Oforia

Headed for Infinity

BNE (Israel)

It’s often complained that so much psytrance these days is throwaway pap, mostly devoid of ideas, with the music coming together more by luck than by judgement. Step forth Oforia, previously let’s not forget one half of the wonderful Indoor with Avi Space Cat, with one of the most instantly forgettable albums in quite a long while. Forthcoming single Northern Lights opens up nicely enough, has a great clean sound to it and plenty of movement in a fairly standard bassline. Builds and peaks well, with noises moving around giving fluidity, then a f*ing guitar comes in, immediately rendering it devoid of any imagination it may have briefly postured on the way up. Beams Of The Light has nice acidy twangs bracket a wiggly up/down sort of groove, goes into a nice peak then it’s right down into the depths, with wibbles coming in that sound a little detuned, nice effect but might throw a ketamine dancefloor off to a corner to be sick (which could be a good thing). Fine, but too short: there’s more life in the pattern he set up here. And if you’re messing about with detuned noises, why not mess around with the intro/build/peak/break/etc routine? Headed For Infinity is, let’s be fair, where it all works on this album. A nice electroey sound to it, the clean sounds are pure yazoo and the way the rough acid line contrasts with it, but still has a screechy naivety to it, works well. The acid moves perfectly, and while it loses its cool towards the end but you can’t fault the big energy at that drop. Oh that this level of excitement would now be maintained. High Gear is kind of unbalanced, a cycling hoovery midsection over some plinks, and breaks and turns that you can smell coming a mile off. Anti Gravity sees a tasty mix of styles on the way up, but it all falls apart with the guitar and a “turn up de riddim” sample that goes to a messy and anticlimactic drop, with a final run that’s not just starved of ideas, it’s suffering from long term malnutrition. Serious is nice enough, a groove that reminds me of Stakker’s Humanoid. Builds up tension and energy nicely, into a break that sort of collapses into itself. It then slides in smoothly, picking up a gorgeous midrange synth that glides it along nicely. To be picky, the way the same old noises from before come back in is a little clumsy, and it’s clear that this isn’t going to take you anywhere new, but this is good material for holding the dancefloor’s attention and giving them something to get vaguely tingly about. Machines Job is devoid of magic, the guitar plugin crept in under the door again, the bassline’s dull… Cyber Hiker is best described as a clunky anthem, a few nice spots but this one will clear the dancefloor faster than a fart from your grandparents’ dog. Finally Substance sees a glimmer of the big, morning melodic Oforia we’ve known before, but it’s all sadly lost the sheen. When you look back across the whole album, there’s really little to say. Two tunes – the title track and, to a lesser extent, Serious – work but that’s just not enough to carry the album, especially when the other seven tracks are pale imitations thereof, using the same sounds and identical patterns.

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