Killers Only

( Shiva Space Japan , Sep. 2006 )



1. Broken Toy - Crowd Disrapter - 146 bpm 
2. Wizard Lizard - Emotional Trauma - 146 bpm 
3. Shiva - Dark Impulses - 148 bpm 
4. Shiva Keystone - Kung Pow Pop - 148 bpm 
5. Damage - Motherfucking Beat - 148 bpm 
6. Shiva Dark Matter - Future Domination - 148 bpm 
7. Jigsaw - 3eround (Bombax rmx) - 152 bpm 
8. Brainwash - Freaky - 148 bpm 
9. A.P.E - Knowing The Maitreya - 146 bpm

Killers Only is a new compilation of night music compiled by the scene veteran Shivajoerg and released by Shiva Space Japan. The quality of the release is overall far above the average, and I'm sure that the mastering by Shulman @ Aleph Zero Studio contributed for this, and express the label's concern for the quality.
Inside the booklet we can find only a verse from the Bhagavad-Gita:

"No weapon can pierce the soul,
no fire can burn it,
no water can moisten it,
nor can any wind wither it...
The soul is immutable,
all-permeating,
ever calm,
and immovable"
On the back-side of the booklet we can find all the track's bpms, I appreciate that.
The artwork is beautiful, and was made by www.psyborg.ch
The release begins at 146 bpm, accelerates till 152 and ends at 146 again.
I think the tracks order is good. Except for some interesting bass work, the first track is not my style, so I hit the skip bottom. Now we got a powerful sequence of good music. Wizard Lizard presents us an excellent track, full of rhythm and powered by nice ideas. Next tracks, one by ShivaJorg alone, and two others in collaborations have clearly his personal signature, like deep bass lines and politically oriented samples, including some from the movie "V for vendetta". The Brainwash track is also peculiar, it has a crazy build up with a devastating effect on dance floor. The last track by A.P.E is somehow different from the others, sounds slower, good choice to close this effective release.
One thing I don't like here is that some tracks like Crowd Disrapter and Motherfucking Beat have repetitive vocals used as some sort of effects. Another thing that could improve is that we have only 61 minutes of music, almost one quart of the CD is empty.

I think Shiva Joerg did a nice job compiling this release, and also in all tracks in which he is involved, but the Wizard Lizard track is my favorite here. One important issue is that these tracks have nice samples. I wouldn't call this "dark psytrance"; I think just good night music describes it better. In one sentence: "Killer, but not evil."

Recomendation: I think the title of this compilation "Killers Only" means night music for the dance floor. That's what we have here, a compilation of tracks meant for the dance floor, specially for big sound systems. What could be better is that we could have at least one more track here. If you're a night DJ and like to hear screams when you're playing, you should definitely check this one out.
Favorites: 2(!), 3(!), 6, 8.
Respect!

Review by : full_on.