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Artist: Maan Title: Floral Cortex Label: Neogoa Records Date: May, 2020 1. Prelude: Havenless 2. Mother Moss 3. Instant Equilibrium 4. Re/Bells 5. Gardens With Flowers of Crazy Colors 6. The Wednesday Pond 7. Red Relic 8. Interstate Insects 9. Maven 10. Postlude: Antiquity Maan is Frode Ungar from Norway and this is his debut album. His Orbiter Ep from 2017 was very good as were his compilation tracks. Neogoa consistently releases quality goa trance and this is no exception. While not being exceptional at anything, it is extremely solid at everything. Ten tracks with the intro and outro being short sketches that had me wanting more. The goa gets started with Mother Moss and as the title insinuates this is more of a forest track with a goa feel. Loses its way a bit in the middle, but finishes strongly. Instant Equilibrium is an immediate stormer that feels very old school. Sounds like old X-Dream. It hardly deviates from its opening structure, but it's so bouncy and infectious I don't mind. I liked the metallic synth banging right out of the gate with Re/Bells and it maintains the goa flavor. The crystal clear sound and punchy bass of Garden With Flowers hits me immediately and the groove is similar to M-Run efforts. Most interesting track goes to The Wednesday Pond, sounding downtempo and progressive at the same time. Really a very zen experience. Red Relic combines a hammering bass and a frenetic synthline, but not a whole lot else. Insects is very high intensity with screeching synth leads and never fully takes a break, but keeps evolving. Maven closes it out with a super crisp sound and bouncy rhythms. Really liked the understated layers in this one. Like I said, not exceptional at anything, but great at everything. It's a solid goa album that I felt could've been better, but with numerous dalliances in other genres. I look forward to the next one. Neogoa Records Bandcamp

Shadows is the album I was thinking of. I'm not sure it's really all that good, but it is certainly a faithful imitation of WCOOH, and even includes a remix of Freak. Worth a listen if you're seeking more of that particular sound, but don't set your expectations too high.

That's actually a pretty cool track!

I find this sound very good!

Dear friends, The votes have been uploaded to my main supercomputer and have been counted a thousand times over and over again. As always, these lists are gold. Some of you will encounter hidden gems, stuff that you missed... or you can start digging those sweet downtempo albums to find the perfect background soundtrack. A big thank you to all artists and labels for the music. Even if your score is not in the upper range, being included in the list means someone noticed your music and it means that now we are ALL noticing your music. Congratulations! Here's the link to the voting thread. Here are the results of PSYNEWS BEST OF 2019! UPTEMPO ======== 1 66 pts Psylent Buddhi - Secrets Of The Atom (Suntrip Records) 2 49 pts Ultimate Xperience - Realm Of A New Dawn (Neogoa Records) 3 47 pts K.U.R.O. & Charm - Japanese Vibrations (DAT Records) 4 44 pts Median Project - Constellation (Suntrip Records) 5 43 pts JaraLuca - The Prologue (Mammomam Records) 6 42 pts Battle Of The Future Buddhas - The Light Behind The Sun (Suntrip Records) 7 41 pts Merr0w - Odysseus (Global Sect Records) 8 40 pts GoaD - Hypnotic Mirage (Neogoa Records) 9 38 pts Sykespico - Perspective (Suntrip Records) 10 33 pts Various - ZNA Retro Futuristic Compilation (DAT Records) 11 31 pts Katedra - We Are Not Alone (Global Sect Records) 12 30 pts Total Eclipse - Tokyo Live (Suntrip Records) 13 29 pts Celestial Intelligence - Incandescent (Suntrip Records) 14 28 pts Xamanist - Out Of Time (Self released) 15 25 pts Various - Goagilde (Kali Earth Records) 16 21 pts Various - Analog Visions (DAT Records) 17 20 pts E-Mantra - Tartarus (Melusine Records) 18 18 pts Pete and Pan - Return Of The Goddess (Goa Madness Records) 19 18 pts Ree.K - Early Tracks (Hypnodisk) 20 18 pts Pleiadians - Pyramid (EtnicaNet) 21 15 pts Sneila - Rebirth (Unreleased Goa Records) 22 14 pts Spindrift - Deep Nature (StereoHemia Records) 23 14 pts Morphic Resonance - Bad Dreamer EP (Self released) 24 14 pts Sky Technology - Rainbow Spirit (Neogoa Records) 25 12 pts Various - Order Ordonata: Metamorphosis (Dragonfly Records) 26 12 pts Gubbology - Next Door To Mystery (Axios Records) 27 11 pts Dreamchild - Akashic Dreaming (Unreleased Goa Records) 28 10 pts Hedustma - Forms 03 (Ovnimoon Records) 29 10 pts Elysium - Live …And Beyond (Digital Reprints) 30 10 pts Four Carry Nuts - Single Collection (Classic Goa Trax) 31 9 pts Walpurgisnacht Projekt - Omega (Absolut Shit Records) 32 9 pts Dark Whisper - The Trivium (Alice-D Records) 33 9 pts Various - Yggdrabits (Yggdrasil Records) 34 8 pts Goch - Million Years Ago (Rules Of Nature Records) 35 8 pts Shadow Chronicles - Arcadia (Future Music Records) 36 8 pts Miranda - Cosmic Treasures Vol. 1 (Spiral Trax) 37 7 pts Wizack Twizack - The Tesseract (Spiral Trax) 38 7 pts Protonica - Symmetry (Iboga Records) 39 7 pts Out Of Orbit & Shpongle - no Disco (Shamanic Tales) 40 7 pts Omnium - Neural Geometry (StereoHemia Records) 41 7 pts Ephedra & Proxeeus & Ohm Mind - Mad Fusion EP (Goa Madness Records) 42 6 pts Various - Har Har Mahadev (Alice-D Records) 43 6 pts Mechanimal - Digital Nature (24/7 Media) 44 5 pts Material Music - MADI Experience (OHM Ganesh Pro) 45 4 pts Lunarave - Transmigration (OVNI Breakfast) 46 4 pts Blue Hue - The Mandala Effect (Plateau 5 Records) 47 4 pts MFG - Pure Energy (Suntrip Records) 48 3 pts Various - Astronauts In The Solar System (Global Sect Records) 49 3 pts Nobot - Human Update (Parvati Records) 50 3 pts Braincell - Gaia (Self released) 51 3 pts Ocelot - Iconoclast (Moon Koradj Records) 52 3 pts The Maniac - A Treatise On Acid (Timewarp Records) 53 2 pts Acid Destroyers - Monsters And Mad Man (Goa Madness Records) 54 2 pts Static Movement - SiMiN (Sol Music) 55 2 pts Goch - Forte EP (Kali Earth Records) 56 2 pts DJ Omsun - Illusorium (Moon Koradj Records) 57 2 pts Psychogen - Psychogenius (Unreleased Goa Records) 58 1 pts Rezonant - Time Code (Sangoma Records) 59 1 pts Yabzyy - Systematic Chaos (Kali Earth Records) 60 1 pts Jagoa - The First Steps (Self released) 61 1 pts Various - Fleinheim (The Cure) DOWNTEMPO =========== 1 43 pts Lauge - Dawn (Iboga Records) 2 37 pts Proxeeus - Celephais (Neogoa Records) 3 31 pts Avaris - The Forgotten Language (Axios Records) 4 30 pts Bluetech - Holotrope (Behind The Sky Music) 5 28 pts Distant System - Infinite Continuum (Self-released) 6 27 pts Saafi Brothers - Mystic Cigarettes (Remixed) (Liquid Sound Design) 7 25 pts Globular - Untangled Everything (Self-released) 8 22 pts Tengri And Friends - A Course In Miracles (Orbita Parvati) 9 17 pts Solar Fields - Origin #03 (Droneform Records) 10 14 pts Bluetech - The 4 Horsemen Of The Electrocalypse: The Pale Horse (Self-released) 11 10 pts 36 - C45 Dreamloops 1-2 12 10 pts Various - Ethnomystica Vol. 7 13 10 pts Advanced Suite - Shapes Of Nothing 14 10 pts Greg Hunter - Tantra 15 9 pts Desert Dwellers - Breath 16 9 pts Panda Dub - Horizons 17 9 pts Shamanizm Parallelii - Blue Lizard 18 9 pts Eric Electric - Run Away Controls 19 9 pts Mantra Move - Raven Dub 20 8 pts Yagya - Stormur 21 8 pts Advanced Suite - TAKING MUSic in tHe ROOMS th&t DreaMT 22 8 pts Various - Ensancha El Alma Vol. 1 23 7 pts Dreaming Cooper - Exploring The Universe 24 7 pts The Borgasm - Welcoem To The Borgasm 25 7 pts Blisswave - Manvantara 26 7 pts Various - Liquid Sound Design Collected Digital Works Part 1 27 6 pts Entheogenic - Hypatia 28 6 pts Ambient Mann - Another Dimension 29 6 pts Astronaut Ape - Deep 30 6 pts Bluetech - Liquid Geometries in Dub 31 5 pts Cabeiri - Molecule Language 32 5 pts Bluetech - Sci-Fi Lullabies 33 5 pts Bosa - Eyes Of The Jaguar 34 5 pts Pangani - Superdeep 35 4 pts Zen Baboon - Origiro 36 4 pts Unknown Reality - Gaia 37 3 pts Spatialize - Beyond The Radar 38 3 pts Various - Temple Of Dub 39 2 pts Shwamp - Inner Landscape 40 2 pts Sync24 - Omnius 41 1 pts Deep In Mind - Autumn To Spring 42 1 pts Ambientium - City Of Memories SEE YOU NEXT YEAR! Aspartic

There's nothing quite like their We Created Our Own Happiness album, but I would recommend albums that lean more towards trance like Organized Noise by Source and A Blueprint for Survival by Blue Planet Corporation There Will Be No Armageddon by Union Jack Wildlife On One by Art of Trance Early Platipus records compilations Beyond that you'll have to become a track hunter and spend your days digging for those single special tracks. :-)