Psychedelic Vibes 4 is one of the first CDs I ever bought - I think it was the second or third. Since then, it has a very special place in my heart. I'm not sure if the reason is the fact that I’ve listened to it very early in my trance education, or simply because it is so amazingly good. One thing I can say about it - it stands on the top of my most psychedelic CDs together with Hallucinogen's Twisted, and that's a very good place to stand in. I don't know how popular these tracks were back in the days since I was only 13 when this CD was released, but I'm sure it was classified as top notch psychedelia.
First track here is a remix by The Delta to Johann Bley (T1). This is actually full on. I'm guessing this was one of the first track to use this kind of baseline and also the guitars - and for that it should be in the trance hall of fame for inventing what is one of the most overused motives in modern day music. The next two tracks, X-Dream's Brain Forest (T2) and the Pleiadians Remix to Crop Circles' Full Mental Jackpot (T3), are hard to explain in words. They both begin with some bizarre looped vocal (?) sample and they both evolve to a lush array of layers, sounds, melodies, effects and hidden sounds you discover with every repeated listening. The compilation turns a bit minimal starting with Hyperactive (T4), and it keeps going that way until the end. Psychaos (Joti Sidhu) with Chaos to Order (T5) tells us how divergent music should really sound and fortunately he keeps his style even today, although somewhat less psychedelic. Next are side project of more famous names - Z To A a.k.a. Synchro, Somaton a.k.a. Shakta and Lagoon a.k.a. Absolum. Each of them gives his own unique style, but they are held together with a common element - mind twisting sounds. Ending the fun is Orion (Jean Borelli working with Mino Vaknin) with Highway (T9), spacey and weird is the word to describe this one.
This compilation is one of a few that really deserve to be called psychedelic. Everything here is demented - the names, the music, the cover art. The music itself is (sorry for the expression) fucking hallucinatory! This is the top of that time and all that's left to do is ask where are they today. |
