Oopie

I immediately thought of this one... pure brilliance.

One factor is, that many people have lost connection to themselves and people around them. All our great values, like love and honesty for example, have already long time ago been utilized and thoroughly raided by the capitalistic system. Nothing seems to be sacred. Life feels shallow and we seem to have incredible haste as a civilization to go forward. I do enjoy the very concept of progress yet the question remains, at what cost? One of the very goals of our lives should be happiness and most of us do seem to favor a bit more relaxed pace to achieve that. If the society at large needs a bandit then its certain to show on festivals/music culture too. Hippies wearing expensive clothes to look like beggars taking uppers and downers to listen music that's well produced but soulless as hell. I've seen it many times, been a part of it too so I'd know. It's no surprise many people left the scene. It can be difficult to witness and accept what people do to themselves on these festivals. And to talk about the topic more directly - yes I agree most modern Goa trance is quite shit indeed! It's a shame because, when looking things from a larger perspective, melodies can be a fun and vital part of psychedelic music. I always thought of Goa trance as the genre with most potential to it. And nothing really has changed my view. We can identify the problem (lol) but there's no one really to blame is there? I kinda saw this 'problem without a solution' situation years ago that's what motivated me to start composing music myself. But this situation might change in the future I want to remain optimistic (a little anyway). It will sound good again when the times change for the better.

Life On Mars

Lots of social factors come at play when you try to figure out how "the scene" came to its current standards. 90s was a period without internet, or at least the social media was non-existing. You'd just do your thing, with no need for constant attention seeking or self-promotion. You'd sit in whatever psyhole you had there, compose, play at a party and the feedback would occur the natural way, via real human contact. These days you need following, likes and what not - it's all virtual though. And hey! You can also buy the likes, psyscene is under capitalistic law like it or not. All that's been said is affecting us all. Social media is giving us access to infinite amount of information and what kinda happened is our minds are focused on trillion things at once trying to swim through the pool of data. The consumption mode is on when it comes to psytrance, too. So many artists, so much music! As a reflection of a sort, haste & desire for recognition have unfortunately become major driving forces for many musicians. The social media driven world shows no mercy, it's just the state of things for the time being. Patience, vision and focus. I reckon the amount of these qualities has dropped significantly and hence understand the frustration of many. Only thing that might, just might, ease the pain is the fact new Sab Kuch Milegator album is only one track away...

Psytrance! Just think about the word for a while... there's a lot to this term that is yet to be heard. However, the mainstream artists are, in my humble opinion, not the ones who I look to see whether there's some progression happening or not. (Because it's a little bit about the money and that kinda kills the best vibe of any artist). In the end I think if it's about a human being expressing his/her soul.... we'll always get to hear something fresh and new every once in a while. I couldn't tell when and where however

I've become a C:G:C: as in conservative goa co*k... I do listen to stuff outside goa/psytrance territory, yet with house etc. it also leans towards the golden 90s.

My internal computer can't process this phenomenon. I'd say there are quite many people, if we'd like to talk about the big masses in this case, who simply only understand and enjoy the most primitive part of the track - kick + bass? All the psychedelic sweeps is just unnecessary garbage for them... Yet it's kinda understandable - K, B & PsyFX combo usually isn't that deep, musically interesting concept that it'd move the hearts of many, yet it serves as the perfect easy flowing fuel for one's drug filled dance rituals.

That's indeed a horrible example of bad mastering. I think quite a few of these tracks would be great to play/hear in sets but, as things are, I'm going to pass.

Here's my 2c: Psychedelic trance music is, within a track, often a journey. The very aesthetic is that the tracks are usually 7+ minutes long following a certain philosophy of drama. It is thought/expected that the tracks end with a bang. No self respecting DJ would mix out the track before the best part, that's obvious no? We pretty much have a genre where technical "grandeur" is hard to show in your sets as there are such big gaps between the tracks. I won't go into detail, but techno and house music, widdem big starz, have more "use the tracks as tools" philosophy and it's just bound to be that in these genres you've got a bit more of that DJ charisma. The point of the story: Within psytrance genre I think almost anyone can become a good DJ! Really why not? With the modern day technology you don't even have to care about the beat matching anymore. Really this "hobby" is for whoever so wishes. There are more DJs wanting to play than there are organizers lol... Becoming a great producer though... if going a bit beyond great production quality and talking in terms of musicality - some will never achieve this. Like me! I can tell you I've tried. xD

Thanks mate. Yeah no doubt on that one I've been keen to have it for years now.

I rarely do massive purchases like this these days, but an eBay seller had all these great CDs available and I couldn't help myself! Interlect 3000 - Electric Allsorts Koxbox - Re-Oscillation maxi-CD Spectral - Celtic Alchemy maxi-CD Sandman - Psycho Toons UX - Ultimate Experience Transwave - Hypnorhythm EP Finally... Koxbox and Transwave collections complete

The new modern style of producing/mixing is to make the kick very punchy/compressed. It's a tad too much for my taste although the 'big crowd' is into it I suppose. I wouldn't say the modern approach is by any means what I consider the best. I'd go for something a bit more open, dynamic and perhaps quiet. What I myself like a lot is the Swedish wave of early y2k (Atmos, Logic Bomb, Noma) that were mastered at Tom Puss Point Studios. Perfect Sound!

Just won a bidding auction on Ebay for Deviant Electronics - Brainwashing Is Child's Play. 18 euros not bad...

The Etnica re-release would've been in the top 10 surely have I voted... but I decided not to, mainly to prevent myself from voting my own album (haha yes I like my own music ). Still glad to see it in top 10, only self-released one and with next to no promotion... thanks for the support guys and cheers to the other top tenners you deserved it.

Ra's album is old school and some of 'To Sirius' tracks have been produced as early as 96/97. I'll let you have your opinion on Synsun but would like to point out they also made two albums in 99 & 00 which have similar tracks to the one you mentioned.