acid-brain

I wasn't sure at first, originally I thought the title track was even better, but now I believe that you're right. What a magnificent track that is influenced by old-school goa masters but actually exceeds them. It transitions seamlessly between moods, building momentum and intensity before dissipating it all in a moment of complte madness. The 303 that comes in at 1:30 is absolutely ripping and already makes this better than the Cydonia track it's based on. When you get to the ending with the hysterical laughter and pitching downwards effect it's spinetingling as you wonder WTF just hit you. At some point you transitioned into a deranged world without even realising it. Phenomenal.

Around a decade after the peak of goa, I discovered it through Karan Gill's Listology article on it, some of which remains here https://web.archive.org/web/20140731185714/http://www.karangill.com/the-best-of-goa-trance---top-artists-albums-and-tracks.html I'd been led here by following a Discogs trail of psychedelic influences from prog house music (like Cass & Slide). I was trying to find faster, darker and more complex electronic music. @karan129 had a mix which I downloaded, it started with Voice of Enigma and then went straight into Koxbox - Doktor Mesmer. Within the first 30 seconds of listening to Doktor Mesmer, I was hooked on the genre for life!

Also, here's a small mindspin. If you listen to this great track: and watch the great film "Strange Days" you will recognise the sample. But if you watch the movie then hear the track afterwards, you probably won't remember the sample as it's just a background radio. Made me wonder how the order in which we perceive music and movies matters a lot.

Yes! How many goa artists used that project genesis sample? Exploring the samples have led to me finding lots of interesting stuff in both directions. My favurite find via a sample is probably the film "Murder By Death" sampled by Sandman in Flight Or Fight.

I had no idea that Darshan were making prog house before goa (there's a nice 303 that comes in around 3:00 though): What other goa artists made music in different genres?

Haha and also Blade Runner. Blade Runner is the most sampled movie in electronic music at least from the messy data that I gathered.

Yes and whosampled.com has a massive database of samples across all genres of music, however they are not using that data to its full potential. What we need is a living cultural map of connections, so we can for instance visualise clusters of psychedelic music inspired by particular movies.

WE ARE STARSTUFF WHICH HAS TAKEN ITS DESTINY INTO ITS OWN HANDS

The migration happened at some point in 2017, here's what it used to look like: https://web.archive.org/web/20170708040116/https://www.psydb.net/ I like the site for the samples database. I had a side project which was a living map of connections between psychedulic culture music, movies and literature through samples. But I never got time to finish it. Psydb is the best source of samples for goa trance.

MFG already invented it

Best suggestion in the thread

Definitely one of the very best releases of last year, big props to this artist for not compromising his classic sound.

Really interesting premise in this thread, and cool to see all those quotes gathered in one place which you do notice when you read old reviews from the early noughties. About oldschool goa aging like fine wine - from the perspective of more novice ears that only discovered goa around 2010, I often found those comments about certain albums sounding "dated" to be confusing. My perception of what sounds "dated" and not doesn't match up with reviewers back at the time. Juno Reactor, X-Dream, Astral Projection can have a sound which feels very dated to me (not necessarily in a bad way!). Other artists from the late 90s can still sound shockingly fresh: Koxbox, Sandman, Pigs in Space for example. I can't particularly highlight what features of the music create those effects though; just a function of the scenes and production you've been exposed to?

Dzog Chen is an absolute masterpiece! You didn't miss anything on pages 2 and 3, it was just hilarious ridiculousness.

Wow, it sounds like listening to a really great track underwater. Also, the label's response to pd_'s review of that album on Discogs is hilarious.

This album is a real grower. My favourite is Spiral Dive.

Or the sample in Simply Blue which is a police report about a drunken and disorderly neighbour!

To be fair, I think that during every 1200 Mics track... I think that's the idea!

Great recommendations judging from the ones that I've seen already. I'll definitely watch the whole set, apart from perhaps Begotten, which doesn't look like much fun. Based on your recommendation and that of a friend I saw Antibirth this week. It was great, just a shame that it had all the elements of becoming an AMAZING film but didn't quite hold together in the end. I mean, part of reason why I love this 'genre' is that the films don't necessarily hold together on a plot-level but manifest strong subconscious themes, however Antibirth also got tangled up in its subconscious symbolism, squandering the psychologically scarring power which its forebears (Rosemary's Baby and Jacob's Ladder) have. However I wouldn't be surprised if director Danny Perez comes up with a classic of the genre in 4-5 years time.

I don't understand how the intention of the artist can define whether something is commercial or not. For a start, we can't fully know the intentions of the artist. Some become commercially successfully without meaning to. I think it's qualities of the music itself that define whether something is commercial: such things as unchallenging rhythms, cliched melodies, overproduction, etc.

Some might find this too generic but I love the sound design from 3:30 onwards:

Magic Frequencies is astonishingly good, swirling analogue melodic layers dancing and warping in and out of each other, neither predominantly light or dark; an abrupt and spine-tingling pitch-bending ending.

Such gorgeous production on this one.

Listening to this again the similarities with peak oldschool Etnica struck me, especially in the arrangements and peripheral sounds. Amazing goa album, one of the very best released in the last 10 years in my opinion. It's full of bouncy, funky energy, keeps catching you by surprise, and above all is a lot of fun to listen to.

Too many to list, but Pigs in Space Visitors springs to mind