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Looking for the first Goa Trance track


HolyLight

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So which was the first one? In the Acid House genre it's well known who made the first true Acid track, DJ Pierre with his "Acid Tracks" from 1987. But who made the first real Goa Trance track? Where all the elements that we associate with the genre were present?

So I'm not really thinking about the new beat and various different styles that were innitially played in Goa, I'm thinking more like the first classic old school Goa Trance track?

This thread was on to something similar:

 

And also this one:

 

But I still feel like that's a bit too vague. And I'm finding it a bit problematic when people asked sometimes what the first track was and I can't even present a good answer even after googling. Is there even consesus on what country had the first artist/group in the genre? Was it the UK, Israel, Germany, Sweden or some other country? I'm leaning more and more on the notion that the truly first classic Goa Trance should probably be defined as those we all know best by now, the ones that first appeared on the various compilations and albums around 1994/1995. Because that IMO is when the style got more refined and the traits we all associate with the style nowadays was crystallized.

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I like to refer to this thread because it's related and I did some research there...

The relationship between "proper" goa trance tracks and the genre name can be possibly seen like the chicken-egg problem. Can you produce real goa trance if there's no such genre? Can there be a genre if there are no tracks? In fact, if you read the wikipedia article for chicken and egg, it says, among other viewpoints:

Quote

The process by which the chicken arose through the interbreeding and domestication of multiple species of wild jungle fowl is poorly understood, and the point at which this evolving organism became a chicken is a somewhat arbitrary distinction. Whatever criteria one chooses, an animal nearly identical to the modern chicken (i.e., a proto-chicken) laid a fertilized egg that had DNA identical to the modern chicken (due to mutations in the mother's ovum, the father's sperm, or the fertilised zygote). Put more simply by Neil deGrasse Tyson: "Which came first: the chicken or the egg? The egg—laid by a bird that was not a chicken."

But which one is the chicken or the egg in this "genre or track" comparison? :P Well, I think we can agree that there were tracks laid by the proto-goa genre and tracks totally inspired by the Goa party scene before the genre name was acknowledged. For the obvious Goa (place) infuence, see Goa EP and Carlo Andrea Raggi's Goahead alias. Were they goa tracks or does that require crunchier synth lines? Who knows. Where did those appear first?

 

At least The Infinity Project, Eat Static and Dimension 5 were releasing already in 1991, and ultimately their style progressed right into the core of what we call goa trance. When did they "cross the line"? In there, opinions probably differ. Or like the Discogs 'Vinyl Only' Goa tracks list description says, "One man's Trance is the other man's Techno and my Hard Trance is your Goa Trance. Not much you can do with style debates and obscure releases will have style changed sometime."

 

Or acid trance classics like Hardfloor's Acperience? Would it be totally goa trance if released, in an alternate universe, on the B side of some Green Nuns 12" in 1995?

 

I think it's a fun topic to discuss as long as you take it as light musings only and don't expect to reach any hard facts or conclusions. :)

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Music is a continuum, and nothing is completely original, so it's difficult to pick one specific track and say "aha, this is the one!" Plenty of candidates exist, depending on how you want to define your criteria and narrow the search. "Goa trance" as a concept didn't really begin to really take on identifiable features until 1993 or 1994 anyway; originally it was an expression that captured quite a range of different yet compatible sounds heard on those halcyon beaches... so really it depends on how you want to approach the question, and how flexible you're willing to be.

Some early tunes that have that distinct Goa trance vibe... starting with this new beat classic from 1988:


Italian progressive house from 1990... but there's a definite Goa trance vibe with all those eastern melodies:


New York techno circa 1990 produced by none other than Joey Beltram... sure sounds like Simon Posford could have taken a cue from this tune tho!


Ramin is perhaps best remembered in the Goa trance scene for his work with Afrotrance, but what about this obscure tune from 1990; it is the template for modern-day darkpsy?


The first really good Eat Static tune IMO... dating back to 1991 but very rare and hard to get until it was released on Bandcamp more recently: 

Ever wonder where X-Dream got some of their ideas from? Goa trance fans idolize "The Frog", probably without realizing something very like it was released in 1991...


Another one of those tunes that you might say is too far into new beat territory... but this classic from 1991 features plenty of Goa trance tropes (and obviously inspired Etnica):


Here's a brilliant and sadly overlooked tune from 1991 that I believe has never been released in full-length, digital quality... produced by Jorg Burger and Wolfgang Voigt (co-founder of Kompakt): 

 

Once you step into 1992 the choices begin to proliferate so I'll just leave you with this classic for now...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA7AM7hmIu8

 

 

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4 minutes ago, Basilisk said:

Music is a continuum, and nothing is completely original, so it's difficult to pick one specific track and say "aha, this is the one!" Plenty of candidates exist, depending on how you want to define your criteria and narrow the search. "Goa trance" as a concept didn't really begin to really take on identifiable features until 1993 or 1994 anyway; originally it was an expression that captured quite a range of different yet compatible sounds heard on those halcyon beaches... so really it depends on how you want to approach the question, and how flexible you're willing to be.

Some early tunes that have that distinct Goa trance vibe... starting with this new beat classic from 1988:


Italian progressive house from 1990... but there's a definite Goa trance vibe with all those eastern melodies:


New York techno circa 1990 produced by none other than Joey Beltram... sure sounds like Simon Posford could have taken a cue from this tune tho!


Ramin is perhaps best remembered in the Goa trance scene for his work with Afrotrance, but what about this obscure tune from 1990; it is the template for modern-day darkpsy?


The first really good Eat Static tune IMO... dating back to 1991 but very rare and hard to get until it was released on Bandcamp more recently: 

Ever wonder where X-Dream got some of their ideas from? Goa trance fans idolize "The Frog", probably without realizing something very like it was released in 1991...


Another one of those tunes that you might say is too far into new beat territory... but this classic from 1991 features plenty of Goa trance tropes (and obviously inspired Etnica):


Here's a brilliant and sadly overlooked tune from 1991 that I believe has never been released in full-length, digital quality... produced by Jorg Burger and Wolfgang Voigt (co-founder of Kompakt): 

 

Once you step into 1992 the choices begin to proliferate so I'll just leave you with this classic for now...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QA7AM7hmIu8

 

 

 Very interesting selection! Thanks! And yes indeed it becomes a rather almost philosophical debate, and reality is of course not so clear-cut as one would sometimes hope. :) But this all leads to my desire to define and find a stepping stone, where the marketing departments on record labels began to agree on what this music encompassed. When the audience became aware of this at the time new phenomena, and when anyone who heard it would go: ”aa did you hear that tune? That’s a proper Goa Trance tune!”

Which for me seems to have been around 1994/1995. That’s when this style became fleshed out and marketed accordingly. Atleast in my own experience at the time. Before that it was a bit more obscure and definitely more of an underground thing, where party people and DJ’s and other ”initiated” people had an idea of this concept. I think the defining moment must’ve been when the major labels catched on, and their marketing departments and design teams  created an easy to understand product. 

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12 hours ago, Psychedelic Superbeast said:

i dont know what you mean...what cowbells? of all that tracks my sounds most modern and even "psytrance" like. the production is better than late 90s goa. Dude what cowbells are you stoned??

your words are like a labyrinth in a hand of a blind black guy living in the ass of a deep sea shark

:rolleyes:

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One can of course track back influences way back, and there are 100's of great proto-goa tracks from early 80's to early 90's, but I would say that it was the season 91/92 where Goa actually became a sound. Before that of course there was a red thread in the music for sure, but it was very much a mixture of different styles and probably over 90% of the music that was played was made by people who had never heard of the scene in Goa.

I would say one important turning point was Eat Static - Prepare your spirit which Ollie Wisdom played on a party in Goa in late 91. Not only one track, but a double cassette with a bunch of tracks in a new specialized style for that kind of parties. 
Of course there came many individual tracks during 91 that was made with Goa in mind. For example Ian Ion and Overlords was a very important influence on several of the early well known British producers, like TIP, which also made some of the very first goa tracks.

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26 minutes ago, ResonantEarth said:

One can of course track back influences way back, and there are 100's of great proto-goa tracks from early 80's to early 90's, but I would say that it was the season 91/92 where Goa actually became a sound. Before that of course there was a red thread in the music for sure, but it was very much a mixture of different styles and probably over 90% of the music that was played was made by people who had never heard of the scene in Goa.

I would say one important turning point was Eat Static - Prepare your spirit which Ollie Wisdom played on a party in Goa in late 91. Not only one track, but a double cassette with a bunch of tracks in a new specialized style for that kind of parties. 
Of course there came many individual tracks during 91 that was made with Goa in mind. For example Ian Ion and Overlords was a very important influence on several of the early well known British producers, like TIP, which also made some of the very first goa tracks.

Cool thanks for the input, I had almost forgotten the early stuff by The Overlords, in particular this remix of Sundown, seems to be when the sound was really starting to take shape. And morph into what we now associate with the style:

The original from 1991 is more industrial/ebm or something to my ears atleast. :) I’m not very knowledgeable about those earlier musical genres. 

Of course by the time their epic track God’s Eye on Goa dropped in 1994, the metamorphosis from Proto-Goa to pure Goa Trance was complete. That track has all the hallmark traits I would use to describe the style. The airy ethereal melodies and soundscape. And above all the uplifting euphoric, trancendental qualities. Nowadays we would probably go further and categorize it as a morning Goa Trance tune.

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5 minutes ago, AstralSphinx said:

Cool thanks for the input, I had almost forgotten the early stuff by The Overlords, in particular this remix of Sundown, seems to be when the sound was really starting to take shape. And morph into what we now associate with the style:

The original from 1991 is more industrial/ebm or something to my ears atleast. :) I’m not very knowledgeable about those earlier musical genres. 

Yeah, no sunrise was complete in 91/92 season without overlords-sundown, and I think it was always Ionizer remix.

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4 minutes ago, ResonantEarth said:

Yeah, no sunrise was complete in 91/92 season without overlords-sundown, and I think it was always Ionizer remix.

Aha you know better than me :) I just investigated it as I wrote. 

The versions I listened to and contrasted was these two very different:

 

1991

vs

1992

 

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I'm sure the Ionizer mix is from 91, but perhaps released 92.
It was common that DJ's in goa had tracks before release, especially when it became a scene of its own around that time.

For example Eat Static - Prepare your spirit was not really released until 2000, when it was some 9-10 years old :)

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If we are talking pre-91 and proto goa, here is a few party hits from 91 or earlier:

 

 


Here are a few tracks from same time that like sundown one might call early Goa in the sense that they didn't just happen to fit in the style of music played there, but also was formed by it:

 

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  • 2 months later...
On 8/27/2021 at 8:12 AM, Prana4ever said:

Planet BEN: Welcome to the future. 1991? That's what Discogs says. Hard to believe when you listen to the track but if true it is easily the most advanced track of the early nineties.

Thanks! Will check out now. :) 

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On 9/1/2021 at 3:16 AM, Prana4ever said:

You haven't changed your profile picture yet this month. What is going on!

It’s a bit of OCD. :ph34r: AND I LOVE IT! You should make yourself a profile pic. Maybe a photo of Prana? ;)  

Listening now to the Planet Ben track.

Sounds amazing. Unbelievable if truly finished in 1991, which I doubt. My guess would be that it was first made in 1991, an early version and then finalized/mixed down 1995/1996ish. Kinda like Astral Projection’s Another world track.

Because the sound design/mixing is very advanced in this track. :) The background sounds are nicely layered. And the sound image is exceptionally good. Weird that I’ve missed this album. I only remember the track Questionmark beeing featured on Destination Goa 3.

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Hi ... I think you will unfortunately never succeed finding the "first goa track" ... it may be out there, but you need to keep in mind how this movement evolved:

The early parties in Goa were interestingly not full of that stuff we consider as "Goatrance" now ... it was a wild melange of early acid house, early techno, even some EBM - and some obscure tracks mixed into it that did not have a genre.

I have one really old Goa Party video in that Psynews playlist:

At 6:23 you can hear Front 242 - Headhunter play ... this is probably the last thing you'd expect when searching for Goatrance nowadays:

... anyways ...

I can imagine DJs and fans of these peculiar tracks (which did not have a genre back then that made them easily identifyable) gathering and collecting these tracks, the pile growing and growing ... most was spread by word of mouth and by copying DAT tapes :D ... and one day that collecting hit "critical mass", people started to produce stuff that sounded like it - first artists were emerging and the Goa Trance style was born.

This is why you'll have little success I'm afraid ... you'll have to retrace these steps the others did before you -- and I don't think you'll come out of that pile with "the one track" but rather a collection of them ... btw: @ResonantEarth did a nice one - love to see The KLF in there :wub:

Oh and this is not just my rambling ... you can read a story which lets you come to similar conclusions in this article: https://sweek.com/de/story/BgYKBAFsCAUFBwgJAwEFBw==

cheers <3

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