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franki

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Posts posted by franki

    UK Fullon / Pure Psytrance

    in General Psytrance

    Posted

     

    UK psy trance has really gone downhill, unfortunately.

    Can't say I agree with that as a generalisation. UK Goa - yes (there's hardly any produced here compared to overseas,) but there's still awesome psytrance (in all its many forms) being made in the UK.

    I don't find lack of melody an issue, I'm a big techno fan too, so happy enough with heavy bass & kick and no melody. That said, I don't believe you need melodies to be psychedelic - I think decent fx can be just as effective.

     

    I saw Manmademan last weekend at Kanyini in Birmingham and they totally rocked the place.

    UK Fullon / Pure Psytrance

    in General Psytrance

    Posted

    Nano releases I often find way too commercial, but there are some other excellent UK labels such as Free-Spirit Records, Liquid Records, plus Wildthings (as already mentioned), Bom Shanka music, Woo-dog etc although some of these tend a bit more towards a darker sound. (But that's fine with me!)

    How would you rate the last 10 years of Goa Trance music

    in General Psytrance

    Posted

    Another vote for excellent!

    I think there's been plenty of really great Goa released over the last ten years, but also some very mediocre albums.

    As styles go, I'm not keen on the abrasive Middle-Eastern melodies that are far too abundant these days and especially don't like a lot of Nitz-ho for this reason. E-mantra probably best represents the type of sound I like best. Rounded, groovy and warm, without over-doing the leads.

     

    My favourite releases include:

     

    E-mantra - Nemesis & Arcana

    Alienapia - Goapocalipsis

    V.A. - Voyager First Plateau

    Artha - Influencing Dreams

    Cosmic Dimension - In A Special Kind Of Space

    Crossing Mind - The Inner Shift

    Goasia - Dancing With The Blue Spirit

    Khetzal - Corolle

    V.A. - Phoenix

    V.A. - If I Wasn't Human, I'd Be A Trance Track

    Merrow - Born Underwater

    Nebula Meltdown - Stardust Chronicles

    Most of the Suntrip V.A.s

     

    ...there's loads of good stuff!

     

    I'm not as keen on the Trinodia (although the new album is pretty decent, bar one or two tunes), Nova Fractal and the Call Of Goa releases. They're reasonable, with some great tracks but the sound can be a bit commercial for my tastes.

    Why no more dj mixes on CD?

    in General Psytrance

    Posted

    I love a good mix CD myself. :) Wish there were more psytrance ones! (Obviously bought the Suntrip CD straight away!)

     

    Psytrance's lack of mix CDs seems to be quite different to many other types of EDM.

    If I compare psytrance to techno - psytrance DJs took to using CDs early on and they became the norm. Many psy DJs still use CDs, so the availability of tunes unmixed in that format is important. (Although, obviously they can download tunes and burn them to CD too.)

    Techno DJs in the main, never embraced the CD, sticking with the 12" or going straight from vinyl to digital, so most of their music has been bought on 12" or downloaded.

    As far as the consumer goes, mix CDs are still popular in techno - but there the DJ commands a lot more respect than in psytrance, where they always seem to be looked upon as second string to "live" performers. I mean: think of all your favourite psy / Goa acts and it's a fair bet you think of mainly producers. There isn't really the superstar DJ equivalent in psy circles.

    The availability of free DJ mixes on the net has clearly had a large effect, but again - other genres with higher profile DJs still manage to move mix CDs every year and their status helps promote and give credibility to up and coming producers - I've bought SO many artist albums after hearing a track played on a CD mixed by one of my favourite DJs.

     

    My personal view (and I don't expect it to be too popular with psytrance DJs, :blush: ) is that, as a style of music, psy doesn't offer the DJ much scope for exhibiting their skills. Any kind of turntablism tends to sound wrong, where in techno it usually gets a great response. A collection of techno tunes can become so much more than a sum of its parts by being mixed - psytrance I feel doesn't benefit as much from the mixing over playing seperate tunes. Continuing this train of thought: I am quite happy to listen to unmixed psytrance albums from start to finish one after another, but I do find unmixed techno a bit boring after a while. What am I saying? Techno needs to be mixed to get the most out of it, psytrance doesn't? Maybe! <_<
    Where the DJ wins over a "live" act to my mind, is in the scope of available music to play and the ability to use these tunes to construct a set that really takes you somewhere. I find a lot of DJs play more dynamic sets than "live" acts, but this isn't always the case.

    Best Tristan album?

    in General Psytrance

    Posted

    I like Audiodrome & Substance about the same. They're both decent albums.

    Chemisphere just sounds exactly like you'd expect from most Nano artists and, although I like some of it, the lame full-on guitar riffs ruin it for me as a whole.

    Is Dark Psy Stagnating?

    in General Psytrance

    Posted

    There seems to be less "straight-up darkpsy" about these days and more and more forest & hi-tech, but there's still some quality stuff out there. I wouldn't say it's stagnating.

     

    Among my favourite darkpsy releases recently are:

     

    Ogoun - Oga Alabe

    Yata-Garasu - Soul Resonance

    The Ancient Secret Of the Flower Of Life - V.A.

    Karash - Shapeshifter

    Ocelot - Night & Day

    Digitalist - Larger Modality Of Organisation

     

    There's a fair bit of diversity among those.

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