Tsotsi

Artist: VA Title: Dimensional Gateway 5 Label: Neogoa Records Date: December 2017 Tracklist:- 01 - Sun Sith - Arrival 02 - BlackStarrFinale - The Scattering 03 - Lectro Spektral Daze - I Ate Seven Of Them 04 - Xamanist - Star Forming Galaxy 05 - Maan - Field Quanta 06 - Third Eye Channel - Katarza 07 - Proxeeus - Nyarlathotep [Short Mix] 08 - Dragon Twins - Shattered Sense 09 - Negan - Wäwära Well wowie, If ever a compilation could fit into the theme of 2017 (Quality over quantity) this is it. Neogoa Records have released their 5th in a series of Dimensional Gateways. Unlike the dark portals of this world, defined by stability and assurance, dimensional gateways are like tunnels bored with unstable magic that can lead to bliss, new worlds or eternal imprisonment. One thing is for sure, the gateways will always be a journey. As a newbie to the genre it would be foolish of me to say something like ‘This has been quite the year for Goa’ But i’m young and foolish so. This has been quite the year for Goa. We’ve seen some pretty remarkable releases that have been top notch in terms of either production, originality, or nostalgia. While the review section for 2017 has been pretty empty most of what is here is gold. Sun Sith: … Holy shit. Sun Sith are Lunar Dawns Kristijan Ilisinovic and Sasa Precanica. Two lifelong friends who have dedicated themselves to absolutely blowing our minds with music. This has gotta be the darkest work of theirs. And i’m going to peg it as the track of the year. Blackstarfinale: Oh no, how is this melody going to work? Am i about to listen to pure aged chedder? Nope, you better not believe it. The scattering is a mix of uplifting twisted chopped and screwed bliss. Pretty freaking awesome how they work this track. Lectrop Spektral Daze: Yea you did LSD, you ate more than seven didn’t you? You ate a whole bag! Whats that? Only seven per bag? Oh well yea, you ate seven then congratulations! Some of us are too busy studying to just go and eat shrooms in Mexico. Great track, if you like drug references in your songs you’ll like this. Also if you like good songs, well this is one for you my friend. Beautiful beautiful track. Xamanist - Star Forming Galaxy: Every now and then i come across a track on a comp that makes me wonder why i passed that artists album up when i came across it. Progressive trance must have been the flavour of the month when i came across 7, but I tell ya, i’m going back to right my wrongs right after this review. A banging track and another one of my favourites. Aaaaah i love rolling basslines. Maan - Field Quanta: A nice driving bit of trance that starts with subtle bits of acid getting tossed around, easy to dance to though not the most unique track floating around with not much to differentiate it from other producers. The builds are all pretty fun though. Instead of leading to explosions of hysteria they end in slightly disappointing returns to the bassline. Katarza - Third Eye Channel: A less exciting track that gets points for being trippy, though without endless amounts of energy pulsing through it. More of a floating track then an arm flail enducing stomper. Instead of keeping your attention with hard melodies Katara mixes the beat up by skipping kicks and messing around with the basslines. Dragon Twins - Shattered Sense: Some spooky throat noises (Singing? chanting?) starts our journey into what is a remarkable track. The melody is insane, but then it disappears? I could have easily had another 6 minutes of that penetrating my cranium. Man i’m bitter about that, the lead was incredible. I guess that’s how some stories go. Proxeeus - Nyarlathotep (Short mix): We are lucky it’s easier to dance to Proxeeus’ tracks than pronounce them. Everytime i try I end up with a deep and very bad Estonian accent... The track is what you would expect from this wizard, awesomeness. Edit: Holy heck Proxeeus! That final 1.5 minutes. Negan - Warawa: Whats that? Fun basslines? Negan (Did Negans lose part of himself) has got us covered. The track is madness from start to finish, the acid lines are all over the place in the best of ways. Hare Krishna would have indeed been a bad boy. And we made it out the other side. Dimensional Gateways aren't so bad are they, 5 down and we are still kicking. I'm starting to think these things are more stable than i've been told. Wizards and their bullshit friends, just like politicians. https://neogoarecords.bandcamp.com/album/dimensional-gateway-5

Looks like you're about to get real dark. Like darker than you already are. Like 100 metres underwater in a biotite chamber painted in vantablack.... Fuck yes.

Haha 1st track is definitely my favourite. My taste is all over the place though. The whole album has this clubby feel to it that I just can't bring myself to dislike, Music that I could dance to just about anywhere.

The whole comp is full of some pretty unique tracks. Starting strong with Hex Hard and finishing strong with Heliocentric was a good choice. Every track in between has its own confident style that separates it from the others. New Born's track is probably not the best track here but follows that style of his that im sure plenty of people must enjoy, similar to 'Universal Bus' with that strong single melody. Another album from this year that isn't finding it's way off my phone for a long time.

It's a shame. Psynews has such a wealth of reviews and information on it. But forums in general are becoming less popular, so maybe its not trance exclusive. 2017 has been a great year i thought. For Goa, we've seen some pretty unique releases that touch the old and the newschool. The hypermelodic albums have been shadowed by the bass heavy strong kick dance floor blasters that have come out. Only a handful of prog and full on releases that i can recommend. Overall 6/10. For Goa im going to go for an 8/10

Goddamn these guys are talented. New direction is awesome. Got a note on their soundcloud saying NeoGoa album release planned for late 2017. DG5 is NeoGoa's last for the year though yea? An early 2018 release would be a sweet way to start the year.

Hoo fucking Rah! Such a relentless pounding track. Is Sun Sith a side project of Lunar Dawn?

Damn i'm glad you reviewed this. I was put off by the Mahabharta remix: The intro was hot but the rest of the track didn't make a lot of sense to me, I'll keep trying. Nevertheless I decided to pass the rest of the album up (Big mistake). I've spent the last 2 weeks listening to Twisted for the first time and honestly wasn't sure where to go from there. Do i keep listening to old school classics? Do I continue lying in bed daydreaming about the Goa parties that i'll never experience? Or, do I somehow find my way back to the new? Well Jaraluca buddy, you got me there. Track 3-8 are absolute banging madness. 9 is as as Aspartic said, hypnotic and a sweet comedown from the rest of the songs. I pretty much only say positive things about Goa, you producers have yourselves to blame for that and this album continues that trend. Great work, will buy later this week.

I reckon you gotta take them to a festival. It only hit me when i got to see the culture surrounding the music and what it all meant.

Artist: Gubbology Title: Anachronism Label: Troll N' Roll... Ektoplazm release Date: 20/9/2017 Track list 01 - Time Is On Our Side (143 BPM) 02 - Bronze Age Youth (143 BPM) 03 - Communicative Zone (145 BPM) 04 - Dark Arts (148 BPM) 05 - Space Junk (147 BPM) 06 - Primordial Soup (145 BPM) 07 - Ultraviolett (143 BPM) 08 - Amber Archives (143 BPM) Ok it's late night so bear with me. I don't know where to begin. I've been going through threads learning everyone's perspective on Goa music today. A lot of it the discussion comes down to originality, a sense of playfulness, and artist skill. Well. The folks over at Troll N' Roll records have teamed up with Ektoplazm to deliver, to you, Gubbology - Anachronism. I won't go into individual songs as that would take far to long and I have a lot to say already. The relationship between dark psy and forest has always been apparent. While I've noticed aspects of it in some goa releases it's never the defining feature. No more, Gubbology has shown how beautiful the two, three, four?? genres can dance around in a twisted display of respect for one another. Gubbology keeps each aspect away from one another until like a magician he brings them all together in beautiful climax's. For that reason I can't really say that we should label it into a genre as it's just Gubbology's unique take one psytrance. Every song bounces around playfully, going from light happy energetic dance floor destroyers to deeper darker twisted funk. Each track is original from the last. Each track is fun. Each track is a challenge for you to keep up. If it was easy to do this I imagine I would have heard more like it before. I can't believe this is given free to us via Ektoplazm, that generosity is twisted in it's own way. Well i don't know what else to say. Can you tell I think this album is worth everyone's time. And it might not blow you away the way it has me, but i think you're all going to like this. Regards, http://www.ektoplazm.com/free-music/gubbology-anachronism Edit: I completely disregarded the Suomi influence up there. Oh the Suomi! I love how the suomi style of 'i'm just going to do whatever the fuck i feel like' really pays off here. I can say this album is a gateway into atleast 4 different genres. Would love other peoples take on it

Gosh dang, never stop making new school. As a young new listener i can tell you that the new school is an absolute game changer. yea the beats are more in focus (Sometimes) and i can believe that back in the day people were less concerned with the beats (That point about the cocaine is pretty wild). But psychedelic rock wasn't all about the beat either, people danced more freely i suppose. Now a lot of people listen to mostly electronic music and in the psy festival/club scene its mostly full-on and progressive. So music tastes have developed or regressed depending on your perspective. But no one was around asking artists in the 90's for albums (This is a guess) artists came out with the goods and the people went wild. Today we want Goa, artists are filling a demand i suppose and to hit that demand you gotta do some similar things. New genres still pop up all the time (Heard of Microhouse? Trap? Hitech?) I'm unsure if inspiration from the genres happyhorse mentioned are as important anymore. The blending of genres is what helped create the Goa sound but then it was created and cemented into a genre. would be wicked if artists went back to basics and used the updated version of those genres to create 'a real new goa sound' maybe, but I don't know for sure that it's not happening already. But if they are like me and cant get off on anything that isn't Neo Goa, then i don't expect them to try. I just can't bring myself to find a problem with Goa or new Goa, my favorite type is the hard beat funky bassline psychedelic stuff produced by GoaTree and Hypnoxock. Imba you bring out some bangers, proxeeus, Ra, Artha. it's all hot and it's definitely all Goa. On that note Astral hasn't really connected with me at all, even their 'Trust in Trance' days are a miss (Don't kick me from the forum), this EP doesn't change that, but then again maybe im just part of the Neo-Gen.

When i first listened to this about 8 months ago I wasn't impressed, seemed way to repetitive. After his 'Mushroom Island' track on 604 Syndrom I knew I had to give it another chance. And i'm glad I did. The album is minimal in the way it progresses....In a roundabout sort of way. But the new layers, builds and explosions of melodies are all there, the one thing it doesn't have (And im being careful not to use the word 'missing') is that atmospheric undertone that could have added a sense of darkness. Although I'm glad he didn't go there, nice to have straight up, in your face goa. The production feels spot on and there isnt a note or sound out of place (Even the acid attack at the end of ultimate state of consciousness seems completely purposeful yet absolutely insane, that takes talent), in other words, It's clean, spotless, and still unpredictable, like a raver dropping acid during the car check lines at a festival. I'll be rocking this for a few more weeks for sure. And Oh My Good God! Cosmic Trance is ridiculous, almost like the sweetest punch to the face you can ask for. woke me up like 2 double ristretto's with a side of warm milk a dash of hot water and 1 sweetener just never will.

Check the guys over at goapsy records out. I found this to be pretty house influenced. A little different than the stuff you posted but I guess thats the new tech influence? Or I have no idea. one or the other.

Reading some of the posts from 2004-5-6 is heartbreaking. Hope those guys finally got to hear the comp. Riot Fuel and Trashed are my favorite tracks so far. Have only listened twice so far tho.

I'll vouch for us young'uns. I'm 24 and am still blown away by most of the releases that have come out since i started listening 1.5 years ago. Missed the whole old school thing and honestly don't find it as appealing as what you producer's all release today. I've even learnt how to mix just so one day I can play it at some parties. I will say though, since joining this forum I haven't seen any of the "That's not Goa" stuff going on, so I'm assuming a lot of that comes from somewhere else though it sucks to deal with i'm sure, that's humans for you. Atleast you don't have Rick and Morty type fanboys and girls. Any way I love what you all do and you got no debate about whats Goa from me.

Right on. I honestly think if Australians started producing Goa you would start to get this diversity in the scene. Plus the Australian music scene is pretty spot on, nice people, fun parties and great receptors of music. Goa producers and Dj's this is your calling. Come spread your magic over here.

Thanks for the guide. Went for a HTC 10, built in DAC might be to hard to pass up. Lets see if it makes a difference. Article was a great help btw.

Been listening to this all day. Imba and Proxeeus on fire together, probably the first time I've been able to distinctly tell two artists apart on a collab.

Alright, backboning of the 'best earphones for Goa' thread, I thought I'd ask, does anyone here have a specific phone that they have found works best with fast electronic music? specifically Goa? I'm still using an iPhone 4 (I know, I know, It's a very impressive show of patience. Thank you all very much). It has recently been brought to my attention that phones like the HTC 10 and LG v20 use DAC technology to create a better sound through headphones. I think some lesser known brands like Vivo do this too. Has anyone looked into this before or noticed a phone providing better audio than others? does it even make a difference or is it just audio-washing used by tech reviewers?

just got this a few weeks ago. Have no idea what the heck is going on with the first track. very confusing. the rest I thought were pretty decent. Future tech a sure standout though.

Try looking online for 'dj' headphones, cancel noise pretty well and have distinct separation of layers. I got a pair of ultrasone DJ1's on special for $80. Can be uncomfortable though, and you look like a bit of dork walking around with headphones that say 'DJ' on the side. Goa music helps you not give a hoot about what people think however.

A pretty unique collection of tracks here. Well done. Bought and all.

Artist: VA Title: 604 Syndroms Label: Mamomam Records Date: January 2017 Tracklist 1. Zopmanika - Namaskaratha Mantra 9:27 2. Lectro Spektral Daze - Source Of All Life 8:26 3. Ephedra - Leaving the Shadow Side of Myself 7:03 4. Trinodia - Factorized 10:15 142bpm 5. Siam - Electric Discharge 8:13 6. E-Mantra - Unhcegila 7:25 7. Omnivox - Textures of Reality 8:51 8. Oxi - Sagittarius Love 6:33 9. Title 01 - Desert Ghost 9:13 CD 2. 1. Artha - Controlled (Old School Remix) 9:29 2. Space Element - Biotech 7:56 3. OmegaHertz - Zeta Zone 7:08 4. Jagoa - Rainy Saturday 7:41 5. Journey into Sound - Gallifrey 7:33 6. JaraLuca - Unexpected Experience 7:53 7. Omneon - Dark Matter 6:50 8. Ohm Mind - Mushroom Island 9:17 9. Proxeeus - Kuiper Belt 10:02 What’s that phrase again? Oh yea, DANCEFLOOR DESTROYER! Top notch kicks, I mean absolutely outstanding kicks, solid basslines and production like OMG. Spaced out layers without subduing leads, melodies and highs. Oh and that album cover. I tried to resist for weeks, but every time I saw it I got a little bit more curious. Probably the best example of dancefloor focused goa i've heard (Open to suggestions). Why is this important? All trance should be able to make it to a dancefloor and goa has to be the best form of trance I know. Yet it’s near impossible to hear played on a night out. Even Australian doofs choose hard chunky kick bass over acid leads and melody. I think the production of Goa has a lot to do with that, those soft spacey kicks can be and are great, they add a lot to a track and obviously are all part of the bigger picture in a song but it makes it unpalatable to the casual raver...You know, the ones that say ‘Fuck Yea! This is psytrance’ halfway through a Vin Vici set. Well, no longer will we allow that, not after 604 Syndroms. Storytelling, top notch production, distinct layers, atmospheric banger after banger dancefloor spectacular. Alright let's begin. Zopmanika - Namaskaratha Mantra - Oh yea, what a way to start a comp. I love me some vocals on a track, even better when it's an absolute stormer of a goa track. One of my favourites on the release if not my number 1. Lectro Spektral Daze - Source Of All Life - Somewhat of a generic intro, appreciate the lil’ vocal all the same. And then boom. The kick comes in hard. Plenty of psychedelia early on. Two tracks in and things are looking good. Ephedra - Leaving the Shadow Side of Myself - More vocals, jesus the Goa gods are looking down on us tonight. The intro is almost magical, but we ain’t here to daydream about the stars. Another stormer! Alright I won't say that anymore, from now let's just assume. Ephedra absolutely kills this track, from start to finish it had me moving. Bravo. Trinodia - Factorized - Look, we should allow a little bit of cheese in our diet, a little bit of cheese goes down just perfectly after a Moules Marinières. The production is just so clean it’s hard to complain and why would you? Factorized is fun, it’s hip and the kids are gonna love it! Darker synths come in towards the second half of the track, the melody changes up. Have a listen, just one won't hurt. Siam - Electric Discharge - Magic, I love how Siam builds this track. Fun bassline, Screeches all over the place working beautifully. One hell of a high powered electrical discharge infecting my ears right now and all i want is more. E-Mantra - Unhcegila - Ooh ok, I’m actually excited to review an E-Mantra track. First of all, this comp doesn’t need a fall back artist, just in case. E-Mantra clearly does, not, give, a, fuck, he smashes this track. All over it, up and down, caressing my synapses right to the end. Omnivox - Textures of Reality - I can’t figure it, but another favourites of mine. Great use of effects, sunny melody surrounded by squelches, dark atmospheres and a deep grumbling bassline. There it is, that's what I like about it. Oxi - Sagittarius Love - uh huh, pretty good until the break just before halfway through, and then it’s great. Blast off Houston. It’s a blazer. Title 01 - Desert Ghost - I spent me about 15 minutes trying to figure out who the actual artist of this track was….The breaks are pretty good. Non of the artists are going for builds and drops but in their own Goa-ry way it’s happening. A nice, crazy, fast, hectic finish to CD 1. And onto CD 2. I’m almost drooling to see what delites await us on the other side Artha - Controlled (Old School Remix) - Ok, so I wasn’t paying attention the first time I heard this and could not for the life of me figure out why it sounded so familiar. It’s also worth noting that Artha was the guy who fostered my relationship with the genre. So good sign yea? Different enough that it has me wondering which i like best…Right now I’m just thinking that all goa is the best TBH. Ah and that long ass break hasn’t been chucked out. Love it. Love it all. Space Element - Biotech - Ah raw acid all over the place (The leads damn it! I’m talking about the leads!!). Non stop charging trance that doesn’t let up. OOOOHHHHH that riff. One another classic that I shan't be forgetting anytime soon. OmegaHertz - Zeta Zone - Something a little different for us all. CD2 was meant to showcase the oldschool sound. If Artha’s track didn’t do it for you OmehaHertz has got you covered. I mean Personally i’m not getting the old school sound? Is it the strong focus on melody? If that's oldskool then the kids have got it all wrong. Zeta Zone is beautiful. My gosh. Jagoa - Rainy Saturday - Literally dealing with a 3 and a half minute build here until the track takes off, it’s a beautiful thing. “And no one had a bad trip” Perfect, melodic bliss. Gah that production, those 303’s that goa! I would buy this track alone for the price of this comp. But shhhh! Don’t tell the algorithms. Journey into Sound - Gallifrey - Another story focused banger. Journey really takes you somewhere special with Gallifrey. JaraLuca - Unexpected Experience - JaraLuca decides now is a good time to take is into Existential questioning. All worth it for what's to come... Look. Lets level with each other here. I want to stop praising each track. I really do. Everytime i start writing that a track is a little less than the others it goes and proves me wrong. Unexpected Experience isn't about to break my stride, in fact it adds to it. Another banger for the library. Omneon - Dark Matter - A dark broody psychedelic banger that has me feeling more than a little bit acidy (Not the leads this time). My only complaint, not nearly near damn long enough, but gee I can always just hit replay. Ohm Mind - Mushroom Island - So i wasn’t a big fan of ‘Birds Will go to Heaven’ I found it a little repetitive and less-ish. But boy did Ohm Mind just win himself a fan. This I thought I had all my favourites picked out until this came on. Absolutely ridiculous track that just goes and goes and goes. I obvs shouldn’t be speaking about favs before getting to Proxeeus so i’ll chill. Proxeeus - Kuiper Belt - THE TIME FOR CHILLING IS OVER!! Proxeeus, what have you done to me. This acid (Fuck i’m talking about the leads damn it!) drenched arpeggio master piece is a stormer. Typical Proxeeus style but just so so sooooo good. The track gets better and better as is expected with our man big Prox. I couldn’t ask for a better consumation than this. Thank you Proxeeus, thank you Mamomam. It’s as though every artist on here, some of them seasoned vets, took what they new about the way goa was being produced and just said. Not this time round baby. To be honest, if you’re looking for tracks that blow your mind and make you run around the room screaming “What was that! How’re they doing that!!!!!” Then it’s not gonna be this comp (Save for the final two pieces). But the production, focus and pounding drive of every single track here is outstanding. Absolutely worth a purchase. Mamomam have two goa releases under their belt and anything we can do to encourage them to push that number up is worth it. https://mamomamrecords.bandcamp.com/album/va-604-syndroms

Spot on, That pretty much summarises the review I've written for Mamomam's VA - 604 Syndroms compilation (Posting later). That dancefloor focused Goa sound that doesn't sacrifice everything we love about the genre. I'm hoping more artists start doing this every now and then to get more tracks played by dj's at clubs and parties

Been listening all morning. Thought Labyrinth was the standout, but every track is pretty sweet. Funny you say that, those are always the tracks where i keep my expectations at nil. definitely proved myself wrong on this one.