ukiro

I listen to music about 10-14 hours per day. Since I sleep for about 8 that means I spend only around 2-6 hours per day not listening to music. I am lucky enough to have a job where I can wear headphones =) The percentage of that time dedicated to goa trance depends of several variables - mood that particular day, how much I've listened to goa recently (even I sometimes get a bit fed up), wether I just got a load of new records, if I have a DJ gig coming up, etc... I have this rule that I never put a record in the shelf before I've played it through all the way at least once. Since I buy on average one record every day it starts to pile up fast if I listen to old records for a few days. Then I'll be forced to catch up to clear out the heap of recent arrivals. Those days it can be nearly 100% goa/psy for 10-14 hours, especially if I've recieved a few larger parcels. Sometimes when I make bulk purchases it takes me over a week to listen through everything (but then I usually break the monotony with some other genres every few hours). But to answer the original question - goa trance is the dominating genre in my collection and thus also in what I listen to. But I think it's just over 50%, so say 5-7 hours per day then.

Very difficult but I felt France deserved a vote... Total Eclipse Transwave Jaïa Section X Blue Planet Corporation Underhead ...and probably some more =)

Steve Roach.

Etnica - "Intense Visitation" is about that long but has long intro and outro as well as very easily identifiable voice samples. Other than that, none of their tracks under that name seem to fit the length. However, they also released as Pleiadians and with Lotus Omega as Crop Circles: Pleiadians - "Electra" is 9:13 Pleiadians - "Merope" is 9:20 Pleiadians - "Time Dilation" is 9:57 Crop Circles - "Lunar Civilisation" is 9:46. Perhaps one of them?

They have a special mix for the live sets that according to Marcus isn't going to be released. If you're after the original I have a few unplayed copies on vinyl for sale =)

These are all good, early matsuri releases (well except for 1, 7, 12 & 13 which I think were never on Matsuri) but none of them are tracks I play when I DJ (I play goa usually - still to this day) So 7/10 from me, probably. It's good stuff for sure, just not THAT good.

Looks like it's almost all Matsuri tracks, so it could be some license deal. There were plenty of those around that time. Haven't heard of this particular one before though.

Beyond the infinite and radio were the ones I was thinking of myself. I have radio on vinyl but it's pretty badly worn by now.

I always felt the third Order Odonata compilation from Dragonfly was very, very solid.

I might be interested in a few of these, depending on price ofcourse. Please post here when they go up!

...and ofcourse I already have all six release, as well as the t-shirt =)

I think this is the most insightful comment in this thread so far. Christof and Frédéric have produced trance since 1994. Thats 10 years, folks. Any artist that sticks to the same sounds, structures and formats for 10 years is pretty much automatically uninteresting to me - pushing a concept to perfection is not necessarily a bad thing, but 10 years? As you've all heard, they have both decided to move on musically. But together they were Transwave, so now that they decide to cooperate again after all these years, naturally they choose to do so under the Transwave name. But this doesn't automatically mean it will sound like previous Transwave releases, and as someone who owns them all, I can safely say that they have always been evolving. If there was evolution with such little time inbetween releases in the 90's, imagine how different something 8 years later will sound. At the same time, I understand and agree that it would feel awkward to have a Transwave album that doesn't have any similarities to the older releases. Just as I felt let down when Etnica released Nitrox and sounded absolutely nothing like the Etnica I used to know. Now both Transwave and Etnica can do whatever they want, they have no responsibilities to me - but I can hope and wish nonetheless. This post is me expressing these hopes and wishes. What I dislike about the psytrance scene and its evolutionary direction is the move away from hypnotic, trance-inducing music. While it's still called trance, have you had that euphoric feeling of completely losing track of time and space while dancing to stuff released after 2001? I sure haven't. To me it's not trance anymore, it's just a flavour of dance music. There's still some excellent music being released, don't get me wrong, but I want the trance back. And not cheesy club trance - I want that mystical, spiritual feeling, the intricate structures and arrangements, alien sounds and organic storytelling. Not the exact same as in the nineties, but I want THAT stuff to be evolved further, not the party-dance aspect that has led os to todays sounds. But if Frédéric and Christof don't want to move in that direction it's their choice. Maybe they feel they explored that path enough in the nineties and want to do something else. I'd even say thats a very likely scenario. And I can't blame them... But I and many others wish for a revival of the phrygian scales, bubbling analogue sounds, hand-tweaked filter sweeps, swirling organic arrangements and overlapping patterns. When the news arrives that Transwave are making a comeback, the hearts of people like me skip a beat in anxious anticipation. There's not much for us in this scene any more, which explains the strong reactions displayed in this thread. To Dado, if you're following the thread: Moai made some good points - Do what you want. Don't listen to anything but your hearts - compromisation doesn't create masterpieces. You can make lots of money on the Transwave name, and if that is one of your goals, thats just fine. There will be whining, but you don't have to pay attention =) It's your choice and we all have to put food on the table. But I hope this thread (and the mails you've recieved through the years) shows that a lot of people have a passionate longing for clearer melodies, more tonal sounds, different mixing styles (different kicks! different basses! Not such hard separation of instruments!) and the type of moods that todays psytrance no longer has. I love to dance, but I want something for my head too. Jaïa, Blue Planet Corporation, Underhead, Total Eclipse and Transwave were all french acts that got the headtrip and emotions into their music. I think this is what people want back most of all. But if it's not coming from the Transwave revival I'm sure someone else is working in this direction.

Underhead. only 7 tracks released (and one more as "EA 1729") but still... man they were good.

Now what the fuck is this all about? Just because she's a girl you all start discussing her looks? Is it that hard to focus on the music? Do you have any idea what it's like for the few female artists and DJs in this scene, being judged based on their faces and the size of their breats? It's always the same when a female performer is discussed... just drop it guys, it's about music.

Now I see what you mean here and I agree, but playing the devils advocate for a bit - wouldn't "follow it up" mean the same as "conform to established rules of musical structures"? Breaking these rules is what makes most music interesting! But yeah, I do agree... just had to say that bit too =) I felt the same at first too (but have in mind that I had heard Jannis stuff long before the album release), but depending on when I listen to this, sometimes I just suddenly "get it". I still think there's plenty of room for improvement in the storytelling department, but this is still so much more of a story than just about everything else released these days, at least to me. Me and Jannis are working on a track that will be vastly more restrained in its buildups than the album tracks, so we'll see how that turns out... And his early stuff was, believe it or not, even more frantically blasting =) I felt that way about I.F.O. in 1997 too - I didn't hear the flow at first and it felt like it's trying too hard. It took me a while to really get into it but now I think it's a classic. And seeing as the Filteria album was released less than a month ago I think some people are a little fast to judge. I think something as complex as this actually is needs some time to sink in. I'm not promising you will all think this is the best album ever a few months from now, but this isn't really something you can give a fair review after listening to once or twice I think. Certainly the I.F.O. parallell is the easiest to spot, but judging the album only on grounds of how well it manages to copy/imitate I.F.O. is looking at this from the wrong angle. I've made the I.F.O. comparison myself (on another forum) and am thus also to blame... but when everyone is comparing it to I.F.O. and nothing else, you miss the point. The comparison can be made to describe the sound (which I think is quite fair) but not to judge wether the album reaches its "goal" or not, since the goal never was to equal I.F.O... Thats just in the eyes of some of the reviewers. Oh come one, yes it would. Nothing sounded like this in 1994. In 1995 we got what was the roots of this branch of "goa trance sound", but this is still taken so much further that I think it would have stood out very well in both 1995 and 1996. Too bad, but I see your point. I've been around for quite a while too, and in 99-01 I was completely sick and tired of this style of melodic trance, after listening to the "goa" sound from 94 and on. But the new directions the music took failed to impress me and I became increasingly bored. Only when I started to hunt older stuff I missed back in the days my interest in trance music was revitalized - suddenly I found the emotions and staqtes of mind I had been longing for. Todays psytrance has lost the aspects that got me into the scene, but with this album some of them are brought back. I think many people agree, and thats why some of the reviews for this are so full of praise. To me, it's much more than nostalgia. In fact, the sharp separation of sounds of todays mixing and the almost sterile productions completely washes away that organic, pulsating feeling I can find in lots of older music. I want it all to feel like a weave of sounds swirling around eachother than three separate lanes of sound (lo/mi/hi) that never touch or interact. Also, when people have no knobs to turn (and even if you do have some on your midi keyboard, do you really turn them during recording? my ears tell me noone does), any filter sweeps (if there are any!) are automated with LFOs which completely kills the feeling for me. Listen to old Etnica or green nuns or whatever, and pay attention to how much the track buildup is made with hand-made filter sweeps alone. I want that back! I've been begging for that for years. Also, there IS a certain warmth to analog synths that is very very hard to reproduce digitally. For example, I've spent many many hours trying to make fat, analogue basses with software synths and filters, but it's nearly impossible. Everytime I think I've made it I listen to some Organic Noise track and realize I'm a million miles away. And it's not just me, because no new stuff has that wobbly, organic feel to it. It becomes sterile and dead. I for one don't want a mechanical trip, I want it to be organic. About the production of this album - Jannis' technique has evolved at a staggering speed but I agree there is work left to do. Let's also remember that this is much much harder to mix than a kick and a bass with some fart noises on top =) Remember that this is just one album. Compare this to the tidal wave of generic, mass produced releases coming out in full-on and the new trend of "night music". I don't think there's much danger of this becoming the next trend. I don't think todays laptop kids could come near this even if they were to try. But to reply to what you're trying to day... yes goa trance in 93-95 was much more experimental, mainly because the genre was just being born. The musicians all had experience from other bands and styles of music from before, bringing a wide array of influences with them. Most of todays (psy)trance producers are brought up on that music, not metal or industrial or classical or whatever. This scene is dangerously inbred by now, and even if Jannis too is a young guy with mainly trance in his record collection this is a step in the right direction I think. See, I've said for many years now that someone ought to go back and take the GOOD bits from older goa/psy trance and follow that trail instead of the one that lead us to todays full-on, psy-pop remixes, et cetera. This is doing just that, this is taking the path that has been forgotten for much too long. I can't swear it will lead us to paradise but I'd much rather explore this one than to go further along the one that has led me to nothing but disappointments for years.

I feel the same at times, but you need to build up to it. I finished a set with "Galactic Rays" a while back and thats where these tracks belong. Keep that in mind. True, but how many goa trance melodies are really that memorable? I don't know about you, but memorable melodies are not what I'm primarily after. Most tracks with very clear and distinct melodies feel flat and too simple for me. I want dense layers of sound, swirling patterns that sense of being exposed to an organic force. The melodies you remember are often simple, and I don't like things that are too simple. And you're comparing it to Alcyone... well, did you honestly expect this to measure up to that? While I think Jannis isn't far off at all (and that the overall arrangement of Alcyone isn't that special) he has only said he has been inspired by the italians, and then everyone else start making a direct comparison between this album and I.F.O... Which is completely uncalled for. Then this album isn't for you, I guess. I mean you don't go see a Woody Allen movie and expect explosions and impressive digital effects, right? Same thing here... And this HAS feeling, just maybe not the feeling you were after. Don't try to tell me this album isn't emotional... just compare to ANYTHING else in this genre from 2004. You're the one saying he's trying to copy Pleiadians, Jannis himself never claimed to be doing so. And I know for a fact that he isn't doing that... This IS original! It's so much more original than anything else in this genre and you're complaining about copying... And creating a "pleiadians genre"? Yet again, it's the people in this thread calling it a Pleiadians clone. And even IF that would happen (how can a genre consist of a single person?) it would still be so much better than the current "GMS genre" etc... Now I'm not saying you're not allowed to have those opinions - I myself am sick and tired of the lack of critical reviews in this genre and we need people to voice negative opinions as well. However, I think you're judging this record based on erroneous assumptions. It's NOT trying to be a Pleiadians clone, it's just that comparing it to their sound is easy, which is why you see that in a lot of the reviews. I too can feel that a more restrained approach to the buildups could work well and that the individual melodies could be used to greater effect, but if you're going to do something as storming as this, you can't hold back. It's not a perfect album in my view, but certainly doesn't deserve being called a bleak copy of Pleiadians... it's much more than that. Oh, and what's wrong with the mastering?

Ah, Miranda... she's more into progressive sounds these days... I'm playing at a (secret/private) party she's arranging on new years eve, and I've been asked to play a bit darker and less melodic than I usually do (I normally play oldschool goa exclusively). But it'll still be mindbending oldschool stuff, ofcourse =) Oh, and don't forget her releases under the name Athena, there were some really nice ones... She's born in 1973, so she's 31 years old. When she had her first releases in 1995 she was just 22.

His last one was released in 1997, SEVEN YEARS AGO. I think that qualifies for disappearing, no matter what he claims to be doing (remember that live album that never saw the light of day?). I know he's released the odd track here and there since, but still - it's been a long time, 7 years in this scene is an eternity.

Well almost - Witchcraft as Izik Levy (Sandman) and Rami Shapira (Chakra). I think the two tracks are equally good - one of the best ever singles on Matsuri. I play both tracks in my DJ sets quite often, really amazing stuff. ...but I still don't know if this is the track AmithabaBuddha has found.

I would guess you've found an MP3, right? And is there any chance it's Witchcraft - "Whale" with the name messed up?

I share none of those in your list, but here is an attempts of my own... Mind you, this is all depending on mood of the day and a lot of reasons I love these tracks are the memories connected to them. In no particular order: Etnica - "Starship 101" Transwave - "Rezwalker (Original mix)" Charm - "Brain Structure" Then I have plenty of other favourites, but a few more, in some slightly different styles: Underhead - "Orojuna" AHS - "Puke In The Dust" Kuro - "Thunderstorm" Slinky Wizard - "Slick Witch"

I agree on the Uni CD, and then proceed to say Montauk P - "If I (Warrior Mix)". About as heavy as they come =)

Aaaargh, you're perfectly right Staffan. Sorry I shouldn't reply to these things when I'm that tired... (I had just come home from a record shipping rampage in London and was deadly tired)

The version on the single: http://www.discogs.com/release/12906 is remixed by Hallucinogen (you need to read the fine print to find that out, as it's not written in or near the title) while the version on the first Order Odonata is the original, and in my opinion superior, version: Order Odonata 1 (CD) Order Odonata 1 (Vinyl) ...so it might well be these two versions you've got there.

OK I see you wrote "more or less", but you're still giving them way too much credit. They certainly have their own style and have been an influence for some, but "The Gathering" was nowhere near groundbreaking - it had been done before. Now they certainly have their place in psy-trance history, but "more or less invented or helped to invent Psy-trance" tells me your knowledge in this field is quite limited. Rest assured that psy-trance was a well established genre by the time IM showed up. No such thing as bad music? Oh please. If I strive to make hypnotic music and fail, is it not bad music? If I strive to make scary music and it ends up cheerful, is it not bad music? Sure, even these failed attempts might be enjoyable by someone, but this sounds like some sort of hippy ideology speaking and not common sense. The very root core? I really don't see a point in arguing any further if you seriously believe Infected Mushroom constitute the "very root core of both genres". You sir need to read up (and listen to) the history of goa- & psy-trance. Infected Mushroom are hugely popular and have their own disctinct style, but in terms of musical innovation their legacy fails to impress.