Z-Machine (Paul Marks) compiled this and he’s no stranger to the psytrance scene worldwide. The compilation contains a lot of full on tracks by some of the more prominent names in the scene. As you probably guessed this album is all about full on with massive basslines, swirling acidic lines and a general party atmosphere.
Z-Machine himself starts this one off with a Logic Bomb kinda track, pretty straightforward with nice vibes. A perfect way to get into this. Quantum then follows and although the bassline is great here, the vocals are not. A skip for me, I’m sad to say. Quantum’s first album was one of my favorites at the time it was released, but this is a step backward for him. On to Unstable Machine (T3), which features the 'biggest' names on this compilation. And it’s a stormer, I’m glad to say. Straightforward, kicking, massive sounding. Nice. Dual Core have a kind of minimalesque track on their hands, which manages to entice nonetheless. Slider vs. 2Minds brings more standard full on to the table and it moves away quite easily. Magnetica with some more vocals, but luckily not annoying ones. It’s an all and all ok track. Tracks 7-9 deliver the standard full on approach and are ok tracks that work well, but don’t have anything special going on. All ok so far, but the CD ends very disappointing with a track by Void that we could all have done without. It’s not that the track isn’t well thought out, it just has these horrible male vocals that deliver stupid simple rhyme after stupid simple rhyme. It’s a pity too, since the rest of the track is ok.
Anyway, an album with lots of nice full on to sink your teeth into. Alas, for me two letdowns. Mastering is nicely done, and the cover art looks great. It has this aggressive techno look going on. |
