Psypilot - Destination Future

Psypilot’s debut came out of nowhere back in 2004. Released on L’elf’s imprint Turbo Trance, it complimented the pleasant morning sound of the label nicely. While Psypilot shows a great deal of potential, I don’t believe it is realized on this debut album. Nonetheless, there are some good moments in the journey…

Gaia is a very fine opener for the album with its extended intro that sets a mystical mood with delicate sounds and high-altitude atmospheres. The beat really kicks 2 minutes in and the song starts to unwind with melodies sliding in with subtlety. The song shimmers and shakes all the way to a sublime comedown, and then in the silence the sound of It’s A Small World plays from a music box. The song returns with a staggered beat that builds with squelchy melodies back into the place it was before, with those nice ethereal pipes and shimmering melodies. It continues in this fashion until the abrupt ending. This one really had potential but lost it half way through.

Breathing Spirals comes next, and it’s one of the better tracks from the album. Upbeat and featuring richer rolling bass lines, the song takes no time in building energy. Part of this is due to the lack of any sort of intro, since the songs on this album are mixed. This track picks up all sorts of drifting sounds as it progresses, giving it that driving sort of quality where noises fly past and fade off into the distance. The first break is nicely accomplished with a subtle dimming of elements, returning in full force with a nice shamanic melody, sounding somewhat like a synthetic chant. I suppose this is the sound that gives the track it’s title. The song builds on these basic elements fairly well, with occasional gaps in the rolling beat, and continued melodic activity from the main lead, supported by a nice array of atmospheric sounds that swoosh in and out. Too bad the outro is so poorly squelched as the track fades into the next song.

Full OM is my favourite on the album – too bad the intro is bled into Breathing Spirals so heavily. Even after the beat gets started the previous track is still heard frantically scraping around the high-end for a while. Luckily the track itself is great! It remains firmly entrenched in the “neo” full-on style while taking on many attributes of old school Goa trance – numerous melodies with an eastern flavour spring up really early and continue to appear throughout the duration. After a break the shimmering and gated “auuuummm” sound that gives this track its title slowly starts to make its presence known. A careful touch with the filters here lets the key sound grow and flourish with delicate intent, as a squelchy lead spirals around alongside. Tension is dropped following more manipulation of the key sample, and then the song drifts until a very Goan melody enters for a short while. And then, the big break! Here’s one that puts this track in the class of anthems – a lengthly sample speaks: “aum is the ancient and sacred symbol that represents the sound of all creation” (and it goes on). Usually I would consider this overdone but it really fits with the atmosphere Psypilot has created on this one. With a lot of space to work with the producer manipulates the “aum” sound to bring the song towards the big return – with those squelchy melodies and continued work with the filters. Undoubtedly a great early-morning anthem, though it has the kind of power that demands the proper time and place to fully appreciate.

Destination Future continues with the style Psypilot has laid out but doesn’t build well on the mood that the first three songs have set up. The beat is more of a standard full-on type of thing, and while the melodies are pleasant, this song has one large flaw in my eyes… a terribly cheesy self-referential sample! While the lead in this song is fairly cool, there isn’t much else to it.

Another dose of cheese is served up with I Like It In Here. The same standard neo stuff is going on here with rolling bass lines and sparkly synth dabbling. Fairly early on the song breaks to a lazy beat and this incredibly stupid sample plays of a voice actor reading off a promo for a movie or something, attempting to make the subject matter dramatic while a producer or someone tells him to tone it down, stick to the script. As I said, really stupid and I don’t know what it’s doing in a trance song taking up so much time. The return after this lengthly diversion is more of the same stuff with a bit more going on – nothing to save it from an atrocious bit of sampling however. Terrible.

Things pick up somewhat with Morning Star, another melodic full-on tune with a little less distinctness. No samples this time, thankfully! This one contains some nice sounds and good flowing percussion, but it lacks something in the way of distinctness. No huge melodies – just plenty of subtle drifting sounds and small harmonies. One of the better songs on the album, though it lacks the sort of distinct feature that would make it a highlight.

Tiyoweh & Grumble-Barry remains close to the mainstream once again – full-on with a bit of a jumpy bass line and bubbling melodies. The transitions are all rather sublime as the song moves into areas of higher energy, with some groovy sounds leaping out of key breaks. Choir sounds in the middle portion facilitate a nice atmosphere, and when all elements come in for a resurgence the song has some charm. Another fairly good piece of groovy melodic psytrance…

Levitation is more of the same with melodies that are somewhat more up front. There is a something of an imbalance to the sound that leaves the beat rather undersupported in light of the prominent melodic work on top. Simple melodies come and go, and later on there are some nice flourishes with an epic morning feel to them, but this is another track that fails to impress me much.

Feel Zero Five closes the album with a slightly slower song, with choir sounds creating an epic feel in the intro. Soon these fall away and a breakbeat-driven beat plods away with a pleasing variety of sound elements. Shimmering atmospheres soon develop and the song goes deeper than the others on this album. Half-way through the song there are some really nice sounds involved, and the beats are flowing with complimentary ease beneath. It’s a damn shame some pointless Hollywood sample ruins the mood at this point, leading the song back into a return. The ethereal choirs return and start to bring up the vibes again, before another sample intrudes saying “can you feel it?” This is somewhat more appropriate than the one about “AWACS status is negative” at least. In the end, it’s another listenable song with some great ideas and sounds that is marred somewhat by some poor sample usage and somewhat weak production. It’s sort of par for the course when it comes to full-on artists though, especially with respect to this particular album.

I initially had thought this album was a winner, but repeated listening has proved otherwise. While the first couple of songs have a varying degree of quality to them, and the third one is a real gem, the album starts to bog down after that and never quite recovers. This album was released at the cusp of interest in the so-called “neo” full-on style, a term I have used since there is, in fact, a slightly different methodology evident in the production here. I’ve generally found that progressive acts accomplish the subtle approach far more convincingly, and that most attempts to try a subliminal vibe with a full-on beat yields offerings that are interchangeable, easily overlooked, and ultimately rather dull. This album suffers from some of that, as I have a feeling that a few of the average tracks on here would have benefited from more deviations from the script. Full OM is a great anthem however, though it’s a damn shame about the mixing on some of these tracks (and that one in particular). Quite simply, mixing the songs together was a mistake for this release. I’m also not sure about the mastering – these songs don’t really have a lot of punch or depth, though that could be a problem with the production. As for the sound on Destination Future, I’d compare it to artists such as Space Buddha, Psydrop, Sirius Isness, Triptych, Silicon Sound, and so forth. It’s somewhat derivative of mild-mannered Israeli stuff – not too powerful, with more of a focus on melody than intricate drum programming. If you like this style give this one a shot as I recognize that some people have had a good time with this album. For me, I consider this not quite as good as an average release in the style, and will most likely only return to listen to a couple of the songs from the album in the years to come. I’d advise anyone interested to wait for what comes next from Psypilot, which is sure to be at least as pleasant, and much more polished.

Release Data

Artist: Psypilot
Title: Destination Future
Label: Turbo Trance Records
Format: CD album
Released: 2004