Between the Lines

Groove Control is a new label from Israel, out with their first release entitled Between the Lines. The theme and appearance is all standard stuff, with the musical focus clearly falling on mid-range progressive with fat synthetic kicks and melodic appeal.

Ski Fi opens things up with Sun Start to Shine, introducing the sound as they have done on several compilations in 2005. The Mexican group’s easygoing tropical style of progressive has found a home in the clubs and festivals of Northern Europe, and the mood and attitude are a perfect fit. The approach is clean and confident; friendly grooves with a dusting of female vocals. A competent opener but nothing more.

Blackout’s remix to Your Voice by Xibalba is an Israeli spin on Ski Fi’s style, sounding somewhat like that material heard on Iboga’s Set 4. Fat rolling rhythms shake and rumble with casual synthetic flourishes, smooth hints of melody, and dynamic atmospheres that shift from epic to melancholic. A pleasant drop into the last third of the song introduces a crowd-pleasing breakbeat that really suits the upbeat drive. It’s a solid piece of work sure to warm up a dance floor.

Sync is a side project of Vaishiyas, and the sound is very similar. Fretless is a typical piece of Germanic progressive psytrance: thick and chunky beats with tribal touches doused in faintly melodic themes. While it may be adequately constructed, the results are rather anonymous.

Liquid Soul is one of the rising stars of the progressive scene, here to provide Choice to all the listeners. Sometime this artist’s productions are extremely melodic, but this one is deeper and more sublime, with a mysterious mood overall. The samples suit the song well enough: “please log in the information request / make a choice for more information.” It never really takes off, but the synthetic sound is a nice one, and the production is rich and psychedelic. This is a potential pick to build a set but not something to rock the dance floor.

Vaishiyas delivers Peak next, another commonplace slice of the melodic German festival sound. This may sound like a lot of other stuff out there right now, but it does benefit from some highly intricate rhythmic programming. Layers of scratchy morning leads imbue this one with a psychedelic charm that is easy enough to appreciate. I’ve never been all that impressed with any of this group’s output, but this sounds rather fresh for a change! Whether this is going to last is something else entirely.

Pneumatic from Symphonix seems like a strange choice, considering it is already released on two other labels, and it isn’t really all that special. I had heard it on the Singles CD from Yellow Sunshine Explosion but didn’t recall forming much of an impression. Much like the rest of their productions, this one is a smooth and confident blend of stark progressive beats with a dirty edge and droning retro-flavoured melodies. The pacing is quite relaxed, letting the listener drift to the grumbling beat and nonchalant chord work. Once again, it’s not anything noteworthy, though it will surely satisfy fans of the style.

NASA continues to meet expectations with the cavernous sound of Unfaithful. Ever since Legolam I’ve been captivated by the unique characteristic production style of this Danish artist. The style on this one sounds somewhat like the single Sloppy Noodle released on Inner Circle. The deeply resonant bass presence and clockwork rhythmic groove is back, providing a solid grounding for the tightly layered arrays of swooping and sparkling noises above. A pleasant lead finally develops in the last minutes, making this piece a satisfying addition to the artist’s discography. Just as it was with Liquid Soul’s offering, Unfaithful is less overt than NASA’s more known tracks, making it a competent set building tool.

Brisker & Magitman remix Analog Pussy’s Sound of Soul next, putting a groovy progressive spin on the German duo’s original. The beats themselves might be decent enough, but the vocals wreck this song for me. I can handle fragments, but this is a lot of singing, and the lyrics are questionable to say the least.

Sonnenvakuum is the predecessor of the Sonic Cube project, appearing here with their original name and a curious song named Firefly. They retain an elusive yet tangible thread of originality to their beatcrafting, sounding similar in some ways to fellow German act Symphonix, but there are other influences at work as well. It took me a little while to clue in, but this track actually uses a sound straight out of Beat Bizarre’s Stereorganic, which I can’t really explain. It seems too complex to be a sample, yet it’s not credited despite being a major component of the track. Aside from that, cold sticky kicks rumble around in pools of frothy bass, with a touch of clattering tribal percussion rounding out the beat. The atmospheric elements are extremely subtle and well arranged, inspiring a calm and collected response on a subliminal level. It lacks a certain hook to really make it noteworthy; the quality of production is satisfying, but there isn’t enough of a thematic developmenk to make it any more than decent.

Between the Lines is a mundanely average compilation of progressive psychedelic trance clearly abiding by the conventions of the current German festival sound. Releases of this nature are really only for DJs looking to pad their binders with a few more tunes that others might not have bothered to pick up. I snagged it for the tracks from Liquid Soul and NASA, two of my favourite new artists, but these songs are not as outstanding as their other material. Blackout’s remix was a pleasant surprise, and Sonnenvakuum know how to craft something rich in quality, but the rest isn’t anything special. It might be easier to appreciate if there weren’t already a lot of this sort of thing being released. Hopefully this new label will take a risk in the future and try something a little more uncommon as a theme for a release, because this one is so completely average that it becomes almost redundant. Progressive fans and DJs with a buying obsession could check this out, but everyone else won’t be missing out on much.

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