Ritual Cycle Neurobiotic

Fresh from the italian based record label is the debut album from

French act Tikal and this is sure to make a big impression. The production sparkles throughout and their unique slant on psytrance is refreshing and invigorating. What we have here is happy-to-be-alive dancing-under-the-sun full-on morning trance and it really brings a smile to the face. the opening tune (Equinox) launches us into the big no holds barred sound - a sound stage full of squelchy elves and elvesses, and powerful bass leads the way and then we see what Tikal are really capable of - mixing a celtic folk tune over the psychedelic trance backbone wasn't just a shock is was a downright SPLURGE! More of the same in track2 (Sunshine Middle East) with heavy tribal vocals searing into the midday heat. Breath(rmx) is a remix of the Bamboo Forest tune and when that vocal drops it's a real marmite moment - you either love it or hate it....there's no doubt it's a real moment of celebration but i can't help but think it straddles the boundary of dairy-based-congealment land and comes down firmly on the side of us-vocal-house-mincing rather than proper knees up styleee (note- for the record Marmite is wonderful- and better than Vegemite ;) Jazzistique is a real uptempo number - irreverant and moving now into _really full-on land. The swirling spiral of synths is intensified as it pulls you ever closer to the speaker stacks, and the atmosphere created by the classical instruments is sublime and complemented perfectly by glorious female vocals. Aura(rmx) is a remix of the tune that was on neo:robotics and if you thought it couldn't get any better wow-o-wow were you wrong. Simply fantastic is the best way to describe this tune. Everything is in the right place, the subtle harmonies in the background have been tweaked to per fection and "that riff"(TM) is as divine as ever.....to close the cd we have two downtempo (ish- they hover around the 100bpm mark) and they are the really funky jazzy Horn Travel and the dubbed out bliss of Canicule. As a debut album this is stunning - The whole thing is full of fresh ideas and shows little regard for the normal formulas of psytrance happy to throw all sorts of unexpected twists and vocal samples to really strech those dancing legs. Expect Tikal to make a big impression.

FOUR GLASSES OF SOYA MILK AND A WHOLE VEGAN FLAPJACK