There is a point in 'Nectaris Nemorum' where the ground gives way. The first four cuts descend like a staircase —162, 159, 155, 153 BPM— and move mostly through major keys: Behopf's 'Sundews' opens in G major, Sinner ARG's 'Evil Monkey' follows in F, and only Aethereus' 'Internal Harmonies', in B minor, hints at the shadow ahead. Up to that point, this is a forest in daylight: dense but luminous.
The swamp in the middle
Then Openmind's 'Echoes of the Void' drops to 77 BPM in G minor, half the pulse of the preceding block: the record keeps breathing, only underwater. It hardly seems accidental that the slow cuts are also the longest ones: 9:44 here, 9:50 at the close. Melted Symptom's 'The Honey Jungle' stretches the twilight at 99 BPM and returns to B minor, the key Aethereus had left open.
The way out of the swamp runs through flat keys: 'Dr Dharma' in E-flat major, Lunatrick's 'Ole' in A-flat, Chypno's 'Bioelectric Hub' in G-flat, all between 147 and 153 BPM. Light again, but filtered through branches: major keys, yes, though never the frank clarity of the opening. And the ending never climbs back up: 'Gloomy Swamp' by Ovnivirus and Aqueous closes at 114 BPM in E major, the longest cut on the record, more foggy sunrise than climax.
The landscape has recognizable keepers. Ibidelyc Recordings was born in Ibiza around 2002 and now operates out of Mexico City, run by Dr DSP and Insolente; both leave fingerprints here, since Dr DSP signs 'Dr Dharma' alongside Dharmadhatu and the compilation is curated by Insolente and Ovnivirus, the same artist who turns off the lights at the end. Their motto —sonic spells infused with psychedelic honey— explains why a dark psytrance record carries a Latin title and speaks of carnivorous plants ('Sundews') and honey jungles: here the sweet and the poisonous are one and the same substance.
Sources: Bandcamp