Customer Reviews

Converting Vegetarians

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This album pounds some serious brain. The Mushroom seems to be evolving... into a full blown parasite that shoves itself deep inside... I can even hear it when I sleep. The mastery and technical influence on this release are unsurpassed, not even by the mushroom's previous works themselves.

This album incorporates chant, lyrics, many instruments and a wide spectrum of high sweeping rifts of loose sound fortified by strong, rythmic pounding of extremely unique and tonal quality. The music stretches, grinds, oozes, pulses and shreiks in pretty much every frequency.

Some criticize these guys for incorporating lyrics, and that it is not true to their form. Without the lyrics much of the unique quality of this album disintegrates. While I don't get any kind of deep message from the lyrics, they add their power at just the right times. Enough to make you think while you concentrate on the beauty of the music.

After listening to many of the IM's releases, I have to say this is the one which I prefer. They are moving in the right direction, to a more complex and polished sound.

Get this album, you will not be disappointed.

After a two year gap since their previous album, "Bp Empire", Infected Mushroom released "Converting Vegetarians", their fourth album, in July 2003. Their first album "Gathering", released in 1999, was a perfect album. It was unique, fresh, exciting, and just so addictive and will always be one of my favourite electronic albums. "Classical Mushroom", released in 2000, was slightly slower in pace. It was an excellent album, but I didn't find myself drawn to it like I was to "The Gathering". "B.P. Empire" , their third album, was released in 2001 and, of course, was another excellent album from the duo. "B.P. Empire" showed us Erez and Amit's ability to create a more "normal" (although still very unique), straightforward, "clean" dance record, but it didn't quite reach the heights of "The Gathering".

"Converting Vegetarians" is Infected Mushroom's fourth album and was released in July 2003. The first disc consists of that sound that made me love them in the first place; unique, exciting, and incredibly addictive. "Hush Mail", the second track on the disc, with it's very weird grunting sounds and wet-sounding, "sloshy" beats is really fun to listen to. "Apogiffa Night" and "Scorpion Frog" combine epic orchestral scores with beats to create a very intense, dramatic effect. "Semi Nice" is a very nice surprise, with it's French accordion in the beginning of the track, and later on becomes such a catchy, mischievous, fun track that is so hard not to love. There isn't one boring moment on this disc and I honestly find myself CRAVING to listen to it!

The first track on the second disc, entitled "Converting Vegetarians", is the first track where we hear Amit's vocals being the centre-point of the song (later on in their career this becomes a lot more frequent) and has quite strong hip-hop and pop influences. "Blink" uses a female's vocals, these vocals and the synths remind me of early 80's artists such as Yazoo. "I Wish" is another pop influenced track with Amit's vocals being the centre-point. The rest of the disc is mainly instrumental electronics at a slower pace than the first disc, but just as exciting and infectious. It is very creative; influences of rock, reggae and even country can be heard. Fans should not be put off by the slower pace - this is a slow paced disc, but it's atmospheric, very intense, trippy, and just absolutely beautiful. When I listen to this disc I get so absorbed in the sounds and layers and just get lost in the music. I do not know how to describe this disc; it just has to be heard. Tracks like "Pletzturra", "Ballerium", and "Selecta" are honestly just breath-taking. This disc proves what superb MUSICIANS Erez and Amit really are.

Overall, "Converting Vegetarians" is Infected Mushroom's best work BY FAR - there isn't one bad track on this album. It shows that Erez and Amit are not just good creators of dance music, but are musicians gifted with talent that is rare and hard to find in any genre of music. This album is one of the best, most addictive albums I have ever heard. ANYONE who enjoys any form of hard electronic music really should just take a chance and buy this album. It may cost a few dollars, but would be well worth it!

A Master Piece...

If it weren't for the name, Infected Mushroom would be trailing up the charts worldwide. Their proposal isn't new but it is definitely and advancement over the capabilities of Techno, Trance and what we used to call New Wave Music.
We hear catchy tunes, synth sounds never heard, mixes, effects and alterations to rhythm which would have made Alice in Wonderland pass out. Elation Station is by far the best song. What were the DJ's listening to and remixing when this song came out?
I bought this album by mere coincidence. Walking down the shops at Camden in London I heard it over a portable CD. I couldn't help asking the name of the band and the album, therefore my purchase.
They deserve better, they deserve to be recognized for what they are: real artists, real people making real music. If Techno and Synths are your thing, you must listen to this album.

This album is absolute genius. The Trance Side is excellent, but pure musical perfection shines through on the Other Side. The entire album is like a tapestry of a journey into the mind. The songs become intensely personal and are simply unforgettable. The music will capture you no matter when or where you listen to it. Try it in your car on a long drive; it's electrifying! All the songs are fantastic but Converting Vegetarians, Elation Station, Drop Out, Pletzturra, I Wish, Illuminaughty and Elevation stick out in my mind the most. Buy this CD. You won't regret it.

I dont care what anyone else says, the other side of this album is amazing! I've never heard such a human element in their work. The songs switch between sad to comically mishivious but the tempo always reigns sumpreme.

Not just your typical "Oonce! Oonce! Oonce!" techno/dance stuff! Sure, there is a lot of pounding beats and flurries of synth riffs, bleeps and blips too but this album rises to the top of the heap with not only superb production but more than one track that will perk your ears up and make you say "WTF?"... in a good way.

Try "Scorpion Frog" for an intro of classic strings... and "Deeply Disturbed" has some VERY nicely done guitar work laced in with the synths which makes it difficult to confuse with any other song out there. And what is that starting up about 10 seconds into "Semi Nice"?!?! That's just disc one!

Dip into the distinctly different disc two for the first time and you'll hear vocals take a prominence on most of the tracks with a lot of exploration into mixing metal, hip hop, and more with the obligatory synth and pads.

"Converting Vegetarians" is a slowly evolving song that finally shifts up a gear with an orchestral hit around 2:00 minutes into the track as the curtain is pulled back for quirky but upbeat vocals that fit the title of the track and the experimental atmosphere of the disc quite well. A fitting first track.

"Drop out" is the first song I heard from this album and the acoustic guitar work a bit after the 2:00 minute mark made it one of my favorites, tickling the same auditory neurons as the guitar on a few of the tracks in Shpongle's masterpiece "Nothing Lasts... But Nothing Is Lost". The Santana-suggestive electric guitar that breaks in around 4:00 minutes layered over Enigma like chorals before a rapid flurry of synth takes back the reins is icing on the cake.

Try "Blink" for a taste of what happens when they ask the wonderful Michele Adamson to put a very feminine polish on one... or two. She's also featured on "Illuminaughty"! Michele is someone that I personally prefer on the tracks featuring her, over her own "stuff", and these two tracks are no exception.

Every track on disc two has it's own special twists and surprises and it finally winds down with the decidedly slower "Elevation", slightly sweetened piano and floating pads are prominent.

Not a bad track on either disc in my opinion! And do yourself a favor and skip the lossy MP3 and other compressed stuff offered here and similar sites (i*unes) and spill the cash for the real deal. On a great stereo or pair of cans your ears will thank you.

I do love this cd but it almost gets to be too much cuz this cd is when infected mushroom decided to use their special effects guitars and make all there music with that. I liked it better before they even came to america. They had better music and tighter beats and more interresting storylines. I do reccomend to get this cd tho, it probably has the best vibe to it other than any other one.

This is by far my favorite IM album (although I've never heard I'm the Supervisor). As someone else implied, the music spans across the whole spectrum from "sad to comically mischievous" which is a great way to put it.
Some of the songs are kind of quirky, but I can't get enough of them.

The album sounds quite unlike anything else I've heard--there's just so much more diversity captured within each song compared to their other albums. It's not always that repetitive, driving beat that we often hear. While some may not like this new approach, I really do because it brings out so much creativity. The second disc alone is worth it for me, but the first can stand on its own as well.

This album takes a little bit of an investment. At first listen there are some cool concepts here, but it's a little too polished and commercial sounding compared to their earlier work. However, if you persist you will likely find that it grows on you as you notice more nuances than on previous listenings. This album is more vocal the previous works, and some of those vocals are a real shock to hear from a band that it almost entirely instrumental. The initial shock of the vocals fades after a few listens and you're left with some pretty awesome tracks that you'll find yourself listening to again and again, and getting caught humming to yourself in some strange places.

Infected Mushroom are two guys from Israel. Which just goes to show you, guys from Israel make much better music than guys from, say, Canada, where apparently all it takes to become a rock star is really bad shoulder-length wavy hair and the ability to say "Yeah" like 50 million times.

When I first bought this, I was thoroughly disgusted by the cover art, which to me just looked like a gigantic fish hook with a brain stuck on it. After several days of vomiting, I gathered the nerve to look at the picture again, at which point I realized that I had been looking at the picture all wrong. It's actually a really small brain on a normal-sized fish hook. So it's probably just the brain of a Chihuahua or a member of the U.S. Congress or something.

If you are able to close your eyes long enough to open the case, you'll find that there is a Compact Disc inside, which plays all sorts of wonderful music when placed inside a compatible Compact Disc playing device. When placed in another kind of device it probably won't do much of anything. As a matter of fact, there are two Discs in there, but don't try to play them both at once. I made this mistake, and it kind of sounds like Nickelback when you do this, so you should try to avoid playing them both at the same time.

You should be warned that this is not, as you might think, an instructional audio book for the actual conversion of vegetarians. Although this is indeed a worthy goal, audio books would be worthless in converting vegetarians. Unless maybe you whack them on the head and say, "Hey! You shouldn't be a vegetarian, tofu-boy!" I think the best way to convert a vegetarian is to make a really delicious cheeseburger and give it to a vegetarian. They might not eat it unless you tell them it's a tofu-burger, but after they've eaten it you can tell them the truth and see how happy they are that you helped them with their problem. I've never tried this, because I've never met a real live vegetarian, but I'm sure it would work. Especially if the cheeseburger is from that place Chester's in San Antonio.

Once you get past all this, you'll be happy to discover that this product does have its redeeming qualities: namely, original, creative "trance" and "other" music that will blow your mind. Buy it and you won't be sorry. Unless you really, really like Chihuahuas.