GagaISM

Thanks! Any other unconventional labels from that period worth checking out? As for the original topic I think I'll add Growling Mad Scientists. I used to dig them a lot. Especially The Growly Family on TIP. But these days I just can't get into them like I used to. The bass lines are all the same and the productions sound a little bit flat to me. I'll give them another listen today and see what happens.

First time I've heard something sounded remotely like Process. Gotta get this album asap. I bought Lumukanda's Araglin years ago, but never got the chance to listen the rest of their catalogue. What are your personal Psy-Harmonics faves?

What Double Dragon album are you talking about? Contrinuum or Transparent?

Something important that more people should acknowledge is that things only hold the value you give them. It's Elysium who is burned out on Goa and not vise versa. If Trust In Trance suddenly no longer appeals to me anymore it's not the fault of AP. TIT will still be the exact same album it always was. It will be because I have decided to channel my energy into something else and that's where Kristian went wrong. He decided to walk down a different path and made the misconception that Trance universally had turned to shit just because he no longer had any interest in it. That couldn't be further from the truth. A good example is that Psy to me is a very intelligent genre that has been on an almost constant quest to push the boundaries of electronic music. To most of my friends however it's tacky 90's dance music for suburb burn-outs stuck in the past. Just another proof that all music is in the ear of the beholder.

Funny that you mention Process. I had a much easier time getting into his second album Superior Technology. I'm still puzzled why though, since I ain't much of a melody-man. I was already drooling allover XV KILIST and Shiva Chandra at that point. Something just kept me from getting into it. Might have had something to do with the over-funky basslines. Atmos third album Tour De Trance took me a great while to warm up to. The ultra cheesy melodies and vocal parts were tough to swallow, but once I got over my elitist mentality I just couldn't get enough. It's not Headcleaner, but that's exactly the point. Balicki just wanted to create some super catchy feel-good tunes and he did that with great success. Everything about the album is top notch.

Any theories as to why it's sounding better now? Astral Projection's Another World has become my favorite AP album. I love the variation and the melodies are just top notch. I used to think that TIT was much better, but I rarely listen to that anymore.

We all know the drill. An album gets trashed upon it's release only to be praised as a classic years later or vise versa. Koxbox's Dragon Tales is a prime example. It could be the other way around as well. An album that once was a favorite and now no longer holds it's magic. So my question is as following - what albums have you changed your mind about for better or for worse and why?

Looks great.

I'm looking for more stuff like Haldolium's Deagua. Any other Hamburg acts who was releasing stuff like that back then?

Thank you very much.

Is there a special group on discogs for this kind of stuff? I just signed up.

So did it ever make it to Beatport?

I've heard more than a lot of people call this the best Psychedelic Trance live-set ever. I can't say if that's the truth, but I'd sure like to hear it. So where do I find this recording?

Agreed. It's definitely a flawed piece of work. But it does have it's very own unique charm. Very Twin Peaks inspired sure. But still it's own thing.

I've got the documentaries down. Now it's on to the books! Any recommendations?

That's for the update. I'll make sure to pick it up once it's released.

I personally had the impression that most people had grown tired of old school Goa at that point and that minimal/prog was really BIG. But maybe it wasn't that big at all. More like a short-lived sub-genre for a select few?

This track banged my skull the fuck in the first time I heard it. Never found anything like it since. Can you guys please help me out? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75WyIlYKr-w

Awesome lists! Thanks to all of you.

I would kill to watch that one with subs. It looks really, really good and professional. What do you mean about "the bad side" btw? Connections to drugs and organized crime?

I saw that one on youtube. Someone really needs to make some subs for it. It looks really interesting.

I'm looking for documentary films on Psychedelic trance artists and the genre. There must be at least a handful of them out there. I think I saw an old one of BCC back in the 90'es. Hope you guys can help me out!

Not sure. Where's that?

Great list! A bunch I forgot to mention, especially Angel's Egg, Brave New World, Lifeforce, Planet of The Vampires, Sleeper, V, Zardoz and a couple I haven't even seen. O-Bi, O-Ba - The End of Civilization sounds really interesting.

And last, but not least - Welt Am Draht (world on a wire) This is a virtually unknown proto-Cyberpunk 2 part film made for German television back in 1973. The story of the film was based on Daniel F. Galouye's book Simulacron-3 from 1964. The same book and it's virtual reality theme later inspired Larry and Andy Wachowski's Cyberpunk blockbuster The Matrix. Simulacron 1 is the most important project in the institute for cybernetics and futurology – an electronic monster that is supposed to elevate conventional computer technology to a new level. Once it functions, Simulacron will be able to predict future social, economic, and political occurrences as precisely as though they were reality. Thus, Simulacron is a least interesting for two parties: those who are interested in improving future life conditions and those who hope for information privileges vis-à-vis their competitors. This could, for instance, concern the aluminum market. Professor Vollmer (Adrian Hoven) is the initiator and the head of the research project. He dies under mysterious circumstances – the common opinion is that he committed suicide as he showed peculiar signs of a bizarre mental disturbance just prior to his death. Siskins (Karl-Heinz Vosgerau), almighty boss of the institute, makes Dr. Stiller (Klaus Löwitsch), the closest associate of the deceased, Vollmer’s successor. But soon, the colleagues notice odd symptoms in Stiller as well: He claims that the institute’s head of security, Günther Lause (Ivan Desny), has vanished without trace, whereas everyone knows that his name is Hans Edelkern (Joachim Hansen) and that he is as happy as a clam. Stiller also talks about an attempt to murder him – but it is obvious that this was a completely normal accident. Dr. Stiller also opposes his superior Siskins’ intention to pass special Simulacron predictions to private people in advance. It appears that Stiller’s nerves are not sufficiently strong for the type of pressure his new job entails. He gets nauseous, does not recognize people, and instead talks of people nobody apart from him knows. Stiller tries to forget his Simulacron-related problems. For him, Simulacron is not just a lifeless machine but a kind of miniature universe. Although he knows very well that the so-called identity units in Simulacron are nothing but the result of complex electronic procedures, the units sometimes appear like real people to him. And they are indeed based on humans. Because they are programmed to make precise predictions about real people’s behavior, they may not be different from them. Is Stiller schizophrenic? This is exactly what many believe – until one day, during a routine transfer, Stiller’s conscience gets entangled into the circuits of Simulacron where he believes to meet an old acquaintance again: Günther Lause, the institute of cybernetics’ and futurology’s head of security. Of the latter everyone except Stiller claims that he has never existed. World on a Wire neither plays here nor anywhere else, it is not placed in the present but not in the past or the future either. World on a Wire takes place in an artificial world and in an artificial time – it is a fiction, a hypothesis, a plan for further discussion, no more. And no less.