Label: Peak Records
Released: 2008

01. Yab-Yum And Tanina Munchkina - The Chicken And The Egg
02. Yab-Yum And Dhira - Pretty Good
03. Ajja And Apex - Cycle Derek
04. Rev - When It Is!
05. Aphid Moon And Apex - Robot Revolution
06. Mindcore - Venom
07. Organic Hybrid - Innately Psychedelic
08. Early Reflections - Khoali Tistrit
09. Illegal Machines And Psymmetrix - Fuck Chill Out 2
10. Lenz - Driven Crazy
11. Entropy - Hey
12. Master Margherita - Cosmic Poultry

"Peak-A-Doodle-Doo" is a next standard CD of Swiss Peak Records. The label focus on two sounds: dark psytrance and psy-chillout. Into that first style we can go thanks to this compilation and, what is a tradition in Peak's case, it's a successful material as well: we have here the world of dark psytrance that is presented to us in insolently pure way both emotionally and technically.

Every this kind of Peak's CD have its lascivious conception - this time the Peak people go for "the chicken and the egg" and eternal question: what was first? And of course they did it with a sense of humour, due to this - extreme tracks from this CD lasts three minutes and a half and they reference to this theme, while the ten main composition are a night frenzy. As I said: it was done in a standard way as for Peak. But saying a little more about the sense of it: standard is the most appropriate term for which this CD is deserving, because - in spite of every kind of usual good points - we have absolutely nothing more; only subjectively I found something about I will tell more.

During listetning to this CD my heart always beat with the same rhythms except three moments in which I felt something rare. First moment is in the last phase of "Cycle Derek" by Ajja and Apex, between 5:42 and the end of the track at 7:13 - in a certain way a style of this fragment reminds me brilliance not of a dark psytrance but of a psytrance. The motives from here brings huge energy, and while we don't have typical melodies it can became embedded in memory what is not so usual in this music. The second compelling moment I want to say about is a melodic part of "Venom" by Mindcore, between 6:23 and 7:16 - lack at least a drop of melodiousness is for many people the main problem with dark psytrance music, here we have an interesting situation since we have really a typical melody. The third fragment is on a track "Driven Crazy" by Lenz, between 3:47 and 5:06 - composition slow down and then radically speed up its tempo and this is why I have a cartoon question mark and exclamation point over my head - this architecture's sophistication is deserving for a praise, though only against a background of sequencies we can find on this CD. It's a simple idea but a real idea; I must also admit that I really hate listening to the last 30 seconds of mentioned phase because it's a drastical series of hundreds of kicks.

These three fragments I've described contains: "brilliance", "melodiousness" and "real idea". This is what dark psytrance as the whole style is missing to advance it - from the artistic point of view - to a better art in my opinion. It would be a psytrance if this happen, but the problem is that psytrance was alive and then was - after splitting into full-on, dark psytrance and progressive - evolutionary eliminated. I am missing this music and this is why I call for it. What we have now on the scene is not making any progress since that year when psytrance was killed. But from the other side, it's good, that psytrance not exist any more, because probably its resurrection could bring us as many to the value of psytrance, as "new" goa to the goa - which is nothing. Mastering quality can't be a value of the music's soul, it is only its physical make-up.

"Peak-A-Doodle-Doo" compilation is a great CD to show the dark psytrance's situation, for sure not as the really whole style, because we have radical styles in it when music's tempo oscillate even faster than 200 BPM, but my opinion is that this isn't an art already, but a kit for diving in a hard narcotic ocean. From the second side, sometimes I am seriously asking myself: is this dark psytrance we have on this CD with BPM 144-148 a "normal" music? Perhaps it's also a kit for diving, though then I - who is not diving in mentioned hard ocean, and even in soft - become an abnormal guy and maybe this is why I want from the bottom of my heart to push helm of dark psytrance for at least a few degrees into mentioned direction of brilliance, melodiousness and real idea. I don't feel good in this dark psytrance world anymore. The years are passing away and perfect mastering can't be an indicator if something is good or not.

We must back to the CD, to its authors. Peak Records is at this moment like a recognized director who should receive an official question finally, if he want to search for new artistic paths or stay within he is now where for sure he is still good but begin to walk away from artistic evolution, because the life and the art demand freshness, new targets, challenges. Dark psytrance with the same formula can't exist with a success in another years. This theme is exhausted.

So where are you heading Peak? If you want to be tremendous, you must risk in the end.