Aug 17, 2014

Sundaze 1433

Hello,

Today a highly prolific ambient, trance and psytrance producer, known to have in excess of 50 recording aliases, alas the man is no more on this plane. He left us plenty of sundaze. Meanwhile Ishq means "love" in Persian and Hindi, it is also a word used by such past masters as Rumi to express love of the divine and the ecstatic love of the Sufi or lover of God and all God's creation. It's also the name of a band that will feature the coming weeks... ...N'Joy

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Jake Stephenson

The late Jake Stephenson was a highly prolific ambient, trance and psytrance producer, known to have in excess of 50 recording aliases. He is best known for his solo project Shamanic Tribes On Acid as well as collaborations with other artists, such as Brian Trower (Optica, Optic Eye) and Matt Hillier (Alien Mutation, Crystal Moon). Jake passed away on the 22nd of January 2005 after an attack of epilepsy.

Prolific UK trance/psytrance/ambient producer. The bulk of Stephenson's output was released on the Kinetix, Rumour Records and Jumpin' & Pumpin' record labels under a multitude of project names, the most well-known being his solo project Shamanic Tribes on Acid and his collaborations with Brian Trower (Optic Eye, Optica) and Matt Hillier (Alien Mutation vs. Indigo Egg, Crystal Moon).

The most frequently used solo project name for UK producer Jake Stephenson, Shamanic Tribes on Acid released several albums (Acid Apocalypse, 303 To Infinity, The Mad Hatter's Acid Tea Party, and Future World ) as well as 12"es and compilation tracks mainly in the psychedelic trance vein. The music of Jake Stephenson is scattered across many many compilation albums, all of which are pretty much deleted, the man was prolific, and passed away far too young, but then he crammed a lot of life into those few years. Jake Stephenson passed away on the 22nd of January 2005 after an epilepsy attack.


Ishq are Matt Hillier and Jacqueline Kersley, they are based in St Ives Cornwall, UK and have been making music since about 1995 under various guises including Indigo egg, Ishvara, Elve, and a few other alter egos. Ishq music skirts between IDM electronica, deep ambience and even has some newage overtones. The emphasis seems to be on music as harmony.

Ishq's music has something of this overflowing and romatic spiritual quality and "'Beauty", it could be summed up as music of the heart (though also of the head).

Matt and Jacqueline also run Virtual (3), a limited edition CD label which releases their more experimental soundscape music and other studio works.


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Acid is here not refering to the drug (although that too is possible to include in the mix), but the the type of sonic effect emanating from synths like the Roland TB-303, creating those wonderfully twisted psychedelic sounds.

Listening to this album, with the hypnotic beats and the amazingly beautiful soundscapes, makes one realize that Stephenson (Alien Mutation) and Hillier (Indigo Egg )  are modern shamans. Just eat your shrooms, put on this album and discover yourself and the universe.



Alien Mutation vs Indigo Egg - Microcosmacrocosm  (flac 377mb)

01 Part One - Nueroscopic Bubbling Pond Life 11:11
02 Part Two - Gateway To The Sun 11:49
03 Part Three - Another Trip In The Forest 12:05
04 Part Four - Journey To IX Land 9:58
05 Part Five - Cloudhopping 8:21
06 Part Six - Sea Of Tranquility 13:09

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This is one of Jake Stephenson's album that goes beyond imagination.

The really trippy artwork is the first thing you notice, as it's a sample of what you're going to hear. A trip to another place, away from the one you're living, distincted by it's strange colours and creatures that live on it, ready for you to explore.

This album is somewhat a blend of Stephenson's first album as Alien Mutation, MicrocosmMacrocosm, and the more trancey sounds he made as Optica and Optic Eye. So, most of the album, if not all, is full of quality melodies that deliver that psychedelic feel along with some quite well matching samples that Jake often uses, and soft beats accompanied by twerping effects. All these combined to make you dream/trip/relax/whatever. With Exotic Ocean, you get that feeling of being in "that somewhere else" where everything looks vivid and joyful, Shimmer where you just have to relax on those crystal sounds, Marijuana where you actually start laughing after the sample but later you get driven off with that amazing melody, and then Water where you think you are in a far, isolated Chinese/Japanese place...
Feed your brain with truly mindblowing images and trips.



Alien Mutation - DNA (flac  346mb)
 
01 Dubula Technoid 10:22
02 Dream Scape 11:01
03 Exotic Ocean 7:42
04 Shimmer 7:14
05 Marijuana 7:07
06 Sea Of Colours 7:13
07 Water 8:48

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'Orchid' is the debut album by Ishq and first introduction into their own exotic and harmonic inner landscape.
The beautiful cover art describes this music really good. Ishq takes you to the most beautiful places you can imagine with this deep, hypnotic but still very sunny album. The sound is very typical Dakini Records. The music is spacy, but still very "earthly" with all the nature-samples etc.
The nearly-12-minute opener seductively writhe in a Skyblue atmosphere of shuffling beats, grooving basslines and cloudsailing synths. Enticing! Then, it's up to Yu, a slower slice of tranquility where wordless femme-voices, twinkling strings and lolling basstones converge in layers of fluid lightness. Smoldering, exotic (and even a little spooky) Opal seems to swim through some dense aquatic zone of contemplative bliss, rhythmically churning without drums.

Cyandragonfly (13:27) flits through a subtly evolving soundscape which glistens with delicate accents and various unseen entities; birdsong and bells fade into an ongoing progession of smooth drones and half-hidden musicality. Ephemeral chords drape over a stratospheric sheen to open so-pretty Bhakti; lightly tribalish rhythms creep in as do rippling croons and bass curlicues. Dreamy, streamy wisps swirl over deep drones like a rainbow spanning dark clouds as beat-free Arc (7:22) shifts to mutedly tinkling keys and chittering birds, then fades away.

Rich and colorful, orchid flowers with sweet harmonic aromas, its seven pieces filling 69 minutes. ishq cultivates tantalizingly restrained yet vibrantly hued soundvistas which appreciably brighten our world.



Ishq - Orchid  (flac 374mb)

01 Skyblue 11:42
02 Yu 9:38
03 Opal 7:45
04 Daisy 8:39
05 Cyandragonfly 13:27
06 Bhakti 10:18
07 Arc 7:22

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi, Please re-up the Alien Mutation albums, thx!