The beauty of trance is how uninhibitedly obsessive you can be with the sounds and rhythmic effects without getting into ecstasy. Done right, the result is a psychoactive mix that spirals through the ears and into the body. The New York duo Brainwave Research Center with their EP Psychic Antenna provides a particularly pleasing example. Analog synthesizers give the sound a pleasantly ruinous industrial touch – no hippie excesses here. In the track »I Find Myself« the groove is based on a looped voice sample that is vaguely reminiscent of Steve Reich’s early tape experiments.
In the end, three remixes realign the psychic antennae. Benedict Frey, for example, makes the groove of »Transmitter Park« roll much smoother without diluting the essence. The music remains focused and hypnotic, its trance-like effect unfolding gradually – more resonance chamber than kick drum excess. Psychic Antenna fires up not only the neurons, but the entire nervous system.
