Lemmiwinks

1. Mr.Easter 2. A living monitor 3. So long so far 4. Kayo attack 5. The way we like it 6. Emotion chaos 7. Back to mind 8. Setup con.com 9. Deep to Tiv 10. Electro funk This is my first experience with Echotek so I didn't really know what to expect of him. Well I ended up with some sort of crossblend between progressive and full-on. It's basically progressive with a full-on bassline. Personally I didn't like it very much... from time to time there are some VERY nice melodies but they simply don't develop enough to keep you interested. Great example of this being the perfect wonderful intro to The Way We Like It - insane wonderful melody in the first 20 seconds and then nothing... the melody fades away and we have a boring full-on beat and random farting sounds... OK, it pics up later with some nice atmospheric synthlines. Still, that wonderful melody is never to be heard again So all in all this is a pretty average album IMO. Some very interesting ideas from time to time but alas the tracks as a whole are pretty dissapointing 6/10 favorite tracks: 5, 6, 8

hey I was just listening to One Blinding Illumination and thought "wait a minute, there's a killer oldschool 303 in the background" around minute 2:20... then I read your comment. Yes you are right!! But are those little trademark Cosmosis sounds in the background here and there worth it? Ah well, guess I'll have to give this a few more listens to tell

For the new sound... well I'd say that whoever came up with such a crappy concept as "neo full-on" should be shot... but luckily his old style made a comeback on Trancendance... let's just hope he'll keep up the trend

huh I'd say that indeed if someone was making music before in a certain style and that afterwards a LOT of people copied his style then it's pretty much proof that they played a major role in influencing, don't you think? Take a track like Anne Clark - Our Darkness... it was remixed to death to the point that very few people actually know it was initially made by Anne Clark in the first place BUT this was almost trance and it was made in 1983!! And I guess that all the remixing shows that a LOT of producers later on listened to her stuff when kids/ teens hence they wanted to pay her a tribute. And yeah, maybe Technohead wasn't a pioneer in the true sense of the term but I was mostly thinking about the GTO project. And then if one producer is behind more than one trend, then it's all merit to him, no? oh and no no no... if you were to start with those you'd have to go all the way back to the 1940s and the "Musique Concrete" movement which is when artists actually started making music exclusively by using synths! (yes, that's about 30 years BEFORE Kraftwerk's debut album... just to put things into perspective...) BTW since you mention Richard D James, did you know that he claims that his major influence came from a certain Karlheinz Stockhausen who made his debuts around 1960?

of course!!! Actually I don't like about 70% of the stuff he makes. Guess that's the price to pay when you're making such unique music... some people love it and others hate it.

I don't get it Seraph, in your initial post you limit yourself to UK ambient/ electronica producers from the early 90s (not really "infulential" IMO when you keep in mind that the whole acid house electronic music scene started around 1988...) and then you speak about "real electronica producers" and "not limiting yourself to one crowd"... no offense but it seems to me that your initial top 7 was VERY limited to a certain crowd... you completely forget about minimal techno, trance, hardcore, D&b as well as the whole electronic music scene outside the UK... And once we know that the British come after the Germans you're missing out completely on a whole group of "influencers"...

As far as I'm concerned, Cosmosis released one absolute killer classic debut album and went continuously downhill from that point on... Not only that but he was also one of the main figures behind "Neo full-on"... thank God that didn't catch up. So personally I expected this album to be yet another mediocre full-on album along the way and I wasn't mistaken... EXCEPT for Inside Yourself which shows us that oldschool artists haven't forgot how to make... oldschool!!! Dead or Alive brings us a few of the trademark old Cosmosis screaming 303 lines!! Not bad at all The downtempo track Tim's Trip is pretty nice too (containing fragments from the speech of none other than Tim Leary!) but nothing particularly special. So yes most of this album is full of boring full-on (although it might grow on me eventually, it's too early to tell...) BUT there are 2 totally killer tracks that bring tears to the eyes of any oldschooler Normally I wouldn't recommend an album just for 2 great tracks but these 2 are SO good that IMO they make up for the mediocrity of the rest!! 8/10 Of course if there was some upcoming comp containing those 2 tracks I'd definatley go for that rather than this album. In the meantime this is as close as you'll get to having an adrenaline rush that will make it difficult to keep siting until the upcoming Filteria PS It took me a while to recognize just what that popish melody in Re-Order was, then I recognized it was actually New Order - Blue Monday ARRRGH!!! The trend of remixing crappy 80s songs is back!! I hate this!!

hmm I don't know about that one... of course you'll always have the "Big shouter who stole all the credits and became famous Vs the man in the background who did everything but never recieved proper recognition" debate (which is usually the way it happens everywhere, not just the music intustry). However I picked Sven Vath for more reasons that just his (or his collaborator's) music. First of all, the way I heard it, indeed Sven had someone to push the buttons for him but it was he who had the vision of the tracks. The "other guy" was more of a sound engineer, not an actual composer. And then you have everything else Sven did to promote electronic music, namely his Eye-Q label and a famous club in Germany (of which I always forget the name ). So I'd say that he earned his place in the top influencers of electronica

OK, if we are to keep it to the "modern electronica" artists, here is my list: I can't believe so little tribute is payed to The KLF ... these guys started the trance as well as "modern" chill-out trends... Started to make electronic music around 1987 (warning: stay away from their stuff previous to 87 or else you'll be VERY dissapointed!! Unliess you like Welsh hip-hop...) Also a certain Sven Vath was DJing electronic music since.. 1982!!... If you are to point out a single most influential artist on trance/ techno who's still pretty active today it would be him. Also another artist who played a HUGE role in influencing what was to become "trance" nearly a decade later was Anne Clark . It's not trance music, it's more like music in the background for her poems (you probably already heard tons of samples from her earlier work under various remixes, ie. that female voice which says "Wrong becomes right, right becomes wrong"). Anyway it was the music playing in the background that was to become industrial and trance later on. And the dark deep vocals were to stir up the goth movement... Yes she was already doing this in 1982- 1983!! Michael Wells who has been behind a whole lot of groups ranging from the starters of "acid house" GTO (Greater than One) around 1985 to one of the pioneers of hardcore and happy hardcore Technohead ... Basically if you were to trace back all the "stupid music" trend (you know, idiotic catchy melodies, heavy bassline and referals to drugs) it would be Technohead Phuture ... didn't release much tracks BUT we owe the use of 303 as an "acid line" to them!!! Just think about it: if it wasn't for this band releasing Acid Tracks in 1987 we probably would never have had acid techno, trance and goatrance!! Confetti's made This is the Sound of C in 1988... It was to become an acid house anthem. They were also the ones responsible with the mental association of the Smiley with acid house and Es... Actually their This is the Sound of C was later on remixed into This is the sound of Es... Much of the whole minimal bangin' techno trend (ranging from Detroit techno to techtrance) is due to Derrick May who was already making minimal beats since 1987. Ever since besically every artist into minimal techno has been copying his style...

Well I agree with The Overlords... but again, IMO Koxbox has a too distinctive style to be called "influential"... and Saiko-Pod just followed the minimal/ prgressive trend, I don't really find that project influential at all, more like influenced. Psychopod were around since the early days though although AFAIK they only released a handfull of tracks.

*copy-paste from the psynews reviews database* artist albums: Asia 2001 - Râ Boris Blenn- Paradise Connection Brainman - Brain Food Bypass Unit - On A Trance Mission Eat Static - Epsylon Electric Universe - One Love Elysium - Dance For The Celestial Beings Eternal Basement - Nerv Guy Sebbag And Gal Carmy - In Trance Hallucinogen - Twisted Har-Ell Prussky - New Pagan World Indoor - Progressive Trance Koxbox - Forever After The Infinity Project - Feeling Weird Total Eclipse - Delta Aquarids Transwave - Hypnorhythm EPs: Deviant Electronics - Catacomb / Psi Corps Etnica- Tribute / Astral Way Etnica - The Italian Hallucinogen - Space Pussy / Thugs In Tye-Dye Hallucinogen - LSD (The Remixes) Hallucinogen - LSD Hallucinogen - Astral Pancakes / Fluoro Neuro Sponge Hiscore Xor - Drone IIV / True Freedom Spect-R - This is Acid Total Eclipse - Aliens / Sound Is Solid Transwave - The Outerspace Comps: A Voyage Into Trance 1 Balagan Boyd In The Void Concept In Dance 2 Cosmic Trance 1 Deck Wizards Mark Allen Distance To Goa 2 Global Psychedelic Trance 1 Return To The Source : Deep Trance And Ritual Beats Spiritual Trance 1 Tantrance 1 Trance Mix 6 Transient 2 Trust In Trance 2 Chill-out: Astralasia - Axis Mundi Astralasia - Astralogy Banco de Gaia - Last Train To Lhasa Makyo - Rasa Bhava Mantaray - Numinous Island The Infinity Project - Mystical Experiences

yes I know... I've always wondered why people say that... I mean of course they're all a bit different but IMO he isn't different enough to earn all the praise that's being given to him... anyway it's just my opinion And yes I have heard of the other South African artists you mention and again I simply don't find them as creative as people say they are...

well actually if you REALLY want to push it, it was more like Simon P got his influences from The Infinity Project... and while we're at it, most early goatrance got its influences from german trance artists that noone really considers to be goatrance in the first place like Dance 2 Trance, Jam & Spoon, Cafe Del Mar, etc... This could be a very interesting thread if people tried to actually spot artist influencing rather than just make a list of their favorite 5 producers... Anyway, after a few hours thought, here is my list: GMS Need I describe how their full-on formula caught on to be a genre in itself? Har-Ell Prusky yes yes, once upon a time there was AP... but BEFORE AP was actually making trance (they were making industrial in the very early 90s) there was a certain Har-El making the dreamy music that was later to be known as morning israeli trance KLF These guys were making trance before anyone knew what the hell trance was! What Time is Love? is seen by a LOT of people as being THE first goatrance track. AND almost 20(!!) years later it STILL sounds good!! Prana Not 100% sure about this one but I've heard that Scarab was made in... 1992!! Definatley WAY before its time, you'd have to wait until 95-96 to find similar fast paced and energetic goatrance. If there's ONE track that I should single out as the first truly oldschool goa track it would be this one... But the absolute kings of influence IMO are X-Dream !! I consider them to be the starters of 3 trends actually: the less layered slower-paced style that was to become progressive; the dirty mechanical techno-sounding style that was to become techtrance as well as "dark trance"...

EP is just jealous because noone mentioned him Well actually it CAN be said who had a lot of influence on the scene although I agree with you that most of the replies here are based on taste, not facts... For me influential artists are simply artists that everyone tried to copy/ imitate later on. Example of this being GMS and their full-on formula... Many people might not like GMS (including me...) but they have to admit that the are truly one of THE most influential artists in todays scene. On the oposite side, say a group like Pleiadians might be considered by a LOT of people as having made 2 classic albums yet their style hasn't really been reproduced (well, except for Filteria) so no, for me Pleiadians shouldn't really be considered as "influential"...

meh that's what happens when you use Kazaa and eMule to dload underground stuff... I'd say (morality issues put aside...) that your main problem is not going to the proper source rather than the mislabeling of tracks by some morons.

Good God how can people praise so much the South African full-on is beyond me... So it's a LITTLE BIT less formulaic than israeli full-on... but that's it!! Again we have a CD full of mediocre stuff and 2 standout tracks: Fucking Machines and The Raver 6/10 (at least it's better than the new Rinkadink IMO)

Let me start by saying that personally I have never been a huge fan of South African psy... sure the first comps on Nano Records sounded refreshing at the time but IMO their bag ran out of tricks really fast... This is an enjoyable album at best, meaning that it isn't bad but not particularly good either. It's just the kind of music that you wouldn't mind listening to in the background while driving but doesn't have anything involving enough to make you want to listen it over and over again in your room. Ok, Basshead stands a little out of the crowd with a pretty catchy synthline although we are far from classic territory here... Also Dad's Power Song is a funny track, it brings back all the clichés from commercial electronic music in the very early 90s (that dude saying "BASS!" and the woman scream from 2 Unlimited - No Limits, the Hoover technique, vinyl scratching and a ton of others, if you were a teen in the early 90s you'll recognize them once you hear them ) So yes, it makes you remember those days (supposing you listened to that kind of music back then - I did...) but I wouldn't consider the track itself to be anything special, just some good fun. The kindof thing that makes you smile at first but becomes boring to outright annoying after a few more listens... Techmology V3 is my fave track here, it has a VERY nice and dreamy melody. Conclusion As is the case with most full-on releases, this only contains 1 or 2 standout tracks and the rest just fillers... I know that quite a few praise the South African scene but for me it's WAY overrated... 5/10

ahahaha Midi Milliz are back at it again and thank God they didn't turn into some crappy commercial electro like X-Dream did. No baby, this is still dark gritty tech trance all the way!!! Although I must admit that it DOES sound a bit (too much?) lighter than their older stuff... GaySatanicHippie and Manuser say that Feet in the Air is the best track. Well perspectives differ cause personally I find it the WORST track here... it's the only one that reminds me a LOT of the crappy mass-appealing style on X-Dream - We Interface. Yes, there's that same stupid female voice (although a bit darker this time). I don't like this track one bit... Luckily other tracks are much better. Dos Canones is a monster of a track, it opens the album nicely. Ah that dark repetitive feel that reminds me older stuff by them and Marcus' other side-project, The Delta . It just feels like you're sinking deeper and deeper into a swamp, slowly suffocating in the dark mud all while feeling a certain euphoria caused by oxygen deprivation to your brain hehehehe 10.000 Watts is a bit more "neutral" techtrance, and well frankly the main thing I like about techtrance is the dark atmosphere so once that's gone I don't like it very much... Still, this can work good in a proper night set. Luckily the dark atmosphere comes back with Trance Function . Ah that low dirty grainy synthline that kicks in around 2:40. That's the stuff Then it evolves to a melody which becomes a bit to light for my tastes. Illussiveness of the Witness is a BEAUTIFUL track! Midi Milliz making morning trance... who would've thought this was possible?? At first it seems pretty commercial but after a few more listens that repetitive melody just digs in deeper and deeper. The end result is something very hypnotic that just brings a ridiculously big smile on your face. The whole feeling is not very different from the one made by a certain track called BotFB - Mr Fantastic ... and that's one of my all-time fave tracks so... I hear you say "But this is Midi Milliz we're talking about. It CAN'T make you smile!!". Ah well it just does and no I don't take that against them. Contrary to other "dark trance" artists like Dark Soho or X Dream I don't find that these guys went for the cheese, it simply feels like some mature artists simply decided to make some happier stuff than they're used to and that's it. Nick Jachelson brings us to more experimental territory... This has a breakbeat bassline... hmm... who would've thought that Midi Milliz and breakbeats would match? I guess that by now you're guessing why this album has been called Non Standards ... This is a slower ambientish track which has a dark atmosphere to it. I can't really decide what to think of it now, sometimes it feels good, other times it's not that good... Speaker Sneaker gives us some more... morning trance!! Actually this is the perfect transition from night to morning trance track IMO. It starts dark then slowly but surely brings in light. Again, this isn't really what we'd expect form these guys but I like it!! Now we get back to more "classic" Midi Milliz tech trance with Trebel Rebel . Hehe, there's an effect in around minute 1:00 that makes you jump from your chair and think that someone's knocking very hard on your door hehehe Imagine the panick this can cause when on acid Then the knocking continues a whole minute and later gives place to a KILLERdark synth melody!! Then the "knocking" comes back and there's a VERY hypnotic progression. This one of my fav tracks. Oh baby that melody is SUCH a killer!!! Supersymmetry brings back the experimental breakbeats... don't ask me why but whenever I listen to the first 2 minutes I get the vocals from Moby - Lift me Up in my head... Luckily it becomes more "serious" afterwards with a pretty cool melody. Again this is more appealing for chill-out than dancing... Although I could also find some use for some late afternoon set. The end result is again pretty damn hypnotic and brings you that feel-good smile. The remix from Psychomachine brings back the techtrance style that became extinct around 2002 into full-force. Hehehehe this is full-power mechanical darkness. The mental images of a huge assembly lines building killer robots that are preparing to eliminate human kind from the Earth are back Welcome to bad trip territory my friend, just try to keep in mind that it's all in your thoughts before blowing your brains out with a 7 mm... And that evil elf voice coming in around 4:00 hehehehe Exclusion is again some nice dark tech trance, although again, it sounds more "neutral", there's a dark atmosphere, but not much. Still, it's pretty hypnotic as well Conclusion Midi Milliz still make their dark techtrance style... but now they also bring a more experimental side to their work as well as... morning trance!!! Well what the hell, even Ka-Sol makes morning trance these days so... As long as it's quality stuff I don't mind and this is some pretty top-notch stuff!!! And thank Heaven, there's no trace of a full-on bassline or the crappy X-Dream electro in there (OK, except for Feet in the Air ) so I'm happy that at least there are SOME artists out there who have some integrity left and don't just convert to making fucking pop music... 8,5/10 faves: 1!!, 4, 7!!, 8, 10!!, 11

Well I must say that I have become pretty tired of Space Tribe releases... They're basically all the same except that now there's an added full-on touch (= less distinctive than his older stuff). In the end the track that I prefered was The Acid Test which I already had! The rest is quite forgettable IMO (as is the case IMO with like 80% of Olli's releases *sigh*). I think this man should slow down the pace of his releases and concentrate on making more QUALITY rather than quantity... 6/10

ah yes a classic album indeed... although I must admit that I don't listen to it as often these days... Still, Izik managed to make a VERY unique style with his music. And I remember that he was complaining on this very forum a few years ago that Matsuri went bust and that noone wanted to release his 3rd album cause it wasn't "mainstream" enough... such a pitty BTW I like this a LOT more than his second album... 8/10

well at least now I FINALLY know what you mean by "progressive"

so what is your country division suggestion?

well personally I tend to agree that the less rules, the better. I don't see why submitted tracks should be limited per artist or in time, etc... just maybe set a standard encryption rating (say 320k) so the quality won't be different from track to track. Also, yes since this is a PSYTRANCE site, it's self-explanatory that submitted tracks should be PSYTRANCE!!! Now personally I wouldn't limit it to a theme or a genre cause for me true music comes from the heart, and an artist can't really make that if you impose a certain theme/ genre IMO, then he would just try to make something that fits... Just let them express themselves freely and see what they have to offer. Oh and yes, Nemo has a point for the cofinancing thing. Aparently Anoebis and Mars are already in over their heads with Suntrip so I don't think it's fair to automatically assume they should do something for us... However until now we are aparently 3 people (me, Amygdala and Nemo) who are willing to finance... So maybe if we split it up we could even make a nice proper release (and not a CD-R). But the problem will be spliting up the revenue once again... Like Spindrift said, if it doesn't sell well, the question won't even be what profit to split but more like who's gonna support the loss... Now if we're like 5-6 people to invest then the invesment per person will not be too high, we could afford a loss. Of course if there's a profit then there will be the question of getting our money back + paying whatever's left to the artists and again, I think that will be peanuts. Well, if anyone has other propositions, let me know

so until now we have one for and one against... anyone else??

Hi there! Well here was my idea for this forum split-up: keep a general travel section for people to talk like before and little sections per country dedicated solely to party announcements (so that for example a party announcement in the US won't get knocked off the first page in a day by party annoucments for Europe for example... what's the use of having them all in the same place since someone from America probably won't be interested in the venues in Europe?). So basically people would talk like before in the "general" travel section and simply click on other countries to see the venues in that certain country. I thought this was a good idea but aparently not all of you agree... so your feedback is welcome. What should be changed?