Dolmot

Well, it's an asking price. Nobody has paid it yet. There was another copy for 80e a few months ago, but last time I checked, there was no such sale in the history. I guess the buyer side still has a little bit of sense, even though the sellers don't. However, copies for sale are nowadays few and far between... You won't find a reasonably priced one easily.

Well, keyboard synth players are generally considered musicians, just like electric guitar players. However, it's debatable if programming a hardware or software synth counts as "playing an instrument". As said several times in this thread, it's similar to writing a score, not playing along (someone else's) notes. On the other hand, the whole question may be pointless. You can write a book using a mechanical (or digital) typewriter, definitely not in real time, possibly editing it for years. I don't think anyone would claim that "it's not a real story", "it's not art" or "the machine did it". People don't expect authors to perform live. The same applies to animated films, paintings etc., but for music it's still the norm that someone must be bouncing around the stage with a guitar. Even more oddly, it's still quite OK if it's 100% playback with no instruments really plugged in and just faking it for two hours. That still counts as playing/performing, while operating decks does not. It's also a common argument in music piracy to claim that recordings are just for promotion and "the band" should perform live to earn its money. In non-real-time electronic music, writing is typically the largest undertaking by far. If I want to listen to ambient, 99 times out of 100 it's a recorded copy in my living room. Even though it's possible for "the band" (one guy) to pretend pressing a drone key for 15 minutes, it would be silly to expect that as the primary method of delivery. Anyway, I digress...

My favourite psy-dub artist of them all these days, and that includes the commercially released ones. I love you all. Heck, even physically if that was needed to get this album. Coincidentally, I just received a bunch of new Robert Rich CDs and now this. Suddenly the 10 hour flights tomorrow and next week don't feel that miserable. Do you want my money?

Coincidentally, my old home headphones have been falling apart for several years and now I think the situation is getting so serious that even solder and duct tape won't help. (That's definitely serious.) I do have DJ headphones, but they're too heavy for continuous casual listening. What I'd like to get this time is: - Wireless, digital, RF (to wander around, work on other desks or to lie down) - Lightweight and comfortable enough to wear for several hours - Very clear sound, bass response going deep enough for black ambient without distortion or physical resonance. Note that it's quality over sheer quantity that matters here. I can get crap sound with enormous 200 Hz boost anywhere. I'm visiting Germany next week so they probably have plenty of brands available even for live trial. Nevertheless, a few informed opinions would be welcome to narrow it down. Regarding budget...we'll I'm not rich enough to declare that "money isn't an issue", but I surely can invest quite heavily to a device I'm using several hours every day - especially when it comes to music which is too precious to be constantly ruined by poor hardware. Any first-hand experiences or other good ideas?

I don't know what to make of that competition. If you look at the past winners, you'll notice that it's been mostly running in a circle between the latest (US) war, riot and natural disaster. They could almost announce the winning topic beforehand, and then hand over the prize to whoever manages to shove his lens closest to the victims. €10000 to the lucky winner, thanks but no cigar to the subjects. I guess it still manages to illustrate an important issue of the year and highlight some well-timed photos, but there's little originality or creativity left if only variations of the same scenes get repeated for over 50 years. The other categories usually manage to show a bit better, what could possibly fit in the wide concept of a press photo.

If you're referring to SUNCD18, released 26. March 2010, it's missing from 2011 voting for a good reason. Meanwhile, Space Forming Vol. 3 should be downtempo, I think.

Well, based on this topic, it seems to be true...although the "everyone" bit is exaggeration. Imba isn't. For 90% of releases, that's fairly accurate. You can easily get away with that recipe. Actual creativity or planning would be nice, but it's completely optional. True. There's a sample from the latest sci-fi trailer, though. That's how you get a track title for the random noises, unless it's called "Mind Expansion" or "Dance Dance Yeah". It is techno spiritual trance or dance, right? Fortunately I'm listening to the cool subgenres. Sometimes it's good to do a reality check. After all, many people inside the scene believe that listening to a few sawtooth wave farts will make you an enlightened person, entitled to look down on everyone else and their thoughts. What if it's the outsiders who are right?

Alright, the traditional yearmix is up. I've usually tried to upload it by new year, but this December I was neck deep in work (of the pays-the-bills kind) so there was a bit of delay. Anyway...102 minutes of assorted highlights or otherwise interesting tracks from 2011. 01. (00:00) Frost-RAVEN - Solar Wind ["Deep in Blue", Elephant Head 2011] 02. (03:00) Psypheric - No Return ["Life on Earth", Pureuphoria 2011] 03. (05:30) Radical Distortion - Evil Machine ["Art from the Heart Chapter II", Old Is Gold 2011] 04. (12:30) Daimon - Edge of Darkness ["Dimensional Gateway 2", Neogoa 2011] 05. (20:15) Zelur Project - The New Creature ["Dancing Mavka", Lookinglook 2011] 06. (25:30) Artifact303 - Beyond Lightspeed ["Back to Space", Suntrip 2011] 07. (30:30) Etnichaos - The Other Side of Reality ["Mind Rewind", DAT Mafia 2011] 08. (37:30) PortaMento - The Portal ["The Portal", Cronomi 2011] 09. (45:00) M-Run - Goat Man ["Erta Alé", Cronomi 2011] 10. (51:00) Kadasarva - Cybermind ["Steamagination", Sun Station 2011] 11. (59:30) Sulima - Back to Goa ["PsR Reincarnation", PsyRussia 2011] 12. (66:00) Noble Savage - 2012 ["Freaks of Nature", Liquid Tune 2011] 13. (70:00) Overdream - Zuma ["Soundprints", Sun Station 2011] 14. (76:00) silX - Friends of the Forest ["Ol Slug EP", self-released 2011] 15. (83:15) Doc von Ooze - Hexon Fluid ["In Vitro EP", Acid Chemical Plant 2011] 16. (88:30) Toï Doï - Spiral Dive (2011 Remix) ["Goa Overdose 2", Underground Alien Factory 2011] 17. (96:00) E-Mantra - If There Is Nothing ["Pathfinder", Suntrip 2011] Download (161 MB VBR, 102 min, zipped) Txt list Soundcloud Now here's a short story: At some point of summer I thought that there's only been one or two good releases all year and that I should skip this year's mix. In November-December I did some more digging and eventually this mix ended up longer than any of its predecessor. I even left a few good releases out due to matching and length. Weird things happen. Tip: Nowadays you really should check the "free" and "obscure" departments. Sometimes I wonder if this is worth the effort...let me know if you found something interesting, here or elsewhere. Oh, and happy year.

What an interesting coincidence. (I'll explain in a moment. )

Did you play Dubmission's back catalogue?

I must agree that this has slim chances of success, but some classics with long intros include: Dimension 5 - Harmonic Convergence Doof - Star Above Parvati Unfortunately I cannot guess any better from that description.

This is a non-competitive Christmas thread for people who like sharing...

The first post won those all. Sadly, the author got nothing.

I misread the topic "The first time you realized psytrance was shit" and thought "somewhere between the second and third Alien Project album"... OK, I guess around here goa became "popular" (as in, available at all in record stores) with the first Destination Goa and Goa Inside compilations. Their opening tracks were Technossomy - Pyramid and Phreaky - Paranormal Activity, respectively. That's when I really started to love acid synths...those juicy techno counterparts of electric guitars. They also had colourful Buddha and Shiva and whatnot artwork like any good goa release should. No twits in sunglasses. Good times...

Hehe.

So...the best album in history after you exclude the actually good ones? This is going to be difficult.

I don't understand the question. If an album is very good and belongs to psytrance history, isn't it almost guaranteed to have high nostalgy value? And why one couldn't play IFO at a party? OK, we already have about a trillion mixtapes with Alcyone so it's not that original a pick, but I didn't know that the whole album has become unplayable. Are we supposed to nominate the least bad album of the bunch which hasn't become widely praised, and call it the best? Or the best album in the last two years, and call it the best in psytrance history? Please explain.

None... On average, every pixel of my display(s) is covered by three layers of program windows so why bother? I guess an A0 poster would be better suited for just ogling art. More bang per buck, less likely that I'd want to do any actual work on it... (Well, actually the distro comes with a default and I haven't bothered switching it off either.)

I may have one faulty copy with the last 5 minutes or so skipping. If you want that one, it's yours for the cost of shipping. I got a replacement back then so this copy is free in, free out.

But does it always take five weeks from payment to delivery?

It's quite groovy.

Anyone who has spun Kerri Chandler knows this feeling. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZTZthjEhZM

I trust in lounge... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLLspYFzFdc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryli3byylns

OK, music making (like all arts) should be a creative process. Doing it 9 to 5 under strict deadlines won't end well. Good releases turn up when the stars are right, that is, when inspiration, motivation and free time meet. Sometimes they just don't. I can accept that. However, where this episode got silly was announcing new release dates every few months since 2008. As we all know, each of those has failed spectacularly. That's why this topic has gone deep into DNF territory and beyond. All the comedy and tragedy could have been avoided by not announcing solid dates until the material has been finished or at least close to it. I can live with "when it's done" estimates too. Sometimes they're simply more honest and honourable than overoptimistic promises which crash-land repeatedly. As these announcements have gone from exciting to embarrassing already a long time ago, couldn't we just revert back to "when it's done" mode and forget about this hyping for nothing? That move itself is three years late now, but better late than never...