Josh Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 Hi all. what do you prefer: the name "goa" or "psytrance"? what do you think is more common allover the world? here in switzerland goa is very common, but i heard that in israel for example goa means mainstream, happy trance and such stuff... so what do you prefer and what do you understand under these names? for me, goas are small psytrance partys somewhere in the woods or so, and psytrance is rather big festivals... thank you for your comments. greets and stay high, Josh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Redeemer Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 With goa I understand psytrance that has some eastern influenced melodies, I guess that's the difference. Not much goa been made after 90's, unfortunately. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elixer Posted November 28, 2004 Share Posted November 28, 2004 psychedelic goa trance ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slyde Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 psytrance is made by people who have never been to goa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinos Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 Goa usually has melodies, psy usually hasn't. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electrickery Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 In Australia the term goa seems to be used very little, psytrance being the more common term both for small and large parties where psychadelic sound containing music is played. Not sure how one would define a psychadelic sound exactly though . Goa usually has melodies, psy usually hasn't. 203725[/snapback] What do you mean by melody Cinos? Am confused as i would say much psy has melodic elements. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anoebis Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 Well, for me the genre with electronic psychedelic music is Psychedelic Trance the melodic sub-group of psychedelic trance that is no full on is Goa Trance for me and well, in Belgium the name goa is more for old school parties, and psytrance for "modern" sound Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ukiro Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 You could argue that goa trance is any music played at trance parties in goa, or even make valid arguments that there never was such a thing as "goa trance", but if we accept that what was once known as goa trance has now mutated into something else, these are the disctinctions I'd make: If you want to define a particular sound as goa trance, the phrygian scales are what marks the most prominent difference in my opinion. Goa trance, as I define it, also had a clearer tonality of its sounds while psytrance has noisier sounds, especially for the leads. The tone of a typical psy-trance lead sound is much harder to identify than that of a typical goa trance sound. This allows for easier (DJ) mixing since it lowers the risk of dissonance, but also removes a lot of the emotional impact of the sounds (at least for me). The development of this music has also lead to much more prominent basslines, where the music of 94-96 often relied almost entirely on the kick for the bass and then let some of the sounds for the lead melodies trickle down into the sub-200 Hz range instead of having a dedicated bassline throughout the track. If there was one it was positioned much lower in terms of volume than todays production style. Filter sweeps aren't used nearly as much these days, and if they're at all present they're LFO-controlled instead of hand-tweaked. This and the clearer overall sound where everything is heavily EQ'ed to not interfere with other sounds, is partially a result of the shift to using software for the entire production where goa trance was completely dominated by hardware studios. Naturally, one can make psytrance with hardware and goa trance with software, but generally this disctinction is valid. There are other aspects of the musical structures that separate them as well, apart from the phrygian scales. One is that todays psy-trance has a lot of short breaks, one bar or half a bar, normally. These were very few and far between in the goa era. Another difference is that (good) goa trance often blended layers of different length, ranging from 1/8 or 3/16 to several bars. When all patterns are of the same length, you lose a lot of the hypnotic and trance-inducing qualities of the music. This style of layering using different pattern lengths are the main reason words like "vortex", "hypnotic" and "kaleidoscopic" are often used to describe goa trance, and along with the drug connection explains a lot of the fascination with fractals among its followers, since these musical structures somewhat resemble fractal patterns. The structuring of psy-trance of today is almost exclusively "binary" in that it's based on 2, 4, 8, 16 and 32 bar structures. This "orthogonal" style of arrangement wasn't as apparent in the goa era I think. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest djnemo Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 (edited) For me it was from the beginning Psychedelic Trance or Acid Trance. We never used the term "Goa Trance" in south Sweden at the beginning. Well atleast not in Helsingborg where I am from. I remember all the ones that were not into psy, that they were calling the genre Goa trance. Well, my background is from Trance really, and I mixed all sorts of trance. Acid Trance with "Goa" and with Harthouse and EyeQ. Hehehe, back in those days there were not too many "Goa" labels anyways. But its good to have the terms, because I tend to talk about trance, and people start mentioning Tiesto, then I go "no no, psytrance or goa I mean" haha It really does not matter what we are using at the end of the day, as long as we can make ourselfves understood, no? The only term that I cant get used to is "Progressive".... Edited November 29, 2004 by djnemo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AmithabaBuddha Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 Goa Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quark Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 I give Nemo right, at some point of view. Progressive is a hard question, because there is so many kind of progressive genres. I prefer to use psytrance, when I talk about music, but most people, that doesn't listen to it, don't understand, then I use the term Goa(-trance), and they go "Ahhh..." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
electrickery Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 The only term that I cant get used to is "Progressive".... 203741[/snapback] Yeah me too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dragonflier Posted November 30, 2004 Share Posted November 30, 2004 From what I understand "goa" is more melodic than psy, and has what you can call "eastern influences". It's probably better to give examples, ie Hallucinogen - LSD (goa) and Muses Rapt - Spiritual Healing (Psy). Sometimes theres a thin line though, so you can't always know whether a track is psy or goa. The impression I have is that most music made today is psy, while there were more goa back in the nineties. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyspectrum Posted December 1, 2004 Share Posted December 1, 2004 Names don't do justice to music! Just stupid categorisations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sammyhkhan Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 From what I understand "goa" is more melodic than psy, and has what you can call "eastern influences". It's probably better to give examples, ie Hallucinogen - LSD (goa) and Muses Rapt - Spiritual Healing (Psy). Sometimes theres a thin line though, so you can't always know whether a track is psy or goa. The impression I have is that most music made today is psy, while there were more goa back in the nineties. Are you serious? Would you classify spiritual healing as psy instead of goa trance? Or you just pulling something to illustrate your request? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Time_Trap Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 psychedelic goa trance ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RTP Posted June 21, 2007 Share Posted June 21, 2007 I always thought "Goa Trance" is the term for oldskool goa trance ... and Psytrance is the sound that's around today - all that fullon, prog, dark, suomi... I thought parties nowadays are only called goa parties because they want to be cool and "Psy Trance Parties" would be the right expression. Also the music is often referred to "Goa" in the outside world because all the not-insiders (meaning the average type of people who haven't a big psy CD collection at home and only go to parties sometimes with friends) get this term and don't need an explanation as it would be the case with the term "psy trance parties". And furthermore, the word "goa" adds to the flow of language. Viennish slang is: "Oida, i geh auf a goa morgn, kummst mit?" ("Ey, dude, I'm going on a goa tomorrow, you go with me?") - that has flow ... "Oida, i geh auf a psytrance festl morgn, kummst mit?" ("Ey, dude, I'm going on a psy trance festy tomorrow, you go with me?") - that has not so much flow Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Journey Man Project Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 I like psychedelic music... whether it is Pink Floyd or Dave Bowie or Simon Posford or Mubali or Talamasca or Solar Field or Ishq or Son Kite or WArp Records or whatever... as long as it has a bit of a twist it is good... music shouldn;t be boring and it should be challening your perceptions and taste... using names like Goa or Psy just helps to sell on Ebay Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest The Journey Man Project Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 \. Not sure how one would define a psychadelic sound exactly though . \ music with a twsit that challenges you perceptions and taste... it takes you beyond the listeningrealms of normal music.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tatsu Posted June 22, 2007 Share Posted June 22, 2007 I still think it's a local thing what name gets used. Here in Switzerland Goa parties is the common name for the parties even when only new sound gets played. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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