Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia
Psychick Rythms, Volume 1

Belgian label Kk Records (www.kkrecords.be/frame.html), a pioneer in promoting European electronic music of the EBM school (notable names include Block 57, Numb, Dive), released the disorienting debut album by the Dutch trio Psyckick Warriors Ov Gaia in 1991: an enigmatic name, hinting at conceptions of the Gaia Hypothesis or Isaac Asimov's Foundation (www.vavatch.co.uk/books/asimov). The album, "Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves," due to the freshness and ingenuity of its music, took quite a long time to be assimilated by critics and the "industry" audience; the dominant trait was precisely the indefinability of the music: a sort of techno-trance with driving rhythms, melodic bursts, seemingly immersed in a sea of constantly changing ambient sounds (sometimes stroboscopic rhythms, sometimes informal interferences that almost seem like echoes of lightning or static discharges, now sampled sounds and noises), in whose liquid flow the rhythmic and harmonic structures disappear and resurface. (PWOG info www.vpmultimedia.com/music/pwog/index.html)

Suspended between Brian Eno-like ambient, Coil-like experimentalism (brainwashed.com/coil/main.html), echoes of Faust, Neubauten and more, PWOG's proposal fits perfectly to complete the triangulation of "Virtual Music," alongside British colleagues The Orb and Orbital.

After the (numerous) mixes taken from the aforementioned album comes this new Extended Playing, an exclusive double vinyl edition. It's unclear whether it's an (intermediate) mini-album or maxi-single, but the difference probably matters little. Each of the two vinyls contains three compositions with programmatic titles: "Push," "Ensnared," "Break," "Shifted," etc.

The common matrix of the entire work is an identical techno sequence marked by the same rhythm for all six episodes of the mix, with the difference determined by the different treatment each of the four compositions undergoes. The character of the music is partly similar and partly different from the debut album: here the refined techno textures are formed by stylized electronic music, reduced practically to the pure essence of rhythm. The three authors, Reinier Brekelmans, Joris Hilckmann, and Bobby Reiner, work on the volumetric effects of the atmospheres enveloping each of these sequences. In other words, each of the scenarios that serve as a background to the rhythms intentionally placed in the foreground undergoes differentiated shaping. The result is commendable, on par with previous works. If "Push" is more powerful and hypnotic, "Psoudown" is more spatial and ethereal, "Break/Shifted" is drier and syncopated.

Reiterative and geometric the "plot," varying the "weft" of this metaphorical "sound tapestry."

A doubt remains: the absence of indications on the RPM of the vinyl records (33 RPM or 45 RPM?) opens up the possibility of two possible solutions on the rotation speed of the records (unless you possess a professional turntable with continuous speed adjustment): surprisingly, the results are equally effective, albeit different... at 33 RPM, the hypnotic slowness is softer and highlights the spatial and ambient character of the background, at 45 RPM it seems instead that the music aligns with the more rhythmic episodes of "Ov Biospheres And Sacred Grooves." Moreover, the Dutch trio ironically warns "Warning! This object has nothing to do with art or artificial intelligence. This double package (12" version) was designed for mixing, for breaks, for possession, for collectors. In each other cases you should be completely mad"