Goatrance Music Communities

[Guest Ido]

I would first like to thank you in advance for your support. It is greatly appreciated.

 

I've been associated with the goatrance scenes of Israel, England, and the United States over the past 5 years or so --on various levels from appreciating listener to dj, promoter, producer, and overall lover. I am currently conducting a fieldwork thesis project incorporating various presentations and gatherings/parties along the way. My goal is to create a better understanding of goatrance and why it is different from the other genres both in musical and spritual structure/background. Below are a few questions:

 

1. What is your screen name, or how would you like to be referred to in my text? Where are you from? Male/Female? Age? What is your background and how did you get involved in your trance community?

 

2. What is the role of the goatrance audience as compared to those of other genres? (is there a different connection between the individuals in audience or between the audience and performer(s)?)

 

3. How does the music evoke a sense of 'place'? Does it belong in one place more so than in another? Why?

 

4. What do you give to the community (even if it's only your presence/vibe at an event) and what do you get in return?

 

5. Aside from the occasional parties/gatherings, how/where else does this community exist?

 

6. How often do you participate in the parties?

 

7. Would you agree that most of the scene is dominated by men? Why or why not?

 

8. How are new-comers regarded?

 

9. What other communities are you associated with?

 

Again, thank you so very much for your time and support. The success of this work comes through your help.

[Guest pesito]

ok...i came yesteday and there were no answers then I came today and due the fact that there still nothing im going to answer a couple of questions....What ull find about me is just my very personal and honest opinion, and u may be dissapionted or not...i dont know....

 

Im known as pesito but i hate this nick in the first place so it doesnt matter...

Im 21/ male / mexico

 

1. I got involved in psytrance not too much ago (about 2 y ago). I was a so called junkie who came to a party just looking for the lsd, cuz I was always looking for new psychedelic experiences, so i got to a party and got the lsd and then i realized of such a wonderfull and amazing music. that was my meeting with the psytrance and i liked it so much that i never looked back.

 

2. I think that the audience is somehow connected by a sence of property, and mutual secret, and also by a hiipie kind backgrownd. U can also breath an air of liberty wich allows u to find new meanings of lots of personal affairs such as the open mind, the friendship, the autenticity, the live, the art, the beauty, filosophy etc... wich r in most of the cases lifechanging... there is also that connection between the performer and the audience of mutual respect but also a friendly confidence cuz then the performer is just a human as everyone elses and owns the same value in meanings of life but the admiration is always present....

 

3.about the evocation of a place sense, well i find different styles evocating different places; some r scando sounds and some r oriental flashes but when on a party there is only the whole dimention>space>earth>spirit>human evocation. Besides i belong to a country with a very rich history that keeps the vibe that it owns...

 

4. I do my best to give my being to the community in the form of creation and communion (friendship), I try as possible to keep the nice vibe and to remove the tribial spiritless vibe. What i got back is the knowledge feedback from individual beings and a receiving channel to spread me.

 

5. IMO the community is something too abstract to describe and theres only the feeling that it exists, but besides the partyes, the trance community is a way of life based mainly in the search of true and fundamental meanings, triggered by a range of experiences related to the indiviuality, the evolution, the spirituality, the happiness and the human dissapointment...

 

6. I used to be a partyholic, and i remember when i felt like being known by the other people, something like the school class asistance...now i find it embarrasing and i try to keep my self for the really good ones and the ones we organize...and that would be something like 1 party a month sometimes more & sometimes less..

 

7. I dont think that the "scene" is dominated by males, i think girls like it the same and at parties u can find kind of equal number of both.....but cant tell why there r more male producers/dj's, i think its because the ancestral culture where the chiks havent realized that they can do anithing.

 

8. Newcomers (like me) r regarded based on what they came looking for and what they find in their first experiences.

About the acceptance they find from the olders, well....it depends too much in what we r looking for too... but my personal p o view is that the more knowledge of trance and life the more acceptance ull guive to the newcomers, and by the other hand, the more mature is the new comer, the more acceptance and regards he'll find.

 

9.well im not particullary associated with any community at all, but i find my best friends among the whole psychedelic believers comunity.(the ones who do psydrugs or atleast have the internal seed)

 

ok...i think its all and i really hope it helps you a bit in ur research...if u listened what i said, then i must thank u!

peace & trascendence

[Guest Mr. Flying Rhino]

1. Mr Flying Rhino, 21, Australia. Got into trance from sitting around with a friend for a couple of years smoking bongs and listening to anything psychedelic; Pink Floyd, Weird Radio Shows, All the 70's Acid Rock bands like Airplane, the Dead, Gong, Hawkwind... eventually heard trance and listened to that for a few years without any idea there was a scene associated with it. Just thought it was "alternative techno". When I was 17 I met someone at uni. who was looking at a trance flyer and I recognized the name of an act playing because I'd been listening to one of their songs I taped form the radio. He said "its next week come along". I did, he gave me a hit of acid, I had the most amazing night of my life..... and the rest is history....

 

2. the trance audience/performer connection doesn't really exist; although the performer is getting feedback and energy from the dance floor, the music is quite anonymous; in most cases out of the 100 or so tracks played at parties half of them you never hear again...How many people have heard a "special" track that knocks them for six without ever knowing who did it??? Unless a big act is playing who I know well most of the time I'm to shpongled to tell who is behind the decks!

 

In terms of the connection the audience have with eachother.. well.... I think its the same as in other scenes, if a bit more respectful, and given the nature of trance events (outdoors/festival environments, multiple acts, multimedia displays, camping, 12 hour parties etc.) There is a lot more room for interaction with other people and connections to be established outside of the music. U can see a band, and sit there the whole time being totally absorbed by their performance, then it ends and u go home. Trance, you go out, get smashed, Wonder around for a few hours looking at trees before the party starts taking off and everyone is canning it on the dancefloor, meet people, and the next day you're still there at the festival interracting with everyone on the same trip as you

 

3. All music is "environmental". If i wanted to hear punk music, give me the dirtiest pub with a stomach full of lager, and i'll get the most out of it (and love it). Psy Trance music... outdoors, huge crashing mellow riffs after a night of full on craziness, sunrise, surrounded by a sea of smiling faces, best friends (new and old), that is the best way to enjoy it.... (and a few n20 bulbs help as well).

 

4. I try to make everyone have the best night they possibly can, wether it be sharing a spliff, shouting a beer, smiling at everyone or being hyperactive and crazy on a dancefloor (which always gets a few smiles)... All the best parties I have been too have had moments with complete strangers where they've offered a cigarette at the perfect time, or shown me a chemist, or handed me some sort of weird trippy thing to look at... To have a brilliant night, everyone around you also has to have a brilliant night and this philosophy has carried me through many awesome cosmic adventures with strange and wonderful people who have names I would never guess....

 

5. At the pub when we all get pissed a week a later and talk about how sensational our pills were and how much we enjoyed the music. Also the occasional chess match, Star Trek nights, house parties, telephone conversations.. my friends are my friends regardless of wether they trance or not and I see them whenever I can

 

6. participate???!?!?! i just go there and get fucked up! But I go at least 3 times a month to a party or a psy trance club, if that is the question...

 

7. It's not dominated by men. Wether women are behind the decks or not it doesn't matter. There's probably only slightly more males at the trance parties i've been too but that seems to be general in any scene.. mabye its because males are more susceptible to drugs?

 

8. Badly! I love seeing people wide-eyed at their party, but too many people have such a fucking elitist attitude! "I've been going to raves since 1994 and they don't play goa anymore its all minimalist @!#$!". Now i guess with the media going on about drugs at parties and the music becoming more popular so many people are going to party and some people thing their scene is being invaded, but @!#$ it, I would love the world to be clicked on to psychedelic trance: I can't wait until i can walk up to a jukebox, have a beer with a mate and listen to Jaia's "After the Rain"!

It doesn't matter how long people have been into the scene, it doesn't mean they know less it doesn't mean they're not cool.. just they were into other things!

 

9. err... i don't like the word "community". But i go to punk shows, hang out with star craft and star wars geek, love AFL, play pool and drink too much beer, i have many social intrests outside of psychedelia

 

hope that helped!