Total Eclipse – Violent Relaxation

Did they use a 1980s GE alarm clock for the lead on The Furnace? I hope people know what I'm talking about.

If you haven't heard this album, but know their first album or millions of comp appearances, then you should like this album too. Went through a phase where I played this quite a bit. I enjoy their style. They have a generally smaller sound than a lot of the other essential goa acts, with a stronger focus on clever melody, phrasing, and pacing instead. I think their strong suit is the dance songs, but the downtempo half is good although very meandering. Takes me inside the kind of school computer games I'd play as a kid, like Mathblasters or something.

I still have to give the edge to the debut; its super diverse ideas and almost "no rules" approach gives it an intangible special quality for me to the point where it is an absolutely permanent part of my collection. While V.R. is filled with great ideas and effort, I'm not certain if I will hold onto it forever.

Two random points: I gotta say the album covers for both Delta Aquarids and Violent Relaxation kinda suck. I mean come on man... The other is that Serge is probably the most handsome man in all of psychedelic trance.

A great long album, contains a lot of variety compared to most trance albums where most of the tracks sound very similar to each other. Those who want a heterogeneous and interesting album should definitely give it a listen. Like the name "Relaxation" suggests, most of the tracks are quite chill, so those seeking for a hardcore adrenaline pump should look elsewhere.

The sleeve might look really dull and uninspiring, but you don't rate a book by its cover, right?

love this album, the orange disk was my go-to for sunday relaxation, chilling in my flat, the sun through the windows.

I hate the fake trancey stuff offered on this long double album. Chunky sounds and choppy synth sounds show little effort on the 140+ bpm tunes. The slow paced ones are listenable day in and day out. Diamond Ring Effect was instantly given repeated listens. Blue Galaxie had to grow on me. The album starts out violently fast and gradually relaxes to nothingness. This stuff is not really goa nor is it psychedelic. It is more like happy trance into ambient trance.

The second and the best album ever from Total Eclipse. Side one delivers the mind-blowing music you would expect from Total Eclipse back then, chaotic yet melodic, stomping yet warm Trance. All tracks on this disc are heavy except; “Blue Galaxie” which is a downtempo song, also a teaser of the second CD.

Side two opens with the 10 minute long “Espanolizer”, my favourite on this side. It samples a guitar and a piano. The journey continues with the more uptempo “The Pendulum”, and the tempo seems to increase gradually with every song. None of the tracks is pure Ambient yet there is no breakbeat either. All tracks are 4/4 except the closing track “Gravity Mirage”. This track has a very tricky beat. When you think a 4/4 beat is coming it is broken again.

In my opinion this is another essential on your shelves. Normally this CD shouldn't cost much like some other notorious sought after classics but if you want a new copy this album was reissued by Avatar in 2003, so there's no excuse ;)