Paul Eye

Next up, track 8. This one was finished in early December 1998, and it's the last track I finished that year, before taking a break from making music. I kinda remember I was running out of ideas around this time (evidenced by a bunch of unfinished tracks). This one takes some initial influences from the Transwave/Helium title track, but of course I put my own personal spin on it. Perhaps the most positive track in the collection (no cheese here in any case) and it has a nice groove to it, if I may say so myself

I doubt youtube's algos have much interest in something as niche as "goa trance" and its different flavours. In any case, that track has already broken the 1K plays mark, and I'm baffled.

Next up the, ahem, "creatively" named track 7. Finished in mid-November 1998, I can't really pinpoint any specific artist and/or track influence for this one, so in that way it sounds very much like myself. The bassline is something that could be called "proto fullon" (without being blatantly fullon in any case) and somehow at least to me the track sounds simultaneously both groovy and melancholic. The title translates to "snowfall", and 17 years old me must have felt very clever when coming up with those intercaps XD

Uh, nope. It's the most amateurish piece of simplicity in the compilation, and definitely doesn't sound like anything from this millennium. Youtube is weird. And as a side note, I absolutely despise the term "neo goa" as a genre/style name, I just call all goa "goa trance" without much distinction which decade it happens to be from (and not singling out your specific use of the term here, just my stance on its use in general).

Being influenced by something doesn't necesarily mean sounding like it, you know. Dunno how I should word it then but it's more like the idea to make a "downtempo goa" track came from those AP album last tracks. And the mixes of the tracks are what they are, and they'll go into the release exactly as they are. I wanted to keep them sounding just as they did back then.

Next up, the only downtempo track in the collection. Also, we're halfway through now This one was finished just 3 days after the original version of the previous track, maybe I had a rush of inspiration going on or something. Very much influenced by the closing tracks from Astral Projection albums, especially "The Astral Files", it of course does sound distinctly like myself. On a side note: why does that crappy Liquid Crystal track have the most views, likes (and also dislikes) of my tracks, at least at the moment? Go listen to the better ones ffs XD

If the previous track was a bit of a disaster, this one is a huge step up on pretty much all levels. Finished about 2 weeks after the previous track, this is definitely the breaking point in the evolution of my tracks. Still very much influenced by Transwave's album Helium, but at the same time throwing lots of my own ideas into the mix. Also, at 150 BPM, this is the fastest track in the collection.

Heh, thanks. You're of course free to enjoy it even if I don't

Next up, track 4. This one was finished in early October 1998, and I have to say that personally, I don't like this one at all and I almost left it off the collection. Definitely influenced by Transwave's album Helium (the first goa trance album I bought, apparently around the end of September 1998), I guess this was meant to be nothing more than a quick experiment. It didn't even have a title until I had to think of something for this collection (and naming it "untitled" would have been just meh). It does feature a little gimmick in that the kick (and by extension, the entire rhythm section) is on the offbeat, if it seems to you that there's something a bit off about this one. File this under "growing pains", there's much better material coming up

Next up, track 3. This one is also from September 1998, and was finished just a day after the previous track (so I've probably been working on these somewhat simultaneously). It's very much a twin sister to the previous one in theme and structure. If you're wondering about the peculiar title, to quote Wikipedia it "is the brightest star in the southern constellation of Piscis Austrinus, the Southern Fish, and one of the brightest stars in the night sky". If you'd ask me where I found the name of this star, the only answer I can give is "I have absolutely no idea".

Next up, track 2. This one is from September 1998, and goes back to a time when my tracks started to take on a more "goa trance" vibe. Inspired by outer space, this one is still quite simple in its arrangement, but this is when my sound really started to evolve, slowly but surely. Do keep in mind that I was 17 years old when I made this

Well well, it's time to open the history books. After literally years of procrastination and general uncertainty on my part, I'll finally be releasing a collection of my old Impulse Tracker tracks from way back in 1998/1999 later this spring. This one is the opening track, and it was actually made in December 2000 as a bit of a "retro" throwback to early 1998 (is at least my best guess at the reason why I made this one in the first place). The track is quite a laidback and straightforward intro for the collection, running at a moderate 130 BPM. I won't bore you here with the technical hoops I had to jump through to actually get the video and audio done in a way that I was satisfied with, but there's a geeky technical rundown in the video description you can read if you're interested. I'll be posting these videos once a week, 12 tracks all in all. The whole collection will be on my Bandcamp on May 18.

I kinda agree here. Nothing really special on the downtempo side of things (or maybe I just missed all the really good ones). I have to say especially the new CBL was pretty underwhelming. Now for the Morphic Resonance album, I kinda like it, but I just feel his sound got a bit too sparkly, even if the aggressiveness is still there. On the other hand, the Triquetra album is grit and dirt done absolutely right. It'll definitely be among my favourite goa trance albums from this decade.

I didn't even get enough 2023 goa trance to fill a top 10 list lol. So this doesn't mean that I'd have fully enjoyed all of these. The downtempo list is also a top 10 only because that's basically all the 2023 released downtempo I got. Most of the music I got last year was something else. Uptempo: 1. Triquetra - Myriad Vision - Suntrip Records 2. Proxeeus - Weep From Within - Goa Madness Records 3. Xenomorph - Negative Time - Suntrip Records 4. Prana - Sense Of Unity - Matsuri Digital 5. Profetia - Divergent Species - Self Released 6. Morphic Resonance - Extrasensory Perception - Suntrip Records 7. Triquetra - Access Denied - Suntrip Records 8. Ephedra - Deep Nothingness EP - Goa Madness Records 9. Veasna - Providence - Goa Madness Records Downtempo: (not in order yet) 1. Children Of The Bong - (Not Sirius) - Disco Gecko 2. Asura - Renaissance - N.L.E. Records 3. Sundial Aeon - Regenesis - Impact Studio Records 4. Seb Taylor - Collected Downtempo Vol. 5 - Tribal Shift Records 5. Proxeeus - Cydathria EP - La Transe Insoumise 6. Benji Vaughan - Eidolon - Twisted Records 7. VA - Ethneomystica Vol. 11 - Mystic Sound Records 8. Cosmic Trigger - Forager's Delight - Twisted Records 9. VA - Save The Children - Ensancha El Alma Records 10. Carbon Based Lifeforms - Seeker - Leftfield Records (added the Xenomorph EP, and assuming single releases are okay here, the Prana single, uptempo almost a top 10 now)

Here's my downtempo set from the latest Trip To Goa, played on October 6th at Kaivohuone, Helsinki. Features a selection of music mostly with a dub-influenced backbone. Not much ambient parts here, since my time slot was 23-00. This one was recorded live at the event. Tracklist: Spatialize - Zen In Frankfurt Bluetech - Prayers For Rain (Ott Remix) Key-G - Curled Up Dimensions (Geoglyph Remix) Globular & Geoglyph - Flight Stimulator Radioactive Sandwich - Homunculus Radioactive Sandwich - Melek Taus (Live Edit) Boucle Infinie - Escape (Cartoon Theory Remix) Eat Static - Persepolis (Shpongle Static Mix) Umberloid - Neon Tetra