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Lots of social factors come at play when you try to figure out how "the scene" came to its current standards. 90s was a period without internet, or at least the social media was non-existing. You'd just do your thing, with no need for constant attention seeking or self-promotion. You'd sit in whatever psyhole you had there, compose, play at a party and the feedback would occur the natural way, via real human contact. These days you need following, likes and what not - it's all virtual though. And hey! You can also buy the likes, psyscene is under capitalistic law like it or not. All that's been said is affecting us all. Social media is giving us access to infinite amount of information and what kinda happened is our minds are focused on trillion things at once trying to swim through the pool of data. The consumption mode is on when it comes to psytrance, too. So many artists, so much music! As a reflection of a sort, haste & desire for recognition have unfortunately become major driving forces for many musicians. The social media driven world shows no mercy, it's just the state of things for the time being. Patience, vision and focus. I reckon the amount of these qualities has dropped significantly and hence understand the frustration of many. Only thing that might, just might, ease the pain is the fact new Sab Kuch Milegator album is only one track away...

Goa scene was also under capitalism. In the 90's to make trance you really needed money, I suspect studios were not built selling necklaces in Anjuna for 150 Rupees. A Mackie 24-8-2 was £3,500.00 - An ATARI 1040STE £400.00 (or an Amiga) A slightly lesser project 24 channel console (Soundtracs Topaz/Soundcraft Spirit 24/Studiomaster) £2,300.00 - Then you needed a few synths that could be £5,000.00 - a sampler with memory £2,600.00 Reverbs and delays £400.00 a go. - You needed to have some cash behind you to make decent trance. I suspect the outlay for some of the "bigger" artists project studios of the time was circa £20,000.00 - Today you could potentially make a superb track for £ 2,000.00 with a pc. 1/10th of the cost. I think a Roland JD-800 was £3,000.00 Now anyone with the inclination can make music the limit being only ideas and intention.

You need to see the wood from the trees to feel music and dissection is a type of affliction for some, it is very important to have an "OFF" switch for it (for broad objective reasons to broadly feel what has been made). Anyone involved in music production tends to, to varying degrees. Having some variation through production choices (not lack of knowledge or equipment) is good and normal. When you make your own tracks you can dissect to the nth degree and you should if that is the way you wish to work, to your definition of perfection, that is achievable with your current skill level. But unless specifically being asked, small issues won't typically make or break a good piece of music. As far as where it (new Goa) has been going it seems mainly 2 camps of production, retro re-creation with loose Juno/303/101/Novation Bass Station type B-lines or modern psy trance bass with melodic Goa style leads on top. Where it goes depends on what a producer gets off on, the technical stuff, recreating authentic retro sound, mixing up styles, writing great melodies, enjoyment of synthesis and creation of new or old sounds. But whatever, we seem to be stuck in 4/4 kick and bass land whatever way it is cut in order to be understood as Goa/psy. If you start not to have an underground sound or are influenced by too many sounds outside variations on those accepted as "psy-ey" or "Goa-ey" then you are labelled as "not real psy" or its not very Goa sounding. Conversely (and it is unfair and difficult to generalize) but some new listeners or labels hear night time/foresty stuff and it bears little lineage back to Goa. So many modern listeners have no history in place (I have visited Goa since the mid 90's and many times since. But please don't see this as a holier than thou commentary.) I did not follow Goa Trance deeply at the time but had a strong awareness of the music every time I was there, it was unavoidable with the CD sellers in Anjuna. So maybe Goa style music is a refreshing form of Psy trance for some younger ears (that is more melodic/ musically complex) and for some it reminds of the good old days. (Contrary to belief there are many from the early days who follow and love psy trance in the U.K. it is not all looking backwards.) I can hear some psy artists nod back to the 90's in their sound (often full on i.e. Electric Universe/Mad Tribe), you will hear Goa-esque sounds and techniques in their leads and some modern tracks are totally devoid of any reflection on the sonics of the 90's. In the end it is all part of a rich sonic and cultural tapestry.

normally i can listen fine without dissecting the mix, but the balance of this one (it's also different for the different tracks in the video) reminded me so much of when i had worked on a track with headphones and switched over to monitors the first time, that my brain immediately went into mixing mode

<3 Music IS the best therapy!!

i agree to everything in your first post in this thread, but have to disagree with most of this post. ime much of modern goa sounds worse on the dancefloor than at home. a few years ago i was looking forward to seeing cosmic dimension, skarma and morphic resonance live, but the livesets i've since heard from of all three of them were very disappointing. at home with good speakers or good headphones you can make out the details of the multilayered music, but at a party that's impossible and the music just turns into a giant mess. the same is often true for dj sets that focus on post-2012 newschool, so it's not just these producers. the problem is not compression or loudness; there is enough music that's limited even harder and still sounds good. it also can't be mixing; i've heard badly mixed oldschool sound good on the same system. neither can it be complexity per se; pleiadians sounded great at the same sound system where i left the dancefloor when cosmic dimension was playing. rather i think it's a peculiar combination of these things, where modern goa producers want to outdo past music by adding "more stuff", making the tracks harder to mix, leading to not quite perfect mixes that aren't optimised for loudness but are mastered to modern levels anyway. the result is ok when listened to on a good system, but in a real life environment where you neither have a perfect sound system nor perfect acoustics, maybe with levels in the red and with you not standing in the ideal listening position it all breaks down. goa can sound good on modern systems with modern, "competitive" mastering, but it has to abandon the idea that more elements always equal better, "more goa" sound. i'd definitely say quality over quantity when melodies are concened. not only for a story-telling but also from a mixing perspective. that brings us back to the definition of goa. would iconic, tracks that are minimalistic compared to modern goa, such as nmda - vitan, morphem - my plan or miranda - gnocchi still be released as goa trance today if we didn't know them already? vitan has kick and bass that are basically identical to early progressive and there are pretty much no leads playing for the first 2/3 of the track. most of it is kick and bass, percussion and a few strings/pads for atmosphere. then there is just a single true lead playing a single pattern at the end. my plan has at most one lead playing at the time, a few "drops" straight to kick and bass, and fx that talk to each other like in fullon. gnocchi again has "drops" to kick and bass, lengthy fx driven sections with no melodies at all, one bubbly lead that almost leaves the impression of fx rather than a melody (although it's playing a melody), one acidline and one "melodic" melody. both tracks rely heavily on atmosphere, as did a lot of early newschool, but most modern newschool doesn't. this atmosphere is possible because there are sections where you only have pads or long sweeps but it seems for modern goa everything has to be filled up with melodies. sometimes to the point where there's no room to the sounds to breathe. when there's no contrast between melodic climaxes and the rest of the track anymore (it doesn't have to be breakdowns. not needing lots of breakdowns is a plus imho), it all starts to sound the same, there is no room for storytelling or memorable moments. if it's that way for an entire set it really gets tiring. i don't think producers now are looking for the perfect kick and bass that much. at least the kicks on the tracks i mentioned (i'm not so sure about vitan) stand out more than the kick and bass in modern newschool. the kick in my plan even sounds much more like what we'd now call a fullon kick. btw: you've produced enough tracks to count as a producer imho

Mum? Is that you?