Is goa dead or not, where does it stand?

[Aeros]

I've been to some drumming ceremonies and such, and there isn't really pieces of music like there are at typical trance parties. There's just this relentless drumming, chanting & so on, built around some simple ideas that are modulated & morphed in time... You can't really say where some idea or some musical element begins or ends, it's really a dynamic process between the musicians & dancers. The problem with electronic music is of course, that there can't really be such an interplay between the dancers and the musicians. In an co-operative situation like this, the way pepole dance can change the way he people play the music, and vice versa. Every small thing somebody does, is immediately reflected in the whole in some way. Think of a flock of birds that seem to move in perfect harmony, but in face there IS no leader in the flock, the individuals are just reflecting each others actions back and forth...

 

You bring up something interesting that I can relate to... Last summer I had the opportunity to join a drum circle started by some jamaicans and a few reggae guys from the reggae festival I was at (Vermont Roots 2005), there I experienced what I think is the first real "trance" experience I've had, I've thought I felt trance off dancefloor music on certain occasions but this just blew the top off that.

 

It was a drum circle, people were just gathered around a fire in the middle of the night by the tents and they decided to drum. The jamaicans were quite good and settup the rythm for everyone and slowly other people would hear the music and come by, take out some bongos, get a keg and a drumstick, whistle, whatever, you could make any sound to join in. But it quickly became AMAZING. Being a drum/rythm enthusiast myself I couldn't resist joining in, I had nothing but I quickly found two sticks on the ground and started hammering away at a nearby log. There is not much I can relay about this other than describe it in words, but for 4 hours there was non-stop drumming, everything ceiced to exist besides the rythm people were making and how they would evolve it around themselves. It was amazing how the group would compose such amazing music right there simply by listening to a rythm and then plugging in their own sound to it...

 

After a while when the music was really sounding beyond anything I've ever heard before...12 people drumming, each their own instrument, and other people adding things like a guitar or harmonica or even whistling with their mouth for the sheer joy of adding something to the experience... The connection and the sheer feeling of being connected with the other drummers was to the point where as you drum your part in the circle, when you were drumming away you feel as if you have 20 arms because you are so syncronized and....in-trance with the group, you can feel every sound and movement each of the other people will make you and you can compose your own part to add to it, and most spectacular of all was how the music actually sounded like music, there would be songs and the circle itself would naturally go into other songs and rythms, not from one person changing the rythm but everyone simultaneously being connected. These were completely random people too by the way, I've never met them and couldn't hardly see any of their faces because of the darkness and the dim campfire...

 

For 4 hours this went on until by 5:00AM everyone was too tired out from a night of partying and drumming and went off to sleep. But that surpassed any trance experience I've ever had before, and indeed you cannot hear anything like that anywhere else.

[RTP]

Also I'm tired of the artist mentality, I have never seen what's the point of having lives hows for example, when usually the tunes come from a CD (or some other [at least mostly] pre-rendered medium) anyway. I've been booked to play over the world this year, and I never really undestand why? I tell everybody they could just play my CD, but they still want me to have there. It's nice to travel of course so I go, but I just don't see the point.

I think the DJ booth/playing space should be demolished & hidden, so there would jus be the music and the people. The floor plan of the parties should always be such, that there would be no central focus that would pull the people to face always the same direction... I think DJs / live PAs should bever be announced beforehand, just the style of music that would be played... All this artist mentality is a form of person worship, something that I find completely unaccectable in the world.

428472[/snapback]

Hmmm ... I think live sets are quite interesting and should not be looked down when it's a real live set, that means the artist himself performing and enriching his own tracks on the flow with different arrangements, other synth melodies and a bunch of other variations especially adapted to the mood the whole place is in at a certain point. That is a very good thing and I have seen artists performing different versions of their own tracks live that you can never get on any CD because they are arranged differently and have different melodies - and they sounded more awesome than their originals! So that's why I like live sets very much!

And about the DJ booth being in front of the people and all ... I think it's quite nice to see some knob twisting of some skilled person ... I mean, I agree with you on the "artist worship"-issue, it has becoming too much and a DJ booth in front of all people adds to this without doubt, but anyway, I think it belongs there...

 

 

And man, Synogen, your narration of that drum session sounded very cool

[Taika-Kim]

About Synogen's story-!

 

YES!

 

That's what I meant... In Morocco for example, the trance ceremonies used to go on for DAYS... In Siberia, some rituals took even a week to finish. The professor of comparative religious studies at my Uni told that he was once visiting the Hanti people in Siberia, and there was some ritual going on. He then proceeded to some other place, and after he came back days later, THE RITUAL WAS STILL GOING ON! Wow. That's pretty amazing IMO

 

But the whole psytrance culture is just a more refined form of disco basically It's the best electronic music culture has yet to offer spiritually, but it could be so much more. But I don't think too many people would be interested, really, most (like me too, most of the time!) just enjoy dancing, seeing some friends & so on.

 

But sometimes I really hope that somebody would explore the trance inducing forms of music more deeply also in the electronic music field.

 

Here's some very interesting read for all us musicians out here:

http://www.trance.ch/

There should be a ton of articles online, the layout has changed since I last visited, but I'm sure they're still there...