Vox Draconis – Moonstone

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 hypnotic and psychedelic… 138bpm and with an enormously loveable breakdown, it’s a definite winner in my book. Nasa’s Ultrasved is a very different bit of music, sort of hybridising Detroit techno with moochy psy, and adding a bit of motown in there as well… A nice mixup of sounds, it all hangs together very nicely and works wonders… and it explodes into massive lines and energy, with very good melody coming out the woodwork for the final run. BLT’s remix of Sesto Sento’s Sentomental is a very interesting one, falling back to 138bpm and cruising along like it’s not so much being listened to, as being dreamt. Next up we’re firmly in neofullon territory, but still on the right side of Decency!! Dooper Doopler’s Survival is tight and with top (if glassy) production and with plenty of energy coming out of it.. and the final run is massive. Freakulizer’s Identity moves effectively within the confines of standard-ish fullon fodder, dropping into a very long break that’s reminiscent of Misted Muppet. It then takes its time (the bulk of the track) at an easy, airy pace… perfect to give the dancefloor a breather. Hoogshagenii’s I Want It Now has a tecchy, funky vibe with a twist of darkness thrown in, like it’s anticipating something bad happening to it. The melodies are interesting and effective, it flows well and it’s just bloody clever, basically. First Steps from not-named-after-a-hindu-god Jeremy is definite trance by numbers, very little to get excited about at all here. The production’s fine but you’re left waiting patiently for it to end. Mahamudra’s Eve is a tasty little number as well, very staccato in its flavour and with a sort of smooth jumpiness to it. It almost collapses into nothing in the break before a synth acoustic guitar/harpsichord thing comes in and splurts out some quirky melodies that take it to its break, before it drops into a wonderful little groove, sort of like a better Beat Hackers with Cosmosis solo’ing over the top. Finally Paradigma’s Progspacive is a reverb-lovers dream and begs to be played on a big rig. Once again the pace is relaxed, there’s no rush about anything here. The sounds fit wonderfully together, I mean this… the production is just superb and extremely psychedelic… an awesome track if ever there was one. All In All Vox Draconis is a pleasant surprise, like putting on your Israeli trousers and finding a tenner in the back pocket. But when fullon starts getting inventive and paced as this, it signals the even-more-imminent death of the standard astrixalamascachemicalcrew sound… which can only be a good thing.