Goa Gil – Karmageddon

Avatar Records in Israel is back with a new compilation mixed by Goa Gil from San Francisco, USA. Goa Gil is some kind of guru who has been a dj in Goa, India since the seventies. In the beginning he played psychedelic rock etc. In the nineties he played melodic goa trance, and now he is only playing the so called darkpsy.

First out is a litle intro lasting for about 20 seconds. Here we get some meditating sounds, before track two starts stumping. This track is made by Goa Gil himself, together with his wife Ariane. They call themselves The Nommos, and released an album (Digitaria) on Avatar Records last year. Here we get a typical darkpsy track, with a rolling bass line and random, screaming, dark sounds thrown in above with a lot of echo effects. No melodies, just crazy madness all the way through. Track 3 is by a new artist called Dominator (Roman Dominator). This track was recorded in Mumbai, India. Here we get a lot of movie samples, and it sounds pretty scary. Very intense track with quite nagging sounds all the way. Almost a bit noisy, but we also get some floating vibes in between all the screaming. Track 4 is by Kindzadza (Lev Gresnilov) from Russia, who has become quite well known in the darkpsy scene. Here he gives us a dark, rolling track as usual. Totally intense, nagging sounds and no melodies. Something for those who wants to really work out at night. Bubbling of sounds. Track 5 is another rolling monster. This is by a new artist called Matutero (Alex Vazikis) from Greece. The sounds we get in this one are really crispy and the track sounds a bit more mystic.

Track 6 is by Ocelot (Aaron Peacock) from California, USA. He has released an album (Aural Sects) on Strange Attractor Records in 2002, which is a division of Ceiba Records. Here we get another intense track. Mostly noisy sounds and no melodies. Track 7 is by another new artist called Dylalien (Dylan Klarfield), also from California, USA. No rest here either. Intense, noisy madness from beginning to end. Some of these sounds are really far out and we get a couple of crazy voice samples. Track 8 is by Quasar from San Francisco, USA. This artist has previously released a couple of tracks on Doof Records. It continues the evil madness of dark, random sounds. The bass line sounds really flat as usual with this kind of darkpsy. Then we get a track from an artist from Tokyo in Japan, Savage Scream (Mizuki N.). He has previously released tracks on Trishula and Nabi Records. More intense sounds. Could have been nice with some melodies by now, but the dark evilness keeps pushing. Track ten is by a new duo from Russia called Freaking On The Path. This track is quite massive, and we get some jungle break beats above the heavy, rolling bass line. Nice bubbling sounds. One of the best tracks on this compilation in my opinion. The last track we get here is a little closing prayer from Goa Gil.

It seems like Goa Gil has a lot of contacts in the darkpsy scene these days, and dig out several new acts from the underground, which he mixes with some more known acts. I don’t like mixed Cds (because I want the entire tracks from beginning to end), but if you are looking for a new, fresh, mixed darkpsy CD, this might be worth checking out. And for those who doubts his mixing skills, the flow in this one doesn’t sound bad. But, I really miss more melodies in this kind of trance.

"CAUTION: Your Brain Is About To Melt" or maybe "Seatbelts Are Required On This Ride" would make a great subtitle for this.
MOST of the tracks have 4 straight bass notes per kick, resulting in a fast pulsating effect. It's pretty much UNRELENTING throughout the CD and almost pushing hardcore. Aside from the samples here and there, there really aren't too many breaks.
"I'll get you my pretty, and your little dog too!" is also sampled on "If I Only Had A Brain". Both samples of which (if you didn't get it by now) come from the movie "The Wizard Of OZ". The Wizard of OZ and goa...who knew.
This is the HARDEST goa mix i've heard to date. This is one of those peak time DJ sets that would make you say "Back off b*tch! That speaker is MINE!!!" at a rave. Psychedelica with so many colors, Picasso wouldn't know what to do. Out of all his CD's, this one is DEFINITELY my favorite.

Don't expect master dj skills showcase from old trance guru Goa Gil meanwhile be sure his track selection rocks: only pure dark psytrance without compromises with high bpm, the artists name are relativly underground from the mass.

The Nommos is the dark project of Goa Gil & his wife Ariane.
Savage Scream is a japanese artist formerly part of Bug Funk (you can find some of his solo or in group productions on Nabi rec).

Climax of Karmageddon:
Kindzadza (the nicest dark energy atmosphere),
Ocelot(Bigbamboom! deserves its calling),
Dylalien (for the weird catoonish sample 'If i only had a brain' which fits perfectly with the silly spirit of the tune)

All the rest is quite nice especially The nommos & Freakin on the path, i'm less fan of Savage Scream & Quasar.

All in all a compilation to check if you're in darkpsy as the mixing doesn't reduce too much each track (the Matutero's one reaches over the 11"00 for example), 7/10.