Rotwang

I don't really agree with this. The drugs that are most associated with psytrance have an "up" period that lasts a lot longer than a single album. Seems like if you wanted the music to work alongside, say, an acid trip, then you would listen to several uptempo albums followed by a few downtempo ones.

Fair enough.

Right, I'm exactly the same. It's purely psychological and completely irrational, but I've never got into something I've downloaded the same way as I get into CDs.

Again, in saying that different artists are ending different sounding albums in "the same" way, you are drawing a line between simply remaining within the confines of a genre (which necessarily means making music which shares many characteristics with other musicians making the same genre), and being unoriginal. How do you decide where to draw that line? Have you noticed, for example, that many goa albums open with a long, sustained note which undergoes some tone-control twisting before the first beat and fast melody kicks in? Would you call that a cliché, or do you think it's just the way that goa albums start? I hope you don't mind if I sidestep your example, and point out instead that many (perhaps most, I don't know enough to say) rap albums open with a short spoken-word intro. Would you call that a cliché, or just a standard practice?

I don't see how this implication follows. If all the end-of-album downtempo tracks sounded the same then you might have a point, but to my ears they don't; actually I'd say that there's at least as much room for variety in goambient as there is in goa (though I'm probably not the best judge since a lot of 90's goa sounds very samey to me). Look at it another way: suppose that artists never ended an album with a downtempo track, and every goa album consisted of 8-11 high-BPM trance tracks. Would you think this meant that every goa album was the same?

I don't know if this is standard etiquette, but... ...whatever you do, don't whistle in time to the music. Some people used to do that at the regular psytrance night we had here, annoyed the absolute shit out of me.

Sorry, who the hell actually said that?

Gaah! How could we forget to mention Dancing with Kadafi?

No doubt. But my experience is that psytrance producers frequently are good at making downtempo tracks (which I won't call "ambient" since I take that to mean something else). I already gave the example of Flow by Dimension 5. Here are some more: Braincell, Braincell again, Trold, OOOD (that last one is from the start of the album, not the end). e: another excellent opener by OOOD may be heard here (you'll need to click on the appropriate button in the flash player).

Personally I like it. You may call it a cliché but you could say the same about lots of things that are standard practice in any given genre (would you call 4/4 time signatures and 8 minute long tracks a "cliché" or would you call it something that trance artists do because it works?). A lot of the downtempo tracks at the end of psytrance albums are really good, it would be a shame if they were never released just because artists who primarily make trance wanted to avoid stereotypes. As for sticking a downtempo track in the middle of an album, I just don't think it would work - IMO it would spoil the flow of the album too much, and if you're not in the mood for a downtempo track then it's less intrusive to skip the first or last track of an album than to skip one in the middle. Regarding fullon and darkpsy, those albums don't tend to have downtempo tracks at the end, even though a lot of darkpsy artists are very good at making chillout stuff. I suppose because the chillout I've heard by darkpsy artists is just too different to the rest of their work - compare Flow to another D5 track, then compare Fast Food Issues to some of Vegetal's usual output. On a different note, does anyone else think it would be good if darkpsy artists made downtempo tracks that sounded like slower versions of their uptempo tracks? I for one would love to hear a chillout version of this or this.

e: this is jolly good.

e: just noticed that this is a new project from the guy behind Braincell and Rastaliens. Could be interesting.

Not directly, but if more labels started doing this then it could at least demonstrate to the wider world that it's possible to be carbon neutral and still (hopefully) run an actual business.

Overdream - Wonderwise (Avatar) Press Release: The claim that Overdream have "a style unique to them" could easily be taken from any one of the wildly flattering press releases that typically accompany psytrance albums, so let's cut through that and say what style of music this is: it's darkpsy. Although not 2008 darkpsy, but rather the kind of darkpsy that people were making two or three years ago, before the Horror Place basslines, before the mechanical screeching and before Kindzadza went all jangly and clockwork. And that's good, because, as much as I like the fact that the genre is evolving, there's still plenty of gold to be mined from the old sound. Wonderwise also differs from most of what's being released at the moment in that it's designed to get your feet moving as much as your brain. But, and this is a big but, it's not just darkpsy. There are some strong melodic elements here too. And, unlike most attempts to fuse dark with light, it really works. Read on... Tracks (click titles for Saiko Sounds sample): 1) Wonderwise 7:38 This track starts out with some textbook spooky darkpsy - unsurprising enough, though it quickly builds into a very nice wall of sound, a bit reminiscent of Tits on Fire. But it's after the four minute mark that things start to get really exciting - what starts out as a faint hint of an actual key signature gradually builds into a sweet trancey climax. A brilliant opener, and one of the finest examples on this album of just what it is that Overdream do well. 2) Sunrise Mind Trick 7:46 This one opens with a slightly daft tribal chanting sample, which thankfully soon gives way to some very nice Naked Tourist-style bleeps and clicks. Unfortunately the last few minutes are dominated by a string melody which sounds a lot like the intro to the Star Trek: TNG title sequence, which I find just grating enough to be relieved when the chanting sample comes back. This track has some nice moments but is not one of the better ones in my opinion. 3) Fiji Island 8:13 This is great. It's the first track on the album to follow a formula which will be used a number of times, namely the darkpsy-melody-darkpsy structure (henceforth referred to as DMD). After starting out with some echoey, alien noise, the beat stops and a scary melody jumps out of the shadows. Then it gets gradually dismantled by tone control and gating before mutating completely into the kind of atonal noise that every darkpsy fan loves. 4) Extraterrestrial Travellers 8:34 Another DMD number, though with a different flavour to the others on the album - after an intro that sounds like the buzzing of an electronic brain followed by some lovely abstract robotic shouting, there's a slow, Eastern-European or perhaps Mediterranian-sounding guitar melody which would not have sounded out of place on The Art of Being Non. Almost needless to say, it builds back up into a very danceable climax of angry noise and confusing bleeps. 5) Mista Twista 8:00 Silly name, awesome tune. This is similar in style to the opening track, except that this one starts with an anxious-sounding melody already present. The first half builds up to one of those climactic rising-then-falling hissing sounds that are a standard device in darkpsy, though this is one of the best examples I've ever heard. Then the second half builds up to another stripped-down melodic section in which the opening theme returns to take centre stage. 6) Aqua Boga Djerba 8:25 Aqua Boga Djerba is much closer to standard tuneless noisy territory than what's come before, and is probably the track with the least evidence of a recognisable musical mode on this CD. There's not much by the way of progression or climax either, and as such this could fool you into thinking it's simplistic, if you don't notice how much depth there is to the individual sounds - but every crunch and hiss has so much going on. 7) Daisy Lemonade 7:50 Along with the previous track, this has very little trace of conventional melody. But don't let that put you off. It starts out with some swirly electronic buzzing that's just fantastic (think of Kindzdza's KamaKazi and you're not far off). After a while it descends into a rather chaotic mass of seemingly random bleeps and squeeks and dizzying pitch bend, but redeems itself with a wonderfully psychotic, discordant climax. I would be surprised if it's possible for an able-bodied man to listen to this without dancing. 8) Animated Mess 8:09 DMD again, and very similar in structure to Fiji Island: it starts out with a messy darkpsy section full of high-pitched squeeks, which reminds me a bit of The Nommos' Mountains of the Moon, and then relaxes into an atmospheric beatless break before being torn apart by a frightening trance melody. 9) Sacrosanct Toucan 7:53 The album ends with something of a contrast; Sacrosanct Toucan is less agressive than the rest of the album, and is probably the most consistently melodic piece, as well as the most emotional. It's got haunting vocals and chimes and ethereal soundscapes. And it pushes all the right buttons, but somehow it just doesn't get my juices flowing as much as the rest of the CD. Overall: Bloody heck, I like this a lot. There are no truly original ideas here at all, but what there is is a vast legacy of psytrance rolled into a coherent whole. Listen to Wonderwise. 9.5/10 Favourite Tracks: 1(!), 3(!), 4(!), 5(!), 6(!), 7(!), 8(!), 9

Isn't their album awesome?

I've also just ordered myself this: I've listened to the samples a whole load of times, and to be honest I really can't decide if I will like it or not. But in the end I just can't not own that cover. Damn, it's

Very nice, thanks. Why not post it on psynews too?

Huh? I didn't post that. Bloody psyshop and their changing links. Let's try again: e: if you came here looking for something new, have this: Shame about the text, they should have stuck it on a label outside the plastic or something.

Ordered.

Is this good?