XI – HomMega

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 to a decent central run, with a low-set midrange providing the focus. Ghost In The Machine has an awesome “waking up” feeling to it… you know those tracks that seem to shift into consciousness all by themselves (man)? The groove is crunchy and low, so when the topend starts to soar it’s an incredible balance. Then it’s off to a standard breakdown, after which: all hell breaks loose. One of the classiest drops of the year, it’s simply phenomenal – noises all around you, a suggested melody bubbling under the surface, and more power than a WWE wrestler on a steroid bender. Battleship I now recall being caned at Sonica – a ganrly beast with a reverb-heavy Wizzy-esque beast of a midrange riff. Very technoey for these boys, but they can’t resist sticking that Stone Roses heavy drumming at the breakdown – unashamed, it works. Paranoia is a very sluggish, lacklustre tune that sounds like it was made from randomised presets of the other tunes on the album. Dry. Soul Control is like a pastiche of Battleship, which was only two tracks ago. It’s a lot less dynamic, and even the good bits borrowed from Wizzy seem a little stale here. Funkenstein is so damn good I’m taking it out for dinner on Friday night, hopefully to sodomise it in a backalley on my way home (isn’t it lucky that no girls ever read my reviews). It’s tuff breaks, with gnarly acidised sounds on top, semi-decent vocals and… fark, it’s just the energy here. We could be seeing the start of something here – psytrance artists are definitely able producers, and they’re used to smacking out an awful lot of energy out of a pair of speakers. Stick these qualities over breaks, and you could have a tasty genre (which would also free everyone up, getting away from a 4-4 to really start to experiment.) Anyway: Assimilation Of Reality is pretty much XI-by-numbers, it has a nice atmosphere and a sort of Israeli-strut groove (ala Chakra & Edi Mis); Astrix’s Oranda gets another “final” remix. Basically it’s a standard isra2005 tune with an embarrassingly large breakdown and that high-end “doo-dee-doo” riff. Yawnsome codwank. And probably high on Jon 00 Fleming’s playlist. Bottom Line continues the above argument about breakbeats; although this is 4-4, in a kinda proto-disco vein. Much more free, much more fluid, much more musical. Then finally, tacked on the end, is Etnica’s unidimensional remix of 7 Days. Another Sonica anthem, it is nevertheless a complete cliché. Okay. So, You’ve got a handful of really good moments here. The first three tracks are nothing short of brilliant, but this form doesn’t get carried along the course of the whole album. Better than I expected, but not as good as I’d hoped.