Creative Alienation - The Quest Of Psyborg / Psyborg Spiritual Spice Album

Now here's something very strange. First of all the label is called Alaska Swimming Gear. What kind of a name is that? Their catalogue numbers have had some strange conventions throughout the years, but I'm pretty sure this is really the second release. The first one had a dark blue label, this one is green. Their later releases have been much more club trance oriented and too low quality or too cheesy to appeal to me. The record comes in a somewhat custom shaped transparent plastic sleeve, you know the kind you use to protect your precious vinyls (but, as I said, custom shaped)? The styles of these two tracks are very different. Read on for more.

The A-side has some growling sound, like a somewhat pitched up lion and a fast beat with an off-beat bass that is more of a drum than a bass. A strange female laughter drops by on occation and things build up by using various synth noise and percussive elements. After a break the real fun begins - a melody thats so out of tune (or I guess it's just the portamento from hell), sense and pretty much everything else you can't help grinning. I smile like an idiot every time I hear this, because it sounds so cool. Play this to someone on acid and they'll laugh so hard they choke (I've seen it happen). In the next break another layer of the same melody fades in and then more percussion is slapped on with the return of the kickdrum. It just goes on like this with all sorts of filter effects on that hilarious melody. This should apply to fans of the finnish sound and possibly those who enjoyed the Lurifax EP on Iboga (IBOGAEP08). A little too fast though.

Now for something entirely different - The B-side opens with a loooooong intro, about 5 minutes, with a very mystical, eastern atmosphere. Very distant chanting voices, strange instruments and a slow tabla beat along with the occational chirping synth effect. It's all very quiet, and for effect you should give in to the temptation to crank up the volume - because things do get loud, trust me. A little over four minutes into the intro a gated 16th note melody comes along, letting the intro sounds fade out. The buildup from here is just awesome, and when the "real" track starts, the goosebump factor is at about a million. If you cranked it up during the intro, this is the punishment, or shall I say reward? The track sounds very goan, especially thanks to that lead melody, which scales back after about a minute, letting strange noises and the multilayered percussion take the stage for a while. But back comes that melody again, and it's bloody awesome.

Conclusion: VERY recommended! A rather unknown 12" from an unknown label, so with some effort it should be possible to find a copy.