Lemmiwinks

don't mean any disrespect for the dead but I have a hunch that drugs played a big role in there somewhere... but that they're trying to hush it up so that psytrance won't have even more of a "music for drug addicts" reputation.

well I went last night to pay my last respects to him at a party in Belgium. Some of his dark trance friends were there (Fungus Funk, Azax Syndrome... sadly Psyfactor couldn't make it because of some visa problems from what I heard) and played some really fukken hard music. That said, it's pretty odd to play music at 145BPMs with a picture of Zolod and some candles burning in front of the DJ stand... But what the hell, as long as the money raised goes to his family But can anyone confirm HOW he died? Cause there are so many stories going around the net you can't tell the truth anymore...

So I just read that Zolod, half of Parasense has died??? Any infos on this? Real or hoax? [EDIT: oops that's what happens when you lose touch with the scene... you think you've just learned a big secret when it's already history anyway RIP Zolod ]

ah I think I expressed myself badly. Of course that if given the choice I'd prefer getting high on oldschool as well... what I was trying to say is that once you're high you don't really have preferences anymore. As long as there's repetitive music and a fast kick to get the chemicals going you feel good. I can't imagine someone in the middle of a high thinking "bwah, I'd prefer oldschool". It just doesn't work that way. But IMO a LOT of electronic music makers understood that a long time ago which is why most legends are making crappy stuff our days. And I'm not only speaking of psytrance producers here, also people like Laurent Garnier, Sven Vath, RMB,... Just my 2 cents

ah I totally agree with that. You see, for me oldschool was something that could be just as apreciated by people when sober as when high. However most of the stuff being released today gives me the feeling that it's just made to be listened to when high. And when you're high let's face it, a super-fast bassline and some repetitive sounds here and there, preferably with a tension-release somewhere in the middle are all you need to get you going (= THE full-on formula...). The quality of the music itself isn't really relevant except when you get back home and want to listen to the track again. So if ALL you want is to make music for the dancefloor then why bother spending weeks making a quality track anyway? The amount of time spent on it will probably be less than it's actual life-span in DJ's cases. To give a better example, I'm really not a big fan of full-on, but when I'm high it seems the best. But I get back in my normal state and think WTF did I see in that awful crap??? Anyway IMO as far as trance-inducing goes, dark psy is the way to go. It doesn't give the same feeling as oldschool at all but listen to it LOUD and man it really makes you forget what planet you're on... well at least for me

1. V/A - Apsara 2. Ocelot - Vector Selector 3. Shpongle - Nothing is Lost 4. Para Halu - World of Peace 5. Midi Miliz - Non Standards ... although I must warn you that I haven't bought ANY new releases from the 2nd half of 2005 except for Nystagymus which I didn't like... but out of the 05 releases I have listened to, this is my pick PS you're forgetting about Skazi, 1200 Mics, Eskimo and the 1001 other full-on clones

cool, my fave resource for screen backgrounds is back I can see Neil Gibson did some new work, his my fave visual artist

well I kindof lost touch with the new releases in psy lately and a lot of people recomended me this album to "get back into" psytrance. I've given it a few listens and I can't say that I'm all that impressed. The only track I like is Tommy is Dead but IMO this track isn't actually psy at all. BTW does anyone know where the sample is taken from? The voice sounds almost identitical to the one used in Talpa's People are Animals. Anyway, I REALLY like the way the artist uses little noises to enhance the sample, like for example when he says that the people in the room started turning into monsters there are little voices of monsters in the background lol Sadly though like I said, that was the only track that I really liked, the others are just average for me and I really fail to see the complexity of melodies everyone is talking about. It all sounds pretty staightforward to me... 5/10 oh and I never really was a big fan of the IM sound (old or new) so I can't really comment on the similarities

well when you say "someone's twin brother" you'd suppose they do very similar styles of music? Xenomorph and Skazi are VERY different... ok, so they might use some guitars in their tracks here and there bu hey way they use them is completely different. Then you'd say that all the oldschool artists using 303s are twin bothers as well? lol

just to have my saying in this... say whatever you want but 1200 Mics is a LOT more faithful to the old goatrance concept than 99% of the stuff being released today. Take your pick between 1200 Mics and your favorite dark trance/ progressive/ full-on artist and then tell me who represents best the oldschool vibe? So yes, some of their melodies are a bit too cheesy but hey at least they still use melodies which isn't very common these days?

thank you mars for all your efforts to keep this site alive

just to add that actually KLF - What Time is Love and 3 AM Eternal were part of a series called "Pure Trance"... SO the term trance DID exist back then!! (1987- 1988) I'm convinced that this isn't just a one-off thing, there surely must've been a VERY underground trance scene even back then but of which noone (except the lucky few who were actually in it) ever knew existed. But it was there, and those tracks by KLF are simply the ones that time haven't forgotten anyone agree?

ah yes good thing you mention that because I once stumbled on an album called Trancemission - Back in Trance released in 1989... I was all excited expecting to fall on some hidden treasure and it ended up being some rock album

well I know that there was a certain "DJ Laurent" (different from Laurent Garnier) who played a major role in the development of the trance scene in Goa in the late 80s, maybe ask him as well?

ah well you were lucky then... I saw him DJ once here in Belgium in the late 90s (BTW he didn't play a SINGLE trance track in his set, only minimal techno!!) and when his gig was over a dude came for an autograph... Sven signed the autograph and then made a sign to the bouncers... they all surrounded him and didn't let people walk up to him anymore. I didn't really like the attitude, made him look like fucken Michael Jackson But who knows, maybe he was just REALLY tired and wanted to go home or had a plane to catch or something... ah well it might be his right... but it would take all the fun out of the quest as well. And I'm so tired of DJs using every fucken occasion to self-promote their stuff. Like I said, I can't stand it when a DJ puts a "top 5 tracks of the moment" list up and no. 1, 2 and 3 are taken by hs own productions and no. 4 and 5 are tracks made by his friends from the same label. Like what's the use of making a top then? But anyway, let's hope that Sven is different

well the dude was DJing since the 70s so he's even older than Sven Väth and thus should know even more about the stuff... BTW the legend has it that when Sven Väth first came to Goa he was astonished to see people complement him on his work which was vritually unknown and recored in 8bits And well like you say, trance started splitting up around 94-95, so for me all the music done before has a common denominator I really hope you'll hear from Sven... and that he won't give you a shameless self-promotion answer like "Me and my Eye Q label created Trance"... (although I woulsn't be surprised if he did)

ah for the acid craze... EVERYTHING was acid in the early 90s!! As far as I'm concerned, the only distiguishable difference is between acid house and acid techno (simply because acid house didn't really use that much 303s)... but for the other acid genres... they were ALL caracterized by excessive use of the little silver box... and early trance just so happened to make excessive use of the little silver box as well... I rememeber strolling through some acid techno comps at the time and I foudn that a LOT of them were practically oldschool goa released under acid techno lables! Ah and good luck on your quest Nemo, I remember that I once sent an email to Goa Gil asking for the same question and... he never replied Hope you'll have better luck than I did...

ah come on, the dude is obvioulsy making tongue-in-cheek comments... the truth is that electronic music is being churned out at a phenomenal rate (just think of all the releases apearing every month in the psytrance genre alone!) and NOONE can keep pace with it all... I think we should admire his effort to bring it all into a "digestible dose". And then once you go into the "obscure pre-1990 period" then it really gets muddy simply because back then people into electronic music weren't looking for $$ like they do today. So instead of looking at the most sold records to know what's mostly being played in clubs, you had to search for the little B-side track on a sub-sub label that has long been out of existence... supposing someone still has one of the 50 vinyls that were ever printed... and is willing to share... Add to that the fact that us humans prefer linear evolutions whereas in reality it's more like chaos theory... for example, in Belgium New Beat was hot, everyone would label their electronic productions "New Beat" cause it sold... but for example in the UK eveything was about acid house, so you'll find the SAME releases that were labled "New Beat" in Belgium on "Acid House" comps in the UK!! Same thing is happening today: something might be considered Hardstyle in one country and Trance in another! So who's to say what falls in which genre anyway?

yes, I probably would've like it better if it wasn't for the 1001 remixes that came afterwards...

man I so hate that track...

ah yes, ego reasons set aside, I think Paulie would have a few interesting stories to tell as well... but he'd probably never give an interview without getting 500$ for it lol

ah well that's the problem... when do you draw the line between "another genre that had elements that later became trance" and actual trance? Anyway, for me like I said, the distinctive issue is simply that those 2 tracks don't sound like ANYTHING else released at the same period... they don't even sound like anything else released by the groups themselves! It's like some sort of "cosmic wave" taking over the studio during the creation process But I guess people like Sven Väth will know better about these things PS I happen to know that Juno Reactor was highly influenced by Front 242 And let's not forget the psytrance tribute to A Killing Joke (Wardance - The Remixes) obviously showing where some of the psytrance godfathers got their inspiration

oh yeah and of course we're talking about stuff before 94... the thing is that once you go too far back people will be like "yeah but this isn't trance, it's new beat" (or some other genre). For me 2 tracks represented THE beginning of trance: KLF - What Time is Love (original was made in 1987) A Split Second - Flesh (original from 1986) But my main problem when telling people that was that they'd reply "but that's not trance". Well it represents the beginning of trance to me, and both tracks are definatley VERY different from other tracks released in the same period. Anyway, my point being that there are probably tons of other stuff in the likes as well but they just became burried in the passage of time.

hey man, making a site on the origins of trance has been my project for a loooong time!! I guess that the no. 1 question to ask would be the obvious: If you were to name ONE track that started it all, what would it be? And it can't be one of his own creations cause then everyone would just promote their stuff. PS off-topic but doesn't it piss the hell out of you to see a DJ's "Top 5" tracks of the moment where at least 3 are stuff made by themselves? God I hate it when that happens... I'd also include these people in the list: Avi and Lior from Astral (former SFX... let's not forget that these guys were making stuff in 89) Har-El Prusky Ollie Olsen Although not trance, I'd ask KLF about it too cause these guys were making "trance" in 1987! I'd definatley want to know where their inspiration came from at the time...

yep that's what I was thinking... for me the "Eye Q sound" ended up trigerring all the eurotrance wave whereas stuff released by Nova Zembla ended up being psytrance... of course, this is greatly simplified and would be forgeting the contribution of Israeli and Australian lables to the scene but anyway and yes, the most commercial track released in the eary 90s is 100 times more underground than the kiddy shit being made today...