according to the site, a pianist and vocalist) called Skein started up. This stuff is definitely not bad, I tell you. Of course, it's no longer goa, nor even psytrance (and thankfully, not full-on) - it's progressive breakbeat with peculiar dark Darshan's feel you will certainly recognize; it's absolutely worth checking and hearing, mainly if you respect the man, that has been standing behind Darshan like a decade ago.
To sum things up... Well, perhaps, Darshan won't make a comeback, but it's in no way about its driving force - Grant Collins. Those ones who respected his work in the past should definitely check out his present work. It really *is* worth checking out.
It's just one thing which remained to be sad - there's no any info regarding Mark Robinson, the second half of Darshan. The weird thing perhaps is that he's not even been mentioned on Skein myspace page with mention of Darshan...
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