Far East Ghost (Takeomi Matsuura) is out with his second album. This time it’s a double album, divided into Emperor, which is the main CD, and a second CD with remixes for the track Return of the Bastard and two versions for tracks from the album.
To describe the music of Far East Ghost one moniker comes to mind and that is: dark. Even for dark psytrance this album stays on the low spectrum of things, containing little melodies in most tracks and real fast bpms, reaching over 160/170 in some tracks. There’s loads of dark atmosphere in these tracks, and it’s a clear fact that Far East Ghost likes metal and industrial as well, as two of the songs on here, rebellion and revolt have voice samples from metal and guitar sampling. Most dark psytrance relies heavily on sampling from thriller and horror movies, but Far East Ghost seems content to create dark atmospheres with sound. The album is best digested as a whole, because then it really creates a dark and menacing feel and environment. This is reflected in the album’s artwork as well, which is also very dark. My favourite tracks here are also the darkest ones. Tracks 1, 2, 4, 5 & 7. The last track is also really dark, has an industrial feel to it and plays with the bpm, starting slow and then suddenly moving up to about 180 bpm, terror style, even playing with distorted bass drums. Not a great track, but a nice change. You might notice that track 5, Emperor, is nowhere on the cover, it’s a hidden track, hiding like the "..emperor that resides within the mental realm of each individual.", to quote the release info.
The second CD starts off immediately with another dark and kicking track. This track is then remixed by five different dark psytrance artists. The remixes are great, and especially those by Savage Scream and Fatal Discord stand out from the crowd. They manage to be even more menacing than the original. The remixes are also a bit more diverse, playing more with samples and bass lines than Far East Ghost does himself. Finally there are instrumental versions from the two tracks with vocals from disc one. So, if you don’t like the vocals you can still listen to these tracks on disc two. |