Basilisk

You can drive a wedge into the Phantasm Records catalogue between Parabola (2001) and Eskimo's debut album (2003). They had some ground-breaking stuff before that point (Double Dragon and Orion) and almost nothing but commercial full-on cheese since then (Cosmosis - Psychedelia Melodica is an exception). In fairness, their "classic" mid-1990s releases also exhibited a populist streak... so really, not so much has changed.

It's like that here too. Forums seem to attract a lot of these grumpy old-timers who haven't been to parties for years but still claim to know how things are or what the psytrance scene needs most

So if the Vaccine makes you sick... the cure will be the Disease?

Some recent goodies from Ektoplazm: http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/brujos-bowl-healing-with-sound http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/unusual-cosmic-process-weightlessness http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/senzar-before-the-morning-sun http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/radioactive-sandwich-a-world-of-delights http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/perfect-blind-three-spires

Hitler shot himself on April 30th.

I find there is a paucity of good artist albums prior to 1996. V/As were the first step... they allowed new artists with only a few tunes available to get their sound out there and receive some feedback.

Try this out: http://www.ektoplazm.com/essentials

Sure, so you had time to develop your sound in private. Some people today are doing so in public. Not everyone will make it... I think it is an acknowledged fact that equipment costs selected for more serious musicians back in the day. With the democratization of the tools of production anyone can try their hand at being a musician, for better or worse. As with any change there are both good and bad things about it. In this respect I try to focus on the good side... after all, some really great music is coming out of the new breed of musicians in this scene. Or, at least, a lot of music that I happen to like

Copying is an integral part of art. Nothing is truly original. Read this piece by one of my favourite filmmakers: http://markmalazarte.com/jarmusch/ The above quotation is sourced from rule #5: http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/jim_jarmusch_2972/ I suspect a lot of old school producers developed a distinctive sound almost by accident, possibly as a result of the limitations of the equipment available to them at the time. I don't have a source for this, but I remember it being said that MWNN was notorious for never changing the presets on his synths - and Transwave went to great lengths to imitate the MWNN sound. Hallucinogen's LSD represents Simon's attempt to write mainstream trance - and it failed brilliantly. Similar stories could probably be related for many of the old-timers. I think a lot of the music we love resulted from an inept imitation of something else entirely. As for the new school guys, give 'em a break. Many are fairly new to writing music. (Think about how long Youth was involved in music before turning to trance!) What you may notice is that many new school artists begin by imitating some aspect of the old school sound... but the few artists we can describe as veterans of the movement have, by and large, moved on. Filteria is probably the best example of this: his early work is fairly derivative but his most recent productions are all Filteria as far as I'm concerned. He found his voice, influenced by his experiences of the past, and now writes music that exceeds a certain threshold of distinctiveness that would have some of us describe his work as "original" by now. Ra is another good example of a new school producer that has been at it for some time. So maybe we just need to be patient if we are searching for "originality", whatever that might be. Or we could recognize that NSG is a nostalgic movement by definition, and originality should not be the most overarching criteria by which we decide whether something is good or not.

If I received this as a demo I would send it back. Sometimes all I can say is "keep working on it"

A few from the free side...

I always imagined it differently... so much for illusions

Great post! I really enjoyed reading about the session and listening to these odd glazey tunes of yours.

What happens next I wonder?

I like the idea of a 10 point system used correctly. 5 is average... meaning the release is average for that style. It goes up and down from there. A perfect 10 is reserved for those albums that really are perfect. Back when I was doing a lot of reviews I think I only gave out two perfect 10's... out of something absurd like 500 reviews. Can't remember what they were now though. Anyway, all this letter grading stuff is just a 10 point scale in disguise. Use it and don't be afraid to be brutal... but be consistent.

Cool!

Yes, we are working to get his back catalogue in the site in chunks. It's probably no secret that 12 Moons is one of my all-time favourite artists so I am quite excited to be involved in this. Michael leaving the scene after bad treatment by the labels was an episode that motivated me to start doing what I do... anyway, I'm hoping to drop him a nice donation from the tip jar and I encourage others to do the same.

There is nothing wrong with "neogoa" as far as I am concerned... although I wouldn't mind if the new school movement were more inclusive of different approaches and styles. Purists are quite focused on that Dimension 5/Pleiadians revivalist sound at the expense of alternate approaches like those of Amygdala, Anakoluth, Xamanist, EvsY, Jikkenteki, Magic & Witchcraft, and some of the other artists I have been promoting through Ektoplazm. Think of it this way: lots of releases on TIP Records would not be called neogoa if they were released today (i.e. Psychopod, Organic Noise, Orichalcum & The Deviant, Synchro, etc.). "Goa" was always a bit of a slippery term anyhow. Some stuff obviously fits our understanding of the word (Astral Projection, Cosmosis, and Etnica for instance) but there is a ton of music from the 1990s that only faintly exhibits the glimmering cosmic aesthetic we traditionally associate with Goa trance (and still, we would call it "old school Goa trance"). Neogoa, on the other hand, is fairly limited in scope. I think the movement might benefit from expanding our understanding of neogoa to include other approaches inspired by old school Goa trance.

I thought the "2" was a typo when I bought these! Killer sound anyway.

Out now! http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/psychowave-sunshine-reborn

Classics on Ektoplazm: http://www.ektoplazm.com/style/classic I'm always looking to add new classics to the catalogue. If anyone out there would like to interface with rights owners to prepare classic material for a Creative Commons re-release, please feel welcome to do so I keep all the technical requirements here: http://www.ektoplazm.com/distribution

As with any style of music you can expect 95% to be junk. The best darkpsy is not at all random; take Gappeq, Derango, Psykovsky, CPC, Atriohm, Furious, Ghreg On Earth, etc. Nothing random about these guys, nor will you find any particular emphasis on demons and such. To take one example, Ghreg On Earth has developed an extremely interesting cosmology, a kind of Clive Barkeresque universe of the psychedelic fantastic. His body of work has nothing in common with the stereotypical concept of darkpsy as expressed here, not if you're paying attention anyhow. When you dip into the remaining 95% you will certainly find music that approximates the stereotype. Some of this can be explained by the unusually participatory culture of darkpsy: many of its most devoted fans also create the music. Remember, it was within darkpsy that a free music movement in psytrance first originated in any serious capacity. So yes, there is a lot of garbage out there with next to zero musical value--but this is not what the style should be judged on.

Listening now... I am too young to have lived through those days but I figure this is what I would have been listening to at the time

Here we are http://www.ektoplazm.com/2011/crossing-mind-ultimate-reality

This may surprise you but I shoot with a Nikon D40, kit lens and all. It was just about the cheapest DSLR on the market when new. If you go out and buy a low end Nikon DSLR you will probably get comparable quality. A lot of what I do takes place in the processing stage... I use Lightroom to tweak and twist everything.