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Whirling Mathematicians

by Soliptic

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1.
Intervention 08:12
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2.
Icarian Airplane 08:55
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3.
Time Perception 08:09
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4.
Dead Ringers (VIP) 07:29
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5.
The Jar 09:04
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6.
The Phantom Assumption 08:04
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7.
Vermicious Knid 08:05
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8.
Welcome To The Future 08:31
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9.
Cartography 10:34
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about

Unreleased Goa Records proudly presents "Whirling Mathematicians," the outstanding Goa Trance album that celebrates the return of UK artist Soliptic. Stephen Mercer’s first encounter with music was in his childhood when he learned to play the piano and the clarinet and took part in some cover bands. As a teenager, in the mid-to-late 90’s, he started producing ambient, chillout, and drum’n’bass. In 2000, while at university, he joined Keiretsu, a live band that blended drum’n’bass, breakbeat, and techno with rock, jazz, and folk. A year later, Stephen was introduced to the world of psychedelic trance by his housemate Brendan; classic releases recorded on minidiscs, such as Cosmology by Cosmosis, Twisted by Hallucinogen, and Rock Bitch Mafia by Green Nuns Of The Revolution. Their intricate melodies, expansive design, and ambitious and unpredictable structures soon convinced Stephen to start making Goa himself, a funny experimental solo project that he called "Soliptic". The name comes from the term "solipsism", a viewpoint stating that only our own mind exists; according to Stephen, music is one of various ways to express exactly that.

For the fabric of the Soliptic style, Stephen challenged himself to replicate effects that impressed him the most in Goa Trance, like Simon Posford’s trick of morphing smoothly between 4/4 and 12/8, to make tracks that vary from minimal musical content to stacking umpteen layers of over-the-top melodic counterpoint. He consciously made tracks that constantly evolved from start to finish, balancing out the inherent looping repetitiousness of trance with subtle "through-composed" details that only happen once. A huge fan of Shpongle, Eat Static, and Ozric Tentacles, Stephen infused subtle elements of his eclectic listenings to his own twisty techy basslines : classical, afrobeat, soul, funk, metal, jazz, country, drum’n’bass. He also used samples from kitsch/camp and sci-fi movies and series (X-Files, Star Trek, The Outer Limits) to add a pinch of humour to the mix.

"Whirling Mathematicians" gathers nine mindblowing Goa Trance tracks produced between 2002 and 2003 (with the exception of "Intervention," composed in 2005), that were once available for download as MP3 files on Dart Recordings. The title of the album is borrowed from "Coded Language" by poet Saul Williams, a postmodern manifesto of sorts for self-actualization through music, art, and thought, that made quite an impact on Stephen back in the day. It also fits Soliptic style perfectly: the arpeggios looping around with heaps of stereo tape delay are "whirling", and music is very mathematical, with all the powers of 2 in its harmonic and temporal structures. The attempt to channel primitive, intuitive energy and movement via an intricate, utterly technological composition and engineering process indeed makes a psytrance artist feel like a whirling mathematician.

All tracks were assembled on Stephen’s PC with lots of VST plugins (OhmBoyz dub-tape delay, Blood Overdrive distortion, etc.) and some soft synths from EMU XK6 keyboard and Korg MS2000R. Although Stephen did play these melodies and filter tweaks/sweeps "live", the tracks in their entirety were never performed at live events. They are now available for the first time in full quality. More unpublished Soliptic material is expected from Unreleased Goa Records in the future.

Tracklist:

1. Intervention
2. Icarian Airplane
3. Time Perception
4. Dead Ringers (VIP)
5. The Jar
6. The Phantom Assumption
7. Vermicious Knid
8. Welcome To The Future
9. Cartography

credits

released November 6, 2021

Credits:

All tracks written and produced by: Stephen Mercer
(Track 5 was originally released on Kagdila Records)
Mastered by: Kobi Harosh
Artwork, Design by: Shiva Ohm, Federico Draeke
Executive producers: Vas Cosmogenesis, Federico Draeke
Catalogue number: UGR 023

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Unreleased Goa Records UK

DAT Universe sublabel, perceived as a logical continuation and the final phase of the “Unreleased Goa Project”, that exists since 2007. The aim is to release in digital format until now hidden and obscure Goa Trance tracks, or re-release rare albums.

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