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Oh hell time flies, it feels like I wrote the 20th bday thread not so long ago, but turns out if was before the Covid crisis... It's still accurate. What more is there to say to that? The is not the most active community but it should stay online as it contains a goldmine of information about Goatrance and Psytrance. BTW for those who don't know from the FB post, Psynews was moved to a brand new server one month ago, it feel so much faster now. Psynews certainly changed our lives. It changed mine big time, I keep realizing it. It was a big launchpad for several projects (Suntrip, Filteria...) It's like a fabric of wonderful people all around the world. Mind you, I'm even going to finally meet @Jon Cocco in the flesh next summer as he invited me to his place in the USA. Psynews keeps amazing me with everything it helped creating or enabled along the years. For those who need some more insights about this community, I still have this other thread in store HAPPY BIRTHDAY !

RA - To Sirius - 3CD Remastered Reissue This month marks the 25th anniversary of one of the most iconic and timeless albums in the history of Goa Trance: "To Sirius" by the legendary Norwegian act RA. To commemorate this milestone, DAT Universe has worked tirelessly behind the scenes with the band’s visionary founders, Christer Borge-Lunde and Lars W. Lind, to curate an extraordinary triple-CD reissue—a tribute that not only honours this revered masterpiece but also cements RA’s legacy in the pantheon of the genre. More than a mere celebration of their magnum opus, this ambitious project seeks to transcend nostalgia, expanding the reissue into the ultimate anthology, gathering the finest compositions ever crafted by the duo during the height of their creative journey. The painstaking process of meticulously digitizing the band’s priceless DAT tapes and unearthing their long-lost old archives was a labour of love spanning several years. The result is a captivating odyssey through RA’s early foray into Goa Trance, and a definitive panorama of their artistic evolution before their reformation in 2006. Originally released in 2000 by the Taiwanese label Blue Moon Productions, and reissued in 2001 by Nova Tekk, "To Sirius" emerged like a celestial anomaly in the Psychedelic Trance scene—a luminous UFO soaring above a landscape increasingly dominated by dark minimalist and techno-infused influences. Its arrival was nothing short of a revelation, conveying a sonic manifesto that rekindled the genre’s cosmic soul and melodic grandeur. RA’s seminal masterpiece encapsulates all the quintessential elements that defined the golden era of Goa Trance, seamlessly intertwining intricate melodies, ethereal atmospheres, and hypnotic rhythms. Yet, "To Sirius" stands as a bold and visionary endeavour—an enthralling alchemy of spiritual sounds that transcend the boundaries of trance. With its cutting-edge 3D sound design and futuristic precision, the album not only redefined the genre but also reignited a glimmer of hope for its resurgence at the dawn of the new millennium. The first disc presents a remastered version of the album staying true to its original essence while elevating it to new heights—each track now resonates with greater depth, richness and balance than ever before. For the first time ever, listeners will also experience the complete, unabridged version of "Astral Flight", restored after being truncated in the original release. The second disc brings together all previously released vinyl and compilation tracks produced in the 90s, alongside a trove of unreleased gems composed between 1997 and 1999—hidden treasures that never made the album’s final cut. These long-forgotten pieces, exhumed from the band’s secret vaults, have now been reinstated into the original work, breathing new life into this reissue—a true "rebirth". This collection also features a miraculous discovery: the medley "Mooncake – Tribes Of The Moon", born from RA’s inspired collaboration with Kerry Palmer and Graham Franklin of Dimension 5. The final disc unveils the finest previously unreleased tracks from the pivotal years leading up to the creation of "To Sirius" (1995-1996)—a mesmerizing journey through the duo’s formative era, where raw creativity and fearless experimentation forged their unmistakable sound signature. Spanning an eclectic range of tempos and styles, these early productions stand as vibrant testaments to the artistic evolution of a band destined to etch its singular legacy into music history. This reissue also includes a richly detailed booklet chronicling the history of RA, complete with in-depth liner notes from the duo. It offers a rare glimpse into the equipment they used, along with long-kept secrets revealed for the first time—including the origin of the "RA" alias and the hidden meaning behind the "To Sirius" album title. With this monumental reissue, "To Sirius" is reborn—a timeless masterpiece once again illuminating the vast cosmos of Goa Trance. Tracklist: Disc One: RA – To Sirius 01 [Prologue] 02:07 02 Astral Flight 15:12 03 Universal Key 09:13 04 Beyond Control 08:34 05 Initiated 07:47 06 Sign Of Life 08:47 07 R.O.M. 08:46 08 Paradox 07:53 09 Sirius 06:52 10 [Epilogue] 04:38 Disc Two: RA – Rebirth 01 Rebirth 03:30 02 Another Horizon 08:20 03 Spiritual Odyssey 05:57 04 Lifeline 06:36 05 Questions 07:59 06 Azure Child 08:20 07 Mooncake – Tribes of the Moon 08:59 08 Static Distress 07:58 09 Crystals 08:01 10 Unseen Sky 05:04 11 Sanctuary 07:11 Disc Three: RA – The Early Years 01 Gateway (Goa Mix) 09:35 02 Cheops (Spirit Nomad) 07:45 03 Iris 07:32 04 Soul Transfusion 09:30 05 The Calling 09:15 06 Messenger From Beyond 08:34 07 Sign Of Sun 08:58 08 Intermission 02:07 09 Cheops (Caravan of Life) 07:53 10 Gateway 07:38 You can pre-order your copy here: https://www.datuniverse.com/product/datuv004-ra-to-sirius-3cd/ https://datuniverse.bandcamp.com/album/to-sirius

... one of the best decisions of my life. I used to read this forum like it was a bible when I was 20ish. 15 years later I'm organizing parties in Finland and I play Goa whenever I get the chance. Fullon is SO much easier to mix, but making 1 hour to 1.5 hour sets of goatrance is like finding the genre all over again. Every single time. It feels like I'm creating stories whenever I make my sets. Every single track brings something new, they tell stories that have never been heard, they push sounds and melodies that never been explored before. They intricately have a soul that trancends the life we are so accustomed to. Sometimes it takes 10 hours of goddamn hard work to make just over an hour of goatrance to flow together (even with my insanely vast knowledge of the genre!), but every - damn - time, it's totally worth it. There's like 5 people in Finland putting together goatrance sets during the year and it's a total pleasure being one the very few going against the mainstream of hitech, fullon, forest (that has nothing to do with forest, the fuck is wrong with that genre?) and other minimal psytech types of sounds. Last weekend I had the upmost privledge being able to deliver goatrance that transforms from 140bpm danceable super rhymtic and hypnotic goatrance (M-Run, Radical Distortion) to 156bpm soft nitzhogoa (Goalien & Agneton) and everyone who was in the front row was banging their heads off!!! I seriously could not have believed I could bring these sounds to peoples ears that have never heard them - and get them to enjoy it! This music literally was a saving grace for me. I used to be a nobody. Goatrance was something I consumed alone, skateboarding, hanging around on forums. I still kinda am a nobody, but goatrance made me a person who gives people experiences they never experienced before - I'd imagine that counts for something more than just being an npc. Goatrance, as a genre, is a goddamn joy. The melodies, the stories. People who make, play and consume goa, I've found, are the best type of people. The one's that have the capacity to ask more, the one's that think. The one's that care. Last weekend I had an older couple come up to me that my set from the weekend before was the best.. I was not sure what I heard so I asked them "this one, or the other one?", they answered "BOTH". ❤

Psynews-25 🐈 https://dropout-productions.bandcamp.com/track/ocelot-happy-birthday

Oh wow, I didn't even realize. Happy 25 years Psynews! I'm arriving late. This is wonderful! Mountains of excellent information, from albums and songs to so much more. I own and am aware of HUNDREDS of so many great / excellent albums thanks to this website! So inspirational and life-changing. Many sites don't last this long. Shout out to the community, Mars, Joske, and all of you / us - the WE that keep it alive. Thanks for sharing this positive milestone!

25 years but not going strong. I try to contribute regularly, but there are seldom any replies. We need to ramp up. Let's make 2025 a good year for psynews.

I can confirm that the Hallucinogen singles box set is indeed superlative quality. It is well remastered and repressed and the box is high quality and beautiful. The mastering is more uniform than the original 12s, which were highly variable. Recommended.

Hallucinogen singles still available for those who thought missed out, scalpers having a field day for those who thought was only preorder can't say weren't warned, if sitting on fence you don't want to miss out on this https://hallucinogenmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-singles-remastered

OOOD - SOURCE CONFIRMED - PHANTASM RECORDS, 2024 TRACKLIST Source Confirmed – 140 - Gmaj Starcaster – 138 – Fmin Aurora Lux – 144 - Gmaj Seven Minutes to Sunrise – 135 - Cmin To The Stars – 142 - Gmin Outer Space Type Music – 145 - G#min Have You Ever – 145 - Fmin The Search - 125 – Amin Beatport: https://www.beatport.com/release/source-confirmed/4840527 Bandcamp: https://oood.bandcamp.com/album/source-confirmed All links: https://phantasm.ampsuite.com/releases/links?id=230 Hello Psynews, it's been a while I'm extremely proud to present our 7th album "Source Confirmed", released on Phantasm Records on December 20th 2024. Here's what the label wrote as promo text: As you can see from the track bpms, this is a very different album from the one we released in 2021 on Iboga Records, and we're super happy with where we are right now in terms of writing and production. The release includes a continuous DJ mix of the album which you can download in WAV. Please check it out!

Like and follow to get notified of the uploaded scans https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61573389360427

YouTube link in case you want to listen before you buy. It sounds very nice and has some really cool music, it's better than the ultravibe album by filteria and Cosmosis 😃 musically? Sound quality? A single kick drum? Well something sounds better

Hello lovely people! Hope you are doing well. This is part one of a mix trilogy of Psychedelic Experience. This is our psychedelic experience, everyone deep in his own personal path, even if at times it can be so challenging or impossible , every good purpose which serves the Higher Self will find his way through. The intelligence of Consciousness is doing everything so perfectly. Remind yourself that you are part of it. You are a divine Being, in a world where many humans are slaves of their egoistic ignorance, you have the choice to be a kind, compassionate, caring spirit. Don't let them poison your beautiful energy, they don't have the capabilities to understand what they are doing. Trust the Universe. Tracklist Intro- Deviant Species- Portal to Balojax 1.-Sleek- The Driver (original Mix) 2.-The Delta, Alex Tolstey, - Vicious Pink 3.-LURIFAX - Lobo rmx 4.-Ouija Feat. DJ Alex-Zeitmaschine 5.-X-Dream - Quantumlab (Instrumental) 6.-Pylon-The Bro 7.-Intact Instict-Chicago Coin's Cinema 8.-SURIA - Sky stone 9.-Psycho Abstract - Tia Puta 10.-Sensient - Loose Cannon 11.-Midi Miliz- Good Time 12.-X-Dream - Distressor (2006 Edit) 13.-The Delta- Pop https://on.soundcloud.com/fJXK1fx7kU8TKyzC9

I got it from the guy who runs the label. He said he help one copy back in case there was an issue with someone's purchase. I was able to get that from hi (sealed and unopened). But yeah, I was curious about that too

I liked those two tracks you released! Gonna add this to my wishlist.

I have to admit, I'm a bit hesitant to upload this because I really don't want to step on any toes. However, I feel like it's time we talked about something that's been on my mind and on the minds of many others. Has Psytrance lost its edge? Has it become a bit too formulaic? A lot of the tracks I come across these days seem to follow the same set of rules—using similar sounds and carrying the same general vibe. Many of my friends who are DJs and producers—very active in the Psytrance community—have shared similar concerns but often choose not to speak up to avoid any negative backlash. Since I'm no longer reliant on the scene for my livelihood, I feel it's important to bring this conversation forward. See how general interest in Psytrance has declined: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=psytrance,psy trance,psy-trance&hl=en-GB In this video, I'm revisit some tracks from some of the most innovative Psytrance artists from the early days, before 2000, and explore how we've moved from a musically diverse scene to one that today sounds remarkably consistent. While this is all highly subjective and there are certainly exceptions, I think we need to discuss the current state of Psy-trance. Please leave your comments, let's dive into this together! Playlist used in the video: U?si=t4328LDRaroZVy3D

In fact when I stopped overthinking this I started actually finishing my tracks. Before that it was an endless recursion loop of "this is not good enough, that it not thought-out enough". My first completed psytrance track took me more than a year to finish (If I discount my another poorly mixed half-assed effort which has been finished and self-mastered when I was dead drunk but was surprizingly liked by some people here). I still don't consider myself good enough and sometimes i feel that my next track sounds worse than the one I've made right before that - this used to frustrate the hell of me but I now stopped bothering about this, it is counterproductive.

That's very true! Some other stuff, that always bothered me: - the transitions always needed to be smooth, e.g. the new parts couldn't just enter abruptly, they somehow had to be 'announced' or 'signalled' which obviously is great for flow, but at the same time undermines the energy and surprise factor of the track, not to mention it's challenging technically, - I always somehow felt and required from myself that my next track needs to be 'better' than the last one - longer, more sounds, more complex, more emotional or weird, etc. which is destructive for a creative process, because in reality the quality of your output (and to be frank, your assessment of your work) is changing over time and even between the days, so it's practically impossible to be 'better' all the time - this results in quickly scrapping off the ideas that were good, but 'not good enough' for the track to be better, - time - there's always to little of it, be it because of family & work commitments, or simply because people need to sleep - who ever thought this was a good idea!?!!

When I started making electronic music almost 10 years ago i used Reason 3 and didn't have problems with that. Then there was a break for a few years where I started using ableton every once in a while. I struggeled using that DAW in general to that time because i never constantly used it. By that time i always had a lot of unfinished loops and never finished anything. Then 4 years ago I had a lot of free time and suddenly finished one track. That was the point from where i was able to finished one track after another. Here is how I work now: I always start with a kick, bassline and snare loop. Then start experimenting around with synth, loops and crazy effect chains to get something nice and interesting. So I end up with maybe a 1-4 or 8 bar loop i really like. Once I have that I often create a simple intro or build up before it. This gives me the right feeling of how this loop will sound in a complete track. By having this i already have a few elements i can play with. I take these and change them to get the next few bar. What really helps then is closing your eyes and listen to what you've got so far. Imagine you are standing on the dancefloor having a lot of fun enjoying the music and dancing and now try to figure out what you would like to happen in the music in this situation. Do you want it to become stronger, more loaded with sounds or do feel that it's time to go down a bit and get more emotional or maybe it's already time for a break? Of course you can change everything afterwards. i.e. on my latest project i started with a great bassline and a pretty nice drop. This part is now located in the end of the track. mixing and making everything sound good is something i do on the fly. Of course when the track is almost done I start to polish things here and there, sometime for hours. changing some sounds because they are rythmically good but just don't work in the whole mix. compressing, thinking about my stereo field and so on. I do these already while working creativly bot i redo this again and again in the process and especially in the end.

of course it was more work back then, but i rather appreciate the finished piece of music than the amount of work put into it. no sane person is going to say "lame, he's modded his 303 with a midi input and doesn't use the built in sequencer that's a pain in the ass to work with". and i don't care about how many microedits some psycore artist did to achieve his fx, i still don't like the music. my opinion depends on how it sounds.

Hello my good Sir ! First of all, it is obvious that you need some hugs. Here is a picture of some kitties. I sincerely hope that it'll make you feel cheerrier. Now, you do have a committed a monstruous sin toward the Goa God ! You have lacked some faith ! May you be forgiven, o fool ! On a more serious basis, you base your thinking over a misconception. That conception is that this scene is only about old guys who gigged in the 90's, and that Newschool producers are all frustrated by that time. That is wrong. We are quite a few to be young here. In the scene, we have many people that are born between 1990 and 1995, and that haven't known the Golden days (I myself am 22). This scene is younger that you think. Of course there is ! You don't know this scene enough obviously. The Neo Goa scene is at the moment is the most creative niche within Psytrance these days. There are many examples, but i'll just tell you to listen to Kolovrat by Lunar Dawn. Give it a head, and you'll see how modern and creative they are. Also, I will confess something. I don't really dig Oldschool Goa. I love Newschool. It's more modern, less dusty, and in my view, Neo Goa is not the attempt to resurrect an old corpse, it is the ultimate developpement of modern psytrance. It's something fresh that brings more magic to the scene, and that gets more and more trendy. So, no obsession with Oldschool. Also, some artists do produce Oldschool style. They do it very well. Space Tribe and Dickster - Alien Sex Fiend OOOD Astral Projection - Mugen remix KURO, Masa, Matsuri The Muses Rapt - Human More generally, there's nothing wrong with keeping coming again and again to Oldschool. It's just like metal and rock music. There are classics that people never get tired to listen. Cheers !

Eh it's still a highly relevant and an interesting tangent. I think it's totally crazy I didn't even think of people mastering for festivals or parties, but I guess that's because my music consumption is home listening 100% Personally I listen to so much music that I do notice the differences(Unless it's a trashy audio system, but then everything sounds equally shit regardless), it is a massive change whether a track is flat, sharp, bloomy, soft or whatever you want to throw in here. You don't even have to get technical about it, just the way it sounds is enough. And as said, newer equipment get more and more revealing as the years go by. On parties people will pay even less attention to these things because everything is loud regardless and the sound systems already colour the music pretty heavily(There's a saying everything sounds great in a party). At least to me, mastering can make and break a track as I automatically gravitate toward things that sound more enticing and pleasing rather than boring and flat and the production has a huge impact on how the bass sounds, how sharp or dull the highs are, how busy it sounds or how much breathing room the layers have. Homogeneity is also an issue I agree, not everything should sound the same, but for the sake of consistency for an album that's a different thing.. Now obviously people who do mostly notice these things are not the majority, but why does one have to always go for the lowest common denominator? This is why we have the loudness war in the first place. Musical quality is the most important one yes, but again if something sounds like it's been through hell like the tracks in my original post, then it doesn't matter, the tracks will be forgotten. a couple pages back I posted a comparison of D5 iron sun and it's remix, tell me you don't hear a difference with them. Or another album I find unfortunately lacking in audio department was M-Run, he had 2 tracks on Erta Alé mastered by Colin and they sounded much better than anything in the album. I still find the album brilliant in it's own right, musical-wise, but I do not go back to it as much as I'd want! And to note this is not directed at anyone in particular even if it might seem so, just talking general principles what kind of a change you can achieve just with how things sound.