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I was pleasantly surprised by this release. The idea of God battling Satan is, depending on your cultural bent, either something of epic and massively violent proportions, or the plot of at least one episode of South Park.

Either way, the music here isn’t half bad. The theme of God vs Satan seems to be reflected in having music that’s not quite dark psychedelia, and not quite fullon – in short, the sort of thing that would sound bloody good in the pre-dawn set: the air is a tad misty, the air has a chilly bite to it, and you’re waiting for the sun to come up so you can find your friends.

The sound is compelling – sort of like Double REL or mid-period Timecode, but with a softer bottomend. This lack of angry thunk, prevalent on most of this record, is one of its strengths. Hearing the familiar psytrance basslines with flecked dark noises across the top makes it feel like you’re dancing to one thing, and thinking about another.

The tracks are all formulaic – Psyshark flirts with Eskimo-like stopstarts, and a majority of tracks have pretty much disappear completele about 85% of the way through. This means that like anything formulaic, the tracks that best use the formula are the ones that stand out: 1, 2, Freddy Is Coming To Get You, Flying To Heaven and the acidy Hallucinations Bible all win in that department.

Top of the heap: the gloriously punky Buddha In Club, in which vocal hooks have never sounded so compellingly evil, and the way it ties up into a delirious crescendo is testament to the power of this type of music.

PsyShark isn’t going to set the world on fire, but he does make music that’s perfectly suited to a certain timeslot. If we can assume this was one of his objectives, then good on him for succeeding.