A Magical Journey 2

The second in the series from Trishula’s dowmtempo alter-ego Ajana carries on in much the same vein. After a slow start things pick up with Chronos’ Sky Path, with a wonderful series of rising pads, emotive chords, and ticklish topends. Truly magical stuff – the sort of music that reminds you that, yes, this planet can be a beautiful place and that one really should be happier to be here than most of us usually are.

Which is nice.

Unstable Elements’ Technical Illusions continues this theme – we’re talking deep, intricate music here, with some truly marvellous moments. Melodies come out from nowhere, flurries suspend you by a thread from the sky, and there’s a wonderful atmosphere of a cinematic sadness hanging against love-filled wonder.

Following his criminally underrated and underplayed album last year, Capsula comes up with the goods once again with Dice Man. It’s unbelievably strong, with a staggeringly deep and intricate set of melodies that breeze around, contrasting well with some bottom-end scratches. The evolution that goes through the track here is particularly worthy of note – this, folks, is how chillout should be. Procs’ Fascinating Superhero is a substantial departure from his dancefloor stuff, and implies a much more intelligent approach to making music than we may have given him credit for. Jazzy, explorative stuff with one foot firmly in dub territory.

Psyfactor does equally well with Galileo Space Mission. In the same vein as his recent downtempo album, the vibe is bustling and breaksy and has this chase-the-sunrise sort of feel to it. Mark my words, he’ll be on the forefront of the new style that’s threatening to emerge any second now. Finally Zoe Wheelingz closes the album with Shadow Is Back, a messy but interesting closer.

Not a bad album, then: there are some amazing moments around the middle that elevate it above a lot of the chill dearth out there. Not as cohesive as the first in the series, but pretty nice all the same.