Intersys – Recharge

Clearly influenced by Infected Mushroom , Intersys are Northen Israel’s latest supercharged, techno exports and these new upstarts must make their more established parents sit up, and say ‘That’s my boys!’ They follow the classically trained route into the world of Israeli Psi-trance, but Moshe Maman and Omri Azran deviate from the standard template with the introduction of tighter song structures, tricky disco style clickiness and lush female vocals. To say they compare favourably with the Mushrooms tells you everything you need to know.

Intersys maintain the sonic purity with some beautiful sounds that create a textured 3D soundscape. They must have some seriously expensive techno equipment to achieve this quality and the vocals, some with the trademark Israeli twang and some with more western roots, only enhance, contrast and compliment the faultless digital stream of aural integrity. If only the rest of the world had followed the influences of this middle eastern enclave of techno, the music industry would be in infinitely better shape and the stale repetitive state of dance music would be invigorated. Unfortunately we had to look to Sasha, Diggers and co. instead.

Needless to say, every track is a winner and at times almost made running with my new fangled i-pod-shuffle-walkman pleasurable. Almost, but not quite. ‘Power Supply’ is a pounding colossus with Mushroom style vocals, ‘Opera’ is starker, darker and classically inspired, and ‘Recharge’ is a head-on assault on the senses when played at dangerous volumes. It’s the surprisingly anthemic ‘If U Could B’ that steals the show however, with a coherent sandwich of trance beat bread, a filling of gorgeous cheesy vocals and layers of quirky sweeping sound relish. It’s only February, but this will take some beating in this year’s Festive 50. Get your bets on now.

It’s rare that you discover a great band and here’s hoping that they go on to make as many great albums as their fungus worshipping cousins. Only time will tell if Intersys have the stamina, originality and humour to entertain and enthral us for decades, but as far as debut albums go, things don’t get much better than this.