Jeff

Bombay City Rockers - Sahida

A quote from a very early Goa DJ (Steve Psyko) that I treasure most : "The English have decided that Goa trance is just one kind of music, [but] in the beginning, the feeling from Goa music is anything goes." Now I guess you can find 1,000 threads dealing with "what is Goa" here or in isratrance. J.

Wanna-be Psy Trance "historian". Still a long way to go before fathoming everything... J.

I liked E-Type's cheesy Dance a lot back in the days. And I found this sample pretty hilarious too (Skazi Big Boss !!!!). No but seriously, who could think for a microsecond this has anything to do with Psychedelia ? Nothing to get upset about it then IMHO. J.

I've always wondered : to see things as they really are, or from a different perspective, not necessarily better than another one ? You got three hours ! J.

Your definition couldn't be more by-the-book, and I hardly see how you could be "flame to death" for stating the obvious. The very word "psychedelic" was coined because H. Osmond needed to describe his experiences with LSD in 1957 ! Trying to distinguish between psychedelia and the use of LSD is historically wrong. But then some may argue that listening to Psy is similar TO SOME RESPECTS to the drug experience (perceiving sounds as colors being the main analogy for me). As you pointed out, it is imposible IMHO to equate listening to Psy with a true psychedelic experience, though some "side-effects" can be felt. As for Psy sounding "better" while you're high, there is a lot of controversy around it... J.

Very interesting. I think I got an opposite definition : "that sounds wicked AS IF I was on acid" "that looks really trippy AS IF I was on acid". Indeed, IMO perceiving things in a psychedelic way is "normal" when you're on psychedelic drugs, but achieving the same state without it, that's the role of psychedelic music. On top of that, some will say combining the two is pure bliss... J.

Wel well well, sounds too much "Dream Music" (a la Robert Miles) to my ear, not my cup of tea. Furthermore, the sonic effects are exactly the same as those from his first album, 7 years ago. Some novelty would have been welcome IMO. J.

Koxbox were just mentioned once in this topic, so I feel like bringing balance to this unfair situation. Two gems from the most psychedelic (in the literal sense of the word) album ever : Koxbox - Color Drops Koxbox - Searching for Psychoactive herbs J.

Yes of course, but then the real question is : Can this year be prior to their coming to the scene ? Example : if I discovered Psy Trance in 2001 with the excellent sound production of the time, is it possible that I anyway prefer the "old sounds" of 1995 ? J.

I'm wondering : will there be people who'll choose a year during which they weren't listening to Psy Trance yet ? J.

The implied interrogation being (the most classic question in art philosophy I guess) : does a piece of art have a life of its own, or is it only what the artist wanted it to be ? If it has a life of its own, as many people argue, then the way it was created doesn't matter in the least, as long as it speaks to someone's soul. J.

Totally agree with that. Furthermore, not everyone has the sense of melody a Mozart had for instance... That's probably why so many people in the scene equal melody with "cheesiness". Very interesting remark. I don't make music (not yet, hehe), but for me inspiration is something coming from the outside. That was the alleged role of the muses in ancient times, speaking directly to the artists' soul. So, what if our modern muses are trapped in computers ? I mean, why would your mind, necessarily defined and thus limited by your biological and sociological background, be more inventive than your fingers turning knobs ? Why restrain you ? Imagine you were born in a world where there are only two colors : blue and red. When an adult you decide to become an artist, namely a painter. You have great ideas of pictures coming in your mind, but of course they are only made out of blue and red. And then you learn there is this extraordinary machine which could give you access to colors you couldn't even dream about : green, yellow... Wouldn't it be worth turning some knobs on this machine to see what these extraterrestrial colors are ? J.

Couldn't agree more with you all. "Full-on" and "Progressive" are adjectives which can be applied to every kind of music, and is absolutely not specific to Psychedelic Trance. But hey, I think we can't change a damn thing about the use of these terms as " musical genres" in the scene... J.

- Cosmosis : Howling at the Moon - Pleiadians : Maia - Kox Box : Color Drops - Infected Mushroom : Bust a Move - Astral Projection : Mahadeva Bonus Tracks : - Transwave : Flamicogyre - OOOD : Silence - Hallucinogen : LSD ... among so many others ! J.

Maybe you mean the production is not top notch quality, especially the kick drum line, compared to today's standard in the field. Well, until this week-end (!!) I thought (like you seem to) this was a drawback for IFO. But in the meantime I bought and listened to Sky Input by Filteria, emulating Pleiadians in many ways, plus adding the current high standard production (thanks to Tim Schuldt if I'm not mistaking). And guess what : I realized the rough sound of IFO was in fact a great assset ! Clean, flawless production is nice, but sometimes it verges on boredom though. Bring the noise back ! J.

It is definitely no easy task to come after DP's review, especially when you're about to write your very first full-length review ! Okay, that's enough for the intro, straight to the matter now. I bought this album because of all the hype going around it (I took a listen to the available samples beforehand though). This first Filteria album is said to be the illegitimate brother of Pleiadians' IFO and FOL. As Lemmiwinks, I was highly skeptical about it, since IFO belongs for me to the Psy Trance top 3 best albums ever. I guess my skepticism outlasts his, even after listening to the album a couple of times. Warning : because of the IFO syndrome, this review is largely biased, since I made it as if this album had been built to challenge Pleiadians' masterpiece. I'll make my point clearer while browsing through the tracks : Appetizers : Operation Pulse & Stars Straight from the beginning, here we are : 90% Pleiadians-like sounds (+10% Astral Projection, Another World era). In passing, I think there are as many IFO sounds as FOL in it. Good point for Jannis, because I always deemed these sonic manipulations were great, and rarely matched afterward. These two tracks are very smooth and undulating. It's like Jannis tuning his synths for the storm to come. The Storm Bringers : Navigate, The Snuggling Snail & Domestic Modulator Plain and simple, Navigate kicked my ass ! Very powerful track to say the least. Afterwards comes The Snuggling Snail, with THE great melody of the album, and then Domestic Modulator whose last 1:30 is pure bliss. These three tracks are the highlight of the album for me. Story-telling is a difficult art : Ultimator! & Galactic Rays With these two tracks, I realized that Jannis music hadn't reached the level of IFO or FOL yet. In both tracks, he uses lots of good melodies, but where Pleiadians knew how to make them develop and tell a story (which is what Goa Trance is mainly about IMHO), here I can only hear a string of more or less unconnected pieces. No misunderstanding : I'm not saying Jannis doesn't know how to properly build a track ! I'm saying that if his intentions were to build tracks like Pleiadians did (and I think it is the case), the mission is not complete yet. Outro : Sky Input The shortest but maybe the most well-built song of the album. A nice goodbye. Overall impression : Well, don't get me wrong. This is a GREAT release for me, otherwise I wouldn't have bothered buying it in the first place (I only bought 5 Psy Trance records this year...). But since everybody was saying this is in the vein of IFO, my expectations were the highest. And as often in such cases, they weren't entirely met. There are sounds from IFO and FOL, sure, and what's more Jannis also knows to make his own. His music is far far from a simple flat copy of Pleiadians style (for instance his melodies are very catching, though they don't sound like Pleiadians' that much to me, and that's a good sign for future productions), but I think this music needs a little more maturing as far as the storytelling business is concerned, before really challenging the "Italian maestros" in their own [lost] art. Best tracks : 4,5,3 J. PS : I don't like rating albums with school notes, but if I were to use the common 10-degree scale, I guess Sky Input would be 9/10.

Great news indeed Anoebis ! Guy had promised another MFG album when they had split, but I thought it was just wishful thinking. Glad it's not apparently ! J.

Aharon decided to take a religious path, but he's still interested in music : he released a CD called « Ten Heeyooch » with Rabi Harush, on which Trance is played as a background music. As for Guy, he has his solo project Passenger, as well as another project dubbed Emuna (« faith » in Hebrew) along with DJ Eyal. J.

Philosomatika provided me the answer : Photonic is Etnica while Photonik Part 2 is credited to Pleiadians. J.

Everything's mixed up nowadays, huh : weren't "Inner Space" and "Photonic" respectively released on "ECLIPS3" and "Fairy Tales" compilations under the alias Pleiadians ? A highly unimportant question, but anyway, I felt like pointing that out... J.

As far as I know, the label went bankrupt shortly before the album's release. But we have some Etnica's hotshots on this forum, they could probably give you more details. J.

This album has been said to be "released very soon" for more than 3 years now, so I guess it's quite possible that it was the same album. Or maybe you are refering to "Tetrahedron", the Crop Circles (Pleiadians + Lotus Omega) album who should have come out in 1998 on Auracle Records ? J.

"Q : What concept is behind your other project, PLEIADIANS? What are the differences between PLEIADIANS and ETNICA? A : The main difference is in the sounds we use, if you listen to the past two "pleiadians" albums the focus is more on the analogsynth riff-melody and the sunrise-morning kind of vibe. But if you want to judge for yourself, wait until 2005, the third pleiadians alb."EXPLORER" is already in the making." Just to let you know. I know lots lost their interest in this third opus after its permanent postponing for the past 3 years or so... J.

Hi everyone, I'm considering launching a Wiki on Psy Trance right now. This desire derives from various observations : - My will to make a contribution to the scene. I don't organize parties, but I wrote a summary on Psy Trance basic history, and I'm still writing up bios of psy artists for the French audience. All these are good, but a bit static. - We already have something pertaining to that matter, but in a slightly different approach : psydb.net for the records (or discogs.com whic works more like a wiki but is more general and a bit slow) or Fusion Anomaly (general also, a bit messy, maybe not that up-to-date and I'm not sure it is so easily open to new contributions) - A simple Psy FAQ could be great but something more dynamic and community friendly like an open wiki sounds better to my ear. So, what do you guys think ? Would it be useful, would you contribute, or do you think it would quickly turn into a big mess ? J.