An interesting detail is that the photograph on the cover was used a full 11 years earlier by the Greek post-punk band Headleaders on the front cover of their only LP release "What It Means To Me" (Creep Records, CREEP 03).

The title of the tape refers to the words sung by David Byrne on the outro of Robert Fripp's "Under Heavy Manners" (E'G Records – EGLP 105, released in 1980). David sings "I am resplendent in divergence!" three times and after that the song stops.

Frankly speaking, along with The Ex-Humans, the only Greek punk band of the 80's that deserved to "make it big" internationally (I am opening a can of worms here, I know!). Both bands were immensely powerful on stage, able to change drastically one's views on the scene overnight! I had the pleasure to see Gulag twice playing live, and the privilege to be once on the sound desk (back in 1990) and I was blown to hell! This was a very tight band and dead serious about it. They all come from Northern Greece and the vocalist's somewhat heavy accent adds an emotional touch to the blasting effect. Too bad their studio recordings never truly captured their power.

I don’t know if he had that intention when writing it, but Masa’s “End Time Traveling 2013” sums it all up very clearly!
The all-evident samples of his (along with Ray Castle) “Time Traveler Of Trance” from 1995 is all that’s left from the “glorious days” of psychedelic goa trance back in the mid ’90s. The rest is a hard techno line, reminiscent of the hard acid tracks that preceded the “goa” years and simultaneously a very fine example of the psy-techno genre that followed. Even the title says it all: This is the end of traveling, the end of the mind-traveling melodic crescendos that changed many people’s lives, mine included. The end of this cycle.
We are now waiting for the next one…

Although it is not mentioned anywhere on the artwork, most (if not all) of these tracks were actually made exactly one year earlier, around the summer of 1996. I remember listening to the bulk of this album for the first time in September 1996, at a party where Max Lafranconi had the main set. The setting was in some Greek mountain, the weather was quite chilly for September, and noone of us was expecting such a blast!
Max's sets in the early years (James Monro's as well, albeit for different reasons) served as an indication to me as to where this style of music was heading. And the “I. F. O. sound” definitely marks a turn towards a heavier, “bigger than life” trance, which was to become the dominant style in the years that followed. The melodies are still here, thank God!, but the density of the sound leaves no room to wander around anymore, you either get yourself hooked, or sooner or later you're out for a much-needed break. For trance purists this may not be a problem; but for music fans like me who'd like to think they are aware of the evolution of both “heavy” and “psychedelic” music through the decades (from the 1960's onwards) regardless of genres and styles, it's just history repeating itself. The way I see it, this “the heavier the merrier” and “bigger than life” approach, apart from always pushing the boundaries forward, also defines the turnpoint for going back.

After the first wonders, the pioneers, the love, the conflicts, the inspiration, the early 80's punk “globalization”, the emergence of hardcore and subsequent subgenres, the mayhem, the overwhelming experiences… the selling-out, the repetition, the boredom, the nonsense… at last, a breath of fresh air: The Insaints!!

When their one and only 7” was released (part of a 2x7” split single on MRR), it was a clear message to me that there were still people out there who enjoyed it, who knew how to do it, who kept the original message tight, for themselves and others. Being an aficionado of early 80's punk/hardcore, an old-timer, I will always consider them one of the last “new things” in a now long gone scene. Forever haunted by Marian's screams: “I am a whore!”…

KV 23 is one of my all-time best, a true standpoint of the era. The first time I listened to it was at an outdoor party in northern Greece in the summer of ’96. I sat there on the grass on a big opening amidst the high trees, completely stunned. Almost everyone around me stood still, in awe, so captured that it seemed impossible to dance. And then it struck me… for the first time in my life, me a Greek living in Greece, I realized deep down the true meaning of the “Dorian order”, conceived in early antiquity in the exact same lands. Strange, very strange that this had to come via three Englishmen (Tristan & Process, and James Monro DJing) some 2,500 years later! It was a lot later that I accidentally found out that the “KV #” pattern is used for numbering ancient Egyptian tombs.

So many tracks from back then have been heavily (and oh so arbitrarily) remixed, but this still remains untouched, as far as I know. Yet this is the only trance theme that ever made my musical imagination blossom.

Time stands still; time turns timeless. This is what psychedelic trance was all about: opening wide the doors of perception…