Your favorite Goa Trance Tracks of 2020 so far?

[Psychedelic Superbeast 144]

...kinda empty :/

[astralprojection 466]

i was about to say that chiad track sounded nice then i heard the choir

[AstralSphinx 201]

 

Nice choir huh 

[Psychedelic Superbeast 144]

thanks for the serious answers... They could be right from the "Off Topic" section.

[AstralSphinx 201]

1 hour ago, Psychedelic Superbeast said:

thanks for the serious answers... They could be right from the "Off Topic" section.

Sorry, but isn't Chi-AD an abbreviation for Anno Domini or something?  so just slightly OffTopic I guess. 

*OnTopic I haven't really heard any new goa this year I think, and I don't count remasters so to say. I've only really heard teasers which were really promising. So what's the verdict so far, 2020 Looking good or meh? In general it seems a lot of releases seem to be on bandcamp these days, and I'm not really actively looking around there anymore, so I probably miss out on some gems.

I listened briefly to the Chi-AD track linked in this thread to see what was up with the choir sample. The track did sound OK I guess, nothing groundbreaking or enough to draw me in. The intro while well made, I agree that the choir sample sounded a little cheesy, and it would probably have been cooler with manually programmed/played choir pads instead of the singing females. It was an interesting overall atmosphere in the intro, besides the sample. Perhaps not as good drive/build as in his classic tracks, as the arrangement/structure sounded a bit messy in the middle/final part.  The sound/mixing/mastering sounded like an improvement tho, from what little I could discern from my crappy phone headphones. (Compared to his old 90's works). I haven't really followed what Chi-AD has been up to lately. I think some sounds in the track, the leads reminded me a bit of the leads in his old track Astral Warrior?

[Psychedelic Superbeast 144]

What about the Astral Projection Album??

Does some one know if it will be finished soon?

[astralprojection 466]

16 hours ago, Psychedelic Superbeast said:

thanks for the serious answers... They could be right from the "Off Topic" section.

The AP album will be ready soon. Just a few years now

[Manuser 309]

Some nice tracks:

 

 

 

 

 

 

[astralprojection 466]

man e-mantra has always been putting in that work, since 2004 or something? always been slightly pushed  away by artifact and filteria. shame, cause e-mantra deserves some more recognition.

or he just doesnt write as engaging as his two most direct competitors do? not sure why he isnt also considered one of the top guys. i mean maybe he is by many people. but somehow he is not often linked to; talked about; referenced; shared. Maybe he doesnt have an unique enough tone/writing to pop out more.

[AstralSphinx 201]

1 hour ago, astralprojection said:

man e-mantra has always been putting in that work, since 2004 or something? always been slightly pushed  away by artifact and filteria. shame, cause e-mantra deserves some more recognition.

or he just doesnt write as engaging as his two most direct competitors do? not sure why he isnt also considered one of the top guys. i mean maybe he is by many people. but somehow he is not often linked to; talked about; referenced; shared. Maybe he doesnt have an unique enough tone/writing to pop out more.

 

I haven't really listened to enough E-Mantra to really know the answer, but what it might boil down to is how instantly recognizable/familiar Artifact303 and Filteria sounds. I can really remember how their tracks sound even when not listening. I don't remember how the tracks I heard from E-Mantra sounds. Of course this probably stems from how much one has exposed one self to said music as well, but to me atleast as soon as I heard Artifact303 and Filteria for the first time I understood the inspiration/concept. Very clear concepts, one more rooted in the Etnica/Pleiadian mythos, while the other in the beginning at least was more inspired by Astral Projection. Over time though I think the style of Artifact 303 has changed quite radically, and his debut album  sounded more like Filteria actually (Sky Input/Heliopolis era).  Compared to his tracks he shared here on psynews before beeing released on compilations, and also compared to his tracks released shortfy after on compilations. I don't know all of the stylistic influences E-Mantra had, but in the beginning I think he was inspired by Etnica/Pleiadians, so that might be a factor. 

[AstralSphinx 201]

On 8/28/2020 at 11:06 AM, Psychedelic Superbeast said:

What about the Astral Projection Album??

Does some one know if it will be finished soon?

 

Yeah that's a big question mark. By this rate, I'm expecting it to be released around the the same time that Elon Musk succesfully gets humans to Mars. That's probably what Astral Projection's track Life On Mars, was about all the time. 

[staffan 70]

More Hypnoxock, this time Big Crunch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bCQpf_HHHs

Next is of course Triquetra. =)) Their second album is brilliant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tPgMVPljRw

[Tsotsi 176]

It's an easy Merrow extraordinaire from the Global Sect crew.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jaRebJPw_QM

[Padmapani 480]

On 8/28/2020 at 11:18 AM, astralprojection said:

man e-mantra has always been putting in that work, since 2004 or something? always been slightly pushed  away by artifact and filteria. shame, cause e-mantra deserves some more recognition.

or he just doesnt write as engaging as his two most direct competitors do? not sure why he isnt also considered one of the top guys. i mean maybe he is by many people. but somehow he is not often linked to; talked about; referenced; shared. Maybe he doesnt have an unique enough tone/writing to pop out more.

e-mantra for me has been one of the "top 3 newschool producers" together with artifact303 and filteria since his first album. but while the others have evolved their style and explored new directions (not always in a direction i like, but their new tracks do leave the impression of something new), e-mantra seems kind of stuck. every time i hear a new release i think: this is good, but i have heard this before. it just seems generic at this point. and no new track has come close to the magic of dansul ielelor or praying forest imho.

so while i do like new e-mantra releases i find it hard to get excited about them anymore.

[astralprojection 466]

listening to Dansul Ielelor, theres quite some (since we are talking alot about sound quality lately) cancellations and frequency conflicts here; his knb sounds very thin when theres tons of action; vs full and proper when theres not. But this is great example to shine a light on the issue; and why phase aligignment is so valuable, and also around the time frame it wasnt even known, as Dansul Ielelor proves. While its a wonderful track you can quite easily hear how phase alignment was not an "issue" back then. 

[Padmapani 480]

i'd wager to guess that getting kick and bass to sit perfectly still is not among the top priorities when it comes to goa trance.

[astralprojection 466]

well, why not?

edit: filteria does a pretty good job doing it on for example wormhole; where its super clean. So i wouldnt say its unheard of in the top tier goa trance; and artifact sounds really fat in that regard also.

[recursion loop 575]

Have to say, I never liked E-Mantra's mixing style.

 

He's a big artist so obivously he knows his way around kick and bass, so it must be a personal preference. Same with FIlteria actually.

11 minutes ago, Padmapani said:

getting kick and bass to sit perfectly still is not among the top priorities when it comes to goa trance.

I'd say it's one of the top priorities for any kind of dance music. Maybe goa allows being less anal about phases and shit, but still the whole beat section must work.

[Padmapani 480]

Just now, astralprojection said:

well, why not?

if you have good melodies and many layers you can get away with knb that's just good enough.

Just now, recursion loop said:

He's a big artist so obivously he knows his way around kick and bass, so it must be a personal preference. Same with FIlteria actually.

I'd say it's one of the top priorities for any kind of dance music. Maybe goa allows being less anal about phases and shit, but still the whole beat section must work.

filteria actually works on a big system but both fitleria and e-mantra sound very weak in comparison to non-goa on a normal club system imho.

it must work to some degree, but for instance ra or skarma, while they sound good at home with great melodies, aren't really dancefloor material.

[astralprojection 466]

@Padmapani

i agree with that 100%. But its important to sometimes nitpick. And its hard to filter it out, once you hear it.

And that goes for pretty much any track; theres always things we can hear thats not "perfect"  (well okay not always, there ARE perfect stuff out there :P)

so why not strive for perfection, and e-mantra has certainly improved in this regard to pretty much perfect so its really only a piece of history.

 

 

[recursion loop 575]

51 minutes ago, Padmapani said:

skarma

yes, I remember in some of his older tracks the kick sounded somewhat weak (Naltayada). But his melodies and atmospheres are so amazing that it really doesn't matter in this case. Great for home listening indeed.

 

His recent track Mars had very good kick tho.

[NightHex 36]

 

[AstralSphinx 201]

On 8/31/2020 at 11:56 AM, astralprojection said:

listening to Dansul Ielelor, theres quite some (since we are talking alot about sound quality lately) cancellations and frequency conflicts here; his knb sounds very thin when theres tons of action; vs full and proper when theres not. But this is great example to shine a light on the issue; and why phase aligignment is so valuable, and also around the time frame it wasnt even known, as Dansul Ielelor proves. While its a wonderful track you can quite easily hear how phase alignment was not an "issue" back then. 

I have noticed this a lot lately when revisting/listening to old school 90's goa, that the kick and bass will often sound very fat and clear at their own before the often densely layered melodic channels are introduced. Not that it bothers me, but it makes me wonder, if it's an inevitable drawback of having lots of melodic layers, that might obscure the click part of the kick and the the top of the bassline? Or if that's not an issue anymore with todays production techniques? For example this is noticeable from what I remember on some of Astral Projections and MFG's classic albums, even on some Hallucinogen I think, I need to double check tonight.  So don't quote me on it.  It was never something I noticed on the more scaled back nordic goa styles like for example Miranda's. Perhaps due to that style giving more space to each layer and also because in Miranda's case her kickdrums were so big and often overgained so that they cut through very nice in the mix. 

[Richpa 928]

 

 

[astralprojection 466]

23 hours ago, AstralSphinx said:

I have noticed this a lot lately when revisting/listening to old school 90's goa, that the kick and bass will often sound very fat and clear at their own before the often densely layered melodic channels are introduced. Not that it bothers me, but it makes me wonder, if it's an inevitable drawback of having lots of melodic layers, that might obscure the click part of the kick and the the top of the bassline? Or if that's not an issue anymore with todays production techniques? For example this is noticeable from what I remember on some of Astral Projections and MFG's classic albums, even on some Hallucinogen I think, I need to double check tonight.  So don't quote me on it.  It was never something I noticed on the more scaled back nordic goa styles like for example Miranda's. Perhaps due to that style giving more space to each layer and also because in Miranda's case her kickdrums were so big and often overgained so that they cut through very nice in the mix. 

í think its a pretty modern thing, like already discussed to no end :p and tons of tracks have this "issue". point is, it wasnt an issue until 'recently'. people just assumed it "comes with it" and "its normal" and "its because theres tons of layers". all that. but now, people know better, and the modern nano stuff sounds so clean you could have a hundred layers without affecting the knb.