Various - Mushy Mystery Album

Night crawlers…

Trishula Records from Germany headed by Rudra is out with their 3rd instalment… I thoroughly enjoyed the debut compilation Ignis Fatuus and the deeply original debut album The Abstract Machine by Megalopsy… Trishula has found its own distinct musical direction in releasing high quality dark, deep Halloween trance – and by the look of the tracklist here, this could be the darkest yet… Let’s find out…

Let me take you thru the tracks…

#01: Megalopsy – Intro
Kicking things in gear is the Argentinean trio consisting of Alejandro Santander, Matias Benamo, Nicolas Dibernardo… Trishula recently graced us with their very innovative debut album The Abstract Machine … This intro track here, is way too short for any kinda of review though…

#02: Mubali – Shake Lasta
Mubali is Greg Farley from the US and he had a track on the darkpsy compilation Lhiannon Sidhe – and he’s releasing his debut album on Trishula soon… This is my first encounter with his music though… The rules are laid down right from the intro – this is going to be deep, dark and disturbing… Gritty, noisy industrial soundscapes makes out the base of this track, whilst a dark, repetitive, blunt bassline takes care of the rest… Added to the mix is a bunch of twirling acid-lines causing havoc ~ and the occasional headache I’m sure… This track is very focussed – and driving, but there seems to be lacking something vital to really lift it from its bottomless pit of despair… The last couple of minutes are clearly the best when the track seems to finally find its focus… Ok track!

#03: Dejan & Shenz – Heu2
“After I'm gone, your earth will be free to live out its miserable span of existence... As one of my satellites! And that's how it's going to be!” Dejan is Dejan Mihailovic has had a few tracks released on Nabi Records. Shenz is Pin Cyril, and I’ve not heard any of his stuff before… Anyway, these two Frenchmen continue in the same vein as before… This is ultra-dark hyper-trance for the darkest hours of the night… This sounds less gritty though and much more psychedelic… The vast amount of flaring acid-squelches is right up my alley, and generally this track is twisted enough to keep me interested… Also the atmosphere in this track is very atmospheric – haunting really! I also dig the many twists here – one minute it’s totally stripped down to the bone – almost minimal… The next minute it’s full-blown evil psychedelic night-trance… Nice!

#04: Dronebixie – Zo Moth
Christian Kaas from Denmark impressed me greatly with his horror-track on the first Trishula compilation Ignis Fatuus… This track is equally dark and downright mean! After the initial raw sounds to kick things in motion, the track settles on a dark, twisted path… Scobbah described it as trippy, playful and funky – and that’s a pretty good description… This is something as rare as funky horror-trance! Tasty!

#05: Derango – Implosions (Final)
“You know I have an idea we have landed in something very sticky and disco!” Derango is two Swedish guys (Jens Eriksson & Ola Eriksson) – I remember their very unique style from both the Schizm compilation released by Gi'iwa Productions and their track on the Ignis Fatuus compilation… Both tracks had a very distinct Swedish forest-mushroom induced sound – highly original, and deeply psychedelic! And so is this track… Jimini Cricket – this is the shiznitz! Awesome track!

#06: Kemic-Al – Xifajk (Little Devil)
It’s no secret that I was absolutely blown away by Kemic-Al’s debut album Twisted Parameters released on Butterfly Records in January 2005… Aldo from Malta portrayed some amazing skills on that album, so obviously I’m excited about this track too… This is a darkish track, with a blunt, repetitive beat… Kinda stripped really – reminiscent of the first couple of tracks from the debut album… Although it’s extremely dark, the psychedelia is still running thick in this track – and that’s rare with dark psy I think… Very trippy track!

#07: Derango – Mushy Mystery
The title track is the second appearance by the Swedish duo consisting of Jens Eriksson & Ola Eriksson… The first track was awesome, and this is almost as good… Again it’s highly unstructured, complex, multilayered stuff… The atmosphere is super-trippy and haunting at times... This is Finnish vodka – spiked with Swedish mushrooms… And the outcome is deeply demented and highly psychedelic! Kick-ass!

#08: Savage Scream – Freakshow (Evilcore Edit)
Fasten your seatbelts! Savage Scream is Mizuki Nishihata from Japan… Besides this track, he also had a bunch of tracks on the Nabi compilation Run Motherfucker, Run… This is an insanely fast track [158 BPM] ~ approaching the not-fun-anymore factor… But despite the galloping bassline, Mizuki still has enough sense to add some twisted, trippy FX into the mix which helps a little… But this track is still a little too fast for my liking… And frankly, I don’t really find it as evil as the title suggests… Decent track!

#09: Psyfactor – Spawn Of Satan
Psyfactor is Dimitri Korablin from Russia – where else? Russia has a long tradition for extremely dark, demented psytrance and they were among the innovators of this sub-genre… I liked the demonic track Dimitri had on Ignis Fatuus and this is qually good. As the title suggest, this is spooky, nightmare trance best enjoyed in deep, dark dungeons… The intro is subtle and eerie, and the bassline truly sounds like something Beelzebub conjured himself… This is right up there with Xenomorph – wikkid evil stuff!

#10: Darkpsy – Elastik Darkness (2nd Version)
The last full length track here is by Darkpsy (Jonathan Molinari) from Portugal… Again it’s ultra-dark as the name implies and there is an overall bubbling, dark groove present here which I really enjoy… It’s dark and pumping, but still very vibrant and psychedelic with floating, atmospheric pads… A nice combo for sure! Sweet track!

#11: Megalopsy – Outro
The gauchos Alejandro, Matias and Nicolas are back for the outro track... This is experimental downtempo stuff – kinda like the transition parts of the album The Abstract Machine… It’s pretty creepy, but still nice for chilling out a little after this intense listening experience… ;o)

Trishula has done it again… Released another high-quality gem in the deep, dark demented hyper-trance category… This is even darker than Ignis Fatuus and the Megalopsy album – to be played during the darkest hours of the night… It’s raw, sick, evil, twisted night-trance – definitely not for the fainthearted… It requires decent audio set-up and is designed to scare friends, lovers and family… If you don’t want to scare people off, I recommend listening to this in headphones for an enhanced listening experience…

There are loads of very cool tracks here – more than enough to validate a purchase! I will not hesitate to recommend this compilation to fans of hard-hitting, nocturnal, dark psytrance… But beware – there is some evil stuff on here… Eeeeeeeevil! Full-on buffs and proggers should avoid this at all costs, but horror-freaks and other deviants will appreciate this immensely! Enjoy!

Favourites: 3, 4, 5(!!), 6, 7, 9, 10(!)