DJ Yogi
GOA TRANCE
Goa trance (often referred to as Goa or by the number 604 - G = 6, O = 0, A = 4) is a form of electronic music and is a style of trance music. It originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the Indian state of Goa and is distinctive, as most forms of trance music were developed in Europe. Goa trance enjoyed the greater part of its success from around 1994 - 1998, and since then has dwindled significantly both in production and consumption, largely being replaced by its successor, psychedelic trance or psytrance.
Goa trance is closely related to the emergence of psytrance during the latter half of the 1990s and early 2000s, where the two genres mixed together. In popular culture, the distinction between the two genres remains largely a matter of opinion (they are considered by some to be synonymous; others say that psytrance is more "metallic" and that Goa trance is more "organic", and still others maintain that there is a clear difference between the two.) These two are however quite sonically distinct from other forms of trance in both tonal quality, structure and feel. In many countries they are generally more underground and less commercial than other forms of trance. Goa trance, while not played very often today, is more likely to be heard at outdoor parties and festivals than in clubs.
Among the first compilations or albums where Goa trance could be heard, as opposed to "normal" trance music, are Dragonfly Records "Project II Trance" and its successor "Order Odonata".
The music has its roots in the popularity of the Goa state in India in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a hippie mecca, and although musical developments were incorporating elements of industrial music and EBM with the spiritual culture in India throughout the 1980s, the actual Goa trance style did not officially appear until the early 1990s. As the hippie tourist influx tapered off in the 1970s and 1980s, a core group remained in Goa, concentrating on developments in music along with other pursuits such as yoga and recreational drug use. The music that would eventually be known as Goa trance did not evolve from one single genre, but was inspired mainly by Industrial music/EBM like Front Line Assembly and A Split-Second, acid house (The KLF's "What time is love?" in particular) and psychedelic rock like Ozric Tentacles, Steve Hillage and Ash Ra Tempel. In addition to those, oriental tribal/ethnic music also became a source of inspiration, unsurprisingly considering that it was from Goa in the Orient that Goa trance originated. A very early example (1974) of the relation between psy-rock and the music that would eventually be known as Goa trance is The Cosmic Jokers (a collaboration between Ash Ra Tempel and Klaus Schulze) highly experimental and psychedelic album "Galactic Supermarket", which features occasional 4/4 rhythms intertwined with elements from psy-rock, early analogue synths and occasionally tribal-esque drum patterns.
The introduction of techno and its techniques to Goa led to what eventually became the Goa trance style; early pioneers included DJs Fred Disko, Laurent, Goa Gil, and Amsterdam Joey. Many "parties" (generally similar to raves but with a more mystic flavour, at least in early 1990s) in Goa revolve entirely around this genre of music. In other countries, Goa is also often played at raves, festivals and parties in conjunction with other styles of trance and techno.
Today, Goa trance has a significant following in Israel, brought to that country by former soldiers returning from recreational "post-army trips" to Goa in the early 1990s. A great deal of Goa trance (or now, more accurately, psytrance) is now produced in Israel, but its production and consumption is a global phenomenon. New "hot-spots" today include Brazil, Japan, South Africa and Mexico.
The original Goa trance sound has undergone a great deal of other genres evolving from it since 1997. From 1997 till 2000 the Goa Trance scene was without any clear goal. Artists experimented in many ways from combining Goa trance with breakbeats to creating a blend of Goa trance and minimal techno (which later went on to become progressive/minimal psytrance). The main goal during this time was to experiment in new ways and create something different to the Goa trance sound that was so popular and widespread during the mid 90s. As a result, anything could be heard at a Goa trance party. After 2000, new styles were born, fixed and have survived until today, with some of them becoming commercialised and enjoying much more success in clubs, for example "full-on" psytrance. Today a lot of music that is labelled "Goa trance" has very little to do with the original sound of Goa trance, however, achieveing a psychedelic sound (be it organic or metallic) is said to remain the goal that producers are out to accomplish.
One particular underground genre that branched off from Goa trance is called suomisaundi (Finnish sound), which originated in Finland. One of its trademark features is reference to earlymid-1990s classic Goa trance music, and this genre is often exhibited in Finland's forest party scene. At these parties, mostly Goa trance and Suomi-style psytrance can be heard.
Today, there remain very few artists and labels that still produce Goa trance. The most well-known labels are Suntrip Records and Tranceform Records. Artists such as Filteria, Khetzal, Lost Buddha, Goasia, Ka-Sol, Ypsilon 5 and Ethereal are among the few that are carrying the sound into the 21st century.
The sound of Goa trance
Never changing. Forever true. In the name of love. Dance for paradise.
—as sampled by Boris Blenn
Goa trance is essentially "dance-trance" music (it was referred to as "Trance Dance" in its formative years), the original goal being to assist the dancers in experiencing a collective state of bodily transcendence, similar to that of ancient shamanic dancing rituals, through hypnotic, pulsing melodies and rhythms. As such it has an energetic beat, almost always in 4/4 time and mainly consisting of 16th or 32nd note patterns played in both synth and percussion parts. A typical track will generally build up to a much more energetic movement in the second half then taper off fairly quickly toward the end. The BPM typically lies in the 130 - 150 range, making Goa trance slightly faster than more mainstream trance, although some tracks may have BPMs as low as 110 or as high as 160. Generally 8-12 minutes long, Goa trance tracks tend to focus on steadily building energy throughout, using changes in percussion patterns and more intricate and layered synth parts as the music progresses in order to build a hypnotic and intense feel.
The kick drum often is a low, thick sound with a large amount of sub-bass frequencies, and is thought to be the origin of the term doof, a label for dance music and Goa trance in particular. The music very often incorporates a great deal of effects, much more so than other forms of dance music, and are often created through experimentation with synthesisers. A well-known sound that originated with Goa trance and became much more prevalent through its successor, psytrance, is the organic "squelchy" sound (usually a saw-wave which is run through a high-pass resonance filter), thought to sound especially good on psychedelic drugs.
Other important pieces of equipment used in Goa trance include popular analogue synthesizers such as the Roland TB-303, Roland Juno-60/106, Novation Bass-Station, Korg MS-10, and notably the Roland SH-101. Hardware samplers manufactured by Akai, Yamaha and Ensoniq were also popular for sample storage and manipulation.
A popular element of Goa trance is the use of strange samples, often from sci-fi movies. Those samples mostly contain references to drugs, parapsychology, extraterrestrials, existentialism, OBEs, dreams, science, spirituality and other things that could be deemed as "mysterious" and "unconventional". For an extensive list of such samples, see Psychedelic Mind Expander's sample list.
Goa trance parties
In the state of Goa, Goa trance parties can take place in unusual locations such as on a beach, in a desert or in the middle of the forest, although it is not uncommon for them to be held in conventional locations like clubs. Today, the need to pay the local police baksheesh means that they're generally staged around a bar, even though this may only be a temporary fixture in the forest or beach. Once the baksheesh is paid, then the party-goers are free to bring out their charas and fill their chillums without fear of getting arrested.
The parties around the New Year tend to be the most chaotic with busloads of people coming in from all places such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and the world over. Travelers, beggars and sadhus from all over India pass by to join in.
Goa parties also have a definitive visual aspect - the use of "fluoro" (fluorescent paint) is common on clothing and on decorations such as tapestries. The graphics on these decorations are usually associated with topics such as aliens, Hinduism, other religious (especially eastern) images, mushrooms (and other psychedelic imagery), shamanism and technology. Shrines in front of the DJ stands featuring religious items are also common decorations.
Goa trance in popular culture
For a short period in the mid-1990s Goa trance enjoyed significant commercial success with support from DJs such as Paul Oakenfold, who later went on to assist in developing a much more mainstream style of trance outside Goa. Only a few artists came close to being Goa trance "stars", enjoying worldwide fame. Among the most notable are Astral Projection, Man With No Name, Hallucinogen, Cosmosis and Doof. Goa trance duo Juno Reactor had their music featured in many Hollywood movies like Mortal Kombat, The Matrix, and even Once Upon a Time in Mexico; however, whether or not those are actually Goa trance is debatable.
Goa trance remains very much an underground form of music and with the exception of more popular artists such as (Hallucinogen or Juno Reactor), Goa trance albums are usually not sold in mainstream record stores and it can be difficult to find them on vinyl as virtually no Goa trance is produced on vinyl today.
Simon Reynolds comments that "For all its cult of the mystic Orient, Goa Trance is sonically whiter-than-white. All the creativity is in the top level (melody and filigree) with not a lot going on in the rhythm section. The Goa Trance scene is a sort of deodorized, upmarket version of crusty techno, without the ragged-trousered poverty chic".
PSYCHEDELIC TRANCE (PSYTRANCE)
Psychedelic trance, often referred to as psytrance, is a form of electronic music that developed from Goa trance in the early 1990s when it first began hitting the mainstream. In some psychedelic trance circles and online communities, 'Psychedelic' is the preferred name for the genre as it provides an umbrella term for the many divergent styles including Goa, melodic, dark, progressive and suomi. Referring to it as "psychedelic" also distinguishes the style from the 'clubbier' type of trance music and reinforces the roots of Goa trance in the psychedelic community. Psychedelic trance generally has a fast tempo, in the range 135 to 150 BPM but has developed into numerous different styles within the genre all with their own range of tempos. The emphasis in psychedelic trance is placed strongly on purely synthesized timbres in terms of programming and lead melodies. The original Goa trance was often made with popular Modular synthesizers and hardware samplers, but the preference in Psychedelic trance has moved to sample manipulation and storage in VST and AU software sampler applications. The use of analog synthesizers for sound synthesis has given way to digital "virtual analog" instruments like the Nord Lead, Access Virus, Korg MS-2000, Roland JP-8000 and computer VST and AU plugins like Native Instruments Reaktor. These are usually controlled by MIDI sequencers within Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) applications.
Psychedelic trance is most popular in Greece, UK, Israel, Portugal, Mexico, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Belgium, Serbia, Republic of Macedonia, Netherlands, Croatia, the Nordic countries and India. The genre is not as well known outside its scene as uplifting or progressive is.
The term "psychedelic trance" is used almost synonymously with "Goa trance". Goa trance is a precursor to the late 1990s psychedelic trance, which utilizes more sophisticated melodic devices and distinctive basslines. Goa trance is an almost completely defunct genre of music, based on the fact that few if any contemporary artists would describe the music they create as being of this genre, with the notable exception of Swedish producer Filteria, whose music deliberately uses the same hardware and compositional techniques that defined the Goa sound. The term "Psychedelic trance" is used to distinguish the newer material made by many artists, who were formerly known to have produced Goa trance. Full on is a sub-genre characterized by "solidly driven" basslines, melodies, and frequent use of DSP Effects. Notable artists include, Spain's (Ibiza) Growling Mad Scientists G.M.S. and Israel's Astrix in comparison to the more "clubbier" minimalist and less melodic genres, such as progressive trance with more of a psychedelic influence, exemplified by many Scandinavian and German artists, including Sweden's Son Kite. Many use the term Goa trance to simply distinguish those pieces which seem to incorporate eastern, Indian, or "organic" melodies (see raga), derived from sources, like Indian classical music. These pieces may include the use of extensive sixteenth notes. This makes it easier to identify those which don't incorporate such elements, which listeners would call Psychedelic trance. These pieces tend to be more experimental and futuristic (in the case of Full on), usually using programmed melodies juxtapositionally derived from minor arpeggios Cm7, Dm7, Em7, augmented chords, or other exotic or unusual harmonic combinations (see transposition), with the intent of being multi-timbral (see glissando). Both genres, however, continue to use samples taken from sources, like sci-fi films, documentaries, and spoken word, etc.
History
Raja Ram has been experimenting with psychedelic trance as early as the 1980s. He has been part of numerous projects including the well-known ambient group Shpongle, The Infinity Project and 1200 Micrograms. He is also the owner of the TIP World record label.Psychedelic trance developed out of the early 1990s Goa Trance scene through the influence of artists such as TimeShard and Eat Static, both on the Planet Dog record label.
The first pure Psychedelic trance label was Dragonfly Records, formed by the artist and trance producer Martin "Youth" Glover (a former bassist for the band Killing Joke) in Brixton, London. For this he took advantage of the organization and the studio of his already existing label, Butterfly Records. It quickly became the center of the London Psychedelic trance scene. Raja Ram and Graham Wood first produced here as The Infinity Project. Simon Posford, who worked as a sound engineer at Butterfly, later released his legendary album, Twisted as Hallucinogen on Dragonfly. This album featured the classic track "LSD" featuring a voice sample from acid guru Ken Kesey. The first compilation from Dragonfly was released as a trance sampler and was soon followed by another compilation titled Project II Trance in August of 1993. These included work from such well-known artists as the French project Total Eclipse and Mandra Gora. In 1994 it released singles from Man With No Name, Prana, Ayahuasca, Slinky Wizard and Doof. The signature Order Odonata compilation was released the same year.
At this point the scene was growing rapidly and many new labels were created. Return To The Source, a party collective first appeared. Raja Ram and Graham Wood went on to found their own label, called TIP Records (now TIP World). Tsuyoshi Suzuki worked with John Perloff to create the Matsuri Productions label. Flying Rhino Records was established by James Monro, Dominic Lamb and George Barker (Slinky Wizard), who hired Sally Welch as manager. Simon Berry founded Platipus Records, who among other things, released the first vinyl by Technossomy. It also out licensed the famous Robert Miles' "Children". Simon's own project, Union Jack released their morning trance album There will be no Armageddon in 1996, featuring well-known tracks such as "Red Herring", "Cactus" and "Two Full Moons and a Trout".
Around this time a new label emerged in UK. Some consider Blue Room Released to be of the most important, and unusual, labels in the Psychedelic trance genre. It was led by Simon Ghahary and had solid financial backing from a British loudspeaker company. Allegedly, Ghahary had free reign to spend the money as he saw fit, regardless of sales figures. This allowed Blue Room to move away from "classic" Goa trance into new, more experimental directions. Some of the most well-known artists today were signed and had their work distributed on the Blue Room Released label. Their first compilation was titled "Outside The Reactor" was released in April of 1995 and featured work from artists such as Total Eclipse, Har-El Prussky, and Voodoo People. Three of the best known projects - Juno Reactor, Total Eclipse and The Infinity Project also released their debut albums that year. Soon the German project X-Dream started working with Blue Room as well, releasing their "The Frog" single and the highly influential Radio album. At its height, the label went on to release such works as Violent Relaxation by Total Eclipse, Juno Reactor's Bible of Dreams, Saafi Brothers' Mystic Cigarettes and Dragon Tales by Koxbox.
Despite being the center of production for Psychedelic trance in the mid 1990s, England had a very limited party scene. This mostly due to the Criminal Justice Bill and requirements for early closing hours in nightclubs. On the other hand, Germany had much more liberal laws, which in addition to the recent unification contributed to the development of the scene there. The German label Spirit Zone Records opened up in 1994, and ended up signing on many foreign artists such as The Infinity Project (UK), K.U.R.O. (Japan), Etnica (Italy), and Har-El Prussky (Israel). It was also the home label of many German artists such as Electric Universe, Star Sounds Orchestra and S.U.N. Project. France was also becoming an increasingly important location, with not only Total Eclipse, but the now famous projects like Talamasca and Transwave emerging.
Project II Trance, the first Psychedelic Trance compilation.Around 1997, the original Goa trance scene was undergoing hard times, especially in the UK. Sales dropped and many big labels such as Flying Rhino went bankrupt, while others had to reinvent themselves and emerge under a new name as did TIP World. The death of Goa trance was "officially" declared by Tsuyoshi Suzuki on his Let it RIP album, where the liner notes read "RIP: Mother Theresa, Princess Diana, William Burroughs, Goa trance."
The new sound of what would become the Psychedelic trance of today emerged at this time. It included elements of minimal and progressive trance, house, and techno, while focusing less on the original Goa melodies. Germany became the center of this movement in 1997 and 1998. Many Swedish artists also emerged playing a more progressive sound. The most successful and well known is Tomasz Balicki (Atmos). His track "Klein Aber Doctor" was the most successful release for Flying Rhino yet, which was in the process of restructuring. Even the Dragonfly label stated to switch to this new progressive sound, and Psychedelic trance was once again becoming popular. Debut releases from Atmos, Noma, S-Range and Son Kite only cemented this fact and made Sweden an important producer of psychedelic trance.
Soon Psychedelic trance was expanding rapidly once again, and for the first time differences became apparent in the music being produced in different countries. Parallel scenes also developed in countries like Israel, Germany, South Africa and Japan. There are also smaller, but active scenes in India, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Russia, Hungary, Portugal, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Thailand, Denmark, Poland, Canada and even the United States.
Development in Israel
In 1988 changes in the law and political situation of Israel, allowed many Israelis to acquire Indian travel visas for the first time, many having just completed military service and wanting a complete change of environment. The beaches of Goa were a natural destination. Many Israelis returned from their trips bringing with them recordings of this new style of music. Developing in almost complete isolation from the scenes elsewhere, Israeli DJs emerged playing their own variations on the sound. These included individuals such as Avi Nissim and Lior Perlmutter (SFX and later Astral Projection), Har-El Prussky and Miko (California Sunshine), Guy Sebbag, Avi Algranati (Phreaky, Space Cat) and Ofer Dikovsky (Oforia). Naturally, Israeli labels formed, including Melodia Records, Trust In Trance Records, Phonokol and Krembo Records. With the emergence of new innovative artists such as Infected Mushroom and Violet Vision, psychedelic trance firmly established itself in the alternative culture in Israel, more so than in any other country in the world.
Commercial success
In recent years, sales of psychedelic trance have been falling. The decline was : -2,8% in 2001, and -8,8% in 2002. A typical album usually sells around 2,000 copies, and selling more than 5,000 copies would be considered a success. There are only a handful of artists who sold more than 20,000 copies, including Hallucinogen, G.M.S., Infected Mushroom, Transwave, and Astral Projection. Hallucinogen's Twisted has had the most commercial success to date, selling around 85,000 copies.
The reasons for this decline in public interest include overproduction, copyright infringement, and lack of publicity. In fact, the market has not grown much, however the number of new labels and artists has increased exponentially. Much of psychedelic trance is also channeled through illegal copying by sharing of music, particularly among students and streaming audio on the internet. Although this has opened up the market to newcomers, most of these fans do not have the ability to purchase music since it is not normally distributed in mainstream record stores (mostly internet shops).
Psychedelic trance scene
Simon Posford performing at the Soulclipse FestivalPsychedelic trance is often played at outdoor festivals. The festivals often take place over a few days with music being played through the night and well into the next day. These big events usually offer a lot of parallel activities, not just music. Largely, Psytrancers are environmentalist in nature and concerned with social justice, and thus it's not unusual to find workshops addressing these issues.
The big trance festivals often form a small independent city, where some 10,000 people from different places of the world meet to celebrate music and life. During winter many parties take place in clubs in modern suburbia or on the many beaches in foreign climes frequented by travellers.
Some people at these festivals frequently consume psychedelic drugs like LSD and psychedelic mushrooms. The smoking of Cannabis is widespread within the global psy-trance scene. Drugs such as Ecstasy, cocaine and amphetamine are also used to some extent. There is also a large portion of the psytrance community - including many successful artists, DJs, party organizers and party goers - who do not use drugs, or no longer use drugs. Many of these people believe experiencing the music in the intended spirit of the festivals is the high in and of itself.
While psychedelic trance music has lost its popularity in the 2000s, it is immensely popular and the dominant dance-genre in South Africa, Goa, Israel and Brazil. It is also still particularly popular in Portugal, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Pakistan, India, Holland, Mexico, Russia, Germany, and Australia.
In particular, the scene in Brazil is growing bigger and more commercial. In Brazil the scene started in the 90´s, and become a big comercial scene of psytrance parties (less only than israel), with big commercial parties like XXXperience, Tribe, and Orbital, and with famous Festivals like TRANCENDENCE, UNIVERSO PARALELO, SOLARIS, TRANCEFORMATION. In any of these events you can easily find from 5.000 to 15.000 people, and artists from all parts of the world playing.
Psychedelic trance artists and projects
Psychedelic trance is often produced in a collaboration between two or more artists, called a "project". Somewhat different from other genres of music is the fact that one artist could be part of as many as ten or more projects, often simultaneously. Each different combination of artists almost always has a unique name. For example X-Dream (Jan Muller and Marcus Maichel) and Planet B.E.N. (Ben Wierzoch) are two well known projects from Germany. The collaboration between Jan and Ben is called Organic Noise and the collaboration between Marcus and Ben is called Fools and Tools. This partly accounts for the large number of psychedelic trance projects.
As shown above the names of projects made up of the same artists can often be unrelated, although this is not always the case. For example, many projects involving Infected Mushroom are often prefixed with the word "Infected" or postfixed with the word "Mushroom" (Examples: Domestic Mushroom, Infected Astrix).
Making things even more confusing is the fact that the same exact artist(s) or group(s) of artists will sometimes produce music under different project names to showcase different variations of their music. Quasar also known as "Pulsar"(Dance oriented variations) as well as "Trancention" (Lighter trance music),but are really the same artists Quasar and Pulsar VanderHousen.
Very few psychedelic trance artists release albums under their own name (Tim Schuldt & Shanti Matkin are two exceptions). Instead, the name of the project is sometimes chosen to describe the theme of the music being produced. Not surprisingly, Crop Circles and Pleiadians releases are focused on the topic of space travel.
Source: Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
Goa trance (often referred to as Goa or by the number 604 - G = 6, O = 0, A = 4) is a form of electronic music and is a style of trance music. It originated in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the Indian state of Goa and is distinctive, as most forms of trance music were developed in Europe. Goa trance enjoyed the greater part of its success from around 1994 - 1998, and since then has dwindled significantly both in production and consumption, largely being replaced by its successor, psychedelic trance or psytrance.
Goa trance is closely related to the emergence of psytrance during the latter half of the 1990s and early 2000s, where the two genres mixed together. In popular culture, the distinction between the two genres remains largely a matter of opinion (they are considered by some to be synonymous; others say that psytrance is more "metallic" and that Goa trance is more "organic", and still others maintain that there is a clear difference between the two.) These two are however quite sonically distinct from other forms of trance in both tonal quality, structure and feel. In many countries they are generally more underground and less commercial than other forms of trance. Goa trance, while not played very often today, is more likely to be heard at outdoor parties and festivals than in clubs.
Among the first compilations or albums where Goa trance could be heard, as opposed to "normal" trance music, are Dragonfly Records "Project II Trance" and its successor "Order Odonata".
The music has its roots in the popularity of the Goa state in India in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a hippie mecca, and although musical developments were incorporating elements of industrial music and EBM with the spiritual culture in India throughout the 1980s, the actual Goa trance style did not officially appear until the early 1990s. As the hippie tourist influx tapered off in the 1970s and 1980s, a core group remained in Goa, concentrating on developments in music along with other pursuits such as yoga and recreational drug use. The music that would eventually be known as Goa trance did not evolve from one single genre, but was inspired mainly by Industrial music/EBM like Front Line Assembly and A Split-Second, acid house (The KLF's "What time is love?" in particular) and psychedelic rock like Ozric Tentacles, Steve Hillage and Ash Ra Tempel. In addition to those, oriental tribal/ethnic music also became a source of inspiration, unsurprisingly considering that it was from Goa in the Orient that Goa trance originated. A very early example (1974) of the relation between psy-rock and the music that would eventually be known as Goa trance is The Cosmic Jokers (a collaboration between Ash Ra Tempel and Klaus Schulze) highly experimental and psychedelic album "Galactic Supermarket", which features occasional 4/4 rhythms intertwined with elements from psy-rock, early analogue synths and occasionally tribal-esque drum patterns.
The introduction of techno and its techniques to Goa led to what eventually became the Goa trance style; early pioneers included DJs Fred Disko, Laurent, Goa Gil, and Amsterdam Joey. Many "parties" (generally similar to raves but with a more mystic flavour, at least in early 1990s) in Goa revolve entirely around this genre of music. In other countries, Goa is also often played at raves, festivals and parties in conjunction with other styles of trance and techno.
Today, Goa trance has a significant following in Israel, brought to that country by former soldiers returning from recreational "post-army trips" to Goa in the early 1990s. A great deal of Goa trance (or now, more accurately, psytrance) is now produced in Israel, but its production and consumption is a global phenomenon. New "hot-spots" today include Brazil, Japan, South Africa and Mexico.
The original Goa trance sound has undergone a great deal of other genres evolving from it since 1997. From 1997 till 2000 the Goa Trance scene was without any clear goal. Artists experimented in many ways from combining Goa trance with breakbeats to creating a blend of Goa trance and minimal techno (which later went on to become progressive/minimal psytrance). The main goal during this time was to experiment in new ways and create something different to the Goa trance sound that was so popular and widespread during the mid 90s. As a result, anything could be heard at a Goa trance party. After 2000, new styles were born, fixed and have survived until today, with some of them becoming commercialised and enjoying much more success in clubs, for example "full-on" psytrance. Today a lot of music that is labelled "Goa trance" has very little to do with the original sound of Goa trance, however, achieveing a psychedelic sound (be it organic or metallic) is said to remain the goal that producers are out to accomplish.
One particular underground genre that branched off from Goa trance is called suomisaundi (Finnish sound), which originated in Finland. One of its trademark features is reference to earlymid-1990s classic Goa trance music, and this genre is often exhibited in Finland's forest party scene. At these parties, mostly Goa trance and Suomi-style psytrance can be heard.
Today, there remain very few artists and labels that still produce Goa trance. The most well-known labels are Suntrip Records and Tranceform Records. Artists such as Filteria, Khetzal, Lost Buddha, Goasia, Ka-Sol, Ypsilon 5 and Ethereal are among the few that are carrying the sound into the 21st century.
The sound of Goa trance
Never changing. Forever true. In the name of love. Dance for paradise.
—as sampled by Boris Blenn
Goa trance is essentially "dance-trance" music (it was referred to as "Trance Dance" in its formative years), the original goal being to assist the dancers in experiencing a collective state of bodily transcendence, similar to that of ancient shamanic dancing rituals, through hypnotic, pulsing melodies and rhythms. As such it has an energetic beat, almost always in 4/4 time and mainly consisting of 16th or 32nd note patterns played in both synth and percussion parts. A typical track will generally build up to a much more energetic movement in the second half then taper off fairly quickly toward the end. The BPM typically lies in the 130 - 150 range, making Goa trance slightly faster than more mainstream trance, although some tracks may have BPMs as low as 110 or as high as 160. Generally 8-12 minutes long, Goa trance tracks tend to focus on steadily building energy throughout, using changes in percussion patterns and more intricate and layered synth parts as the music progresses in order to build a hypnotic and intense feel.
The kick drum often is a low, thick sound with a large amount of sub-bass frequencies, and is thought to be the origin of the term doof, a label for dance music and Goa trance in particular. The music very often incorporates a great deal of effects, much more so than other forms of dance music, and are often created through experimentation with synthesisers. A well-known sound that originated with Goa trance and became much more prevalent through its successor, psytrance, is the organic "squelchy" sound (usually a saw-wave which is run through a high-pass resonance filter), thought to sound especially good on psychedelic drugs.
Other important pieces of equipment used in Goa trance include popular analogue synthesizers such as the Roland TB-303, Roland Juno-60/106, Novation Bass-Station, Korg MS-10, and notably the Roland SH-101. Hardware samplers manufactured by Akai, Yamaha and Ensoniq were also popular for sample storage and manipulation.
A popular element of Goa trance is the use of strange samples, often from sci-fi movies. Those samples mostly contain references to drugs, parapsychology, extraterrestrials, existentialism, OBEs, dreams, science, spirituality and other things that could be deemed as "mysterious" and "unconventional". For an extensive list of such samples, see Psychedelic Mind Expander's sample list.
Goa trance parties
In the state of Goa, Goa trance parties can take place in unusual locations such as on a beach, in a desert or in the middle of the forest, although it is not uncommon for them to be held in conventional locations like clubs. Today, the need to pay the local police baksheesh means that they're generally staged around a bar, even though this may only be a temporary fixture in the forest or beach. Once the baksheesh is paid, then the party-goers are free to bring out their charas and fill their chillums without fear of getting arrested.
The parties around the New Year tend to be the most chaotic with busloads of people coming in from all places such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and the world over. Travelers, beggars and sadhus from all over India pass by to join in.
Goa parties also have a definitive visual aspect - the use of "fluoro" (fluorescent paint) is common on clothing and on decorations such as tapestries. The graphics on these decorations are usually associated with topics such as aliens, Hinduism, other religious (especially eastern) images, mushrooms (and other psychedelic imagery), shamanism and technology. Shrines in front of the DJ stands featuring religious items are also common decorations.
Goa trance in popular culture
For a short period in the mid-1990s Goa trance enjoyed significant commercial success with support from DJs such as Paul Oakenfold, who later went on to assist in developing a much more mainstream style of trance outside Goa. Only a few artists came close to being Goa trance "stars", enjoying worldwide fame. Among the most notable are Astral Projection, Man With No Name, Hallucinogen, Cosmosis and Doof. Goa trance duo Juno Reactor had their music featured in many Hollywood movies like Mortal Kombat, The Matrix, and even Once Upon a Time in Mexico; however, whether or not those are actually Goa trance is debatable.
Goa trance remains very much an underground form of music and with the exception of more popular artists such as (Hallucinogen or Juno Reactor), Goa trance albums are usually not sold in mainstream record stores and it can be difficult to find them on vinyl as virtually no Goa trance is produced on vinyl today.
Simon Reynolds comments that "For all its cult of the mystic Orient, Goa Trance is sonically whiter-than-white. All the creativity is in the top level (melody and filigree) with not a lot going on in the rhythm section. The Goa Trance scene is a sort of deodorized, upmarket version of crusty techno, without the ragged-trousered poverty chic".
PSYCHEDELIC TRANCE (PSYTRANCE)
Psychedelic trance, often referred to as psytrance, is a form of electronic music that developed from Goa trance in the early 1990s when it first began hitting the mainstream. In some psychedelic trance circles and online communities, 'Psychedelic' is the preferred name for the genre as it provides an umbrella term for the many divergent styles including Goa, melodic, dark, progressive and suomi. Referring to it as "psychedelic" also distinguishes the style from the 'clubbier' type of trance music and reinforces the roots of Goa trance in the psychedelic community. Psychedelic trance generally has a fast tempo, in the range 135 to 150 BPM but has developed into numerous different styles within the genre all with their own range of tempos. The emphasis in psychedelic trance is placed strongly on purely synthesized timbres in terms of programming and lead melodies. The original Goa trance was often made with popular Modular synthesizers and hardware samplers, but the preference in Psychedelic trance has moved to sample manipulation and storage in VST and AU software sampler applications. The use of analog synthesizers for sound synthesis has given way to digital "virtual analog" instruments like the Nord Lead, Access Virus, Korg MS-2000, Roland JP-8000 and computer VST and AU plugins like Native Instruments Reaktor. These are usually controlled by MIDI sequencers within Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) applications.
Psychedelic trance is most popular in Greece, UK, Israel, Portugal, Mexico, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Belgium, Serbia, Republic of Macedonia, Netherlands, Croatia, the Nordic countries and India. The genre is not as well known outside its scene as uplifting or progressive is.
The term "psychedelic trance" is used almost synonymously with "Goa trance". Goa trance is a precursor to the late 1990s psychedelic trance, which utilizes more sophisticated melodic devices and distinctive basslines. Goa trance is an almost completely defunct genre of music, based on the fact that few if any contemporary artists would describe the music they create as being of this genre, with the notable exception of Swedish producer Filteria, whose music deliberately uses the same hardware and compositional techniques that defined the Goa sound. The term "Psychedelic trance" is used to distinguish the newer material made by many artists, who were formerly known to have produced Goa trance. Full on is a sub-genre characterized by "solidly driven" basslines, melodies, and frequent use of DSP Effects. Notable artists include, Spain's (Ibiza) Growling Mad Scientists G.M.S. and Israel's Astrix in comparison to the more "clubbier" minimalist and less melodic genres, such as progressive trance with more of a psychedelic influence, exemplified by many Scandinavian and German artists, including Sweden's Son Kite. Many use the term Goa trance to simply distinguish those pieces which seem to incorporate eastern, Indian, or "organic" melodies (see raga), derived from sources, like Indian classical music. These pieces may include the use of extensive sixteenth notes. This makes it easier to identify those which don't incorporate such elements, which listeners would call Psychedelic trance. These pieces tend to be more experimental and futuristic (in the case of Full on), usually using programmed melodies juxtapositionally derived from minor arpeggios Cm7, Dm7, Em7, augmented chords, or other exotic or unusual harmonic combinations (see transposition), with the intent of being multi-timbral (see glissando). Both genres, however, continue to use samples taken from sources, like sci-fi films, documentaries, and spoken word, etc.
History
Raja Ram has been experimenting with psychedelic trance as early as the 1980s. He has been part of numerous projects including the well-known ambient group Shpongle, The Infinity Project and 1200 Micrograms. He is also the owner of the TIP World record label.Psychedelic trance developed out of the early 1990s Goa Trance scene through the influence of artists such as TimeShard and Eat Static, both on the Planet Dog record label.
The first pure Psychedelic trance label was Dragonfly Records, formed by the artist and trance producer Martin "Youth" Glover (a former bassist for the band Killing Joke) in Brixton, London. For this he took advantage of the organization and the studio of his already existing label, Butterfly Records. It quickly became the center of the London Psychedelic trance scene. Raja Ram and Graham Wood first produced here as The Infinity Project. Simon Posford, who worked as a sound engineer at Butterfly, later released his legendary album, Twisted as Hallucinogen on Dragonfly. This album featured the classic track "LSD" featuring a voice sample from acid guru Ken Kesey. The first compilation from Dragonfly was released as a trance sampler and was soon followed by another compilation titled Project II Trance in August of 1993. These included work from such well-known artists as the French project Total Eclipse and Mandra Gora. In 1994 it released singles from Man With No Name, Prana, Ayahuasca, Slinky Wizard and Doof. The signature Order Odonata compilation was released the same year.
At this point the scene was growing rapidly and many new labels were created. Return To The Source, a party collective first appeared. Raja Ram and Graham Wood went on to found their own label, called TIP Records (now TIP World). Tsuyoshi Suzuki worked with John Perloff to create the Matsuri Productions label. Flying Rhino Records was established by James Monro, Dominic Lamb and George Barker (Slinky Wizard), who hired Sally Welch as manager. Simon Berry founded Platipus Records, who among other things, released the first vinyl by Technossomy. It also out licensed the famous Robert Miles' "Children". Simon's own project, Union Jack released their morning trance album There will be no Armageddon in 1996, featuring well-known tracks such as "Red Herring", "Cactus" and "Two Full Moons and a Trout".
Around this time a new label emerged in UK. Some consider Blue Room Released to be of the most important, and unusual, labels in the Psychedelic trance genre. It was led by Simon Ghahary and had solid financial backing from a British loudspeaker company. Allegedly, Ghahary had free reign to spend the money as he saw fit, regardless of sales figures. This allowed Blue Room to move away from "classic" Goa trance into new, more experimental directions. Some of the most well-known artists today were signed and had their work distributed on the Blue Room Released label. Their first compilation was titled "Outside The Reactor" was released in April of 1995 and featured work from artists such as Total Eclipse, Har-El Prussky, and Voodoo People. Three of the best known projects - Juno Reactor, Total Eclipse and The Infinity Project also released their debut albums that year. Soon the German project X-Dream started working with Blue Room as well, releasing their "The Frog" single and the highly influential Radio album. At its height, the label went on to release such works as Violent Relaxation by Total Eclipse, Juno Reactor's Bible of Dreams, Saafi Brothers' Mystic Cigarettes and Dragon Tales by Koxbox.
Despite being the center of production for Psychedelic trance in the mid 1990s, England had a very limited party scene. This mostly due to the Criminal Justice Bill and requirements for early closing hours in nightclubs. On the other hand, Germany had much more liberal laws, which in addition to the recent unification contributed to the development of the scene there. The German label Spirit Zone Records opened up in 1994, and ended up signing on many foreign artists such as The Infinity Project (UK), K.U.R.O. (Japan), Etnica (Italy), and Har-El Prussky (Israel). It was also the home label of many German artists such as Electric Universe, Star Sounds Orchestra and S.U.N. Project. France was also becoming an increasingly important location, with not only Total Eclipse, but the now famous projects like Talamasca and Transwave emerging.
Project II Trance, the first Psychedelic Trance compilation.Around 1997, the original Goa trance scene was undergoing hard times, especially in the UK. Sales dropped and many big labels such as Flying Rhino went bankrupt, while others had to reinvent themselves and emerge under a new name as did TIP World. The death of Goa trance was "officially" declared by Tsuyoshi Suzuki on his Let it RIP album, where the liner notes read "RIP: Mother Theresa, Princess Diana, William Burroughs, Goa trance."
The new sound of what would become the Psychedelic trance of today emerged at this time. It included elements of minimal and progressive trance, house, and techno, while focusing less on the original Goa melodies. Germany became the center of this movement in 1997 and 1998. Many Swedish artists also emerged playing a more progressive sound. The most successful and well known is Tomasz Balicki (Atmos). His track "Klein Aber Doctor" was the most successful release for Flying Rhino yet, which was in the process of restructuring. Even the Dragonfly label stated to switch to this new progressive sound, and Psychedelic trance was once again becoming popular. Debut releases from Atmos, Noma, S-Range and Son Kite only cemented this fact and made Sweden an important producer of psychedelic trance.
Soon Psychedelic trance was expanding rapidly once again, and for the first time differences became apparent in the music being produced in different countries. Parallel scenes also developed in countries like Israel, Germany, South Africa and Japan. There are also smaller, but active scenes in India, New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Mexico, Republic of Macedonia, Serbia, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, Greece, Russia, Hungary, Portugal, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Thailand, Denmark, Poland, Canada and even the United States.
Development in Israel
In 1988 changes in the law and political situation of Israel, allowed many Israelis to acquire Indian travel visas for the first time, many having just completed military service and wanting a complete change of environment. The beaches of Goa were a natural destination. Many Israelis returned from their trips bringing with them recordings of this new style of music. Developing in almost complete isolation from the scenes elsewhere, Israeli DJs emerged playing their own variations on the sound. These included individuals such as Avi Nissim and Lior Perlmutter (SFX and later Astral Projection), Har-El Prussky and Miko (California Sunshine), Guy Sebbag, Avi Algranati (Phreaky, Space Cat) and Ofer Dikovsky (Oforia). Naturally, Israeli labels formed, including Melodia Records, Trust In Trance Records, Phonokol and Krembo Records. With the emergence of new innovative artists such as Infected Mushroom and Violet Vision, psychedelic trance firmly established itself in the alternative culture in Israel, more so than in any other country in the world.
Commercial success
In recent years, sales of psychedelic trance have been falling. The decline was : -2,8% in 2001, and -8,8% in 2002. A typical album usually sells around 2,000 copies, and selling more than 5,000 copies would be considered a success. There are only a handful of artists who sold more than 20,000 copies, including Hallucinogen, G.M.S., Infected Mushroom, Transwave, and Astral Projection. Hallucinogen's Twisted has had the most commercial success to date, selling around 85,000 copies.
The reasons for this decline in public interest include overproduction, copyright infringement, and lack of publicity. In fact, the market has not grown much, however the number of new labels and artists has increased exponentially. Much of psychedelic trance is also channeled through illegal copying by sharing of music, particularly among students and streaming audio on the internet. Although this has opened up the market to newcomers, most of these fans do not have the ability to purchase music since it is not normally distributed in mainstream record stores (mostly internet shops).
Psychedelic trance scene
Simon Posford performing at the Soulclipse FestivalPsychedelic trance is often played at outdoor festivals. The festivals often take place over a few days with music being played through the night and well into the next day. These big events usually offer a lot of parallel activities, not just music. Largely, Psytrancers are environmentalist in nature and concerned with social justice, and thus it's not unusual to find workshops addressing these issues.
The big trance festivals often form a small independent city, where some 10,000 people from different places of the world meet to celebrate music and life. During winter many parties take place in clubs in modern suburbia or on the many beaches in foreign climes frequented by travellers.
Some people at these festivals frequently consume psychedelic drugs like LSD and psychedelic mushrooms. The smoking of Cannabis is widespread within the global psy-trance scene. Drugs such as Ecstasy, cocaine and amphetamine are also used to some extent. There is also a large portion of the psytrance community - including many successful artists, DJs, party organizers and party goers - who do not use drugs, or no longer use drugs. Many of these people believe experiencing the music in the intended spirit of the festivals is the high in and of itself.
While psychedelic trance music has lost its popularity in the 2000s, it is immensely popular and the dominant dance-genre in South Africa, Goa, Israel and Brazil. It is also still particularly popular in Portugal, Greece, Serbia, Albania, Pakistan, India, Holland, Mexico, Russia, Germany, and Australia.
In particular, the scene in Brazil is growing bigger and more commercial. In Brazil the scene started in the 90´s, and become a big comercial scene of psytrance parties (less only than israel), with big commercial parties like XXXperience, Tribe, and Orbital, and with famous Festivals like TRANCENDENCE, UNIVERSO PARALELO, SOLARIS, TRANCEFORMATION. In any of these events you can easily find from 5.000 to 15.000 people, and artists from all parts of the world playing.
Psychedelic trance artists and projects
Psychedelic trance is often produced in a collaboration between two or more artists, called a "project". Somewhat different from other genres of music is the fact that one artist could be part of as many as ten or more projects, often simultaneously. Each different combination of artists almost always has a unique name. For example X-Dream (Jan Muller and Marcus Maichel) and Planet B.E.N. (Ben Wierzoch) are two well known projects from Germany. The collaboration between Jan and Ben is called Organic Noise and the collaboration between Marcus and Ben is called Fools and Tools. This partly accounts for the large number of psychedelic trance projects.
As shown above the names of projects made up of the same artists can often be unrelated, although this is not always the case. For example, many projects involving Infected Mushroom are often prefixed with the word "Infected" or postfixed with the word "Mushroom" (Examples: Domestic Mushroom, Infected Astrix).
Making things even more confusing is the fact that the same exact artist(s) or group(s) of artists will sometimes produce music under different project names to showcase different variations of their music. Quasar also known as "Pulsar"(Dance oriented variations) as well as "Trancention" (Lighter trance music),but are really the same artists Quasar and Pulsar VanderHousen.
Very few psychedelic trance artists release albums under their own name (Tim Schuldt & Shanti Matkin are two exceptions). Instead, the name of the project is sometimes chosen to describe the theme of the music being produced. Not surprisingly, Crop Circles and Pleiadians releases are focused on the topic of space travel.
Source: Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
Posted Sun 15 Oct 06 @ 4:35 pm
DJ Yogi
Similar to maddsound's history of house, it would be nice if this were also a sticky.
Posted Sun 15 Oct 06 @ 4:39 pm
DJ-ALF
Very nice, I used to listen and collect Goa back in the 90's, now I don't have the time. Great music for big happenings (2-5000 people).
< My 1000 message! LOL
< My 1000 message! LOL
Posted Sun 15 Oct 06 @ 8:39 pm
DJ Yogi
Hey Phenryll, there is still alot of great psychedelic music out there. Seek and ye shall find. Glad you enjoyed reading it.
Posted Mon 16 Oct 06 @ 3:38 pm