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What do you miss in music/goa/psy-trance?


Mentaloscope

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On 8/9/2020 at 5:21 PM, Multi-Media said:

Re. "progressive Psytrance"... here a mix from 3 artists, I wonder if it hits the genre or wrong one? Not sure but such music I adored 10 yrs ago or so (yes I still like it, but it has worn off)

That's a good mix, but it is already falling into the period where somebody began to pour in large amounts of fabric softener into the "progressive lake" ... I'm saying "began", because in fact, in terms of nowadays they all are quite good tracks to me...
However, what I am rather looking for is the period before, where progressive was (I'd say) a relatively new style on the psytrance roster and was harder, deeper, darker and had more zest, with even less focus on melody. I think if it was produced today, they'd call it some form of techno, not "psychedelic" ... however, it is.

Here's three tracks I would pick covering that zesty side ... difference should be significantly audible:

And THIS is what Panzar Produktionz aimed to bring back - as said, they did it not 1:1, they created their own style, but it was definitely closer to this type of progression than to melodic fabric softener type of "prog trance"...

Got any modern artists that sound like that?

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@RTP

The mix I posted is music I can relax with and they are relativly cheese free (the choppedd/filtered female choir in the 2nd track is already a bit over the line for me lol). Yesterday I googled the first 2 artists and found that it seems the tracks I chose are already in the upper 3rd for my taste and was a bit dissapointed by the other output what I heard on YT (tastes differ of course). Others relax with drone or ambient - but most beatless stuff bores me and not relaxes me :(

More often then not, I also gravitate to darker/harder sounds then this however. 

Is Panzer Productionz still active ? Last post 4 years ago.

The 3 you posted I think are a bit too minimal for my taste, the 2nd one also sounds like stuff one would often get on the "B-side" of samplers or better the 2nd CD in case of DCDs. I must have quite a bit such tracks on CDs and re-checked your artists examples, Noma, 12 Moons & M.O.S. belong among them. Must be compilations from around 2000-2005 or so. I like the 3rd track the most. Have trouble with the length of tracks and what is going in them. "Das trägt nicht über 9 Minuten".  So how does this style sound today 1-2 examples?

Edit, I believe on this one (1997) are also simmilar tracks on the CD2 (must be the beginning of prog I guess)
https://www.discogs.com/de/Various-The-History-Of-Trance-Part-3-The-Psychedelic-Movement/release/28455
 

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@Multi-Media
Panzar Produktionz is unfortunatley defunct (as you said, last post 4 years ago, that's also what I have last heard), but at least their material is still online and you can legally distribute it for free, it was all even released under CC license I think. Artists are gone to different labels. Rasmus Alanne from Pusherstreet continues to be active with his main project Etnoscope and has done some cool tracks on Soundcloud, you really should check that out...

Hmmm ... some examples of today's progressive? There's plenty ... in fact so much, that I am struggling what to give ... good ones, bad ones? Rather more close to psy, rather more close to house? I guess I'll just stick with what comes to my mind ... here's some newer stuff of some "former greats" - and a remix:

Even though, I still like the Atmos and S-Range track and the Shiva Chandra & Brox one.

Most of "progressive" just sounds all like plastic to me nowadays. Even these tracks that I posted here. Also others, like Symphonix, Neelix ... they all have the same beat. And the effect "tricks" they use are also the same - and there are so many breaks, it's appaling ... I never was too much of a fan of effects that break the structure (as said above, plase minimize distractions) and nowadays they are used in HEAPS.
In the past, it was "which track of these relatively good ones is better" - now it's: "which of these mediocre tracks is less dull".

Edit:
By the way. Look what I found today. This is a gem - an old collection of Atmos tracks, mixed by the man himself. If you want to see what I am looking for in psytrance, here is it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqeUmZeq4g4

 

Edited by RTP
found more stuff :)
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Okey after listening some to what the latest iterations of the darker variety of psytrance has to offer, my conclusion is that so far of the stuff I've listened to, it's great music for the outdoors/forest parties, but perhaps becomes a little boring while listening at home. This is due to there not really beeing any progress/direction in the tracks. Lots of cool morphing sounds thrown around, but compared to for example Hallucinogen, the sounds lack any meaning. A lack of storytelling if you will. So what I'm wondering is if there's anything new like that available?  Something dark and trippy but with somekind of emphasis on conveying a sense of story/journey.

I would argue that the darker psytrance I've heard so far has that thing in common with techno, namely that you could jump to any location in the track, and you wouldn't be able to distinguish whether it was the beginning, middle, or ending. It's the same sounds/structure used throughout the duration of the tracks. It's not really a critique of said genre, because it does its job in its intended context. It's merely an observation and the fact that I get bored really quickly, and need some strong colorful music which will keep me hooked. :)

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not necessarily. take any track from arjuna - primal contact and listen with headphones. there is no big overlayed structure but definitely plenty of storytelling there. of course that's not true for all (or probably even most darkpsy/forest) but there are gems out there.

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7 hours ago, Padmapani said:

not necessarily. take any track from arjuna - primal contact and listen with headphones. there is no big overlayed structure but definitely plenty of storytelling there. of course that's not true for all (or probably even most darkpsy/forest) but there are gems out there.

Thanks will check out! Like I said, from what I've heard so far. There's always exceptions to be found, and those are what I'm looking for. :) I think perhaps the dj mixes I've listened to might give a rather limited picture of what's available as well, since they've deliberately chosen tracks that fit together(sound the same). So go ahead, give me more examples. B) 

My only requirement is that it's new music, and dark(as defined by the twilight/dark psy genre). And has good storytelling. I'm not interested in stuff that is 10 years old or so, for that I might as well go listen to some old goa again, which I'm quite bored of atm. I might've had a goa overdose for now. I always return to the classics at one point or another, but yeah some 25 years of listening to the same albums/compilations over and over gets tiresome after a while.

I've also noticed while revisiting some older psytrance which I always thought sounded awesome, that some of it is really starting to sound dated. So my theory is that some music which have good storytelling/perhaps good melodies/structure might age better, while other music which rely more on the latest sound developments and what not, might age less gracefully. 

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i'm relatively new to darkpsy myself. i couldn't stand most of the stuff played before forest became dominant there. but if you like arjuna (stand alone is the track that finally won me over), artists like dohm, tengri, overdream, mark day, re-horakhty or farebi jalebi might also be worth a try for you.

same here. i've become relatively tired of goa trance lately and prefer to explore other frontiers of psy atm. still, i don't think i'll ever stop enjoying the classics.

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On 7/24/2020 at 7:41 PM, Oopie said:

Hey AP, I do music under the alias Sab Kuch Milegator. 

Yeah, finally a "face" to a musician I like! 

 

I heard some of your sound on ektoplazm a while ago and really liked it! Good work, some friends dismissed it as "noisy" but for me it's interesting, fresh and funky music you make!

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On 8/9/2020 at 2:02 PM, RTP said:

First of all, cool thread! Keep it going :)

@OopieI didn't know your alias, but you make good music :+1:

@fluorosis nice melodies ... I got reminded of Kraftwerk at the second tune :)

heh, I am very surprised that I see Panzar Produktionz mentioned here ... yes, I was a big fan of them and also wrote the one or other promo text for them.
Their motto was to "bring back progressive as it was in the 00s" - and in the process they have created their own style, which is not an exact clone of the "old progressive", but very close to it. The closest I could find, in fact ... my favourite artist was Pusherstreet (the project from Rasmus Alanne and Liam Dorff (Liam founded the label) - both came from Etnoscope, that's why I found them) ... and they also provided the "ignition spark" for good artists such as Mantra Flow or Patara ... they even had a then new track by Magnetrixx ("Flusensieb"), whom I'm a big fan of...
Do check them out:
https://soundcloud.com/panzarproduktionz
Everything they released was always for free, which also was great.

And here we are already at the spot of "what I miss in psytrance": it's this old progressive stuff that has caught me big time - and I mis it, because it is not around anymore.
What I like most is to go jogging or walking to this music - and for this purpose I need "walking-friendly" bpm and SIMPLE structures and melodies so that my brain does not drift off completely, but still can process the information coming from outside, such as other people, cyclists, dogs, trees :D ... and all of this in a comfortable way - because yes, I could listen also to very complex or intense stuff, but then such outside occurrences would always lead to me "leaving the zone" which causes me to be not happy. The "old school progressive", as I am beginning to call it, provided exactly this: digestible melodies and bpm that took me on a literal journey as I was running along to it.

I'm talking of artists such as: Atmos, S-Range, Matenda, Noma, 12 Moons, Etnoscope, Magnetrixx, MOS (Mittelstandskinder Ohne Strom), Shiva Chandra, old Son Kite, old Vibrasphere, old Antix ... most of pre-2005 Digital Structures releases basically, plus Spiral Trax
Interestingly, CALM Fullon beats - such as Silicon Sound - did this trick for me as well.

The "progressive psytrance" that is around nowadays is completely different. It seems to me almost like fullon was before, measured in terms of intensity, number of breaks, uptwists, downtwists ... I could probably make fancy snake-man moves on the dancefloor to this music (and get tired quickly), but I can't run to it - at least not in a straight line :(

I will try and make a track based on my experiemces with old vibrasphere and atmos. I'm learning music theory for a while now, abd while it's still the basics I'm at, I need more and more practice. 

I have indeed noticed, that bringing alot of harmonic content into a psytrance song can make it sound very cheesy and happy etc. Bit actually I want to learn to make use of the theory and at the moment I'm more into the warm kind of music which takes it's time to evolve, harmonically and structurally. 

 

I will post here, if anyone is interested and I've workey through the unavoidable first 3-4 pieces of cheesefest, that happen everytime I explore a musical Idea. :)

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9 hours ago, Mentaloscope said:

Yeah, finally a "face" to a musician I like! 

 

I heard some of your sound on ektoplazm a while ago and really liked it! Good work, some friends dismissed it as "noisy" but for me it's interesting, fresh and funky music you make!

Thanks Mentaloscope. Keep an eye out for the next album it's right now being mastered. 

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17 hours ago, Mentaloscope said:

I will try and make a track based on my experiemces with old vibrasphere and atmos. I'm learning music theory for a while now, abd while it's still the basics I'm at, I need more and more practice.

sounds great - I'll be very keen to hear that once it's ready :)

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Indeed, as someone said here, what is called "progressive" now is actually full-on slowed down to 138 bpm. I do actually like quite a lot of it but I miss softer, mellower and more hypnotic side of progressive

 

It's not that it's completely gone but is hader to find. 

A more recent track with similar vibe (2018 I think)

 

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Just a short post, as no one wanted to guess artists in my mix here are they:
Sun Control Species, Liquid Soul and Nasser in that order...

Edit post TOO short, so some more musings.

Even if I like darker music (also from metal) I have severe problems liking the new "darkpsy" stuff, seems too fast and random and nervous. Perhaps better for younger people :) But worse I found the "Psycore/Hi-Tech" subgenre (listened to examples from the 2 guides)..note however I like older "darkgoa" like Dark Soho some Xenomorph etc.

Seems Vibrasphere is a band most like somehow.. FreQ I also liked (not sure if it aged so well) and Atmos (604 album is interesting - and yes I do not mind much the techno influences if done right!)




 

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@recursion loop MiKro MaKro is very good :)

@Multi-Media the artists are posted on Soundcloud in the "track info" ... so I did not have to guess, however: I confess I'd NOT have guessed those.

By the way, I fully share your opionion about the "Psycore/Hi-Tech" subgenre ... that seriously is something I don't need - and I am saying this without any negativeness in my emotion. On the contrary: whenever I nowadays visit a party that has a Hitech floor, I go there, look around, get a smile that goes bigger and bigger, shake my head and I then leave, muttering like an old grandpa, saying: "kids these days" ... because I am amazed at myself how little I understand this music :D

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2 hours ago, RTP said:

I nowadays visit a party that has a Hitech floor, I go there, look around, get a smile that goes bigger and bigger, shake my head and I then leave, 

i've done that more than once :)

it neither has the appeal or hard driving music like freetekno or hardcore, nor the space and atmosphere to let the mind run free like good psytrance has, nor the constant beat to allow for trancing out to it. just randomness. i do appreciate that it doesn't play the whole night at the mainfloor anymore.

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16 hours ago, RTP said:

@Multi-Media the artists are posted on Soundcloud in the "track info" ... so I did not have to guess, however: I confess I'd NOT have guessed those.

Of course the artists are in the info, I do not claim others music for my channels (like I noticed some trend people uploading mixes and covers etc. without naming the original creators on YT often times monetized). But I also said to not look the info up :) 

Btw. "hitech" also reminds me of drum n´bass and "gabber" which I also dislike, I have not a single song of these styles 

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  • 4 months later...
On 7/24/2020 at 7:44 PM, Oopie said:

I'm gonna open my FL and try to come up with final melody to the last track of forthcoming 4th album. :ph34r:

You crazy son of a bitch. You went and did it. . . . On track 1 now :) :D :'''D

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