All Reviews 1107 total

Kickstarter-funded, Bandcamp pay-what-you-want sold, and from an artist that seems to have an effortless resonance with his audience over the social medias: you…

Many years ago (okay, in about 2006) the present reviewer had reached a certain brief echelon of fame within the scene and found himself connected on MSN Messen…

“It’s been a long time in the making.” “Why did they wait so long?” “Whyfor the terribly long silence?” Yes, reviews around here have been thin and slow (the o…

So, here we are then. Benji Vaughan ditches Prometheus and de-orbits Younger Brother for a solo album which, apparently, represents what he really wanted to rel…

It is, ladies and gentlemen, ten years since Ott released Blumenkraft, the album that carved a firmly independent niche for a firmly individual style of music.…

Museums of Consciousness is Shpongle’s fifth album, which by my reckoning makes theirs the longest trilogy in the history of music. It’s also one of the most hy…

Well lorks a lummy, as one might say, because it appears as though Tip are back again, or are they, with a new album, or is it, featuring a selection of “cherry…

I’ve been super-enjoying this, especially over the six weeks or so I’ve been sat on it while the label patiently waited for me to get my act together and review…

Fap, basically. It’s a super awesome welcome back to Interchill, a label I’m personally delighted has weathered the multiple storms of dwindling sales, mp3 str…

Well, what a jolly surprise this was. I had no idea there was even a recording of Etnica live from 1996 (although I was loosely aware of a bit of Brixton folklo…

I was a bit shocked to learn of this, OOOD’s fifth album, at such a late stage in the day. For the last two (or three?) albums, I was much more plugged-in to th…

Two things have changed in the time that Psyreviews has been on hiatus. One is that we’re back to a single-led musiconomy, similar to the days of the 12″, where…

French act OddWave is a new one on me, but then fair enough I’ve been living under a rock for the past five years, and extremely nice it was as well thanks very…

So, bloody hell then. It’s an actual review, of an actual thing released this year — released last month in fact, making yours truly giddy with the excitement o…

Delicious. Here’s a new album from the man who single-handedly did something with one hand to chilled psychedelia in 2003 with Blumenkraft, giving everyone some…

Coldplay return with their most phantastic and ambitious album yet. The British band have gained an increasingly largeish reputation on the international stage…

Funk? Crunk? Laughstep? Disco? Takingthepissco? All this and more can be found on this  solidly excellent yet also baffling album from  Australia’s Morning Mons…

Firstly, apologies for the huge lateness in reviewing this. I thought it’d been sent my way in about November last year, but according the psynews it appeared i…

Disastrously late once again with a review, here’s Hedonix with their first artist album from about six months ago. I know, I’m shit — I’m crap, useless, slow,…

I had the pleasure of meeting Seb and Natasha out of Kaya Project for the first time over new year’s, and what thoroughly nice people they are. Sadly, my blood/…

I was itching to get my teeth into this one. Total Eclipse now only comprises Steph, and for me the act was mostly all about Serge anyway, so this is like going…

While dub music is often viewed as the refuge of the permastoned, the sort of lighter and more intelligent, melodic dub/chill crossover can, when done right, be…

I’ve done a lot of ‘banging on’ about how the EP is the future over the last few months since psyreviews.net has been back online, yet every time I settle down…

Tasty. One half of Tegma (Omar, presumably not the one who recorded There’s Nothing Like This, but I prepare to stand corrected) has hit some sort of nail quite…

Firstly, a confession. I was sent this  by a source who I won’t name, through the Contact form on this site. The email that accompanied it (which was quite hil…

Sigh. As Save The Robot, Alien Project and Quadra have created some of the most exquisitely dire electronic music of recent years, culminating in an incredibly…

“Operatic comedy trancerock duo moves into iphone market” says one pundit…

Echoes is fast becoming one of my favourite labels, and bear in mind that speaking as someone who hasn’t really had such a thing as a favourite label since the…

I have to admit, I’m kind of surprised this doesn’t happen more often than it does: a party organisation makes its business in booking acts and arranging nights…

Numanoid vs Mazda open with Everybody’s Gotta Move Their Body, a track that’s only marginally more subtle than its title. The array of sounds is compelling, but…

As I keep saying lately, the digital EP is becoming the field-leader in the format wars — or perhaps more accurately, it will when we let it. The Control Zeds E…

Short EP, short review. Supernova is all about the crunch — the hefty bottomend with deftly-produced pepperings across the top. It’s tight, and it’s here to do…

I’m guessing that pretty much everyone is aware of Bluetech. As careers go, his has been an interesting one to watch: evolving every-further from the early psyc…

Solid Snake is a new side-project from Omar out of Tegma, and with a forthcoming album on the way it’s naturally time to kick out an EP sampler for the world to…

We have discussed previously some of the reasons why moving away from an album-lead industry to one that places EPs at the forefront is a good thing. More choic…

Jean Borelli has been making music for a rather long time, and the longer he does it the weaker it gets. From appearances “right at the beginning” on Flying Rhi…

I first became aware of Kilowatts on his 2007 album Ground Force on Native State, and since then he’s become one to watch. Prolific artists are often prolific a…

I’m kind of interested in the idea of the Long Tail recently. It’s an idea put forth several years ago by Chris Anderson of Wired, and it’s been quite prophetic…

Riktam & Bansi kick off with No Fear, a decent enough tune to set the pace of things to come, but one that I can’t help feeling is a little bereft of soul, as t…

Cosmosis is something of a contentious subject round these parts. He has always made music that touches a little deeper than most; his high-watermark Synergy is…

Take two artists who used to be good, add ten years and you are left with Alien vs The Cat. Leave Alien vs The Cat in a studio, withholding pornography and veg…

As new distribution models and whatnot go, Freeform Human are so ahead of the curve that they’ve radio’d us and warned us about road conditions ahead. Or someth…

I get sent a lot of shit from Israeli promotions company Electro Public, and from what I hear an awful lot of other people do as well. Generally folks have diff…

What funny times we live in, eh readers? Reader’s Voice: Eh? Well, remember only a couple of years ago the thought of paying for an mp3 file was just… well, r…

Terrafractyl, Principles of Flight, Abakus, Jocid So I’m not supposed to be reviewing stuff that’s already been released; psyreviews is supposed to be forward-…

Always putting “good music” ahead of sticking into pigeon-holed genre boxes, Interchill are in a sense getting back to their dubby roots, yet opening up more an…

Psyreviews’ Gash-Up(TM) of the above is here. The decline of Phantasm records over the years has been more pronounced than that of TipWorld, and even BNE, howe…

One of the things that I love most about this digital revolution we’ve witnessed (reasonably) recently is the return to the EP or, as your Dad used to call it,…

Yawn. And sigh. Then fart. Then yawn again. What I love about Didrapest is the name. It always reminds me of Tobias Fuenke of Arrested Development, who create…

Fatali’s first full-length outing since 2006’s Dawn is something of a pleasant surprise. Eitan’s production – smoother and glassier than ever – has excelled f…

Sangeet’s last album Fragile Noize, on Transient, was so bad that psyreviews didn’t even review it. And given that this was 2006, the same year as Total Anarchy…

I love Mushy Records. They’re the most clueless bunch this scene has encountered, releasing consistently below-par music with dreadful cover art and perplexingl…

We lamented in 2006 that Vibe Tribe’s last album Wise Cracks “takes all of one minute and fifty seconds before we are submitted to a nasty chord change.” The…

If you write, or are thinking about writing, progressive trance then this is an essential milestone in what not to do There’s something a bit fishy going on he…

I’m sure I’m not alone in my abject love of Timecode, a label who have never so much as contemplated swerving from the style they do best. Future Cuts maintains…

At a time when progressive releases in any given month outnumber grains of sand on any given beach, and when the majority of the style’s DJs are switching to di…

Puzzlingly diverse album thrusts reviewer into miserable philosophical quandry As you probably know, I’m not an artist. I don’t write music. Thank God, I hear…

On the back of Bush Food, I think it’s fair to say that Zenon have forged such a strong sound for themselves over the last few years that they’ve become very go…

There you are, sitting comfortably looking back at the year’s releases and thinking you’ve pretty much got a handle on the year in review. Then, quite without w…

It takes precisely fourteen seconds to fall head over heels in love with this album. That’s how long the intro to opening track Peachy Beach Bitchez takes to op…

When Melbourne duo Mantrix announced a few months back that their project was coming to a close, it was simultaneously sad and controversial. Representing the i…

Parvati are a bit like a pet dog. Faithful, reliable – they’ll always deliver the goods and quite often they’ll deliver them exactly when and where you want the…

It’s often said that you know what you’re getting with Ultimae. France’s premier ambient and chill label has maintained a rock-steady quality barometer and they…

If Hujaboy’s move over to TipWorld for last year’s missable Party Animals seemed a little premature at the time, it seems to make perfect sense now. This is en…

Melbourne’s Decoy have nailed it with this their second artist album. While I found last year’s Not Responding To Light somewhat removed and uninvolved, Push Bu…

Have you been disillusioned with progressive trance this year? Fed up of prog-u-like derivativity? Are you losing your hair? Erection Problems? Is your house i…

Delightfully wobbly stuff here from Antiscarp, the sort of music that gives you the vague impression that you’re drunk and on ketamine while trying to walk the…

Dreadlock Tales are a dub/reggae collective from Finland, and SunchroniCity is an album that’s loosely got something to do with Mayan somethings, or something.…

I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by this. To say this is “Etnica remixes” doesn’t really go far enough; and at a time when limp recent releases have mad…

Chill Tribe’s manifesto seems to be changing. They’re morphing into a label that’s plucking old underground talent and pushing them forward into the newskool; a…

I have to admit that when I first heard about this 3-CD package I thought it was a little untimely. Retrospectives are normally reserved for a posthumous releas…

Stevie Wonder was just 21 when Music Of My Mind was released. And (with the exception of one guitar solo and a bit of trombone) he played every single instrumen…

Now this is what I call playing it safe. With a title that instantly reminded me of that turgid mid-90’s angsty teen TV series My So-Called Life, I was hoping t…

Mighty Fat Records are one of the best kept secrets around at the moment. From their outset, their manifesto was to add some cerebral qualities to downtempo mus…

If you’ve caught Interchill’s recent releases, you’ll know they’re about as far away from the hammock-n-chillum, Shpongle-lite, Buddha Bar chillout as you can g…

A new Eat Static album is a bit of a big deal in anyone’s language. But while I love them as an act, I can’t help thinking that this album screams the words “mi…

I was pleasantly surprised by this release. The idea of God battling Satan is, depending on your cultural bent, either something of epic and massively violent p…

Strong, ballsy stuff that straddles the middle ground between oldstyle Wizzy Noise and the more recent Boshke Beats kinda sound. In other words, this is tecchy…

No matter which rock you may have been hiding under this year, chances are you’ll have heard all about this release. And for once the hype is more than deserved…

Challenging, original, thoughtful and — blow me down with a feather — actually FUN Woe betide this one slipping under your radar, as it’s one of the more chall…

Somehow, Logic Bomb have played their careers bloody well. How anyone can still be a top-drawer psytrance act with a uniformly high level of respectability afte…

Aside from all the overhyped top-drawer releases, there are releases known as sleepers. Somewhere in between is Pulsar, an album that might have slipped under y…

The first thing that smacks you about this release is that they don’t make them like this any more. The second thing you realise is that apart from Gus Till, no…

Regular readers will know that Psyreviews is, for the most part, becoming increasingly disillusioned with the majority of identikit after-lunch progressive tran…

I bloody love this. This album has been like a close friend for the last month or so. I was back in Europe for a bit visiting family and friends, and I hardly t…

About as nice a slab of chunky, groovy outdoor progressive as you could hope for. Cloud Catcher is the name given to the remains of a 20 million year-old volcan…

Tribal Vision need no introduction. You thought I was going to give them an introduction anyway, didn’t you? Hah. The Lime Light series of compilations doesn’t…

Most albums that pass through the psyreviews sphincter of taste get played five times if they’re lucky. Direct Influence I’ve been listening to solidly for thre…

Proper, how’s-ya-father, aggressive nastiness here. If you’re miffed that Azax Syndrom has become a bit of a pussy, if you don’t fall for Void’s mock-cock-aggre…

This is the first I’ve heard from Onyx since 2003’s Direct Out, which was released on what was then his own label, Bionics. Groove on, as an artist album, is pr…

Thank god for this. The number of times we’ve talked about freestyle psy albums that suffer from not being quite freestyle enough – albums where 4-4 rigidity st…

This, ladies and gents, is seriously out there. The press release reads “Pete Pan has hand selected a group of MAYANASA transmissions from some of the earth’s t…

Echo Ghetto from Earthling, Mekkanikka and Chromatone gets things kicking off nicely. It’s funky, it’s fluid, and the sounds develop by themselves without being…

Pay attention. What Space Boogie are doing could prove to be the most important thing to happen to psychedelic trance this year. Their first release, Funland Bo…

Right. I’m sure we all know the manifesto behind this one: Cosmosis decided to make an album that was more melody-driven, borne from his observations as to what…

I must admit to being quietly impressed by the bulk of this album. I’ve never really got on with Etic so well, but suddenly what he’s doing sounds sort of relev…

Very special, in pockets The second release from India’s Dada Music is every bit as impressive its first – the utterly gorgeous chill album from Sattyananda. K…

It is 1957. Miles Davis releases Birth Of The Cool. Nobody has ever heard anything like it, and nobody is ever going to hear anything like it again. The world i…

If only all retrospective/reissues were as good as this one. Timecode haven’t just released a “best of” covering their output, they’re had tracks reworked and r…

Charmingly, innocently dreadful I love Mushy Records. Not because they’re brilliant, or because they send me a load of free party-enhancers. It’s because their…

A pretty heavyweight proposal here: Ashtech is a reggae bassist who works with Gaudi and roots MC Cheshire Cat, instantly recognisable from Leftfield’s Chant Of…

I’ve tried with this one a lot, but I can’t help but find it completely underwhelming. One of the problems is that there’s a hell of a lot of it – a doublepack…

You must have heard of this one. The hype and the anticipation combined to make Left Behind a sort of thundering juggernaut, rumbling along the highway like the…

This album is nothing short of mesmerising. Evan Marc is otherwise known as Bluetech, and if you caught the evolution of his sound from his debut album to 2005’…

Protonica is a duo from Berlin, and this album is described as “Progressive Trance”. Which it isn’t. Well, not really. Opening track Planet Gaia is progressive…

The latest instalment in the series of prog compilations largely responsible for making the genre as big as it is today is also one of the best. Ex-Spiral Trax…

I really didn’t know what to expect from this: any act releasing two albums in two years is pushing it, and given that last year’s Archipelago was such a ruddy…

The standard psyreviews moans about progressive music are that it’s dull, that it’s one-handed melodies, that it’s generic and derivative. Every single one of t…

I can’t put my finger on quite what’s happening, but Interchill are on this brilliant mission at the moment. After setting the standard in what makes a good chi…

Psyreviews’ standard observation about this whole freestyle / suomi subgenre is that, a lot of the time, it’s too weird for its own good. Too emphatic on the po…

I’m going to paraphrase, for a moment, Mr Darcy in Pride And Prejudice: “If this is indeed what living in Bali sounds like, then I really rather think I should…

The UK’s Error Corrective have made a massive name for themselves on home soil, and had already started to penetrate the rest of the world before the emergence…

I know I’m a little late on this one. It’s been out for a while but it’s a new one on me, and by Christ is it nice. The vibe, as we’d expect from Sundance (the…

One thing to make clear about one of my most listened-to albums of the year is that it has absolutely nothing to do with psytrance. It’s ambient (sort of – more…

Being honest is good, so I’m going to be honest. British DJ Tom Lurk, who compiled this album, is a good mate of mine. A very good mate of mine, in fact: I’ve k…

I’ve been quite derisory of progressive music in recent months; it comes as a surprise then to find something as focused and enjoyable as this, but I’m not comp…

The fourth in the Vibraspirit series is a long way off the groundbreaking, multilayered kaleidoscopism that the first release personified. Hang on, was that jus…

This is really, really bad. Obsessive Dream is available as a free download, and while this legitimizes and guarantees its appearance on the global hard-drive,…

Yeah, so this is better than I thought it’d be. The first Beat Hackers album didn’t please me in the slightest, and I don’t recall being specifically impressed…

I’ve been holding off reviewing this one, for two reasons. One is that people seem to be very divided as to whether they like it or they don’t, and why agitate…

Once again, we find ourselves staring down the barrel of the BNE hype machine. The release notes say that these guys “have been eating, breathing and sleeping…

With Tribal Vision’s first releases, their sound was bold, beautiful, confident and refreshing. And one of the most promising artists on those early releases wa…

I must admit to being slightly confused at fresh downtempo Chillosophy releasing something with beats. Once I got the hang of it though, it started to make sen…

You might like this, but will you notice it? That’s the question A cursory glance over the tracklist doesn’t really suggest anything exciting on this debut rel…

Compiled by Space Buddha, and sounding very much like you’d expect: no foreplay, just straight into the down and dirty. Wizzy Noise do pretty well with Origami…

Once again Psymag meet Yellow Sunshine Explosion in the middle, with a satisfying collection of already-released psytrance. Except this one doesn’t have GOA on…

Back before Skazi, before Eskimo, even before 1200 Mics, we as a community still had to fling shit at someone. Ari Linker was that someone. Rewind: Alien Projec…

I’m not sure how many times over the years I’ve said that something is “psytrance the way it should be.” I’d wager I’ve not said it too many times in the last f…

An early contender for album of the year. There, that got your attention didn’t it? While Europe is obsessed with big names, and the psy world is (to a greater…

Wonderful and hilarious, simultaneously. This is Deedrah: yes, Deedrah as in Reload, as in Transwave, as in GBU. Federico Baltimore is his alter-ego, the bastar…

True psychedelia should be visionary. Hold your horses, because I’m not about to compare Melbourne’s Dustin Sallfield to William Blake just yet. My point is t…

Tristan is one of my favourite producers ever. The very start of Audiodrome still does things to me that hardly any other music does – and with Substance, you’v…

Coming at a time where psytrance is sounding good again, I was looking forward to this. The standard Turbotrance roster gets mastered to glossy perfection by Ch…

I have to confess that this one took a bit of getting used to. It seems like there’s a plethora of labels out there who have got very good in sounding like Inte…

There’s been an increasing number of trance-flavoured DVD’s released lately, but this is in a class of its own. Instead of focusing on a particular festival, or…

A very impressive lineup here, but it doesn’t really deliver. The roster includes heaps of names you’ve heard of, and even the ones you haven’t are important: K…

This is probably best described as nighttime trance that picks up melodies and ravey bits as the tracks go on. It’s not great. The guitar on Sauce Commander is…

Welp, this is certainly the goods. Sattel Battle’s sound is frenetic, pacey, mayhem-trance with more disparate influences than I can even begin to count. There…

The first release in some time from Iboga’s chilled sublabel, and what a weird one it is. It’s vaguely world-y ethno chill, every bit as orientalist as that gen…

I don’t think it’s just me who’s found the South African sound to be a tad less engaging recently. Where in previous times you could rely on those chaps to deli…

The eurotrance crossover has never felt so disarmingly real as it does here. Trancelucent are, without doubt, a major label and one who have carved their own s…

For the most part, this is fairly bog-standard, play-it-safe progressive. The sort you can DJ nice and easily, with mixes that last about three minutes, or unti…

The marriage of styles here is intriguing. Cyberdog, the Camden-based wankfest of a clothes shop has tied up with a staggeringly suitable label for a staggering…

Some bloody decent, chunky stuff here. Hadra’s previous stuff had all been a bit manic for me, but with this release they’ve taken a couple of steps back – and…

Utterly brilliant. Space Boogie Productions are a new label from Finland, adding respect and clout to the renegade underground mindset of the Suomi scene. Kiwa…

Parvati is one label that you know will never release a track by D-Nox and Beckers. If you take a top-down view of the last three years, few labels will demons…

Long-serving web-only label Antiscarp has finally made the transition to physical media with the wonderfully-named Speaker Grease. The creamiest Suomi sound wil…

ESKIMO yells the front cover, in capitals. X-NOIZE, it continues. OFORIA, TIMELOCK. All ten artists concerned are sprawled over the front cover; I’m not sure w…

Something about this sounds, for the most part, quite limp. Roman Rai does well with Disco On The Mothership, Duca’s Dirty Mind is positively sublime, and Jaia…

A more bona-fide journey across one artist album I don’t think I have ever found. Vishnudata’s music has this incredibly organic quality: analogue lines split…

Wonderful stuff. Nighttime with a sense of humour, and a sound that I’ve been unwittingly looking for. Mind My Nipples is wonderful, blistering stuff with samp…

Didgeridoo played over boring trance. That’s it basically – this is a Sydney duo composed of Mike Edwards (a fantastic didge player) and Nick West (a less-than-…

You are probably expecting the psyreviews take on the new Infected to be full of bile, and to mention the word “shit” seventeen times. In truth, that’s what I w…

Interesting one this: think leftfield, freestyle trance wearing progressive shoes, and you’re pretty much there. Klosterfunk is a beautiful bit of music to get…

Golly gosh. Sound Field is one of a series of projects from Andy Yakovlev who’s the brains behind Prosect, Sonify, and ICO; and he’s also proof positive that Is…

The idea of DVD video as a medium where trance gets presented is maturing – albeit slowly. Full Moon 2006 is a polished production, as you might expect with the…

Look at the cover again, please. Then check your calendar. You will see that although things look decidedly pre-1999, we’re actually in 2007. It’s a cheeky opt…

Chillcode’s reputation and success goes a long way. Quietly, and with style, their downtempo output has been consistent lately, but Light Aromas falls down on a…

Horizontal. This is very fucking horizontal music. Proper dub. Not psy-dub. Dub. Big dub. Dub so strong it makes Planet Dog sound like Planet S-Club. Very sto…

10 PRINT “CRAP” 20 GOTO 10 “Theory Of Hype” is actually fairly apt as names go; the publicity machine of the world’s biggest label group was in overdrive on t…

So bad it’s good. But still bad I know psyreviews disses a lot of releases, and this is one of the reasons why you love psyreviews. But seriously, no matter ho…

A veritable graduate of the old skool, Tsuyoshi has produced some awesome work over the years. His Joujouka outfit did pretty well – Re-Psycle Frequency being t…

Sensient’s third album sees him reach a musical maturity that I’d not anticipated. His scratchy, low-set sound has got bigger for this album – by a factor of te…

The best single word to describe this one: solid. Product Placement’s Menacing Vibrations has an awesome, fat sound to it. It’s simply huge; pitched somewhere…

This may well have slipped under the radar, and it’s good reason to get a bit excited. Chillosophy is the new chillout sub-label from Son Kite’s MPDQX/Digital S…

A lot of the progressive to have landed at Psyreviews Towers lately has been so dull, writing about it is about as exciting as writing about Post-Industrial Rev…

I can’t think of a label that’s more confidently accomplished and consistently high-quality than Ultimae, downtempo or otherwise. This, their 20th release, is j…

The one problem with this is that there has never been a stereo or soundsystem invented that goes loud enough. Psyreviews’ predictions for 2007 included a stat…

Okay, so this isn’t psytrance, it isn’t psy-ambient, it’s not shanti, and it’s not even got a single kick drum. And this might be the reason you need it. Melbo…

It’s a little-known – and, let’s be honest, largely insignificant – fact that without OOOD, there would be no psyreviews. Their Kundalini is THE track that kept…

Thank fuck for this, basically. I’m not really sure I can say much about it because it’s not often I’m confronted with an album that speaks for itself so lucidl…

A load of shit. Cheesy breakdowns, cringemaking melodies, shit lines, thin production. Fuck. It’s the sort of trance you want to hit as soon as you see it, a…

I have to admit I wasn’t all that crazily looking forward to this release. Sure Transwave were good, but that was a long time ago, and it never struck me as jus…

Fucking solid, basically. The original mix sounds like heavyduty factory machinery getting together for a rave eight miles below the surface of the earth. It’s…

Tribeadelic’s latest compilation is also its best. Released at a time where the sheer dearth of fullon releases means that hardly anything gets any kind of expo…

This is how it should be done. The A is at the housier, sunnier end of electro with one hell of a central riff, some chicks warbling, and production that’s fatt…

Apologies to anyone freezing their shanti’s off  in Europe at the moment, but here in Australia it is HOT. The kind of hot that follows you around and won’t let…

Released squarely on the heels of the Edge compilation, Slug’s artist album is a fucking delight. The comp had some duff moments but Elemental is, on the other…

To start off, let’s get one thing straight – if you’re expecting the sort of cerebral, kaleidoscope-fuck-yeah sort of trance that Twisted have made famous, then…

You are probably aware that brainless fullon doesn’t really float the psyreviews boat much. And in fact, I was looking forward to ripping into this album with t…

South African trance used to be shitscary, scratchy stuff that was a pain to listen to. Then the majority of psytrance became scaryshit, shit stuff that was a p…

Wizzy Noise are a funny act. I want to love them; heaven knows I used to. Cybermancy was nasty, Cyclotron was Blade Runner, Elecktro Theater was genius. Then St…

A very hot property this. Psy-heads may not know this chap by name, but chances are he’s sitting in your CD collection already; he’s worked with Genetic, Eat St…

A hugely trumpeted release, Changing Frames is in no way as significant as the press hyperbole has claimed. BNE’s biggest stab to date at progressive is, in fac…

Every criticism levied at this week’s other prog reviews apply in no sense or shape to this wonderful album. Fitalic is an utter geezer – I just wish he chose a…

I sort of suspect, here, that the emperor wears no clothes. Liquid Soul has perfected that laid-back, laconic prog – no argument there. But Synthetic Vibes soun…

I must confess to being a bit of a fan of this. Mighty Fat have been rather quiet since their excellent debut comp Mellowgrounds, and while this album isn’t qui…

When Melicia’s debut album Running Out Of Time dropped back in 2003, I was amazed. The production was so up-there, that it was a challenge to find anything to m…

What is Sesto Sento? No, seriously. What is Sesto Sento? I don’t mean who they are (three blokes), where they’re from (it would have to be Israel), or what they…

With their second release, Chill Tribe have succeeded in cementing a solid reputation for high-quality chillout with a star-studded release. Altitudes – Blue P…

The gushing press release accompanying this album asserts that if you look up “journey” in the dictionary, you’ll see this CD. Oddly enough, it’s not in my dict…

Weird one, this. And according to the label’s website, this “new style” of music is called ‘Psycore’. On the face of it, it’s some sort of hybrid darkpsy/eurotr…

Australia’s Dada Stream are an absolute gem of a label. They sent me one of the final copies of the Scozbor album last year, after which psyreviews’ inbox was i…

Aggressively lo-fi madacidic music you can either use to transcend space and time, or to lose all sense of self and physicality halfway up a tree in the middle…

Crikey. Okay, let’s recap: Gi’iwa made a huge impact with their debut compilation Schizm, al album voted best of 2004 by isratrance users. Admittedly most of t…

Quite a significant album this, and one that’s pretty highly deserving of your attention, money, and respect. This is the best thing HomHom-Mega have put their…

Yes. Fantastic. Firstly, Artifakt has still got it. Moreover, Artifakt has got it like he never had it before: the sounds, textures, escalation and release of…

There’s something refreshingly comfortable about this album. Space Buddha is no spring chicken; this is his sixth album in as many years. It would be misleading…

There’s something a bit special about this album; this is the reason it’s taken me so bloody long to review it. Fact is, it went straight in my case logic to th…

Bloody hell. One half of Megalopsy (whose album last year is still, in the humble mumble of this reviewer, the high-watermark of the dark psy genre) teams up wi…

Wild Things are a feral bunch. From the depths of the London underground scene (that’s parties by the way, as opposed to Oyster cards and mind the gap) has over…

You can’t help but notice the apparent drying-up of chill releases this year. Recent years have seen a weighty crop, but in 2006 you have to dig a bit deeper wh…

My guess is that before you even decided to read this review, you already made your mind up about this guy. Skazi is single-handedly the biggest star that this…

Entropy’s second album has some great moments, but also some shortcomings. Regular readers will know that one of psyreviews’ pet hates at the moment is the way…

Do you like the whole Finnish manic stuff? The suomisaundshiznit? No, I’m not sure either. Some of it is wonderful, truly magnificent stuff that deviates and in…

You would be forgiven for thinking that I hate fullon music. Which may be the point, but not because it’s fullon: I hate it because it’s crap. But this album i…

Now and again something genuinely interesting comes this way, and here’s something that’s definitely worth a sniff. It’s not psytrance, but Kiki/Ill is an incar…

Koan is a new name to me, a Russian duo debuted last year with their web-only release Talking Stones and who have started to appear on downtempo compilations. T…

In the movie Snatch, when the black guys from the pawn shop rock up to the bookie’s to rob it, the shorthaired chick behind the counter repeats a mantra in ultr…

Imagine Kraftwerk collaborating with vintage Atmos – you’re halfway there. Reefer Decree was always one of those acts I respected, and recognised was good, but…

I must admit this was a bit of a breath of fresh air when it landed at psyreviews HQ recently. Well, when was the last time you heard a piece of quality psyched…

If the word “Helmet” makes you titter, then congratulations: you have a similarly pre-school sense of humour as I do, and that’s something we’re both going to n…

I must admit that until recently, I never paid much attention to visuals at parties. Maybe I was too involved in the key pastimes of drinking at the bar, or rec…

Blimey. This ain’t bad at all. Yes, again. Triac have everything that Wizzy Noise used to have. Where early-Wizzy was tech-trance with a hint of psychedelic, mi…

In all likelihood, there isn’t a sound system on the planet loud enough to do this justice. Alex Tolstey from Boshke Beats has compiled a gem here, that’ll nice…

Quoting the blurb, this album is “an exploration of that which lies just below the threshold of consciousness, where subject and object lose their distinction a…

From Cosmophilia’s ashes phoenixes a seemingly unscathed Hadshot, back on their mission to straddle the dirtier side of proghouse and electro with the second in…

London’s filthiest return with another instalment of frightmare music to satiate that post-Deviant Species part of your brain that eternally hankers after Baloj…

Tribal Vision have become pretty much everyone’s favourite progressive label, probably with Iboga in second place, with a moody catfight for third. Their first…

I don’t want to call this “Darkpsy” but it’s with respect to that particular subgenre that this album stands up best. Think of it as crunchy, quirky outdoor mus…

Parvati are an institution, and I don’t just mean that in the sense of a mental institution. Time after time they’ve come up with seriously good, seriously kic…

Fuck’s sake. Just look at the cover. Load of shit. 0 HERE IS THE COVER IN BIG IF YOU FANCY CRACKING ONE OFF AT 145BPM LOOK AT THAT THEY EVEN COPIED AND PASTE…

Weird one this. Pretty much everyone seems to be aware of it, and I’m buggered if I know why. Crap cover, maybe? Daft name? I’m really not sure, nor do I really…

Zirkin was one of the founding fathers of Doof records, a label who embraced the nighttime sound and made it their own. Their releases added new layers and text…

Doctor Echo is Justin DeHart from Sacramento, California and – it says here – is “considered one of the most prominent dub artists of the younger generation.” T…

It can’t be easy to be Freq. 2004’s Strange Attractors is, in many people’s eyes, THE progressive album. Along with Son Kite’s Colours, it opened the door to th…

Iboga are trend-bucklers. Not only are they enjoying tiptop sales as a natural result of developing the progressive sound that’s been dominant for the last year…

Grv Soldier is an impressive album coming out at an impressive time. Plusquam has survived the mayhem following Cosmophilia’s collapse, has outlived its parent…

A very tasty little limited edition here, available solely at the web shop at ultimate.com. (2012 edit: it’s now available almost everywhere, but still only dig…

Ultimae’s sound has been quietly evolving over the years, and Oxycanta represents something of a stylistic zenith. With their roots in psychedelic backrooms, Ul…

The followup to last year’s Set 5: Summer Collection has a lot to live up to. We thought we knew where we were with Sets 2 and 3, and then Set 4 showcased some…

Not great, this ‘un. Yotopia is an artist who I’ve never quite fallen in love with, and Blue Moon still doesn’t quite grab me. It’s solid stuff with great layer…

Chupa Chups at the ready, kids? Opening track Wise Cracks takes all of one minute and fifty seconds before we are subjected to a nasty chord change. We then get…

Debut’s don’t often come quite as strong as this. UK-based Jonathan Smith has come up with a belter here: intelligent, chic chillout that for once lives up to t…

What’s the difference between the first Space Tribe album and the latest Space Tribe album? I’ll tell you: it’s the barcode. That’s a joke, of sorts anyway, but…

The second in the series from Trishula’s dowmtempo alter-ego Ajana carries on in much the same vein. After a slow start things pick up with Chronos’ Sky Path, w…

I have to admit, I never thought we’d be reviewing another release on Transient on these hallowed pages: but here we are. Brought back from the Other Side by Gr…

Shit cover, shit album. But you knew that already. Dali may be the only person since Alien Project to stick their arse on the cover of one of their CD’s but she…

The long-awaited third album from French duo Entheogenic has been a long time coming: not counting last year’s Dialogue Of The Speakers remix and collaboration…

I love this. Don’t get me wrong: it’s shit. Pure, unmitigated shit without so much as a sliver of a suggestion of a saving grace. I love it because it’s got rap…

The third album from the wonderfully twisted Italian duo is a definite evolution from their previous releases, but not necessarily in the right direction. Doofy…

Thank holy fucking fuck for this. You slide the CD into your player, you sit back and before you manage to reach down to give your nuts a scratch – wallop, ther…

Released against the backdrop of gushing fanfare, Panick’s second album is, to be fair, streets ahead of his first, which psyreviews couldn’t quite see the attr…

Trailed by a release infosheet that quotes a genre of “Hard Dance/Full On” you would be under a misconception to expect even remotely psychedelic goings on with…

Being a bloody nice collection of Australian psytrance in its thank-god-its-not-space-tribe form. Syzmix’s Silicon Tears builds nicely into a striking midrange…

Released without much fanfare on the coat-tails of Protoculture’s disappointing Circadians, this is a gem if ever there was one. After a string of quiet compila…

I have to admit I really can’t see what the fuss is all about on this one. Tegma have always seemed to me to be competent producers, but I’ve never really “got”…

Basstardz may be delightfully-titled, but it’s not quite as manically dark as the name might suggest. Instead, there’s a pretty decent selection of intelligent,…

You. Need. This. Album. You may even want to buy it on vinyl as well as CD. Lucas has compiled and collaborated all over the place to create something which, in…

If you picked up the first Psymeditation, then my guess is you know what to expect. Deep chill that’s unashamedly shanti in its flavour: this is the sort of thi…

When I saw the cover on this one, I laughed milk out of my nose. Look at it. Look. What the fuck are those things? Cancer cells? Testicles? Testicular cancer ce…

1200 Micrograms Drugs, Music & Magic / Computers (Hujaboy remix) TipWorld (UK) Big. Yes, big. This is not the time to dissect whether 1200 Mics are valid con…

I’m a bit late on this one – as it was sent to my UK address while I was meanwhile on the other side of the planet. You may have heard this already, it may all…

I have to admit that when I heard Tip’s Infinite Excursions for the first time, I never thought chillout would have evolved into its own genre quite how it did.…

If you like your fullon psytrance chunky and colourful, then my guess is you’ll like this. Bliss’ sounds are sharp, crisp and well-rounded and, for the most par…

Disco Suns is one of the first opening tracks on an album in ages to get me genuinely excited. The intro sounds like it could be something from (bear with me) S…

Decoy Not Responding To Light Dance n Dust (Israel) An ambitious project – progressive trance with more live instruments than you can shake a Nord at. While…

I’ve only just become aware of this one but – in two words – bloody hell. Two more words: bloody HELL! Fluidly solid psychedelic trance, with depth and exciteme…

One of my favourite artists, on one of my favourite labels, with cover art and album & track titles so questionable that they must surely be taking the piss. In…

I’m hard-pressed to name a 2005 fullon CD that’s as tight and dynamic as this. I’ve had emails saying that psyreviews is biased against fullon, that any fullon…

It seems that Tip are putting quite a lot of weight behind Hujaboy; much talk of an “outstanding” album in the pipeline, and with the quality of the tracks on T…

And then every now and again, something comes along which makes you deliriously happy. 2001’s This Is Not In Fashion was a long time ago, and back then I rememb…

Lordy. Ex-Bigwig Grzegorz Magnuszewski, a name worth a bomb on a Scrabble board, has produced a blinder here. If you like Astrix and Infected Mushroom then, wel…

The first Kiwa I’ve heard since their track on Ultrapop, this 12” is a sheer delight and has be rabidly salivating from the waist down at the prospect of anothe…

Mantrix are a double-act from Melbourne, Australia who made their name through their live set, fusing organic and electronic sounds into a sound that’s more or…

Electro-convulsive music for the psychologically deranged – but falling short of the watermark for decent nighttime music, even by heavyweight label Parvati’s s…

Ibiza. White island, place of euphoric club trance, fit birds in bikinis, unprotected sex among low-income youths and cokeheads: or so we thought. It appears, h…

A very interesting release here from Nexus Media, Pitch Hikers being a new project from mental-mongers Shift and Slug. You would be forgiven for thinking that p…

Shulman’s third album is frustrating. While it shows how his sound has evolved and become more mature since his last album, there’s not enough new and interesti…

Sonic Cube is the latest project from the Sonnenvakuum duo Daniel and Ueli and, as progressive artist albums go, for the most part it’s a well-rounded and cohes…

Mexican artist Tron has caused quite a few waves already – and this looks set to further the cause. His music is deft, playful – it’s almost as though it’s slin…

Better than the “Shanti Mix” Sanctuary, Arcana sees Interchill shift its focus back to unmixed quality chillage, though not quite up to the highpoints that the…

U-Recken vs Nitro’s Forever Noma is along the lines of a more morning-friendly 3D Vision sound. It’s fluid, melodic in just about the right places, and has enou…

Via the boom in progressive over the last couple of years, a good many of us are starting to get pulled into the electro sound. And with high-octane psytrance a…

Featuring, according to the blurb, some of the artists who will be shaping the new sound of Tip New World next year. Hujaboy’s Psy Babby has a great tecchy fee…

Crikey. I’d heard this was good, but nothing quite prepared me for quite how good it actually is. Slow again on this review, as it was sent to my old address on…

More minimal techlectro, this time from new Munich label Rip n’Burn. Kicking off is Trentemoller’s Polar Shift, and it’s bloody tasty: scratchy, tetchy and disp…

Being probably the first ever compilation reviewed by yours truly, that’s been compiled by a French fashion designer. But “100% Jean Paul Goa-Tier Grooves” it a…

Last year’s Get The Lead Out showed that PsyBooty are a label whose mission statement actually adds up to something. The crossage-overage of the best elements o…

I know I’m slow on this one – it arrived at psyreviews’ UK lair too late to get reviewed before I changed bases, but it certainly has had a lot of play from me…

I must admit I had to bite my tongue on this one. Any album proffering neo-neo-neo-fullon trance under the guise of being a soundtrack to a trip generally gets…

The latest identikit but of semi-on comes courtesy of Audiotec, one of the lower-profile, more forgettable artists to have been spawned from the scrapings of At…

Dynamic Dynamic Sound Phonokol (Israel) Dynamic is an artist I’m always trying my hardest to be excited about. There’s so much there that should be good – he…

Ferbi Boys Twilight Zone Compack (Israel) I expected rather more from this. Sesto Sento’s side project has a great image – the idea of smashing up those litt…

Sometimes reviewers such as the present writer may get all enthusiastic and say, “great album! It’s going straight in my record box / Case Logic / Memory Stick…

Protoculture Circadians Nano (UK) After Refractions, where next? Well, judging by the various compilation tracks, it looked like Protoculture was heading tow…

Psyfactor Endless Universe Ajana (Germany) Endless Universe sees the normally-rather-angry chappy trying his hand at downtempo. Eyes Reflecting Universe and…

Patchuli! The Smell of Hippies! Sexy!!! The Smell of Sex. Lounge! The smell of your living room! Which, if you’re a hippy, probably smells of Patchuli, but prob…

So did you hear what I heard? That Infected Mushroom had eggs and tomatoesthrown at them at Soulclipse in Turkey. I'm assuming of course that these are just…

Being probably the first ever compilation reviewed by yours truly, that’s been compiled by a French fashion designer. But “100% Jean Paul Goa-Tier Grooves” it…

Crikey. I’d heard this was good, but nothing quite prepared me for quite how good it actually is. Slow again on this review, as it was sent to my old address…

Ibiza. White island, place of euphoric club trance, fit birds in bikinis, unprotected sex among low-income youths and cokeheads: or so we thought. It appears,…

I have to admit that when I heard Tip’s Infinite Excursions for the first time, I never thought chillout would have evolved into its own genre quite how it di…

This is dirtier than the contents of psyreviews’ secret dwarf porn folder. Taken from the forthcoming album Snog Vs The Faecal Juggernaut Of Mass Culture (rea…

I have, on occasion, said that I would never put brain-to-sequencer and attempt to make music because I’m not a musician. However, listening to this makes me…

Last year’s Get The Lead Out showed that PsyBooty are a label whose mission statement actually adds up to something. The crossage-overage of the best elements…

I must admit I had to bite my tongue on this one. Any album proffering neo-neo-neo-fullon trance under the guise of being a soundtrack to a trip generally get…

Sonic Cube is the latest project from the Sonnenvakuum duo Daniel and Ueli and, as progressive artist albums go, for the most part it’s a well-rounded and coh…

Shulman’s third album is frustrating. While it shows how his sound has evolved and become more mature since his last album, there’s not enough new and interes…

The first Kiwa I’ve heard since their track on Ultrapop, this 12” is a sheer delight and has be rabidly salivating from the waist down at the prospect of anot…

It seems that Tip are putting quite a lot of weight behind Hujaboy; much talk of an “outstanding” album in the pipeline, and with the quality of the tracks o…

I’ve only just become aware of this one but – in two words - bloody hell. Two more words: bloody HELL! Fluidly solid psychedelic trance, with depth and excite…

An ambitious project – progressive trance with more live instruments than you can shake a Nord at. While it’s an interesting idea, much of Not Responding To L…

Via the boom in progressive over the last couple of years, a good many of us are starting to get pulled into the electro sound. And with high-octane psytranc…

More minimal techlectro, this time from new Munich label Rip n’Burn. Kicking off is Trentemoller’s Polar Shift, and it’s bloody tasty: scratchy, tetchy and d…

Drugs, Music & Magic / Computers (Hujaboy remix)…

Big. Yes, big. This is not the time to dissect whether 1200 Mics are valid contributors to the evolution of electronic music. Psyreviews did this before, and…

Lordy. Ex-Bigwig Grzegorz Magnuszewski, a name worth a bomb on a Scrabble board, has produced a blinder here. If you like Astrix and Infected Mushroom then,…

If you like your fullon psytrance chunky and colourful, then my guess is you’ll like this. Bliss’ sounds are sharp, crisp and well-rounded and, for the most…

Gaudi we should all know: fantabulous Interchill debut Bass, Sweat & Tears followed rather quickly by the impressive-but-patchy Continuum. Pete Namlook is a…

A very interesting release here from Nexus Media, Pitch Hikers being a new project from mental-mongers Shift and Slug. You would be forgiven for thinking tha…

And then every now and again, something comes along which makes you deliriously happy. 2001’s This Is Not In Fashion was a long time ago, and back then I reme…

Better than the “Shanti Mix” Sanctuary, Arcana sees Interchill shift its focus back to unmixed quality chillage, though not quite up to the highpoints that th…

U-Recken vs Nitro’s Forever Noma is along the lines of a more morning-friendly 3D Vision sound. It’s fluid, melodic in just about the right places, and has en…

Mexican artist Tron has caused quite a few waves already – and this looks set to further the cause. His music is deft, playful – it’s almost as though it’s sl…

Featuring, according to the blurb, some of the artists who will be shaping the new sound of Tip New World next year. Hujaboy’s Psy Babby has a great tecchy fe…

Uncommonly sophisticated progressive with a tinge of electro and more than a nod to Kraftwerk. The vibe is solidly German – for the most part, it lacks the sh…

EVP is a bit of a legend on the London underground scene, and it’s easy to see why. This is solid, wall-of-sound party music: think Acid Techno in one room an…

This is a great little product from probably the tightest, most pert, nubile chillout label on the planet. This is more of a one-off purchase, a chill album f…

Holy fuck. Holy fuck on a pogo stick. Holy fuck on a pogo stick whistlin’ dixie all the live long day. This, ladies and germs, is an absolute masterpiece. Blu…

If I was to say to you the words, “intelligent and mature fullon”, you would probably think I was joking. You would pour your drink over my head, stamp on my…

Second album from Sesto-sidekick in “mostly quite good” shocker. Recorded with Aquatica, Deeper Level is a pretty stellar bit of rinse-u-like trance mania ma…

Compiled by the Megalopsy boys, Amalgama is the first compilation from Argentina, and a definite sign that things there are on the up. After Prismatix’s swir…

Really uneasy listening. I think I’m a pussy, and/or getting old, because I couldn’t really handle this much; and when I could, it was in small doses. Apologi…

Live-band psytrance fusion from Israel, with tight sounds and a clean, electro-ey feel right the way through. When the fusion works best (Ozric and Astralias…

The States will be one of the countries to watch out for next year: long a fragmented outsider in the global trance scene, there seems to be a lot of connecti…

Bloody hell. This, folks, blew me away. It’s got Quality. And, Quirkiness. But it’s also got something uniquely special about it, defiantly solid, ruthlessly…

The delta remix of Johann’s Stranded was, back in the day, the original guitar track. Ish. And here we have the comeback album. To say it is littered with gui…

There’s something very, very oldskool about this. Yer cover art. Yer track titles. And the sound. This album is awash with ideas, but the execution is lacking…

I’ve not been lucky enough to experience Mexican parties first hand, but everyone says they’re good so let’s go with that. Master Control is best thought of a…

Decode opens up at a full pelt 150bpm, with a bassline I’ve heard thousands of times before, more stopstarts than an acid techno deejay mucking about with the…

Psyreviewseven performs a certain amount of foreplay on your wife to get her in the mood while YOU sit there playing X-Box. ADD YOUR OWN!!!! email info@psyre…

I've got no information on this. I dont know who sent it to me. I dont know what's going on. But fck me is it a goodun. You can tell from the opening strains…

The latest in the Set… series is compiled by Aran Gallagher, aka Freq; the same guy whose Strange Attractors last year brought Iboga bang up to date to pretty…

The techno-ey end of psytrance has always carried connotations of cyborgs going mental to the sound of a drill smashing through Midi Miliz 12's, but Idea FX d…

Bit of a departure for Tribal Visions here. Just as Inner Circle seemed a bit of a dazzling change from the likes of Lime Light, Rockable is another step in…

Yay. Broken Toy’s remix of Damage’s Bringdanoise knocks spots off the original, it’s a heavy-set, clattering beast of a track that just gets the energy stacke…

The first Mountain High turned into a bit of a soundtrack for yours truly; travelling in pre-Ipod days, whatever I had on CD became ingrained into my brain li…

In a word: Crikey. Nine brand new tunes from this twisted Russian duo, not only does it satisfy that itch for quality inventive nighttime music, but there’s…

Caution, contains guitars. And lots of them. The vibe here is firmly the dirty industrial end of things, and while there’s one or two good moments, a lot of t…

DJ Bog is a good DJ. He plays all over the place. He is one half of this project along with Bizarre Contact. Who also gets to play all over the world. La La L…

I know I was in the minority, but I found the first Kaya Project album a bit basic, a bit rudimentary maybe. Luckily, Elixir is about as far-evolved from that…

This is an odd one, but I like it. Part with any ideas of this being a followup to Bass, Sweat & Tears: this is more experimental, a kind of industrial/dub/am…

This has to be one of the most eagerly-awaited follow albums in ages. Two and half years since Aero, one of the finest progressive acts is back: and what a wa…

Nightshift (Remix) has a nice baggy groove to it, sounding like normal psytrance but with the belt loosened a couple of notches. It takes a while to build up…

What’s perhaps most significant with this collaboration between Merv Pepler and Will White (respectively halves of Eat Static and The Propellerheads) is that…

Get past the cover you’d expect to see on a CD in the supermarket you buy and take home for your little sister, and this icy collection of quality progressive…

Elaborate indeed. Big sounds, big noises, big key changes. It’s lovely what he’s done here, but it seems like there’s a little too much of it. Evidently harpi…

I met the people behind this label at Sonica in Italy this summer, and they’re bloody nice people. And funny. And on the strength of this compilation they al…

After making their mark on the trance side with Build Your Own Reactor, upcoming UK label Liquid Records make a stab at the already-crowded downtempo sector.…

Bit of an oddity this one. My guess is you have already made up your mind whether a four-track EP by Infected Mushroom is something you really need. The only…

I love Parvati. But whenever a new CD from them arrives, it’s not without trepidation that it gets slotted into psyreviews’ limited edition, industry-only, go…

The return of Dance n Dust records is one of psyreviews’ greatest excuses to be happy. Along with… erm… shit, there must be something else. Erm… okay, the mus…

Following on from the stonnkingly good Lime Light compilation, Inner Circle takes a different slant, looking at moodier progressive and offering up some pret…

I must say I was really confused about how to review this. It’s too easy to make wide, cheap shots at this because most of us hate vocals in trance; but then…

This pretty much slipped in under the radar here at psyreviews towers. And admit it, from the cover or tracklist, it’s not something the average punter will…

You’ve got to love this label. I know I do: consistently interesting and inventive, and without whom we wouldn’t have REV, Double REL, Iron Madness or… well,…

One of those releases where you can read down the tracklist, and your brain magically tells you what it’s going to sound like. The production throughout has t…

After having a small panic attack when I realised that it’s been four years since the last DMT album (four years that changed my life completely, but I’m stil…

UK duo Voice Of Cod made serious waves with their We Are Free track in 2003. “That Drop” was talked about in hushed tones and caned at loud volumes, and while…

Compiled by one Seb Krüger, this selection of clean, crystalline trance tickles a wider variety of progressive tastebuds than a Freq-flavoured lollipop. Trans…

Human Blue has come up with some dazzlingly good chilled tunes of late, appearing on all sorts of compilations. And usually at the end, where you want that su…

Fuck. I couldn’t normally start a review of a chill album with a profanity, but this being interchill, I can fucking say what I fucking well fucking want to…

I will admit to having quite a lot of time for Sesto. Chiefly because their tunes are varied, and because they have funny bits in them. I like funny bits. I…

A new label launching a chillout compilation is going to be one of those sink-or-swim things: the subgenre is swamped by identikit releases with identikit…

A mishmash of different styles and sounds all by one guy. Now, this could easily be bad (imagine skazi doing something similar?) but it works and because of…

It is nothing short of a delight that Spiral Trax are back. One of my favourite labels from back in the day, with releases that still get an airing today, a…

The first fullon album from Israel in months that psyreviews can recommend with a straight face, this collaboration between Hujaboy and his mate Uri is a…

Dark psy, as a genre, has got to be a bit careful. While a lot of the most innovative, - and certainly psychedelic - sounds of the last twelve months have…

Holland! Land of porn, pot, and chips with mayonnaise. Okay, now we’ve reduced a lovely nation of lovely people into a cultural stereotype, our minds are more…

There’s something I utterly love about this CD. If you’re 22, off your head on acid every weekend, and a member of the Astrix fanclub, then you may as well st…

Any artist album that’s got a mostly nighttime bent is a tricky beast – it’s either got to be dazzlingly intricate (see Megalopsy) or varied and wide enough s…

Blanka has been one of my favourite Israeli producers recently, thanks to good work on recent compilations, and I could hardly wait to get my teeth into this.…

Nighttime music seems to be more popular at the moment than it’s been in quite a while, and for my money at least, it has to be interesting to be successful.…

Blackout’s Lemon Strike is a gorgeous piece of music, end of. Progressive and groovy, the way the sounds are staggered and stuttered makes it immensely hypnot…

Dutch find Jocid really impressed psyreviews with last year’s From Meatware To Headware album, and with this offering the sound has developed into a succulent…

The Finnish duo are back with their fourth album, which to my money is a lot tighter and accessible than their previous output. I’m not saying that it’ll get…

I’ve got an unapologetic soft spot for Jaia. Mai Mai I love to bits as much as when I first heard it, and most of Blue Energy gets an airing from time to time…

Cor. This is a bit tasty. Two chaps from Hungary produce music that’s psychedelic in the same way that you might say Squarepusher was: bonkers, with little re…

It’s easy to forget that what we on planet psytrance call chillout isn’t really ambient, but more like footnotes to the Planet Dog / Ambient Dub vibe of the e…

Spiral Trax were one of my favourite labels, back in the “day”. I loved the way they combined the psytrance output with kick-ass progressive stuff. Tricky bit…

Timelock feat June Rashava open with Un:Balanced, and personally I’d give my right arm (okay, my left arm) to hear Timelock’s version of this by themselves. I…

I have to admit I’m almost lost for words. This was a farken hard review to write, and those that know me know how much I love to rant and ramble. Mind-Dala i…

I must admit that lately I’ve been finding “normal” psytrance much less appealing than progressive. This may be because the stuff coming out on the likes of I…

I’m not sure whether I’ve ever come across anything from New Zealand before… but this is definitely something special. With artists from Australia, NZ, Denm…

Digital Psionics’ release schedule may be less busy than a 50 year old transvestive Skazi lookalike prostitute’s appointment book, but their output’s quality…

Illumination vs Ultravoice’s Imagination is a cracking start, progressing from an energetic swirly intro, into a deep fullon that then comes crackling to life…

Insane Creation’s Can Feel kicks off in wonderful style – smooth as hell, utterly gorgeous progressive with a perfect groove, incredible sounds and a wonderfu…

What the hell is going on here? Artifakt’s Mr O is pretty mellow for Artifakt, a pleasant-Sunday-romp kinda groove adds sprinkles of psychedelic mush, escalat…

One of the year’s bets new labels continues its good run with a very tasty artist album from Psyfactor, an artist whose compilation tracks have created a well…

Interchill’s run of downtempo releases were the de facto benchmark of quality a few years ago, and it’s always nice when they come up with another compilation…

From the above three lines of text – the techno-sounding artist name, the scifi album name, and the ever ard as nails Boshke label, you might think this was a…

A collection of different sounds coming out of Brazil, home as we all know to a large if infant trance scene, and looking at what’s on offer here the general…

Psychonaut’s Loco Breath has a sort of industrial-indie guitar line at the start, picks up nice chug-factor, adds psychedelic nods in the shape pf an ozricsy,…

A bit tricky this one: for a start, the promo copy that reached its way here only contains about 4’30 of each track, so talking about the whole flow of the mu…

Taucher is fucking massive. Releasing trance since most of us were still in short trousers, his discography is only slightly shorter than a family-of –seven’s…

A tricky album this. Twelve tracks of vaguely-trancey jazzy dublike beats, the sort of thing that I guess used to be called Trip Hop, and with some new names…

Psy-breaks? Nobody’s sure if it’s a genre yet or it’s still an ideal. A notion. Always there are psyheads who say it’s not psy enough, and breaksheads who say…

Hypersonic’s The Beginning Of A Story is far and away the best of his tunes I’ve heard under this moniker. Opening with moody, Clapton-unplugged-like guitars,…

Wow. In a word. I’d not heard of this being on the way, but just before their new album, Entheogenic have decided to hit us with something a bit special. On…

Oh dear. Up first is Cosmovision from Bio Tonic, sounding like it’s got one foot in the 70s with sub-Kraftwerk vocode-narration and incredibly large (and quit…

The only thing wrong with Plusquam releases is there isn’t enough of them. V-Tunes’ G-Con opens up and it’s all about gorgeous sounds, smoothly layered and in…

A very pleasant surprise this. If (okay, like me) you’d more or less acquainted Brazil with Wrecked Machines, then this is definitely worth a sniff… In fact,…

Very cheeky release this one. Bullet Proof is the alter ego of a well-known psy artist evidently sensing the current appeal of cover versions (love em or hat…

Following on from the rather wonderful debut Urban Legends, the case for progressive trance as being the must interesting and high-quality sub genre in 2005…

Denis Matenda seems to have a unique approach to making music – in all the stuff of his I’ve heard nothing ever sounds forced, the sounds are exactly where y…

While the whole chilled-psychedelia market is kind of saturated at the moment, stuff has to distance itself by being very different (Gaudi, for instance, or…

Christ on a farken bratwurst. This folks, is just painful. Psysex were (are still? Maybe) a pretty decent act. Come In Peace was interesting, and still sounds…

Compiled by Australia’s Beka, the second instalment in the Accelerator series takes things further than before, with a pretty damn tasty blend and variation o…

Intriguingly-named Serious Porn Collector (aka Lek Black, aka NRS, half of RAM, aka ex-Deviant Species’ Paul) is…. well, intriguingly-named. The music here i…

I suspect this album will only sound as good as how much sunshine there is when you’re playing it. The third album from Cosmic Tone doesn’t have much daylight…

When the first Vibraspirit album came out in 2001, psyreviews loved it and said it was the best album of the year, before most of that year had even come alo…

Tony Rohr’s My Mind IS Going Dub is silky smooth techno, with only a slight funky twist, with samples from the HAL9000 in 2001 laid down over the top. Midimi…

A very horizontal, laid-back global chillage journey boasting an awesome line-up of the more intricate chillout artists around, this followup to Androcell’s…

Benza’s style is slinky and organic, unhurried and more comfortable in your home or car CD player than bashing tunes out to a sweaty crowd of on-the-pull part…

I’m liking the cover, I’m liking the tunes, and I’m liking that you get a bonus mixed 2nd CD for your buck. Sequipa opens with Manic Panic, a nice slice of r…

I was excited to hear that Cosmosis was coming up with a new album this year; not just because his albums are, for the most part, fucking killer but also bec…

Being a slightly odd idea this one. Tracks “from and inspired by” everyone’s favourite petrolhead tweakery modificationy, staggering-impression-of-speed-but-…

I’m kind of hoping we can drop the moniker “neo-fullon”, even though Com.pact often use it to refer to their own releases. It’s surprising but the last few r…

Opening track Free Motherfuckers from Deedrah has more ideas busting at its seams than I think I’ve heard from him in ages. Starting out funky, then picking u…

Surely one of the most exciting labels of 2004 returns with a suitably quirky slab of urban psychedelic mulch, all largely the work of the evil, hamster-thre…

Benza Retrofuturism Sonic Dragon (Hong Kong) Benza’s style is slinky and organic, unhurried and more comfortable in your home or car CD player than bashing t…

Cosmosis Trancendence Phantasm (UK) I was excited to hear that Cosmosis was coming up with a new album this year; not just because his albums are, for the mo…

Echotek Emotion Chaos Time Stretch (Israel) This is a bit of a puzzling album. Echotek’s (nicely produced) second album is full of a glistening, liquid sound…

Electro Sun Pure Blue Trancelucent (Israel) Crikey. You think you’ve heard big melodies, and then this. Clearly one to avoid if you’re Azax Syndrom’s mum, th…

Fatali Faith BNE/YoYo (Israel) By his own admission on the interview Fatali did with Psyreviews (plug plug, linky linky, www.psyreviews.com/features) this al…

Joti Sidhu Punktuator Neurobiotic (Italy) Psychaos boy grown up! There’s a really good balance of meaty and funky here and, while it’s generally about as sub…

Killer Buds Interfiber Skunk Ketuh (Austria) At the end of the day, I just like the name. Killer Buds could refer to very good weed, or it could refer to ver…

Kukan Dub Lagan Life Is Nice Candy Flip (Greece) The flow of chillout releases continues, with this offering from 28 year old Tel Aviv producer Itay Berger.…

Lish Freefall Compact (Israel) If you’re familiar with Lish’s earlier output, prepare for a departure from their previous gnarlier vibe. It’s headed more in…

Megalopsy The Abstract Machine Trishula (Germay) I would never have really thought that hard as nails, nightmarish stuff would lend itself too well to the ar…

Oforia Headed for Infinity BNE (Israel) It’s often complained that so much psytrance these days is throwaway pap, mostly devoid of ideas, with the music comi…

Orion Futuristic Poetry Avatar (Israel) Originally released in 1997 on Symbiosis records, this reissue puzzled me a bit. Back then, Orion was Jean Borelli an…

Sensifeel Vision Of Life Domo (Germany) Philippe Sancier is 26, lives in France, and makes pretty good progressive music, suitable for both the outdoor morni…

Tegma 002 Avant Garde CandyFlip (Greece) A new album from these boys is long overdue, and big up to Candyflip for getting in there and releasing it. The vibe…

Time Lock Out Of Sight / Metrotek YoYo / BNE (Israel) I missed Time Lock’s album last year, and the chief surprise for me is that Felix used to be in PPS Pro…

Trauma TB-O-Not-2B Agitato (Israel) If you think there’s not been enough raw 303 power in psytrance lately, the idea of this will delight you. If you think t…

Tripswitch Circuit Breaker LSD (UK) Welcome, welcome, welcome. To one of the finest chillout albums ever recorded. To the first genuinely essential chilled r…

Various Back To The Future Groove Zone (Japan) Woah. Further proof that much of the invention and flair these days is to be found within the progressive aren…

VA Booo Doof (Israel) The crunchy underbelly of Israel mooches forth again, this week giving us an excellent antidote to the more “Israeli” trance from that…

Various Chronika Chapter 2 Boshke Beats Tony Rohr’s My Mind IS Going Dub is silky smooth techno, with only a slight funky twist, with samples from the HAL900…

Various Evolve Soular Records (USA) Cyzum’s Escape From The Sun moves like an oldskool tune but adds neat production, the sort of clean and sheened sound tha…

Various Fahrenheit Project 5 Ultimae (France) The kings of fluid, seamless chillout are back and on the strength of this it looks like they’re setting up 200…

Various Forest Doof (Israel) One of my favourite labels at the moment, Doof have a reputation for no-bullshit hard as nails psytrance with a truly twisted be…

Various Gran Turismo 4 Kicks Solstice (Japan) Being a slightly odd idea this one. Tracks “from and inspired by” everyone’s favourite petrolhead tweakery modi…

VA Holographic Memory 3 Solstice (Japan) Opening track Free Motherfuckers from Deedrah has more ideas busting at its seams than I think I’ve heard from him i…

Various Inner Panic Manic Dragon (HK) I’m liking the cover, I’m liking the tunes, and I’m liking that you get a bonus mixed 2nd CD for your buck. Sequipa ope…

Various Inspirazzia – Compiled by DJ Zombi VP Records (Germay) Anything with a bird on the cover generally makes me think twice about listening. But finding…

Various Invasion From Hyperspace Organic (UK) The start of Summer is always a great time for psyreviews. Because somewhere around this time of year, a CD com…

VA Mushy Mystery Trishula (Germany) I must apologise to everyone concerned here, just not enough time to review this one. I’m utterly sold on Trishula’s soun…

Various Namaskar Indica (Italy) Taking its title from a Sanskrit word which basically means “welcome” but whose literal meaning is “I bow to God in you, I lo…

Various Natural Born Chillers Aleph Zero (Israel) On heavy rotation chez psyreviews since it arrived just before Christmas, Natural Born Chillers is as nigh…

Various Point Of View Dooflex (Israel) Learning that the mighty Doof label had set up this new offshoot to address cleaner, slinkier progressive fullon sound…

Various Portal Of Perceptions Celestial Dragon (Hong Kong) A very horizontal, laid-back global chillage journey boasting an awesome line-up of the more intri…

VA Psychedelically Yours 3 Parvati (Denmark) These compilations have been setting the standard in freaky nighttime trance, and if you know the first two then…

Various Purple TipWorld (UK) Let’s cut to the chase shall we. Is it any good? (Yeah, it is.) Is it Tip back to the old form again? (Nah. I dunno. Maybe. Look…

Various Retrodelic Vibes 2 Avatar (Israel) We all know someone who bemoans at every opportunity how it’s not as good as it used to be. How the music then was…

Various Star Dust Moonstone Records (Israel) The release info describes the music on here as “neo-fullon” which makes my heart sink, but also as “dark and ps…

VA Symptoms Of Compliance Last Possible Solution (UK) Surely one of the most exciting labels of 2004 returns with a suitably quirky slab of urban psychedelic…

Various Ultrapop Fabula (Italy) Chances are you won’t have heard anything quite like this before. Loopus’ own albums come close, but the fusion here between…

Various Unusual Suspects 2 Twisted (UK) The psytrance equivalent of The Phantom Menace, because people queued for weeks outside outlets just to get hold of a…

Various Vibraspirit 11 Sundance (Australia) When the first Vibraspirit album came out in 2001, psyreviews loved it and said it was the best album of the year…

Various Wild Life Jungle Juice Alchemy (UK) Disappointment is not the word. One of the chief moans at current psy is this whole thing of 9 or 10-track compil…

Waterjuice Melbaphonics Vaporvent (USA) I stuck this on last Friday evening, and just got totally sucked into it. Ended up playing it about three or four tim…

Black & White Retro Active / Status 12” TipWorld (UK) A nice crossover-friendly 12” from the crew at London’s TipWorld, worthy of mention alone in the fact t…

Blanka has been one of my favourite Israeli producers recently, thanks to good work on recent compilations, and I could hardly wait to get my teeth into this. H…

Holy fuck. Holy fuck on a pogo stick. Holy fuck on a pogo stick whistlin’ dixie all the live long day. This, ladies and germs, is an absolute masterpiece. Bluet…

Live-band psytrance fusion from Israel, with tight sounds and a clean, electro-ey feel right the way through. When the fusion works best (Ozric and Astraliasia-…

Bullet Proof Blue Monday / Tainted Love (12”) We Speak Alien (UK?) Very cheeky release this one. Bullet Proof is the alter ego of a well-known psy artist evi…

Burn In Noise Broken MP3 Vagalume (Brazil) A very pleasant surprise this. If (okay, like me) you’d more or less acquainted Brazil with Wrecked Machines, then…

Bloody hell. I was very, very impressed with this album. On the face of it, it’s sample-packed chillage with a strong bent towards the cosmic. A bit like early…

Cell Phonic Peace Indica (Italy) While the whole chilled-psychedelia market is kind of saturated at the moment, stuff has to distance itself by being very di…

Chilling Matenda Mediteran Global Phonehead (Sweden) Denis Matenda seems to have a unique approach to making music – in all the stuff of his I’ve heard nothi…

Cosmic Tone Wake Up Compact (Israel) I suspect this album will only sound as good as how much sunshine there is when you’re playing it. The third album from…

The States will be one of the countries to watch out for next year: long a fragmented outsider in the global trance scene, there seems to be a lot of connection…

Really uneasy listening. I think I’m a pussy, and/or getting old, because I couldn’t really handle this much; and when I could, it was in small doses. Apologies…

After having a small panic attack when I realised that it’s been four years since the last DMT album (four years that changed my life completely, but I’m still…

In a word: Crikey. Nine brand new tunes from this twisted Russian duo, not only does it satisfy that itch for quality inventive nighttime music, but there’s eno…