Melodic Goa Trance: The Forgotten Side of Psychedelic Music

[Plusminus]

Hi there! Glad you clicked the title and ended up here.
What you see is yet another “Top” list made by a random nobody on the internet 😉 This time, it’s all about Goa trance tracks with beautiful leading melodies. Two key words: beautiful and melodic.

Important note: these are not playlists of the “best Goa tracks ever” — they are playlists of tracks with the best melodies. Big difference.

Oldschool has the priority. I’ve heard very little new school (not really my cup of tea), but there are a few new school tracks included here and there.

The playlists are made for home listening, not necessarily for burning the dancefloor — though that works too. Personally, I listen to them while walking my dog or at work.

Ideally, I like tracks with just one strong leading melody — not melody after melody after melody. That way the track sticks in your head and stands out. Of course, there are exceptions, like Infected Mushroom – Dancing With Kadafi (though you won’t find it here; a few IM tracks were in my drafts, but I dropped them since they’re not really Goa).

Each playlist has 200 tracks. Why 200? Because that’s the YouTube playlist limit, and it’s convenient for editing. I actually have enough material for at least 3 more playlists, but sorting takes time. Sometimes I find a good track, but if it doesn’t match the quality of the others, I (sadly) cut it out.

It’s been a tough selection process. You can’t cover everything. There will always be amazing tracks I haven’t heard, or forgot, or that you love but I don’t. Making choices is hard.

And don’t forget: this is just the selection of some random nobody from the internet

Bonus: if anyone wants the full list in Excel — I’ve got it, happy to share.

Below are the first four parts. More to come…

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | More to come…

Edited September 3, 2025 by Plusminus
Updated the links

[abasio]

2 hours ago, Plusminus said:

Bonus: if anyone wants the full list in Excel — I’ve got it, happy to share.

Yes please.

Melodic Goa was hugely popular here.

Personally I preferred the darker acid heavy stuff but I am sure there's tonnes of lurkers here lapping up the beautiful melodies on show

[astralprojection]

Isn't all goa melodic? Isn't that what separates it from psytrance? 

I guess not, some goa is just hypnotic and not very melodic.. Well ok. You said four parts but you linked 4 videos, it seemed like you wanted to link 4 different playlists. 

[Plusminus]

The difference between psytrance and goa trance is not at all about the presence or absence of melodies.

There are plenty of goa trance tracks without a beautiful leading melody.

I linked four playlists and the links were correct. I don’t know why the forum trimmed them down to a single track.

I’m writing from my phone right now, it’s not convenient for me to edit it.

[abasio]

3 hours ago, Plusminus said:

Below are the first four parts. More to come…

I did something that I usually do not do, I interrupted my own listening to listen to what you provided.

You promised melodies, I followed this thinking it would be melodies but this was a very unmelodic track.

I liked it, as I said before, I am more of a fan of the darker, more acidic side, but if this is your first example of "melodic trance" I don't think I can take you seriously. 

[Plusminus]

I think the track Afrotrance - Spiritual Energy is a masterpiece. Nothing more, nothing less. And it’s one of the best floating goa trance tracks. It has an amazing build-up. The melody keeps changing in subtle ways (evolving). And if this is not considered a melodic track, then I don’t know what is. Just so you know, it’s a track with a long intro, and the melody starts at the third minute. You can find my comment on YouTube, I left a timestamp there.

[Plusminus]

On laptop the playlists in my post work fine, but on phone they don’t So I added clickable links in the first post. Unfortunately, I can’t add the Excel file – it’s not allowed by the forum rules, the system just doesn’t let me attach it.

[Plusminus]

I dropped an Excel file on Google Drive — set it up so you can download it with one click.
The file has 4 sheets, one for each playlist.

Feel free to peek at the tracklists before listening. There are some rarities in there too — not always the catchiest melodies, but pretty much unknown stuff. And let’s be honest, half the fun of playlists is digging up hidden gems. So yeah, give it a spin if you’re curious. Enjoy… or don’t 😅

[abasio]

I see the excel tracklists, they look good. We may disagree on the term melodic, but it's definitely my type of music.

I'm not a YouTube user though, never managed to get in to YouTube, can't listen to more than one track on the platform. Now if someone could put these tracklist in to a mix and make that downloadable, that would be great 👍 

Asking too much? Yeah, ignore more 😆 

[Proxeeus]

Thanks for reminding me about the existence of the Afrotrance track - haven't heard it in ages, still an absolute banger.