Infected Mushroom – B.P.Empire

Can't agree more with previous reviews: if your soundsystem is halfway decent, from cartridge to speakers, this album IS KILLER!!! Soundstage is UN-REAL!!! This is a pure GEM from A to Z.

...and last night a dream came true & got my copy signed by Erez & Amit!!! 🥳🥳🥳

It sounds so good. Amazing separation and clarity. If you can find it, it’s worth it.

I’m dancing with Kadafi tonight! Great album to listen to.

This release does not handle the seamless track transitions well, making for an awkward listening experience.

Fantastic pressing. No issues with the sound, dead quiet. Just a shame to not have the title track included, though it wasn’t on the original vinyl release either.

One of my favorite albums by Infected Mushroom, which I've come to appreciate more and more over the years.

I've always found it to be much stronger than the previous two albums, but those have grown on me as well.
However, they do not have the sense of completeness that this album does. They miss the final layer and the smoothness that wasn't possible with the technology that was available at the time.

In this album Infected Mushroom have developed their sound to get a more defining theme throughout the whole album, which is a bit darker in style, but it feels very... perfect.
They haven't just gone with some hunches and left stuff as it is, they have really made sure that this stuff works, and you can tell, the level of detail is much higher, the breaks and in's and out's of the breaks are way more natural and do not seem as sudden as in the previous albums.
I also like that the bass is more modern, it packs a punch without just sounding annyoing in the background, which sadly was the case on some of their earlier tracks. There is more of a progressive vibe over B.P.Empire, the tracks break against the average psy-trance arrangements, and some parts are longer than usual, while still being changing enough to keep the listening interesting.

The album also changes from the first track to the last, going from a bit harder and crazy, with some of the feeling of their previous albums, to a bit more mellow, softer and beautiful.
As with all Infected Mushroom albums, you don't really just pick a song and add it to your favorites playlist and listen to it once in a while, you have to listen to the whole album, because as seperate songs the tracks are just pieces in a puzzles, individually they don't make much sense, but together they paint a clear picture.

If it wouldn't cost me a months rent I'd try to pick it up on vinyl.

Side note, like most psy-trance album, this one has 9 tracks. And as most psy-trance albums released on vinyl, that version only contains 8 tracks. I cannot describe how I hate that you have to lose a track when you pick the vinyl version. And that it is the title track B.P.Empire that is missing from the vinyl is just insane.
Anyways, I recommend this album!

Also, thumbs up for the nice cover, it's probably the best of all their albums.

Does anybody know if the partially mixed original release from Israel sounds any different from the others ?

Quite possibly,the mystery of B.P. Empire would never be solved as the duo never fully reveals the meaning of the title.Some took a smart guess and said B.P. simply means B.P.M.,it makes much sense since BPE is probably the darkest and most full-on album Infected's ever made.Anyway let's just get these trivial matters over with.

B.P. Empire was released in 2001,one year after their legendary work Classical Mushroom,Infected kept their promise to push their music further and this time we got B.P. Empire.Unlike its predecessor,BPE focused more on Jazz and funk elements which brought the whole album a relaxing atmosphere.

I'm not gonna waste time on something you guys might already know which means I will not comment on Track 1-8.Quite ironically,shroomians' attitude towards these tracks is either lovelovelove or hatehatehate,personally I'm never on hate side but I don't love them that much.My favourites here are Funchameleon and Tasty Mushroom.

And yes,we're moving on to TRACK 9,THE BIG MONSTER,THE ESSENCE OF THE WHOLE ALBUM:DANCING WITH KADAFI.First off,many of you may ask why this track got such a strange name.I had this question in my mind too when I first listened to DWK and later on got the answer from IsraTrance Forum.

"It was a funny name that we thought of many years ago that if you can dance with Kadafi, you can dance anywhere in the world." -------------------Duvdev

Before 2004 most Shroomians thought Erez's cat was called Kadafi so they named the track DWK,now we know it's just another rumor :) Back to the track itself,I still can't think of any word to describe it so I'll leave the update for tomorrow?Next week?Or maybe next month?I'll finish this review before December anyway :p Dancing With Kadafi is beyond words.

'B.P. Empire' is the the Album which began Infected Mushroom's move away from their previous goa-trance-influenced sound found on 'The Gathering' and 'Classical Mushroom'. While this is still a great psy-trance album overall, it does have a completely different sound to many albums of the genre. Noteably, tracks such as 'Noise Maker' and 'Funchameleon' are much less intense than most of IM's typical fullon style. In addition to this the track 'Dancing With Kadafi' is at a mellow 120 BPM, which is a sure sign of the changes IM were going through musically at this time.

The melodies in some of the tracks are also harder to access than in their previous albums. The title track 'B.P. Empire' is a solid pounding track, but for the most part the melodies are not as distinct as the inpressive lead melodies found in 'Classical Mushroom', for instance.

Overall this is a solid relase from Infected Mushroom, and I do recommend it, especially if you are an IM fan. There are a couple of weaker tracks in this album, such as 'Funchameleon', but overall a very nice album. Best tracks in my opinion are 'Never Ever Lamd', 'Unbalanced', 'B.P. Empire', and 'Dancing With Kadafi'

4/5

Good album here. I don't care for all the tracks, but "Spaniard", "Dancing with Kadafi" and "B.P. Empire" are classics. Everything IM touched after this album is pure crap though. Sad really...