Magma Records is an Italian label. Drugon is Navot Uriel (DJ Hash) and Assaf Arzi (DJ Cure), both from Israel. This is their debut album, I know they already released two or three tracks, but I never heard anything from these guys before. The cover presents in orange and red a weird vegetable like structure. There is no mention anywhere to who did the cover design. Also there is no mention to who did the mastering of this release or to the track times and bpms.
The album begins with B-Twins (T1), a very melodic tune with a sample like: "America... The twin towers were the beginning of the 3rd world war... " This first track has only one bass line, but many melodic layers and acidic synth lines. Nice starter. Bizarro (T2) is the next track, and begins funny, the bass is much stronger and more tribal. Interesting ideas in the breaks and a mind haunting melody all over the track makes the recipe of this nice and different morning track. There are different bass lines and the track structure is unusual. There is a sample like: "If we only we get real life" or something like that. Nice and funny track. Bumping rmx (T3) is a steadier track, with some melodies, but nothing special to me. Funny Noise (T4) has a more hypnotic approach to a morning track. Hypnotic and psychedelic, but nothing exceptional. The Perfect Hallucination (T5) starts with an overused sample from Matrix:
"This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."
The different bass lines are involving and the melodies create an atmosphere of doubt. The track plays with my mood, providing an introspective journey. There is a pinch of darkness here too. Good track. Then we have some vocoded voices, it is the beginning of Psylens (T6), an average morning track. But at the middle of the track this changes. A dirty synth shows up together with many psychedelic sounds, this sure makes me dance. There is a sample! Holy shit, I can't understand it! After it the music just hit my mind, I knocked out. Exceptional track! Lupa (T7) looses no time, the synths are piercing my brain right from the start. In the second part a peculiar bass brings some rhythm, and after a sample some melodies makes me shake my head... Good stuff. Gali (T8) is slower than the previous tracks, only 140 bpm. Begins with a progressive touch that I really enjoy. After some time, some full on elements are introduced and the result is very psychedelic. Not only works on the dance floor, but also is excellent for home listening. My favorite track on this debut. The album ends with another 140 bpm track. This ending is fits perfectly into the album concept, morning at its best nice different bass lines and melodies, a hypnotic and psychedelic touch. Atmospheric tune!
This Drugon debut album brings us 9 previously unreleased tracks in a concise style, showing the personality of this Israli Duo. Good quality morning tracks, with an original style, I respect that. What could be better is that the album has only 60 minutes of music, there is a lot of room for one more track or remix here. Also the guys could experiment more with different bpms, most tracks are 145 bpm and the two tracks at 140 bpm are above the average, maybe exploring other bpms can generate good results. One more thing: Magma Records could include the credits to the cover design and to the mastering of the release, adding the bpms and track times also would not hurt anyone. |
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