Pure Bliss

Pure Bliss was one of the final releases from the German progressive label Tatsu. This is a straight progressive psytrance compilation featuring an assortment of eight tracks exploring different moods and approaches. Shamrock cover art greets you with a clean design, and you’ll find the contents of the compilation flow together quite nicely without being homogenous.

Space Safari opens the compilation with Sweet Little, the first of his new productions that really caught my ear. Effortless summer grooves with a mild tribal character flow past the speakers with perfect pacing and the utmost in class. A sample from Poe’s Ulalume brings a great deal of artistic merit to this lush piece of progressive. This is a catchy and mature production that should not be missed by any fan of deep trance grooves.

Prisoners of the Sun provides their hangover cure Aspirin + Cola next and it’s a somnolent morning groover composed with uncommon grace. A sense of melancholy and reconciliation sets in as the heavy bottom-end and coruscating pads layered with acoustic guitar notes plays through. This is simultaneously one of the calmest and most entrancing progressive tunes I’ve heard. Marvelous.

4 Wind Circle – Remember is a little less evolved than the previous two, but it has its moments. The sound here isn’t nearly as deep, as it tends to wobble along with more of a focus on the pulsating synthetic bass line. It sounds a lot like the usual German morning progressive crossover material that artists like Symphonix, Day Din, and Herbal Essence. Not a bad effort, but the sound isn’t that enticing.

NASA’s Log On is far deeper, probing spacious realms with an original character. The focus on small sound particles belies the minimalist tendancies of Danish producers, and indeed, were the sound quality superior, I would not have been surprised to find this released on an earlier Iboga compilation. Nonetheless, it isn’t enough to gather my attention for the full duration, though I would not trouble myself to skip it were I listening to the compilation as a whole.

Emok’s anthemic remix of I Wanna Be by Antix is one of the undeniable strengths of this compilation. The style is very much like what one would hear from Phony Orphants as Emok is one half of the Danish group, but it is far more melodic and uplifting than anything him and Jeppe have composed together. The production is lush with emotive atmosphere, delicately crafted tension-building sequences, and beautiful euphoric tones that tease and taunt before unleashing blissful flourishes of melody. This is the real concept of progression in action: elements grow and expand over time, hypnotizing the listener into stereo rapture. The end result is a brilliant piece of trance that is sure to work wonders in any set, day or night.

Much like NASA, Luna Spice hadn’t yet matured past a critical threshold of production quality by the time Step by Step was composed. While the full-length Reflexion wasn’t long in coming, this compilation appearance was unable to appeal to me initially. The style here is somewhat neutral, with a mild hint of darkness in the hooks of a few of the background sweeps. The drive and flow of the song is accompanied by this somewhat scratchy synthwork which, in context, is used as a percussive element. It just seems to drift past until it reaches an eventual conclusion. Successive material from Luna Spice shows a remarkable leap in skill, but this earlier offering might appeal to fans of the minimal progressive style anyway.

Next up is the Psycho Tone Mix of Shapeshifter, by 12 Moons. This was originally released on Transient in the early days of the Swedish invasion marked by DJ Anti’s release of A Progress in Trance. On Pure Bliss this old favourite receives a very sinister face lift, featuring bleak biomechanical rhythms and creepy melodies that brood and linger. 12 Moons isn’t often heard exploring the night side of trance, but he’s very competant at creating a vivid storyline with an original touch. It doesn’t quite fit with the flow of this compilation at all, but a little diversity never hurt anyone.

Lastly we have Expect’s Sex + Champagner, from the solo project of Prisoners of the Sun member Achim Luthje. It is the longest track on the album, featuring over 11 minutes of lush progressive morning sounds with a sensuous and happy vibe. About five minutes into the weaving tale the champagne bottle explodes, introducing the percussive characteristic unique to the song. In the midst of the break, glasses can be heard to clink, and a few light moans flesh out the concept. Thankfully the subject matter is handled tastefully, so the end result is a distinct conceptual progressive track that stands out from the rest and would be very nice for a morning-time set or just relaxing around the house.

Pure Bliss is a mighty fine progressive compilation that remains a good addition to anyone’s collection. It is sometimes inconsistent in terms of style and quality, which makes me alter my pitch more towards the DJs out there, but it’s still good listening. A trio of gems from Space Safari, Emok, and Prisoners of the Sun make the purchase very worthwhile. In exploring multiple realms of mood and style within the progressive psytrance framework, Tatsu has adeptly forged a solid comilation with a very well-rounded feel. It flows nicely from track to track, with only a few somewhat ordinary stops along the way. Recommended for all fans of deeper sounds!

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