Artist: Hallucinogen
Title: Twisted
Label: Dragonfly Records (Re-released on Twisted Records)
Released: 16th October 1995
Style: Psychedelic Trance
Tracklist
1. LSD (6:43)
2. Orphic Thrench (7:22)
3. Alpha Centauri (10:16)
4. Dark Magus (7:31)
5. Shamanix (9:59)
6. Snarling Black Mabel (7:45)
7. Fluoro Neuro Sponge (6:41)
8. Solstice (8:06)
9. Angelic Particles (Remix) (3:40)
“I believe that with the advent of acid we have discovered a new way to think, and it had to do with piecing together new thoughts in your mind. Why is it that people think it’s so evil? What is it about it that scares people so deeply? Even the guy that invented it What is it? Because they’re afraid that there’s more to reality than they have in front of them that there are doors that they’re afraid to go in and they don’t want us to go in either because if we go in we might learn something that they don’t know and that makes us a little out of their control.”
The opening sample to LSD on Hallucinogen’s debut album Twisted is an amazing verbal representation of the music. Replace the drug LSD with this album & it still fits. Twisted is like a psychedelic drug, it opens new doors showing us that there is more to reality than we see right in front of us. Listening to music can have a profound effect on the brain that I believe Simon Posford managed to show way back in 1995 with his seminal release Twisted on Dragonfly Records. Long considered to be a classic in psychedelic trance Twisted is well deserved in the praise it receives. The whole album is full of wonderful melodies never getting into the levels of cheese that regular trance often flirts with. There are a few cheesy moments in the album, for example the end of Shamanix, but they are always on the acceptable side they are fun and not the sort that is going to make you groan. Under these melodies is a plethora of psychedelic sounds, well layered samples and a 4-4 rhythm that while not overly fast gives an energy that could make you dance for hours on end with just the music to support you.
I first discovered this album shortly after it was released in 1995 and I was instantly blown away. From the extremely trippy melodies in LSD to the excellent synth work in Orphic Trench and Alpha Centauri as well as some spacey atmospheres with bright colourful sounds, the tight simplicity of Dark Magus or the fun if slightly cheesy sound of Shamanix. The dirtiness of Snarling Black Mabel, the insane amount of layers built up in Fluoro Neuro Sponge and the beautiful melodic voices screaming from another dimension in Solstice this album is between great and amazing in every second of music, even the ambient version of Angelic Particles at the end is spine tinglingly good. Nearly a decade and a half later I still listen to this album regularly & each time I listen to it I am still blown away by just how amazing the music is. For me this is the most psychedelic upbeat album I have listened to and it is indeed a classic in the genre and Simon Posford’s greatest achievement in trance music. The only thing I’d like to see different is possibly the order of the tracks, I’d probably put Shamanix at the end with Snarling Black Mabel nearer the beginning along with LSD and Dark Magus. All in all though this album is a must have for any fan of Psychedelic trance. The re-release on Twisted Records is still readily available at their website so there really is no excuse not to have this milestone in electronic music.
Track By Track
1. LSD
LSD opens with a sample describing the drug LSD and people’s fear of it, a profound statement probably a little over the top for a drug that basically tricks the brain into thinking it is experiencing something profound. The sample though is very thought provoking when considering the music as the music is a real and natural experience while still having the same effects. The whole track is wonderful from start to finish with a great leading melody, energetic but non dominating beats and a lot of trippy sounds. There are a few too many LSD samples in the middle that I could do without but overall it’s a great track.
2. Orphic Trench
For me Orphic Trench is all about the synth line. It still has wonderful melodies, trippy noises and a great rhythm but the synths in this track just raise the bar. As I listen to it I feel like my head is being lifted higher and higher why staying exactly in the same place. Imagine sitting in your living room as your mind soars high over the world totally detached from your body but you are still one and the same entity. You can see both realities at the same time, the mundane & the divine but they merge together so it is difficult to know which is which. This is wonderful music.
3. Alpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri is a great mix of the elements of the first to tracks. Wonderful melodies and amazing synth work but instead of overlapping they make way for each other as if knowing that each should be experienced fully. The effect is a very psychedelic track that has spacey atmospheres with bright colours and feels like I am rushing through hyperspace with the walls of reality vibrating on every side impossibly close yet infinitely distant. The dimensions twist and turn and if you try and concentrate on one specific point your mind might be torn apart. Step back view everything with an open mind from a distance & let the unreality of everything wash over you.
4. Dark Magus
This track feels tighter, whereas the preceding three felt they were wide open spaces with infinite possibilities in the landscape and beyond the horizon, Dark Magus feels like it is an infinitesimally small point crammed with all the information & emotion of a much larger entity. Like a singularity with extreme mass but no dimensions, as with the preceding track, thinking too much about it is not what is needed. Simple acceptance of what is difficult to comprehend is the only way to understanding the tight complex music. More wonderful synths, simple hypnotising melodies & not so much energy as before but still enough to power the listener into a frenzy.
5. Shamanix
Albeit by far the cheesiest track here with bright, fun melodies, gaudy samples (“The way I feel I don’t expect to go to sleep for a year I’m on Fucking Fire!”) and a four to the floor rhythm Shamanix is a standout track. The cheesiness is never annoying and in 14 years has never gotten old. I still love the twists and turns the track takes especially in the final part of the track when the melody shifts and completely changes direction. There are more sounds crammed in chaotically and at times it feels dirtier than the other tracks but that dirtiness is so acidic that it crawls inside my head and just starts scratching at the inner walls of my consciousness. The atmospheres created are amazing and each turn the music makes always brings a big grin to my face. Shamanix is an excellent track with bags of psychedelic energy so it is literally bursting at the seams.
6. Snarling Black Mabel
Whether Snarling Black Mabel is a play on the disgusting British lager Carling Black Label I don’t know but what I do know is that I would rather listen to this track once than have free Carling for life (really it is a pretty nasty drink). Snarling Black Mabel however is another tight colourful track with trippy hyperspace sounds but instead of the usual rushing feeling I usually get from tracks that remind me of Hyperspace I get a stationary feeling like the air around me is melting and some alternate reality, one of vivid images and twisted sounds, is creeping through. The way the synth melody seems to twist round itself like a helix in the final few minutes is an incredible experience for the mind to go through.
7. Fluoro Neuro Sponge
We have a much more simplistic intro here with a more dominant beat & more obvious melodies however it all has that Hallucinogen touch to it and with Hallucinogen nothing ever remains simple. Once the track gets going the number of layers slowly increases until we have an incredibly dense track with an insane amount of things going on in the foreground, background to the left, right and centre. The way the melody evolves is a joy to behold and by the final run it is as uplifting a track as I have heard in the genre to date. The high pitched runs of spacey sounds seem to come from every direction at once directed on the melody and melting into seamlessly. Nice stuff.
8. Solstice
Solstice has one of the most memorable melodies, it is simple and repetitive but sounds so good and can be hypnotic. Once again the synths and melody don’t overlap but make way for each other as if they are in awe of each other and not wanting to impose on the others magic knowing that to do so might be too much for the listener to be able to cope with. Some of the sounds feel like they are an orchestra of soulful voices screaming out from behind a veil of reality but as their souls are so strong we can still hear them on this side albeit very slightly and they sound incredibly ethereal. The energy in the track builds & builds until the end it all crashes down to end the album.
9. Angelic Particles (Remix)
After 6 minutes of silence there is a hidden track, an ambient version of Angelic Particles and has a wonderful atmosphere. I would have liked this to be longer than 3 and a half minutes because it is a beautiful haunting track with some twisted female wailing and lush background drones creating a dark, spacey atmosphere. A nine minute track would have been great instead of 6 minutes of silence. Still, it is not in keeping with the rest of the album so is just a nice treat on the end of a great album.
