Tsotsi

Artist: The Maniac Title: Birth Of Time Label: Self-released Date: July 3, 2019 Tracklist:- 1. Procreating the Universe 2. Birth Of Time 3. Cosmogenesis 4. Abode Of The Clouds The Maniac is one of my favourite artists to follow. Not only do we get a consistent stream of releases, those very releases showcase a jump in talent time after time. Ranging from the free, to the inexpensive, to money well spent, This guy is starting to deliver big time. I'm currently in Indonesia and can say that this release brings me far more joy than the $20 pair of bright yellow cartier sunglasses that I got yesterday. Those mother fafa's just make everything brighter, but in a, you about to squint more than what you did before laying down that 200,000 rupiahs sort of way. Wearing these wackers just made my life harder. Incidentally, The Maniac also made everything brighter, but in a, press play and watch your brain come alive with shapes and colours sort of way. Throw this album on and ride your Honda scooter at max speed down the highway while dodging tourist patrol sort of way. Procreating The Universe has some big loud zooms that synthesis your mind while the usual crazy leads that could wake Proxeeus Cthulthu reincarnate up on a sunday morning. Birth of Time follows the style with some big zips that the most advanced ear candling ceremony couldn't wipe from your mind. It's bright sunshine that I would be dancing too if it wasn't so damn hot right now. I wouldn't have minded a change in the lead tone as it ends up feeling like longer than 9.37 minutes but its fun while its fun. Cosmogenesis Comes in with a different and exciting intro that eases you slowly into a trance, when the leads hit they hit like a 7 seater Diahatsu that just saw the tide retract 300 metres from the shore. The leads in this track are doing exactly what i wanted them to do in the last one. A great track with some nice paino-esc synth work. For a moment you get the impression that The Maniac is going to chill out a bit. The title, the intro, but not the artist. No sirs & ma'ams. This is my favourite on the list, a track to put your arms out and float through the universe of Javanese flavours, the Nebula's of Sumatran short ribs, and wormholes of soft Rendang. Less intense but still there with the leads that make you the same old phrase 'How the F^ck did he do those on a phone'? For only 50,000 Rupiahs what are you waiting for? Give it a spin and support a talent on a trajectory to greatness. https://themaniac1.bandcamp.com/album/birth-of-time

Sounds fantastic. Looking forward to it. Was just listening to Sky Technology - A Ray of Light & was reminded how good he is.

@Jon Cocco damn right my friend. This album is a masterpiece and somehow that sense of playful fun has been maintained with the art. Its a rare thing to be this good and still be so gosh dang fun. There must be other examples but the one that comes to mind is the writing prose of Nietzsche.

@Aspartic How is it that you and I have the exact same taste in Genre, like the exact same artists, but differ so much on the tracks we love? For me, your review of the first Celestial Intelligence track could be the description for Centevra's first track. I thought the first Alienapa tracks was average but the second amazing. Javi & Skooma inspired my entire first review as did Sykespico. The Celestial intelligence track I think is one of his best ever. Although, everything else I agree completely with. On another note i got pretty excited when I saw your full review, I've slowly (real slow) been writing the second track by track review that this compilation deserves glad someone has taken the weight of that off my shoulders.

No Excitment huh? Not a peep. How about a tracklist then. 1. Rayavana - Countdown to Ascension 2. J.I.S - Mercury 3. Median Project - Venus 4. Ypsilon5 - Terra Firma 5. Skarma - Mars 6. Mindsphere - Spectacular Purity 7. Triquetra - Chronos 8. Tomocomo - Warp to Uranus 9. Ephedra - Neptune 10. Proxeeus - Pluto I mean look at that. Have a good squiz. Mother flippin Ypsilon5. Come On

I don't know if I'm stepping on Global Sect's toes here, and boy oh boy is that the last the last thing I would ever want to do to our interstellar command centre. However. But. Anywho. Check the absolute wonder that is going to be this release. This release is 100% cosmic wonders. So much so that the tracklist titles have dropped the pretense of anything else, the cover art says it all and damn am I excited. Well, I'll let the Bandcamp bio take over. VA - Astronauts in The Solar System (compiled by DJ Masala) ~ Yea Get em Dj Masala, ya'll know it's gonna be hot. This is the Genesis. A legend is told about the Mankind, which advanced to the new frontier in the Solar System. This is a story about the Astronauts who were challenged with the exploration of the Solar System and developed the future of the mankind. The Genesis of the Cosmic century. ~ Oh Shit, A concept, an idea, a journey. ... VA Astronauts in The Solar System opens a series of releases called "Intergalactic Cult" in which various goa trance DJs will have the opportunity to express themselves creatively and create their own compilation with the support of our label. We invite you to follow the development of Intergalactic Cult with us, to enjoy new ideas and amazing releases. We hope that thanks to this project, talented goa-trans DJs will be able to build more interesting and successful careers, and even more musicians will have the opportunity to graduate on our label. ~ We all wish all the success to these beautiful composers of magic. We thank our good friend DJ Masala from the Land of the Rising Sun for the magnificently done work, and wish him creative success. ~ We thank him, we thank Global Sect, we thank the Artists, we dance and we cry. Enjoy! And a final word to get you even more excited for this series. P.S. The next compilation from the series "Intergalactic Cult" will be "Wicked Forest", compiled by DJ Mozza (Serbia). we wish him success! ~ Boom and out! https://globalsect.bandcamp.com/album/va-astronauts-in-the-solar-system

@Antares What's the scoop on your music making life these days amigo?

I somehow knew you lot were going to go full Lovecraftian

Amazing Job! And thanks for taking the time to do this. Not to be unexpected but a strong Suntrip turn out is well deserved with some hot hot releases last year. I thought we might have seen some more VA's but if it had to be one then Shambala is well deserved. Surprised Etnica & Ufomatka didn't make it in, but no complaints from me either way. Also 100% Goa in the top ten is not unsurprising but still interesting. As for downtempo it's nice to see some familiar names but also some unheard releases that i'll be checking out... if I ever stop listening to Nibana. Also I will continue pretending that all the highlighted selections in the results are not a result of me using coloured text in the original thread but a slight nod to all my selections by your Mr Aspartic. Once again thanks for putting this together.

This is the perfect album for a big stadium show. The vocals would have all the hi heads in arms swaying. Will give it a proper go one day

If you take Tra to be its own part of Trance. Than Nce sounds sort of like 'Unz' as in 'Unz Unz Unz'

Love Death Robots is amazing, I did find myself wondering if the creators made a point of showing all that dick, but ain't an issue with me, just an observation. The expanse is also one of the amazing ones on TV. Although i haven't been able to watch any of the latest series because of licence changes and America exercising their television hegemony over the rest of us....

I'm glad at least 3 of us here feel this way, i'm sure many more do to. I really do think this albums deserves huge amounts of recognition in the electronic music scene. Definitely in the Psytrance and certainly in the Goa Scene.

Boom that's amazing. Good job to all involved. Whats the party promotion going to be like?

Gaaaah. I was avoiding this topic. Has taken me days to really think about it and find my favourite tracks. Hard because my favourite artists don't necessarily release my favourite all time tracks and my favourite albums are often one offs by artists. Here goes. Celestial Intelligence - Anapa - Words Of Wisdom - Celestial Beings Artha - Astral Body - Mystic Change - Dream Telepathy Median Project - Sand Of Time - Kometa - Constellation Of Aries And since we are breaking the rules. Chi-A.D - Blue Effect - Zero Barrier - Black Light Ra - Crossing Planet - Beyond Control - Initiated

@astralprojection taking in some of this software and tracker categorization; is it possible Quazar is just the first 'good'/'great' Neogoa track.

I'll accept those figures. New old school is something I haven't thought of but sounds kinda right for this release.

Congratz on a great release. This might be one of my favourites. I'd say some labels would have been happy to release this. The leads are wild all the way through, my favourites are track 1,2 & 4.

HEY! We have a thread for that kind of talk! When this was released I had the exact opposite thought. For me it sounded like a completely fresh modern updated style using the tools of Goa. I still mostly think so. But if you mean the playful baselines, and creative direction changes then maaaaaaaaybe I can draw some similarities. I still haven't heard anything similar to this though. Good news for us is he is working on a new Hypnoxock album. Judging by the Morphic Resonance remix and his techno project Bioterranean, we could be in for something a little darker. I'll be happy either way.

It's big, it's beautiful, it's Median Project - Constellation Artist: Median project Album: Constellation Label: Suntrip Records Release: May 20, 2019 Tracklist:- 1. Antidote 2. Mission Adept 3. It Is Not Possible 4. Infinite Space 5. On The Edge 6. Pandora's Box 7. Sand Of Time 8. Sunrise 9. The Constellation Of Aries This review is about what is in my opinion one of the most extraordinary release of modern Goa to date. An Album that encapsulates the cosmic tone of the genre in it's own unique and captivating way. Personally I can honestly say that only 3 or 4 other albums have ever granted me this much excitement, and none of those have been been in this style and this style is by far my favourite. This album is not another level, it is the level. If your brain converts sound into colours and shapes then this is going be one vibrant journey of electricity. The album art by ShivaOMArt really says it all as far as the spectrum of colours that you are going to be blasted through goes. You're going to experience warm rust pyramids filled with gold, strokes of amber splashed across azure temples and gas giants of cerulean creating reactions with scarlets. You might even spot some periwinkle In the distance. 'Yea yea, it sounds amazing but it's not a game changer' 'Sorry huh? What did you just? Not a game changer for whom good sir & madam?' It is certainly a game changer for Sergey who has advanced his skill to another level. The layers are as balanced as a spirit level placed by Vladimir Shukhov himself, the leads rip through the other sounds and at times dance around in prisms of energy above your head while at other times zip through your head taking you to star nebula's. Vocal samples nestle themselves neatly into tracks where they are placed, but it's really the other elements that make these tracks stand out. The dial tone in Mission Adept, the boombastic roar in It Is Not Possible & the unforgettable screeches for the first 4 minutes of Sand Of Time, my god even a 4 second sample of that track gives my brain dopamine thrush. The melody of Sunrise & The Constellation Of Aries make me drive exactly 4 kilometres over the speed limit with a huge smile on my face. It's all cosmic Goa, but not like you have heard before. Median Project has placed more emphasis on the moments that really make a track stand out, the introductions and outro's have been given more detail, the tracks have been filled with 'Bigger' sounds and more effort has been placed into introducing periphery sounds that make every listen unique. I have had this album since it's release, so I have had plenty of time to listen to it, the honeymoon period is over and I can with all certainty say that this production of art is up there with the greats of the genre and the broader spectrum of Psytrance. What Median Project has done is find a way to take cosmic goa up to the next stage of its evolution, I can consider this album an advancement towards the style that others (Hopefully) will build on. It does have all the NeoGoa elements that some people (Not Tsotsi) often find tiresome but the arrangements are what keep this exciting. For those of you that think that this genre has nothing new to add, crank this up when the sun goes down and prepare yourself for a visit to solar systems far away. As always I would like to thank Sergey for taking the time to deliver this masterpiece to us and making the world that much more colourful for it. His hard work really does pay off. Thanks to all others involved in the project including Suntrip for an interstellar addition to their catalogue. One Final word. The description of the album calls this Astral Projection meets Mindsphere, but I think we can surely agree that from now on this is pure Median Project an artist unto himself. https://suntriprecords.bandcamp.com/album/median-project-constellation

Welcome to the future

Well my first album was RA - Earthcall and then Artha - Dream Telepathy, before that I labelled the album Loud - 5 Billion Stars as Goa. I didn't listen to any old school until about 2-3 years into my experience and didn't like it until one special night with me and Hallucinogen. How about that for credentials? There are pretty big differences between the two. But I think we already know what they are. Old school had a sense of play about where you can almost feel the artists on the other side of the track. The good albums certainly feel like they come from artists with a broader musical range who loop A LOT LESS, probably due to hardware. The tracks have quirks and more subtle changes that are a result of live knob twisting and all that. The looping that does go on gets tweaked so it doesn't sound so same same. Also the tracks have room to move, much more space in oldschool. HOWEVER, Kick drums are often weak and even if a good melody is present, having starting from heavily layered music I miss the craziness and extra psychedelia present in Neogoa layers. Some Old school blows my mind and I love how nothing is placed in a track without a purpose, but the real eargasms, increased heart rates and jumping around comes from Neogoa. While I hear the creative genius behind the classic old school albums, I get far more lost within modern classics.

@Anoebis im interested to see if N.D.M.A has stood the test of time? Thanks for resurrecting this post actually.

Not as psychedelic as downtempo huxflux but.. Nibana does very synth heavy melodic and beautiful music. Earth from Above & disc 1 of Shumatsu Nu Tani (free on ektoplazm) are just unreal.

Oh what about Psysutra? Any one got a line on him?