travbrad1001

This is a very good compilation and it flows very nicely. As you said it starts out a bit darker/forest oriented and then becomes more melodic. I like the 2nd half more but that's just my personal taste, the first half is very good too

Wow this actually sounds fresh in 2010! You can tell it's "oldschool" but it sounds more like a modern producer made it that way on purpose. The melodies are classic goa melodies. It sounds a lot more goa than a most of the stuff I associate with early goa (around 1988-1990). Great stuff

Yeah Shpongle not being #1 is a bit of surprise, considering how many worshipers he has. The right album won though IMO. Top 2 are exactly how I rated them Glad Fraggletrollet made it so high on the Trance chart. Was my favorite of the year, and definitely the most original thing I heard. The rest of my top 5 didn't even make the list.

This, pretty much. I would extend it far beyond just Psy or even electronic music though. I'd get very bored only listening to a single genre of music. Even with "non-goa" psy I usually like there to be some kind of melody though, even if it's just a simple melody with heavy effects. There's a lot of Psytrance with melodies that I wouldn't consider "goa". Not that the name of the genre is really that important. You can call it whatever you want, if it sounds good to me, I'll like it.

Cool stuff, I agree with above poster I've never heard an auto-tuned voice in a song before and liked it so much (or at all for that matter..) Thanks for the astronomy pics too. I didn't have a lot of these.

Agreed, it's probably the album I still listen to the most out of anything that was released last year. I'll have to check out that other one, thanks

So I finally found the other person who listens to it

I'm in between liking "most of their things" and "only a couple". They are pretty hit and miss for me. Some great stuff, some good stuff, but also some very boring stuff. That's actually a big compliment coming from me though, because most labels release 95% crap IMO

I don't know anyone else who likes Psytrance so I have to go with house cat.

As someone else said, no one really even knows what Trance is (at least here in Minnesota), let alone listens to it or produces it. If people aren't exposed to the music, it's hard for them to get into producing/composing this type of music. I disagree with your list of countries though. There is a ton of good Trance from countries other than those. I can't believe you left out Finland either... He's one of the best period IMO. I can't even think of a better "chill/ambient" artist right now, at least not anyone who is so consistently good. He has just made good/great albums one after another.

I know this won't be a popular opinion, but it's a bit hit and miss for me. There are some really great tracks, but an equal number of "only" decent tracks. I've never been a fan of Filteria though so perhaps that has something to do with it. This is his best album by a mile. My favs are track 2, 4, 7, and 8. Those also seem to be the tracks with the "darkest" melodies. Nothing here is even close to being mediocre/bad, it's just not as consistently amazing as many people are saying (IMO of course). Still an album with 4 great tracks, and the rest pretty good, makes for a pretty damn good album in my book

Nazi soldiers received awards too. I'm not convinced Many of history's greatest artists and composers received virtually no praise in their lifetime either.

I thought last year had some amazing albums too, one of the best years in awhile IMO. 2009 does seem to be shaping up very nicely indeed though To demonstrate how awesome these other albums are in comparison? Is this like the idea of standing next to a really ugly person to make yourself seem more attractive?

Yeah, Kettel is also some amazing music IMO. I've only just discovered his music in the last year or so, but once I got "Myam James" I immediately had to check out his other music, and it's all great stuff

Satumnaisuus I know I plug this all the time, but it's some of the best "chillout" I've ever heard. It's a lot "louder" and more intense than most chill.

I voted for FSOL, but it's a really hard choice. Like someone said, they were really completely different eras of electronic music (even if they were only separated by 5-6 years). They both had a huge influence on everyone who followed.

I just got this and it's amazing. Easily the best album I've heard this year, it's in a category of it's own. I've only listened to it a couple times so far, but I have to say this may be a 10/10 album if there ever was one. Giving it a score almost feels "wrong" though, it's beyond putting a number on it. It's just soooo chilled out, but at the same time always throwing new things at you and evolving. Also it's somehow very uplifting but also really gets into your soul and makes you think/contemplate. Fantastic stuff!

I'm not directing this at anyone in particular, but it seems a bit hypocritical to ask the labels to sacrifice things (such as profits) to make eco-friendly releases, when you yourself aren't willing to sacrifice the CD booklet/case and just use digital downloads (even if you burn this to a CD, it's still more eco-friendly than a big bulky case+booklet/inlet.) Ultimately, I don't think it will make a great deal of difference either way though. I think most psy listeners tend to hold on to their releases for a long, long time, or trade/sell them to others when they get sick of them. On top of that, the psy-scene is very small compared to the overall music scene. I know that's not a good excuse, but the major record labels are the ones who have the huge profit margins and ability to actually do something like this. Psy labels are often struggling to stay afloat as it is. If the choice is between failing labels and non-failing labels, I have to pick the choice which lets me hear music I love, even if it is less eco-friendly.

Ice ice baby!

Sounds pretty good, but it's hard to tell with such low quality, if anything needs good quality it's this type of music. I really hope that talking isn't on the album though..

I'm glad they see producing as a fight/struggle, because it's a fight/struggle listening to it too

Yeah, but it can also be used to describe music in general from around 1100AD to the current time. It's not technically correct, but that has become the primary meaning for the word nowadays. Oddly enough, the classical period is my least favorite period of "classical music" I much prefer Boroque, Romantic, or even modern stuff. I think the melodies in the Baroque era are very psychedelic, especially the strange timing/rhythms they used for those melodies. Domenico Scarlatti, Bach, etc. Of course Beethoven is always a good place to look for psychedelia as well.

meh, it's all just taste IMO. The only slightly irritating thing are people who won't even try new things, but it's their loss I guess. I tend not to know those people on a personal level though, so it doesn't bother me too much. I've been very intrigued/moved by music from a very young age, so I have always been striving to find new interesting stuff. A lot of people just aren't that into music (which is fine, whatever makes you happy) I think. That doesn't make their or my tastes "superior" or anything like that, just different. Like others have said, some people see music as art, some as fun, or a combination of the two. Who's to say which way of listening to music is the "best". Viewing it as art seems to work best FOR ME, but that doesn't mean it will work best FOR YOU. I always used to sit/lay in my room and just listen to music. My parents/brother always gave me weird looks, and would even ask "are you feeling okay?". I'd just say "yeah I'm listening to music" and they'd walk away with a puzzled look on their face

For the artist/album/label stuff yeah. I don't have the country info or anything like that though. I'm not sure if anyone is still going to do that or not?

I'll be tallying them up in the next day or two, so you can expect the results then