Infected Mushroom – IM The Supervisor

I received my copy today in a perfect NM condition! Just one question to all owners; where is the opening of your sleeve? Mine is a the bottom, never seen this before. Top, right of even left seems normal, but the bottom? Perhaps they made this decision while on shrooms?

I had been wanting this on vinyl for sometime, and when I finally received mine I was not disappointed. The condition it came in was rather subpar, but with an album this rare, I was not worried too much about sound quality. Once I started listening to it, I was blown away with how versatile and wide the soundstage was, even with the scratched surface of the vinyls. If you have this in a better condition than I received mine in, I envy thee, but even with scratches and minor distortions, this is the only album I own that I actually am completely fine and in fact happy with it being in the condition that it is. Sonically, this is one of IM's more experimental albums. They struck gold with Converting Vegetarians, and then decided to whip out some more obscure tunes for IM the Supervisor. Still my favorite out of their early works, though.

Don't expect to get it in the shape the images show here. I got mine last Friday, and the sleeve is in a very obviously used condition. Seller didn't use a vinyl mailer but wrapped it in newspaper. Because of this, the corners bent good. What I'm trying to say: very thin cardboard, will show wear eventually... Too bad they didn't use proper sleeves back then.

Rather disappointed the seller (not on Discogs) didn't sent it packed properly but for 70€ I'm still very, happy with it. Gladly paid that over the prices it's going for on discogs and ebay nowadays.

Back in the days of Destination Goa, Infected Mushroom was to me just a name among others. This album was my first "real encounter" with their music, though. Today I can't why I bought it in the first place, but playing this at home made me think "this is genius!" Never before had I heard anyone use vocals in psytrance (except for the occasional sample from a movie or so), nor electric guitars or acoustic instruments to this extent! Having listened only briefly to their older tracks, it appears that what at first struck me as being typical Infected Mushroom had not always been like that, in that their older works much more resemble the "classic israeli" psytrance sound. However, they still manage to keep something in their music which makes them easily recognisable.

BP Empire is considered to be Infected Mushroom's first "experimental" album, according to comments here at Discogs. Being able to develop one's music and change style, which they have evidently done, and still keeping a distinct sound, is real strength. It's something that at least keeps me staying with an artist, the latest album, "Vicious Delicious", didn't disappoint me in this respect.

As for the tracks, both tracks on the A side and "Cities of the Future" ought to be the real dancefloor fillers on this one. All others, except the last track, keep around the 145BPM mark. The album is full of beautiful melodies and interesting tempo shifts, breaking the monotony which so often ruins otherwise good psytrance tracks.