acid being

Flying Rhino's First Flight and Retrodelica compilations are totally fantastic. Obviously Twisted Records because Simon. I bought one or two things from Transient Records when I first stated collecting Goa as well. So those were the three I was most aware of at the time.

Concentrix – Concentrix. People don't rate that album very highly but I like it. Hobbely Whobbely is a great track! It sounds really organic and weird. https://classicgoatrax.bandcamp.com/track/hobbely-whobbely

Richard Wahnfried - Time Actor [1979] I am making my way through Klaus Schulze's very extensive catalog of pioneering electronica. One very interesting release is his first collaboration released under the alias Richard Wahnfried, Time Actor: It was released in 1979, yet the music is incredibly trancey, more so than Schulze's earlier music. So this is possibly groundbreaking in the trance scene. I really enjoy it. The only thing is a lot of people will really dislike all the weird, eccentric talking and singing but I kind of like it. The first half of the album is the best in my opinion. The singing in track 6 was too much for me and the closing tracks are a bit more rock influenced.

https://demontearecordings.bandcamp.com/album/highlight-me-please This is a fantastic album. A real gem. And yeah I see what people mean when they say it sounds like Hallucinogen. Because it does, a bit. Similar sort of grooves and energy and just like Posford's work it sounds very original and quite distinct from your typical psytrance or Goa tracks. It also reminds me a little bit of M Run with all the wild crazy sounds. Really cool. 9/10

For long stretches it is quite minimalistic, ambient, drifting into the background, and at other points it really picks up with an energetic beat and a few more layers. It's like at times your attention wanders elsewhere and you almost forget it is there and then it surprises you with a load of alien weirdness, which is cool. Definitely worth a listen and I would say this has aged very well.

Listening to it now here: https://orbitalofficial.bandcamp.com/album/omen-remastered with an extra 3 tracks. It's OK but in my opinion In Sides is by far Orbital's trippiest release and makes me wonder what they would have made if they ever crossed over fully into the psy scene. Not that they needed to - I am quite sure they must have made a lot more money doing what they did. I do wonder what the Hartnolls think of Goa and psytrance though, whether they would like any of it or not.

Unreleased Elysium material

https://thehypnoticlforoom.bandcamp.com/album/the-singles-2023-24 Some newish Kristian Thinning goodness I hadn't heard before, Stereo Dwarf. Very repetitive but I think it is supposed to be. Hey, don't think I ever realized he got banned from here!

Lots of sleeping, lots of coffee drinking, too much doomscrolling, computer games, lurking on old forums like psynews, occasionally making crappy music almost no-one will ever listen to, other computer nerd stuff. I like to spend time close to nature as well but I don't seem to do that anywhere near as much as I used to. How about you?

I.M.D – SOL Altar Records |ARDEP112| 1. Sol 05:52 2. Brillo 09:23 3. Danza 08:22 4. Armonía 06:54 5. Sol (Continuous Mix) 30:30 https://imd-music.bandcamp.com/album/sol Whether you call this psychill release a short album or an EP doesn't really matter. The deep, lush, warm pads wash over you as gentle synths pick out melodic patterns and melt into the background. It is a very pleasant and soothing listening experience indeed. 1. Sol We are introduced with an extremely gorgeous and rich pad and lots of delightful birdsong. I don't care how often birdsong gets used in chillout music: the birds were here first and they will always sound fresh even as I tire of just about all genres of human made music! A nice bass comes in and it builds up to a fairly lively drum beat with little bits of melody. Then we get some tastefully done acid lines and it culminates with the beat coming back and stronger layers of melody. 7.5 / 10 2. Brillo A whisker more tension exists in the opening pads here with a more epically spacey feel and some trippy tinkley arpeggios. Some high piano notes pick out a melody. The meandering synth that comes into this is really nice and trippy too and a little after 5 minutes we get another layer of acid on top of that. It's all quite yummy. 7.5 / 10 3. Danza We have a more tribal beat with this one. I think this is my favorite track. It builds up a really nice rhythm with a great bassline and layers of melody. Quite intricate and conjuring up mazelike patterns inside my brain. It gets gradually stronger as the track progresses. This probably reflects some of Marco Cajero's South American heritage. 9 / 10 4. Armonia I find this track extra relaxing and mellow but the lead is strong enough to keep it interesting and the sounds are all gorgeous. An addictive melody. It makes me feel really good. 8.5 / 10 I have to be honest here and say there is not really anything groundbreaking in most of the arrangements here, apart from track 3. However, where it really does stand out is in the production and the textures and richness of the sounds, and in that regard they are possibly the best I have ever heard, or at least one of. I just listened to my favorite psychill album, RA - Unearthly, before this, and this is not a million miles away in terms of quality and listening pleasure, and I think the pads are better in this. Another thing I love about this release is how it does more with less. It doesn't rely on a ton of different samples, instruments or any vocals unlike much other psychill, and yet I think it sounds better for it. The sounds it does have are just utterly gorgeous. And it has enough engaging melodies and rhythms to catch your interest unlike a lot of ambient. I wanted to call it minimalist but that isn't really fair as it gets quite layered, it just builds up gradually in a pleasantly relaxed way. Excellent release! It's a great antidote for when you're feeling a bit crappy. 8 / 10

Listening to it now and all I can say is that the modern full on psytrance producers could certainly learn a thing or 12 from this!

Yeah I would definitely be interested in what you think of IM The Supervisor. I wouldn't give that album more than about 2/5 either to be honest. It is just that in reviews people sound like they think it has no redeeming features at all, whereas I did enjoy a few interesting melodies.

Infected Mushroom – IM The Supervisor I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. You know what, I didn't find it quite as awful as people made out. Yeah, their vocals are epically cringey, the full on basses are boring and there are a few cheesey or overly pop melodies, but there are still lots and lots of bits that sound pretty good. Not really a good album, but nowhere near as bad as a lot of Goa fans would have had me believe.

https://youngerbrothermusic.bandcamp.com/album/mutually-assured-distraction Yeah, I have listened to it 4 or 5 times now, and I definitely like it, quite a lot. With some of the singing it veers closer to pop rock than I would usually gravitate towards when listening to psy, but the songs are catchy and the sounds and whole vibe is great. They have managed to craft something that most of the time sounds really quite different to all of their other stuff. They recaptured some of the sounds of 70s psychedelia with some of the tracks as well I think. I would also say in my opinion this is the best release Simon has been involved in since at least Ineffable Mysteries (not counting the Hallucinogen Singles and Albums remastered), with the possible exception of the Hicksville Remastered And Expanded Deluxe Edition.

Ah well only 4 days to go for the rest of us mere mortals (Only teasing It's encouraging to hear how much you like the album).

YES Khetzal's latest album is the antidote for those of us who are starting to find the Goa tracks they listen to sounding samey. So many huge melodies! The soft synths are soothing to the ears even as the music remains energetic. It is like a magical fairytale turned into music.

Kind of interesting to look back on these comments nearly 21 years later. So much great music had been made in the years that followed, but also so many arguably did lose their way, and so much of psytrance is ALL about that loud kick and bass. We have access today to far more music than we could ever properly listen to and AI will flood us with more and more with scarcely any human creativity. Yet still, there are gems when you listen out for them. Bandcamp link: https://themusesrapt.bandcamp.com/album/you-betamixes I love The Muses Rapt but I tend to agree, they went WAY overboard with that kick! Especially considering how beautifully mellow and chilled out the music would be otherwise. Ah well, it's still great music!

I dont know much about it at this stage but here they suggest the length can be set to whatever you like in a Javascript file: https://www.reddit.com/r/Mastodon/comments/zyd34j/discussion_of_mastodons_character_limit_and/ and they mention some forks that support long posts by default. They were discussing it here: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/issues/7973 and a code change years ago added a Read More kind of button by default for long stuff: https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/pull/8205 About it being niche, I guess the big concern is 15 years from now will it still be getting regular security updates? As it is open source at least the codebase shouldn't be going away. Regarding it having fewer users than some of the other platforms, as long as psynews.org takes you to the Mastodon instance and as long as it is easy for people to sign up, I would've thought it should be as good or better than what we have, but as I say, I have not really used Mastodon myself yet beyond just reading a few posts. There are recent posts about Goa trance, not many under the #goatrance tag but maybe us being on there would help to grow what is already there? https://mastodon.online/tags/goatrance

Sounds like a cool line up. I am most interested in what that new Younger Brother album will be like, and also how many Hallucinogen tracks might make it into the mix. When was the last time Simon played any?

https://twistedmusic.com/cosmic-trigger/twisted-presents-a-psychonautical-night-of-pioneers-london-may-9th/

Thanks! Amazing what you can do with a few software synths, bit of EQ, some gentle saturation and a few tape simulator plugins...

This is a sonic voyage in two parts. The first part is a lot more experimental and playful, whereas part 2 aims to more closely recapture the vibe of 1990s Goa Trance. I have tried to accentuate the melodies in this in contrast to modern psy where the kick and bass dominates everything. I have also deliberately let the different layers of melody blend into one another a bit to try and give the impression of a thick and ever changing soundscape. The voice sample in part 2 is a reading from Descartes.

I hadn't yet, so thanks! Several of the other tracks from the original album are longer in the reissue, for example Beyond Control which is one of my faves.

RA To Sirius reissue, CD 3, their unreleased material. Listening for the first time and really enjoying this!