Review Summary: Overall this a brilliant album, and one that helps to define its genre. The whole thing flows brilliantly and smoothly. If your new to the genre and interested, you could do alot worse than checking out this.
A defining Album of the Goa/Psytrance genre, Simon Posford’s (aka Hallucinogen) “Twisted” is a truly monumental record. Released in 1995, it is to this day one of the most successful releases in the style of music, selling over 85,000 copies.
Less pounding and relentless than the most music of the genre, “Twisted” is often highly melodic and relies less on the consistent, deep baselines that tend to characterize the style. Despite this it is still a landmark of goa/psytrance.
This album entered my life after hearing the track “Snarling Black Mabel” at a festival, and it became embedded in my head. About six months later at a friends house he stuck on this record and it was revealed to me just what I had been trying to recollect in my brain. Anyway on with the review…
LSD : I often feel this song is more of an introduction than a true contribution to the album. After the obligatory samples, (someone chatting about acid and mind expansion) the deep baseline kicks in with a constantly shifting effect above it. This sounds eerie and atmospheric , with the groove based beat sounding great and stomping. However as the song progresses, the sound above the beat begins to take a sounds more reminiscent of mainstream trance, and it is this which makes this track to me, not much than an intro, all be it a good one
3/4
Orphic Trench : The beats in from the beginning on this one, and the track continues into a deep, pulsating rhythmical sound, building it self up as it goes. Gives a feeling like the big beast of a sound machine that is the album is charging itself up. Occasion breaking down into a shimmering sound with tribal beats, it then comes back with seemingly twice the power. All this contributes to a deep stomping piece of trance, and to my mind, this is the true first track on “twisted”, as throughout the whole song has a feeling of charging up towards something, namely the next track.
4/5
Alpha Centauri: One the best songs in my opinion, this track begins with some ambient white noise directly after “Orphic…” but soon enough kicks in with the beat. The whole building/charging theme is still there for the first half, although lesser than on the previously track, as if building to some sort climax. This intensifies, with a melody becoming slowly more and more noticeable and relevant to the song , more and more until suddenly it stops all but the beat and white ambient noise is left, starting a new more ambient melody, this ‘breathing space’ is short lived however, as all of a sudden CLIMAX. The song returns to that increasing relevant melody with a deep evil sounding almost military-esque baseline on top. The song continues in this way getting deeper and more intense, until it finishes in one moment, the remaining sounds shifting to slowly form the next track.
5/5
Dark Magus: Bit of an odd one this one, doesn’t seem to be totally in place between “Alpha Centauri” and “Shamanix”, still a great track none the less. From the beginning sounding deeper and more bass driven than its predecessors, the beat becomes slowly more pungent and throbbing. This then leads in a slight relaxation on the bass and a sparse, bleak sounding melody in introduced, before some fairly standard trance-ish noises, that build up along with the bassline into a feeling of motion. The track has a definite feeling of a journey, and after a while the previous aspects of the track all collide and it becomes complete. While this is a good song, it doesn’t quite flow with the rest of the album as a whole, and in my humble opinion is more or less breathing space before the next two MONSTER tracks.
3.5/5
Shamanix: Another highlight. Begins with eerie rhythmical background noises, and strange obscure sounds that have a natural animal like feel, but still feel vaguely intimidating. A growing pulse of bleeps proceeds to the introduction of the beat, which slowly worms its way into the track, before a dark distorted scream. This section has a feeling of pulsating, expanding and contracting slowly. Bizarrely, it then leads into a brief outburst of Celtic melody, which adds the over naturalistic/ritualistic feel to the track. After this the song retains its dark feel, and continues. For the most part it sounds intimidating and relentless. With sharp slashes of sound eventually turning into a long, drawn out , tortured sound – mixed with the pulsating breathing beat it sounds purely evil. Until those now fairly well trodden standard trance-ish sounds make their reappearance. After though, the song the slowly builds down, with that sharp stab of sound pulsing towards the end of this excellent piece of animalistic psy. It only falls short of a 5 because of the pure excellence of the track that follows it.
4.75 /5
Snarling Black Mabel: Here it is, the track that “Orphic Trench” and “Alpha Centauri” were charging up for. The beat starts up like an engine, beginning slowly and gaining speed until it reaches its pace and an electric sound screeches out around it. Then it shifts a little, a hollow sounding beat, more of a highly coordinated wobble, followed by the part of the track that first struck me when I heard it originally. An pulsing low ascending sound, that sounds pure evil. EVIL. It then moves away and we introduced to main melody of the song, a throbbing sound that fades off at the end, like a by product of whatever this machines twisted purpose is. Another sound then accompanies it, a crystal like section to the beat which shifts into a moving version of that pulsing evil sound. It envelopes the throbbing melody, which disappears, and the evil noise goes back to its pulsating. It moves in these ways for some time, only towards the end shifting a little, as each element slowing shuts down and moves into the next song. This song sounds like some sort of insane machine. Although all the sound is chaos, the chaos is coordinated completely. The whole sound is tight and mechanic. This is in my opinion the pinnacle of the album.
5/5
Fluoro Nuero Sponge: Almost feels like the second part of the previous song as the two merge very well. Its beginning shifts, started with a cloudy feels that slowly begins to merge with the beat, and becomes more rigid and coordinated, harkening the return of that military-esque, deep basey siren like sound from “alpha centauri”. The track builds onwards and onwards , slowly gaining more and more power and identity. After awhile it breaks into a more ambient subtle mood, but towards the end returns with vengeance, sounding deep, piercing and overall, very good.
4.5/5
Solstice: Initially sounding calm, “Solstice” breaks into a sharp and relentless beat that slowly builds upwards and upwards. Pounding on consistently, until a variation begins to overpower it and thus change the direction of the song. Evetually this bursts into the final breaths of the album, sounding strained , as if too much at once is happening. This section slowy fades away with only a more quite section of the beat remaining intact, this slowly too fades away, this vast musical machine finished… ending the journey that is “Twisted”.
4/5
ps There is a bonus track after solstice, but I have chosen not review it as it doesn’t really feel like part of the album.
This is a great Album, that can make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end with its sutble beauty and monolithic beats. Id advise anyone to look into it.
