pedro

If the music is good, I do not care one bit what the cover looks like. One of the my all-time favourites Psy trance albums, Feuerhake's Excess All Areas, has a sexy little bird on the cover. In fact, the more I think about it...why not introduce hardcore porn covers (or at least some soft core pics inside)? You would be combining two of my most pleasing hobbies - psy trance and sex. It may be a bit selfish...but if any label wants to make an old man really happy, just add some steamy porn to some cracking music! Hooray! Pedro

Hello Vancbc. Has Goa died? And which Goa are you referring to? The place, the music, the party vibe? They are all related but they are not the same thing. The music is the easiest to address. It is quite simple, really. Goa trance (or Goa Techno as some called it in the beginning) has not died. It has simply evolved. Just like trance evolved from other types of music. I am certainly enjoying the music being made today even though so much is being released that one has to be careful to stay away from the average stuff. I am always looking forward and eager to hear something new. Perhaps the evolution has not been to your taste. Others would agree with you. But not me. We now call it Psy trance and I encourage all the young ones to keep pumping out the music. I just wish it was not so underground. Psy trance is not my favourite kind of music, but I do love it and it deserves more fans... I will tackle the vibe and goa (the place) in one swoop and say that you can not expect Goa not to have changed. A lot of the changes going on in Goa nowadays are much more bigger than the 'trance and hippie' scene and will (to a certain degree) overwhelm the 'original' scene. There are many variations on the above theme in many difference countries, places, societies and situations. Yes, the hippies (or 'freaks') had a major role in the genesis of trance. Their spirituality, hedonism and interests (some would say fixations) helped shape goa trance. But as the scene dilates, moves places and suffers influences it naturally morphs. It is beyond the scope of this post (I want to keep it short) to analyse the converging of different cultures, interests and desires in the psy trance scene. But let me ask one question. Is a politically aware raver, high on MDMA, but with no time for the spiritual side that some of the original scene held dear, necessarily a worse proposition than a selfish, hedonistic, antisocial, unwashed hippie in all the glory of his dreadlocks? Please note that I am not making a general comment about ravers and hippies (and they can overlap completely), I am just making the point that you get all sorts in all sorts of categories. As far as non-Goa (India) parties are concerned: the scene can sometimes vary somewhat from party to party and also among festivals. But don't go to a festival expecting to see Goa, in all its wonder, recreated in the middle of Germany in a summer. Much less so in a warehouse in London. Of course there are many like-minded souls that you will find in these parties. And trance parties do tend to (on average) be among the friendlier parties I personally go to. But, of course, it is not Goa in 1995. And that doesn't depress me. You wouldn't travel to San Fransciso and expect to see the recreation of the Haight-Ashbury scene right before your eyes, would you. Or travel to Koh Pha Ngan and kick out 90% of the people on a full moon. I suppose you can always lament... Final comment on the music: Remember that when DJs Laurent and Fred tried to change the music in Goa in the early 1980s away from the Pink Floyd, reggae, Grateful Dead that used to be the staple for the Goa freaks, there were actually some pretty heated confrontations regarding the issue. Fortunately Laurent prevailed, paving the way for electronic music becoming the dominant force. Lesson: Always move forward. Don't look back too much! Pedro

So....Zebedee Green Vegetable, so you don't like AP. Fine. You can say you don't like the Beatles and Fred Astaire can't dance. Any fool can criticise. And many do... AP are not a sacred cow. And I am the first one to jump forward and state how 'Amen' was awful. But AP put a few albums which in their time were astonishingly good and can now be considered veritable classics. If it gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling to go strutting around here and showing off (what you believe to be) is your special, iconoclastic streak - go ahead. Yeah man! Let us start some more threads. Let me see...who else is respected and I can say is complete crap (it is a free world, is it not?)....hmmm....how about X-Dream, or Infected Mushroom (the early albums were the real stinkers, not the new stuff), Doof's first album was terrible. And how about Sandman's Withcraft. That must have been crap too - what is an Israeli doing on a Japanese label, anway? Pleadians suck big time, dude, too. All of their stuff. They are Italian for heaven's sake - what good music has come from Italy except Eros Ramazotti? Koxbox - shit. Huxflux - shit name, shit group. Transwave. Total Eclipse. All of them over-rated. But if anybody is interested, I can send them my stuff. It is plenty wicked. The ladies in my Sunday bridge group really dig it. Pedro

As others have pointed out, Simon Posford's (Hallucinogen) albums Twisted and Lone Deranger were milestones in the history of our beloved trance. I still remember the day I heard 'LSD' for the first time...about 10 years ago. Time passes... When judging music, it is helpful to be kind enough to take into account when the tracks were released. If one listens to them nowadays, one can complain that Phuture's Acid Trax sounds boring and Afrika Bambataa's Planet Rock sounds amateurish...but that is missing the point is it not? Of course, Hallucinogen's albums have dated somewhat and production, techniques and technology have moved on. And no, his albums were not revolutionary in the same measure as the two examples that I gave. But they were damn good and innovative when they came out. Pedro

Very nice CD. It is crazy, but not in a typical full-on way. Works very well for home listening - in fact, I am not sure if all the tracks would be winners on the dance floor. One of the best comps released in 2004. I am certainly looking forward for the next Gi’iwa compilation. Some more please. Pedro

I really did enjoy Digital Psionic's Psionic Storm and Psionic Earth compilations. So it was with high expectations that I listened to Xatrik's album. Sadly, I did not like it enough to purchase it. Yes it is dark and it is certainly intense. But not so interesting that it would merit more than an 'OK' from me. I might enjoy this album better at a party at night. Pedro

My favourite Finns last year were Texas Faggott and Haltya. Texas Faggott is worth mentioning because I did not enjoy their earlier output and was very pleasantly surprised with Pilluminati Cunt Roll. Looking forward for some more Finnish craziness this year. Pedro PS But I do hope for a measure of restraint in some cases. Some of the Finnish tracks tend to degenerate into a soundboard wank-o-rama.

A very well written review that matches my experience. Thanks. Pedro

I usually listen to psy trance when I am combing my beard or trimming my nails. I also enjoy playing loud psy trance in my car, driving around the neighbourhood with the windows rolled down. I like to see the look in the faces in some of the people. Pedro

Two of my favourite labels for dark psy have already been mentioned - Boshke Beats, Horns and Hoofs. I would also recommend some of the releases from the Hadshot label. Pedro

You need to clean out your ears old man 204955[/snapback] Blumenkraft is certainly above average as far as chill out is concerned (is this damning it with faint praise?). The problem I have is that I find a lot of ambient psy trance quite 'unintelligent' and not very compelling. Maybe it is okay to listen to while I do my cooking or cut my toenails. But if I am going to sit down, have a smoke and listen. Well...I do get bored. Take a track like Somersetter. It has a decent crazy dub feeling to it. But it is really not that special. I have so many more interesting dub stuff around - classic dub, modern dub, minimal dub techno. And I prefer it. Maybe I am just old-fashioned. Nevertheless, I hate to be so negative. I will just have to allocate more time in the next few months to listening to more ambient psy trance. I will then be able to give positive recommendations regarding ambient psy. Pedro

I have to confess to being a bit grumpy when it comes to ambient trance. It seems to me that too often these CDs are a bit bereft of musical ideas. In some of the worst cases, they are little better than glorified muzak. Unfortunately there is no single recent ambient trance CD I can heartily recommend. On the contrary, I am on the lookout for suggestions... In the past, the two ambient trance CDs which impressed me the most (at the time they came out; they have both become somewhat dated) were Saafi Brorthers: Mystic Cigarettes (!!) and Saafi Brothers: Midnight's Children. released in 1997 and 2000, respectively. Unfortunately, Saafi Brothers' last offering, Liquid Beach, did not excite me as much. Pedro

Oh dear...this old memory of mine. I should have added Rinkadink's Rabbit album as my joint (no pun intended) favourite for best 'debut'. Pedro

The Good (i) Release that has tickled my beard the most - Funf D : Angelheart. What a quality CD! (ii) Best 'debut' full length CD - Talpa: Art of Being Non. (iii) Progressive CD that made these old knee caps move the most - Haldolium: Haldolium. (iv) Compilation of the year - JP Noir. More stuff from Japan please (Phi was good too!). (iv) Winner of the "I know it is not a gem, but I listen to it more often than is good for me" winner - Lani: Our Way to the Sun. Simply delightful light stuff. The Not Good (i) Most over-rated cane-shaking rubbish - the Misguided Muppets. Uninteresting full-on. I suppose some people might even call this a 'concept' CD (and the cover is so 'wicked' - it is so 'dungeons and dragons'). Oh well. The Muppets are young. Maybe they will improve. (ii) Most over-rated chill-out: Abakus: That Much Closer to the Sun. Worse than even OTT: Blumenkraft. Pedro

Cubensis, I do not claim to understand (or indeed care to understand) how discogs.com works. Whether the information is wrong because of input mistake or because of the way the site works is irrelevant to whether or not the entry is correct and not confusing. I made a comment regarding the latter and you disagreed with it. It is about whether the entry is wrong or not, and not why this is so (or indeed assigning blame). Furthermore, it would have been far more 'constructive' (to borrow a term from you) of you to have informed me right away that the information can be corrected instead of using an obtuse arguement to justify why you were right to say that the information was not wrong. Feel free to answer this message, but please do not take offence if I do not respond. This arguement is becoming a bit of a bore. Pedro

That was a very childish post, Cubensis. I actually do not have the foggiest idea of how info gets on discogs.com...and I do not really care. The discogs.com entry ascribing certain Levy (the Psy Trance Sandman) tracks to this 'other' Sandman is clearly wrong. However, it is not such a big deal and I fail to see your interest in insisting that particular entry is correct. Pedro

Thanks, Zak. That looks more like the Sandman we know. The other discogs.com entry is quite confusing with several Izik Levy compositions in compilations for Matsuri, TIP World, Dragonfly and MDMA seemingly being allocated to this other Sandman (Patrick Prins). I suppose these types of mistakes are inevitable. Pedro

I tend to find discogs.com is sometimes incorrect/incomplete. In this case they claim that Sandman is a so-called Patrick Prins, not Izik Levi. Furthermore, they do not credit Sandman with his two most important CDs (Witchcraft and Psychotoons). On the other hand, they do correctly state that Mushroom Symphony (the last track on the Witchcraft CD, an ambient track) appears on Matsuri's Excerpts from ther Chillspace. So an inaccurate entry on Sandman in discogs.com. Looking into the matter, however, it does seem that Izik Levy had indeed produced a partnership with Chakra also called (confusingly) Witchcraft before he launched the Witchcraft album as Sandman, a sole project. Hence the Witchcraft discogs.com entry that Cubensis kindly provided. I had not been aware of this. I would venture to say that Izik is more famous for his Sandman Witchcraft CD than his Witchcraft partnership. Pedro