Various Artists - Inner Circle (Tribal Vision Records)
review
Author: pr0fane
Date: Oct 13, 2005
Views: 3706
Date: Oct 13, 2005
Text: pr0fane
Artist: Various
Title: Inner Circle
Label: Tribal Vision
Format: CD (Jewelcase with 12 page inlay and DJ-inlay)
Released: September, 2005
Cover: http://quapim.sinfin.cz/ot/inner_circle_800.jpg
Review:
Czech-based progressive label Tribal Vision have already made huge impact on the scene with their first 2 releases \"Urban Legends\" and \"Lime Light\". With a mix of progressive trance and progressive house of sensationally high quality they impressed a lot of people, and therefore the expectations for the labels 3rd compilation \"Inner Circle\" have been enormous. But where the first 2 maybe where on the fluffy and melodic side, \"Inner Circle\" has more focus on the forgotten side of progressive trance - the dark side. Let\'s check out the result.
01. Intro by Mladen Glavinic [110 BPM]
The compilations starts with an intro by Mladen Glavinic from Croatia, also known as Parrket. A short, organic piece of tribal chillout with some very sweet piano-melodies - fine intro.
02. Beat Bizarre - Corrosive Juices (Shaman Remix) [136 BPM]
After the intro Shaman provide a remix of Beat Bizarres \"Corrosive Juices\", featured on the Danish duos 2nd album \"Pandoras Groovebox\". I personally consider the original one of the only highlights from an otherwise disappointing album, and Shaman does an ok job on the remix but without impressing at all. The track feels a bit more polished and there\'s more emphasis on the melodies, but can\'t say that I really liked it.
03. POTS - Pole Position Club [136 BPM]
POTS, short for Prisoners Of The Sun, was one of the biggest German minimal projects some years ago, but haven\'t since then received nearly as much attention as back then.\"Pole Position Club\" is a taster for their upcoming album on Tribal Vision, but unfortunately proves to be a disappointment - fine production, but extremely dull in atmosphere and doesn\'t seem to really go anywhere. I didn\'t connect to it at all.
04. Parrket - Science In My Mind [134 BPM]
Mladen Glavinic appears once again as Parrket - maybe not my favourite project, but still I find him quite interesting, due to the variety of his productions - from the 130 BPM laidback groover \"Through The Never\" on Candyflips \"Levitation\" compilation to the almost darkpsyish 145 BPM stomper \" Harlequin’s Guard \" on Pukkas \"Trancelvania\" compilation. \"Science In My Mind\" is somewhere in between, mainly with quite techish elements, but also a sweet melodic synthline. Best track so far on the compilation, though without really impressing.
05. Kalimax - Demons [140 BPM]
Kalimax is a new Swedish act consisting of Tony Comanti (from Moonflower Records) and Magnus Forsberg behind the successful Swedish portal mandarin.nu. \"Demons\" is a very pleasing tune, but maybe feels a bit out of place on this mainly night-oriented CD - very uplifting progressive trance with soft pads-a-plenty, perhaps not with the best production on the CD, but the ideas are definitely there, and I find it quite enjoyable. My favourite so far.
06. ProSect - Sonified [138 BPM]
One of the hottest names at the moment is Andy Yakovlev, involved in several different projects like Sonify, Sound Field, ICO and, probably the most well-known, ProSect. \"Sonified\" is one of his better tracks, mainly building on some very funky percussion. The Israeli influences become apparent after approximately 3 minutes with some epic melodies, building up to a crowd-pleasing break around the 5 minute mark. Great track.
07. NASA - Sloppy Noodle [137 BPM]
Mikkel Rasmussen from Denmark, old member of Gnome Effect, but now working on his own as NASA has been quite busy lately, releasing on Iboga, DOMO, Moonstone, Psytropic and Sinn Tec in the last year alone. \"Sloppy Noodle\" starts with a very promising dark intro (possibly the best I\'ve heard by him), very atmospheric and with some delicious wet percussion. The rest of the track works pretty good as well, with lush soundscapes and a quite psychedelic sound to it.
08. Human Blue - Screwdriver [140 BPM]
To me Human Blue stands as one of the pioneers of the Scandinavian sound, having no less than 3 albums and numerous singles and compilation-appearances in his discography, and with \"Screwdriver\" he deliver yet another storming tune. The overall theme is a Swedish sample (I\'m almost ashamed to say I don\'t understand what it means) and some subtly sexy samples, which in some ways reminds me of some of the tracks from the album by the German duo New Age Hippies.
09. Etnoscope - Fast Licking [142 BPM]
Etnoscope are probably some of the most talented artists in our scene when it comes to percussion, and their mix of natural percussion and deep, progressive forest trance led to the release of the \"Drums From The Dawn Of Time\" album on Digital Structures a few years ago. Since then they haven\'t released an awful lot, but when they do release something, it oozes with quality - \"Fast Licking\" is no exception, again with massive emphasis on a heavy, tribal kick and of course the percussion, which constantly raises in intensity before unfortunately finishing way too early. Great forest trance.
10. Tegma - No Time [140 BPM]
To finish the compilation we have a truly floor breaking track by Tegma from Sweden. \"No Time\" is somewhere between their 2 albums - the techish, relentless sound from \"Encoded/Decoded\" combined with the more full on oriented sound from their last album \"002: Avant Garde\". But where \"002: Avant Garde\" maybe was a bit fluffy for some of the older Tegma-fans, \"No Time\" is a lot darker and harder - a heavy, pumping progressive peak time stomper.
Bottom line:
\"Inner Circle\" doesn\'t fully live up to its predecessors \"Urban Legends\" and \"Lime Light\". Where it especially fails compared to those two is on the fillers - a few of the tracks where simply way too dull for my liking. That said, \"Inner Circle\" is not a bad release - It\'s especially noteworthy that Tribal Vision tries to vary their releases, and where the vast majority of progressive trance at the moment is overly fluffy, \"Inner Circle\" generally has some quite good night-oriented progressive trance - especially the last 3 tracks.
Overall a good release, but maybe my expectations where a bit too high.
Favourites:
5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (!!), 10 (!!)
Verdict:
7,5/10
Link:
Tribal Vision Records: www.tribalvision.cz
Review by:
Jannick Andersen // pr0fane
Website: www.sunrisesupplies.com
Label: www.dance-n-dust.com
Text: pr0fane
Artist: Various
Title: Inner Circle
Label: Tribal Vision
Format: CD (Jewelcase with 12 page inlay and DJ-inlay)
Released: September, 2005
Cover: http://quapim.sinfin.cz/ot/inner_circle_800.jpg
Review:
Czech-based progressive label Tribal Vision have already made huge impact on the scene with their first 2 releases \"Urban Legends\" and \"Lime Light\". With a mix of progressive trance and progressive house of sensationally high quality they impressed a lot of people, and therefore the expectations for the labels 3rd compilation \"Inner Circle\" have been enormous. But where the first 2 maybe where on the fluffy and melodic side, \"Inner Circle\" has more focus on the forgotten side of progressive trance - the dark side. Let\'s check out the result.
01. Intro by Mladen Glavinic [110 BPM]
The compilations starts with an intro by Mladen Glavinic from Croatia, also known as Parrket. A short, organic piece of tribal chillout with some very sweet piano-melodies - fine intro.
02. Beat Bizarre - Corrosive Juices (Shaman Remix) [136 BPM]
After the intro Shaman provide a remix of Beat Bizarres \"Corrosive Juices\", featured on the Danish duos 2nd album \"Pandoras Groovebox\". I personally consider the original one of the only highlights from an otherwise disappointing album, and Shaman does an ok job on the remix but without impressing at all. The track feels a bit more polished and there\'s more emphasis on the melodies, but can\'t say that I really liked it.
03. POTS - Pole Position Club [136 BPM]
POTS, short for Prisoners Of The Sun, was one of the biggest German minimal projects some years ago, but haven\'t since then received nearly as much attention as back then.\"Pole Position Club\" is a taster for their upcoming album on Tribal Vision, but unfortunately proves to be a disappointment - fine production, but extremely dull in atmosphere and doesn\'t seem to really go anywhere. I didn\'t connect to it at all.
04. Parrket - Science In My Mind [134 BPM]
Mladen Glavinic appears once again as Parrket - maybe not my favourite project, but still I find him quite interesting, due to the variety of his productions - from the 130 BPM laidback groover \"Through The Never\" on Candyflips \"Levitation\" compilation to the almost darkpsyish 145 BPM stomper \" Harlequin’s Guard \" on Pukkas \"Trancelvania\" compilation. \"Science In My Mind\" is somewhere in between, mainly with quite techish elements, but also a sweet melodic synthline. Best track so far on the compilation, though without really impressing.
05. Kalimax - Demons [140 BPM]
Kalimax is a new Swedish act consisting of Tony Comanti (from Moonflower Records) and Magnus Forsberg behind the successful Swedish portal mandarin.nu. \"Demons\" is a very pleasing tune, but maybe feels a bit out of place on this mainly night-oriented CD - very uplifting progressive trance with soft pads-a-plenty, perhaps not with the best production on the CD, but the ideas are definitely there, and I find it quite enjoyable. My favourite so far.
06. ProSect - Sonified [138 BPM]
One of the hottest names at the moment is Andy Yakovlev, involved in several different projects like Sonify, Sound Field, ICO and, probably the most well-known, ProSect. \"Sonified\" is one of his better tracks, mainly building on some very funky percussion. The Israeli influences become apparent after approximately 3 minutes with some epic melodies, building up to a crowd-pleasing break around the 5 minute mark. Great track.
07. NASA - Sloppy Noodle [137 BPM]
Mikkel Rasmussen from Denmark, old member of Gnome Effect, but now working on his own as NASA has been quite busy lately, releasing on Iboga, DOMO, Moonstone, Psytropic and Sinn Tec in the last year alone. \"Sloppy Noodle\" starts with a very promising dark intro (possibly the best I\'ve heard by him), very atmospheric and with some delicious wet percussion. The rest of the track works pretty good as well, with lush soundscapes and a quite psychedelic sound to it.
08. Human Blue - Screwdriver [140 BPM]
To me Human Blue stands as one of the pioneers of the Scandinavian sound, having no less than 3 albums and numerous singles and compilation-appearances in his discography, and with \"Screwdriver\" he deliver yet another storming tune. The overall theme is a Swedish sample (I\'m almost ashamed to say I don\'t understand what it means) and some subtly sexy samples, which in some ways reminds me of some of the tracks from the album by the German duo New Age Hippies.
09. Etnoscope - Fast Licking [142 BPM]
Etnoscope are probably some of the most talented artists in our scene when it comes to percussion, and their mix of natural percussion and deep, progressive forest trance led to the release of the \"Drums From The Dawn Of Time\" album on Digital Structures a few years ago. Since then they haven\'t released an awful lot, but when they do release something, it oozes with quality - \"Fast Licking\" is no exception, again with massive emphasis on a heavy, tribal kick and of course the percussion, which constantly raises in intensity before unfortunately finishing way too early. Great forest trance.
10. Tegma - No Time [140 BPM]
To finish the compilation we have a truly floor breaking track by Tegma from Sweden. \"No Time\" is somewhere between their 2 albums - the techish, relentless sound from \"Encoded/Decoded\" combined with the more full on oriented sound from their last album \"002: Avant Garde\". But where \"002: Avant Garde\" maybe was a bit fluffy for some of the older Tegma-fans, \"No Time\" is a lot darker and harder - a heavy, pumping progressive peak time stomper.
Bottom line:
\"Inner Circle\" doesn\'t fully live up to its predecessors \"Urban Legends\" and \"Lime Light\". Where it especially fails compared to those two is on the fillers - a few of the tracks where simply way too dull for my liking. That said, \"Inner Circle\" is not a bad release - It\'s especially noteworthy that Tribal Vision tries to vary their releases, and where the vast majority of progressive trance at the moment is overly fluffy, \"Inner Circle\" generally has some quite good night-oriented progressive trance - especially the last 3 tracks.
Overall a good release, but maybe my expectations where a bit too high.
Favourites:
5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (!!), 10 (!!)
Verdict:
7,5/10
Link:
Tribal Vision Records: www.tribalvision.cz
Review by:
Jannick Andersen // pr0fane
Website: www.sunrisesupplies.com
Label: www.dance-n-dust.com
For loged in users a comment form appears here.
no comments yet