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What happened to Afgin?


Mallenaut

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So I got some Trance abums for christmas, with his second album Astral Experience being one of them, and I just fell in love with his music. Sadly, it is his last album, which was released 10 years ago. I just saw him occasionally playing some sets, but no new releases, not even a single!

Does anybody know if he's up to anything new in general?

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he has gone commercial i.e. he does regular trance now. on his discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/659162-Afgin) you'll see a few newer releases but they got no attention here because they're not psy anymore.

as much as i loved old is gold when it came out i don't miss him terribly. his tracks sounded great when new but imho don't have too much replay value (similar to gms, alien project or goasia in that respect).

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3 hours ago, Padmapani said:

he has gone commercial i.e. he does regular trance now. on his discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/659162-Afgin) you'll see a few newer releases but they got no attention here because they're not psy anymore.

as much as i loved old is gold when it came out i don't miss him terribly. his tracks sounded great when new but imho don't have too much replay value (similar to gms, alien project or goasia in that respect).

Oh man, that's sad to hear. Even though I should have guessed when he released something wearing a suit and having a arsim hair cut.

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5 hours ago, astralprojection said:

Last good release was Dream master in 2010, Shine On is great :)

interesting. shine on indeed sounds pretty much like his earlier stuff. i guess i just dismissed the release when i heard other tracks like feels like heaven. 

5 hours ago, Mallenaut said:

Oh man, that's sad to hear. Even though I should have guessed when he released something wearing a suit and having a arsim hair cut.

yeah. his change in style seems to coincide with the time he cut his hair ;)

the new stuff is not overly cheesy for trance standards but it's no goa trance either…

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On 1/1/2020 at 5:47 AM, Padmapani said:

he has gone commercial i.e. he does regular trance now. on his discogs (https://www.discogs.com/artist/659162-Afgin) you'll see a few newer releases but they got no attention here because they're not psy anymore.

as much as i loved old is gold when it came out i don't miss him terribly. his tracks sounded great when new but imho don't have too much replay value (similar to gms, alien project or goasia in that respect).

Calling his newer work commercial is completely wrong. Melodic trance in the style of Afgin had a peak around the start of the 00ies but nowadays is way less popular than Psytrance. You're applying definitions of the term 'commercial' as used in 2002, not 2020.

Secondly, to answer the OP, he doesn't produce as much anymore, but still plays sets quite often. Last year alone I saw him playing live in Beligum, Spain and Israel.

 

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12 hours ago, Agneton said:

Calling his newer work commercial is completely wrong. Melodic trance in the style of Afgin had a peak around the start of the 00ies but nowadays is way less popular than Psytrance. You're applying definitions of the term 'commercial' as used in 2002, not 2020.

even if it was not only less popular than psytrance but also less popular than goa trance (which i highly doubt), i'd still call it commercial if someone makes way more easy-listening music than before ;). music doesn't have to actually make you money to sound commercial.

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On 1/2/2020 at 9:11 AM, Agneton said:

Calling his newer work commercial is completely wrong. Melodic trance in the style of Afgin had a peak around the start of the 00ies but nowadays is way less popular than Psytrance. You're applying definitions of the term 'commercial' as used in 2002, not 2020.

 

 

Was about to say the same. By the way if you are into euro trance, this is certainly not bad:

 

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On 1/2/2020 at 9:53 PM, Padmapani said:

even if it was not only less popular than psytrance but also less popular than goa trance (which i highly doubt), i'd still call it commercial if someone makes way more easy-listening music than before ;). music doesn't have to actually make you money to sound commercial.

Commercial music, essentially I'd say, is music that was consciously written and produced with the purpose of appealing to the biggest possible crowd, given the current 'hypes'. That's definetely not what Afgin was trying to do with his Trance output, he simply and wholeheartedly loves this type of music. Complexity, easy-listening, etc. has nothing to do with the question how commercial music is, afaik. Honestly the term is so biased and that's why I'd rather not see it written in the context of this artist. We can discuss about it of course, this is just my honest opinion. 

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8 hours ago, Agneton said:

Commercial music, essentially I'd say, is music that was consciously written and produced with the purpose of appealing to the biggest possible crowd, given the current 'hypes'. That's definetely not what Afgin was trying to do with his Trance output, he simply and wholeheartedly loves this type of music. Complexity, easy-listening, etc. has nothing to do with the question how commercial music is, afaik. Honestly the term is so biased and that's why I'd rather not see it written in the context of this artist. We can discuss about it of course, this is just my honest opinion. 

you're right, it depends on how you define "commercial". i totally believe that afgin produces the music because it's what he likes, but to me it is way more commercial music than before. if you just listen to music you can't necessarily tell the intention of the producer behind it (does protoculture make trance now because his music preferences shifted towards trance or because he gets more money from it?), so i do find my definition more useful :)
lack of complexity also isn't something i'd associate with either commercial-sounding or easy-listening music either. there is music played on the radio with complex chord progressions and complex rhytms, but it still sounds horribly "commerical" and cheesy, while some underground techno or even psytrance is damn simple, but great and not easy-listening at all.

now that iv'e mentioned the word, maybe our defintions are different because my native language has no other word to describe cheesy music other than "commercial"?

btw: nitzho is more commerical than goa for me, even if it doesn't make you any money nowadays. ;) 
of course that doesn't mean that i wouldn't enjoy another album from you, so i second astralprojection's question!

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