mars
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I know of an oooooold Goa project from the UK who might release, at last, its "unreleased" album (no it's not D5 and it's not on Suntrip).
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These groups never "uploaded for free as mp3" any material. The music is supposed to stay in a closed circle (but it always spreads eventually, despite the groups' efforts). The philosophy behind it is a mix of "try before buy" and many other things that may seem quite weird for a digital consumer of the XXIst century
Totally wrong.Why? Because there is a demand for pirated files, whether it's right or wrong.
Right, that's the philosophy of "the scene(s)". And all these people are Psy fans, they don't intent on making money from their "releases".For fame. For thrills. For being a part of the scene where practically everything is available from day zero (or earlier).
[...]
Others claim the system is for getting a chance to try before you buy, or for archiving everything.
More and more actually. With digital stuff they almost have no other choice anyway.Do you know they really pay for the releases?
I think some years ago, some group was supplied by someone working in a shop, I mean, it was too obvious.
But now, suppliers are either close to labels (when not within), or are fast enough to buy the actual CD before everyone else and "release" it to the mp3 scene.
That said, times are changing, people consume the music in a complete different way now than only a few years ago (eg Youtube), and I wonder what kind of "response" this very very conservative scene will find...
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LoL, LP = Limited Print!
not vinyl 
(although we chose the LP name indeed because it sounded so old school) It's actually SUNCDLE03
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Skazi? I though (hoped) he was dead.
That's Israeli pop music, not psytrance.
i love how he uses those speech samples in such a mysterious, unobtrusive and highly psychedelic way instead of making them cheesy like so many aritsts (for instance filteria) do.
Wrong example. FYI there is not a single sample on the latest Filteria album.
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Totally my point of view. Even 10 years later, "Audialize - Wanted" remains a superb album, one of the pioneers in the twilight psytrance genre, that may even please goa lovers and fullon addicts, as well as dark afficionados.
It's much better than the second album from the same author (Starship Earth) imo, as it's fresher, wilder, exposing more twisted ideas, even leading to unexpected directions.
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Similarly to Trance2MoveU, I am torn between 2 feelings on this release. Some tracks are excellent quality imaginative fullon, others are just predictable, stereotyped fullon.
Though it's a must have for fullon lovers. Better than the first Dynamic album for instance.
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Google adsense is asking me to remove this content, which I'm doing (why am *I* receiving these warning emails btw?)
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S, I've heard it mastered and I can tel it embarks a hell lot of firepower. Some tracks are epic. Others are experimental, and some are even hard to understand at first, cause they're tearing you apart. But what strikes really much is that once you've started listening, you can't stop. It's good end to end.
There's a lot of work in these obviously: 4 years, though half of the album was made in 2013.
If you happen to see Jannis (or Anoebis or Ukiro) playing in the coming weeks, I'm sure you'll be surprised by the power the tracks throw at you.
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Hey, I agree with most of you. Now my thoughts.
Foreword:
I disagree with Somnesia on the fact people are looking for free stuff. Piracy is still big and some Netlabels offer decent quality and the models put in place by some major actors such as iTunes, Google Play or Amazon mp3 made it possible for people to only "consume" what they want. We have regularly payments of 1,50€ or less through digital streams. The world has changed.
@Richpa: excellent posts.
The state of the business from my pov:
For those artists who are 30+ (incl Somnesia I guess), the CD is still the way to go. They see it as a "physical" reward for their work (just paraphrasing Somnesia or Ajna) and it's understandable. As far as Suntrip is concerned, our CD sales have plummetted (we sell 10 times slower than 10 years ago) but are still good enough to allow us to release and "satisfy" some artists. That means we also have to be increasingly selective with quality.
Now consider: for the broad people who are 30+, the CD is still a great and secure way of owning the music and rewarding the artist. But younger people just go on iTunes or Google Play and consume whatever they want, track per track if they want, and it's fair enough for them that their "property" remains in the cloud, that is, accessible from any device, anytime. Piracy exists, a lot, but people want less and less to crawl on TPB, they want facility. The digital way is the future of music consumption and let's face it, the CD will eventually die.
As I've seen Anoebis spreadsheet I can state that digital sales have greatly helped us staying afloat and "compensate" for a part of the CD sales losses, but are kind of deceiving to some aspects. For example, the revenue per track is down, because, and it's crazy when you think about it, labels earn less with digital sales than they do with physical sales whereas everything is dematerialized !!!!! The music industry (and some companies such as Apple imo) have made it happen in very subtile ways. Not mentioning Spotify and Deezer whose model just kill the revenue per track.
Consider one last thing: there were roughly 200 Psytrance releases (Vinyls + CDs) per year at the end of the nineties. In 2013 we'll probably be close to 2000, most of them being digital EPs !!!!
All this makes the situation really difficult for labels (and artists): how to get known in that ocean of releases, how to maintain revenue, how to satisfy artists?
Back to the point:
This is not only with Psytrance, I think, ever since the beginning of the music industry, EVERY artist had to make "efforts" to get released in the first place. Efforts meaning giving tracks for free or very little, or only accepting copies of the record as a payment. I think this was also the case at the time of the Dragonfly/Flying Rhino/Blue Room era.
And as soon an the artist gets known (mostly after a first album, and through playing live), he can more easily ask for a least a hundred euros/track.
The perfect example: After the relative success of the Indoor album in 95, The Tandu album was released by Phonokol at the end of 97 and the Oforia album by Dragonfly at the beginning of 98, then the Pigs in Space album by fall 98 again on Phonokol !?! I guess Oforia could basically auction his tracks when he was at the top! But it took 3 years, lots of performances and of course excellent music.
More precisely, I see a clear relationship between the fact an artist gets paid for his music vs. how he is known vs. how much he plays live. We've seen it with some of our most famous artists: first a few tracks sold for cheap, a few deceiving gigs in the alternative room, for free too, then a first album paid quite cheap, then some public recognition, more lives where they could get a few hundreds, then more fame, a second album sold for a decent amount, etc...till that artist gets to play in festivals and can basically ask as much money as every "established" artist seen regularly in festivals... IT TAKES TIME, PATIENCE, SACRIFICE. Every artist went through that. In every genre. Likewise in the company you're working for: you have to make a reputation (build EXPOSURE as RIchpa says) to evolve in the system. And it takes TIME, SWEAT & BLOOD. So if it's what it takes to start the "pump", YES GIVE YOUR TRACKS FOR FREE...in the beginnning.
How much can an established label give for a debut album ?
At Suntrip we also don't give much money to starters, but we try to be fair and give at least some symbolic fee (<100€) + some copies. 0€ tracks are ONLY when the artist wants to (as for some, being on a CD is rewarding enough). Known artists get 100, 200, or more per track. That makes a budget of ~1200€ of fees for a compilation. But this is already a huge risk! Look at the math (sorry Jos, I'm copy/pasting you with figures reviewed):
Nowadays, in the first year, you can expect to sell 270 copies digital + CD-wise for an average record (Filteria, D5, E-Mantra, Khetzal and RA being the only non-average). As a comparison, ten years ago it was 300+ copies in the first month, yet we were unknown. But now there is an ocean of releases as explained before.The income per copy is around 6,5€. Income per release on the first year: 1800€.- CD press/print (1000 copies): 900€,
- Shipping: 70€,
- Artwork: 200€,
- Mastering: 300€
- + change rates,
- + we need to pay an accountant,
- + all kind of taxes (even one because the company is 15m²)
Assuming we don't pay ourselves, what remains for the artist fee is ZERO EURO. Sad but true. And I swear we're making a lot of efforts to decrease costs in any way (btw pressing 500 copies costs almost as much as 1000, that's why we're pressing 1000).That means that, if we give an artist, say, 1000€ for his album or spend 1200€ on a compilation's fees, we have to expect to keep on selling 150-180 extra copies over the following years, that is, close to 500 copies in total, just to break even!!! Can you imagine we're putting Suntrip at risk at EVERY release?So, some labels choose to "bet" on some artists. Sometimes they are proven right, sometimes wrong... Some labels don't care about the money because the owner is rich. And most other labels don't take risks in an already very versatile and unstable market. Simply that, explains why most labels only propose "new" artists to press only 300-500 copies and NOT pay them except with copies. It's terrible, implacable, but that's the way it is as of today...Now how can an artist make money today?Exactly as all artists have always: Gigs.Who said albums brought money? To the Beatles stakeholders, yeah sure. In the Psytrance world, forget about it. Gigs do bring much more money than releases, even with pop artists. As I explained before, there will have to be sacrifices first, and then, if the music is good, the recognition will come.The receipe imo is: an artist with banging music, charisma, who's visible (online, with relations) who is available/doesn't miss opportunities, who's not afraid to travel the whole week-end and be smashed just to get a ridiculous fee at first, and yet who's strong enough not to be ripped off by promoters (eg the transportation and food should be paid by the promoter, always), and above all, who is patient. Being multipurpose (DJ too or alternative chill project) is an extra asset. Of course this is not only on the artist, the label should help getting bookings too.-
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Who doesn't know that legendary Hallucinogen track. The name is funny but I always thought it'd come out of Simon's name just like that...until last month.
I was at yet another visit with my oncologist. At the end, his assistant tells me:
- Well once in a while you'll have to come back at the one-day hospital to be reloaded with gamma goblins...
- Ga....I beg your pardon ?
- Gamma goblins.
- Like in...?
- You know, antibodies.
- Aaaaaah ok, gamma glo-bu-lins. Gamma globulins. pfew ok.
Well that was funny, and I thought I'd share it here.
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Due to my health condition, and to prevent paperwork nightmares for my wife in case things would go wrong for me, I handed over the psynews.org domain name to insejn. The Google apps email system is his too. He's got all the keys to Psynews now.
I'll keep on doing some technical updates though (that's why I'm staying an "Admin"), and Insejn is briefed as of what to do in case this, too, would have to be taken over.
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Check via Discogs advanced search: http://www.discogs.com/search?type=all&track=Radio+S.P.A.C.E.
It was only released on one compilation besides the album: "Distance to Goa 5" (or one of its bootlegs).
It also appeared on "Goa Prophets" (also Distance) but it's the complete album we have here on cd3 so I doubt one track would be different.
Now, maybe there is another version hidden in a Goa Gill Mix or something but I won't dig into this
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If you've taken drugs before in your life you must already know it's TOTALLY impossible to make psytrance under psychedelics. It takes too much concentration for a good sound design, and you can't concentrate at all under halucinogens.
I think some artists may be working under coke or booze (e.g I'm thinking of a French and an Israeli group).
Though I think many artists play at gigs under the influence. Which contributes to kiling their creativity... And the rest of them like to be a little drunk to overcome the stress, no big deal
As far as Suntrip is concerned, can you imagine that guys like Filteria, or Crossing Mind, some of the craziest Goa producers, have never taken anything in their lives?
Besides, 90% of our artists are clean, and those who aren't are well known and aware we'll kick their butts if they soil our name.
My point is: the moment you step into drugs, your creativity is dead, your career is over. Not immediately, but very soon. You'll be condemned to play your old tracks because the new ones will be crap. My advice to any artist (and everyone in general) is not even try "just to see the effect". Just stay away from drugs.
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I have a compil from 95 with a Lieb track on it, and it aleady sounds tech-trance. This one here shows he hasn't lost any energy!
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Chaotic Circus, Direct Motion, Sunrise, and so many others.......
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Klopfgeister with the Spiderpig Remix
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@Slina: back to the topic, most artists prepare their set on Ableton live. Some have edited their tracks beforhand so there is an actual "live mix" played, but in reality Ableton is just used as a player (and the positive thing for the artists is it looks less lame than playing a CD or tracks with Windows Media Player, as we've seen in the early 2000's).
Now, some artists are more subtile: some only have a partial recording of their stuff played by Ableton and the remainder of the instruments are tweaked live.
Some add effects or synths to the prepared-set (Filteria does).
There is almost no artist in the Psy scene still bringing all his gear to a gig. Khetzal, Eat Static and OOOD do, but they're pretty much the only ones left.
On the other hand, on the electro or ambient scene, I've seen guys with a looooot of hardware set up, some playing from Logic or Cubase directly!
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Suntrip
Ultimae
Iono
Iboga
DAT
Global Sect
Ovnimoon
Altar
Neogoa
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Thos above are all great (esp X-Dream - Radio) but I would insist on having Nerso - Explorations of Infinity (2011) in the top 10 (even in the top 3 according to me).
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Chrome is really EXTREMELY bad. Just boom boom boom boom over and over...
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Super.
In addition to Ektoplazm the compilation is hosted here on psynews.org:
http://www.psynews.org/media/contests/VA_-_Sideffect_(Psynews_Contest_2013_Compilation).zip
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When I was still a student I could do 12 hours straight then my knees would ask me to yield.
Between 25-30 it went down to 4 hours or so.
After 30, this is exactly it
most of the time I dance in bursts of about half an hour, and then move on to the side or go talk to friends or people I know and rinse and repeat. Except when a great act like Dimension 5 or RA is playing, then I dance for 2 hours straight.
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That was a great effort indeed.
No matter the form, as long as you keep reviewing, because you're a great contributor.
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"The Wizard", the absolute ultimate Slinky track. Sooooo psychedelic.
2014 releases
in General Psytrance
Posted