Here's a "small" review of this album I (yep, myself) did and posted at www.psylosophy.com - hope you like it.

What? You never heard of Sidartha? Well, you're deffinitely not the only one. Sidharta is a relatively new portuguese act, signed to the also new Israeli label Metatron Production. Although not really original, his music is quite uplifting, without being cheesy. And don't expect repetitive morning trance, this is quite a psychedelic night time album. Although having quite a lot of flaws, it still amazes me somehow.

The artwork on this album is typical Metatron stuff. The front cover's pretty cool and psychedelic, but the album lacks any inside artwork at all. It's a shame albums these days don't come with a booklet or something, it's quite entertaining. Well, this one doesn't so don't expect any extensive reading here, it's all about the music. That being said, let's skip directly to the important side of the album.

01. Reverse Mode
Here we go then. The track that opens the album also gives it its name. Typical album intro here and we're quickly off to the dancing. Very nice rolling bassline, quite dance friendly, and the drum work is also interesting as well. You might notice the pads and FX during the first one and a half minutes, although not being far from greatness, are everything but original. No biggie though, because you get the first serious lead quite soon, at 1:43. From here on the track gets quite psychedelic and you just gotta love the break at around three minutes. Ok, so the first three minutes of the album are enough to abandon any high expectations of an original ground-breaking album - it's that kind of album, dancefloor oriented, no intentions of innovating here, just making use of the working formula. Ok so this track is quite nice, but it may eventually sound repetitive after listening to it the third time. In conclusion, it's the kind of track you'd be happy to hear in an outdoor party watching the full moon, but not really suitable to listen to at home.

02. Motion Detector
Wowah, this one I wasn't expecting. We've got ourselves a bomb right here, my friends. This just goes to prove that just because the album is named after a particular track, it doesn't mean it's the best track. Only two tracks into the album and I'd bet this is the best one on the album. The bassline is a rolling israeli-style, yet not cheesy at all. It's that kind of bassline that really gets to you, it tickles with your senses and seriously involves you, because it's smooth and it actually sounds like a fucking bassline (you know how most full-on tends to have basslines so high you can't even tell them apart from a regular lead? This one has nothing to do with those). The leads are all looped in a really hypnotic way and there aren't much drums, which is good here, because it doesn't get in the way. At around five minutes there's a break, everything stops and it builds into some more psychedelic nigth time sweetness. There's not much variation going on with this track either, but it's deffinitely a huge dancefloor night-time bomb. I really liked this one, personally a surprise for me.

03. Mars Arrival
Somehow, all the intros on this album sound the same to me. That's cool, I don't mind these intros, they're nice, but it just goes to show once again that this album is entirely oriented for dancefloors, because it doesn't really have any real intros at all, they're just there to serve as an excuse not to start the heavy shit immediately. This bass is a bit different than the rest, it's less heavy, not as full. But Sidhartha did a great job reapairing that by adding agressive low leads and pads, that create quite an amusing effect in your brain - kinda' like the lost of senses (that's good, right? I'm sure it is...). Just try listening to the first minute in a PA system or a really good stereo, with some nice powerful bass, and you'll see what I'm talking about. Ok so the track evolves into a bit of a boring monotonous loop, which only a lead at 3:45 manages to break away. Really psychedelic synth work here, that builds up into a nice little break a few minutes later. A woman comes asking for attention - "Can I have your attention please?" - the beat and the bass come in, always rising and the whole thing just breaks up in your face, as music stops and blows up seconds later. Not the kind of track you'd immediately fall in love with, but it's good enough to keep feet moving and your shoulders shaking. Again, the track starts just like it started (all tracks so far do).

04. Inner Voice
Intro, starting off with a deep kick - not much of a surprise. Although the intro itself is quite good! There's this weird noise, sounds like a detuned violin, a sample (something about Inner Voice, I suppose) and here it comes the real deal. Interesting bass, that you quickly forget about because of this extremely interesting synth that comes in almost immediately. A few seconds later, there's the detuned violin again, which sounds quite good through the whole thing, until it starts to get on your nerves after a while. At 1:45 there's this break and the lead that starts around this time is so fucking close to anything by Talamasca that you'll get the feeling that you're listening to it for a while. One minute later, the lead stops and on comes an even greater synth. I'm quite liking this track at this point, full of rythm, pumping on and on, and layered in a way that guarantees you won't get tired of it as easily as the first three tracks, because fresh new elements are always paving their way through the entire track. New lead around five minutes, quite scratchy and acid, like most of the synths on this tune.

05. No Worries
Ok, so this album is actually better than I was expecting, but still you can't ignore the fact (I just came to this conclusion) that all tracks on the album are built over the same formula. All breaks, rises and leads will start sounding the same by the time you reach the fifth track. This one's very identical to the previous four, with the simple difference in the leads and some FX. The bass, the structure of the track, and pretty much all details that make it a night time full-on track are basicly copy/paste. The surprise here comes at approximately two and a half minutes, where this amazing pumping bassline jumps in - very nice work here, no doubt about it. Takes a minute for the bass to switch back to normal; the transition could be just a bit smoother, because you feel like that break in the middle there is a bit out of place. Seeing as the first four minutes are already gone (and judging by the formula Sidhartha always uses), there souldn't be anything new here. Yeah, the first minutes have fresh stuff, that pop in craftily, then it's re-arranging all the elements in a way that it doesn't sound too repetitive. Sidhartha does it well, he hides imperfections well, but the fact remains that all these tracks could have sounded much better if released individualy on compilations.

06. Physical Forms
Skipping any comments to the intro (just see any of the comments above). Actually, this track does have a few original elements - there's a really nice dance friendly melody smoothly hid in the background, that really gives power and serves great as a filler for the track. Then at 2:15 there's another break and it sounds exactly like all breaks on this album. I was liking the album a lot, but these details are disappointing me a bit. But let's try to get over it for now. This one's quite a nice tune, again with some heavy-ass leads - these don't have the same harmony as the rest of the leads on this album, still they sound quite nice. Deffinitely more of a night-time tune. Unfortunately, this one comes out a bit boring overall and if it wasn't for the few bass changes and mood swings that you ocasionally get, I'd save quite a bad comment for this one. Once more, it's the kind of track that could make success on a outdoors dancefloor, but it will hardly please anyone who listens to it indoors, like at home.

07. Sudden Shifts
The title of the track here was promising. This album is indeed needing a sudden shift, and quick! I wasn't too confident though, but I was surprised. This tune is indeed a sudden shift in the pace of the album. Although we're in for a guitar tune, which is one of the biggest clichés currently around, it's quite a nice guitar tune. The intro alone is enough to realize this track's different: it's doesn't start off with that deep one-hite kick and the rising beat, it starts differently, and then it explodes. And although the bass makes you think otherwise, this is the least night time oriented track of the album so far. It has an heavy bass indeed, and the rythm of the drums is really fast-paced, but the melodic leads remind us of the good old days of Goa and dancing to the magical melodies under the sun. One more break and this is where you get the guitar work, quite crafty in the background. The playful thing with the bass at 3:15 may sound like a stupid little detail but it represents the first change in this album's breaks, which is a really good thing. The leads from here on are all quite electronic and are sure to keep shoulders shaking across the dancefloor. At approximately four minutes the major break of the track is also different from the ones on all the previous tracks, thank god! Apparently I was wrong about the second track being the best: this is the real deal! The break I was just telling you about builds up into a more night-time kind of trance, with the guitar coming along once more, but it somehow sounds heavier. Nice work here, overall. Still nothing new, but at least it's not too repetitive.

08. Deep Sonar
I don't know how this track relates to the portuguese events organization Deep Sonnar, but I figured there must be some relation, I don't know. Anyway, we're deffinitely back to the old formula - the intro is proof enough. After two minutes of sound, the leads so far have all been used somehow on the previous tracks. If anything, the drums and the gthic background lead on this track can make any difference when compared to the rest of the album, but it still doesn't justify the fact that this could very well be a remix of any of the first six tracks. Which is why I could say about this track anything I said about those six. It's a very dance friendly track, would work just fine on a dancefloor, but it doesn't tell any real story (unless you're on drugs, then it tells all sorts of different wonderful stories).

09. Psychotic Behaviour
This album could very well have only three tracks, and this could be the third. It's not as different as the Motion Detector and Sudden Shifts, but it's just as good. Not that the leads are groundbreaking at all, they're pretty much the same, but this one has more of a tribal feel to it, with some really tasty drum work. A few of the synths are very hypnotic, in a scratchy, acid way. The breaks, rises and all other details remain the same, and I'm such a perfeccionist that it seriously gets on my nerves, and it's almost enough to ruin this track for me. Fortunatelly, there's a positive side to this track, and it makes it up for its flaws. Still, I wouldn't reccomend listening to this album as a whole, because you'll eventualy get so tired of it you'll miss all the good details on tracks like these. But try to stay focused and pay attention when you listen to this tune, the 2nd and the 7th track, they're the only tracks here suitable for home listening. The rest, I'd only reccomend for parties.

10. Dance With The Stars
Oh fuck! I was seriously expecting a dub track... Or breakbeat... Even some experimental kind of Psychedelic trance would be good. But no. I think it's really important that people start discovering new ways of music, new sounds, new soundscapes. Yet this album ain't helping at all, it's just helping out in the massification of an homogeneous music culture, which is bad. But I'm running away from the subject here. Tis track is one more half-night-half-morning track, the bass and drums are no innovation here, but it's a tune that does have some spiritual melodies and leads that push this track a bit over the line to the light side, in a good way. Some of the leads are a tiny little bit new and fresh, but overall it's more of the same. If you've been listening to the entire album as a whole, you'll be looking forward to the end of the album, before you can even start appreciating this track. You might notice I've been lacking the words to describe these latest tracks, but I seriously feel like I've said more than enough about the album. I even repeated myself several times, but it's not my fault, it's that kind of an album.

Well, the album's over and I was a bit disappointed at the end. It's a group of good tracks, that would be perfect for any compilation, no doubt there but, as a whole, the whole album is just a seventy minutes track. Right now it's important to discover new acts, but that give a real meaning to the word new. Acts that are not only oriented to such a particular and restrict style of music, but that dare going new ways instead of using the working formula. Because if we overuse it, it will eventually stop working. And that's the thing with Sidhartha, he discovered a working formula for his music, and he did it so much that he forgot about how important innovation is these days in this style. In the end it sounds like an album made too quickly, with the purpose of selling, getting gigs, and making money. I think Metatron rushed themselves with this album, trying to make a name for themselves, and it didn't pay off. It's certainly an album that will not make a whole in the industry, and although I'd reccomend the Israeli-kind-of-music fans to go out and buy it, I'd advise you to listen to the 2nd, 7th and 9th tracks first. Gets three starts for the effort.

Most of you have probably never even heard about Liquid Space. If that's your case, let me quickly introduce them: Liquid Space are Denny Seiweditz and Serdal Kalkan, from Germany. They've quietly been releasing tracks on a few compilations, unleashing their powerful and spiritual morning music whenever they were given the chance. You may not have heard about these guys in the past, but you sure as hell should keep an open mind about it and pick up this album. It doesn't really matter if you're not into morning music, or if you threw away all your Infected Mushroom albums long time ago, let's stop trying to put everything into categories here. This album is far too good to be disregarded by the old-schoolers just for the fact that it falls into the new-wave morning sound. Just for once open up your minds to something more!

Ok so a first glance at the album is enough to see this is an underground release: the cover artwork is pretty simple, there is no inlay, no booklet and all the artwork is really quite simple. Nothing more than what is absolutely needed: tracklist, booking contacts and copyright. This is deffinitely only about the music, contents of the package are merely a detail for Liquid Space. Being a visual arts lover, I always like to see some nice artwork along with the album, but that's cool though. As you pop the player in the stereo you find the music makes it up for the lack of visuals. And seeing as there's not much to talk about the package, let's skip directly into the music then...

01. Another Life: Here we go. This is an interesting choice to open the album. This track starts a bit progressive, without much going around, but it eventually turns into quite a psychedelic tune. You have to wait until around three and a half minutes for the real trip to begin, and it's always rising from then on. There are quite a load of psychedelic effects around this time that sound really quite tasty. Those who never heard Liquid Space before might be a little skeptical about the quality of this album after hearing the first three minutes of this track. But everything going on in between the third and fifth minutes will certainly proove them wrong. The break here, at five minutes, gives you a chance to rest for a bit and get some air. The track starts slowly evolving once again and, just when you're beggining to feel like everything's sounding the same, this great melody comes it at six and a half minutes that will certainly leave your head spinning. So far so good: the album opens nicely, although the first three minutes are just a bit cheesy and boring even. You get to the end of the track with one thing in mind: the production work is not top-notch, but these deffinitely guys have some talent in them!! Let's see how it goes from here on...

02. Real Eden: We're on to track two, with the feeling that this album still has a lot more to give. The intro is quite appealing, with some sweet soft pads and a few voices here and there, just to get your brain going. The bassline here is nothing we haven't heard a million times before, but the melody on the background is so fuckin' great you won't even pay any attention to any other element at this point. Some tibetan-monk-chant-like synth comes in later on, and soon enough you're floating in a sea of melodic psychedelic sweetness. At three and a half minutes this kick-ass melody comes in and this is the time you jump to one conclusion: these guys are not getting the attention they deserve. They clearly have a lot of talent in them, and they unleash it all right here. This is the moment where even the most skeptical listeners are sucked in by Liquid Space's music. The track keeps pumping, pulsating, slowly evolving, without ever stopping. This is one moster morning tune, to be heard real loud while watching the sunrise on the horizon, with a soft summer wind hitting your face.

03. Learn from Leary: The title of this track tells you quite a lot. I'll risk a wild guess here and say this is a tribute to Tim Leary. And, if I may say so, quite a deserved tribute - we could all learn a lot from Leary, indeed. Liquid Space feel the same way, and decided to express it through this major, major tune. This one may not sound as melodic as the previous track, but it's so damn sweet I had to push back on my stereo quite a few times. The mysterious melodies at three minutes prepare us for what's coming one minute later. A blend of heart breaking melodies that go through the flesh, directly into the center of your soul. Could the name of the album be any more appropriate? Everything stops at four and a half minutes and magical words of wisdom come from the mouth of Leary himself: "Because, if you do, suddenly your brain is speeding up a million times faster, and you can see everything going on, but you don't remember your zip code". We return to where we started and the track stars growing once again, with some more mystical synths, enough to take your breath away for quite a few minutes. Six minutes marks the start of the final build, that eventually breaks into quite a psychedelic experience, always managing not to lose contact with the melodic morning side of Liquid Space. Congrats to these dudes for paying this so deserved homage to the man himself, Timothy Leary. I couldn't think of a better way to thank him for everything he's taught us all.

04. Summer Session: As you get to track four, you're already used to Liquid Space's introductions. This one starts slowly, with quite a trippy minimalistic synth and some samples on the back, while the bass kicks in (this time alone). Some more time before the kick comes in and you know the drill by now, it evolves slowly, with the drums coming in slowly one-by-one. To be honest, the more I listen to these guys, the more they remind me of Lani. Some really cool synths start popping from time to time, which really fits along nicely with the pumping bassline. Some quite weird chants appear later on, which I didn't like so much for the fact that they remind me of my occasional visits to church against my own will, as a kid. Don't take me wrong, I'm not the ultimate sinner, I just came to the conclusion that no religion stands for its own believes. But enough of that for now. The time it took me to write that last sentence was enough for the track to evolve into a sweet tasty blend of melodic work, LS style! From four minutes on, it's mad stuff - I'm absolutely loving this one! As always, the track goes back to zero and starts building up once again. Then, finally, at six minutes pure madness unleashes. One more of Liquid Space's unbelievably good melodic synths pops up and, just as you're preparing to recompose yourself from the last three minutes, the track smashes your brains out. Once again, you can clearly see these dudes do not have a lot of means at their disposal, but they have a lot of power in them and their talent completely overcomes ALL adversities. Great tune here!

05. Schwarzlichtgewitter: Ok, I won't even try to understand the name of this track and I gave up trying to read it a long time ago. After attemping an on-line translation, I got "Black Light Thunderstorm". Seeing as these on-line translators aren't always too faithful, I assumed that was not quite the right translation, seeing as we're talking morning trance producers here and Black Light Thunderstorm doesn't exactly remind you of a smiling morning sun. Well, it took no more than two minutes of the track to lead me to believe the translation was correct. A tune like this was the last thing I was expecting to hear at this point: really, really, really heavy bassline (really!), a deep kick and no melodies other than the occasional dark mysterious synth on the back. It even has the howl of a wolf on the background. This track is really out of place here, and to be honest it disappointed me quite a bit. I absolutely love dark psy, but this one is way too progressive for my taste. lus, it couldn't be any more out of context here. It hardly evolves at all, it has no more than a few effects occasionally layed around in a way that does not seem to have any purpose and it's pretty repetitive, the way I see it. I know there are a lot of progressive darkpsy lovers out there that will probably like this track, but it just does not work for me. Obviously, I won't let this track affect my opinion on the album and I'm pretty sure the next track is back to the style Liquid Space score some points with.

06. In Wonderland: Just as I suspected, that last tune was just a slip. We're back into light with this track and, as much as I like dark psy, this is what Liquid Space does best. This track starts real nice and smooth, with some samples (marijuana!) and drums at the beggining. "Sounds like it's having an hallucinogenic effect, not like a drug which is harmful and wrong and just say no kids, but spacey none the less". Right, so the name of the track, combined with the samples used right at the beggining are pretty obvious, so I'll skip any comments here. The track itself is pretty nice. There's some guitar for the first three minutes, although it's clearly a VST guitar, no real instrument used here. Oh well, only one more proof that these guys do not need a lot of spiffy hardware to create smashy tunes. I'm really liking this track at around six minutes, when the music stops, a sample from Beavis and Butthead comes in, an outstanding melody pops along with it and it builds up into one more morning smasher. Deffinitely one more bomb from the german duo.

07. Lunatic Asylum: Not the first track named like this I see, although I'm not quite sure which came first: this or the Naked Tourist one. Doesn't quite matter anyway. The sample at the start ("This is a place for crazy people") explains the title of the track. I can't really recall how many times I've said this before, but this another great tune. Until it actually builds up, it's pretty much more of the same and some of you might feel like you've heard all this before. But as soon as Liquid Space's melodic work comes in it gets really interesting and refreshing. Really enjoyed the peaceful chants in between the hard bass and kick. This one's quite fast-paced, probably the fastest tune on the entire album. As if things weren't getting good enough, complete madness comes in at 3:45, with a melody that will drop you to your knees, the bass and kick rising and then the final touch, as it unleshes all the madness, with some really interesting drum work. Pure morning sweetness! And it's far from being over! Minute six brings us an even more interesting approach, with some outstanding melodies. No mercy from the german guys on this one, which is a serious candidate to best track of the album. Fast, melodic and always mutating. This track will surely sweep any dancefloor it gets played on.

08. Scary Inclusive: Damn, I wasn't expecting this right after the last track. This is one hell of an introduction, with a really soft melody. The bass on this one is quite plastic and not as bouncy as the previous ones. Liquid Space seem to be faithful to one specific structure: the track starts slowly, it calmly evolves and builds up, always carrying along with it a few melodic synths and FX here and there, keeping it psychedelic and clearly showing a lot of goa influences through their melodies. These guys also seem to be big fans of background female chants, which I must confess I like just as much. This track in particular has its peak from four minutes on, which is approximately the time when the real madness kicks in, with one more of Liquid Space's outstanding melodic synths. But the real deal starts after five minutes, with an even more outstanding melodic line, and a jaw-dropping bassline, that goes all the way to the end. Really spiritual track, this one - probably the most spiritual out of all them. I'm actually surprised to say Liquid Space saved their best tracks for the end (just wait 'till you hear the last track...). This is one huge melodic tune, very goa-influenced.

09. Rendered Dreams: Right, we get to the last track expecting one more outstanding tune. What we get is probably the best track out of all the album. It's also the most melodic, coincidentally. The intro is, at least, interesting. There's some weird high-pitched chant, enough to stamp a ear-to-ear smile on your face. The samples here revolve around hallucinations, with some female voice saying what appears to be the description of words like hallucinogen and medication taken from some dictionary. This one is also extremely fast-paced. The first two minutes are great for warming up. From the second minute on, there's one of the best melodies I've heard in the entire album (and, believe me, it's not easy to choose one melody here), But that's not all! Approximately one minute later pops in a melody so mad I don't even have any words to describe it. The build up from this on is something I haven't heard in a long time, as far as morning psytrance is concerned. It gets you on the mood for what's coming, as the build completely stops, there's a woman screaming and it's madness from then on. If this track does not do the trick for you, you certainly are not open-minded enough to recognize talent, even when the style ain't exactly your cup of tea. I seriously couldn't think of a better way to close the album than a track like this.

Ok, so the album's over and you're deffinitely left asking for more. very clever from Liquid Space to choose these three morning blasters to close the album. This album teaches a very important lesson to all aspiring psytrance producers: you don't really need means to make good music, all you gotta have is ideas and talent. In between all the crap that's been going around lately inside the psytrance industry, where everything sounds like the same and most of the tracks from producers with lots of equipment rarely have any musical content at all, Liquid Space manage to release one outstanding album, without having to use lots of fancy equipment. This is the ultimate proof that, as long as you have talent and an head full of ideas, nothing can stop you from making good music. If you're sick of all the bullshit that's currently being released on a daily basis inside the electronic music industry, please pick this album up. It's one hell of a surprise!

For more reviews, check out www.psylosophy.com

It's absolutely delightful to see Shulman play with everyday sounds and create an imaginary scenario that will take you on a journey to another world.

Just turn off the lights, forget the TV and the computer, close the windows and listen to this album with max volume. Spend some time in a different world created by Shulman. You'll be amazed with the effect this album will have on you, trust me!

Coming out as the replacement for Shpongle and, in my humble opinion, the best Ambient/Chillout producer so far.