Australian Trance Dance

Didgeridoo played over boring trance. That’s it basically – this is a Sydney duo composed of Mike Edwards (a fantastic didge player) and Nick West (a less-than-fantastic electronic producer.)

The CD claims to “explore the boundary between organic and electronic sound in the context of the trance/dance scene.” It fails. The production sounds antiquated: there are sounds, beats, even loops we’ve heard many times before.

At best it sounds like what Atmos was doing ten years ago (Lo Ki) and at its worst it sounds like an hilarious fuckabout made by someone dabbling in his bedroom with a cracked copy of Reason (What Level).

I accept, and indeed respect, that this isn’t marketed as a psytrance release. I also accept, and also respect, that one should experience this album on a different level in virtue of the fact that the live element has been moved to the front. However what might wash at Womad doesn’t wash everywhere.

In a climate where the live experience of psytrance has been all but perfected by the likes of Mantrix, and where it’s questionable whether the didge can ever be effectively used in electronic music after Aphex Twin has his second Analogue Bubblebath, it’s hard to find a justification for this album.