Basilisk

All good songs but I wish they'd post some of the more obscure and hard to find stuff in their discography.

01 - Pleiadians - Time Dilation [Matsuri Productions] (1996) 02 - Kaaya - Circular Sanctuary [Dragonfly Records] (1996) 03 - Deviant Electronics - When Then Is Now [Helix Records] (1997) 04 - Etnica - Trip Tonite [blue Room Released] (1996) 05 - Tarsis - The Snake [spirit Zone Recordings] (1998) 06 - Chi-A.D. - Anno Domini [Nova Tekk] (1999) 07 - Man With No Name - Teleport [Dragonfly Records] (1994) 08 - The Infinity Project - Stimuli [TIP Records] (1994) 09 - Astral Projection - No One Ever Dreams [Transient Records] (1997) 10 - Rainbow Spirit - Prana [Polytox Records] (1995) 11 - Art Of Trance - Octopus (Man With No Name Remix) [Platipus Records] (1995) 12 - Hallucinogen - Soothsayer [TIP Records] (1995) 13 - Pleiadians - Merope [Dragonfly Records] (1997) 14 - X-Dream - We Created Our Own Happiness [Tunnel Records] (1996) 15 - Kristian & DJ Cosmix - The Vision (Oforia Remix) [3D Vision Records] (1999) 16 - Phreaky - Over The Moon [Dragonfly Records] (1996) 17 - Transwave - Cycles Of Life [symbiosis Records] (1995) 18 - Green Nuns Of The Revolution - Cor [TIP Records] (1995) 19 - MFG - Peaceful Relaxation [Phonokol] (1997) 20 - Chi-A.D. - Astral Warrior (Remix) [Nova Tekk] (1998) 21 - Cosmosis - Telekinetic [Return To The Source] (1996) 22 - Dimension 5 - Limitless Dimension [blue Moon Productions] (1998) 23 - Hallucinogen - LSD (Live Mix) [Dragonfly Records] (1995) This set was recorded live at Re:Generate, the name chosen by the Om Reunion Project to set the mood for their summer solstice gathering in 2011. I was scheduled to play on Sunday morning at the Moon Bass stage, a great little setup in a forest clearing on a beautiful piece of land in Southern Ontario. It felt like the right space and time to take a trip into the history of the psychedelic trance subculture so I mixed up a diverse assortment of old school Goa trance classics after sunrise. As always, this set was completely improvised; absolutely nothing was planned prior to stepping on stage to setup my equipment. This musical experience was co-created with a fantastic crowd of people who emerged from the woods to dance with enthusiasm to these old school gems. Link: http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/dj-basilisk-live-at-regenerate-2011

I really like The Programmer. It's a catchy song if you're into progressive techno. Note: the album version is like a radio edit. Get the original on this release for mixing.

I'm performing at a festival in August where Shakta will be playing a retro set. Will report back when I hear more of what he's doing these days.

One vote for going in chronological order since you started with the first album.

You can drive a wedge into the Phantasm Records catalogue between Parabola (2001) and Eskimo's debut album (2003). They had some ground-breaking stuff before that point (Double Dragon and Orion) and almost nothing but commercial full-on cheese since then (Cosmosis - Psychedelia Melodica is an exception). In fairness, their "classic" mid-1990s releases also exhibited a populist streak... so really, not so much has changed.

It's like that here too. Forums seem to attract a lot of these grumpy old-timers who haven't been to parties for years but still claim to know how things are or what the psytrance scene needs most

So if the Vaccine makes you sick... the cure will be the Disease?

Some recent goodies from Ektoplazm: http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/brujos-bowl-healing-with-sound http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/unusual-cosmic-process-weightlessness http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/senzar-before-the-morning-sun http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/radioactive-sandwich-a-world-of-delights http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/perfect-blind-three-spires

Hitler shot himself on April 30th.

I find there is a paucity of good artist albums prior to 1996. V/As were the first step... they allowed new artists with only a few tunes available to get their sound out there and receive some feedback.

Try this out: http://www.ektoplazm.com/essentials

Sure, so you had time to develop your sound in private. Some people today are doing so in public. Not everyone will make it... I think it is an acknowledged fact that equipment costs selected for more serious musicians back in the day. With the democratization of the tools of production anyone can try their hand at being a musician, for better or worse. As with any change there are both good and bad things about it. In this respect I try to focus on the good side... after all, some really great music is coming out of the new breed of musicians in this scene. Or, at least, a lot of music that I happen to like

Copying is an integral part of art. Nothing is truly original. Read this piece by one of my favourite filmmakers: http://markmalazarte.com/jarmusch/ The above quotation is sourced from rule #5: http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/jim_jarmusch_2972/ I suspect a lot of old school producers developed a distinctive sound almost by accident, possibly as a result of the limitations of the equipment available to them at the time. I don't have a source for this, but I remember it being said that MWNN was notorious for never changing the presets on his synths - and Transwave went to great lengths to imitate the MWNN sound. Hallucinogen's LSD represents Simon's attempt to write mainstream trance - and it failed brilliantly. Similar stories could probably be related for many of the old-timers. I think a lot of the music we love resulted from an inept imitation of something else entirely. As for the new school guys, give 'em a break. Many are fairly new to writing music. (Think about how long Youth was involved in music before turning to trance!) What you may notice is that many new school artists begin by imitating some aspect of the old school sound... but the few artists we can describe as veterans of the movement have, by and large, moved on. Filteria is probably the best example of this: his early work is fairly derivative but his most recent productions are all Filteria as far as I'm concerned. He found his voice, influenced by his experiences of the past, and now writes music that exceeds a certain threshold of distinctiveness that would have some of us describe his work as "original" by now. Ra is another good example of a new school producer that has been at it for some time. So maybe we just need to be patient if we are searching for "originality", whatever that might be. Or we could recognize that NSG is a nostalgic movement by definition, and originality should not be the most overarching criteria by which we decide whether something is good or not.

If I received this as a demo I would send it back. Sometimes all I can say is "keep working on it"

A few from the free side...

I always imagined it differently... so much for illusions

Great post! I really enjoyed reading about the session and listening to these odd glazey tunes of yours.

What happens next I wonder?

I like the idea of a 10 point system used correctly. 5 is average... meaning the release is average for that style. It goes up and down from there. A perfect 10 is reserved for those albums that really are perfect. Back when I was doing a lot of reviews I think I only gave out two perfect 10's... out of something absurd like 500 reviews. Can't remember what they were now though. Anyway, all this letter grading stuff is just a 10 point scale in disguise. Use it and don't be afraid to be brutal... but be consistent.

Cool!

Yes, we are working to get his back catalogue in the site in chunks. It's probably no secret that 12 Moons is one of my all-time favourite artists so I am quite excited to be involved in this. Michael leaving the scene after bad treatment by the labels was an episode that motivated me to start doing what I do... anyway, I'm hoping to drop him a nice donation from the tip jar and I encourage others to do the same.

There is nothing wrong with "neogoa" as far as I am concerned... although I wouldn't mind if the new school movement were more inclusive of different approaches and styles. Purists are quite focused on that Dimension 5/Pleiadians revivalist sound at the expense of alternate approaches like those of Amygdala, Anakoluth, Xamanist, EvsY, Jikkenteki, Magic & Witchcraft, and some of the other artists I have been promoting through Ektoplazm. Think of it this way: lots of releases on TIP Records would not be called neogoa if they were released today (i.e. Psychopod, Organic Noise, Orichalcum & The Deviant, Synchro, etc.). "Goa" was always a bit of a slippery term anyhow. Some stuff obviously fits our understanding of the word (Astral Projection, Cosmosis, and Etnica for instance) but there is a ton of music from the 1990s that only faintly exhibits the glimmering cosmic aesthetic we traditionally associate with Goa trance (and still, we would call it "old school Goa trance"). Neogoa, on the other hand, is fairly limited in scope. I think the movement might benefit from expanding our understanding of neogoa to include other approaches inspired by old school Goa trance.

I thought the "2" was a typo when I bought these! Killer sound anyway.

Out now! http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/psychowave-sunshine-reborn