Psydrop The Miracle Man Agitato (Israel)

Occasionally, we receive emails from rabid full-on freaks who can barely stop shaking to type. They want the biggest, most full power, straight-down-the-middle no-nonsense oldskool full-on power trance… and so to them I say, ‘this is probably what you should get this week’. Psydrop might be as subtle as a psychedelic brick through a window, but this ballsy, confident approach to the music is direct and effective. Angels Dust opens the album, holding back on the full energy for all of twelve seconds, and it’s off on the beginning of the rollercoaster. Big bass, fast bpm’s, and a killer sample-lead break-ette that ignites the tune like a pissed pyrotechnician at an Ozzy Osbourne gig. Mind Refund is a sweaty, punky maelstrom with an almost disco bassline that’ll have the crowd bouncing off the walls, while Imaginary Reality takes it a shade darker and pulls melodies by the ears out of the atmospheric background. Radical Command is pure goa – 16th bass, daft noises, killer synths, thru-the-roof melodies and bags of samples. The Power Plant takes a dip-n-rise groove, chucks some hefty kickage at it and throws some melodies over the top, while Perspective Sound seems to have a kind of electro feel to it, plus the silliest samples of the album and rubber-burning melodies that are packed with energy. Fans of the old spirit will probably get the biggest kick out of Higher Destinations, a track that keeps on rising and rising and throws guitars and a billion creaks, while uber-melodies do the business in impressive style. And rounding things off, Online Opus offers more of the same, but this time with the knobs all turned up to eleven. Few surprises then, and undeniably formulaic, but this is the spirit that drives the scene, and it’s well-executed and effective full-on. You’ll either love it or you’ll hate it.