Space Buddha Jungle Of Wishes Agitato (Israel)

Agitato are on fine form at the moment, spearheading the latest iteration in full on psychedelic party music, one of the finest sounds to have surfaced in recent years. Jungle of Wishes adds Space Buddha firmly to the roster populated by the likes of Astrix and Psydrop with a confident technicolour trance vibe. In Denial kicks things off in a space cat stylee – very powerful, energetic, and with a killer groove. Liquid Sky follows and it’s pure isralien, with bustling 16th bass and filters everywhere. A twisting top end breakdown leads it into an explosive knees-up finale with sparks flying out the speakers. Overfly Zone takes progressive stabs and dubby bits and whips them up into a full on frenzy – pure intelligent fullon, with the energy and depth of GMS. Jungle of Wishes goes a lot deeper, again fusing progressive elements with full power psychedelic trance. It’s got more twist than spaghetti, more balls than Fifa and a wonderful three-dimensional pong groove. Macrocosm takes another hit of liquid and throws itself off the mountaintop, it’s full of dark(ish) energy, escalating filtered lines, and a huge fat wonderful earbleeding grinning hooray motherfucker of a groove – you’ll dance holes in your shoes to this one. Paranormal Input is less individual but still retains all the madness and flipout elements, with a powerful 303 dance that’ll get your brain going in the right direction. I Think Therefore I Am would have Descartes gurning like a baboon, it’s frantic and fast and just what you need. Elevation starts out a bizarre mess of sound which gradually reforms into a hefty 4-4 stomp. Funky stabs, sawcut synths and the mother of all grooves finish this album off in style. It’s all good stuff, but there’s one gripe. On all but the last track, the production sounds a little weak – almost compressed like an mp3 (and yes, we are reviewing the finished product here.) Breakdowns lose their edge on occasions with an overtly digital sound, and it’s only on Elevation that the sound really leaps out and farts in your face like it should. This would be pretty much indispensable if not for this: it’s blistering and devilishly enjoyable music that could have done with another round of mastering.