Richpa

Btw, here is one amazing new band from my country, worth checking. Their name is Pogavranjen (The word "pogavranjen" does not exist in the Croatian language. It was made up by the band in a drunken stupor as a way to describe someone who has morphed into a were-raven like creature). Ponoćni Lov means Midnight Hunt First of all, I must admit this was by far one of the most punishing black metal experiences I've had in months. It took me like ten full spins of this album to even begin to fathom what the hell is going on here. And what I have found at the end of this pitch black tunnel of spastic lunacy and crushing hysteria was a well hidden gem of pure bred depression. I am well aware the term itself is more than heavily used to describe plenty of black metal releases of the past decade and rise of the sub genre, but this is a solid level above (below) most of it. Few records had such a firm cold grasp on me lately. The sonic journey itself is divided into five songs that serve as, what I like to believe, 5 stages of sinking to the bottom of the modern cesspool of existence even if I don't understand a word. The feeling of hopelessness is surly the strongest flavor here, with the band trying manically to emphasize it through the entire duration of the album. High or low, fast and slow, it's impossible to shake that feeling off. And it's a very good thing since most of the modern black metal bands leave a rather mild and apathetic aftertaste these days and I'm not feeling like playing an album more than once or twice in general, but this release is far from it. Atmosphere aside, musicianship is at an extremely high point within the borders of the genre, but bear in mind that it goes out of these borders quite frequently yet never losing the bond with the black metal skeleton underneath. It seems that the band really gives every atom of skill to put it all together and to make it work. And it really shows. This album has a huge heart and balls behind it, and not even a single compromise can be heard within a mile around it. Albums like this rarely get popular for the simple reason of being too good for what they are, in this case a bitter statement from anonymous Croatian guys who refused to even sing in English. That fact holds both advantages and disadvantages. Language itself sounds like a cursing or spell chanting in Orcish and it gives a punishing and angry character to the songs, even occult,but at the same time it felt like I'm missing an entire layer of this album's identity. Luckily, it is a minor thing in the whole picture, since there is a plenty of meat left here, lyrics aside. Sound is for the most part very clean and audible, but it does sink from time to time into a murky blur of over saturation. Some might find this a bad thing, others might approve of these moments of dementia very much. The record, being really guitar driven, never fails to deliver, keeping even the longest, repeating parts interesting. Defined and pointed out, chords intertwine with great sense and taste for dissonance, synchronizing harsh distorted rhythm to dripping with reverb lead parts, creating a unique body of strings. The guitar tone remains clean and sharp even at the mellow parts, which can be heard in the epic closing track "Strigoi" which serves as a completely new take on the black metal songwriting formulas. And speaking about formulas, this album is pretty much free of those more and more pop sounding structures that are slowly becoming dominant in the metal world today, keeping itself very distinctive on my favorite genre shelf. What I really like about this record is the thing that it takes bass to a level of presence where it should be - wide and strong, bringing the extra juice and melody. It must have something to do with a guy behind it, since he is the same guy who is also credited as one of three guitar players, main composer and co-producer on this album, who apparently works his way around low end with lot of respect towards it, not only bringing it to the front line with the rest of the instruments, but also keeping it very interesting and again - distinctive. Another strong point about this material is very tasteful synth work which reminds me of Fenriz's Neptune Towers but in a more frantic way. It works as a bonding tissue, opening up entire parts, flooding with suspense, giving them extra depth and space ambiance moods making every song here sound basically otherworldly. The drummer is a beast - to put it mildly. Hard hitting and blasting his way behind the drones, it brings a hyper destructive pulse to the whole picture. Pounds differ in speed, but never in execution. Solid, organic and old school sounding, the drums never cease to keep the entire machine moving ever forward. The intensity of the drumming remains unforgiving even during the ten minutes long blast beat fest of "Jeziva Suša", mesmerizing the listener into a slumber like state. Peak and apex, a jewel in the crown are definitely the vocals. A work of a madman I'm sure. Tortured to a point where I actually felt sorry for the guy who seems to be fucked up beyond repair. Animal howling - check. Disturbed grunts - check. Insane babbling - check. Incoherent screams - check. Schizophrenic murmur - check. Oh and by the way, there is also a vocal guest appearance on the album by some guy who appears to be just as equally ill in the head. I can't really tell them apart, but when spitting words together, the duo sounds like a vortex of voices from hell in a crushing psyche of a madman on acid. The vocals hover at the edge of attention. Sometimes they seem like a throbbing ton of text and sometimes they serve as a deep narrative based below the instrumentals; in both cases they are top class. Unlike any other out there I dare to say. Trance inducing and hypnotic, bizarre in structure, melancholic, angry and most of all insanely depressive, this album will catapult you towards the shores of longing isolation. So if you feel like home there, you will cherish Sebi Jesi Meni Nisi. Hope there will be more from this guys in the future, they might be on the verge of a fresh hell in the stale waters of black metal. -Voidshaper

Never heard anything about Sakis being a racist. Can you please give me/us a little bit more informations

Woah, this is really great, it reminds me a little bit on mixture between Immortal and Mgła with an epic touch. Gonna check the rest of their stuff, good recommendation RTP, thanks

Personally, I don't like to stick to any trends, since we really want to push our music to many different directions and have unique approach, while exploring the possibilities of genre itself. The World Beyond might be interesting piece of Goa trance since it's made without any limits or restrictions when it comes to actual lenght of compositions or the way how they were composed. The interesting thing is that each of collaboration had a different making process, from live jamming and improvisation, to classic back to back production between the artists. The goal was to give enough of freedom and to encourage musicians to go beyond their safe zone(s). Their music will speak, not their names.

Kudos to graphic designer for this cool-looking take on the classic artwork. It's great to see that DAT Records is paying attention to keep the original layout and elements, but yet to give a fresh redesign. Is this same guy/girl who made Etnica Live in Athens artwork?

I like the color of the skin, very purpleish.

Welcome to Psynews dude

Thank you very much Btw, Neogoa won't release anymore chillout music, we got a new sub-label dedicated to all chillout/downtempo music - Ae Records, starting this year with Jagoa release. More about that can be found at our Facebook page, so have a look: https://www.facebook.com/aehorde Cheers

Done

Well it has to be since he is in great relationship with artists from his area and it's logical thing to promote them (besides his music) on the compilations. However, if you feel this is trilogy, go for it, I don't see it like that

Journey Into Sound (J.I.S.) - Transdimensional Vision EP to be released in spring via Neogoa!

Of course mix is a crucial thing and for sure some labels tend to point out how they prefer their releases should sound to the mastering studio, however, I still think that no matter the fact how different mixdown was on certain releases, the masterer is the one who will dictate how harsh or loud the track will sound in the end, right? I'm not saying anything against Tim's work, I still think he's the one of the best around, however, I can't say that overall sound and feel of PE is natural, to my ears it's not, and in certain moments it is too loud. If you listen to example that I posted from Hado's compilation, where Tim also did mastering, that doesn't sound that much harsh. I'm saying again, I'm not an expert and I don't handle the technical terms well, but even on my speakers I can notice the difference. To give you an example, few days ago when I recieved first previews for JaraLuca release and final mastered versions, similar thing happened, Stryder experimented with some weird 3D fx's and whatnot and it was just too loud, the basslines went crazy and you couldn't recognize the original lines, kick was also distorted. We had to change the approach to the mastering for the sake of the music and sound. Not saying that this is the same case here, just that sometimes you got good(enough) mixdown ready for mastering and the mastering studio can take the sound to totally different level, sometimes to a positive, sometimes to a negative level(s). However, I'm really not a picky person (even the only issue that I had with mastering was the famous and horrible 'Suncokreti' case), and on the PE album, I think it's not bad mastering, it's just too loud and I really doubt it got anything related to mix itself (see previous releases by CI).

Not really. We published Spiritual Doping by Dmitriy long time ago and we already have some talks for the future compilations where both of us will collect the finest music from eastern-Europe and Balkans area and present them on conceptual compilations! Only common thing with Dancing Mavka and Gamayun were the pan-Slavic motifs.

Nope, it's Ancient Slavic

We don't release music on CD.

Last Shpongle album was a big dissapointment for me. In recent times I'm trying not to have big expectations from certain musicians or announced releases, because of hype that people tend to create. However, regarding the new Ra album, I'm building that same hype and I can't help myself, so I have super-huge expectation for that one, and I'm pretty much sure Ra and Suntrip will deliver an epic release. Artifact303 compilation tracks are indeed better than Back To Space album, but I don't see it as some dissapointment, it got some outstanding moments, but it's hard to appriciate it more on the album itself than on compilation among the other artists. If you take for example Mysterious Fantasy or Beyond The Lightspeed and put it on some compilation, people will appriciate it just like his earlier works, the thing is that on the album it's hard to have 'so much' brilliant moments unlike on some V/A where you can show your best in less time. I still haven't heard any Goa trance album from 2004 onwards where all tracks are perfect. Maybe Ra's 9th was the closest thing to perfection (at least, perfection for my personal taste in Goa trance music). So, that might be a reason why some people see Back To Space as a let down. Speaking about The Inner Shift, it's one of the albums where you have to listen to details and get into it for a loooong period of time, since Crossing Mind music is all about the little textures of sound that you just can't experience or get in to it on first listening or on second listening. For sure, it was hard for him to make better album than the debut but to say it's a let down, well, not in my book for sure.

I'm not an expert nor do I like to discuss mastering, but to my ears, sound on PE is indeed louder and sounds more 'agressive' on bass/kick, that's why I posted some examples from other releases (including Tim's mastering for Hado's Voyager compilation), just to compare it (even YouTube soundquality isn't the best representation tho).

Neogoa and Sky Technology return with Sadhana, a new Goa trance compilation featuring some of the most exciting and promising artists from Eastern Europe. Sadhana, as a powerful solar symbol, had an important meaning in ancient ritualistic practices. Through this release Neogoa follows the message and meaning of Sadhana, a path of perfection with vivid goal, to present fresh Goa trance music in the best possible way. Since the Spiritual Doping compilation, Sky Technology has worked hard on this project, collecting some of the finest tracks from many musicians from Ukraine and Russia, and now finally they are available for your enjoyment on a single release. Mastering by Stryder at Beavernest Atop Studios (Belgium) with artwork design by Spirit Medicine (Ukraine). Free download: http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/sadhana 01. Room Full Of Eyes - Feasts Fires | 145 BPM W&P by Alexander Medvedev (Ukraine) 02. Trikselos - Planet X | 148 BPM W&P by Dmitry Mikheev (Russia) 03. Pandemicus - Exit | 145 BPM W&P by Vitaliy Sokolvak (Ukraine) 04. Anumana - Distance To Goa | 146 BPM W&P by Vladimir Nikiforov (Russia) 05. Celestial Consciousness - Insider (Katedra Remix) | 130 BPM W&P by Volodymyr Lys (Ukraine) Remix by Ostap Hirnyak (Ukraine) 06. Space Vibes System - Life Tomorrow | 145 BPM W&P by Slaventij Biloku (Ukraine) 07. Sky Technology & Imba - Intergalactic Warlord | 144 BPM W&P by Dmitriy Kolosovskiy (Ukraine), Nikola Petrović (Serbia) 08. Spirit Medicine - Dark Matter Of God | 135 BPM W&P by Albert Zakharov & Maria Zakharova (Ukraine) Violins by Kseniya Zadorskaya 09. Spacenode - Steel Shakti | 145 BPM W&P by Alexander Pidgorny (Ukraine) Artwork design by Spirite Medicine (Ukraine) http://www.spiritmedicine.com.ua Samples: https://soundcloud.com/stryder/sets/va-sadhana

For the sake of discussion, let's list the work of the same artist but with different mastering on different releases: mastering: Trogdor The Burninator mastering: Ovnimoon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ipwp9KqYfmY mastering: Deimos Soundlabs mastering: Tim Schuldt https://soundcloud.com/celestial-intelligence/celestial-intelligence-beyond

Impressive goa trance music

Based on your votes, here are the results from our little poll where we asked you to give us your favorite Neogoa releases in 2014! Congrats to winners and thank you for voting!

Thanks We're expecting to have this one released at the end of the month, so stay tuned

http://www.slavorum.org/mystical-rhodope-mountains-in-bulgaria/ The Rhodope Mountains are a great mountain range in Southeastern Europe, with over 83% of its area in southern Bulgaria and the remainder in Greece in the Bulgarian South have always been regarded as a place of sanctity and magic. In history people believed that this is the birthplace of Orpheus – the divine musician and poet from the Greek Mythology. The mystical atmosphere can be felt at the ritual sites from the past such as ‘solar circles’, womb-shaped caves, altars and ritual couches. Famous photographer and cinematographer Krassimir Andonov, revealed the secret magic of this area by photographing them after sunset with the help of spotlights and directed lights to emphasize the ‘invisible’ rock carvings which are invisible to the eye unless one knows where to look. Some of the rock carvings captured by the artist are first-time discoveries unknown to scientists until now. More via: krasimirandonov.com

Here are my picks, even tho I haven't listened too much music in last year. For this year, I won't nominate any releases from Neogoa, even I think we had the strongest year so far. Ephedra - Journey Through My Head (Goa Madness Records) Goasia - Amphibians On Spacedock (Suntrip Records) Various Artists - Colors Of Goa (Timewarp Records) Omnivox - Fragments Of Evolution (Spacedock Records) Various Artists - Analog Dreams (DAT Records) Psysutra - Gamma Phoenics (Cronomi Records) Various Artists - Goa Energy (Timewarp Records) Moonweed - Voice Of Jupiter (Anjuna Records) Ajna - Search For The Divine (Ovnimoon Records) Various Artists - Moon Ritual (Amakusa Records)