Twisted D*U*O

Moontribe isn't a psytrance collective per say, but they do alot of outdoor type things. Their most common is the Full Moon Gathering or FMG. They've been doing the SoCal desert scene for a good part of 17 years. They usually incorporate different styles of music (including psytrance). They used to be incredibly underground, where you had to know somebody to get info. Which made the vibe all that more special. But now, their djs play in clubs and the frequency of their events have gained alot attention from a more mainstream crowd. In short, I feel that the attention or "fame" (another loosely used term) has gone to their heads. That's not said to discourage you at all. Believe me, they do have their merits and their gatherings are well done. But (as even the psytrance scene) I believe their popularity has attracted a new element and eliminated an element of which made their gatherings really special.

^^^ QFT I agree Elysium... I began trancing out in the mid/late 90s. I just can't trance out to the sounds of a drilling 909 kick drum at 150bpms. What got me into psytrance was that I could listen to the music under different mindsets. If I felt like getting lost in my head, I could do it. But if some euphoric rush came to me then the same music moved me to move my dancing feet. For me psytrance was MENTAL music (ie: psychedelic). Today's psytrance (at least a limited amount of it) has lost its mental-ness and focus on the body rush. Hard, fast rhythms aren't designed to send your mind whirling, they're designed to up your heart rate and get you dancing.

I haven't heard it yet. But I'm glad to see Tip World back in action. They seem to be sticking with that old school Goa vibe, so who knows?

How about anything else? Looking for some projection visuals (doesn't have to be soundtracked, just good visuals).

I agree... and I didn't think the last album was all that bad. Not one of their best. But decent. Sadly, though it looks as if they're going the same direction as everyone else... Selling their souls to the gods of techno to "reach a broader audience."

As a production artist, I can tell you that yes - it is technically illegal to share any licensed and copyrighted material without the originating author's consent. Although it may have been distributed for free by the label or even the artist themselves, they are doing so with permission by the artist to do so. Will your DIY artist/label seek litigation? Most likely not. But keep in mind that by asking permission, you're giving your producer/dj feedback on not only who has the track but how you like it. If something is being distributed for free (via download, per say); just pass on the link to your friends and let them download it. This way the label/artist is in the know. If the link is no longer available, then have them contact the artist. Most artists welcome personal contact and feedback. And who knows, you may even get more like it that hasn't been released yet.

I equate such things to the general state of society. In the pre-millennial days, it was about hope and anxiety towards the new millennium. The fear generated wasn't that of life or death, but that of urgency that if we don't get our affairs in order the "machines" will take over. Or if anything, all those technological luxuries that we have generated for ourselves will likely be gone. But Y2K was a fraud. The clocks turned just like any other day. No financial breakdown, no total shutdown of society as we knew it. The anxiety we gathered was for nothing. Now, a decade later... a different mindset has been fostered. 9/11, Bush, and the economic downfall of the American nation has developed a generation that knows only fear. And this fear isn't the same as 15 years ago. This fear is a fear of the unknown. A dark, dismal fear that has grown to contempt in many young people. I see it in my own children. My 18 year old son love punk rock, but it's not the same punk I used to listen to at his age. My punk rock was about revolution and fighting the system. His punk rock is about the opposite... "Fighting for what's right is a waste because nobody's listening anyway." I think psytrance music is on that same level. Many of the overtones are punk rock without the revolution. Dark, broody and hard... But coming off as chaotic and dismantled. Then there's the drug factor... I don't know about you, but I rarely see real hallucinogens out there anymore. There's more amphetamine based chemicals going around than psychotics. These substances tend create much more rigid vibrations than their mind-altering counterparts. I saw this same thing happen to the rave scene in the early '90s. Ravers were trading MDMA in for Speed. Tie in all this with the sense of life or death and unknown certainty. Well, you have a formula for some seriously dark overtones.

I'm not sure if a 1200 Mics album will be out soon and if it does, I wouldn't expect the same psytrance goodness we're used to. Riktam and Bansi have really been concentrating on techno lately while Raja Ram has been working with Simon Posford on the Shpongle project.

Waiting for a full album sucks... But the Blissdom EP is pretty damned good, IMHO. Yes, it's chock full of Israeli bounciness. So those who are prone to not liking such thing, sorry. I've got to give AP props for sticking with what they know. Unlike their counterparts, Infected Mushroom, whom continuously insist that the garbage they are putting out is psytrance.

Two new mixes, one studio dj set and another live from St. Patty's Day here in San Diego, California. Just click the links. Twisted DUO presents: Delusions of Grandeur Track Listing 1 Para Hulu - My Way or the Highway 2 Imix - Disco Dis Way 3 Rastaliens - Strong Stuff (Original) 4 Sulima - Opitcal Fiend 5 Clepsydra - Sonic Elysium 6 Vibraddict - Let's Rock 7 Entropia - Shadow World (Loki Remix) 8 Crying Freeman - Odyssey 2009 (Vibraddict Remix) 9 Cosmic Iron vs. Sulima - Little Miss Mekanika 10 Slider & Sub6 - Subslider 11 220 Volts - The Club (Vibraddict Remix) 12 Vibe Tribe - Destination Unknown 13 Alienn - Universe Next up is a raw set recorded live. It's strictly full-on psytrance with some psychedelic breaks towards the end (next dj was a dubstep dj). Recorded live on Saint Patrick's Day at Wonderland Corner in Ocean Beach, California. Twisted DUO Live @ Wonderland Corner (3/17/10) Tracknotes: Crying Freeman - Odyssey 2009 (Polypheme Remix) Ace Ventura - MARS (Gaudium Remix) Suntree - Wake Up (Normalize Remix) Sub6 & Pixel - Navigate Into Astral Projection - Humans Will Play For Robots (J00F Remix) Offspring vs. Paranormal Attack - Come Out and Play (Twisted DUO's Separation Bootleg) Moby - Come Out and Play (Sesto Sento Remix) SUN Project - We RE in Space Phony Orphants - Baby Mute - ON/OFF Ticon - Models on Cocaine Saikozaurus - Dream Surfer The Doors & Twisted DUO vs The Crystal Method, BT, & Freeland - I Love Breaking Through Roadhouse Doors For more info: www.twistedduo.com or email: info@shivastudioslv.com

It's all about the journey... DESTINATION UNKNOWN 2010 FREE DESERT GATHERING TWO SOUND SYSTEMS TWO DAYS OF MUSIC, DANCE, AND ART HOUSE, TECHNO, PSYTRANCE, DUBSTEP, AMBIENT... MORE!! Friday, June 25 - Sunday, June 27. Confirmed Djs: Rick Remixx (Speed Garage/Funky House) - LV Shem (Psytrance) - LV/SF LP Sound (Dubstep/Funk) - LV/SF Elan (Desert Breaks/Funky House) - LV D^3 (Left Coast Funk/Deep House) - SD Twisted DUO (Psytrance/Dub/Ambient) - LV/SD Nemecio Martin (Acid Techno/Tech-House) - SD Dreampsycle (Psytrance) - LA/SF John Wayne (Balearic/Tech-House) - SD Jonny Vibe (Techno) - LV Chad Martinez (Tech-House) - LV Jack Tripper (Funky House) - SD Atomic Buddha (Psytrance) - SD AMK (Progressive House) - LV Kahn (Sunrise Psytrance Set) - LA Jeremy Espinosa ("Anti-genre funk") - LV MORE DJS TBA!!! Bring: Shelter, comfortable clothes, water, food, good vibes, pets, kids, anything you need to survive in the wilderness for the weekend. Don't bring: Bad Vibes, negativity, or anything you can't take back with you. Participate: Make this party yours!! Drums, hoops, fire, and whatever you want to have fun is welcome here. Location will be somewhere in the high-desert of Southern California. FOR YOUR SAFETY AND THAT OF THIS GATHERING - DETAILS OF THE LOCATION WILL NOT BE DISCLOSED UNTIL 24 HOURS BEFORE THE GATHERING!!! PLEASE JOIN THE EMAIL LIST: DU.2010.INTHEDESERT@GMAIL.COM Or join us on Facebook: www.tinyurl.com/DU-2010 Thanks...

Are you in Northern California or SoCal? In North Cali, there's a weekly by the Symbiosis crew based of SF. They also throw some great park parties and the occasional festival. You can find them on Facebook and www.SymbiosisEvents.com In SoCal it's a bit of a different story. Psytribe has sadly gone defunct. Issues with land usage as well as a bit of "over-advertising" (term used very loosely) has hurt them. Green Sector has been dropped out of the scene as well, merging many events with the Moontribe group. But I have to tell you, even MT gatherings have lost alot appeal (I've been going since the mid-90s). They've gone above ground on alot of things and aren't nearly as selective as they used to be. There's a couple people trying hard to bring it back in SoCal, though. If you're interested, hit me up.

Not to mention that many post-production engineers are trancers/burners/etc. *wink, wink*

One major cancer that I think is killing the scene (at least here on the Left Coast of the US) is that recently, festivals and gatherings gave up on anonymity and opened themselves up to just about anybody looking for it. As a rave convert myself, I fell victim to psytrance elitism in the early part of this decade. But now I understand and realize why I was treated this way. Dirty ravers who are used to the "safe and sane" atmosphere of their massive arena raves or the highly publicized (but very legal) commercial raves are stumbling on the renegade outdoor gatherings and festivals. Then they see this as a completely different release but without the precautions necessary to preserve the culture. I'll admit it, today's ravers are like locusts, they find what's good and feast on it until it's no more. Then they move on to the next trend. As a dj/producer/psuedo-promoter, it feels good to know your efforts are being noticed. But I wonder, at what cost? It's already begun with the integration of the generic sounds into what people are calling psytrance (refer to the Psychedelic vs. Progressive thread). Minimal techno and other genres are being integrated into festivals and gatherings because its what the masses are liking at the moment. All in which to appeal to them to gain a greater audience. Now, I'm not sure about you... but that sounds like selling out to me. So I have to ask, "Has psytrance sold out?" This could also be a cancer that is plaguing the scene. We want it faster, harder, longer, and more of it. If a festival or gathering doesn't have stacks of speakers (in which only half are usually running) with several headlining artists and isn't the appeal of at least 1000 people (ravers and psytrancers alike); then it isn't worth spending time on. Well, at least this seems to be the general consensus. Is the psytrance scene dying? I don't think so. In fact, with this new openness it's attracting alot of new listeners. I think it's it's just mutating. Maybe the radiation from treating the cancers is creating a mutant scene. Who knows? But many more people are aware of psytrance now... Much more than a decade ago. Is this a good thing? Well, I honestly believe no. The psytrance scene didn't need to be validated by the acceptance of others. Psytrancers were a community of their own. They supported each other. Their validation was within it's own community and culture. Not due to its number of followers but in the quality of its community. In which I have to say that the true cancer that plagues the scene is not a matter of who, what, or where... but how. Quantity over quality has become the cancer.

First, I'd like to say that really resent (and resist) using the term "progressive" on any genre. Including psytrance. Progressive is a term devised by A&R reps to sell more records. They simply attach it to any genre in which they want to express that it is a different variation of the original. Progressive isn't really a genre type, it's a description or adjective. But in relation to the original topic... After reading the posts, Infected Mushroom comes to mind. Yes, they once produced great psytrance. The created music that could easily be placed in any trance set. Today, they play mainstream raves, super-sized stadiums, and mega-clubs. And their sound is neither psychedelic or trance. Yet they still wave the banner of psytrance. Like others here... I'm pretty old-school. I like hearing multiple layers, samples, and the utilization of different noises to create a singular, psychedelic composition. Once you minimal-ize, take away the samples, and "normalize" the soundtrack, it becomes less psychedelic and more "progressive".

I'm not going to argue that some people actually do dance to ambient and psychill... Especially if there's a dub involved. I'm also not going to support that argument that Shpongle (if I have to explain who he is, then it's even more pointless) puts out downtempo/ambient tracks like: Then the day turned into night - that are very dancefloor worthy. I'm also not going to argue that in your original post, you clearly disqualified Ambient as a "non-trance" genre, which many can argue is a false statement. In fact, if you do your trance homework, you'll realize that ambient was indeed the precursor to trance music. Artists like Shulman, Hallucinogen, Infinity Project, and even Astral Projection are all artists who were in the part of the trance movement in its beginnings and put out ambient trance and created remixes of these tracks with stronger beats... Here's a Wiki for a reference if you'd like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psybient Then there's the world beat stuff that comes out on labels like Six Degrees Records who are responsible for putting out tracks from artists like Ekova and Banco de Gaia and now The Orb who are (or where) considered trance artists at one point in time. You can argue all you want that ambient is not trance music, but you would be wrong. All you have to do is Google "Psybient" or "Ambient Trance" and you'll be given several examples of how the ambient and trance are indeed one in the same.

There's buzz that this set is up for consideration on di.fm... w00t!!!! Anyway... Giving this the bump. If you like Psychill, definitely give this set a listen.

And I believe you're confusing the purpose of "trance" music and how the offshoot of techno got its name. I beg to differ, Ambient and Trance are one in the same. Take a listen to some of the artists listed, or better yet listen to my mixes below. All trance and all below 120 BPM. I agree.

In all honesty, there's not much here already that I can't add to so I'll leave you with a rather obscure piece of advice passed down to me from a rather wise audiographer. The mono-speaker test. After all is said and done, the likelihood of your music being played on anything with the clarity of what your listening to in the studio is slim-to-none. Sure there may be times where you'll hear your music on a huge 20kw full range performance sound system. But in the end, it is likely that the original source will be an audio cd (192kbps audio) played through a series of likely to be sub-quality cables and the sound system utilized at every gathering in your area. Then there's the personal listener who download it at .mp3 compression into a player and pumped through tiny full-range speakers placed directly in their ear. Or maybe they're listening on the computer speakers, designed for efficiency not performance. Or maybe in their car, through those wonderful stock 6x9 three-ways in the rear and 4" cones in the front, past the engine noise and whatever rigged interface. Which means that despite your efforts, the common listener will never get to hear it like you do. So it's wise to divert all channels to center and give a solid run through on the mono frequency. This will give you the "worst case" listening scenario. So if it sounds good on some POS mono speaker... it'll sound GREAT anywhere else.

Event Promotion and Multimedia Design: www.shivastudioslv.com My dj/production site: www.twistedduo.com

I didn't read many of the replies (there's just so many of them) so if I repeat another reply, my apologies. The answer you seek isn't very complicated at all. You see, some 20 years ago, I was in a much similar situation. I had my regular job that paid regular pay and was barely covering my expenses with everything else going to a very expensive hobby... being a dj. Now, I'll spare you the boring details that resulted in the transition from playing others music to creating my own. But the lesson learned happened in this phase. Out of necessity, I learned a very important skill... audio engineering. I picked up a copy of Sonic Foundry (now Sony) Sound Forge and Acid and spent numerous nightly hours toying with it. When I recorded a live dj set, I would run it through Sound Forge and optimize the sound. As time passed, I realized that this is what I wanted to do. So I took out a student loan and make my training official (although I had behind the mixing board for nearly a decade already). I got my certification and was now a marketable commodity. I began working with some really awesome talent both inside and outside the electronic music realms. Today, it's what I do for my livelihood. I've found markets to where my music could be used. I collect a nice little royalty check each month. And this success has given me a new found freedom to create more on the underground level. So, you're probably asking: "How does this help me?" Well, you (or somebody you work with on this project) can take up the task of being the engineer. Go get yourself a copy of the software program of your choice (ask around or simply go with what feels right for you, it doesn't matter). Or you can seek out somebody who will be willing to help you. My story is not a singularity. There are many other djs out there who have picked up audio engineering skills due to necessity. And although, they may not be doing it on a professional level, I've come to find that many in the trance community have found success in other areas, thus freeing them of the responsibility of having to charge for such services of audio engineer.

Twisted D.U.O. Presents: D^3 - Ebb and Flow Style: Ambient and Downtempo Running Time: 1:17:28 DJ Compilation Mix Ever since I got into production and remixing as a full-time passion. My sets have limited me to my own works and remixes. While its been great to play my own music for others, I've been gathering an incredible amount of great music that I rarely have the opportunity to share. This dj set is music from others artists that I have enjoyed recently. Some are dear friends, others just damn good producers, and some just tracks just come off great compilations put out by really good labels. So this mix is a complete dj set of some of my favorite tracks that have come out recently. Artist - Title (Remix) - [Album] The Orb - The Dream (The Future Academy of Noise, Rhythm and Gardening mix) - [The Dream] Sync24 - Walk On Spheres - [source] Evan Bartholomew - Where Forgotten Days Slumber - [secret Entries Into Darkness] Solar Fields - Spiritual Ocean - [Fahrenheit Project Part Three] H.U.V.A. Network - Orientations - [Fahrenheit Project Part Six] Oceanlab - I Am What I Am - [sirens of the Sea] Telefon Tel Aviv - You Are The Worst Thing In The World (Sasha Remix) - [invol2ver] Ott - Shower Of Sparks - [skylon] Carbon Based Lifeforms - Reaktion - [Future Memories] Puff Dragon - Chinese Radio - [Fahrenheit Project Part Four] GREEN SUN - Simplicity - [Dream Elements] Tripswitch - Tachyon - [Circuit Breaker Rewired] Androcell - Opium Swirl - [intermittent Memories] Aes Dana - Exposure (Aes Dana Remix) - [Memory Shell] If you enjoy this dj mix, I encourage you to download my original set (linked in my signature). Then shoot me an email, private message, or book me (that would be most awesome!) and let me know what you thought. -Namaste

Twisted DUO Presents: Depth Perception Running Time: 1:09:21 Style: Ambient, IDM, Psychill Recorded: 4/20/09 Live PA set using Ableton Live 7.0 with M-Audio X-Session UC-17 and M-Audio Radium 64 Midi Controllers. All tracks written, arranged, remixed, and sequenced by Twisted DUO unless noted. All rights remain solely with the originating artists. Released under Creative Commons License in the USA. For promotional use only. Download, burn, share. If you like what you hear, please send us an email. Track (Remix) - [Cue Time] E:Man - Musical Prayer (Accapella) Undercover [1:50] Continuous Movement [7:02] Mechanical Conversations [11:49] Static Statistic [20:52] D:Fuse - Missing Home (Double Helix Remix) [27:32] Eric Prydz - Pjanoo (Afterhours Downtempo Remix) [32:58] Sinewave Symphony [41:40] Chasing the Ghost [49:24] Wanderlust [58:31] Depth Perception (Original) [1:01:31] Recorded at Shiva Studios in Las Vegas, Nevada. Wanna remix one of these tracks? Full remix packs are available at no charge. Non-Mixed Tracks are available for purchase via PayPal. Visit online: www.twistedduo.com www.shivastudioslv.com <---- beware, there are ninjas about

Not to split hairs here, but how is Ambient or Psychill NOT trance music? I mean in a general category, you can put dub or psybreaks in there, but I'm talking pure ethereal type stuff. The kind of stuff that seriously puts your head in a mind spinning trance (especially if your sorted right). Artists like Sync24, Astralasia, Celtic Cross (a Simon Posford Project mind you), Aes Dana, Shulman, and H.U.V.A Network all create very ambient and very downtempo trance. I voted other.