Distant System – Equidistant

Tyler “Quasga” Smith first came to my attention years ago, as a member of the pioneering American psytrance group Prahbamandala. I never really got into what he was doing back then but the moment Tyler switched gears and went deeper with his Androcell project, I was hooked. Androcell was primarily a psychedelic dub project–imagine Ott with less polish and a bit more plastic. After two solid albums–Emotivision and Efflorescence–Tyler seemed about ready to call it quits in 2006. Rather than disappear entirely, he quietly shifted his focus to a new project: Distant System. Taking a cue from Ultimae Records, Tyler began to produce what I would call deep cosmic trance. Spiral Empire, released earlier this year, is pure science fiction music–just the sort of thing to send you drifting off into the void. To get a feel for the album, here is a video for the song Equidistant produced in collaboration with Jason Major, Tyler’s old partner in crime from the Prahbamandala days (Flash required for viewing):