Scann-Tec – Morpheus | Live Nuit Hypnotique #4

Nice! Ultimae Records does it again! Scann-Tec, best known for his very good full length release "Facial Memories," released on Celestial Dragon Records (another very fine label) looks to be an excellent addition to the already hallowed Ultimae pantheon of artists with his gorgeous and seriously chilled downtempo psy-trance stylings.

I'm normally not a fan of live recordings of this style of music, but Ultimae has been changing my outlook on that with their "Live Nuit Hypnotique #4" series and the live release by H.U.V.A. Network. This album is the best of the three (so far?) "Live Nuit Hypnotique #4" releases, and I think I like it even better than "Facial Memories." This albums begs for a new studio release from Scann-Tec.

So what's the great and good about this album? Some really beautiful music in the style noted above. If you're a fan of the Ultimae label or Altar Records, I think there's a very good chance you'll really enjoy this album.

This release is full of sublime, positively *icy* melodies, pads, and soundscapes. Give my second favorite track, #7, "Space Police" a listen. Wow! Hear those arctic, shimmering melodies and glacial sounds with the slick beats layered underneath? This is pretty astute work.

Other highlights include: My favorite track, #10, "White Sun." WIthin the first minute starts a pretty intense undulating melody and vocal piece. This melody is the kind you can see when you close your eyes, it radiates outwards in concentric circles to me. Then the beat kicks in halfway through the second minute, but you've still got that sweet melody. Then at the third minute, another shivery melody kicks in, and by three and a half minutes, a new, heavier beats starts. By minute four you've got another slow, languid, dreamy melody coming in on top of the first, undulating one. Okay. This is pretty damn good. This is my pick-to-click track of the album. At the end the vaguely tribal sounding vocal piece kicks in again and the only thing fades into a gentle murmur. Is that a sitar at the end? Birds crying. There's a lot happening here. Great track.

But what else? Track 9, "Esher" has a dense, crunchy current to it with some really spacey sounds out there - considering it's only 2:28 long it's really good. Oooooh, I like that melody that kicks in at 1:20. I wonder how better this could've been had it been developed into an even longer track?

I'm not a huge fan of the voice samples that start off "Inside," but does this song progress sweetly, with a discordant melody running through at first, and then a vocal build-up and subsequent descent of the icy melody of a tinkling piano. Nice.

One of my favorite tracks off of "Facial Memories," Track #4, "Hello Human" starts out H.U.V.A. Network-like but then changes things up with soothing female vocal bits and a funky psy ending.

So, is there anything not awesome about this release? Well, by comparison, the first three tracks are underwhelming. Otherwise, no, I rate this a 5/5.

If you're sampling the album, I recommend you give tracks 10, 7, 5, 6, and 9 a listen, prioritizing them in that order.

So far this is one of my favorite releases of 2013.