acid-brain

Haven't seen these guys posted recently and they deserve all the love that they can get. For me after all these years I think BotFB just "gets it" the most. Powerful waves of psychedelic madness, visual snow and twisted melodies that send your brain to another planet. I'm still tripping on this stuff in 2016 because hardly anybody else has ever made music so challenging. I love the harsh and muddy production. manuser said back in 2005: "at 1st listen i was amazed and shocked by this evil music, dark and melodic at the same time, weird and twisted as possible. If some melodies sound wrong it's perfectly normal and intentional... too bad the production is bad, it makes ur ears suffer. Battle of the future Buddhas is one of those artists who you immediatly recognize their sound, and this is one of the most psychedelic trance ever made!... Psychedelic... Weird... Enthusiastic... Unpredictable"

Haha, I'm gonna weigh in and say that I partly agree with you here. I like Another World and Dancing Galaxy more than Trust in Trance but overall the AP style rarely does it for me. This guy gets it! I was thinking about drawing a distinction between Israeli and British goa but then I realized that I love MFG, Pigs in Space, Cydonia etc. I think it can be more accurately divided into melodic goa that is influenced by earlier trance, and goa that is more influenced by industrial music. To some extent it's crazy that we label it all goa. There are massive stylistic differences between the extremes of these two kinds of goa. Personally I'm a big fan of industrial music, harsher, darker, weirder and more experimental sounds, and I see that there are many others here too who are like me. On the other hand, there are many people who live the brighter and more melodic sound.

Biocandy is one of the best goa trance tracks ever made, and has the most views on YouTube. So many wonderful experiences listening to that. If Chi A.D. can give us some way to support and get in touch I would be willing to help.

As it happens I tried to create the Project Genesis sound too a few years ago. Of course I couldn't come anywhere close. I sent you a message about that. I think better examples of that special sound are Intelligent Machine and Alien's Land: Something really awesome going on there with 3D stereo effects that is really hard to do, particularly with software.

I have respect for people who take the time to investigate the origin of meat to make sure that they are buying from good sources. Also some people I know strictly eat only animals they have brought up on their own property so they can guarantee its good treatment. Personally I don't have the time for that, and think it is safer to just be a vegan, that's my point of view. I agree that if an animal has a good life and it is killed humanely then it is probably not ethically wrong to eat it. The problem is that, as far as I can see, in the real world this is rarely the case. Nowadays most small farms have disappeared and instead the food we buy comes from huge industrial operations where the individual life of the animal is meaningless.

Yes I just found your post, wow we both said the same thing and singled out Sunshine as perhaps the most mindblowing example of this dark style (hehe). I think the muddy production works really well on that track, it sounds so good after listening to too much ultra clear polished produced modern music. Are there any neogoa artists who sound anything like this?

You're right, I just gave it a spin and it's better than I remembered, especially the track "Raw".

Number 2 is a very relevant question, almost all neogoa follows the Astral Projection school of goa rather than the MFG school of goa. I honestly think it's mostly due to the fact that it's damn hard to make music like MFG and Oforia, especially without analogue equipment. Perhaps when people try it ends up sounding like twilight fullon with a fat kick and bass hogging the soundscape rather than the intricate twisted sci-fi effects that those artists used. But that's not to discourage you - I would like to hear your productions when you come round to giving it a shot! Also don't get Oforia's 2nd album - I think when talking about Ofer we are talking about the pre-1999 oldschool stuff, much of the stuff he produced after that is amazingly poor.

Project Genesis is my favourite album by MFG. It sounds like they took all the great ideas from before and made them even more focussed and intense. Especially Why?, that's transcendent, serious and spiritual music, and Sunshine, which sounds like being trapped in a jet-fuel engine of a starship taking part in a cosmic laser battle. I've been playing around with synths but I haven't had much luck making the dirty 3D layered sci-fi sounds that MFG accomplished on that album. Unfortunately, like Oforia most of the stuff they made afterwards was not very good. Thanks for recommending Gamma Goblins 2, I haven't listened to it in a long time... that track is DEEP. Personally my favourite Hallucinogen track is Orphic Thrench but I may have to reconsider... Exactly, I think that in the early years of goa some people overlooked the darker artists because they lacked the soaring melodies of AP etc. You can see that in the original review threads on this forum. But 15 years later, looking back, I think that Pigs in Space and others comes out on top, and sounds most fresh. Or it may just be that these artists have more appeal to people who are more into the scene?

Yeah I'm your AI, your psychedelic double. I'm with you all the way. I was trained on those big goa melody lines so the first time I heard Pigs in Space I thought it was too dark and powerful... but the more I got into goa and psy music and the more I began to appreciate the details and intensity, and I realized that Ofer is the king. Mind you I went through a similar process with Hallucinogen and MFG... like good beer the greatest artists are an acquired taste. They grow on every listen and soon most other music - even other goa - sounds flat and unchallenging in comparison. I also tried to mentally rank the tracks in Pigs in Space, but unlike 99% of albums it's impossible, every track is equally brilliant, except perhaps Now and Beyond not as good as the others. Check out that crazy melody on Heliolatry 05:23. Agreed, the original TB-303 is quite limited, he probably used one of the many emulators to get that sweet sound in Solar.

There's also a lot of psytrance in there even though the album was released in 1998, to artists like Ofer genres and boundaries are meaningless, he smashes through them with his raw alien sound. Just listen to the way he uses the 303 on the Pigs in Space - Solar track, he takes the elements of goa and uses them his own way to maximum effect.

That's such a hard call! There are so many. Then again, Ofer may be the artist with the strongest case to make. He forged a totally unique sound with weird metallic alien sounds that guarantee to fry your braincells every time. Nobody else sounds like him, because it's much easier to produce melodic morning goa than the kind of violent intergalactic pulsing mindfucking maximum intensity stuff that he made. Forget to mention that he was also involved in three of the best oldschool Israeli groups Sound Pollution, Indoor and Phreaky. The following massive dose of adrenaline delivered directly to the intercranial cortex is not given enough love here: Also check out this raw stomping lesser-known track by him: Recommend reading about the Tandu, if you can, while listening to this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tandu

15 year necropost Yeah me too. Ofer was one of the best and most original goa artists - influenced more by Industrial music than trance, like MFG. The Pigs in Space album is simply fantastic, and Tandu's Alien Pump and New Aura are both 10/10.

Any progress? This is a really sweet track, I'd love to know the artist too.

What subgenre was it? I know an acid ambient track with a similar sample but it's probably not what you're looking for. PsyDB turns up no goa tracks matching the sample.

I noticed that too after I posted but then I did some research and found out that it is not really true: "Yes, the decline of child mortality matters a lot for the increase of life expectancy. But as this chart shows there is much more to it... Child mortality is defined as the number of children dying before their 5th birthday. To see how life expectancy has improved without taking child mortality into account we therefore have to look at the prospects of a child who just survived their 5th birthday: In 1845 a 5-year old had a expectancy to live 55 years. Today a 5-year old can expect to live 82 years. An increase of 27 years." (source) So to make a rough guess that's still a 20 year increase in life expectancy since 1900 after ruling out the increase caused by far lower infant mortality. Anyway, to return to the original topic of the thread, farm animals' lifespans have, on the other hand, been going way down since 1900. Animals are pumped full of growth hormones and food and killed as soon as they reach a certain age and weight at an extremely young age. It just isn't profitable to keep them around for longer.

I absolutely agree with you both that progress has come at a big price, and that one's happiness in life still depends a lot on where one is born. Some people are lucky and others are not. What I am stating is that the world has recently improved massively in almost all places, so the likelihood of living a happy life is far greater than it was 100 years ago. This is not just an opinion, it is backed up by a lot of evidence. For example: In 1900 the world average life expectancy was 31 years. In 2010 the world average life expectancy was 67.2 years. Human lifespan has more than doubled in 100 years! 100 years ago, it was absolutely normal to live a life plagued by disease and hunger and die at age 31. Now people in almost every country in the world can expect far, far better. Check out this graph. Another fact: over the last 200 years global child mortality has dropped from roughly 33% to less than 5%. These are facts to celebrate. True, life still sucks for many, many people. But on the whole the world is becoming a far better place. Myself and many other people are ashamed of the colonial history of the European empires. Please remember that what I am saying would still apply if I was living in Chile or Finland or many other countries in the world. Being a hypocrite is saying one thing and doing another. We should be opposed to the exploitation and suffering of others, and work hard to stop things like slavery and the torture of animals (for instance), but that should not stop us from feeling positive that all people's prospects on Earth are generally improving. Enjoy your X-Dream concert MrAnarchy!

There's no such thing as morals for you? So you don't think that rape is immoral for some people? I can't speak about your personal experience of the world, but humans have done amazing things. We have discovered many of the laws of the universe, have explored other planets, have eradicated diseases, have brought much of the world out of poverty, and are improving our technology all the time. I live in a country that has not been threatened by war in over 70 years, am extremely safe, have a great deal of freedom, and can expect a good life free of most of the fears that haunted my ancestors. There are definitely problems in the world but what I see around me does not fit your pessimistic view of life. Humans have built a magnificent civilization and we should be proud of our progress. We are two total strangers communicating over an internet forum dedicated to a rare style of music made by synthesizers that were not available less than 30 years ago. Just consider how revolutionary and amazing that fact is and how many opportunities we have compared to people before us. However, the natural state of the world is not so pleasant. The animal kingdom is indeed a dark place with rapes, suffering, mutilation and murder. It is absolutely ruthless, with predators spending all their energy hunting and killing prey that are in states of perpetual anxiety. We didn't create that, it's the natural state of things, as are diseases, earthquakes, tsunamis, and most of the other unfortunate things in the world. Fortunately through our technological progress we have overcome many of those problems. We have massively improved our lifespans and quality of living and it is reasonable to assume that things will continue to get better for most humans on earth. So you value your mother as much as a blade of grass? Yes, I am a vegan, unless I make a mistake I never buy products that contain dead animals. Everything I say here is sincere.

I am hopeful that things will change relatively soon. Many scientists are working on In vitro meat, and the cost is decreasing all the time. We will eventually reach the point where in vitro meat is tastier and cheaper than real meat, and as soon as it is a real alternative and people start eating in it large numbers, they will realise how bad the factory farming industry has become. And how terrible it is to cause totally unnecessary suffering to billions of animals (56 billion animals are killed every year by humans). We look back at the days of black slavery in the USA and are amazed at how the whole of society could be involved in so obviously victimising fellow beings. I'm pretty confident that future generations will are amazed at how most people in our times could be involved in so obviously victimising fellow beings.* *If your immediate response to that is, well slaves were humans, then consider that most American southerners didn't consider the black slaves to be human and thus worthy of human rights. And then think about the way that you consider and treat animals (that is, the way that you pay for them to be treated).

Eating meat is healthy but so is eating plants, fruits and other sources of protein. In fact, numerous studies have shown that vegetarians live longer than meat eaters. So clearly eating meat is not required for a healthy lifestyle. Nietzsche would have laughed at the argument that if our animal brains tell us to eat animals, there must be something right about doing it. He would also mock the idea that because animals eat each other, then we should eat them too. Since when have we based our morality on animals? Last time I checked the animal kingdom is a dark place with rapes, suffering, mutilation and murder happening every minute. What makes us human is our ability to transcend the impulse of the herd and build greater things. We are intelligent reasoning beings, not beasts. Yes, it does. Let's take your argument about killing a person who can't feel pain: first, I agree that the ability to suffer is obviously not the only criterion otherwise it would be permissible to kill a person who can't feel pain. But think about this. We have brains that are capable of extremely complex simulations of experience, and we often think and worry about our future. If we believed that humans who do not experience pain were morally worthless, that would cause a significant number of people harm and worry; people would be terrified of becoming analgesic (insensitive to pain) because that would then make them targets of murder and exploitation. Clearly this is a ridiculous situation, and that is why we believe in the innate value of consciousness and experience. Even if somebody does not suffer, they are still a person worthy of rights because they are a thinking and sentient creature. Plants, on the other hand, have no brains or consciousness. They cannot worry about the future or suffer. Eating a plant does not make other plants terrified of being eaten. They may be notionally 'alive' like animals and humans, but their kind of life has virtually nothing to do with what we understand our human life to be. It is stupid to pretend that plants have 'life' like we do - plants do not experience 'life' in any way. Therefore comparing killing a human/animal to killing a plant is beyond ridiculous. Animals, on the other hand, are much closer to humans than to plants. They become anxious, protect their young, and have complex brains that as are capable as young children's. For instance pigs have been taught to play video games. It is a tragedy that we keep these intelligent creatures in narrow filthy cages, castrate them, and take away their young, before slaughtering them. It is tragic that this a common practice that most people in society pay to make happen. I haven't even started on the environmental impact of factory farming. Cowspiracy talks about that.

Amen to that. Every time someone goes to the supermarket to buy meat, they are paying to have an animal killed for them - they are creating demand for more animals to be farmed. And almost all animals these days come from factory farms where animals suffer extremely poor conditions. If you want to find out information about where the animals come from (and I think it is everybody's duty to know), then check out the book Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer. Or watch Cowspiracy as Penzoline suggested above. We should know where our food comes from and how our food is treated, otherwise we are not making a conscious and informed choice. For me goa and psytrance is about exploring other states of consciousness and empathy with other beings on this Earth. Eating other beings and paying for them to suffer in tiny cages is totally incompatible with that. But that is not a realistic argument. We all live in abundant consumer cultures where there are many options for eating a healthy diet. None of us live in the woods or alone on an island. We have computers and supermarkets full of 1000s of foods. These days we can easily survive without victimising and exploiting animals. People only continue to eat meat because of tradition and taste. But in years to come people will realize that what we are doing today with animals is terrible. Future generations will be amazed at the scale and horror of the meat industry of today, and will be shocked that so many ordinary people supported it. In the words of Moby: “If you look at the course of western history you’ll see that we’re slowly granting basic rights to everyone. A long time ago only kings had rights. Then rights were extended to property-owning white men. Then all men. Then women. Then children. Then the mentally retarded. Now we’re agonizing over the extension of basic rights to homosexuals and animals. We need to finally accept that all sentient creatures are deserving of basic rights… I call upon you to be compassionate and treat others as you want to be treated. If you don’t want to be beaten, imprisoned, mutilated, killed or tortured then you shouldn’t condone such behavior towards anyone, be they human or not.”

MORPHEM! So underrated! Surprised this ingenious use of a famous sample hasn't been mentioned yet:

For me it's hard to choose between that and MFG's Why for best one ever!

Yeah, they are amazing when done right. MFG - Why is surely the best example. But even MFG weren't able to do it right on their Message album. And sometimes, you feel like there should be a chord change coming but it never happens! Like the artists missed a massive opportunity. In this track, the chord changes are everything: One more thing - I'm not sure that 'chord changes' are the right term for this. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modulation_(music). But I don't care about definitions, we all know what we're talking about.