Galaxy – Angel

The best album Boris ever did. Electric Universe and Paradise Connection albums are lower tier goa in my opinion. All those tracks have pretty basic use of scales and the textures in the mix aren't really well varied or stratified. This is way more impressive. A much more diverse palette of textures and knowing how to place them. Love the use of 808 drums in here and all the new age touches woven into a spacey feel. Pushes the spacey shiny chillout vibes to the max without being too overly schmaltzy. The following Galaxy albums are okay but don't feel as organically inspired as this. Cheap CD, buy it, check it out.

This is mellow ambient Goa, not as upbeat as the music Boris Blenn put out under his Electric Universe moniker. Superb production skills are on display in this deeply soothing album. Somehow Blenn has managed to maintain the quality of his output more or less intact across several trancey genres - an impressive achievement. Highly recommended. ~*~

This is a wonderful album of melodic ambient techno and downtempo, also crossing paths with electro and drum n bass along the way. Most of the tracks segue effortlessly into one another, creating a fluent hour-long experience. Definitely do not expect to hear trance of any sort, though, regardless of Blenn's goa efforts -- that's not the point here. I'd call it an homage to the glory days of ambient techno, especially 1993/1994; it's incredibly well done, with each track being a stand-out. It's well paced, too, with a good mix of upbeat and downtempo tunes to keep the mood varied. It makes perfect background music, but its finely produced layers also reward a closer listen.

Boris Blenn produced good goa trance music in 1995 (and a few good downtempo tracks amidst it; see "Paradise Connection" and "One Love") but then it all started to slide downhill. This CD is no exception. I'm not sure why everyone rates this so highly: it's too cheery and empty sounding; it lacks depth and substance. It is not good music at all, but rather annoying and superficial. In case you are wondering, his goa trance from the same time is about as lacking in depth and easy sounding, though he still managed to make a few memorable tracks on "Blue Planet".