Ormion Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 I was listening some of the classic goa tracks and I still can't believe that they were written 16-15 years ago! Tracks like AP-People Can Fly, Pleiadians-Electra or some Syb Unity Nettwerk tracks from 1996. Back then I was listening to mostly techno or normal trance and...I don't know, but Goatrance sounds like it was at least a decade ahead of the era. Do you think that Goatrance back in 1994-1996 was ahead of its time? That it was really music from the future? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnb820 Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Part of it was just creativity, using sounds that no one else would dare to use in their music at the time. Synths and drum machines were nothing new but tweaking them out of control and throwing in large amounts of effects defined something pretty new to most people. Another part of it is that there was some truly groundbreaking material made purely from a production point of view. Nearly 20 years later and we're still trying to figure out how Simon Posford did stuff on the two Hallucinogen albums. In that sense it wasn't just music from the future, it was timeless musical creations. And many of those artists deserve the praise for doing what they did. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panoptes Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 I agree... shame that the average person has trouble understand it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penzoline Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Ahead of it's time? Timeless. Never having a time - always being in a time. Many of the old school compositions will never wither because of their incredible depth and complexity. Not at this rate anyway. I almost believe some of it was from another star cluster. Pleiades? Who knows. It's unfortunate, or fortunate, that not many will witness what we have. Or maybe it's just a bunch of electronic noises and bleeps and we are just crazy. I don't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panoptes Posted April 4, 2012 Share Posted April 4, 2012 Or maybe it's just a bunch of electronic noises and bleeps and we are just crazy. I don't know. He knows =o! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procyon Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Ahead of it's time? Timeless. Never having a time - always being in a time. Many of the old school compositions will never wither because of their incredible depth and complexity. Not at this rate anyway. I almost believe some of it was from another star cluster. Pleiades? Who knows. It's unfortunate, or fortunate, that not many will witness what we have. Or maybe it's just a bunch of electronic noises and bleeps and we are just crazy. I don't know. Every style of music has had its apex some point in the past. Rock had it in the 1970s. Pop couldn't be better than the 1980s. Classic two centuries ago. Electronica had Goa as its most danceable subgenre, and its apex was in 1990s. It is something fans from every style try to understand - how pop was so good in the 1980s, and is so crappy now? I believe Goa was ahead of its time, right. Because I was a huge fan of electronic music, I bought every issue of London's iD magazine - then the bible of underground music - to get informed of what was hot, and where. and I was into everything: house, epic trance, techno. But when I heard Goa for the first time, it was like I was taken to another world. This shock I never felt again, that's why I say that, yes, Goa was the future music that had arrived. I still hear MFG, Chi-ad, and try to understand what happened back then. I wish we could travel in time, I would return to 1990s Goa parties again, and again, and again... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 How do you figure out of a type of music was 'ahead' of its time? That to me implies that either a: it would have been more popular had it began later in history; or b: it didn't become popular until it had already existed for some time. I don't think either really applies to goa. It wouldn't have been more popular later because it arose in tandem with the rest of the electronic music world, so it existed at a prime moment for popularity, and also its popularity is limited by the weirdness factor. Not everyone wants weird psychedelic noises in their music. As far as b, goa is most certainly less popular now. Electronica had Goa as its most danceable subgenre, I don't think I'd agree with that. Regardless my dislike for most house music, it is by far the most danceable (for the general dancing masses). That's why it's in all the clubs. For most people, dancing requires a groove, and trance rarely has groove. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procyon Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 @Veracohr: of course, this is subjective. But not that much. In 1996, when Goa was rocking all big London clubs, iD magazine decided to ask all big DJs why Goa was such a big hit. Technically. Most said that no other genre had such great combination of basslines and fast kicks, plus the inverted layered melodies were themselves alone body-shakers. I read that. Mind you this was a serious debate when electronic music was changing the face of underground London. And we are not talking about popularity: Goa was never for the masses. House lost its refinement (where is today's The Age of Love, for instance?), that's why it is so popular nowadays: it's poor in quality. Goa, on the other hand, lost its ground for psytrance - which is popular today. But we can't compare 1990s Goa to current psy. Or dare you compare, say, MFG to Melicia? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Maybe I just have the disadvantage of neither having been into electronic music in the 90's nor having much experience with goa/psy in a party/club setting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procyon Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Maybe I just have the disadvantage of neither having been into electronic music in the 90's nor having much experience with goa/psy in a party/club setting. I am sorry to agree with you on this. I consider myself a very fortunate guy, for I had the chance of experiencing Goa in legendary clubs and parties in the 1990s. But you can still feel some of the vibe in some parties nowadays. Am I wrong to infer you are in Europe? If I am right, try Ozora or Boom in August. They are mega-festivals, some old Goa fans don't like them. But you there you can experience of listening to (some) good psy and goa blasting from professional sound systems, which is a completely different experience than listening to them at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 No, I'm in the US. My city has a small group of people who put on shows that are mostly darkpsy I don't much care for, but still go to on occasion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BraneFreeze Posted April 5, 2012 Share Posted April 5, 2012 Here's a somewhat related question. A lot of classic goa / psy trance was composed before the Internet really exploded. Suppose the Internet had been more developed and widespread in the mid- to late-90's. How do you think goa / psy trance might have developed differently? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reger Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 I cant say whether Psy trance of that era or any other music genre of any other era is/was ahead of time. What I can say is that for me its timeless, and that sums it up pretty well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procyon Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 No, I'm in the US. My city has a small group of people who put on shows that are mostly darkpsy I don't much care for, but still go to on occasion. Well, why don't you ride the roller coaster of throwing a Goa party (and DJ in it)? I threw some parties years ago, and still miss the adrenaline I felt when the first song blasted from the speakers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Veracohr Posted April 6, 2012 Share Posted April 6, 2012 I don't have the initiative or interpersonal skills to throw a party, plus so few around here like goa. I'm also not a DJ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penzoline Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Yeah it actually is too much work for the average person to just throw a party. I'm trying to figure out something but what can I do? No money, no connections. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procyon Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Yeah it actually is too much work for the average person to just throw a party. I'm trying to figure out something but what can I do? No money, no connections. I think you are thinking of a party as something big. Real good Goa parties are the small ones. Here's my experience on Goa parties: what you really need is a nice deco, and mainly, a good sound system. When I threw my first party, I always had on my mind that if I attracted a crowd of 30 people, it was enough a good crowd for an unknown subgenre of electronic music. Then, 60 people for the second, 120 for the third, gradually introducing Goa to a larger crowd. My first step was to find a good place. I found a camping 5 km from the city, and made an agreement with the owner: he would get all the profit from drinks, I would get from the tickets. Second step: decoration. This was easy, to the point of becoming a hobby. What I did was to tie-dye 5 cotton fabrics (3m x 1m) with glow-paint, and hand paint some Goa elements over the finished tie-dye (they were so beautiful that other parties came to ask me to borrow them). Step three, I contacted other DJs, and invited them to come play Goa. Step four was where I had to spend some money: renting a good sound system, but it wasn't that expensive really. Step five - which you don't need to do nowadays - was to print flyers. And voila', my first party was a success. It attracted 50 people - mind you, in 2001, when electronic music was not so present on radio as it is now. My biggest surprise was to discover that in my 400,000 inhabitants city there was a good number of people who actually knew what Goa trance was (and I was thinking I was the only one). So, to the second party I already had a good number of contacts, DJs, and enthusiasts who helped me with more deco and organization. The first party, I think, didn't cost me more than US$ 300, I indeed lost some money (around US$ 100). But I threw the party expecting to lose money, not profiting from it. I had the idea of profitting, or breaking even, in the 3rd party. I threw 5 parties, who are now legends locally, and opened the - electronically speaking - doors to a huge organization that now, 10 years later throws a festival that attracts 10 thousand people. I am not part of this org, for I left to Japan in 2002, and I really don't like what they played: mainstream psy. (skazi, IM, astrix...). I think when you decide to organize a Goa party, you have to consider yourself as a "pioneer". An one man organization. But as I wrote above, soon you will attract other people to help you. What I may assure you is that it's worthy: I remember how happy I felt when people came to ask me "what are you playing???". I know I was the person who introduced Astral Projection, MFG, Chi-ad, X-Dream to a lot of people. I will throw a daylight party this September, I will share my experience with you guys. Good luck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oopie Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Yeah it actually is too much work for the average person to just throw a party. I'm trying to figure out something but what can I do? No money, no connections. Not necessarily. I remember being 16yrs. with no connections thinking "Eey! Let's have a goa party!" and it happened and attracted around 200 ppl. Admittedly I had the best of luck meeting the right people and artists (bom bhole nath! ) . It's still in the worx, but if everything goes smooth I ought to organise an old school oriented forest party late summer. There's no pure goa parties anywhere so we're on a mission! ;---) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reger Posted April 7, 2012 Share Posted April 7, 2012 Oopie, ooopie, ooo pie, o! a pie! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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