(Assemblage/Tempest)

I used be a huge fan of trance music but eventually moved onto the darker, more structured sounds of techno – the increasingly commercial, happy, vocal-driven trance just didn’t do it for me, and the trippy excesses of psy-trance were all a bit mystical for my taste. So it was interesting to review Zero Point, the third and latest release from Terra Nine – a.k.a. Michael Westcot, Clan Analogue member and long time trance producer.

While definitely trance, this album is far from being either commercial or psy-trance, and tends towards the techier end of the spectrum, with a liberal sprinkling of d’n b. Westcot combines slamming techno drum programming with bubbling, trippy synths and punctuates these with live electric viola/violin. The beat gives his music real edge and weight, the synthesizers provide the “journey” and the strings give it live excitement and texture – altogether a winning combination. The ideas flow thick and fast – some of these tracks should really be two or three tracks – but generally he keeps on top of them, taking you on a barnstorming ride through his imagination – a space-scape populated with strange creatures, experiences and emotions.

The opening track Andromeda has the energy and power of a Crystal Method track – surely one of his influences, as the track shares the drive, power and even the smell of singeing electric guitar of the Method’s Busy Child – but with Terra Nine’s own trance twist and opening whale-song. Axiom features his electric viola, a curiously eastern, plaintive touch on a track that develops power and gravity as it progresses. Lyra is the standout – an old-fashioned trance epic in the mould of one of the old Platipus artists like Union Jack or Art of Trance. This is a monster of a track – more than 10 minutes of bubbling, rolling, travelling trance. It is a huge journey that escapes a charge of self-indulgence only because of its sheer quality – I’d also have hated to cut anything from it. This track has made me determined to give trance another try – I’d love to spend a night dancing to this sort of thing again. Floaty, dreamy passages, slamming hard beats, reality-distorting sections, this track has it all – gradually it grows, pulsing and swelling and swirling into a gloriously triumphant crescendo of sound. Lovely.

That was definitely the highlight of the album though, and the rest of the album is less notable. If you are a drum and bass aficionado, you’ll probably get more from it than I did – I personally don’t think that the two styles blend very easily. Propitious Beat is an example of this style, with the heavy beats and almost broken rhythms contrasting oddly with the lighter trance sounds. I didn’t enjoy the piano on Prism – but then I have a real thing against pianos in dance music. Zero Point itself is pretty, swirly trance and closes the album in a positive way.

Overall this is a mixed bag, but definitely coming out on the recommended side of the equation. It’s worth buying for Lyra alone – and I’m going to keep an eye out for gigs where Terra Nine is playing as I think he will sound fabulous live. Check it out.