Track listing:

01. 08’39” Naked Tourist – Mad Different Methods
02. 07’58” Double R.E.L. – Prehysterical Moments (Naked Tourist Remix)
03. 07’49” Naked Tourist – Chopper
04. 08’07” Naked Tourist – Noname
05. 07’51” Limbogott – Hirnfräse (Naked Tourist Remix)
06. 08’24” Naked Tourist – Asylunatic
07. 08’22” Naked Tourist – Backup Paranoia
08. 08’00” Naked Tourist – Fairchild
+ hidden after 3’07 minutes of silence:
00. 07’11” Naked Tourist – Hidden Track

Review:

Dilated pupils…

Naked Tourist are German hard-trancers Martin (Z-Neo) & Björn (DJ Iguana) and I’ve been looking forward to this debut album for a long time… I really have a soft spot for their drug-crazed, acid-ridden, relentless night trance, and pretty much all compilation tracks I heard from these guys have been pure gold… Also, it’s Parvati Records releasing it which IMHO always vouches for a quality release… Nuff said, on with the music…

Let me take you thru the tracks…

#01: Naked Tourist – Mad Different Methods [146 BPM]
“It’s like mad different methods to the way I do my shit…” The title track opens with a bad-ass gangsta sample, that looks pretty cheesy on paper, but it actually works pretty well here… The track itself is a typical NT track: Heavily fragmented psytrance – packed to the rim with funny voice-samples and experimental twists and turns… All kept within a framework of acid-ridden, pumping night trance… Just what you’d expect = satisfaction in recognition… Tasty opening track! ;o)

#02: Double R.E.L. – Prehysterical Moments (Naked Tourist Remix) [145 BPM]
“Each little bone can tell us a story. We can look at the articulations of the bone, how they fit together and the mechanics […]” This is a remix to a Double R.E.L. track originally released on the 2005 Doof Records compilation Booo… I’m not familiar with the original, so I can’t really comment on the treatment… Anyway the track opens with a palaeontologist sample and quickly turns into a regular stomp-fest… Kinda minimal at first, but soon enough the flood gates of psychedelia are opened… Yeah, this is pure dancefloor psychedelia – just listen to the raven-peak @ 4’59! Brilliant! A fine track riddled in samples and with enough twirling acid lines to satisfy most urban hippies… I dig it!

#03: Naked Tourist – Chopper [147 BPM]
“Listen to the sounds of the wind around you! … This music… It’s beautiful!” The guys start with another funny sample before unleashing the fiercest bassline so far… It’s accompanied by en eerie, haunting melody-line and a bunch of spacy, sonic tweaks… And yeah, I guess you could draw the comparison to chopper-sounds too… The video-game FX are very well-chosen and the build-up/climax part is destined to tear any dancefloor apart… Hold on to your hats – this is a psychedelic rollercoaster ride! It’s maybe a little too fast for a brief moment, but generally I like it…

#04: Naked Tourist – Noname [146 BPM]
Halfway thru the album the guys present the scariest track so far – this is dark, haunting, atmospheric night trance… A steady, evil-bassline is accompanied by an array of distorted synth-stabs… The industrial link is evident and basically this is the meanest I’ve ever heard from Naked Tourist… This is indeed a solid piece of haunting night-trance, but frankly I like the guys better when they lighten up a little…

#05: Limbogott – Hirnfräse (Naked Tourist Remix) [147 BPM]
I don’t have first-hand knowledge about Limbogott, but some quality Google time reveals the band as a German industrial/nu-metal outfit not unlike Marilyn Manson, Korn or Slipknot… The track Hirnfräse is featured on their debut album One Minute Violence and I’ve only heard fragments of it… This remix kicks some major ass though and posses even more energy than the original... It’s like a big waterfall of acid… Fast-paced, aggressive, paranoia-inducing psytrance… Like the perfect trance-sound track to the two Saw movies… Brilliantly done… I’m impressed!

#06: Naked Tourist – Asylunatic [147 BPM]
“Crank me lunatic…On drugs! … This feels right!” This track is a remix to Naked Tourist’s own track Lunatic Asylum released on the 2005 Parvati compilation Psychedelically Yours 3… You recognize elements from the original, but mostly this is a new track… The rich industrial elements from the previous track are still present and this is some pretty murky stuff… The acid-level is still very high, and the playful twirling acid-lines strike a notable contrast to the evil bassline… As in the original track, the final run down is a real treasure… Pure nocturnal bliss!

#07: Naked Tourist – Backup Paranoia [146 BPM]
Paranoia-noia-noia-oia! A seemingly chilled, harmonic intro is soon brutally shredded to pieces by some severely demented synth experimentation – that’s also the start of some hard-core tweakage which ultimately makes this the most trip-friendly track of the album… It’s less dark than the previous tracks, and has some really impressive uplifting bits and pieces… But don’t get me wrong – this is still very much night trance… And of course we get another healthy acid overdose… Brilliant!

#08: Naked Tourist – Fairchild [147 BPM]
The last track is not really the last track – but more about that later… What we get here is more trademark Naked Tourist mayhem… Border-crossing, fragmented, funny night trance with loads of samples and an endless supply of acid… Pretty good, but I feel it lacks some of the energy and I-don’t-give-a-fuck attitude of some of the previous tracks…

#00: Naked Tourist – Hidden Track
“His mind is lost!” Track #8 runs for eight minutes and after approximately three minutes of silence comes the hidden, nameless track… What’s extra cool about this is that it’s a full-length track running for over seven minutes… Cool! A hidden track like this is a welcomed opportunity for experimentation and that’s exactly what the guys do here… This is a very interesting odd-ball track – a hybrid with influences from an array of genres like psytrance, IDM, acid, tech-trance, progressive trance, etc… And it works really, really well… It’s a hidden gem!

When was the last time Parvati Records let you down? … I didn’t think so! This is indeed a fine debut album from one of Germany’s finest night trance exports… There are no bad tracks here, and most of the tracks are real fucking sweet… So, anyone who liked the compilation tracks so far will love this album… It’s just what you’d expect + a lot more!

The glossy digipack cover art is pure eye-candy as we’ve come to expect from Parvati, and the DJ case friendly tracklist will come in handy to Case Logic diciples… All in all, this is a great, value-for-money package that I will not hesitate to give my warmest recommendations… Enjoy!