Trolsk

Facebook is full of stupid people doing stupid things if X people join this or that group, so people can actually be "forced" to do things because of a few haphazard comments. Let's just hope that the GNOTR guys aren't stupid, I wouldn't want another full on album by an old school act...

Now that I've listened to this release a couple of times I must say that I'm disappointed. Mr S, Kamni and Piter 26 are good tracks because of their subtle melodic parts, but the rest of the tracks are forgettable darkpsy.

There are so many excellent releases in this genre. We recently compiled our Top 10 Psytrance albums, of all time. That topic might be useful to you, but keep in mind that most people on this particular forum enjoy the stuff pre 2000. Most of the stuff in our top tens can no longer be purchased. Here are some releases from the last six or so years that I find to be of high quality: 12 Moons - Solid State Atmos - 2nd Brigade Filteria - Sky Input Freq - Strange Attractors Son Kite - Colours Haltya - Electric Help Elves Human Blue - Electrolux Talpa - The Art of Being Non The Misted Muppet - From The Legend CPC - Uber Den Angst Derango - Tumult Jaia - Fiction Magnetrixx - Wired Midi Miliz - Non Standards Nystagmus - The Immaculate Perception Ocelot - VectorSelector Psykovsky - Debut Filteria - Heliopolis Triac - Mean Between Vibrasphere - Archipelago Zolod - Deja Vu Fabrique Parahalu - Space Rock Transwave - Backfire Abakus - That Much Closer To The Sun Adham Shaikh - Fusion Bluetech - Elementary Particles Evan Marc & Steve Hillage - Dreamtime Submersible Hallucinogen - In Dub Phutureprimitive - Subconscious Pitch Black - Electronomicon Shpongle- Are You Shpongled Shpongle - Tales of the Inexpressible If you manage to get through the above list you will find that psytrance is a very diverse genre, ranging from the utterly mad and intense to the mellow and laidback. Sometimes there are beautiful melodies, other times the melodies are more subtle and sometimes there are no melodies at all. Try some of the above releases and tell us what you like and we can give you more specific recommendations. If you visit Psyshop or Saiko Sounds you can preview and purchase some of the releases. You can also visit Discogs to get an idea of labels, artist connections, previous releases etc.

I want to like Tim Healey, but he's not really my cup of tea, too club oriented, but I think I would love his stuff live. Feeling a but ambivalent. Here's another track of his that has gotten a lot of recognition, it's a Pete Martin (aka Slide) and Tim Healey collaboration: It's a great anthem, if you like that kind of stuff.

Wisp is indeed an excellent and very interesting artist. His best albums are NRTHNDR and Honor Beats. This is a great track from the Honor beats album:

It's sort of a "democratization" of music making. If close to anyone can become an artist the absolute amount of above average releases should increase because of the normal distribution of talent. The previous distribution curve of talent was biased towards high amounts of talent because of the need to invest in equipment etc (see my original post). When the threshold to make music is lowered the distribution curve of talent will get the shape of a typical normal distribution curve since talent is normal distributed. It means that the amount of good and bad releases should equal each other. Our experience is however that the amount of average and below averages releases has increased whereas the growth of above average releases has declined. My theory is that psytrance is (more or less) dead and therefor the above average talents in general do not make psytrance. If you were to look at electronic music as a whole then you will find that the absolute amount of above average releases have increased. If you look at a particular genre of electronic music - like minimal techno - you will find that the amount of above average releases is higher than the amount of below average releases because this is the most inspiring sound at the moment, and that's where the talent is at the moment. The same could be said about IDM a few years back, and about psytrance pre 2000.

I'm afraid that 2005 was the last good year of psychedelic trance, but I hope that 2010 will prove me wrong. :-)

Compiling the definitive top ten really is impossible, because there are so many excellent albums, but I guess my list would look something like this: 1. Pleiadians - IFO 2. Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger 3. Koxbox - Dragon Tales 4. X-dream - Radio 5. Ubar Tmar - Fusion 6. Process - One drop or two? 7. Dimension 5 - Transdimensional 8. The Delta - Send In Send Back 9. Blue Planet Corporation - Blue Planet 10. Psykovsky - Debut

My thoughts: 1. Pre 2000 most artists used analog synths, now they use computer software and maybe a digital synth. You can't get the juno-106, tb-303 or sh-101 sound correctly emulated with digital software. The end product will be clean, precise and digital, as opposed to dirty, some what random and analog. 2. Since artists pre 2000 relied on physical hardware they had to spend a lot of money to be able to make music, so people that got into making music probably already knew they had some talent and were therefor prepared to spend money on equipment. Today you can be an "artist" if you own a decent computer. 3. To release an album back in the days must have been more expensive then it is today, I'm thinking that costs for mastering and manufacturing of cd's and lp's were higher. So labels had to release high quality music to cover their expenses. Today you can be an online label and release digitally created music, with no mastering and no manufacturing costs. 4. Pre 2000 the idea of what the psytrance sound is wasn't as clear as it is today. When artists today try to make psytrance they already have a clear vision: "I want to make music like Astral Projection". Back in the days I think (kind of nostalgic) that the aim was to make trippy music. Fewer rules tend to favor creativity.

There used to be a lot of electronic music on Spotify a few months back, but almost all of it was removed, but it seems they add some electronic music now and then. When I first signed up you could actually listen to that fake Hallucinogen album found on some p2p-networks, Astonis-something-or-whatever. So I guess they just downloaded as much as they could from the p2p-networks instead of ripping a billion out of print cd's. Some labels and distributors probably didn't like to find unreleased and fake albums on Spotify. I use Spotify at work. It's ok, but it lacks features, and electronic music.

You should all look for two EP's by Genecom: Quaternary EP Silicon EP It's not obscure, it's not goa/psy, but it's something you're almost guaranted to love: uplifting melodic high energy trance. The tracks Silicon Dreams, Polyphonic Raid and Sunchase are the standout tracks.

This is exciting news!

I like your idea for this thread Abasio, I think of my music the same way Psychedelic recommendations: Abakus - That Much Closer To The Sun Blue Planet Corporation - Blue Planet - Flying Rhino - 1999 Children of Paradise - Urban Alien - Velvet Inc - 1999 Dimension 5 - Transdimensional - Intastella - 1997 Green House Effect - Global Warming - HOM-Mega - 2001 (my number 1 psychedelic summer album) Jaia - Fiction - Digital Structures - 2005 Magnetrixx - Wired - AP - 2005 Process - One Drop or Two - Creamcrop - 2000 (summer nights) Saafi Brothers - Mystic Cigarettes Shpongle - Tales of the Inexpressible - Twisted - 2001 Total Eclipse - All of their single tracks released 1995-1997 V.A. - 3rd Flight Slipstream - Flying Rhino - 1998 (summer nights) V.A. - 4th Flight Velocity - Flying Rhino - 1999 (summer nights) V.A. - Beyond Colour - TIP - 1998 (summer nights) V.A. - Dementertainment - Twisted - 1998 V.A. - Made on Earth - 2CD - Blue Room Released - 1997 V.A. - Pulse 6 CD 1 (summer nights) V.A. - Sunrise - Medium - 2002 V.A. - TIP's Yellow, Orange and Blue compilations V.A. - Unusual Suspects - Twisted - 2002 V.A. - Vibration 2 - Com.Pact - 2000 V.A. - Vibration 3 - Medium - 2000 Vibrasphere - Archipelago - Digital Structures - 2006 X-Dream - Radio - Blue Room - 1998 Other recommendations: Aril Brikha - Ex Machina - Soundscape - 2007 Beanfield - Seek - Compost - 2004 Bob Marley & The Wailers - Exodus - Island - 1977 Fila Brazillia - A Touch of Cloth - 2001 Jan Johansson - Jazz på svenska och Jazz på ryska Koop - Koop Islands - Compost - 2006 Phoenix - United SCSI-9 - The Line Of Nine - Kompakt - 2006 Stan Getz & João Gilberto - Getz / Gilberto (my number 1 other summer album) The Field - From Here We Go To Sublime - Kompakt - 2007

The movie is better than the book: Silence of the Lambs Fight Club The casting of the characters in the movie versions are superb, and that's what makes the movies slightly better in the above cases.

You haven't hyped him. Über den angst is a great album, and it's pretty much one long track, ever shifting, and that's very uncommon these days. I liked Double Bouble, but I haven't given Subliminal Messages a proper listen yet (listening to it right now).

TIP, no question about it, they released Mystical Experiences, Feeling Weird and enough high quality single tracks for another two full length albums. If you haven't already tracked down all of TIP's single tracks, you should, it's amazing how many excellent tracks they have made. Slinky Wizard, they shouldn't really be in competition, no album, a handful of good tracks (mainly thanks to Simon Posford). TIP rules.

I agree with what has already been mentioned, and would like to add: Padmasana - Padmasana The Padmasana album is Gio's (aka Makyo) best work and it's simply amazing, especially the second track. Mushroom music. Adham Shaikh - Fusion Varied and far from the generic standard psychill sound, and yet familiar vibes. Digital Mystery Tour - Digital Mystery Tour Total Eclipse magic Evan Marc & Steve Hillage - Dreamtime Submersible Bluetech vs System 7, one of the best coops I've ever heard Anahata - The Unmade Sound Beautiful and emotional melodic ambient

Thanks for you recommendations. Joesph Campbell seems interesting, will read The Power of Myths. Loren Eisley's books also seems interesting, however, a bit old. There are several books like his (essays about the evolution of man) in Swedish and I really like those kind of books. For Swedish readers I can recommend: Gryning över Kalahari: hur människan blev människa - Lasse Berg Stjärnvägar / Rymdljus / Solvindar - Peter Nilson (Out of print, look for them at your library) One such book in Swedish that I will read this summer is Den meningssökande människan av Peter Gärdenfors

During the summers I love to read books the challenge the mind, that make me question reality and my beliefs, that make me laugh and cry and think big thoughts about life, all while laying in the grass and looking at the clouds. Some books that come to mind are: DMT: The Spirit Molecule - Rick Strassman The Doors of Perception - Aldous Huxley Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge - Jeremy Narby Fingerprints of the Gods How are we to live? Ethics in an Age of Self-Interest - Peter Singer The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy - Douglas Adams Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Do you have any such books that you can recommend?

Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger

You must have missed the singing and the lyrics...

I used to believe the exact same thing, that Nick "Doof" Barber music is good music, until I discovered his album from last year.

The samples form the last album also seemed ok, but that album didn't turn out to be that exciting. Look at all the videos of him playing guitar live on stage at his myspace site, there's no doubt this album will be worse than the last one. The sample of the Samba Del Gringo tune...don't get me started...

I also listened to it a couple of days ago and I still don't find it that fascinating...

Psybreaks have been predicited at least since 1997, but it has never really happened in any major way. Look for compilations from 21-3 Records, Surreal Audio and Edgecore.