Alien Project – Aztechno Dream

One of the turnpoint records where right turned to shite. It is one of the first to use the full-on standard formula that ruined many parts of the genre to me. Psychedelic became just "psy". If you like acid drenched Goa trance don't be fooled by the nice cover art work and give it a listen before you pay money for this.

Like Astrix, Ari Linker and his Alien Project is not concerned about cutting edge psychedelic ideas or compositional experimentation. Eyes are kept on the dancefloor and the goal is first and foremost to keep a groovy mood. Such approach stears clear of the challenges the psychedelic oriented psytrance artists are met with, but is compensated for by building a lot of expectations with the listeners; the musician(s) gotta deliver!

Where 2002 saw Astrix succeeded with bravour on Eye To Eye, Aztechno Dream is less consistent. Opening track Crystal Skulls, though, lives up to the requirements through and through. Packed with musical ideas for the floors and executed to perfection, Ari's got the dancefloor by the balls here. This actually even sounds like Eye to Eye less the breaks. On the remainder of the album Ari's grip is more on and off. Not that he fails miserably in any sense. Far from, but there are a couple of times during the album where the thought has time to formulate itself in my mind; this actually isn't THAT full-on, is it? Hey, don't blame me! Even if Ari comes back and saves the day with a massive dance lead, like in Silent Running at 5:50, the impatience did sneak up. If you want to entertain full-on style, you gotta deliver ...

Still, tracks 1, 4, 5, 6, and 8 all more or less delivers the promised goods, and with 5/9 tracks safely in the bag fans of full-on should have themselves a highly recommended purchase here. And for the rest of us this should still provide a safe purchase. At least when you're in the mood, what AD may lack in experimental value, it sure does its best to compensate for in some full-on dance monsters.

One of my new "all-time" favorite albums, Alien Project really gives us a nice piece of uptempo psytrance madness... Anyone who has ever heard one of their tracks before wil definately notice that Alien Project style of uplifting basslines combined with some sounds very typical to them. Just a great dancefloor filler, and a must have for any goa fan.