Occurrance

There’s something a bit special about this album; this is the reason it’s taken me so bloody long to review it. Fact is, it went straight in my case logic to three countries this northern summer, then it stayed there after I got back and I completely forgot I was supposed to review it. Pretty stupid of me, yes: but then we all have our moments, right? Essentially it’s an album that straddles morning psytrance and progressive, but it does it so bloody well and has so many different atmospheres associated with it, that it’s head and shoulders above pretty much anything else with the same mission statement.

Setherian and Hypersonic Whomen kick off with Floripa Sunshine, an interesting collaboration whose product is equally so: deep, fluid trance that coasts along nonchalantly, tickling you behindthe ears as it goes. Sound Field’s One Step Above The Sun is a work of art; slomo sunshine dancing, the sun warming your face, building effortlessly to a point where this incredible, otherworldly midrange line comes in and takes you off on a very special, dreamy little trip. Wonderful, and one of my favourite tunes of the year.

Echotek’s Endless Run picks up the pace a little, and again it’s got a great little sound to it. The movement of the music is subtle, the way it pushes upwards and outwards is staggering and quite where the energy comes from is a beautiful mystery. Triptych vs Sim 1 increase the tempo again with Silver Trip, with melodies and glassy production just as you’d expect from the former, mixing in well with the Protoculture-like fluidity of the latter. Setherian’s What Was Lost And Forgotten is probably my favourite of his tunes so far; it’s epic (ten and a half minutes) and has so many changes, it’s almost as though all the styles you’d hear at a 24-hour party are represented in one track, with a final drop that’ll bring tears to your eyes.

Chromosome vs Rumble Pack isn’t bad, but isn’t great; it seems to be trying to do what Sound Field has already done better. Spectra’s Insane is a fine piece of friendly-melody trance that almost fuses Ibizan terrace with psy-tech-prog: one thing I am sure of is the magnetism that seeps out through the layers and draws you right into the heart of what’s going on. Visua’s Sayonara is an interesting bit of morning trance, let down by having a bit too much going on in it and somehow sounding a bit disinterested in itself; and Native Radio’s Downtschaggi is a techhy, outward little fella that sounds like the dying strains of the party, as you start to feel hungry and in need of a sit down, or even better a lie down.

Occurrance is a fantastic album. It’s pitched at a different market, which is firmly in its favour – when did we consent to having a whole album of fullon stormers anyway? Didn’t good albums use to be genuinely varied? Anyway, I digress: I love this. It’s got that something special that you don’t find often, and hence after this review the album will be back in my CD case for quite some time to come. Respect.