Talamasca - Zodiac flac album

The third album by Talamasca (Cedric Dassulle aka dj Lestat). Talamasca is known for full on 3D Vision trance, but with much more melodies than most trance released by other full on 3D Vision artists. I enjoyed a lot of the tracks on this album. You don`t get any huge totally mind blowing tracks like "The Old School" on this album, but you will for sure enjoy a lot of them if you like the full on melodic style of Talamasca. Still, I got a feeling that this album was the beginning of his more fluffy direction.

Talamasca is one of the few remaining psy-artists out there still making blatantly melodic trance and as a fan of melodic psy-trance and Talamasca in general I was quite excited to get this album. The general buzz about this album had been that its ok, but nothing super and I must admit on my first listen I sort of had the same impression. However after spending some quality time with this album I find it keeps growing and growing on me. As should be obvious, the album is a concept albums based on the signs of the Zodiac. Due to the number of tracks needed, none of the tracks clocks in at seven minutes or more, so the songs are a bit short for the usual psy-fare and I can't help but wonder if that might not have been a factor in the initial response to this album (i.e. no huge brooding epics). The slightly shorter track length does have some advantages. Outside of simply having more tracks, DJ Lestat appears to have discovered exactly what it is that makes Talamasca so we get alot of good stuff without the fluff that has occassionaly appeared in the past. All the Talamasca trademarks are in full force. The thick bass, the atmoshpere, and most importantly, those trademark Talamasca melodies. Lestat has seemed to finally honed his melodic skills into something truely original as I can listen to any of his melodies on this album and, through the combination of tonal and note choice, instantly recognize them as "Talamasca". Finding your own voice in the world of electronic music is a hard thing to do, so DJ Lestat gets alot of respect in my book for having found his. So what about the music itself? Well the first track scared me a bit. I'm not a huge guitar in trance fan, especially if the tone isn't right and Aries starts off with everything I dislike about guitar-psy. Luckly the track takes off in a better direction and the guitars end up being acceptable, although still not terribly well liked by me. Taurus takes things in the right direction from here on out. Nice simple bass with lots of melodic content overhead. From here on out it gets hard to comment much, simply because the album reaches a high standard and never drops from it. Gemini has some nice tripulet work going on, Cancer creates a very nice ethnic vibe, while Leo is a full on stomping monster, etc. Basically every track has something to recommend and there is not a stinker track on the album. The album doesn't initially leave a huge impact; I think in part because it is just a solid album all the way through so you don't have tracks shining through due to being surrounded by lesser quality stuff. However give it a few listens as you go about your day and you will find it ever growing on you. Excellent stuff.