DJ Solitare - Music Reviews

Demented

Twisted Records
twscd6

In the six years that I have been active in the trance scene, the music has evolved in many ways, but in some respects it taken a turn for the worse. A lot of egocentric musicians and performers have forgotten a great deal of the message that was present in early parties and music, and both reflect this by a growing amount of darkness without depth. Twisted Records, however, have kept their vision, and have consistently released some of the most avant-garde psychedelic music available.

Two years after the release of their ground-breaking compilation “Dementertainment,” Twisted Records have finally come out with their much-awaited second trance compilation, the more literally-titled “Demented.” That it has taken so long to release is due to a variety of reasons, first among them the fact that there was not the quality of music that the label aims to promote, and a number of changes in the line-up have been made to accommodate new tracks by label star Simon Posford. Like its predecessor, this new release is destined to become a classic in the psychedelic trance scene.

The compilation opens with “Mi-loony-um!”, the track with which Simon Posford opened his Hallucinogen live set at the stroke of midnight at the South Africa 2000 New Year’s party. It opens with a ticking clock, which apparently perfectly matched the images of Big Ben that the projectionist in South Africa had prepared for midnight - without Simon’s knowledge! A harpsichord melody is transformed into one of Hallucinogen’s more carnival-like tunes (something of a celebratory vibe that is sorely lacking from most trance today) and the track goes through loads of shifts. Perhaps most brilliant is how a very cool twisted tune turns into a modem-dialing telephone, linking with a Timothy Leary sample about “the network of neurological signals.” Absolutely amazing. The rhythmic loops are beautifully crafted, and while the track does not have one clear climax, the wandering thread is brilliantly conceived, and naturally, the engineering is top-notch.

The trance mix of Shpongle’s Divine Moments of Truth track, remixed by Simon with George from Slinky Wizard. Another beautifully engineered track, it has some tonal similarities to the original version and a whole lot more. (Twisted will release a CD single featuring the mix on that’s on the TipWorld label and a slightly different version of the one presented here this Summer.) What works for me is the metallic 303 sounds and some of the higher rhythmical lines - so deeply psychedelic. The gurgling voice melodically repeating the chemical name of DMT is awesome. This track is more of an “upper” than most of the music being produced today, and shows how this can be accomplished without being cheesy or derivative.

Trickster, a collaboration between Tristan and Dick Trevor (of Green Nuns-Infernal Machine fame), delivers a funky one entitled “Turquoise Mood.” After a longish intro, it moves into a funkier groove, reminiscent of some of Tristan’s work on his Audiodrome album. This is a lovely morning track which, while lighter than the preceding track, also does not appeal to any lowest common denominator.

“Beautiful People,” which is not related to the Slinky Wizard track of the same name and is so named because of one of the distorted samples used, is the next Hallucinogen track. Simon had started this track shortly before I visited him last September, at which time he played me some of his ideas. The opening minimal section was my favorite part then, and it still is. The transformation of comedian Bill Hicks’ voice echoing into an upwards spiral is ingenious, and the track progresses into a faster-paced second section beautifully. The balance of harmonic, rhythmic, and ambient (that is, tonal ambience) elements, as in Simon’s other tracks presented here, is flawless. A marvelous addition to the Hallucinogen discography.

Tristan’s “Small Paper Squares” opens with a sample about LSD which I find somewhat distracting - more so than Hicks’ in the preceding track - but it leads into a wonderful track. Some Israeli-style synth sounds provide the groundwork for a deep, abstract track similar to (though not as mysterious as) his classic tune Perimiter. A break for the sample “LSD doesn’t fry your brain - it expands the mind” is very effective. It’s not my favorite Tristan track, but it is hard to judge the power of such a track at home - certainly it sounds better on headphones and likely rocks on a big system.

I had been so looking forward to hearing a new trance track by Doof, having loved his “Global Corporate Citizen” track made with Benji Vaughan (Prometheus) and his ambient tracks. What a disappointment this is. Structurally it is very old-style, and the engineering and synth voices are so poor compared with Doof’s tracks from 4 or 5 years ago, let alone when compared to the other tracks on this compilation, that I cannot understand why this was chosen for release. I am really sorry to say this, as I really have been an admirer of Doof’s work in the past. I hope that he will deliver a trance tune of the quality of his ambient masterpiece “Baleshwar Baksheesh” - he is a talented musician who deserves to be represented by something more groundbreaking than this derivative piece of work.

Prometheus, who has worked so well with both Process and Doof, delivers a lively, humourous track called “MK Ultra” (not to be confused with our beloved Jeff in Montreal) with a recurring sample talking of “enhanced concentration” (pay attention, Jeff!). The track has elements reminiscent of both Process and Total Eclipse, with some drawn-out melodic figurations punctuated by a bouncy bass-line and some great squelchy noises (if you know what I mean). Another lovely and delightfully weird morning tune.

Ending “Demented” is a down-tempo collaboration (Younger Brother) between Simon Posford and Benji in a track called “Evil and Harm” (a bit misleading, really), which features some great drum loops, a bit of guitar a la Celtic Cross, and a battery of gated voices and general weirdness. A very nice mix of moods, with some of Simon’s characteristic harmonies presented in a lovely way.

All in all, this is clearly one of the best CDs to be released in a long time. The engineering throughout (with the exception of the Doof track) is astounding, and is not an end in itself but serves tracks which actually have some direction and a musical message. The whole package, with great graphic design by Mark Neal (similar to that of Dementertainment, but with orange and yellow rings over a silver and black background with splashes of blue), is of the highest standard. (It appears that this will be the last Twisted release with the familiar logo - they have adopted a new, more streamlined symbol which to grace their future releases.) It is also available in a limited edition of 300 MDs. CD or MD, get it - it’s a classic.
© by Mark Ainley 2001