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I personally like a mix of familiar and unfamiliar tracks, if there's only music that I know well being played the "suprise-effect" disappears. Though if I'm too lost a recognizable song usually takes me down to the ground a bit, so it's all about balance! Classics often creates a burst of joy among the dancers, it's awesome hearing your favorite pieces on a dancefloor (but it's even better finding a new one right there ). As long as the transition is relatively smooth and doesn't take too long I don't complain, a bit of dissonance usually doesn't hurt (especially when it comes to forest/darkpsy where that's already a prominent element of the music). Other tricks (fx, etc) is secondary, it's cool when people can pull it off but I've never thought "man this set needs more DJ-tricks". About storytelling, I think it makes a difference. Though sometimes storytelling just means thinking about the relationship between the tracks and the order played, in terms of dynamics, mood and such. Which I guess every DJ do, but I love when someone can take it to a deeper level and create a real trip.

Where to begin... Could you maybe post some of your favorite tracks or parts? Then I can recommend you tracks in a similar style. A lot of decent labels and subdivisions were mentioned here. I usually see these big subdivisions in the genre. I put my biggest recommendations in the beginning of the sum up. I think your taste in Forestdelic Records resembles the "abstract" sum up the most. I also posted my dj sets here in case you want to hear a lot of recommendations at once. A) Oldskool Forest / Melodic Forest: Schlabbaduerst Rekkords (check out their Bandcamp and also the Bandcamp of the individual artists like BOTFB, Ka-Sol and Zoon), Chronicle of Mystery Records, Kiriyama, Kluster. B ) Sanaton style "mossy" Forest (I'm using Sanaton in the name here because they were the first label that I listened to that was releasing this style): all the Hallucinogenic Horses Artists (Derango, Traskel, Makadam etc...), Attoya, The Cure Records / Medulla Oblongata Records, Flipkompagniet Records (Smuds, Volapyk, Orhm), Treetrolla Records, Mighty Quinn Records (latest VA!!), Shivattva, Oneiromanix, Digital Shiva Power Records, Vantara Vichitra Records... C) More "abstract" Forest that leans closer to Dark Psy: Parvati Records (a lot of variety here, all quality, my fav release is Arjuna - Primal Contact), Farebi Jalebi, Phreex Networx, Lost Theory Records (also a lot of variety and some "Sanaton" style too), Sonic Loom Records. A lot of Japanese artists in this style too like Gu, Jangaramongara, Shiibashunsuke... D) And then there's this label that releases a very distinct and unique style that I can't put anywhere else: Yggdrasil Records!! Loke / Hutti Heitta / Freeform Syndicate + almost everything else released on there.

Hope I don't stray too far from you original request but as Redo gave you a great list of forest essentials I thought I'd point you to another interesting genre under the forest spectrum: forest-goa! Especially since you listen to Goa mainly. Usually based in the goa sounds but darker and more chaotic, with maddening melodies and the moody, quirky vibe associated with forest. Ka-sol - Fairytale, Gorm Höller - Böller and Kiriyama - Reach Escape Velocity is probably a great introduction. Also Chronicle of Mystery recs (VA Chronicle of Schlabbaduerst is amazing goa-madness), and ofc Schlabbaduerst rekkords.