Goa's Second Golden Age?

[Richpa]

Do you guys agree or think differently?? I know it might never be how it was but I think it's pretty damn good now!

I agree with this. Indeed, situation is much better than it was couple of years ago, even in that time people released and make Goa trance music, but there were only couple of releases per year. Some people might say, it was better - less music but more quality, but I would disagree, today we got decent number of record labels and netlabels who are releasing Goa trance, some are focused only on oldschool Goa trance, for example DAT Records or Zion604, some release more newschool stuff, Suntrip, mostly with more melodic/morning goa trance music, russian Global Sect also, but with more darker influences (last Psy-H project is a good example), Cronomi with great blend of experimental, acidic breed of goa trance, with oldschool influences, Sita and Ezel-Ebed with highly melodic nitzho sub-genre, etc. There are 10-15 record labels who are doing great stuff for this kind of music and good thing about goa trance music nowdays that complete scene is very well conected, people are exchanging informations, suggestions, giving feedbacks and that is something that isn't a common thing in many other psychedelic trance sub-genres.

 

I agree that nowdays goa trance music lacks some diversity. Most of the stuff indeed is pretty much melodic, shiny and it would be great if we see in the future more bold approach, to gain more diversity and experimentalism, but i'm gonna be optimistic and i'm sure during the next 2-3 years we will see more and more music in that direction aswell.

 

As Joske mentioned before, another good example of this 'revival' is a fact that each year goa trance musicians and artists gets more and more festival-slots and that is a best promotion of this music.

[Trunksan]

In Greece the situation's a bit wierd.
There have and will be a lot of old-school parties this year (Joti Siddhu, Darshan, BPC, The delta, soon UX, soon Shakta, rumors also about Prana) and on a few occasions there is a goa stage, while on the main stage the play modern Full-on or Dark-psy, but it's exactly the same crowd from 10-15 years ago.
So you have a club full of 30-40 year olds... The younger crowd has very little presence in old-school/goa parties and the music being played is not New-School. Although I've noticed that there are some Greek goa artists on the rise: predators, radical distotion, cactus arising, Siam and others... so there is hope!!

[JISNEGRO]

Neogoa is doing good, given it now has strong competition with prog and fullon, while in the 1990s it was the the main trend. But it's still in development. Or not. It lacks the boldness producers had in the golden years, investigating into new sounds out of the safe goa recipe. But it will come with time, and then it can be the Golden Years #2. I support and play neogoa, but it can get better a lot. I still stand by the topic I created last year arguing that neogoa tracks were way too sterile and plastic.

 

I agree. That's why I love when an artist who is not afraid of experimenting with sounds and escapes from most of the nowdays goa stereotypes, creates a unique sound.

Even though I do not like every single track and I admit it is a hard to listen to and digest album, I think Ubar Tmar - Ubarpedia is one of the most refreshing albums of contemporary goa trance.

[Ormion]

I gave a quick spin to M-Run's album and sounds awesome. I hope more of this style will follow.

[technosomy]

I gave a quick spin to M-Run's album and sounds awesome. I hope more of this style will follow.

 

great album indeed, if the samples and timing don't grate you

[Purple Sunray]

I think it strongly depends on the location^^

Don't know a lot of festivals/party here in the mid-europe area that focus on goa trance - on most of it there isn't even a single a goa act, it's more about proggi at day, fullon in the evening and night/dark-psy at night -- hilight tribe usually are the only ones playing non new-school-sound and I think the reason they'r on the lineup is less to make goa ppl happy, but ppl that like real instrument sound. =)

 

But here in mid-eu area we have golden age of another style.. proggy psy is about to become the new house. It left the underground.. or is about to.

It's not unlikely that you will hear some ace ventura, neelix, capt. hook, .. sound on the "mainstream club" saturday night electro event, where it was only about house a couple of years ago.

[K-BAN]

 

For me it's the monotonous basslines and overly common song structures.

I do think the new wave of goa-heads need to find 'their' sound then stick with that. I'm a lover of psychedelic sound from all corners but, the newer goa doesnt catch me as much due to their similarities. A song here or there sticks out for me.

Think of the great albums that came out in the 96/97 period and how you can identify an artist with say just hearing 10 seconds of a track. the same went for the psy golden age in 03/04. be beautifully unique

[Padmapani]

^ definitely. i dunno why this is with some of the new goa trance. after all there are no sample cds for newschool goa yet, as there are for other genres of psy. i always thought that the reason for 95% of fullon sounding exactly the same was abuse of sample cds.

[IronSun]

I still don't see it, new goa sounding the same... Take for example an artifact303 and compare him to crossing mind, who gets released by the same label... It sounds so different from another. Now place these next to M-Run and we have yet again another sound entirely.

 

That being said, I think it is highly dependent on the location... On a global scale the goa fans represent a minor fraction of all the subgenres I think with prog, full-on and dark having much bigger fan shares.

[Padmapani]

I still don't see it, new goa sounding the same... Take for example an artifact303 and compare him to crossing mind, who gets released by the same label... It sounds so different from another. Now place these next to M-Run and we have yet again another sound entirely.

yes, there are a few quite distinct artists. e-mantra, ra, artha, filteria and crossing mind imho sound like nothing else. but there's also a lot of samey stuff, especially with the middle eastern sound.

if i didn't know that nova fractal - connect was from nova fractal, i'd think it was artifact303. the styles of antares and pharaom are often also nearly undistinguishable. that doesn't mean that it's bad music in any way, i like these artists a lot.

if you look at the lesser known artists, it becomes even more of a blur.

it's surely still way better than with any other subgenre of psytrance, but definitely more same-sounding than with oldschool goa. there's no way you could confuse a track by hiscore, lotus omega, bypass unit, doof or slinky wizard (trying to keep the real big names out of here) with anything else.

 

still if i had to choose, i'd rather listen to a i.e. nova fractal track that sounds like artifact303 than to any track by lotus omega or bypass unit.

[Veracohr]

I still don't see it, new goa sounding the same... Take for example an artifact303 and compare him to crossing mind, who gets released by the same label... It sounds so different from another. Now place these next to M-Run and we have yet again another sound entirely.

 

That being said, I think it is highly dependent on the location... On a global scale the goa fans represent a minor fraction of all the subgenres I think with prog, full-on and dark having much bigger fan shares.

 

 

Yeah, Crossing Mind is one of the unique ones.

[Richpa]

Afaik, Stephane from Crossing Mind was active in goa trance genre even before whole 'new wave' of Goa trance was popular

[Veracohr]

I believe so: in this thread which brought Crossing Mind into the light, Draeke posted this Discogs list he made, which states the songs were composed 1999-2001. That then led to The Holographic Paradigm.

[Djuna]

Neogoa is doing good, given it now has strong competition with prog and fullon, while in the 1990s it was the the main trend. But it's still in development. Or not. It lacks the boldness producers had in the golden years, investigating into new sounds out of the safe goa recipe. But it will come with time, and then it can be the Golden Years #2. I support and play neogoa, but it can get better a lot. I still stand by the topic I created last year arguing that neogoa tracks were way too sterile and plastic.

 

Indeed, there's a difference between goa trance artists playing on festivals, and the actual music itself. As I recall it, newschool goa labels resurrected 10 years ago as a counter reaction to the boring prog and full on music. But right now I feel that most goa trance releases these days aren't 'new' or refreshing, and have become just as plain and generic as the music it used to 'fight' against. You see it with almost every new producer coming up: the music is just so easy, so digital and flat. There's no challenge in the sound; artists don't challenge themselves it seems. To me, the third wave still has to come. But the future's bright!

[Master Lu Bu]

Neo goa is uninspired lack of talent garbage. I won't lower my standard to even listen to a sample. If someone ever caught me listening to neo goa I could only hope they would beat me down on the spot. I would really like to know the ages of these neo goa artists and what equipment they have. Furthermore have they listened to all of the classics and the evolution of the sounds.

 

I'm going to buy a new computer. In two weeks look out for my neo goa album.

[Anoebis]

Neo goa is uninspired lack of talent garbage. I won't lower my standard to even listen to a sample. If someone ever caught me listening to neo goa I could only hope they would beat me down on the spot. I would really like to know the ages of these neo goa artists and what equipment they have. Furthermore have they listened to all of the classics and the evolution of the sounds.

 

I'm going to buy a new computer. In two weeks look out for my neo goa album.

How can you ever discover new music with this attitude? Lol... I think this is plain trolling... no talent? Artists like Ra, Crossing Mind, E-Mantra,... no talent? Yeah, of course

 

And I agree with Iron Sun here, place Crossing Mind, Arcana, Ra, Artifact303 and Filteria next to eachother, and you'll see the big difference... I agree though that many many promos we get, are same same but different... but you'll see as well on the new compilation that will be released in a few weeks, more and more new artists are trying to experiment! And that's a good evolution for sure Can you imagine we are still waiting, after 9 years of releasing goa, for an artists giving us great acidic promos?

Weird enough, the upcoming Filteria album will be more twisted and psychedelic as ever before... (like his track on Temple of Chaos) Ah well, the future looks bright indeed, it just needs time and evolution

[Ormion]

Weird enough, the upcoming Filteria album will be more twisted and psychedelic as ever before...

 

[Master Lu Bu]

As we all know there are multiple ways to view things. Now you read that and chose to call it trolling for obvious reasons. Then we have the other point of view of passion. Thats how i wrote that.. with pure passion. Now this you can understand. There are some of us who love goa. I do and it's all I listen to. When your listening to goa all of the time there comes a point when you have nothing new and nothing fresh to listen to. So you go back to the collection find something and give it a spin. In the end it's not enough.. We need more. So we have this neo goa which is supposed to fill the lack of goa for those of us in my spot. I know I'm not alone when I say this but I have higher expectations for neo goa. I don't sugarcoat things I speak my mind. It's no where near the level it should be. Go get an oldschool disc then listen to neo goa. You will obviously notice the difference. Fix it

[Penzoline]

There is a whole lot of newschool without said melodies.

+1

 

We need more edgy, darker, futuristic Goa trance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fesXlulwMY8

 

 

 

If this keeps up we will have a nice future no doubt. We just need a healthy mix of raw/soft uplifting/dark scifi/organic.

 

 

Now now.. it's just aneobis's opinion for now..

[Shpongled247]

@Master Lu Bu - How can you be so sure if you haven't even explored much new stuff for yourself? Perhaps by having preconceived notions of how "all" neo goa sounds you are missing out on some wonderful music...

 

Which is fine, We all do it sometimes, it's human and I have dismissed whole genres before only to later find stuff I really love but just didn't know at the time.

[Shpongled247]

*

[Djuna]

Can you imagine we are still waiting, after 9 years of releasing goa, for an artists giving us great acidic promos?

 

Is that a confession?

[Imba]

Do you really expect that poeple will make same thing like 20 years ago?

 

Artists and public worked pretty hard to give goa a new chance and now what, you suggest goa need to die? Most of us put enormous effort in past 10 to make scene bigger like is today. Some artists spent richness to get some analog synths and they know they wont get that money back even selling albums themselves. Everyone who steped into goa, he/she knows that here is no money or fame and that proove us that they are doing it just from the heart. Thats one big plus imo.

 

 

You don't like new goa, thats ok, is your opinion/taste but when you sum all, everyone deserves big support and respect. And it's not just about music production level, it's all about people and thanks to them we are here today.

Even if music is crap i will go to party if i can just because i know that people are great. You go with clear mind, relaxed not thinking would there be some shits or not, you know what you can expect there.

 

Agree with me or not this is truth

[Master Lu Bu]

@shpongled - I respect what you have to say. Be a brother and enlighten me. What do we have to lose? You show me something new and I might like it. Either way the fact you tried makes you a brother no matter what.

 

My main objection is neo goa basically is one loop with a splash here and a sprinkle there. I understand evolution but the bottom line is neo goa is boring. I can listen to some oldschool tracks where I can hear a blatant improvement can be made. bottom line is old school still adds enough to make the track always evolving. Deeper in the patterns and more variation to keep your interest and the mind wandering.

[Padmapani]

My main objection is neo goa basically is one loop with a splash here and a sprinkle there.

quite the opposite imho. i think that the thing that's missing most in newschool are those hypnotic tracks that consist of nothing more than one loop with a splash here and sprinkle there. the tracks that come to my mind with that description are bpc - micromega or electric universe - one love.

 

compare that to filteria's big blue