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Home Page: mattman Member Since: Apr 25, 2005 Rank: 69 Average Vote Received: Correct (4.10, 10 votes) Rated 314 releases, average: 3.64 Location: Oslo, Norway Profile:

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Buyer Rating: 100.0% positive (39 ratings)

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• Ambient and Experimental
• Electronic Music
• Goa / Psy-Trance
• Norway
• Progressive / Psy-Trance

Celtic Cross - Hicksville - Remastered & Remixed - 01-Apr-09 02:21 PM
Our friends Simon, Saul and Martin has released a set of remixes for our enjoyment. Not before hearing this release, and viewing the beautiful album cover have I realized the humorous undertones in this musical creation. Make no mistake, this is the perfect combination of Posfordian magic and redneck music (at least towards the end). I don't normally comment on particular tracks as that makes absolutely no sense giving you tons of romantiscized, metaphorical brainflutter about how the music sounds like, but I'll give it a go. First of all, it is important to read Youth's ideas and concept for this album, explained in the sleeve and around on the internet. Second of all, the remixes on this album are all new, although some of them are similar to previously released ones, such as Mundis Imaginalus (Tribal Dawn Mix) which is another name for Lapis featured on LSD's compilation Liquid Dub Volume Seven, and Mundis Imaginalis (Flowercolouredpowerchild Mix) released on the compilation "The Warp Experience" from the beforementioned label. Enough of this, let's get to it. This remix album is awesome. Awesome, you say? Yes, awesome. Starting off with Mundis Imaginalis (Tribal Dawn Mix), we're introduced to a version of Mundis Imaginalus without that screeching high pitch sound at the very beginning featured in the original one. Then it gets better. "Lapis" is a good enough reason to pay the 50 dollars or whatever you have to in order to get Liquid Dub Volume Seven. A bubbly version. The second half of the track goes into a much more beat-oriented screechy sound that is very enjoyable. Track 2, Khatmandu (Iona On The Ganges Mix) is naturally a remix of Khatmandu. Not too much changed here, some vocals and different mastering. Still enjoyable. Track 3, Jade Gates (Beauty Knows No Pain Mix) is one of my 3 favourites. Excellent, excellent guitar play, extended from the intro of Jade Garden, the beat is rearranged and more percussion added. It's longer and features some extremely well played violin parts, and some really great samples are used. Goodness, this is a great remix. Track 4, Mundis Imaginalis (Flowercolouredpowerchild Mix) is a stripped version of the original, more primitive and emphasis on the synthline we know very well from the original. A good remix here too. Track 5, Schwazz (Until Nothing Can Reach Us Mix) is a slight remix and re-arrangement of the original Shwazz (which is my absolute favourite Celtic Cross track). It's safe to say this is rearranged somewhat, and put together in an odd way, making it longer, but not very different. Some odd choices here leaves me puzzled. For the better, I think. On to track 6 Straight For The Jiggular (Crystal Journey Mix) which is an energetic remix of the track Hicksville. It's more primitive and features some heavily Posford-chopped sounds and vocals, and an extension of the guitar play. Track 7, Mundis Imaginalis (The Acoustic Mix). This is my second of 3 favourites. The acoustic parts of Mundis Imaginalus stretched and amazingly etched together with a 3rd guitar playing over it. Towards the end we're introduced to familiar synths and melodies. Great stuff. What a remix! Track 8, Khatmandu (Short Cut Mix) is remastered heavily, and rearranged in a very interesting way. Synths added and eerie vocals here too. Jummy. Track 9 seals the deal with Digajigg (Babba G Mix), which is the third favourite of mine. This is something very, very, very different. This is a Darshannon remix. Extremely trancey, this sounds like something that could come out of a friendlier version of "The Lone Deranger" hadn't it been for the.. hicksville of it all. This is, ladies and gentlemen, Rednex featuring Hallucinogen. Remember those guys? Well, we've got the Hallucinogen baselines, the "chicki chicki chicki chicki" Hallucinogen percs we know so very much twiddling in the tweeter area, the redneck yokel "yeah yeah yeah yeah" in between the beats, we've got Posfordian chopped vocals (oh, how we love those), we've got Darhsannon Violin play, and the rest needs to be experienced first hand. What a track. This is the crown of the album, and I can only imagine the laughs the guys must have had while making this track. There you have it. A set of mature, well produced, well mastered, well psychedelic remixes to our fantastic Hicksville release released 9 years ago.

This is great from start to finish, and a very, very worthy set of remixes of the near untouchable experience that is Hicksville.

Sunkings - Before We Die - 22-Mar-09 04:11 AM
Sunkings make a visit to Chill Tribe Records! After more than a decade they're back with full force. Striking, to say the least, Taz Alexander, the vocalist from our beloved Juno Reactor guides this album from start to finish through groovy, dubby electronica. Even tribal influences, together with her voice, makes for clear resemblances to the before mentioned group of musicians. Just listen to track #2 - "Mad Love"! Through Sunkings, Ben Watkins in Juno Reactor discovered Taz and brought her on board. This album carries that talent with extreme care. One of the reasons for that is the way the music is almost catered to the vocals of Taz, which makes the experience extremely rewarding. I dare say this is an outstanding album. The sheer quality of production and mastering makes for something out of the ordinary. I've recently taken a great interest in Dub music, and that makes it all the more exciting to have that collection diversified with Sunkings new album. Now, there is a more electronic / new wave touch as the tracks progress, and I can only imagine how seeing them live would be a great experience. The electronic parts makes for a really great contrast to the more ambient tracks. This shift between ambient / dub / electronic style caters to many different tastes, but what they have in common is a thoroughly presented theme that rings through the whole playlist. It is very exciting when hearing through an album the first few times, and each time confirming your suspicion that there really is a deeper edge to the tracks you're listening to. British electronica / dub is hard, if not impossible to overdo, as all the big names out there can confirm, and in my book, Sunkings takes a solid spot up there with the rest of them. This loungy, British touch to the tracks presented to us makes for a really good vibe. This is a diverse, extremely well produced album. The tracks are well chosen to bring the experience to different peaks as the hour flies by, and the real feat of ingenuity lies in the way Taz' voice has been sampled both as lead vocal but also as really eerie pads to lay a foundation for much of the theme of the album. There also a great obscure part to the experience that is “Before We Die”. The artwork and scribblings inside the digipak makes for an interesting touch. You really get the feeling of receiving a complete story with this album, something every artist tries to accomplish. Fans of Juno Reactor will surely recognize the genius of this, as fans of ambient, electronic and dub. Chill Tribe Records has yet again released a superb piece of music. This is highly recommended.

Ian Ion - Gringo Locomotion - 16-Dec-07 07:44 AM
Read the digipak sleeve, and you’ll see this album has an interesting concept! We all know Ian Johansson from Koxbox and Saiko-pod, but music under his alias Ian Ion is new to me. A debut such as this, with an IDM / Ambient release is impressive. There is much about this album that reminds me of other artists. Elemental Journey (Matt Coldrick and Matt Hillier) is a name that pops up, and of course, there is a level of familiarity with previous work of Ian. The 12 tracks are quite diverse in terms of feel and sound. There’s a good balance between having to be relaxed listening to this and how much it relaxes you - and I also get the feeling that the album is doing a great job of surpassing the casualness and “let’s be experimental just to be experimental” feel that other IDM musicians might have a tendency to express. No, this album follows the exact same quality of production as other Chill Tribe Records releases have – and that’s impressive to say the least. The album is roughly divided into three parts, and everything is mixed in a way that gives great fluency. Vocals, live instruments and synthesizers are all working together, and with good headphones or a decent sound system, you’ll hear the impressive amount of work put into the effects of stereo sound. Most of the soundcapes are in the higher level of frequencies, and the level of detail is remarkable. This really is IDM on a very high level, and you won’t have to run through the album many times to understand the structure and sense of direction it offers. The middle part of the album is full of ear-candy. Really, sit down and concentrate on what you’re listening to, and you’ll realize the talent presented in the build of effects and layers of sound. “We Could Be Housewives” is an excellent example of this… I’ve never been a big fan of this kind of music other than ‘the greats’ within IDM, and this album is definitively one of those that jumped out at me to shake my frame of mind regarding my personal preferences. Stick this record under the Christmas tree and watch the holiday stress fade away in the blink of an eye. Interestingly, the last third of this album offers something completely different. Sunshy’s crisp guitar play, with a touch of Röyksopp, a voice message and a Casio-watch beep are all in store to change the mood to something else. And, for my part, the last track - To My Future Past - is what pushes this album from great to excellent. This is absolutely blissful music. By then you’ve stopped thinking about “is this ambient or IDM?” your head is soothed and you’re anticipating what this last, long track has to offer. It’s like a big cookie at the end, in contrast to the shorter (and at times very short) tracks in the previous two thirds. The lower parts of the levels of frequencies kick in, mid-base and even lower base. Ah, you simply don’t want this to end! I love this part of ambient music when you’re able to turn the sound up at very high levels without having to regret it when your brain starts to pulsate painfully… Instead, you’re enhancing the detail and the structure of the tracks that lifts the atmosphere greatly. This has definitively a Scandinavian sound to it; Biosphere is another name you’ll be thinking about throughout this hour. I can’t do much else than to tell you that this is some of the most impressive beat-less music in my collection, and any lover of IDM and Ambient should not be without it.

Polyploid - Grow Your Own - 26-Aug-07 05:59 AM
Polyploid aka Chris Gannon now releases the album "Grow Your Own" almost a decade after his first release "Touch Proof", under this alias. I know Gannon's work mainly through his Psytrance / Goa Trance during the 90's. So, hearing him now again, releasing an Ambient / Dub album through Chill Tribe Records comes as a very welcome surprise! This album also contains tracks in collaboration with Ciaran Walsh from Deviant Electronics.

Chill Tribe Records' 5th release offers a lot. You'll find a wide variety of tempos and influences featured; Break beats, Jazz, Dub, Oriental, even orchestral sounds. As the track listing progresses, you're soon to realize the CD spinning in your player fits smoothly into the great line of music we've previously experienced from this label. I really like the way the album seems very dark, but at the same time, it offers a sort of upbeat, interesting pace of rhythm. This idea is further enhanced by looking at the great cover art. Take the track "Trick Dust". It's very dark, it has a very interesting melodic foundation, (in a way it reminds me of Juno Reactor), coupled with intense synthesizing. You get the feeling catching this music live somewhere would be a real treat.. An interesting choice of vocal samples are also used. "Bishop's Song" - with what sounds like a very enthusiastic reverend - joined with an electric organ playing, making it something that stands out in many ways. The individual tracks feature their own sort of theme, and it's a safe bet to say nothing is left to the coincidental realms regarding the production. However, everything is left to your interpretation.. It's impressive how the level of creativity, the design of the sound, the effects, and the exploration of musical possibilities in itself makes this album stand out the way it does. The album also has it's jazzy side, the last track "Wishful Thinking" does something impressive, it matches together the general feel of the album as you've listened through it, slows it down, brings great closure to the previous hour of musical experience.

As an artist, you're required to know what you're doing if you've set out making an album which aims to bring something new to an audience within this kind of mixture of genres. This album gives me a feeling of a very precise and structured way of looking at the project. If you look at it abstractly, you almost get the feeling of a clear melodic symmetry. There's a usage of contrast, pace and effects that shows us something on a whole different level than most Dub-albums I've heard. There are a also a few unusual surprises that caught my ear, I'm sure you'll know what I'm talking about after your first listen.. All in all, in terms of quality, production, engineering and continuity, Polyploid - Grow Your Own is a definite must-have for any fan of Ambient, Chill and Dub.

Waste no time inserting this excellent piece of digital creativity into your source of audio!

Various - Downbeat Liquid Volume 1 - 02-Aug-07 01:40 PM
I'm going to be honest. In a moment of clarity, (one of few), I decided to sporadically start collecting every original piece of music released by the artist Jaïa. I heard the sample for "December", and there was never any question whether this album was headed my way or not. There's always this half exciting, half uncertain feeling when you're buying a 10-track compilation almost just because of one track. Giving the other ones a fair try, "December" came last on the play list. From what the samples sounded like, I was hoping for an at least decent compilation all in all. Listening through, I quickly realized I'd hit some sort of goldmine. This is an extremely good compilation. It has no illusions of grandeur. Rock solid tracks, the quality of production shines through. Even Jaïa's track receives hard competition for the crown. Vibrasphere shows off with an excellent 7 and a half minute journey fueled by the forest, U-Recken and Sundial comes with two great tracks as well. There's no hiding the enthusiasm over this great piece of music. Dubby, chilled sounds. There's no risk involved getting this one, it's a solid compilation bound to impress any fan of chilled out electronica, all under the careful manufacturing of some of the very, very best artists within ambient and psychedelic trance. This is definitively one of those few releases that shines through. Keep those volumes coming!

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