ALCHEMIC UNIVERSE

I remembered back in 2000 a brand new Brainticket album, first time since Voyage in 1982. Since that time Joel Vandroogenbroeck recorded tons of library albums on the Coloursound label. By 1984 he moved to Mexico (as he was sick and tired of shoveling snow in the Swiss Winters) where he's lived ever since. I was happy that Joel teamed up once again Carole Muriel, but instead of a modernized Celestial Ocean it was clear that they were trying far too hard to reach the kids by exploring techno. That is those same preprogrammed beats and crummy digital synthesizers that make me never fond of that genre. Sure Ozric Tentacles explored techno but never forgot real guitars, drums and synthesizers and plenty of that rock attitude so their techno explorations never bothered me. Joel could have learned a thing or two from the Ozrics at the time. I have to be honest, I gave this plenty of chances and it left me cold. Thank God, 15 years later comes Past, Present and Future which was a giant relief for me as the techno was ditched and the guitars, drums, real keyboards and psychedelic approach returned. For me, Alchemic Universe is a demonstration why I dislike techno in general. It simply sounded too much like Joel was having a midlife crisis. To me any of their other albums are better and worth getting.