Ooze System by Mr. Rogers is to be honest nothing like I was expecting. I had only read the description given at Psyshop merely calling this Psytrance. From the cover I was expecting this to be either some hard as nails Suomi or cheesy ass full on. It might be time for Psyshop to come out of the dark ages and update their 3 styles of Psytrance, progress trance and ambient. This release squarely falls into none of those categories. It is psychedelic for sure, oozing with trippy sounds indeed but it really is untrancey! It is too upbeat to be called ambient but the beats are too sporadic and breaky to conform to trance. It is heavy on the bass that reverberates from side to side in headphones and surround systems and for me has a feeling of psychedelic funky hip hop come chilled breakbeat.
The first three tracks are decidedly underwhelming, the second having an annoying sample halfway through that makes me cringe when I hear it. After the sample in the third track though, things pick up with some great wet synth work lying under some funky beats. There are some nice dark bass synths, trippy samples and light melodic sounds that coalesce into a pretty decent track. The DMT Factor (T4) can also be found on the compilation Children of the Blue Ray - 13 Moons and is where I think my whole feeling of this album being psy hop or psychedelic hip hop started. The bass, the beats and the long vocal sample all make me feel like I am in some funky underground hip hop club. If you think of hip hop as just hip pop rap crap don't get the wrong idea, I think of hip hop as funky and chilled dance music without any caps in the ass. Also even though I usually shy away from drug samples in tracks, this one is just fucked up enough for me to enjoy. The description of DMT is so far from my own experience while being just the same, it's cool. Sparkplug (T5) sounds like some pretty regular hip hop with a bass line that moves a little more and a few psychedelic noises in the background. But the beats, lyrics and overall feeling is a little too "normal" for my liking. Spookey Kabluey starts with a funky beat and a reverberating bass line. More sounds come in throughout and it ends up as a busy but fairly average track. Bahroo! (T7) is a much more bouncy track with lots of melody but for me some of the melodies are a little on the cheesy side which is a shame as the others are really nice. A Boy and His Blob (T8) is a very glitchy track that when in the right mood can really hit the right spot. However the rest of the album does not create this mood and this seems out of place. One for a mix set. Tameron's Cube (T9) starts off glitchy too but finds some order more quickly and gets the balance just right to leave the track as some cool funky glitchy danceable chillout. Life, the closing track, is more moody lounge than anything else. It has the odd psychedelic touch here and there but more of an urban atmosphere for late night/early morning reverie. It’s a nice comedown to the album. |
