E-Jekt - Dark Fader

E-Jekt is the combined efforts of 2 artists coming from Israel, Uri Azen and Nir Shoshani (Hujaboy). Lately some of the sounds coming out in the full-on trance department have been sort of un-inspiring to say the least with a predictable formula that has been used too many times. I went into listening to this album with this in mind and hoped not to be disappointed. Before continuing, I’d like to mention a few things about the cover… I dig the slickness and darkness of the concept, its simple and effective. Let’s talk about the music:
After a short intro “Diffusion” jumps right into business. A strong yet funky pattern and very good percussion elements in this one. I like the vocal sample, it’s trippy – I enjoy this kind of stuff in tracks in general. The melodies are reminding me a bit of Hujaboy’s work with lots of twists and turns. “A2D2” is up next (T2) and boy it is a stormer! One of the strongest tracks I heard this year so far. A steady machine gun bass line and periodical sounds that comes in awesome stereo to pierce my mind. The track takes its time in its evolution, but once the vocal sample comes on all hell breaks loose. A very cool pattern for the leads that loops itself yet isn’t boring at all. The break beat element of this track is incredibly powerful, I’ve seen it burn dance floors already and I can totally understand why… Moving on to “Loop Skywalker” (T3), this track is quite psychedelic, the steady bass again provides the foundation for the mayhem on top of it. The samples are powerful again, good usage. The leads are almost overbearing at points, twisting and driving in and in, a total acid trip. “High Robot” is my favorite track on the album, something about its structure and the use of vocoders just grabs me. Maybe it’s the fact Power Source had something to do with it that makes it so special to me to begin with. I like the use of pads here; it gives a different dimension to the track. Also, I’m in favor of guitar samples when properly used. PTX collaborates on “Obi Wan Knob” (T5), the track is strong and aggressive and the buildups are monstrous. Next we have “Pan Solo” with lots of TB303 sounds and different build then most of the tracks here, the breakdown is quite interesting, the use of the delay from the vocal sample turns into background noises that sounds like jungle ambience, cool idea. Korg Lucas (T7) takes its time to develop its synths and lines with interactivity between some sounds in an interesting way. Again, I feel like a broken record, but the use of vocal samples is excellent here, the conversation between the female and the vocoded replier is amusing. We continue into “Mastering Yoda” (T8). This track has a lot of drive, starts off a bit softer then some other ones here, but doesn’t stay that way for long. E-Jekt uses a synth here that sounds like my brain is getting sawed in half… I think that’s the best way to describe it… “See Trippy Yo” is less caustic to your ears. The breaks are excellent in it; the sounds and percussions are clever as well. Last but certainly not least is “Dark Fader” (T10). At 140BPM, the track is as close as these 2 will come to a progressive trance idea. The bass has a strong drive and the sound progression is quite psychedelic.

Recomendation:  One thing very worth to mention is the sound quality of the music and the “stereo field” you sense while hearing this CD. There is plenty of panning going on to give a 3D type of effect on many of the sounds, while the bass and kick provide the foundation the rest are floating around, behind and in front – I enjoyed that very much. One thing missing for me here is the connection between tracks, some albums have a better sense of fluidity and relation between the tracks. The music itself has a driving force of a Mack truck, the album is a no nonsense hard trip from start to finish. At no point does the music “release” you, perhaps with the last track but it’s still strong. Well done E-Jekt, it’s a pleasure to listen to this kind of music with “teeth”…”fangs” to be more exact.
Fav. tracks: 1,2,3,4,7,10