V/A In Praise Of Shadows (DCD Album – Thank You For The Horse)

Genre/Influences: Hard-techno, hardcore.

Background/Info: Thank You For The Horse (TYFTH) is a Japanese label based in Tokyo and specialized in hardcore and hard-trance music. I’m not that familiar with this kind of music when it comes to make reviews, but I think this sampler featuring 24 songs is worthy of examination. Some bands have been featured with more than one track.

Bands: Proteus, Guld, Hase, Grimsoul, Pain On Creation, Steve Morley, Nomic, Aryx, Qygen ao.

Content: I honestly never heard before of all the bands featured on this compilation. I realized that it mainly consists of ‘older’ cuts, but still featuring rather unknown projects in the scene. The bands are clearly dealing with a hard and even somewhat industrial-like techno format. That’s why it’s called ‘hardcore’ and ‘hard trance’. I simply experience it as a hard-techno format with great and often astral-like sound treatments. With a typical goa-kick some of the cuts would definitely sound in the old goa-trance style. This is not easy and cheap techno music or techno for sissies, this is a heavy format.

+ + + : This is the kind of sampler I particularly like as it allows me to discover bands from a genre I’m not familiar with. This is the power of a sampler. I can’t say I like all of the cuts, but I’m especially into the harsher sound treatments and astral-like sound effects. It sounds powerful and straight forward-orientated. I also discovered well-crafted and masterly produced compositions sometimes featuring great stereo effects. The artistic digipak format also is a good reason to invest!

– – – : As I already mentioned all the songs couldn’t convince me and I even discovered a few ‘cheap’-sounding projects. The main point however is that you really have to be in this kind of music because after awhile it all starts to sound pretty similar.

Conclusion: Thank You For The Horse gave me the opportunity to discover a few great sound wizards or should I say techno alchemists?!

Best bands: Re-form, Carbon Based & DJ Rx, Alek Száhala, Proteus.

Rate: (7).

Label: http ://thankyouforthehorse .com / www .facebook .com /tyfth

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