Padmapani

the bass isn't too heavy and the highs are a little bit harsh, but not out of the ordinary imho (unlike artha)... i find highs not much different than three om three or lucid flux, even if the bass is a little less obvious. overall the mastering seems to be pretty good. micronesia is a cleaner and more spacious than previous versions (better the one on celtic records and much better than the one on destination goa 3).

not really. by the requirements you list, i guess london would be the best place . other european cities might also qualify if laws favourable for squatters aren't a necessity. for india, you'd have to look at goa obviously, and even there, while you have enough alternative people, old hippies, vegetarian food, there's not too much psy happening outside the time around christmas/new year (but lots of parties around that time). during my stay in goa a few years ago (3 weeks in february) i haven't been able to locate a single psy party. at the parties i found they were playing electro or minimal (not even the progressive/minimal crossover stuff you hear at european festivals at daytime). but besides small villages where the locals live, huts at the beach, yoga teachers and parties at peak season, there isn't really much going on there. it has a very laid back, rural feel and every "town" is spread over a comparatively huge area. the hotspot for south east asia is koh phangan. while you'll find daily parties with psytrance at had rin beach (at the zoom venue), it isn't only psytrance anymore for many years. the whole beach is just bars/sound systems edge on edge and most will play horrible electro/house/dance/whatever is popular at the moment in the west. the zoom is pretty deserted most of the time compared to the rest. the people you'll find at had rin are mostly shitfaced drink and use the available fluoro-pant to decorate themselves with football tricots or national flags. however there are also dedicated parties. at half-moon or black-moon you'll hear anything between minimal and neelix (or liquid soul if you're lucky), while at shiva moon there'll be darkpsy (and a croud of maybe 20 people). with had rin overrun by people who have a totally different mindset the psy heads are scattered around the island, mostly settling for chill places far from had rin (if you do that you can have a pretty good time on the island. i've been to koh phangan mutliple times and it's gotten worse every time. if you want to go there for a holiday do it quick.) also there is no "eco" spirit. the more beautiful a place is, the quicker it gets plastered with opportunities to make money off tourists. another point that might be important for you is that it's almost impossible to find food without fishsauce in thailand as for other places in south east asia where hippies used to gather: forget vang vieng. besides the stunning view of the mountains, it's all drinking and watching reruns of popular tv-series over there. i've also been to bali/lombok, but failed to find any psy community there. i hear they're still doing monthly parties on the uninhabited island gili meno, but i couldn't find the dates in advance and had my flight before one was happening.

happy birthday psynews!

yup, worked this time

ned schlecht. goa trance made with just hardware is something we don't see very often (or at all ) anymore. but these boxes can indeed sound good, i especially like that kick - proper oldschool.

just tried to vote but:

@agneton/djuna don't these synth lines sound horribly out of tune to you? they don't fit together at all. oopie's track sounds more coherent and professional @franki yes, they're not good in any way, but with fullon(/psy) there exists much much worse (with its own thread here on psynews). electro sun, perplex... just to give you some idea @johnb820 i don't find those bad at all, just leaning towards techno/techtrance. not something i'd want to hear in a goa set, but they have their place.

concerning released (otherwise nhjo would take the cake ) tracks, i have an intense hatred of this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysOO7cKFaxE then there's also this (not so much just bad, but cringeworthyly cheesy) :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY9cQO4T78Y 5:11

Uptempo: 1: V/A - Ten Spins Around the Sun (Suntrip) 2: V/A - Moon Ritual (Amakusa) 3: E-Mantra - Nemesis (Suntrip) 4: Astral Projection - Goa Classics Remixed (TIP) 5: Shakta - Retroscape (Suntrip) 6: Moonweed - Voice of Jupiter (Anjuna) 7: V/A - Three OM Three (Anjuna) 8: Deviant Electronics - Green Room (Zion604) 9: Lunarave - Do You Know Who You Are (Hadra) 10: V/A - Analog Dreams (DAT) Downtempo: 1: Cosmic Replicant - Soul of the Universe (Ektoplazm) 2: E-Mantra - Echoes from the Void (Altar) 3: Astronaut Ape - Flight 420 (Microcosmos) 4: Androcell - Imbue (Altar) 5: GMO vs. Dense - Equation (Altar) 6: Ajja & Cosmosis - The Alien Jams (Peak) 7: Globular - Digging & Building (Ektoplazm) 8: V/A - Floating Spirals 2 (Altar) but to be honest the three top downtempo albums are equally good (and surprisingly similar in style) this time. cosmic replicant is better than e-mantra which is better than astronaut ape which is better than cosmic replicant

that's a difficult question. psy is all trance that is psychedelic (or a derivative thereof), but psytrance is also often used for psy that doesn't fit in any particular category or alternatively to differentiate between goa and other kinds of psy... goa is easier. in the beginning everything was goa, up until 1997/1998 with koxbox - dragon tales / x-dream - radio (depending on who you ask . radio sure was the more influential one) starting psytrance. goa is more melody/arpeggio driven, often has acid lines and some of it envelops you in a "wall of sound". psytrance has more focus in the bassline and is rather fx-driven, lacking much melodic content in the majority of the track with a more minimalistic aesthetic. most often psytrance uses the "fullon bassline" (K-(b )-b-b-K-(b )-b-b-...) with a single sawtooth oscillator, while there is lots of variety in the sounds and patterns of bass in goa. also, more exotic or ethnic scales that are common in goa are rarely found in psytrance. then there's also newschool goa, which has the same focus as older goa (sometimes more excessively than in the old days) but with modern production, and it also often borrows a few elements from psytrance (some of the fx and sometimes the bassline). oldschool goa more oldschool goa psytrance more psytrance newschool goa more newschool goa even more newschool goa (because it's the best subgenre ) i'd draw the boundaries between goa and psytrance somwhere here. fullon is a distinct subset of psytrance, characterised by a certain track structure, an even greater dominance of the bassline and a distinct choice of sounds used. it is more melodic and easy-listening than psytrance. over time fullon became increasingly formulaic, simple and cheesy. fullon fullon late fullon late fullon (taking it to the extreme) then there's also music that stands somewhere between psytrance and fullon (depending on who you ask) i'd say differentiating between goa, fullon, progressive and darkpsy is pretty important if you're into psy. differentiating between psytrance and fullon a bit less so. the people who are too particular (and even that is debatable) divide those genres up into many more subgenres (for instance darkpsy into: hitech, psycore, melodic darkpsy, south african darkpsy, minimal darkpsy, multiple types of forest, ...)

thanks, you've certainly been more useful to us than the other way round, i have no idea about the remaining tracks

happy 2015, psynews!

this album surely belongs in the "other electronica" section. then again most stuff released on iboga does...

so you've never been to goa before? if so then be sure to also check out arambol. that was where the freaks gathered while i was in goa. and while you're in anjuna, remember to never ever eat a masala papad at avalon sunset

just in case you missed 45 pages of discussion: they have been promising a new original album coming in the next few months for about 10 years now...

i've just gave it a quick listen and have to agree about mugen. of all the originals i like mugen the least, but it's definitely the highlight on this cd. the remix of lsd is surprisingly good (most of the time it doesn't work out well when someone touches a classic like that), the two remixes of TIP tracks are also decent. but what i really find lacking are both BPC remixes. midian doesn't have the ethereal atmosphere of the original and overbloody flood doesn't do the original justice in any way - it's essentially a boring fullon remix and totally lacks the magic. i don't agree about the mastering, this album sounds overcompressed to me. it's louder than many contemporary progressive album and goa trance with all its complexity shouldn't be squashed like that. all in all, it's pretty decent. not too much innovation (obviously), but classic ap sound (except for overbloody flood) on classic tracks. all of the tracks are actually good (even overbloody flood), but that's party due to the originals being classics in their own right and only partly due to astral's skill (mugen!).

stop it radi! we know that zoomorph is your troll account. yes, you have succeeded in generating more discussions, but there has to be a different way to achieve that. it's not only about quantity, but about quality.

and they occur almost every day now. but at least we don't see threads like "why is the forum inactive again"

of course. i regularly trance out to my own tunes when i'm working at them. but the thing is, they artists we are talking about are not making music on stage.

i absolutely don't have a problem with someone having fun on the stage. imba for sure does have fun and it's completely normal for my understanding of psy. cosmosis even puts up some kind of show on the stage, and although i don't approve of the latter, he's having fun, doesn't take himself too seriously and most importantly doesn't celebrate himself; so this is fine too. if you look at some video from the more commercial acts in the psy scene with both - the old video from goa and skrillex - in mind, you'll definitely notice in which direction we're moving. at the bigger festivals you sometimes even have people waving flags of their countries instead of dancing. but at least for the less popular subgenres and the smaller parties i'll agree that we're still miles away and won't see anything close to skrillex soon. that's a nice way to say it

as i've said before, aritsts/djs should never be at the center of attention (imho not even at the center of the stage or the stage at all). the music should be, together with the people. then comes the decoration/visuals. anything else produces clap-your-hand-when-i-say-so moments and star-attitudes. i don't want to cheer at the artist and i hate the artist telling me when to cheer (the sad thing is that producers often even adjust the music to make room for that).if the music is good i will be lost dancing anyway and if it's not i'd rather see someone else playing than seeing some kind of animation program to get me dancing. it's a trance party and not an all-inclusive club holiday. ideally it should look something like this: goa gil playing in goa 1999 he was the star dj at the time and stands somewhere in a corner while no one really pays attention to him. this is also reflected by how so little time in the video is devoted to him. the focus is on the party indead. if you want to see the other extreme, look for videos of skrillex playing at tomorrowland. we have to be careful that the psy scene doesn't devolve into something like that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp1vtH1ZiEo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4_cd15Cyc8 D5 - Flow Khetzal - Listening Winds E-Mantra - Beyond the Boreas Electron Wave - Chromatic Aberration Electrypnose - ChillinBerlin these are the most important ones (that's excluding psydub). and no, less than 8 just wasn't possible

does a bass sliding up the octave also count? edit: another one: edit2: bumbling loons - lunacy

and although it's not strictly goa trance (but certainly related enough to be mentioned) :