healium

Yea I can't imagine most of these tracks are fun to dance to given the "chunky" style of it (I like to dance to the layers in music in addition to the beat or rythm) - and it certainly doesn't have much emotion in it - but it's reeeaaaaally heady and the beats and rythms are just so killer - very distinct vibe he creates in "The Space Between" album - definately moody and cold, but with a serious euphoric groove to it also - it's like he wants you to smile a bit even though the vibe is sort of pseudo-dark.. I didn't like the vibe as much in "Antifluoro" - that album felt like he was trying to make his music more of a fun danceable vibe.. I've found Sensient's tracks to be very abstract and inaccessible sounding to start with - kind of like postmodern art and whatnot - but when I "get" the track it all the suden comes together so perfectly..

I've got to go with Atmos - "Headcleaner", though the new Beat Bizarre album "Mukharv" may overtake it over time..

There should have been a 3rd category for this thread - favorite Progressive psytrance

Goa - Hallucinogen - "Twisted" (though that might be psytrance more yea?) Psytrance - Hux Flux - "Cryptic Crunch" Picking my favorite psytrance album is super difficult, much more than my favorite goa album (though there are a lot of goa tracks I love) BTW I've never even heard of Klopfgeister, but the samples of that album listed sound badass!

I gotta go with "Colordrops" also.. Not an easy decision that's for sure.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6yTlp7gdcE

Yea I like "Antifluoro" also but "The Space Between" I like much more. Have yet to hear his new album "The Way of the Sloth" - just release like a week ago -def going to get it! Padmapani - I wasn't that into Sensient until I heard "The Space Between" - I like his music but didn't quite "get it" until recently - "The Space Between" is probably in my top 10 favorita psytrance albums at this point..

I wish more fullon psytrance sounded like this - long build-ups, sick break-downs, killer groovy vibe, tight samples, sound effects way trippier and more original than what you hear nowadays - these tracks and the rest of the album is from 2001, and sounds so much fresher than what I hear nowadays.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9aeXwCoEh4

Is this an issue with mainstream trance though too? I mean, wouldn't psytrance be more difficult to produce than the mainstream type of trance that has less complexity? You would think that the people who want cheesy simple music would produce trance that isn't psytrance no?

Yes - V/A - "Conundrum Concoction" from 2012 was fantastic - there are 3 Molokow tracks, 3 Derango tracks, and 3 Prisma tracks on that one - stellar release..

Epic melodic weirdness by Hux Flux - after "Idiot" I think this may be their best track: This one's killer too if you like melodic:

Here's that Sensient track:

Wow, I can't believe that.. It's so hard to imagine because he was such a great presence here on the forum - wish he would have been helped to overcome the emotional issues..

Hux Flux is hard to beat.. But Sensient - "The Space Between" is a fantastic mindbender - check out the "Get Bounced" track

This album is awesome! Great style - has lots of personality. Maybe my favorite neo-goa album of the year..

For Sensient, I think the most recent album "The Space Between" is fantastic, one of my favorite minimalistic/techy progressive trance albums - I like this much more than "Antifluoro", which was also critically acclaimed.

If you like X-Dream in the "Radio" style, check out Barby - "Infiltrator" - it's from 2012 and one of the best albums of the year in my opinion. It's heavy and dark, massive atmosphere, super trippy sound design - but not that super-fast "darkpsy" - more like progressive with darkpsy elements. Anyhow, a couple of the tracks remind of of "Psychomachine" from X-Dream "Radio" (which is one of my favorite albums ever btw)

Well, I'm officially a neo-goa fan now - thanks for the help! Artifact303 - "Back to Space" is my favorite so far - very addictive music! I will say though I think some of the goa needs more "signature" to it. One of the things that separate great music from good music is that you don't confuse it for anything else. You should be able to hear a track and know right away who the artist is. If you can't tell and you think "hhmm this could be Dimension5 or this could be Cosmosis" or "hhhmm this could be Alienapia or this could be Filteria"- it tells you that those two artists need to have a more unique signature. The best artists and albums are those I would never confuse with anything else - Hallucinogen "Twisted", X-Dream - "Radio", Hux Flux - "Cryptic Crunch", Infected Mushroom - "The Gathering", Koxbox - "Dragon Tales" - tracks from those albums will never be confused for one another. I can't say the same for Astral Projection vs Chi-Ad vs Dimension 5 vs MFG, or for most of the neo-goa artists. There is much less difference in the way they sound - a discerning ear can tell them apart, certainly, and they are very talented and produce wonderful music no doubt - but the music conforms much more tightly to a certain "goa sound" than do some of the truly landmark albums in psy/goa trance. I think what might help this is more distinct thematic melodies - a lot of the new school goa has nice melodies, but they all sort of weave together, and a main melody is not often repeated later in the same track - the tracks frequently lack a running thematic melody that ties it all together. Because of this, very often I can't remember specifics about a track afterward and I can't pick out the ones off an album I really like. The new Mindsphere album is a good example of this - with the exception of the superb title track, the whole album sounds great, but the music all sort of runs together. The individual tracks on their own lack a really distinct personality and signature thematic element. Making the melodies more catchy would help too - bigger "hooks" - a track can be very catchy and have strong hooks without being cheesy. Lots of these neo-goa melodies just aren't that catchy and so they aren't that memorable or euphoric/addictive to listen to. I'm not a musician - is it just that really catchy melodies are harder to make, or do these artists intentionally not make the melodies catchy because they want a different sound? Compare this with Hallucinogen - "Twisted" - in that album, each track is massively unique and immediately recognizable, and I think it is in part because of the thematic melodies and elements that tie the track together ("Alpha Centauri" or "Solstice" for instance).

Good work! The members here definitely seem biased toward the neo-goa and old-school goa side of things but I've become a big fan of these genres also..

Where can you buy this? Cronomi is outta stock no?

Just wanted to post - this album is way underrated - if you want to go deep, this album will take you there - superb material!

That Tor.Ma album is sweet, as is the Barby - "Infiltrator" - will have to revise my list here soon! The "Silver String" track on the Tor.ma album is a stormer of a downtempo..

I thought 2012 was a very solid year for progressive - my favs, in order of which I like best: 1. Beat Bizarre - "Mukharv" 2. Solar Fields - "Random Friday" 3. Protonica - "Form Follows Function" 4. Atmos - "604" 5. Lyctum - "Tales from the Universe" 6. Hypogeo - "Tree of Lies" You mentioned liking the melodic side of progressive - Hypogeo's album is not melodic but the others are, to a large extent - the Solar Fields, Beat Bizarre, Atmos, and Lyctum albums in particular have a good bit of melody.. "Random Friday" is really rich with details and plush - the more "maximal" side of progressive, whereas "Mukharv" is more the heavy hypnotic psychedelic minimal style - both use a lot of melody, though in "Mukharv the melodies are used more as hypnotic elements rather than as climax.. Both albums are now among my favorite progressive trance ever.

For some reason I think of Hallucongen's 2 albums as psytrance rather than goatrance - Hallucinogen and Koxbox both sound more psy than goa to me, for that time period.. Though I understand that those years were before psytrance per se..

I should add that Dennis is playing all new material - he has a dozen or so new tracks that plan to be released in a full album and in EP's..

Wow, I hadn't heard of most of these downtempo albums - have a lot to check out! For me, Uptempo: 1. Beat Bizarre - Mukharv 2. Solar Fields - Random Friday 3. Mindsphere - Patience for Heaven 4. Protonica - Form Follows Function 5. Crossing Mind - Inner Shift 6. Atmos - 604 7. Ubar Tmar - Ubarapedia 8. Digicult - The Lucid Nation 9. Lyctum - Tales from the Universe 10. V/A - Blue Moon UK sampler Downtempo: 1. V/A - Conundrum Concoction 2. Koan - Argonautica 3. Ra - Unearthly 4. Akshan - Tree of Life 5. Don Peyote - Heaven and Earth