Infected Mushroom Declare War

[easyreview cat1title=”Army of Mushrooms” cat1rating=”3″]

The Israeli psy-trance duo’s two-years-in-the making eight studio album, Army of Mushrooms, is big, loud and noisy. For starters, the album doesn’t sound like a live band anymore, as they did with 2009 album Legend of the Black Shawarma. Army of Mushrooms is pure electronica: heavy on drum ”˜n’ bass, old-school synths and Eighties-styled industrial noise, with a few jangly guitar riffs thrown in.

The opening track, “Never Mind” takes the techno lead and moves into Goa-trance midway with the amplified treble and the bass cut off, making it one noisy start. While techno and shrieky psy-trance are the mainstays here, Infected have jumped onto the dubstep bandwagon. Three tracks “U R So Fucked,” “Wanted To” and “Drum n Bassa” contain dark, downtempo, dubstep womp sounds. There isn’t lack of psychedelia with the finally crafted “The Rat,” which is the loudest, techno-heavy song on the album that rises and falls like crests and troughs of a wave with changes in tempo. 

But what really throws us off balance, is Infected Mushroom’s cover of Foo Fighters’ “The Pretender.” Infused with drumstep beats and a metal-ish synth solo, it’s a six-minute plus electronic/rock hybrid, recalling Pendulum’s Propane Nightmares.

The 12-track anthology makes a clear departure from their clean psy-trance sound heard right through their career, since their debut album The Gathering in 1999. If this is evolution, then Infected Mushroom has just taken its first step.