Date: Aug 4, 2005
Text: Damion
Taken from: www.psyreviews.com
Vote: 6/10

Welcome has a very silly opening, willy meaning bad not silly meaning good – a pitched-down “almost sounds black” voice going on about what makes a track work etc etc etc.. it’s baffling, basically. Then there’s this mid/high-end melody that’s pure Euro and will leave many struggling to find a place for it in their hearts.. The album kicks in properly with Gipsy, which has some amazing production on it… I’d forgotten just how intricate and shiny Tikal can be. The variation and morphing here is class, there’s a lot of changes that really work. Chers Amix kicks off with a quirky intro with a lot of French speaking and a stab into some kinda daft punk-like house (which, if it’s Tikal, is bloody good). The tune is tight and has great percussion, but it’s spoiled by a sample of that really famous Indian singer, a sample Coldcut was using no less that 17 years ago. Ignoring that bit, there’s some wonderful moments here – jazzy piano comes in and really works, creating a loose and funky groove that’s going to sound amazing at the sonica festival! The Silicon Sound Shell remix is pretty tasty, more or less just what you’d expect from the collaboration: very French, very clean, very smooth. The breakdowns are massive, of course, and the final runs have a brilliant balance of melody and twist, and once that final SS melody comes in it’s sublime… taking the original’s morning-friendly sound and adding Tikal’s soaring melodic massaging, it’s a pretty special moment. Overdrive is pretty bloody decent. It’s balanced and unforced, with a nice swagger to it, and the way it builds into a chunky, long distance truckdriver of a tune makes it one of the nicest tracks on the a lbum. Oh, and there’s only minimal topend-operatic chick singing. When I saw there was a track here called Sweet Child, I thought it was going to have a sample from that Guns n Roses song in there – but no, that cant be true – can it? YES IT CAN, and there are so many reasons why I should hate this… but I can’t. It takes one of the best, post-mullet electric guitar moments and, apart from getting a couple of the notes wrong at the end of the riff, it does good stuff with it. Cheesy of course, but the effectiveness of this one on the dancefloor should prove itself. And in any case, I’m listening to it now, on the verge of leaving for seeing this lot at Sonica, so I’m aware I’ll probably hate it by the time I’ve been back for a week or two. Interlude is more or less just that, it’s four minutes of samba-brazilia sort of thing, though for some reason it morphs into normal-sounding Tikal stuff at the end. Tequila is chedd ary in the extreme but I’m loving it at the moment – funkier than Kool & The Gang reformed to play at your sister’s wedding, I firmly state here and now that if this doesn’t get you in the mood for some pissed up summer dancing then you’re most likely clinically dead. Wave After Wave works nicely at 104bpm with a slinky, starsky-and-hutch vibe going through it, and with the proper-chilled La Bonne Etoile sounding like a jam & spoon-meets-jean-michelle-jarre, it’s either going to float your boat or sink it. So while Carnival might not be the best present for Azax Syndrom’s birthday, it should appeal to anyone gearing up for a kickin’ summer. The fluidity of Tikal’s music is its strongest point, but quite whether you’ll be listening to this for years to come is another matter entirely.