Blair Thaumic

For right now, the one artist who consistently impresses and surprises me is Leigh Griffiths (ECT) For all time, though? Graham Wood. Mystical Experiences, some of Feeling Weird, and some of the Blowfish album still leave me wondering how the hell he did it. I know he had some help from collaborators (Posford, Raja), but still. Totally alien, out of this world sounds. And not just talking about the sound design, I've never found a piece of electronic music that was as ingeniously put together as The Answer or Under The Overtones. To me Wood is up there with Tangerine Dream, Eno, ect. as one of THE central, yet (outside of our little scene) unsung figures in ambient music.

Nah, too busy doing things in Tokyo, and I'm more interested in the contrast between old and new that presents itself here. Someday I'd like to take a month to go around the country, though. My only real regret is not hearing any Goa! I did get to see Ree.K's set last night though, at the Rebirth Fest after party. No trance, it was pure techno, but solid stuff nevertheless.

Abasio has disappeared into the blue, but I've been having quite an adventure in the meantime. Including two nights in Koenji and a night in the red light district. Unfortunately I walked a little too much and my feet are horribly blistered. :/ Ashi ga itaiiiiii. So many great record stores, though, omfg.

So is the fetishisation of specific kick and bass combos or production styles as "proper psytrance". Not saying that all music with a modern kick and bass is bad, at all! But the insistence on standardization has a knock-on effect on what artists produce, what DJs play, and what dancers accept on the floor that ultimately, IMHO, leads to less interesting music. Look at what happened to Orion. There was so much power and soul in their music until Borelli went the way of psytrance kick/bass. Also, I don't consider 1990s psytrance a good example of amateur sound design and bad audio engineering. Early nineties hardcore, maybe. 90s psytrance, compared to most rave music, received a great deal of criticism back then for being too clean and clinical. Again, not dissing you; you were there, maybe you can call BS on this. But I don't think something like what Blue Room Released was doing can be described as bad production by any standard.

https://archive.org/details/110423ZyronLiveOnISFM I love all of Zyron's mixes but this is an especially good one. Those transitions are out of this world.

I completely underestimated this when it came out. For me, this is Ra's most mature album and leaps and bounds over what they did in the past. The arrangements are amazing, it's like you can walk around in them. I can liken it to Aavepyora - Hengen Aurinko. Both albums have a strong emphasis on songwriting and storytelling, so that by the end you feel like you've listened to a kind of electronic symphony and not just a collection of tracks.

That "off-the-cuff" approach to production is something I like about Filipe too. At the same time, I wish his tracks were a little more memorable. I've listened to all of his Goa albums. I barely remember a note of them. Tracks need hooks, something that makes them stay in the listener's head long after they're done playing. And by hooks, I don't just mean one sample repeating over and over. I'm musically illiterate, but IMHO a good example of how to do complex melodies is the album Prana - Cyclone. Lots of melody, including a long keyboard "ride" (something unusual for Goa) on Indigo, but it never feels overdone.

What I appreciate about this album is the way it combines the atmosphere of old techno with the drive of goa trance. It's definitely melodic goa, but the techno influence gives it a little more emotional depth. The only major flaw here is that, like TIP's Feeling Weird, it has some unnecessary editing. The short version of How Can You Be So Sure isn't bad, but less entrancing than the fabulous 12'' original. Worse by far is that Closed Sector, so great as a full track, is reduced to a mere ninety second outro. Give me a re-release with the full versions of all tracks, and you'd have a damn near perfect album. This has become a hard to find album, so maybe one day that dream will come true.

Matsuri shows us why psychedelic trance is so named. Some tracks here, like Kollage or Naked, are more on the psychedelic side, playfully arranged and stuffed full of weird noises. Some, like Space Cats or Sun God, are more trancy and gradually elaborate on a theme. The album has a futuristic feel, suggestive of cyberpunk SF, and some tracks could even be called industrial with their dark techno-dystopian vibe. Everything sparkles with crystal clear production, and the mastering lets the music breathe without lacking in punch. IMHO, this is what a compilation album ought to be. It's far from homogenous -- no two tracks are alike -- but the atmosphere is consistent and the journey is more than the sum of its individual steps. Unlike most VAs, it works as an album. I bought this in 1998 and still listen to it on a regular basis; anyone looking for the true 'psychedelic trance' should have this in their collection.

This oldschool South African acid madness reminds me a little of GN: https://www.discogs.com/Various-Mideranged/release/584335 This act didn't make many tunes, but the ones they did are funkadelic: https://www.discogs.com/artist/33910-Outer-Active

I see Jagoa and Triquetra on the list, and that is a good sign.

This seems to have gone under the radar: https://666rpd.bandcamp.com/album/galaxy-ray-of-eyes Banging melodic tech-trance, I love it.

It can be but I'm staying in a gaijin house, so my lodging isn't expensive at all. I don't want to spend all my time in Shibuya, but I'll be checking out the CD shops for sure. They have a nine story Tower Records that I really want to explore. What do you think about Rebirth? http://www.rebirth-fes.com/ The pictures of the last few years looked pretty great. Not buying a ticket until I have some idea of the lineup though.

BTW, if you’ll be in Tokyo during the month of May and would like to meet up, hit me up! It would be great to finally meet a Psynews member.

I’ll be going to Tokyo (my first time, and my first trip to a non-English-speaking country) from 5/1 to 5/31, and was wondering if you guys had any recommendations for visitors? I definitely plan on doing some of the typical ‘tourist’ activities, like visiting Akihabara, Harajuku, and Tokyo Skytree. Also want to check out some of the city’s older neighborhoods, along with nature walks and parks. And go to Koenji Cave, of course. Outside of Tokyo, I want to take day trips to Yokohama, Kamakura, Nikko, and Okutama (to see the limestone caves), and there’s a three day festival in Chiba that I might go to. I don’t have plans to see the other parts of the country (it’s a little out of my budget, sadly!) but I can already tell that there’s a LOT to do in the Tokyo region. Let me know if there's anything else, psytrance related or otherwise, that I ought to check out while I’m there? Also if you have any tips for navigating the language and culture, I'd really appreciate it (I know a little Japanese, but I'm far from fluent) Hope to be partying Tokyo Tekno style soon...

One name that doesn't get mentioned too much is Tomocomo. Some great tracks in the 'classic' style of Japanese Goa; they could very easily be on a Tokyo Tekno Tribe release circa 1995-96. Masa is great too of course. And Ubar Tmar. His ambient stuff is fascinating but can be quite challenging to listen to!

Shakta - Silicon Trip has a similar 'bouncy' feeling to the Green Nuns, IMHO, though with more Arabic/Middle Eastern influence. For more funky acid-goa, Esion God, Tim Healy (Squid/Cephalopod), and Spirit Level have some great tracks.

I'll leave my impressions here. Not bad. Some wicked melodies (especially Maharaja) and I liked that a couple of the tracks were a lower BPM than usual. The samples really got on my nerves though. And as is typical for Filipe, the compositions don't go anywhere. They sound cool, but they don't tell a story or leave a lasting impression... they lack the rise and fall that makes a track a full journey. It's frustrating, because he has the musical chops to make a great Goa album, but he needs to start doing something different from putting in melody after melody in his tracks. That, or start collaborating with someone who does.

Yeah, this is a weird one. And while I'm normally all about weird, it mostly seems like a beta test for ideas that would be fully developed in Face Adaptor. Not terrible (and I respect the artist for going in a different direction and making 'noisy' goa), but very amateurish.

Man, that Triquetra track is something else. I also like Hisia - Black Mountain which reminds me a lot of Chi-A.D.

One of Matsuri's most eclectic releases, borrowing from industrial, breaks, and rock music. Manmademan's track is a standout with its heart tugging melodies, funked-up riffs, and liquid-neon washes of space guitar. Deflo takes us on a Skinny Puppy meets alien abduction sci-fi horror trip, and Joujouka's Re-Psycle Frequency combines Tsuyoshi's talent for knob twisting with the then in vogue big beat sound. Other tracks by Alienated, Prana, and Syrinx are a bit more conventional, but still bring the noise. Most of the offerings are quite dark, on the nighttime side of things, but retain a playful element. Daring and confrontational, throwing away the Goa rulebook without sacrificing an iota of grooviness. This was the sound of the future in 1997, and few have ever caught up to it; highly recommended.

I didn't listen to enough new downtempo this year, so I'll just vote on trance. 1. VA - Analog Trips 2. Virtuart - Virtuart & Friends 3. Vanderson - Visions Of Tomorrow 4. VA - Island of Misfit Grooves 5. Nervasystem - Brainradio 6. VA - Mind Rewind 3 7. VA - Goa Trance Revolution 2: Retrofuturism 8. Praktika - Playing The Presets 9. Sab Kuch Milegator - Kauas Aikain Taa 10. BOTFB - Everything Remixed Honorable mentions: DeeperNET - The Network Negans - Danse Macabre

Not UFOs, next generation AFOs.

https://www.discogs.com/ECM-Ambivalence/release/212047 Urban Hallucinogenic 1 & 2 are hidden gems of 'not-goa goa'.

Well, EBM and goa trance share a common ancestor in synth-pop, so it's not too surprising that there would be similar sounds in both genres. Sometimes the influence is more direct... The Klinik went through a period where most of their music was goa/psy inspired. Check out this track from Sonic Surgery: