Come on now, crank this motherf*cker up! After a couple of compilation tracks, South African Xatrik (Greg Hamber) is out with his debut album, on Australian quality label Digital Psionics. To be honest, my knowledge of Xatrik was extremely limited before receiving this CD – so my high expectations were based solely on the label releasing it. In my opinion Digital Psionics have released some of the most innovative stuff in the scene – with the Scatterbrain album as the absolute spearhead. So, let’s see what gems Psywalker & Co. chunks out this time… Let me take you thru the tracks… #01: Just to get things going and get you in the mood, we’re exposed to this weird little tune… All kinds of spacey FX are thrown around seasoned with irregular beats, digital farts and electronic burps… And so it begins… #02: “You’re entering a realm with is unusual. Maybe it’s magic. It contains some kind of […voice sample run backwards TwinPeaks-style…]. The second one – prepare to enter the scary door!”… This full-on, night-time track has an extensive range of layers, brilliantly incorporating all kinds of twisted FX: Dark, driving bassline and some serious hardcore acid-tweaking… Hundreds of psychedelic bleeps and bleeps and squealing 303’s… Oh, and I think I hear a pitched up foghorn too… Oh yes, this is some seriously trippy stuff… Nice track! #03: 8 seconds to catch your breath and we’re straight into a similar mayhem of sound as where the last track left off… The beats are somewhat darker and faster now, and the surrounding melodies/acid-twirls are of a more haunting nature… I wouldn’t go as far as calling this Halloween-trance, but we’re definitely heading in that direction… The track has an overall zombie-feel to it… Very fast, spooky night-trance… Should satisfy any Parvati-fan… I can’t get enough of that break/climax-part @ 5,03… “Ok men, are you ready to go? I’m ready to go! Come on now, crank this motherfucker up!” – After that sample, all hell breaks loose and it’s time to just let loose and go ballistic… Those last 3 minutes are pure bliss! ;o) #04: More of the same madness in Particle Flux…Some high-pitched ear-drum torture noises kick off the track, and soon the gritty bassline is back alongside some space-craft voice-samples… As you might have guessed by now, Xatrik is very generous with the psychedelic effects, so once again we are treated to all kinds of fucked-up, trippy effects… Spacey synth melodies, laser-beams, acid-lines – and more acid lines than I can count… Sooooo intense, almost too intense for the last couple of minutes… But still a nice track! #05: “Please specify how you would like to proceed!?”… First part of this track is more stripped down, but not stripped-down in the usual sense… There is still a lot of stuff going on… A banging, irregular bass and different percussion + some kind of chant in the distant background… Further into the track, the first acid line is introduced accompanying some wicked pads… Slowly the track builds, gaining energy… @ 4’53 there is a break, but soon enough the groove is back, with recharged batteries… This is a funky number – less intense… Ok track… #06: ZA meets Finland… With the sound of a laser beam, this track is in full FX… I dunno what’s environmental about it though!? All kinds of technological sounds are weaved in between a crisp, sharp bassline… Talented use of percussion – both organic and metallic… Undecipherable drug-samples… As much as this is dark, fast-paced night-time trance, we also get a couple of naïve melodies – mentally tweaked almost beyond recognition… I can vividly imagine tripping to this tune – beware! Extremely psychedelic… #07: And now The Cleaner… Hard, pounding, repetitive bassline – yet, this is lighter, fluffier and more melodic than some of the other trax… And fluffy is used as a positive adjective here… Acid-lines - Knob-adjustment – tweaking… Constant changes in pitch, trippy synths and some really sweet soundscapes in the background, helps create a hectic, yet pleasant feeling… Tasty track! #08: Gloomy acid-ridden intro… “This should be played at high volume”… It’s hard to grasp, but this track seems even more psychedelic than its predecessors… Driving bassline, and extremely trippy groove… Wicked percussion, guitars, irregular cut beats and the likes… Very cool build-up part @ 4’55…And @ 5’20 all hell brakes loose… Damn, what the hell was that? I like the odd-ball approach, though it can get a little too weird for even my taste at places… #09: Last track co-produced by The Slug (as a couple of other tracks on compilations)… Echoing intro, and then some haunting, irregular bassline… The demented Sauna-feel continues here, and this is some severely demented stuff… Frantic even… I can’t even begin to count the layers… So much stuff going on, but somehow focus is never lost… Phew, that was quite a ride… This is some seriously wild sh*t… I mean, multilayered, highly complex and very, very intense… Hard-core sensory attack! It’s like all your senses are being bombarded – by countless psychedelic elves throwing resonance-bricks at you… Until you’re left with a big-ass wall of sound – can you cope? Well, generally I like it and yes, I can cope… But on the other hand, I need to take this in smaller doses… At certain parts it gets too intense even for my taste… Perhaps I need to listen to this while on shrooms? … Could be… But hey, there is no doubt in my mind that a very large portion of time and production skills have gone into making this… And that does not go unnoticed… Well done Xatrik (and The Slug) – your debut album is impressive! Recommended to anyone who likes multi-layered, crazy-ass, in-yer-face, twisted, highly psychedelic trance… 8/10 Favourites: 2, 3(!), 4, 7