Papers/Essays/Reports/etc. on goa/goa-sales/market-analysis!

[DeathPosture]

I work in a record store, and now I have to write this paper... I have chosen the subject "Goa/psychedelic trance - how do we sell more in XXX Shop?" ...

 

So I seek anyone who have written anything similar or even remotely similar... I'm not trying to copy others work, I just need some inspiration/a sparring-partner...

 

So - can anyone help? ... If so, please do no hesitate to contact me here or via e-mail: deathposture@hotmail.com

 

Thanx in advance!

DeathPosture

[Guest psycle]

r u lookin' for like the history/evolution of goa?...or just how to sell more records??...cuz i saw this great paper on almost everything you would like to know about goa (xept for record sales)...if ya want that...let me know...i have it saved somewhere on my comp;)...too lazy to look for it now.

[Guest lÿsërgïç]

u selling goa in a porn shop?

 

heheheh

[DeathPosture]

Psycle => Yes, I'm interested... If it's not too much trouble, could you e-mail it to me at deathposture@hotmail.com!?

 

Thanx!

DeathPosture

[Guest psycle]

DeathPosture---> check ur mail...just sent it to ya.

[Guest Mescalinium]

psycle,

 

i'd also be interested in seeing the essay, as long as you don't mind forwarding it to me too

 

thanks

[Guest psycle]

herez the url fellaz...check it out...its got akindoz name it in...so maybe he might have more info??http://www.fortunecity.com/underworld/playstation/400/akindo/goa.htm

[Guest psycle]

aight...here it is for all you lazy ppl! kinda a long read...but very interesting IMO. enjoy!

 

 

Goa Trance: A Psykotropic Trip Through Tribedelic Transcapes

 

By Fred Cole and Michael Hannan

 

Abstract

 

This article explores the phenomenon of Goa trance, a form of

electronic dance party music originating on the beaches of Goa, on

the Indian subcontinent. The term "Goa trance" and the range of

alternative terms for Goa trance are discussed. The history of the

Goa scene is examined in a number of stages. The geographical area

itself has had a fascinating history which is briefly summarised.

Following that, the early history of the Goa beach scene in the 60s

and 70s is described, before a more detailed examination of the

heyday period in which the Goa trance style was developed. The

decline of the Goa trance scene in Goa itself is also discussed.

Since Goa trance was developed in the Goa area by an international

community of DJs and recording artists from Europe, Australasia and

other parts of Asia such as Japan, its dispersal back to these parts

of the world is explored. The current commercialisation of the style

is described and the main recording artists, DJs and record labels

are identified.

 

The second part of this article is concerned with analysing some

of the stylistic characteristics of Goa trance. The aesthetic of the

idiom is touched on before a more detailed treatment of aspects of

musical style and party practice. This is informed by analysis of

some of the recent recorded repertoire, as well as observations made

while attending Goa trance parties.

 

The data for the historical and much of the descriptive material for

this article comes from two main sources. The first consists of

interviews conducted by Fred Cole with a number of the important DJs

and artists who worked in Goa during the main period. These include

Ray Castle, Steve Psyko and Fred Disko. A second source of data is

the World Wide Web. Many web sites are devoted to Goa Trance,

including home pages of important DJs such as Goa Gil.

 

 

 

Terminology

 

In the last decade of dance music there have been hundreds of terms

coined to describe the main genres and the various subgenres of

musical production. Judging by its use in the dance music press and

on the dozens of WWW pages devoted to the genre, the term Goa trance

has achieved some level of currency. In his 1996 interview, Ray

Castle (in Cole, 1996a) stated that "it 's only in the last two

years we've started hearing these words 'Goa trance'....before that

I used to call the parties 'Trance Dance'." Steve Psyko (in Cole

1996b) believes that the term was invented by the English, because

they "always want to put a label on something like that". Further

more, as with punk, "they have stereotyped Goa trance; they have

decided that Goa trance is just one kind of music." As this article

proceeds it will become clear that one of the striking

characteristics of the music played in Goa since the early 1980s, is

its stylistic diversity. None the less, the contemporary recorded

music marketed under the label of Goa trance or some variant of it,

may indeed have certain definable stylistic characteristics. This

theory will be examined below under the heading 'Musical Style'.

 

The currency of terminology is also subject to waves of fashion.

One UK party promoter on the Goa Trance mailing list (Barron, 1996),

claimed in October 1996 that the 'G word' is now so unfashionable

that "if you went into a record label over here (i.e. Dragonfly,

TIP, Flying Rhino etc.) and called the music Goa Trance you would be

laughed at"; and furthermore that, if you used the term on a party

flyer, no-one would attend the party. He suggests "Psychedelic

Trance" as a more appropriate term since most of the music is being

made in the UK, Australia, Israel and the US, not in Goa. Curiously,

though , the party advertised in his message refers to "Psychoactive

Trance". There is some support for the term "psychedelic trance"

from other sources including the BooM! Records web page (1996), Hugh

James Sharpe (1996a), and Ray Castle (in Cole 1996a), who also has a

predilection for the term "psychotropic trance" (Castle, 1996b).

Both Castle (1996b) and Sharpe (1996a) also use the elided form,

"Psy-Trance". Other terms used by Castle include "fluro" (based on

the use of fluorescent lights and images), "altered state", "Goa

techno trance", "electronic trance" and "acid techno"(1996b, 1996b,

1996a, 1996c, and in Cole, 1996a). Sharpe (1996a) uses the term

"Ambient Goa", and Derek Jordan (1996), "Ambient Goa trance";

although it is not clear whether they are referring to Goa Trance or

to a [more] ambient variety of it. Mat Joyce (1996), a Goa Trance

mailing list subscriber, has ventured a few other alternative genre

names such as "Uplifting", "High Energy", and "Alien", but these

suggestions were rejected by two other subscribers, including Hugh

James Sharpe (1996b).

 

Added to the possible confusion created by this plethora of

terms, is the frequent association with other established genres

such as techno, acid trance, and acid house. Sharif (1996) suggests,

for example, that "among many of its devotees, [Goa trance] is

considered to be the purest form of acid house music."

 

 

 

History of Goa Trance

 

The area of Goa, situated approximately half-way down the western

coastline of the southern part of India, has had a colourful history

of occupation. From the tenth century until early in the sixteenth

century it vacillated between Hindu and Muslim rule. In 1510 it was

taken by the Portuguese whose presence lasted, except for a few

short periods of occupation by the British from 1797-98 and 1802-13,

until 1961. In that year the Indian Army took possession. The

presence of the Portuguese for 450 years had a strong effect on the

cultural life of Goa, clearly evident in the present era by the many

Catholic churches and monasteries and other characteristic

architecture, but also reflected in the cuisine and the arts.

 

The multicultural history of Goa is an important background to

the development of the Goa beach party scene in the early 1960s.

According to Ray Castle (in Cole, 1996a, p. 9), Goa is an unique

part of India with a "special vibe" related to the Portuguese

background. He sees the hippies who flocked to Goa as the "new

colonists", and the locals as being as tolerant of their occupation

as they were of the Portuguese. For Castle (1996a, p. 3), the

general attraction of India for the hippies and other misfits was

both to its spirituality and to its hashish, which was legal up to

the mid 1970s, at which time the laws were changed with pressure

from the U.S.

 

The available documentation of the early history of the Goa beach

parties is scant. Boyd (1996) states that the hippies descended on

Goa in 1968, "to sleep on the beaches, partake of the marijuana weed

and generally try to 'get their head together'.". Richard Ahlberg

(1996), quoted on the Goa Trance Mailing List, adds that:

 

 

 

About thirty years ago a man named eight-finger Eddie and other

ex-pats...found a perfect beach...beautiful warm friendly

villagers...and a paradise-like haven in which they could...with the

utmost freedom...enjoy a life free from all distractions...these

people started to have "parties" on the beaches or in the

jungles...eating psychedelics and dancing to the music of the time.

 

 

 

The music of the time was, of course, nothing like the music that

has come to be known as Goa trance. Boyd (1996) suggests the

Grateful Dead. Ollie Olsen (in Cole, 1996d), who has collaborated

with the pioneering Goa trance DJ, Fred Disko, recalls Disko telling

him that around 1980 the staple beach party repertoire still

consisted of the Doors, Neil Young, the Eagles and perhaps some Pink

Floyd. The name Disko was given to him because he was one of the

first to introduce electronic dance music to the scene. Another

pioneer Goa trance DJ, Goa Gil, who was "one of the originators of

the famous Goa full moon parties", played live with a band, and also

DJed in Goa through the 1970s. When, at the beginning of the 1980s,

he grew tired of the "rock/fusion/reggae" music he was spinning, he

introduced "the first post-punk experimental electronic dance music

coming from Europe, the neue deutsche welle, electronic body music"

(Gil, 1996). Ray Castle (1996a, p. 3) supports this view, that "Goa

techno trance actually originated from hard line, electronic body

music, groups like Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, Frontline Assembly, as

well as from Eurobeat."

 

The international character of the Goa scene seems to be a key to

the development of the genre of Goa trance. Fred Disko (in Cole

1996c, p. 8) mentions French and Italian DJs, specialising in

electronic music, Australian DJs playing rock, and others playing

only South American styles. Disko, also believes that the classical

music of India played a strong part in the development of Goa

trance:

 

If you go some place where you have 10 tablas, six sitars, some

woman is quotedsinging. After a while it goes so fast, you know you

just suddenly fly, like a trip. The trance is not coming only from

the Goa trance music; [it] is already there, everywhere. (p. 8)

 

Another international aspect of the Goa beach party scene was the

variety of events. Disko (in Cole 1996c, p. 7) remembers one night

with two completely different full moon parties on different

beaches: one "electronic bom bom bom", the other "reggae, very

cool". Disko's observations are supported by New Zealander, Ray

Castle (in Cole 1996a, p. 7), who refers to German, Dutch, French

and Swiss DJs in Goa, as well as to Goa Gil, an American. A few of

these people were in Goa primarily to collect music from other DJs,

musicians and party participants. The collecting and exchange of

music was a central practice of the Goa trance community, as Ray

Castle (p. 7-8) explains:

 

 

 

The freaks and the hippies used to collect the most mind-boggling

psychedelic dance music they could find and bring it to India and

play it at these parties, and we used to exchange this music......In

the old days we used to call it "special music". It was very obscure

and it was very hard to get your hands on. You were a real

connoisseur or collector, and Goa was a kind of fraternity of

obscure, weird psychedelic music collectors getting together,

getting stoned, and getting off on the music; and sharing each

other's music, exchanging it, copying it, and then making parties

out of it.

 

 

 

The quest for "weird psychedelic music" was inspired and

facilitated by the use of LSD, the drug which has become intimately

linked to Goa trance parties. One of the extraordinary features of

the Goa beach parties in their heyday was the usual availability of

free "acid punch" (Castle, in Cole, 1996a; Chambers, 1996).

 

The process of absorbing unusual music from diverse international

sources often had a liberating, mind-broadening impact on those

involved. Steve Psyko (in Cole, 1996b, p. 3), for example, was

inspired by the "innovative and strange music" of some Japanese

musicians living opposite him in Goa, forcing him to reassess his

musical aesthetic. Castle (1996a) has reinforced this idea, claiming

that the international nature of Goa "flushed out parochial

attitudes and tastes."

 

Particular tastes had, however, developed among the Goa trance

DJs in the late 1980s, and these influenced the practices of

preparing music for parties. Ray Castle (in Castle/DJ Krusty 1996a)

has described the process of remixing tracks to make them more

aesthetically suitable:

 

There were always too many insipid vocals, and often tracks were

too short. So we used to use Sony walkmans--no DATs then --to cut up

the track, edit it, and stitch it together in various versions to

make custom Goa mega mixes for the party.

 

Until DAT machines became common in the early 1990s, the predominant

method of playback was using cassette decks. Playing vinyl

recordings was never a realistic practice in the heat of Goa as the

vinyl would easily warp. Castle (in Cole, 1996a) remembers DJ "Sven

Vath coming to Goa with all his records wanting to be the techno

pope of India, but he couldn't do it" Castle advises that "you've

got to adapt to tape decks and DAT machines to pull off these

parties and play for eight hours."

 

Paul Chambers (1996), a British Goa Trance artist now based in

Byron Bay , Australia, recalls that on his first visit to Goa in the

1985/86 party season that all the music was electronic. He

recognised only a small selection: artists such as Frankie Goes To

Hollywood, Dead or Alive, and Portion Control; the rest was unknown

to him. He was particularly impressed by the rapid electro basslines

in the tracks he heard, but when he returned to England in January

1986 he discovered that "the real Goa sound proved very elusive to

find and hear [in England]. The nearest was on certain b-sides of 12

inch singles and dub mixes."

 

 

 

On his return to Goa in 1986/87 he discovered he recognised more

of the music being played, but was still unfamiliar with most of it.

In

 

both these seasons he remembers the parties involving a maximum of

200 people. A typical party involved: a PA, a few coloured lights,

some black light, and occasionally some psychedelic banners, but not

much. There was one dance floor and the music normally started

around midnight. Local Indian ladies would set up mats to one side

selling cakes, biscuits and chai. There were no police hassles at

the

 

parties, though there were many stories about police busting people

for drugs and having to pay backsheesh (a bribe) to get away.

 

Ray Castle, who was to become one of the most influential Goa DJs,

first went to Goa in 1987 as a partier, "dancing [his] head off".

The following year he returned and did some DJing but he was more

involved in "orchestrating" parties: choosing sites, hiring

equipment, and finding people to do the artwork, the lighting and

the DJing. He began to organise extended parties including one which

went for three days and two nights with "non-stop doof" . In the

1989 season he did more DJing because he felt that some of the DJs

he had used were not playing enough "challenging" music. The staging

of the parties was very informal and spontaneous. Permission from

the police was often secured by offering a little backsheesh of

50-100 rupees or some beer.(Castle, in Cole, 1996a, p 8)

 

The police, however, started to crack down on the parties in 1990,

but the atmosphere relaxed briefly for the 1991/92 season, generally

regarded as the last important year of Goa parties. Steve Psyko (in

Cole, 1996b) sums up the situation:

 

 

 

When I was in Goa in 1991--that was one popular year-- there was a

party every two days. There had been no parties for one or two years

because of one or two problems with the police. Suddenly the parties

were on again; everything was in full scale............suddenly the

feeling became something that that everyone wanted to identify

with.....Suddenly everyone wanted to identify with the feeling

coming from Goa.

 

 

 

By this time the size of the parties had increased dramatically

and had become even more international. Paul Chambers observed many

Japanese and Israeli people, and estimated that the parties had

between 500 to 1500 people and were held on average every three

days. The parties were staged using "fluro light and some coloured

globes, with some fluro banners" (Chambers, 1996). Both Chambers and

Psyko (in Cole, 1996b, p. 7) have identified Ray Castle as the main

DJ of the 1991/92 season. According to Chambers, Castle was involved

in almost every second party, and the standard of the music being

played was the best he had heard anywhere up to that time. Chambers

decided to leave Goa, however, after the police closed down a big

Ollie Wisdom party, causing a "widespread paranoia about police

hassles" to develop.

 

Ray Castle (in Cole 1996a, p. 9) claims that the Goa party scene

declined because it became too popular and too visible:

 

The authorities became embarrassed by it....it was getting slammed

in the West, about it being a drug haven..and the Indian government

were courting tourists and they wanted to bring more up-market

tourists to Goa. It never really worked because Goa doesn't really

have the infrastructure to entertain those people. The beach was a

bit polluted; it was only good for the hippies and freaks. So they

kept using the drug thing and other things, and political chaos; so

that every second year the party's been off in Goa. And then the

mafia moved in and wanted more backsheesh. It's more expensive to

put on a party in Goa than it is in London or in any big city in the

world now. It's lost it's innocence- the locals have become a bit

perverted by the money.

 

International pressure was also a factor. Boyd (1996) cites a

report that the "Israeli government put pressure on the Goa

authorities to clamp down on the beach parties- it seems that a

sizeable contingent of Israeli soldiers on R 'n' R in the area,

returned home unfit for army service".

 

Apart from police intervention at parties, there were many

reports of burglary, mugging and police harassment of the foreign

visitors to the Goa trance scene.

 

 

 

Goa Trance in Other Locations

 

What has become known as Goa trance, has, especially since about

1990, spread widely to other places through the movement of DJs,

artists and partiers, through commercialisation in clubs, and by the

release of recordings. The DJs from Goa have been performing Goa

trance sets in other countries throughout the history of Goa Trance.

Fred Disko did parties in Nepal in 1985 and Thailand in 1987. Ray

Castle did a series of trance dance parties in Europe from 1987 to

1991 under the name of Pagan Productions. He has also worked a lot

in Japan and has stated (in Cole 1996a, p. 9) that the main circuit

for Goa trance since the late 1980s has been Tokyo-Goa-Amsterdam.

Steve Psyko, who currently spends six months of each year recording

in Sweden, recalls (in Cole 1996b, p. 7) attending some Goa Trance

parties in Sydney in the late 1980s, and he started making them

himself in Melbourne in 1991. Despite the fact that an identifiable

musical style or range of stylistic approaches to music played at

Goa trance parties has existed at least since the mid 1980s, Ray

Castle (in Cole 1996a, p. 9) believes "it wasn't until 1991 or 1992

that people went back to Europe, or Japan, or even Australia, and

began making music specifically for psychedelic trance parties".

 

Goa- style parties and music making have emerged in subtropical

Australia, specifically in the alternative lifestyle region of

Northern New South Wales. The scene is focused on Byron Bay which,

like Goa and Kathmandu, is one of the World's most popular

backpacker tourist destinations. Ray Castle (1996b), who lives

nearby at Surfers Paradise, has described the cultural mix and the

unique parties of the region:

 

 

 

The Byron Beach scene is a split between surfer,

newage-sanyassin-yuppies, bohemian spiritualists and

wholelistic-counterculture misfits, many who have drifted in from

the Asia traveller circuit or are completely disenfranchised from

urban culture. This psychotropic, rainbow belt, east edge, part of

Aussie has been notorious for its Goa-style, tribedelic meltdown,

beach and forest parties over the last few years. It's the full

sunrise bliss experience in pure, untainted nature, in an extremely

mellow, tolerant, country environment. There are many DJs, artists

and musicians living in this bubble, enclave. There are starting to

be many fusion, feral/techno groups like Trance Goddess and Curried

Grooves. The parties are often quite ritualistic with much fire

twirling and didgeridoo huffing and puffing, and the participants

sport the most off-the-planet hairdos. A truly unique antipodean

alternative, electronic music scene is mutating quite ingenuously

here with its own idiosyncratic, exotic flavour to the freakquency

tweakages and style of party production. An example of which would

be the PsyHarmonics double compilation, "Dancing To The Sound Of The

Sun.

 

 

 

The true spirit of the Goa Trance phenomenon is kept alive in

these Australian events which are often non-commercial in their

operation, in contrast with Goa parties in Europe. The outdoor

atmosphere of a subtropical beach or forest is also impossible to

achieve in Europe. None the less one of the main Goa trance events

in Europe is an outdoor event, the Voov party. This grew out of the

Amsterdam trance dance parties that Ray Castle was involved with

from 1987 to 1991, and it was inaugurated in 1992. The locations

change but are always outdoors on a farm or other suitable space.

Ray Castle returned to Europe to DJ at the 1996 Voov festival near

Hamburg to a crowd of around 10,000.

 

The European venues are otherwise indoor. There is a London

indoor party called Return to the Source held in an old opera

theatre but mostly Goa trance nights are held in clubs. Richard De

Souza (1996) who is cynical about the validity of the term Goa

trance, is equally disparaging of the clubs that have emerged:

 

 

 

The only link between trance music in the UK and the Indian state of

Goa is that some DJs and people partaking of this activity have

vacationed in Goa and may have attended the famed beach parties in

Goa. In an effort to recreate some of the "magic" they experienced

at A BEACH PARTY, they renamed some clubs in London and Manchester

as Goan Trance clubs.

 

 

 

Melbourne-based Goa DJ Steve Psyko (in Cole 1996b, p. 6)

maintains that Goa raves in European cities are now attended by "a

very mainstream crowd", and that he and his friends are dissatisfied

with the way the genre has been stereotyped and commodified. Psyko

claims that "the English... have decided that Goa trance is just one

kind of music." This he believes is very "un-Goa", that "in the

beginning the feeling from Goa music is...anything goes." (p. 8).

The current popularity of Goa Trance raises other aesthetic and

cultural issues for Psyko:

 

 

 

The parties are made for money...the music is made for

money....It reflects the Western mentality. What attracted me in the

beginning of electronic music was that it didn't reflect the Western

mentality. I am not really interested in any music that reflects

that...where consumption is the basis of the mentality. (p. 6)

 

Melbourne-based DJ and recording artist, Ollie Olsen (in Cole

1996d, p. 8), has provided some clues as to how this

commercialisation has occurred. He claims to have introduced Goa

trance recordings to Paul Oakenfold, a very popular DJ, remixer,

artist and label owner on the current English dance music scene.

Oakenfold began to spin Goa Trance recordings, and the style

received a real boost with the presentation of his "Full Moon Party"

Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1.(Clubdub/Cybernia webpage) He also

arranged to have some of the small label Goa recordings reissued on

his influential dance label, Perfecto, creating a sublabel, Perfecto

Fluoro, dedicated to Goa Trance. The fact that the music was then

available on Perfecto legitimated it for other big-name DJs in

England.

 

Olsen (in Cole, 1996d, p. 6) has noted the commercial success of

certain artists and labels:

 

 

 

In England in the last year the trance thing has got really

big.....bands like T.I.P. and their label.....becoming very big over

there. Man With No Name is like the commercial end of the Goa

thing...but he sells incredible amounts of records now. I think that

every 12" that Tsuyoshi puts out he's probably selling 5000 now,

which has grown remarkably, and getting stronger all the time.

 

Sharif (1996) reports that "Goa trance has now become the latest

vibe of city clubland- with tracks like Robert Miles' Top 5 hit

"Children" signalling its march into the mainstream". He also quotes

French DJ Yohann as saying that the Goa trance "craze [is]

dominating house parties, pulling more than 4000 people to each

rave".

 

 

 

Artists, DJs and Record Labels

 

Below are lists of Record labels, artists and DJs who are currently

commercially active in Goa Trance. Although containing substantial

numbers of names the lists are far from complete.

 

 

 

Labels include Dragonfly (UK), Perfecto Fluoro (UK), Flying Rhino

(UK), Blue Room Released (UK), Matsuri Productions (Japan), TIP

Records (UK), M Track Records (The Netherlands), Psychic Deli

Records, Symbiosis (UK), kk Records (Belgium), Krembo Records

(Israel), PsyHarmonics (Australia), Trust in Trance Records

(Israel), Orange Records (The Netherlands), Fairway Records

(France), BooM Records (The Netherlands) Orbit Records, Joking

Sphynx Records (France), Platipus Records (UK), Pyramid, Harthouse

(Germany), Eye Q (Germany), Phantasm, 23% Records (US), Celtic,

Transient, POF (Germany), Tunnel Records (Germany), Tokyo Techno

Tribe Records (Japan)

 

 

 

Artists include Doof, Kox Box, Prana, Hallucinogen (Simon Posford),

Astral Projection, The Infinity Project, Man With No Name, Green

Nuns of the Revolution, Juno Reactor, Etnica, Total Eclipse, Slinky

Wizard, Bass Chakra, Kode 4, Black Sun, Insectoid, Boris,

Rhythmystec, Sonic Sufi, Masaray, Mantaray, Disco Volante, Cosmosis,

Joking Sphinx, Technossomy, Tomahawk, Transwave, The Auranaut,

Sirius 2, Arcana, Shaktra, Miranda, SYB Unity Nettwerk, The

Pollinator, Les Diaboliques, Genetic, Ayahusca, Reflecta, Phreaky,

Orichalcum, Synchro, Kuro, Johann, Witchcraft, Transwave, Psychaos,

Voodoo People, Mandra Gora, Voodoof, Einstein, Paul Jackson, Masa,

Ree Kitajiima, Har-el Prussky, Nordreform Sound System, Robert

Miles, Kurusaki, X-tron

 

DJs include Paul Oakenfold (UK), Goa Gil (USA), Ray Castle (New

Zealand), Steve Psyko (Australia), Fred Disko (France), Richard

Ahlberg (Sweden), Hugh James Sharpe, James Munro, Dominic Lamb, Sven

Vath (Germany), DJ Yohann (France), Tsuyoshi (Japan), DJ Lestat

(France) Sven Dolise (Germany) Planet B.E.N. (Germany), DJ Kuni

(Japan), 333 (USA), Mark Allen (USA)

 

Many DJs are also involved in recording tracks for commercial issue

often in collaboration with other artists or DJs. For example Ray

Castle is a member of Rhythmystic, Masaray, Insectoid and Mantaray,

collaborating with different people for each project. Another good

example is Psyko Disko which is a collaboration between two DJs

(Fred Disko and Steve Psycho) and a musician/DJ (Ollie Olsen).

 

 

 

The Aesthetics of Goa Trance:

 

Goa Gil (1996) draws the link between the Goa trance phenomenon and

the revival of awareness in ancient tribal practices. He claims to

be attempting to "use trance music and trance dance experience to

set off a chain reaction in consciousness", believing that "since

the beginning of time mankind has used music and dance to commune

with the spirit of nature and the universe". His aim as a Goa artist

is to "[redefine] the ancient tribal ritual for the 21st century."

 

Like Goa Gil, Ray Castle (1996a) finds a strong connection

between Goa trance and tribal culture:

 

Like the aborigine, eons ago, that contemplated the planetsphere,

whilst hitting their sticks, blowing thru a hollowed out pipe

(didjeridu). These open-air, wilderness, tribedelic, pagan-like

parties (rituals) are along this line of primordial communion.

 

Furthermore, for Castle (1996a) "there is a transcendental, peak

experience quality to these parties, that have the potential to be

quite transformational psychic events; catalysing a collective,

group-mind, interlocking, which is experienced beyond fashion, sex,

ego, and commerce (at least in India where they are free, besides

the bribe money to the cops).". He sees his role as "a kind of

channeller of frequencies and beats to massage and activate the

unconscious and the superconscious via ecstatic, meditative,

trance/dance; which becomes a form of europhoric, collective

catharsis."

 

The DJ as shaman is a recurring metaphor in writings about Goa

trance. It is also applied to the artists (often DJs as well) who

create the tracks of commercially issued recordings. The notes for

TIP's Blue Compilation suggests, for example, that the composers

"vibrate the skull, gently massaging and revitalising the brain,

shaking out the psychic cobwebs" and further that "with their

healing vibrational medicine [they] transport us to megaverses of

aural delights." The tribal emphasis in the aesthetic of Goa trance

is also reflected in the visual elements used in parties. Sharif

(1996) comments, for example, that "Goa trance inspired dance

parties now being held in the UK and Europe ...heavily borrow from

imagery of Indian, Maori, Australian Aboriginal and Native American

cultures".

 

 

 

Musical Style

 

There are various definitions relating to the musical style of Goa

Trance available on the World Wide Web and in other locations. Most

of them are a mixture of subjective, often flamboyant descriptive

phrases and some technically oriented information. One typical

example (on the Clubdub/Cybernia homepage) is:

 

 

 

Goa Trance is best described as a psychedelic dance music. In Goa,

India, the main dance drug is LSD. Needless to say, the music and

its composers take full advantage of this, constructing each song

with a complex weaving of synth, 303 and analog noises into a

powerful kaleidescopic tapestry of sound. Then add to this strange

samples from films and other sources, and wooshes and bleeps that

further stimulate the psychoactive mind. The beat is a steady 4/4

kick but is often hidden deep within the twirling array of analog

sounds. Much of the melody comes with a constant barrage of evolving

16th or 32nd note sound streams.

 

 

 

Another web page (Dance Music Definitions) confirms the idea of

intricate textures, notes the presence of "psychedelic sounding

wobbly noises, and acidy sounds" and "boingy wibbly noises", and

remarks on the inordinate length of tracks. Sharif (1996) suggests

further that "Goa trance has its roots in rock and acid house, also

using Eastern inspired scales, rhythms and melodies. The tempo tends

to fall somewhere between 125 and 160 bpm, averaging around 130-145

bpm."

 

As with all attempts to define the musical essence of a

particular genre, there are bound to be contradictions and

discrepancies in the various accounts unless a comprehensive

quantitative analysis is conducted of a large sample of widely

accepted typical examples of the genre. This is not feasible within

the scope of this article, but some general remarks about musical

style have been made below on the basis of a survey of a number of

Goa trance CDs, mostly compilations. These CDs are listed at the end

of the article in the Select Discography. Other comments relating to

DJ performance practices are made below on the basis of field

experiences at Goa trance parties in Northern New South Wales, as

mentioned above.

 

In general, the structure of a Goa trance track reflects the idea

of a journey, both in a mythological sense and as a reflection of

the LSD experience. Paralleling the archetypal hero setting out on

his quest, the tracks start with subtle undulations of sound. These

slowly intensify, with constant timbral evolution and accretion

carrying the listener along the narrowly defined pathway of the

trance experience. As the hero meets challenges on the way, so too

is the listener challenged by periodic breaks in the trance flow,

often containing some mysterious text quotation or sample, designed

to involve the mind on a different level to that of the otherwise

constant pulse of the music. When the beat kicks in after such an

occurrence, its intensity or textural density is proportional to the

point of time reached in the track. The tracks are mostly around

eight to ten minutes in duration. At the fifth or sixth minute the

climax of the track has been reached, and from that point on the

journey , as it moves towards its end, it mirrors the build up to

the climax. In the context of a party, as the main beat drops away

or cuts out altogether, there is a feeling of uncertainty as to

whether the track will continue to build, or whether the DJ will cut

to another track altogether.

 

In the same way as each individual track takes the listener on a

journey, there exists an expanded level of this process in the DJ's

set, which in the classic Goa full moon party can last eight to ten

hours. When the set starts, usually around 10pm the energy and mood

of the music is relatively restrained, but it slowly builds over the

next four or more hours until around 2am to 4am, when the highest

energy levels are attained.. As dawn approaches the energy levels

remain high, but there is a subtle shift in the sound of the music,

with a noticeable emphasis on increased high frequency content.

 

 

 

Tempo

 

The bpm (beats per minute) range of Goa trance tracks is most

commonly from 140 bpm to 152 bpm, with most DJ sets hovering around

the 144 bpm mark. On the most recent compilations surveyed, the

average bpm seems to have increased with many of the tracks clocking

at around 150 bpm, whereas an earlier recording, Order Odonata

(Dragonfly Records, 1994), has most of the tracks in the 130-140 bpm

range. This suggest that the tempo of Goa Trance is on the increase.

Indeed there has been some discussion of the tempi of recent tracks

on the Goa Trance mailing list, with some subscribers complaining

that the genre has become too fast.

 

The issue of tempo is an interesting one considering the possible

relationship between musical tempo and human brain physiology. The

frequency of alpha waves in the brain, critical in inducing trance

states in humans, lies approximately between 8 and 12 cycles per

second, and varies from one person to the next. . Many traditional

trance-inducing musics of the world contain rhythmic elements which

mirror these rates. Typically performances start at the lower level

and increase over a period of hours towards the higher level. The

gradual increase in frequency allows for the variation in different

human alpha wave frequencies. In Goa trance there is a constant

stream of 16th notes which when played at the suggested average of

144 bpm yields a flow of musical events at an average of 9.6 cps.

This situation parallels that of traditional trance musics. However

if the average tempo of Goa trance has increased there is a chance

that partiers with alpha wave rates in the lower end of the range

might not lock with any of the music being played in a party

situation. .

 

The speed variation limitations of the typical playback equipment

used for Goa trance parties has effected the practices relating to

tempi of the tracks being played. The Djs using DAT machines (with

no facility for vari-speed in contrast to record turntables), tend

to beat match the tracks in groups of four or five. Typically they

will then choose a track with a swirling beat-less breakdown, and

bring in a beat with a different tempo underneath. Goa tracks often

have these extended beat-less endings to facilitate DAT mixing. This

practice may have arisen historically through the earlier use of

cassette decks. According to Castle (in Cole, 1996a):

 

 

 

You had to guess the end of it; you had to know your music well; you

didn't have the timer as precise as you do with DATs. You'd get to

know which tracks worked with which tracks...just make connections;

they wouldn't always be perfectly beat matched, but with this

psychedelic music it's not so critical I think, 'cause each track is

a journey, and they're long tracks with certain acid techno......a

lot of psychedelic tracks... have lush beginnings and lush endings.

 

 

 

Goa trance DJs rigorously label all their DATs with track titles,

durations, and bpms. All tracks have ID numbers to enable quick

location. The use of CD players is becoming more common, as more Goa

trance is being released on CD, and vari-speed CD decks become more

affordable.

 

 

 

Sounds

 

In common with most forms of techno, or electronic dance music, the

most prominent ingredient of Goa Trance is the kick drum. In Goa

trance however, the kick tends to be quite dominant, often processed

through an effects unit independently of the rest of the track.The

thick, 'beefy' bass drum sounds associated with this style are

often, if not exclusively, based on those of the Roland TR909 drum

machine. This machine, manufactured circa 1984, was the last of the

Roland drum machines to incorporate analogue synthesised drum

sounds, as opposed to sampled waveforms. This meant that it was

possible to shape the sound using rotary knobs on the front of the

machine to adjust parameters such as decay, attack, timbre etc. As

these machines are now hard to acquire, most Goa trance artists use

samples of the TR909 or similar vintage drum machines in their work.

However, as the TR909 is capable of many hundreds of different

timbres, a large amount of variation through multiple sampling is

still possible. The basic kick sounds are often augmented by adding

in a low tom, or sometimes even a sampled synth bass timbre, to give

extra punch and definition.

 

The Roland TB303, the 'bassline' or '303' in common parlance, has

been extensively used in house and commercial club dance music over

the years, and is responsible for many of the acid bleeps,

squelches, squishes and whooshes found in traditional psychedelic

trance. Goa trance artists tend to look for more original ways of

expressing high frequency chaos, mostly using sampled sources

manipulated using the filter section of the sampler (e.g. Kurzweil

K2500, Roland S760, Akai S3000 series). However, the influence of

the TB303 sound can still be heard in many Goa trance tracks.

 

The hi-hats are used as propulsive glue, with subtle rhythmic

emphases and variations providing a contrast to the insistent kick

drum and bass synth repetition. Commonly the half closed hihat is

used on the 8th note offbeat as the track builds [eg. "Nothing like

a good friend" - Inscape, TIP Blue Compilation 1995]. As well as the

basic kick drum pulse there are overlaid sounds, sometimes

indicating changes in sections of the arrangement and sometimes to

add textural focus. For example, "Megallenic Cloud" by Green Nuns of

the Revolution [Trancentral 4 - A Trip to Goa 1996] starts with a

theremin-like overlay that lasts almost 8 bars. Synthesised high

frequency swirling sounds act like fills to signify the start of new

sections or changes of instrumentation.

 

A feature of Goa trance tracks is the inclusion of sampled voice

snippets of texts taken mostly from old movies. These are usually

employed in the breakdowns , but are also sometimes used as

overlays. As stated at the beginning of the musical style section,

they serve to provide a marked contrast to the insistent driving

pulse of the kick and 16th note rhythmic drive of the bass and other

levels of the texture. For the dancer in a trance state they are

intended to stimulate the imagination before being grounded again by

the return of the driving kick drum rhythm. Examples of these

quotations are "Got a hot date with a 3 stage rocket!" [eg. "Wow" -

The Infinity Project, TIP Blue Compilation 1995] and "Now .... To

prayer ...... It is time to charge the spiritual battery" [eg. "U.R.

The Alien" - Brainman, TIP Blue Compilation 1995]. The sampling of

fragments of traditional instrumental or vocal music is a technique

used to make references to world music cultures which are regarded

as appropriate to the aesthetic of Goa trance. Some of the cultural

areas commonly targeted are Australian Aboriginal (e.g. the

didjeridu), Japanese (e.g. koto, biwa), Indian (e.g. tambura, sitar,

tabla, voice) and Arab (voice).

 

Goa trance tracks nearly always have a 16th note single pitch

repetition, using a sharply defined upper harmonic filter swept

synth timbre with the oscillator close to the point of resonance.

The filter cut-off point is often achieved graphically using tools

found in the most popular computer sequencing packages such as

Steinberg's Cubase or E-Magic's Logic. This enables a simple 16th

note single pitched repeated note to become a rhythmic entity in its

own right, as the audible component of the sound fades in and out of

the human hearing range. It can also take on melodic qualities as

the resonance control on the filter approaches higher values.

 

 

 

Form

 

The form of Goa trance tracks follow a fairly rigid framework, based

on 8 or 16 bar building blocks. The changes in texture invariably

coincide with the 8 bar divisions, although sometimes an additional

part will fade in through an 8 bar cycle. Often a high frequency

swirling fill will signal the beginning of a new block. This track

construction process is influenced by computer sequencer design,

encouraging a building block approach to composition. There is a

process of layer interchange between subsequent blocks, where one or

two layers of the texture are added or removed, often using material

rhythmically or melodically related to previous sections.

 

Treatments

 

Sometimes long sustained sounds or samples, often incorporating

slow harmonic filter sweeps are subjected to 16th or 32nd note

gating in a rhythmic pattern. Heavy distortion is often employed on

the synth and kick sounds. Oscillator cross modulation and hard

oscillator sync produce wild, chaotic harmonic shifts. Constant

filter sweeps on all parts except the kick produce a continually

changing frequency balance. Different parts are often given

different reverbs, to place each layer in a different acoustic

space. Delay is used as a compositional device, with the delay time

synched to the tempo of the track, either in 16th , 8th note, or

some dotted note division. Repetition of single notes within the

melodic fragments is used to accentuate the trance like qualities of

the multiple delay effects found in the majority of Goa Trance

tracks.

 

 

 

Tonal and Melodic Devices

 

The pitch organisational basis of Goa trance, as with many other

dance music genres, is the centering on a single tone. This idea is

related, perhaps coincidentally, to the modal centering of Indian

classical music. There are however several tracks among those

surveyed that involve shifts to another centre, usually in the

middle of the piece. There a number of tracks that shift down to the

centre defined by the flat seventh of the main centre [eg "Sirius 2"

- Satori Razor, Trancentral four - A Trip To Goa, 1996]; and a few

others that move up to the centre defined by the flat third of the

main centre.

 

Middle Eastern or Asian influenced melodies or melodic

figurations are common. Typically melodic material is based on

scales which have a flat second, flat third and flat seventh. [eg.A,

Bb,C, D,E, G in "Megallenic Cloud" - Green Nuns of the Revolution,

on Trancentral four - A Trip To Goa, 1996] . The notes of the

Phrygian mode are often evident. Sometimes the sharp fourth is heard

indicating that the concept of scale construction may in fact be

related to Indian scale (gat) theory. A number of tracks use both

the minor and the major third, creating a suggestion of the

diminished blues [octatonic] scale. More often than not, though,

only a few pitched notes are used melodically in any one section of

a track. The most common tones found in melodic patterns are the

tonic, flat second, flat seventh, flat third and perfect fifth.

 

Melodic design generally takes the form of short repeated

fragments which often morph timbrally over time, using the envelope

on the filter to mute or open the high frequency component of the

sound, in a similar sort of way to a wah wah pedal [eg. "Protozoa" -

Blissed, on Rites of Passage, 1993]. Pitch bend is commonly used to

add character to melodic lines. Glissandi are often used as hits,

emphasising accents in the music.

 

 

 

Rhythm and Rhythmic Division

 

The introductory sections of Goa trance tracks typically contain

wild analogue synthesiser sound textures and a complex rhythmic or

metrical organisation. The tempo of the track is often not

predictable until revealed by the entry of the kick drum. The 16th

note is the basic rhythmic division of the style. 32nd note rolls

are sometimes used as fills at the end of a section. Rhythmic

developments of the original motif slowly build in density and

intensity, usually in blocks of 16 or 32 bars. The quarter note kick

drum 'doof' will then drop out for a couple of bars. Often the whole

track will stop and a soft voice will utter a thought-provoking

phrase such as "I don't know ........ It may be something to do with

being in the mountains ' [DOOF - Star Above Parvatti, TIP Blue

Compilation 1995]. Then the track will resume with the re-entry of

the kick drum. The last section of a track is often a mirror image

of the arrangement sequence at the beginning of the track. The bass

sequence is generally the prime rhythmic determinant in the textural

organisation of a track.

 

 

 

Conclusion

 

The use of the term Goa trance is contentious among many of the

practitioners of the genre, but on balance it appears to be useful

for representing both the historical origins and practices of the

Goa dance party and the recent emergence of artists who are working

with what seems to be a coherent set of stylistic practices in the

making of commercial recordings. The focus of Goa trance has always

been on the DJ who takes the participant on a mystical journey

during the course of an all-night party. The DJs who regularly

visited Goa, particularly over the period from the early 1980s to

the early 1990s, determined the emergence of a range of existing

recorded and remixed musical styles appropriate for use at Goa

trance parties. These same DJs helped spread the idea of the

Goa-style party to other parts of the world, and also stimulated the

practice of creating recordings especially written for use at trance

parties. In many cases the original Goa DJs are also actively

involved in the making of contemporary Goa trance recordings. The

current popularity of Goa trance has led to the establishment of

many record labels devoted to the dissemination of the genre to an

increasing record buying market. The Goa trance party has evolved

into a commercially organised indoor event in the large cities of

Europe and North America, but its original outdoor tropical

tribedelic character is still represented by parties held, for

example, on the beaches and in the forests of Northern New South

Wales in Australia.

 

 

 

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Barron, Jon (1996), Goa trance mailing list (owner-goa@lists,

intelenet.net), October 8.

 

Boyd, Brian (1996). "Hippy Hoppy Party Goas" in Irish Times, March 9

 

Castle, Ray (1996a) Interview with DJ Krusty (Melbourne DJ), by

phone, August 1995

 

Castle, Ray (1996b). "Psychotropic Trance," on Goatrance homepage

 

Castle, Ray (1996c) Email to Fred Cole, September 19.

 

Chambers, Paul (1996). Email to Fred Cole, 11th October 1996

 

Cole, Fred (1996a). Interview with Ray Castle, Coorabell, 29th June

1996

 

Cole, Fred (1996b). Interview with Steve Psyko in Melbourne, 2nd

April 1996

 

Cole, Fred (1996c). Interview with Fred Disko, Melbourne, 2nd April

1996

 

Cole, Fred (1996d). Interview with Ollie Olsen, Elwood, 29th March

1996

 

De Souza, Richard (1996) "Worn Out," on Goatrance homepage

 

Ahlberg, Richard (1996). As quoted by Melissa Woodrow on the Goa

trance mailing list, [goa@party.net], 24th July 1996

 

Goa Gil (1996). "DJ Goa Gil and Ariane," on Goa Gil Home Page.

 

Jordan, Derek (1996) "Mystical Experience" by Infinity Project"

[record review], on Goatrance homepage

 

Sharif (1996). "Goa trance," in jmag, Spring issue, p.10.

 

Sharpe, Hugh James (1996a). Goa trance mailing list [goa@party.net],

20th October 1996

 

Sharpe, Hugh James (1996b). Goa trance mailing list [goa@party.net],

8th October 1996

 

 

 

 

 

WEBOGRAPHY

 

Clubdub/cybernia [http://cgi-bin.iol.ie/cybernia/clubdub/goa.html]

 

Dance Music Definitions homepage

[http://arachnid.cm.cf.ac.uk/User/C.M.sully/terms.html]

 

Goa Gil's Home Page [http://scitexdv.com/Users/todd/Gil/bio.html]

 

Goatrance homepage

[http://193.118.187.100/help/extra/people/goatrance]

 

 

 

 

 

SELECT DISCOGRAPHY

 

Blissed - Rite of Passage - Tokyo Tekno Tribe Records 1993

 

Order Odonata - Dragonfly Records 1994

 

Blue Compilation - TIP Records 1994

 

The Japanese Experience (trance in japan) - Krembo Records 1995

 

Dancing to the Sound of the Sun - Psy Harmonics 1995

 

Tantrance (A trip to psychedelic trance) - SPV Records 1995

 

A Voyage into Trance (mixed by Paul Oakenfold) - Dragonfly Records

1995

 

Trancentral four - A Trip To Goa - Kickin Records 1996

 

Hacking the Reality Myth - Psy Harmonics 1996

 

Infinity Hz - Matsuri Compilation 1996

 

Psyko Disko Psyko Disko - Psy Harmonics 1996