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Why is it you guys like to talk about music you don't like instead giving the attention to something that's worth your while? It's just silly how many great releases get totally discarded and then the only topic that has any replies, on the biggest psyforum of this planet, is about something that is derivative/bad.

I'm not sure about amateurish sounding. Ra, Artifact 303, Psy-H-Project have very good production. Compared to typical modern psytrance their mixes sounds less clean but I think this is on purpose, goa it supposed to be "wall of sound" kind of thing. Some other producers like Filteria, Crossing Mind or Mindsphere (older tracks) sound more raw, I don't like it but I think it is also a deliberate choice and not because they don't know how to mix their stuff. TBH, very loud and clean "in your face" sound of modern psytrance, especially these ultra-sharp laser-like basslines, annoy the hell of me, I don't find it enjoyable or even danceable. I prefer the warmer sound of Ra or Artifact303 by far. However the 90's goa is indeed a "closed chapter" as someone said. There is only so much you can do by tweaking the cutoff and resonanse knobs on a subtractive synth playing a Phrygian pattern. It may sound very cool but it all becames too samey at some point. I actually think the transition from goa to psytrance/full-on in late 90's was mainly caused by the rise of digital synths, such as Access Virus, offering new kinds of sounds with digital "robots/spaceships/aliens" aesthetics. So people moved on from the tried and tested goa sounds to the new territories. Contrary to that, it seems that many newschool goa producers intentionally avoid wavetable synths, FM synths, bitcrushers, vowel filters, digital distortions and other modern sounding stuff and use only small selection of subtractive analogue sounds. Apparently they want to stay true to the original goa trance sound but in my (unpopular) opinion this contributes to the overal sameness and the lack of evolution in newschool goa. I'd love to hear more goa trance with some unusual tricky digital sounds in it.

Please don't hurt me: My favorite Etnica album is Chrome. For some reason I never really liked their goa trance too much - not that I don't like it, it's just that the connection is missing. Chrome was one of the first albums I had on CD back in the days so it has a special place for me. The result is this very unpopular opinion. Oh, and I don't think anything killed anything. In my book, modern psytrance and oldschool goa trance don't have too much in common and I treat them separately. I actually find it a blessing that oldschool goa is somewhat of a "closed chapter", because many styles end up becoming overly stale. Look at indie rock for probably the best example, and I think the same thing has already begun to happen with psytrance as well.

Newly made tunes mimicking the dated sound of old school goa make no sense to me. What a waste. We have such sharp sounds now, so much cool stuff you can do with the tools available and it sounds so fresh... The vibe of old school can easily be kept in the song-writing, there's no need to intentionally make it sound date. So many releases like this. It's heartbreaking to think what could be.

Do you have any strange releases in your collection, from highly unknown labels, or even bootleg stuff? I have: - The Best Of Tantrance, Vol. 2 : This is GOA - no url Yes, this really exists... it contains tracks from tantrance 4 til 6, A friend bought this for me at just a regular CD store, for my birhtday years ago... bootleg quality paper, engrish titles and songlength / no IFPI number in the CD, couple of songs are as one long 30 minute song but not mixed, clicks and glitches from "their" damaged cd here and there.. but it sais that Euro Media has released it.. obviously it isn't Have no clue at all where this bootleg came from. - V.A - The World of Goa Trance 3 Released by ZYX (?), number 3 in a series of four... known names as well as unkown names on it, mixed CD, cheap cover but some very nice songs (actually quit good for that time! although the general pace of the mix is too fast so most of the songs are short... and mixed out a bit too quickly) - GOA-TRANCE VOL 6 (also check out: http://www.psynews.org/reviews/goatran4.htm) Total GOA-HEAD copycat (same font used in logo / layout - even contains the "The best of goatrance & psychedelic techno" subtitle) Released by a dutch label, this one is absolutely filled with crap, all badly produced by one guy and he uses fake and parody names: Synchron (original artist: Synchro) , Sphinx and joking (Original artist: Joking sphinx) Alysium (Original artist: Elysium) (yes .:E.P. , its true..), Avi Missim (Original name: Avi Nissim) , cheese cover-art. really really bad.. I encourage you to listen to this and sit the full thing through... it will be an awefull experience, mark my words... The first 3 parts of this series were actually quite good (especially part 1) since they still contained some licensed stuff, some real names and some good tracks..