Sep 24th 2001)CD Tracklisting
1. MANIK SHAMANIK
2. HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER
3. 7 O'CLOCK
4. SOFT RAIN (with Alex Paterson)
5. SAL DEL MAR
6. VARKALA
7. THE ABYSS
8. CHIRINGUITO
The eight tracks comprise a cocktail of driving techno, spacey housey grooves and funky ambience. One of the tracks is a collaboration with Alex Paterson of The Orb. Click here to hear exerpts of some tracks in streaming Real Audio and downloadable MP3.
We also released a 12" vinyl single of High Plains Drifter with additional remixes by Voyager and Purple. Click here to hear extracts of all the a-side mix in streaming Real Audio and downloadable MP3.
1. Manik Shamanik This track was co-written and produced with French DJ Bruno Catala who also works with Rhinocerose. If one of the themes of the album is "house meets trance" then this track is the prime example. It starts in a more housey vein, evolves to a strong climax and ends with a deep trancey hypnotic groove. With rich spacey tones that move in an around the groove, this track is a prime example of what we regard as our unique and ever evolving sound. Like several of the album tracks this one has been evolved from earlier versions that we have tried out in our live set.
2. High Plains Drifter In many ways this track is our main dance-floor statement on the album, again using some of our trademark sounds in a driving and exciting way.
3. 7 O'Clock Another track that has been in our live set for some time, combining the trancey housey theme with a tribal voodoo element. It also uses some samples of Alex Paterson's mad answer machine messages (ssh! we haven't told him yet).
4. Soft Rain Another great co-production with our arch collaborator Alex Paterson. Rich ambience and a funky breakbeat groove. We have also made a no-drums fully ambient mix that is being released as a bonus track on the Japanese version of Seventh Wave.
5. Sal Del Mar Undoubtedly influenced by our frequent trips to Ibiza this is a prime example of our newly invigorated ambient house style, combining a funky conga-led groove with beautiful chiming chords. We started our live set at the Japanese Sacred Music Festival at Hiroshima with this track as the sun set over the bay - it went down an absolute storm. This track is one for the beach!
6. Varkala An example of the full-on trancey side of our equation. Along with the churning keyboard sequences this track features samples of Indian shenai horn players which we recorded ourselves in Kerala, South India, at a festival with 57 elephants.
7. The Abyss Another collaboration with Bruno Catala, this is a deep dark steamy moody ambient track.
8. Chiringuito We chose to end the album with what we feel is our finest housey track to date, expressing among other things our deep and undying love for the sprit of dance music and our hopes for a better world.