ukiro

I post on the Swedish site mandarin.nu quite often and I'm chief moderator on the goa/psy forum on a Swedish community site called lunarstorm.se. That site is mainly geared towards younger people though so I don't do mych else there than drop in to make sure noone is abusing "my" part of the forums. It's not specifically a music site so the discussions tend to be somewhat newbie-ish (i.e. "infected mushrooms are teh best EVAR!!11!") but it's a lot calmer now than a few years ago. I haven't banned anyone in well over a year I think. Other than those... no. There was some UK forums I dove into for like a week or two but I got fed up really quickly. And yeah, isratrance is not for me either.

Some personal favourites: Etnica - Alien Protein Transwave - Phototropic VA - Strange Vibrations VA - Order Odonata (the first 3 in the series) Chakra & Edi Mis - The Promised Land Battle Of The Future Buddhas - Twin Sharkfins I could go on forever but that's enough for quite a while anyway.

It's quite easy to find on eBay even for HALF of that =) (well, not the vinyl version though)

Original releases will go for much much more, usually. There will always be insane collectors (like me) who insist on having the original release of everything. But if you're slightly more sane, you'll want ot for the music and not for the catalogue number, so go with the re-release where available =) You'll see insane prices on eBay, but also bargains. For records that were commercially released, patience will always work - It'll show up again and again, trust me. But for ultra-rarities you might get your only chance in 5 years (or it might NEVER come again), and I personally paid insane amounts of money for some promo-only Etnica & Pleiadians singles. But for a record that got a proper release, I will probably never ever pay over 50 euro. I can think of maybe two records that I'd pay that much for, and then the rest caps off at 30 euro or so. I saw the Power Source album go for nearly 50 euro on eBay a while back but I staid off since I thought it was too high even for a record like that, and sure enough I got ahold of it in a trade a few weeks later. So don't get caught up in the frenzy, sit back and play it cool. Focus on the stuff you really want and also hunt outside of eBay - spend an hour or so in Google searching for the record and click anything that might be a shop. I've found real treasures this way. Prana - "Cyclone" shows up on eBay several times a month, paying anything above 30 dollars for it is just stupid I think. Keep doing a few runs though ebay (and dont forget ebay.de) every week and you'll soon start to get better at searching as well as get an idea of what the prices are for various records and labels.

Now that's quite possibly the most hypnotic piece of electronic dance music ever created, good call =) I always thought your older elysium stuff (and even that first sheyba 12", to some extent) reminded me of some PWOG... And yeah, even the early dragonfly stuff (93-94) has much more in common with progressive house than with todays full-on or "night music".

Well the type of sound used adds or detracts from the complexity just as much as the arrangements, in my opinion. And I don't quite agree that Astral reaches the same genious in terms of overall structure that Pleiadians did. There is no certain way of measuring this so I can see this argument being pretty futile, but while at any given point in those tracks they may equal the complexity of some I.F.O. track, the overall structure is a whole other story I think. I would argue that in this case Shpongle partially falls into the same category as Infected Mushroom - the sounds are so unique and become instantly recognizable, that it will appeal to first-time listeners. Also, there is a level of sheer quality to Shpongle that makes them deserve the sales they get - it's not necessarily linked to the complexity of the music. Well obviously our affection to any particular branch of popular culture has to do with the emotions it evokes! What I tried to say is that something that may seem incomprehensible and nonsensical at a first listen may in fact hide greater rewards than the stuff you get into right away. I'm not saying you can't enjoy both - I don't listen to harsh brainfuckery music all day, we all need a bit of variation. Within any genre I enjoy, I have records ranging from cheesy mass-appeal stuff to underground, die-hard, extreme stuff for those moments when you want to push your head as far as it'll go. But over the years, my tolerance for the cheesy shifts gradually and I find myself more and more allergic to generic, mainstream "background music" and I can now enjoy (and very much so!) music thats so extreme that just a few years ago I would have refused to even call it music. And at the same time I get more enjoyment out of music today than I did 10 years ago, I think. So hence my argument that more "difficult" music (as in complex or odd or whatever) hides greater rewards than the stuff thats instantly appealing. And regarding the comment that no idependent film comes close to the matrix... it is an opinion you have every right to have, but I can't help thinking you haven't seen that many good films. But I won't discuss that further, as it's not the topic of this thread and I'll willingly admit I'm no movie buff myself =)

Well, any serious mastering engineer will use several different monitors as well as headphones. Just look at any major mastering studio - they always have at least two different pairs of monitors in there. Both have advantages - bass is best to mix and monitor in a well designed room with helmholtz asbsorbents through SPEAKERS, while other sounds can be heard in greater details for headphones. But you should always ALWAYS check though both, in my opinion.

This is a very interesting topic. Within any genre there is music that is simplified and overstated in comparison to the early genre-defining releases. So while 90's Astral Projection stuff might be distilled goa trance, the concept stripped and purified to it's bare essentials - me any many others are put off by this simplified music even though we proclaim to love goa trance. On the opposite side of the scale, we find the understated - restrained arrangements, subtle hints of melodies and structures. This is what progressive psytrance started out as, but that bandwagon was quickly jumped by people who didn't share the vision of the initial concept and we were flooded with mass produced off-beat bass tracks with a hihat, a snare and some synth farts. Album after album of the stuff, too - so suddenly the matured, restrained sounds were even less mature and intelligent than the stuff it grew out of. There is also the mature branch of maximalistic music, with layers and patterns so intricate and interwoven that it takes a trained ear to make sense of the cacophony, to be able to keep up with the shifts and twists and turns. But when one is able to do so, the reward is great, hence the praise for I.F.O. for example. There are always a vast amount of reasons as to why some artists make it bigger than others in any given scene, but I think Astral Projections popularity lies in that their music is so stripped of compex depth that it's instantly understandable for the beginner, and to some extent this is true for Infected Mushroom as well - quite a different sound, but easily identifiable and unique and not at all subtle. Pleiadians, on the other hand, has reached popularity much more through the merits of their musicality, the deeper rewards of their music. This is ofcourse my personal opinion and no objective truth, but I believe many will agree. The same thing can be seen in many other genres too. I find the more mindboggling stuff to be an acquired taste - tracks I thought were completely nonsensical when I first heard them are now my among my favourites, but some are still so demanding that it takes the proper mood for me to get into them properly. But once there, I get so much more out of them than I would from more "mainstream" tracks and acts. It's a bit like with books - while Tolkien or Rowling appeals to a wider audience, the more intricate and multi-facetted stories of less known authors give the reader (given that he/she "gets it") a much richer experience. Also compare hollywood blockbusters to, say, independent european films. --- Edit: spelling errors

It's an old single from 1995: http://www.discogs.com/release/188654 There is also a promo by Power Source on Phonokol, which was never commercially released. It's not in Discogs yet, but I have it. It's a track called "Welcome" in 2 different mixes. It was CDr only (since it was a promo).

One of the first released ones, at least. Greenflow was originally released in 1995, and so was Miranda's first 12". They used to be two people, Fredrik Axelsson & Rickard Berglöf, but now it's Fredrik alone since Rickard is focusing on Vibrasphere (where he, in turn, is alone since Robert has left).

Assuming you want dance music, there's some good hard techno getting released. Check out labels like Audio Assault and its sublabel ARMS. You can always proceed to the even harder and noisier schranz labels, but there is very little schranz thats even remotely good. It's just hard.

Lots of insightful comments there Basilisk.... I don't have much to add. I have been making my own music for a few years though, but I keep getting tangled up in the details and rarely finish anything. I've got a track in progress with Jannis (Filteria) though, so we'll see how that goes - he's a lot more efficient in the studio than I am, so my attention to individual details (and endlessly patient buildups) might be a fitting addition to his style of production. But we haven't even finished a single track yet so I really don't know how it will turn out. Enough of this threadjack sidetrack, on with the original topic =)

Yesterday I wrote a pretty long piece on the state of the scene as seen from my Swedish perspective, and it boils down to be about what got me into it and how I adjust myself within it in order to feel comfortable. It's not a very positive view, but I have my reasons. For those interested and patient enough to read it, click here: http://ukiro.com

Yeah but if I try to play it in my sets people come up to me telling me the bass speakers died... It really happens every time. Those enormous melodies deserve better.

You'd need to re-do the mixing rather than the final mastering... Which is impossible since noone has the separate channels for all those tracks any more. The mastering can't separate sounds or treat individual sounds, since mastering is applied to the final mix. You can EQ certain frequencies to do things like cut out bass below 30Hz or lift the high frequencies a bit, but just about all sounds (except pure sine waves) have overtones and undertones that blend into those of the other sounds. I've been planning to try to mix a deeper kickdrum into Transwave's "Zero Density" for a long long time, so I might give that a shot quite soon - I'll let you know how it turns out =)

Check out icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson and his releases on highly respected ambient label Touch... there's classical-styled ambient in its perfect form. I think psyshop (of all places) still has his first album in stock.

Regarding Björk, Simon Posford has said that if he could pick any artist in the world to collaborate with, it'd be her. Couldn't find the interview now though, think it's in some old magazine I have. His opinions may have changed since, but a few years back thats what he said. Now you may think whatever you want about her, but she's the most important artist ever, to me. I have one of the worlds larger Björk collections, as well as a rather big goa trance collection, and yet I don't think I want to see the two mixed. I would be in heaven if she'd collaborate with Autechre though... Aphex Twin was asked to do the beats for her album Vespertine but he declined. US duo Matmos did it instead. Richard D James did go to all her london gigs for that tour though, I saw him there =) To get back on topic, I agree with Ladic that there is some sort of aesthetic connection between goa trance and black metal - I could do away with the vocals, but certain branches of black metal has taken hypnotic, trance-inducing introvert music to places no goa trance act has managed. It's very very powerful music if you find the right stuff, and if you can get into it ofcourse. It's certainly not for everyone. For trancey (as in the state of mind and not the genre) black metal, see early Burzum, the album by Weakling (5 songs in 76 minutes!), Some stuff by now defunct Swedish band Shining, and even truly extreme bands like Funeral Mist and Deathspell Omega. Lyrics and artwork are generally intendedly offensive though, so sensetive and politically correct people beware.

...it never struck you that perhaps this is our hobby? =)

Are some of you guys listing favourite tracks? It's track NAMES... Instead of listing a billion I'll pick just one: Total Eclipse - "Gravity Mirage"

Breaking up? No... there was talk about that a year or so ago but they're back on track now, it seems. I played a DJ set right after their performance on a party this summer, so... http://www.logicbomb.se/main.htm

Bypass Unit are Danish, I believe.

Fripic Bopunce and Mugmez are Swedish.

Hehe... I spend about 200-400 euro on records every month. I have no savings accounts, I have old clothes and I neither smoke nor drink alcohol or do drugs... ALL my money goes to records. Most of the stuff I buy these days is second hand - eBay is like a drug! So I don't pay full price usually, but sometimes I have to pay upwards of 100 euro for a single record... but that only happens like twice a year, because there are only a few records in the entire world that I still don't have and that I'm willing to pay that much for. So at 10 euro per record, I get one per day with this budget. And to get back on topic - I too live with my girlfriend these days and that adds some other music to the blend. She's a music maniac too (ofcourse and while she has some goa in her collection she also listens to a lot of IDM, noise and power electronics.

Considering it's composed and produced in 1981-1982 it is indeed impressive stuff.

No, they're danish.