Inspirazzia – Compiled by DJ Zombi – VP Records
Various Artists
Anything with a bird on the cover generally makes me think twice about listening. But finding out that VP stands for “Very Progressive”, and that this is a manifesto as much as a new sub-label from Germany’s wonderful Domo Records, we decide to give it a whirl: and immediately realise we made a good decision. New Isareli act Igal M. kicks off with Fall In Green, and it’s a staggering start: sweet melodies layered like slices of blue crystal, it’s gorgeous morning progressive that just lifts you up, places you in the middle of the dancefloor, cracks you open a beer, and shines the sun on you. D-Sens’ What You Want is deep and tribal and all about the hypnotic loops building up and drawing you in, and Andre Absolut’s Elevent 1 comes alive with this unbelievable stretchy, up-down groove. Refreshingly, it doesn’t try to do too much, it’s perfectly happy where it is and I for one am cool with that. Qualia’s Feedback has a nice, bouncy groove which holds the floor nicely before Vision & Canedypull a blinder with Insane, a deliciously floaty tune with nice high-end holding it all in place. I would give my right arm (er.. okay, my left arm) to hear this in the sunshine of a morning. It’s top, and it simply breezes along like a gem. V-Tunes’ Girl is deep and sparse with nice chord changes underneath an oscillating, hooky groove, and Sweat Attack vs Klangstrahler’s What Can I Say has vocals and guitars, a nice groove and a god piece of dance music but not really psy-prog friendly. Feuerhake & Okay’s Move The Signal is a delight, and the first tune I’ve heard which describes what all these people are on about when they ask about “psy-breaks”… it’s clean, it’s funky, it’s got definite psytrance production values… it just works. I played it to some mates who are part of a big South Coast Breaks thingy, and they loved it, so top marks fo r bridging a gap there. Finally Homer & Lazon’s (aka Tegma) To The Unknown is a smooth slomo settler, with a nice hooky groove to it: undeniably scando, and something I think I can hear more being played in prog clubs than trance places. Which kind of sums this album up really: it’s great, you’ll definitely like it, but if you’re looking for something to add to your Freq album to build a progressive psytrance set, this may not be it. For those that can appreciate decent, quality progressive music, you will certainly be rewarded.
