Quote (ApocaliX @ Dec 12 2011 07:21am)

If u got half an hour 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2VxFFG9-ME

Quote (HERETICtheory @ Dec 12 2011 11:01am)

Yeah, I like to think that I can be pretty understanding about that kind of thing, but Infected has disappointed me greatly with the past few releases.  I understand that an artist grows, and especially IM, they have always changed their style up but I feel they've almost entirely abandoned their goa/psy roots at this point.  IM and Shpongle were the bands that pushed me into this genre of music and I hold the older IM material very dearly.

After Vicious Delicious came out I read an interview with them saying that they were hearing a lot of people saying that they missed the older stuff and that they wanted to do the new album in a direction that might take it back to that sound a little more.  I got excited when I heard this but recently I found their new stuff, I don't think it's out on an album yet though.  I guess they're calling it psystep.  I understand that you can't just pigeon hole an entire genre but for the most part I feel dubstep lacks depth and sophistication, not that there can't be a few solid tracks here and there but the whole womp womp thing got old very fast.  Dubstep has always stood out to me as the metalcore of electronic music.  The womp mimics the breakdowns, they're the exact same musical element.  I used to be huge into metalcore, and I still enjoy some of it but it's downfall was exactly the same, lack of depth and sophistication.  Most metalcore became the same commercial shit with the same breakdowns repeated over and over.  The masters of metalcore are still masters in my opinion, though they are few and far between because the genre itself destroyed itself from the inside out with commercialism.  It's sad to see IM take this route but it's their music and they should do what speaks to them, though I can't shake the feeling that they sold out hard.  Brings to mind the lyrics from Converting Vegetarians... "I wake up, and my mind's out, never again will I sell out..." 

I have to wonder though, does lack of psychedelic influence affect art to this level?  I guess I just feel that IM has catered more towards the crowd of people who want to go clubbing and get wasted lately, rather than the towards the group of people who want to commune, trip and dance together all night.  Two different ways to enjoy yourself, but I feel the depth of the experience is extremely heightened by psychedelics.  Lately, I've seen them drinking while working on tracks and talking about how they always drink when they do.  I can't judge their music solely based on that, I drink sometimes making tunes too, usually not to great result, but I find it interesting, the connection COULD be there.  Simon has always used psychedelics as a crucial part of screening his tracks before release, what he calls the acid test.  His music is consistently psychedelic and deeply emotional.  On the other hand, I see Talpa's music as very psychedelic and trippy, full of psychedelic vibes yet he claims he doesn't do drugs at all and only drinks.  Who knows, I just thought it was interesting to note.

Maybe once they get this whole psystep thing out of their system they will return a bit more to their original sound.  Empty words really though, I'm not banking on it at all.  There were good times to be had, at least we can still enjoy those.

Quote (Makemetalmusic @ Dec 12 2011 05:51pm)

I definitely feel there is a strong correlation there. I saw them on an interview and they were all drinking beers and generally acting kind of stupid. When I saw them, the crowd that came in for them was really just a bunch of those new generation ravers who's sole purpose is to be as fucked up as possible at the show. Some guy even tried to fight me during cities of the future. That's not how a true psychedelic show should be. I'm glad I wasn't tripping for that one, I might've been put in a bad place by all the negative vibes around me. When I was at Shpongle last October, that was a true psychedelic show. I'm fairly sure at least 90% of the crowd was tripping, and there were a lot of people there. All around was crazy dancing to the music, no violence, just celebration of the human experience. That's how it's supposed to be. I'm not sure why Infected has chosen this route, they must be aware their music is no longer psychedelic, they're obviously very intelligent guys,the reason is WHY?! Why would they do that! It makes no sense. Yeah I've heard them say they get bored with a sound if they stick with it too long, but if they were in tune with psychedelic music at all anymore they would remember true psychedelic music never sounds like anything else. There are plenty of new sounds to be created, new ways to arrange them, new techniques to uncover...And fuck it's not like they don't have the ultimate studio for just that. I feel they're trying too hard to force a party atmosphere into their music, and with psychedelic music it doesn't need to be forced, because people will always dance if it's psychedelic and they're tripping. I don't know how you CAN'T dance to psychedelic music when you're tripping, the two go together, it's the combination that makes the experience.

On the plus side, I have noticed that we're currently in a massive explosion of psychedelic music, particularly in Psybient and Forest Psy, and with new artists emerging, Infected can go play their club tunes all they want, someone somewhere is in the studio working on music that will fill their slot in the community. I feel like Derango is going to be the new Infected, they're already branching out of their Forest Psy style and into Psybient, so it's likely we'll see an experimental album from them sometime soon. Of course, Derango is still no where near what Infected has accomplished with synthesis, but if you listen to Infected's first release, it wasn't all that complicated, just kind of a dark goa, and very danceable. I would say Derango's first release is perhaps superior to The Gathering, so it'll be interesting to see where they're taken next.

Quote (Makemetalmusic @ Dec 13 2011 03:57pm)

Unrelated to the previous post, but maybe something you're interested in, Dylan. Do you know the synthesizer the Alesis Ion? Well, they re-packaged it into a horrid little box called the Micron, and it got a few expansions and additions. The Micron's build quality was kind of bad, and the synth looks like a toy, which is kind of insulting to it's big version, the Ion, which looks like a control panel from the star trek Enterprise. Anyways, so Akai bought Alesis, and re-made the Micron into the Akai Miniak. The sound engine is still the exact same as the Micron, which was identical to the Ion, except that the Micron and Miniak have extra filters and more polyphony, I believe. The build quality is also vastly superior and it looks like an actual synth, albeit tiny. Anyways, the synth sounds really great, and it's dirt cheap, which brings me to my point. Several stores are doing massive sales on the Miniak, and it's selling for as low as $250 USD brand new, which is pretty damn good considering it has like 20 different filters, including formant filters for making trippy vocal noises and the effects don't sound bad either. I was actually thinking about grabbing one, because the mod matrix is so beastly on it and it sounds pretty good for the price. It also has a software editor/librarian available online for like 40 bucks, and the interface is very well laid out, so you don't even have to use the shitty Miniak interface. Just figured I'd let you know since, if you're like me, you want more gear but don't have a lot of money to invest, this would be something worth checking out.

Damn, I just re-read that, I should be a salesman for Akai, I really sold that shit, ahahah.

Anyways, here's a synth demo by Jexus of the Ion, which is basically the Miniak (He does all sorts of trippy synth demos, if you're interested in that)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXV4RsEy8b8