Psyfactor

Endless Universe

Ajana (Germany)

Endless Universe sees the normally-rather-angry chappy trying his hand at downtempo. Eyes Reflecting Universe and Walk On The Milky Way make a fairly nondescript start to the album: it’s that sort of run-of-the-mill chill that hangs pleasantly in the background but doesn’t grab you. Then things start to get interesting.

Synergy is a bloody masterpiece, end of story. It’s a mid-paced breaks track, with a certain energy to it that adds up to THE track I want to hear as the sun comes up. It’s punchy, it’s cruisy, it’s deep and it’s life-affirming, all at once. Freefalling Upwards is a sketchier track that again uses breaks. Interesting, but I for one would rather hear Psyfactor’s deep, dark n’ dirty style over this sort of pattern – instead of this plinky, happy-sounding stuff. Early Morning sees that side come in – it’s a blessed-out peak at the start, then it gets mental, then it gets very twisted, then it falls back again. Nifty. Useless Planets is a cracker – think the intricacy of Bluetech with a similar pattern to Way Out West’s The Gift.

Blissed-out and crying with joy, it’s a tune that you can’t help falling in love with. Venus Seven is back into the breaks again, and with a vengeance. This is incredibly tight, powerful music – the way the drum patterns evolve and have you going from reclined nodding to speedfreak superstep is blistering. Steps Leaving is a nice stab at that unfolding, emotion-pouring-out style of chillage, and while it gets a little cluttered with sounds and frequencies it’s pretty damn slick.

Finally there’s a rather massive bonus track at the end which goes for that huge ambient thing, and sounds bloody lovely. It’s massive: it reminds me of early Salt Tank, or the betweeny bits of Jam & Spoon’s Triptomatic Fairytales (i.e. it’s good). At the end of the day Endless Universe is a pretty good album, but more interesting than essential. The mastering is by 4CN-Studio and, as is often the case, it seems to lack a bit of punch and clarity, leaving some bits sounding rather muddy. Still, it proves that Psyfactor can do chill just as well as he does his psy – and judging by the quality of his breaks tracks, methinks that should be next.

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