Big Fish
AMD
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 few years, but thankfully now we have a reason. This is decent stuff.
AMD is Aphid Moon (who apparently thinks I hate him because I’ve never said a decent word about him) and Dick Trevor (not sure what he thinks of me, I did once tell him that the sound at a gig he’d recently played was shit, but look, we’re digressing.) Their collaboration, as hinted with the odd Nano and Alchemy compilation tracks, is a tuff one.
The sound is big and beefy, the production is spacey and well-rounded. It’s all about chunkiness, it’s the sort of thing that makes you want to go and rent a Funktion One for the weekend just so you can appreciate it properly.
There’s mad depth: Galactic Family’s shifting basslines suck you right into the centre of some sort of doof-vacuum, before spitting you out in a kaleidoscopic acid ejaculation. There’s unrestrained funk: the effortlessly fluid Morning Glory during which, scientists have determined, it is impossible not to grin.
They are definitely at their best doing huge, acid-driven psychedelic: Slightly Turbo and especially Big Dipper, both putting you in mind of vintage Space Cat. And it’s all so effortless.
Part of me wants AMD to be more involved, more energetic about what they’re doing; but then these chaps are (thank gawd) older than Eskimo. If Eskimo is Wayne Rooney, AMD are Alan Shearer and Matt Le Tissier. Or possibly Saint and Greavsie.
This is an act everyone needs to see live. You really get the impression that listening at home is about as close an approximation to the real thing as a letter in the back of an old Mayfair you found at the side of a motorway sliproad is to full sex with the assembled Brazil under 21’s volleyball team.
Which is a good a way to finish a review as any.
