Padmapani

party drugs have been part of the scene for longer than the scene itself (they were prevalent before goa split off of trance). so these drugs cannot be responsible. i think the true reason is that the audience is much bigger than before, with not so much a community as before and more people who'll just go to a psy party because, well, it's just a party (and the people are usually nicer than anywhere else). of course it's a sort of chicken-egg-question to ask if the scene changed first to demand simpler music or if the music changed first to attract different people (probably both at different places and different times. *looks towards israel and brazil with an evil expression* ). i think another point is that a larger percentage of the younger generation (with the increasing economic insecurity they're facing and the social control mechanisms posed by social media) is much more conformistic than we were. they'll rather not be challenged too much by weird music and want to party in a way that's more acceptable by mainstream society.

as i listen to it more often, i find that i enjoy this album more and more. at first i found it a bit bland, because it's more minimalistic, effect driven and laid back than his previous one (which was universally praised immediately upon release and won our "best of 2010" poll easily). there are much less big melodies that blow you away immediately — except for el es di and mahabharta of course. el es di is a classic i've known for many years from artha's livesets and it is in the same style and intensity as his previous work. the mahabharta live mix is something i don't really care about anymore; i have listened to the versions on the jelly marbles and the psynews compilations too often over the years, which of course doesn't mean that it's not great music. the rest of the album is in the "new artha style", which is more subdued and therefore needs more intent listening to be enjoyed fully. so apart from el es di, the real gems here are monkeys and dream telepathy, which are both excellent. i also don't get why people are annoyed by those samples. they fit nicely... it's just that i know that i know them from somewhere. does anyone have an idea? it must be some oldschool goa or psychill (entheogenic maybe??)… next are secret trip and theory of the ghost. they're not quite up to the level of monkeys and dream telepathy, but still very good. at first i wasn't impressed they definitely get better with every listen as you notice more and more details (in contrast to for example the latest mindsphere album, which is impressive at first but quickly becomes bland and "more of the same"). the more minimalistic approach is actually a welcome diversion from the general newschool template. it doesn't have to be melodic overload all the time; i'd rather have less but more meaningful melodies. the weakest parts of the album are definitely the opener and the closing track (especially that one. it is indeed "fantastically unremarkable"). all in all it's one of the best if not the best album of 2016 with three excellent, two really good and two ok-to-good tracks. i can already say with confidence that (just like artha's first album) i will be coming back to this music for many years. looking back at various psytrance reviews here on psynews, you often notice some (now obscure) albums getting praises when they are released, but five or ten years later people will comment "well, it was okay for the style that was popular in the early 00s, but now it sounds out of place" or something. this on the other hand is an unique album and definitely not a release that will be forgotten like that.

i just came home from a party with astrix. seeing as his last album was quite good actually, i thought it might be a good idea. but then, i actually spent more time on the darkpsy floor than the mainfloor. astrix only played prog-minimal-electro crossover at painfully low bpms and none of the good tracks from his album. also the breaks were way longer than the sections with beat (which most of the time were just the beat and nothing else). seriously, what is he thinking? he can do way better, so why doesn't he do so? on the other hand the audience was also pretty fitting for the music. psy heads were making up at most 1/4 of the people there. has the popular kind of progressive psy finally left the psy scene and hit the mainstream club scene?

don't you dare to say something like that time simulation! the old school! cancer! ... actually pretty much anything he made up to (and including) the zodiac album is great. that makes it even more sad when you compare all those classics to his recent output.

at first i though "well, it's not that bad. it's just x-dream classics squished into the template for modern boring McPsytrance", but the section around 4:17 made me agree with the op wholeheartedly. still, i cannot get myself to press the like button of the post containing the original video

exactly. the synth patches are the main problem. the rest is just the not quite professional mixing you'll have in many 90s goa (and also modern) tracks. mastering seems to be more or less fine. you can turn down some harsh frequencies with an equalizer, but without the original source files and without actually remixing the track, replacing a few single elements, there's not a lot that can be done.

some time around april according to the pre-order info.

Uptempo: 1: Artha - Dream Telepathy (Cronomi) 2: Ra - Earthcall (Suntrip) 3: Oforia - Read More... (MDMA Music) 4: UX - Lazarus Rising (Neogoa) 5: Ticon - Mirage (Iboga) 6: Mindsphere - Mentral Triplex: Presence (Suntrip) 7: Robert Elster - Still Breathing (J00F Mantra) 8: Morphic Resonance - City of Moons (Suntrip) 9: Imba - First Encounter (Suntrip) 10: Nervasystem - Brainradio (Phantasm) Downtempo: 1: Globular - Holobiont (self-released) 2: Profondita - Ciel (Altar) 3: Astral Travel Agency - Digital Spirits (self-released) 4: Dub Trees - Celtic Vedic (Liquid Sound Design) 5: Suduaya - Venus (Altar) 6: The Flying Mars - Vibradimensional Experience (Altar) 7: Astronaut Ape - Unknown Sector (Microcosmos) 8: Androcell - Creatures (self-released) 9: Kaminanda - The Infinite Breath(Merkaba) 10: Seamoon - Crystal Language (Merkaba) edit: so finally i've updated the downtempo section. it turns out the first five albums, while being quite different are equally excellent and very hard to put in order.

yahel never fails to amaze. but you can see he's getting old; he actually looks like an adult now.

all those have already released an album. but of course a new one wouldn't be unwelcome, especialy one by ypsilon5...

hiscore asura (uptempo album) children of the doc (i know they're the same people as psysex but the children of the doc tracks are much better) alpha portal (astrix+ace ventura nighttime fullon. really nice stuff but only one obscure ep and some things on soundcloud) aerosis (haven't heard anything for years) soul kontakt darshan (not oldschool darshan. the new techy, minimalistic psytrance. up to now there's only one (excellent) ep) centavra project skarma

i store a lot more music on my drive than i would want to (or probably even could) pay for. it is no ones disatvantage if i have more music than i actually like. everything that i find to be actually good (and available on cd; in a way that the artist/label gets a share) i will buy.

i just realised that suntrip curiously has not put out a single compilation this past year. what happened? have you reached the limit of possible releases for a year with all the other stuff you put out in 2016? can we expect the usual compilation (that easily makes it into the top 10) in 2017? the only compliations that come to my mind for this poll are svemirski hod and cascades of life. but i'm not sure what to do with the latter. it has a few really good uptempo and a few very good psybreaks/downtempo tracks... it fits into neither category

hey everyone let me continue the yearly tradition of starting a thread about the downtempo releases of the past year. it seems i'm not the only one who doesn't know enough good releases to fill all 10 spots on the "best of 2016" voting thread. so let's try to fill in the blanks and make sure we haven't missed some great album or compilation. so feel free to list any psy downtempo release from 2016 that you find interesting. my favourites so far are: Globular - Holobiont Protondita - Ciel Astronaut Ape - Unknown Sector VA - Floating Spirals 3

we're a bit early this year, aren't we? i'll need a few more weeks to listen properly to a few releases, so it's good to see that the voting stops at the usual time. the general rule has always been: if you think it fits here, it does. we've had albums with uncertain release dates turn up in two years, rereleases turning up again or iirc downtempo releases listed in uptempo. so being mostly made out of releases should not be a problem at all.

that soon after the media was full of articles about kazaam, no one will believe you that you remember the obscure movie "pup faction"

i was at the most pointless party ever. shortly after midnight i went to the only psy party in the city (it was basically also the only bigger "alternative" electronic music party, so those who usually go to dnb/freetek/... parties also went there), payed the 16€ entry fee, but even before i could get to the dancefloor the music stopped and the organisers said that everyone should go outside because they have a problem with the heating and staying inside is harmful for health. the people coming out mostly had blackened hands, were coughing and blowing black tar from their noses. needless to say, the chances for them fixing the problem and getting the air clean again toway were pretty much zero. happy new year everyone, i hope your 2017 started out better than mine.

in constast to the review in the first post, it is not devoid of harsh sounds, but at least the part with normal tempos is really interesting nonetheless. quite different from your usual darkpsy.

exactly. i especially like the fm lead. it totally sounds like this one.

another apparent advantage of resampling is that you can eq just one note perfectly and then transpose that up or down to play your bass pattern, but i've never felt the need to do such a thing either. imho the time you could spend on getting your bassline sounding perfect is better used for making interesting melodies and improving the flow of the track.

no. the way i usually work, pretty much everything (the only exceptions that occur regularly are reversed sounds) stays in midi until the very end. if the bass patch sounds good as it is then it's fine, but if it doesn't, the problem should most likely be fixed by tweaking the synth. so i've never seen any reason to resample. besides, even though i'm mostly using machine gun bass patterns i'd rather give a more organic feel to the bassline by allowing for little variations over time...

it doesn't have the magic of good old mfg, but sounds dated. on the plus side, it's much better than the singing rabbi.

plastic is awesome. the melody/progression at 2:21 (live in athens version) is just so perfect. mysterious, subtle but at the same time utterly intense.