Various

Evolve

Soular Records (USA)

Cyzum’s Escape From The Sun moves like an oldskool tune but adds neat production, the sort of clean and sheened sound that US psytrance has held close for years. Dropping into fat psy-breaks in the midsection, it shouts at you before crashing into a 4-4 that reminds me of Voice of Cod’s sound – clean yet rinsing. One Timeless Moment from Deeper In Zen is the best of theirs I’ve heard, taking a more snarly approach, brilliantly layered and with riffs that suggest melodies without actually speaking them. 9 Ball from Point is fairly standard Israeli fodder, with some nice noises thrown in: smooth detroity stabs contrast well with Atari Missile Command crunches, and it comes together deftly for the final run. Deeper In Zen & Mind Warped’s Mental Liberation again has a nice oldskool ring to it, the runs sound like they could totally be The Infinity Project, and its general vibe is of the sort of energy that this music rarely delivers these days. Iceolator’s The Gathering takes reasonably raw acid and tones down its effect by adding this very clean, very radio-friendly piano stab, the sort you would never have thought we’d hear in this music. And next up, the first tune of 2005 to have made me grin like an idiot, the true sign of a masterpiece. Possibly. It’s Wizzy Noise with Aegean Sunrise, and my god it’s fantastic. A perfect rolling bassline with Wizzy stabs and tricks, industrial thunks, perfect escalation through the layers, and those wonderful chord changes only Wizzy can get away with. Cue Wizzy riff (which always makes me happy) (yes, I’m biased, fuck off) and from there it’s just a grin-soaked summertime ride up to the clouds. Perfect energy. Then things change to a jumpy, bouncy two-note groove, that holds the energy perfectly. Acid rises up, a peak’s on the way, and it falls beautifully into perfect Wizzy melodic grace. Utter ly wonderful. There’s plenty of surprises here which I wont reveal, but seriously: this is the most accomplished, brilliant tune I’ve heard from them in some time; they’ve let the melody breathe and you can look back and see Elektro Theater as a stepping stone in the seemingly impossible transition from Cyclotron to this. There may be one key change too many, but I don’t care. Realising I’ve talked more about this one song than I often talk about a whole album, Atomic Pulse’s Digital Wave is all about bringing in and then unleashing one melodic run after another, and only about thirty seconds of it has even half the energy of what has come before. Pop Stream (who I still refuse to get excited about) and Alternative Control’s Electrical Tones is a pretty decent morning tune, the sounds are all in the right places and it would certainly work at the right time. Finally Onnobot’s Bjorcs closes the album, and not in a downtempo style – this is dazzling, just sit back and watch as it unfolds… really nice stuff, sort of dark but light, plenty of ideas in here. I cant believe this review is so long: 525 words, 186 of which are about Wizzy Noise. 

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