[Electronic Night Life Review] Pharmacy: Phase 2

The fantastic lady editor/promoter that has been getting me some of my best event reviews dropped this in my lap and once again, she doesn’t disappoint. Jonathan Allyn definitely never showed up in my reality before, because I couldn’t forget talent like this.

The mix starts with a fun, techy track called 8 Gig by a producer named Omair Mirza on the Pharmacy label, but then pulls into a trancier sound which has a European feel to it that I’ve not heard on this side of the pond in ages, hitting me with the Deep Mix of Sun Chaser by Sean J. Morris. All of these are off the Pharmacy Label, but what struck me most about the mix (and the label by extension) is the sheer diversity of tracks. This attribute is made obvious when the mix swings into Lifeforce by Magnus, a textbook psy-trance track. I cannot emphasize enough that the last 3 genres are usually not at the same party on the same evening in Gotham City, much less ONE AFTER ANOTHER in sequence. Frankly, I don’t miss a beat. I could listen to this guy bounce from one to the other all day; which is saying something.

Mr. Allyn knows what his tracks should feel like, whatever the genre, and the Pharmacy label extends that idea very well. The ease of transitions while maintaining a coherent vibe is difficult for people who only play one genre, but this oscillation is lovely. The mix settles into some serious psy-trance, pulling through two more Magnus tracks, a Fido X track called Aether and seems to hang around that world for long enough to lose myself in it properly.

The mix is hard to describe track by track since it all comes together in this surprisingly effortless way. For example even though there’s some amazing psytrance front-loaded on this mix, by the time I’m 22 minutes in, all of a sudden I’m in a serious trance-y grove, but then by 30min, we’re back into  serious stompy psy. Allyn’s track selection for the mix is impressive, especially considering they’re all tracks on his label. To be clear, I am a serious psychedelic trance head and every single one of the times the mix pulls into psy I love it. The speed, size of the beats and the rambling spectrum of samples the tracks use are consistent & excellent. I’d like to keep calling out the tracks one by one, but it’s really hard to isolate any one as being better than another. The switch from psytrance back into regular trance/techy goodness happens without you noticing and by 45 minutes in, the club music vibe has totally replaced the beach/forest (depending on where you listen to your psy of course.

The orbit between genres continues for the rest of the mix. Besides picking up all the tracks off Beatport, I’m definitely going to keep my eyes out for these DJs & producers. I’ve listed the tracks below in addition to linking to the label & the mixer. If you’re looking for a wonderful 80 minutes of trancey beats, you know what to do.

Review by Terry Gotham

via BLOG.ELECTRONICNIGHTLIFE.COM: MUSIC REVIEW: Pharmacy Presents Phase 2 Mixed by Jonathan Allyn.