Echotek
» Changing Frames
Reviewed by Ashley James
/ Submitted 25-01-07 07:26
Label: BNE
Format: CD
Genre: Psychedelic Trance
For those of you that don’t know, Echotek is 31 year old Israeli, Micha Yossef. He started creating music over 13 years ago as part of a rock band signed to BNE, but soon switched over to creating Psy Trance and Tech Trance after the band finished. “Changing Frames” is Echotek’s third album – his first two “Application Rate” and “Emotion Chaos” gained him strong popularity within the international Psy Trance scene and in my opinion, “Changing Frames” is his best to date.
As an album, “Changing Frames” is an extremely well put together project and the slightly experimental edge some of the tracks have, pushing the boundaries of the genre give it a rather unique quality. The first half of the album is very progressive and whilst that particular sound isn’t the kind of music I’d normally play, I have to give credit for the sheer originality and depth that the tracks hold. The second half of the album ventures more towards the deeper end of full-on trance, and for me that’s what really makes “Changing Frames” irresistible. In short I’d describe it as the kind of album that you can sit and get lost in at home as well as have it to on any dancefloor.
I’ll start with my favourite track on the album “Mind Factor”, a collaboration between Echotek and Israeli up and comers BASIC. The track itself is quite an uptempo affair, with a bpm weighing in somewhere in the late 140s. Combining a seriously cool bassline with snarling synths, industrial sounds and an undeniably cool male vocal, it’s one of those tracks that just makes you want to dance from beginning to end and is, in my opinion, one of, if not the best Echotek tracks that I’ve ever heard. I’ll definitely be playing this one out for a while to come!
“Strike Twice”, another collaboration, this time with Atomic Pulse is the next track on the album that really caught my attention. Again, it’s an uptempo track that combined a driving, hypnotic rhythm with crisp percussion and a slightly more minimal edge to “ Mind Factor”. It’s another good example of a track that thinks outside of the usual realms of the more full-on side of trance. I think the best way to describe it would be “progressive, full-on Psy Trance!”
As already mentioned, not all the tracks on the album are to my exact taste but they do manage to capture my attention, not least in the fact that they are so well written it would be hard to ignore them. All in all, the album was a joy to listen to, it progressed extremely well and I’d recommend it to anybody with a slightly more eclectic taste in trance! A wonderfully original, yet imaginative and experimental album - A definite must have!
Tracklisting:
1. G Note
2. Forever Nights
3. M12
4. Step On It
5. Changing Frames
6. Time & Space
7. Strike Twice [Echotek & Atomic Pulse]
8. Don’t Be
9. Mind Factor [Echotek & BASIC]
Rating: 
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