Genre: Psychedelic Trance
Infected Mushroom is one of the most influential and most important producers of psychedelic trance, which doesn't require too much of an introduction. They are not exactly any kind of forefathers of psychedelic trance, but they are the ones who take psychedelic trance forward. If you have heard of psychedelic trance, you have heard of Infected Mushroom.
The partnership of Erez Eizen (aka I.Zen) and Amit Duvdevani (aka Duvdev) has produced a new array of significant psychedelic albums, which are widely know amongst the supporters and listeners of the genre. The admiration of the Israeli duo started in 1999 with their debut album The Gathering and they've continued walking on their road of success for the past few years with now a total of six albums in their discography and a bundle of outstanding singles.
Every good artist has their own special asset that makes them stand out from the large crowd of musical artists. Infected Mushroom is approximately the only trance artist who can combine multiple genres and instruments as one spectacular electronic symphony. Infected Mushroom also differs from most other psychedelic trance artists, because they use vocals in quite a few of their songs. No, the voice of the vocals is nothing compared to actual singers, but the repetitiveness really captivates the listener. Besides, most psychedelic music sounds better when under the influence of a drug, so who knows what the vocals in general sound like when high on something.
Vicious Delicious (they use quite a lot of 'word play' like this in naming, for example Song Pong and Elation Station are the names of two of their songs) is the sixth album from Infected Mushroom. The album was released on March 26th 2007, all though it was meant to be released earlier (on 6/6/06 in fact). The album features some basic sounds you could expect from Infected Mushroom, or any other trance artist, but they have not ditched their ability to blend music and experiment with new sound techniques.
1. Becoming Insane - 7:20
The song begins with an interesting Indian instrument, which has the sounds for a perfect psychedelic beginning. Indian music is quite common in the genre, because of the Goa revolution in India, where the genre of goa trance was born. Then the track proceeds to the basic bass beat, which is accompanied by other higher-pitched sounds. After a halt the middle part of the song starts, which in this case, is the most repetitive part.
After the middle part a complete halt occurs again and the Indian instrument is introduced again and the Spanish vocals start. Yes, Spanish. After the Spanish lesson the main part of the song comes to be and the vocals start repeating the words insane and becoming with some Spanish mixed within.
The finale introduces electric guitars and repetition of the song's name and the pace becomes faster. The ending is slow and played with the Indian instrument.
Outstanding way to start out an album. I have to admit that I was surprised to hear a beginner this diverse. After a track like this anyone would get high hopes for the rest of the album.
10/10
2. Artillery - 4:28
Boom, so starts the beat in which you could rap if you would like to do so. Oh wait, they are rapping! Apparently the surprises weren't exactly over yet, because this is something you could not have heard before. Electric guitars are also used alongside the rap and the music starts sounding more like nu-metal than psychedelic trance. Psychedelic rock, I'd say, but not what Pink Floyd plays. It's missing the calmness and actually good lyrics. The element of surprise was the only good part of this song though, because rap generally doesn't mix that well with psychedelic material.
7.5/10
3. Vicious Delicious - 7:24
Can I make love to you, oh, beginning with Nintendo64-like sounds. In my opinion, too early to introduce the main song of the album, because the shock of happiness still remains from the first track.
Even after 2 minutes of playing, their main song hasn't put out anything that any normal trance artist would not have. Your basic bass with some other sounds surrounding it. I suppose the album needs at least one basic song, but I can't exactly understand why it had to be the title track of the album. The ending has a groovy beat to it but no vocals hurt this song a lot.
7/10
4. Heavyweight - 8:41
No more dismay from the previous track as the mystical beginning of this track is better than I expected. The instrument used to make the first few sounds like a flute of sorts and the beat is absolutely relaxing. We have the Indian feeling here again, but now, electric guitar added to it. Interesting combination but it seems to work.
This song is one of those masterpieces where Infected Mushroom mixes up every possible instrument and element of trance you can think up. The middle part has a fairly psychedelic feeling to it while the ending part manages to capture one's attention with rocking guitars. I am not certain whether most hardcore Infected Mushroom fans appreciate them adding all these guitars almost everywhere but to me they sound like a good, fresh addition.
Simply put - great.
9.5/10
5. Suliman - 6:10
The title choice is your basic Infected Mushroom but I'm fairly certain Suliman either is or means something Arab. Nonetheless, this track seems to be the most psychedelic piece on the whole album, because the tempo is intriguing enough to drag you along the whole song. With halts and church chorus-like vocals, the song has interesting twist points without losing the beat to keep it trance enough for anyone's tastes.
8/10
6. Forgive Me - 3:29
Shortest and oddest track on the whole album. Introduced the goofy part of Infected. If you have heard their song I Wish, Forgive Me is a funkier version of it. Some minor lyrics with fading and rising sounds. The ending is quite nice, to be honest, because the vocals kick in in a nice manner. Not the easiest track to review, because there is nothing new on the track and the beat is weird.
7.5/10
7. Special Place - 6:53
After an extremely calm beginning the song takes off with a moderately fast-paced beat. Here Infected Mushroom lets out the trance music. The song sound almost like goa trance because of the progressive and simple bass. A bit over half way through the song reaches a climax point of sorts and the vocals start out, relaxing and mind-capturing. The lyrics consist of just a few simple lines but it is quite enough as they only last for a couple minutes with some voice changes. If you are into Infected Mushroom's former production then this is your track.
8/10
8. In Front Of Me - 4:28
~Why can't I see what's in front of me.
I see the doors that I can't open.~
Exceptionally calm opening yet again.
~I fall into a hole and I can take no more.~
The vocals blend in well to slow pace of the song. This is just the music you can close your eyes and picture the lyrics in your mind. With the piano-like sounds and electric guitars really make the song as if it were post-rock, or something remotely close. A well done composition of electronic equipment and elements.
8.5/10
9. Eat It Raw - 6:30
Sound a lot like Special Place judging from the beginning, so in the start you can only hope that there is something new to this song. Just as you're wondering about this, the electric guitar crashes in with a quite funky beat around it. After the hyped-out part the track makes a silencing stop and adds sounds while repeating the sounds, which is one of the basic tricks done in electronic music. Even though the track is worthwhile listening to, it provides nothing completely new or good.
8/10
10. Change the Formality - 7:41
The track follows the title's "theme" and changes the tempo and the instruments every once in a while and the formality of this song is long gone when you're just halfway through the 8 minute marathon of electronic music. Quick vocals with high-pitched clockwork sounds make the atmosphere tense but fortunately a silent part is added and the balance is back on trail again. The ending takes out some anger with a progressive trance beat but song manages to finish with clockwork sounds, which is a peaceful ending for such a fast song.
9/10
11. Before - 6:56
Before is simply not a track you would wait a whole album for. It's sort of enjoyable but because the earlier tracks on the album brought up so much new, it's really hard to find anything for the ears in this song. The halts in some places are quite welcome but even they can't make the song more interesting than the other songs.
6/10
So ends the sixth album of the Israeli duo. 11 tracks was actually enough, because most of them were quite lengthy. An album likes this really makes you want to hear more and more of their production and one can only hope that they will continue surprising positively with their new music.
Total Score:
8.1/10
