Future Prophecy - Sirocco

Overview

Opening a psytrance album at 82 BPM is a statement of intent. 'They Coming', the doorway into 'Sirocco', spends its 8:13 in G major building atmosphere without hurry, far below the tempo of everything that follows. And it is no accident: 'Prisoner of your own mind' repeats the move in the record's second half, dropping to 92 BPM right after a run of four cuts between 138 and 145. That breathing in and out, unusual for the genre, is the boldest call on the album.

There is craft behind it. Future Prophecy is the project of Israeli producer Haggai Elezra, active since 1995 — first alongside his brother Itay, who left in 2004 — with a debut, 'Seeds of Rage' (1998), welcomed enthusiastically for its goa trance elements. He now releases on his own self-titled label, and that autonomy explains why nobody sanded down this tracklist's odd edges.

'يا عيني بالليل' is the cut to hear first: the only Arabic title in the set and also the fastest, 145 BPM in G minor, uncompromising dancefloor psytrance that ties into the album's imagery — the sirocco, that wind crossing the desert toward the Mediterranean. It is the record's energy peak and its most distinctive moment.

'Sirocco': nine minutes to land

The title track saves itself for the close and changes the rules: it is the longest cut (9:00), turns at 133 BPM and is one of only two to leave psytrance behind for main floor trance, in E-flat minor. The other is 'Saturn', a 3:45 miniature among eight-minute giants. After the artillery of 'Epic Fury', the final descent works as a controlled landing: the album enters at 82, erupts at 145 and exits at 133. Rarely does a record's curve say this much about how a veteran reads the floor.