#23 Feat. Staff Picks in Trance (Raw / Deep / Hypnotic)

Force Mass Motions rave Friskee project from the 90s has seen a feverish renewed interest over the past few years. Released initially on FUK Stereophonic Gramophone in 1997, the tracks are remastered and join two previously unheard cuts from the project that were found in a box of DATs and thought lost to time. Opener The Brain Is is a mix of wiry electronics featuring blissed-out ambient synths with turbocharged beats. Add in progressive techno melodies that will get the floor pumping and you have a widescreen and atmospheric gem. The brilliant Virtually You is an almost eight-minute trip with elastic basslines and bouncing drums all doused in lush cosmically minded pads and starry-eyed melodies that have you gazing off into the future. Vapour Trails then gets a little deeper and heads down with warming pads and waves of subtle vocal cries that make the skin tingle. Its a physical yet sensuous sound, and last of all, One Piano brings hints of trance and prog to the thudding drums and fizzled synths, which all surge through a late night sky with a great sense of poignancy and artful craft. Mike Wells is the man behind the Force Mass Motion project, drawing on years of experience as an underground DJ, producer, and label owner. In his storied career, he has done it all, from helping to shape the sound of rave, UK hardcore, and jungle to pioneering the nu-school breaks sound. His music has come on esteemed like Mute, Rabbit City, Lot49 and Kingsize Records and now on his own Force Mass Motion Recordings.

Force Mass Motion, Friskee