Infected Mushroom: Encyclopedia II - Infected Mushroom - History

Infected Mushroom - History

Infected Mushroom are one of the most popular pioneers of the psychedelic trance (or 'Psytrance') genre, this has been attributed to both their constantly evolving style of music and also to their tendency to use catchier, more accessible melodies than the more eccentric 'tripped-out' melodies used in most other psytrance music. Both Erez and Amit (Duvdev) are classically trained musicians, and this may explain the difference in the melodies they construct. The Gathering (1999) was the breakthrough debut album for the group with the song "psycho". This album set the trend for modern Israeli Psytrance that has become increasingly popular with a more 'mainstream' audience and gradually gaining acceptability. The next year the duo released one of the most well known albums in the genre today, Classical Mushroom (2000). The album showcased a track often cited as their most popular track, and also commonly referred to as the best example of the group's talent: 'Bust A Move'. The group's evolving style has also had its share of critics. 2001's BP Empire was well-received by many fans and critics alike. However the album was seen as a break away from the more traditional styles of the previous albums and was shunned by many psytrance purists who felt that the new territories explored went beyond the bounds of psytrance but not necessarily in a progressive sense.

There was also some criticism about the previous albums being very similar, and so Infected Mushroom sought to prove their musical versatility with the epic 'Dancing With Kadafi'; seguing numerous styles of music, most notably through the use of strong middle-eastern style melodies and a classial piece halfway through which showcased their piano and violin skills. However the groups most controversial album proved to be 2003's 'Converting Vegetarians' which featured 2 discs; an inoffensive 'Trance Side' containing mostly trance-like dancefloor material, and a disc entitled 'The Other Side' which displayed Infected's other musical skills, including the Hiphop and R&B inspired title track 'Converting Vegetarians' which was the first true display of Duvdev's characteristic voice. The track also went against the grain of the typical psytrance philosophy, that of their hippy forebearers by chanting about the music's capacity to wrestle their audience from their naive ideals in favour of Infected's own less New Age philosophy. The remainder of the CD went on to reveal other musical stylings, including 'I Wish', lead by a carefully vocoded vocal line.

Also included were guest appearences from well-known UK psytrance vocalist Michele Adamson on tracks 'Blink', 'Illuminaughty' and to a lesser extent on 'Ballerium', recorded as a soundtrack to an up-and-coming internet game. The release of the most eagerly anticipated album of their career, IM The Supervisor in 2004 (Often incorrectly referred to as I'm The Supervisor), further surprised listeners with yet another cocktail of Trance elements and many more musical influences (often critisized by critics as being too "commercialized"), but well respected by others. Recently, Infected Mushroom have moved from their base in Tel Aviv to a new studio in Los Angeles, California which they are using as the base in which to produce their new album after completing their extensive world tour (one which ran non-stop since 1999).

The name Infected Mushroom was originated by a punk band from the north of Israel in the year 1989, a band admired by "Duvdev" and whose gigs he had frequented. A few years after the original Infected Mushroom disbanded (1993) the name was taken up (without permission) by Amit and Erez as the stage name for their new trance act.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "History", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki