UX – Ultimate Experience

My vinyl sounds great! The production skills on display are fabulous. UX aka Kris Kylven practically created their own genre of dark cyberpunk on this classic album. It is Goa trance, but of such a unique cold and alien feeling through mixing in elements of goth, black metal, dungeon synth, and industrial that it was a record all on its own in 97. Xenomorph, Sandman, Menis and a couple of others were making dark Goa back then but none felt like this. The fact that there have been a host of imitators suggests that this record created its own science fiction trance genre. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. ~*~

It's not really fair to try to review something for its musical appeal when it is so wrapped in personal nostalgia but as I play this through some very decent hifi 17 years after I bought it (I can still smell the faint waft of the incense from Wild Ones on the Kings Road in the linner notes!) it is Incredible How Good It Sounds! Much of my (much loved) goa collection sounds pretty cr4p when heard in the hindsight of 15+ years of music production technological evolution but this really doesn't. In fact it still puts a chill down my spine and awakes something profound in me. The muscle memory of nights spent stomping in Tyssen Street... the flicker of ultraviolet lighting on the retina and the swirling twirling ghosts of psychedelic fluro people just wash over me in waves.

When this came out a lot of my goa-nut friends didn't 'get it'. It has to have been one of the more 'ahead of its time' releases and if you haven't heard it yet then OMG what a treat you are in for!

bomble

This is one of THE GREAT goa trance albums as far as I'm concerned.

It's the first of it's kind. There's nothing "unoriginal" here. Even though there have been hundreds of dark psytrance albums that followed it, this one is still one of the best I've ever heard. It's got a lot of depth and dark melodies and rhythms all over the place -- it isn't just hard and noisy sounding like lots of more recent stuff. That's basically why it's classified as "goa trance" rather than "psytrance". There's something unique about every track and they are all excellent on their own. Furthermore they flow together perfectly to create a really strong experience as a whole.

As someone else said, it's dark the whole way through. There is nothing cheery or cheesy here. It's not overly emotional, but it's highly intelligent and powerful.

The best tracks are actually all of them. When I first heard this album I only really liked Master Of The Universe, which is generally regarded as the hit track, but all the others have grown on me through many listens. The opening and closing sections are ambient and Chrysalis is a downtempo track which has a special place with me. It's really a beautiful experience.

The Master of the Universe track has a structure you will not find elsewhere. Quality 100%, this track is really psychedelic. UX have done a great work, this release is one of the strongest aces of Goatrance. Buy it, it's a classic.
Well compiled, it's hard Goatrance sound is an example for future/nowadays Goatrance releases. Pure intellect is so powerfull and Dominion so trippy. A masterpiece.

1997 was the home for the best psychedelic-goa trance albums ever, and Ultimate Experience is one in this list.

UX was a one time collaboration between Pete Martin (Slide) and Kris Kylven (also ex Juno Reactor) Their album Ultimate Experience is one of the most evil and dark trance albums to have graced planet Earth. It’s a wild trip into the darkest realms of goa-trance, a trip spiced with guitar riffs, fat banging bass, alien and screaming sounds and also minute ambience which totally give the feeling of having been abducted and taken to a journey in outer-space. Absolutely one of the full-on-est albums ever and it sticks to the “dark” formula all through. Totally unique and un-paralleled alien sound.

Highlights of the albums are Life Technology, Dominion, Alien Earth Activity, Pure Intellect and Master of the Universe.

UX is a masterpiece which doesn’t get all the attention it deserves. While on everyone’s top is probably the Pleiadians’ I.F.O. released a little after on the same Dragonfly I think UX is an album which haven’t had enough mentioning. It’s also not difficult to get and can be found at relatively low prices compared to other sought albums of the time, so if you don’t have I strongly suggest to start hunting for a copy now.