IronSun

Awesome! I so want to see him live! Ot: Fantastic album, review following shortly.

Exactly my thought Cool tabletop game it seems

That's good to hear, I really don't want to get tired of it either

Ok, I'm going to be very open: I first discovered Psytrance through a friend. It was new year's eve 3 years ago and we had smoked quite some herb when one of my mates said: "Hey, I discovered some really good music, put up youtube I'm gonna let you hear it." This was, ofcourse, infected mushroom, cities of the future to be precise. I know IM is considered trash by many now-a-days (and I must admit that I almost never listen to them anymore either), but you have to understand from what I was coming. At the time I was getting into hardstyle, or jumpstyle after being bored with rock, metal, etc. So I discovered jumpstyle and thought it was the bomb. I guess some part of me also wanted to rebel against the ruling trend of my student bar, which was rock, hard rock, metal and all that stuff ALL THE TIME. So when I first heard some hard beats I was sold immediately. I began to dj it in that bar, mainly to please myself but also to annoy the crap out of all those metal heads (mind you, I do not dislike metal or rock, far from, I just can't listen to it 24/7, and as the bar is the faculty bar of arts I thought the music should be more diverse). Yet, when I first heard IM, I realized in a moment what electronic music CAN be, and fell in love with psytrance immediately. After that I began to experiment some more with substances and psytrance just stuck around (I didn't yet try to find more by myself, I only listened to what friends gave me). It just felt incredibly 'right'. Soon after that my friend fell in love with darkpsy, the likes of kindzadza, furious, penta, psykovsky. So for a while I listened to that. I loved the attitude, and the fact that this kind of music was so different from all the mainstream shit that gets thrown at you. I had some really nice moments on dark and IM, some awesome eargasms. BUT, it was all in function of drugs, experimenting, exploring my consciousness, see what my brain can do. Then I began picking up more interest in the music itself and began digging. This is when I stumbled upon the oldschool sound, and started going to parties. It took me a while to get used to goatrance though. It wasn't as hard and in-your-face as dark and I was really only looking for that crazy climax driven stuff. So I discovered Filteria, and with him Suntrip. I was amazed at the melodic climaxes and soon enough I couldn't listen to anything else anymore, dark included. My interest just kept growing and growing and I began to go back in time, listening to dimension 5, pleiadians, etnica, etc. I began to systematically listen to every release held in high regard by the goa trance community, thanks to friends my stream of new music was endless. I learned to love the alien atmospheres, weird samples, drive and the attitude of goatrance, even more so than the attitude of dark. After that I just got more and more obsessed, started to buy records, look for the next big track but at the same time I began to love the softer side of goa trance and from there developed a liking towards ambient, psychill, etc. Even now, with every day that passes, my vision on the whole thing called psytrance and all it's offspring is ever evolving. I'm beginning to see the big picture I guess, as I have sifted through countless tales, reports, explanations, etc... I really think that this big picture is my vision on it, but never really felt the need to share this with anyone. To me, it all started with proto goa trance, which in turn evolved to goa trance which was popular for 4 years, 1995-1999. After that, people and artists got bored with it, which led to experimentation. Out of this came a couple of new sounds, dark psytrance, minimal and full-on, at least the beginnings of it. As time went on, there were some nostalgic feelings about the old sound, which led to it's atempt at revival. (Of course, all the other new subgenre's evolved as well, but I'm not well versed in the history of those although I do listen to twilight psy, dark and forest from time to time). To me today, I feel like out of this desire to revive the old sound, this old sound evolved with it. It really does feel very natural to me and the goa sound we here today, at least to me, sounds right, it sounds like it had to go there. At the moment I'm dj'ing now and then, and I always try to find the best tunes, and just love sifting through new as well as old releases, looking for ways to combine them in my sets and create truly awesome experiences for the dancers and listeners. I'm willing to take into consideration that by 5 years I will grow tired of this sound, and start wanting something new, but for the moment I am very much in love with goa trance. It's my method of relaxing, it's my hobby and my obsession, and it makes me feel good. It's positive, ever changing and altogether an entire different world. I guess these feelings are exactly because I am rather new to it, but I never experienced this before in my life, being obsessed with music like this. I am even learning to make it myself, and toying around with DAW's, learning the ropes and who knows, maybe some day I'll make something of my own that's worth sharing. To sum it up: at first I was being a rebel and loved the in-your-face attitude, but as time progressed I learned to appreciate more and more aspects of psytrance and now I just feel a profound love for the genre and especially for Goa and Psybient. As of now, I do not have a problem with the way goa is sounding. To me, there is nothing wrong with it, I am satisfied as it is

Really, twice? And you already have an opinion on the entire album? I for one do not think there is anything 'wrong' with the modern goa sound. There aren't as many artists as there used to be but surely there is enough variation for me. People who say that for example Suntrip's releases sound all the same: I really don't get how you can find E-mantra, Filteria and Antares sounding the same... I think many people are prejudiced and don't take the modern sound at face-value, and that is a pity. Also, there is nothing wrong with giving suggestions to artists about what you would like to hear, that's called feedback. Constructive feedback helps a music scene. Always nagging about how this and that doesn't sound as it did 15 years ago is completely ignoring music evolution, and I think this is sad. I only discovered psytrance about 3 years ago and as such did not experience the 'golden age' but I do enjoy the old releases, a lot. Yet, that doesn't mean I think the newer stuff is garbage, far from actually, I love a lot of new releases and would put them on par with older ones, some of them even better. A good example of this is Khetzal's Corolle, or even the new Artifact303 and Antares albums, the Alienapia one, Erta Ale, etc... That being said, I would sometimes like a bit more acid in the tracks, and am curious how that would turn out.

I absolutely agree with you. I have listened to this album around 40 times now, and it just doesn't get old. Very chill goa, never too frantic, the sounds are chosen very well. As you said, it seems that Antares doesn't feel that he needs to prove anything, and that really does the album good. This release is until now definitely my favorite 2011 release, although Erta Ale is too but in another way. And then there's this "Back to Space" I'm really getting into at this moment... What can I say... people are complaining about 'generic goa' this, and 'it's all been done before' that but if I'm honest I really don't see the problem here, not if it's pulled off so well as in this case. Exodus has become one of my favorite albums of all times even. Humble Goa Trance, celebrating the sun, very soothing!

Anyone playing Heroes of Newerth here?

Nononono, YOU lose! I win! hah! Keep us updated about your endeavours

As I expected. This is never going to end, is it?

Uptempo 1. Artha - Influencing Dreams 2. Alienapia - Goapocalipsis 3. VA - Temple of Chaos 4. Cybernetika - The Scythe of Orion 5. Crossing Mind -The Holographic Paradigm 6. Goasia - Dancing with the Blue Sprit 7. VA -Spiritual Rising 8. Psykovsky - Tanetsveta 9. VA -Dimensional Gateway 10. VA - Energy Waves Downtempo 1. Carbon Based Lifeforms - Interloper 2. Solar Fields - Altered | Second Movements 3. Asura - 360 4. Androcell - Entheomystic 5. Uth - Distant Instincts Hmmm, haven't listened to much 2010 downtempo it seems

W00t, downloading as we speak!

I think it's an awesome show! Very foreboding atmosphere and building the story nicely, I love that. Awesome characters too, especially the dwarf

Both. Going for only one limits my options too much and I like diversity in my psy.

The heart, it is broken And welcome to the new(-ish) guys!

Imo you really can't group psykovsky and BotfB together, you can do that with derango and electrypnose, but BotfB doesn't belong in there. Listen to them again, and then to the likes of psykovsky, totally different...

+1, I've only listened to the comp about 6 times now, but I really have to agree with your and penzo's review. I love this shit, to death. More detailed review will definitely follow but in the meantime I'm just gonna enjoy this fine piece of work. Besides, I agree that cronomi doesn't necessarily release darker goa, it's just heavier.

Listening to that new cronomi compilation, and it rocks!

Haha, really nice, I lol'ed. But I think that's a bit too general. There's not only a few but numerous examples of dark producers who actually make intense ripping psychedelic music, I mainly think about those crazy russians, Kindzadza and Psykovsky, but for example Derango and Megalopsy make awesome stuff too. I am more of a goa trance fan, I really don't listen to dark much nor do I enjoy it that much at parties, but to say that generally dark is an excuse for lame music creation and drug abuse is stretching it a bit too far I think

I don't really think it is about facts in this movie, except for the very obvious ones that our current "system" just isn't working out. As long as there will be something called "inequality", men will not be able to transcend himself simply because of the fact that there will always be a minority who is oppressed. What I like about this movie is the proposition it makes, not necessarily the facts it uses to come to that. The "facts" offered here are in a way something I have felt myself to be intrinsically true for a very long time. They just feel right. Letting a human grow up in a stabile and nurturing environment while stimulating and challenging him in numerous way can not but create a vastly different character than let's say for instance a human who spends his childhood being abused in one way or the other. This feels incredibly logical to me, and I can not understand why on earth things as money and power, two virtual concepts could have ever become so important to human kind that we lose track of what we are and thus of what we need, to be the best we can be. Basically it all comes down to the very simple saying of "don't do to others what you don't wish someone would do to you". The thing is that this is largely ignored by the most powerful people on this planet, in a very ridiculous way too. In all this, political, religious or economic convictions tend to enhance this wrongdoing to the other. We need to let go of these. They are nothing but made-up quatsch that haven't helped mankind ever, especially in the long run.

Hah, don't worry, I lol'ed

Interesting you should mention this, it's practically the same topic of the new zeitgeist movie, I posted a link to it in the movies section, I think you will agree with it to a very large extent if not completely. I too think the way you guys do, I think it is time for us as a species to become self aware, and stop the madness that is going on today. Big and vague words, I know that, and my biggest fear is that this "system" we are living in now, the monetary market alongside politics, consumerism and genetic determinism is a system we will not be able to get out of easily because it runs itself. Power, money and short-term gain govern the world, not the people living in it. And that scares me, that we might have created a virtual "matrix" for ourselves to live in, unable to get out of it anymore. But we will see, the economic crisis, the middle-eastern uprisings and the many countries that are wrestling with forming new governments, those are all signs on the wall that we can't continue this way I think. The only hope I have is that we as a species realize this before we destroy ourselves. Watch the last Zeitgeist, and spread it around.

+1, adding to that it is in a category of it's own because I haven't heard any other release that sounds like this. Even so, for me this album is without a doubt the first that pulls of the combination of high bpm and superb melody-work in a distinct high-tech psytrance context this well. In fact, I'm gonna listen to it again just now

I don't know if any of you have seen this yet, I guess many already have. None-the-less this is a ridiculously good and eye-opening movie, the likes of which I have not seen before. For the people who haven't seen it yet, I'm not going to tell anything about the contents, you just have to check it out yourself. For the one's who HAVE seen it: discuss! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w

Subject to change, but a preliminary list would look something like this: Uptempo Ra - 9th Khetzal - Corolle Psykovsky - Da Budet Filteria - Sky Input Chi-A.D. - Infinitism Fragletrollet - Playground Of Spirit Crazy Astronaut - Renegade Crop Circles - Tetrahedron Derango - Tumult Kindzadza - Waves From Outer Space Downtempo Solar Fields - Movements Solar Fields - Leaving Home Carbon Based Lifeforms - Hydroponic Garden Carbon Based Lifeforms - World Of Sleepers Androcell - Efflorescence Shpongle - Nothing lasts... Shulman - Endless Rhythms Of The Beatless Heart Asura - Life^2 Younger Brother - The Last Days Of Gravity OTT - Blumenkraft I know putting more than 1 release by a certain artist into a top 10 is lame, but Solar Fields and Carbon Based Lifeforms are just that good for me.

niiiiiiice, good job on releasing him!