USTM Reviews Jens Jakob artist album Another Dimension
Fresh off the press is Jens Jakob’s “Another Dimension,” a double-sided album. Released on Pharmacy Music, the Psytrance legend Christopher Lawrence’s label, I definitely had some quality expectations diving into the long journey.
Embracing the hybrid sounds of the 90’s, Jens works in a lot of varied styles nostalgic of the time — this often includes breakbeats, gated anthem trance synths, and [thing] in addition to the main backbone of psytrance.
We’re currently experiencing a sort of Trance renaissance where artists are crossing between subgenres (psytrance and uplifting, for example) and it’s about time breaks got it’s due piece. After hearing Sean Tyas’ take on this on his debut album, I was aching to hear more exploration in this vein and Jens has certainly delivered.
“Black Hole” features some of the tightest production from an engineering standpoint, carefully inching into each acid and sound effect as the track goes on. “Satellite” takes a breakbeat approach reminiscent of Junkie XL, sliding into a bass guitar break for the chorus, while “The Ocean” goes more along the cruising, noodling synth route. “Innocence,” a collaboration with Low Profile, takes on the spoken word sampling that frequents the darker side of trance – a speech between a dark lord and his minion narrates the break, before giving way to classic acids and a rapid fire bassline.
The title track, “Another Dimension,” pairs offbeat psytrance with spacier trance pads, creating an ethereal and cosmic atmosphere. These sounds in particular are very reminiscent of 90’s trance – so if that’s why you’re reading this, go there first! The album is named after this one for a reason.
What really stood out to me about Jens Jacob as an artist was his ability to combine those sounds from last generation’s Trance we love with the toughness of updated production technique. Usually, we get one or the other — its exactly the same as the old, or sounds are implemented differently — often they don’t really match what the last incarnation has done at all.
We get an album that has both classic galloping basslines and offbeat psytrance bounce — and that’s been wanted for a while. There are so many tracks (21 total) which made our ears perk up and say “huh — I forgot about those sounds,” and for an underground artist that is definitely a good thing. Keep an eye on Jens Jakob as he will surely be putting out interesting psytrance in considerable volume — as he’s just proven.
– Reviewed By Tom Rogers
Read the review in full here:
http://usatrancemovement.com/home/2016/05/05/album-review-jens-jakob-another-dimension-pharmacy-music/
