Tamlin – Spectrogram

One of the best psychedelic trance albums of all time.

One of the most interesting things about this producer, is that when i met him he had not much knowledge about psy as a genre, he was at the time (before this album was released) with a basic knowledge of goatrance and some psytrance.

That seemed to be a good thing judging by the outcome of his original work, he has produced a lot more and most of his tunes are really psychedelic experimental but danceable as the best. This is the kind of music that gets me caleidoscopic views.

Is a shame that the mediocre get away with 100 albums and the really good producers rarely get a release, we NEED more from him and others who really push boundaries in this genre of music.

Interesting album, a bit of the old school vibe here, which is of course good. I have huge reserves for anything that comes out in 2000's, but this is a pleasant surprise. Fine combination of psychedelic sounds and good melodies, some wicked fast tracks as well. The favorites are 1, 2, 6, 7 and 10. Worth checking out for fellow old schoolers.

Wow... I mean... WOW!

This is nothing but a true psychedelic masterpiece. Far from just about any psytrance-cliché you can come up with, Tamlin made something incredibly unique with this album. Just look at the BPM-list above, it ranges from 128 to 173.5 bpms, and you can hear influences from practically anything from EDM-history, all filtered into Tamlins magical and extremely colourful analog sound.

The ambient intro of #2 oozes old-school ambient trance á la Fax or Rising High, and the banging outro has kind of a gabber-feel to it, although you can hear that Tamlin is more of a psilonaut, rather than a speed-head. Think of Jake Stephensons most colourful moments as Shamanic Tribes on Acid, but a bit more complex and somewhat more "intelligent", rather than just freaked out. Also #9 has a mid-90's happy hardcore/gabber-vibe. It might sound ridiculous for some, but it ain't, it's just really beautiful and original trance-music.

Track #6 is also worth a mention. It's an über-melodic epic which also sounds like something you could have heard on an open-air rave 12-15 years ago. But I do NOT mean a psychedelic rave, but more like the kind of super euphoric mdma-fueled epic progressive house/trance-parties where guys like Nick Warren, BT, Marc Mitchell, Dave Seaman or John Digweed were treated like underground gods around '97. Especially BT's best moments come to mind. This might also sound weird for some psytrancers, but for me it's kind of like a dream coming true combining super-psychedelic analog sounds with the structure and euphoric melodies of the prog-house scene from 94-98. This song has given me goosebumps countless times.

And the rest of the tracks? Just as good as the others, trust me.
The only flaws are 1: the bpm's, the first track is IMO too slow and a few others are too fast. I do enjoy them as they are, but it decreases the chances to hear them in a dj-set.
And flaw number 2: the mastering could have been a lot better. Ok, maybe not the mastering, since it's done by the tim schuldt - THE master of mastering. But sometimes it just sounds a bit messy, like there's a filter above everything..

But all in all I would actually consider this album to be one of my favourite psytrance-albums for the last couple of years. I have listened to it so many times now, and it always captures me deeply. A perfect 5/5!