Psynews's "BEST OF 2007"!

[moni]

Hello psynewsers!

 

Every year, Psynews hosts the competition of the releases!

 

For those who are new on our forums, I'm talking about the "best of 2007" in the psychedelic trance music scene and the main music styles that get listened to by our members.

 

As 2007 is finished, we can officially review all our 2007 albums, or even re-listen, make up our TOP 5 best 2007 albums and/or compilations, come to Psynews, post it, and see the results.

 

Albums/compilations that will make your "best of 2007" valid have to be released in the year 2007, and they have to be at least in one of these cathegories: psychedelic trance, full on, neo full on, israeli full on, dark psy, dark full on, forest psy, suomi, goa, oldschool, newschool, progressive trance, progressive-electro trance, ambient, chill-out, psychedelic chill-out, etc. Generally the styles that circulate on Psynews.

 

Starting with this year, we decided to split the competition in 2 and present you in the end 2 charts:

 

BEST OF 2007 PSYTRANCE

BEST OF 2007 CHILL OUT/AMBIENT

 

What you have to do here is to post 2 separate tops: your TOP 5 psytrance releases of 2007 and your TOP 5 chill out / ambient releases of 2007. Each top will has to be structured in the right order (meaning that number 1 will be your favourite release of 2007):

 

1. Artist Name (or Group Name, or Project Name) - Album Name - Label - Release Date

2. Artist Name (or Group Name, or Project Name) - Album Name - Label - Release Date

3. Artist Name (or Group Name, or Project Name) - Album Name - Label - Release Date

4. Artist Name (or Group Name, or Project Name) - Album Name - Label - Release Date

5. Artist Name (or Group Name, or Project Name) - Album Name - Label - Release Date

 

This is how we will calculate the scores (number of points):

 

Nr. 1 gets 5 points

Nr. 2 gets 4 points

Nr. 3 gets 3 points

Nr. 4 gets 2 points

Nr. 5 gets 1 point.

 

As I said above, according to the new splitting between psytrance and chill out / ambient, you will write 2 separate TOP 5, one will be "TOP 5 PSYTRANCE", the other one will be "TOP 5 CHILL OUT / AMBIENT". Please post both tops in one post (do not make 2 posts for each top 5). One release cannot be voted in both "top 5 psytrance" and in "top 5 chill out / ambient". Use the EDIT POST function of the forum as many times as you want if you want to add/remove or modify your tops.

 

According to your data, we will create 2 databases (one for psytrance, one for chill out), and all albums will have a score (points) and a number of votes.

 

Every album that is mentioned in each TOP 5 has 1 correspondent vote. If an album gets mentioned 10 times, it will have 10 votes; its score (number of points summed) will depend on which position of the TOP 5 it has been included by each one of you.

 

To refresh your memory (or to give you a preview) on what kind of information we provide from our database, click here and you will find the results of the "Best of 2006", as an example.

 

The BEST OF 2007 thread is open between 01.01.2008 - 01.03.2008, 9AM CET. This means you will have one month to decide which are the best releases of 2007!

 

You can freely post your "best of 2007" list as you wish, may it be even longer than 5 releases, may it be splitted in genres and subgenres. We just kindly ask you to add also your final TOP 5 at the end of your post... like a best-of of your best-of, only 5 releases that is! This way we will be able to make a calculation and present you a chart.

 

All participants in this "BEST OF" thread can edit their posts as many times as they want, until we close the thread. This means that if you change your mind about your favourite releases of 2007, you can post a new TOP 5, but please use the EDIT POST function of our forums, and don't write a NEW POST.

 

We hope that many of you will participate in this exercise, and remember, the bigger the database gets, the more relevant the results will be!

 

EDIT:

 

You asked, we answer:

 

1. Releases such as Dimension 5 - Transdimensional and Transwave - Backfire are accepted in the competition. They both contain new elements, so we consider them valid 2007 releases. They can be voted.

 

2. The Best Of 2007 competition normally lasts one month. Several forum members are asking a time extension to be able to decide their top 5. We will extend it by 1 month. You can write and modify your TOP 5 until 01.03.2008, 9AM CET.

 

3. We (mods and forum members) decided this year to split the votes and create 2 charts: one for psytrance, one for chill out / ambient. The topic has been edited, and you can find all the info above, coloured in red. You can now post your top 5 psytrance and your top 5 ambient.

[Go-Goa Trancer]

Finally

 

OK, I almost have nothing from 2007, so it will be very easy.

 

1. Transwave - Backfire (yes, for me it is as if it was new).

2. Various - Mainspring Motion

3. Mindsphere - Inner Cyclone

4. Younger Brother - The Last Days Of Gravity

5. Prometheus - Corridor Of Mirrors

 

I hope to be able to edit it soon...

[Guest antic]

The BEST OF 2007 thread is open between 01.01.2008 - 01.02.2008, 9AM CET. This means you will have one month to decide which are the best releases of 2007!

That's not long enough. There was so much new releases last year, especially during the last 2-3 months, that no one who isn't downloading wasn't probably able to buy it all, not to mention listen and judge it properly. Give us some time, please!

 

I think you should expand it to 2 months.

 

Finally

 

OK, I almost have nothing from 2007, so it will be very easy.

 

1. Transwave - Backfire (yes, for me it is as if it was new).

2. Various - Mainspring Motion

3. Mindsphere - Inner Cyclone

4. Younger Brother - The Last Days Of Gravity

5. Prometheus - Corridor Of Mirrors

 

I hope to be able to edit it soon...

So why are you posting your votes, if you plan to change it - to add to the Moni's confusion when she'll be counting the votes?

[Go-Goa Trancer]

So why are you posting your votes, if you plan to change it - to add to the Moni's confusion when she'll be counting the votes?

 

If I change it - there's no problem since the counting is after the thread is closed

If I don't change it - then it's already done

 

EDIT: and btw, I meant to edit it if I hear more 2007 releases, but this list is fixed for those releases

[moni]

That's not long enough. There was so much new releases last year, especially during the last 2-3 months, that no one who isn't downloading wasn't probably able to buy it all, not to mention listen and judge it properly. Give us some time, please!

 

I think you should expand it to 2 months.

If more people request it, we will expand the time.

 

So why are you posting your votes, if you plan to change it - to add to the Moni's confusion when she'll be counting the votes?

Read my post, anyone can edit their top5 as many times as they want, until we close the thread.

[NextWorld]

Hmmm...lets see...

 

Psytrance:

 

1. Vishnudata - Dreamforce

2. Bigwigs - National Heroes of Sonic Parallel

3. Solar Fields - Earthshine

4. Shadow FX - Direct influence

5. VA - Ultrapop 2 (Fabula Records)

 

Chill/Ambient

 

1) Younger Brother - The last days of Gravity

2) Asura - Life²

3) VA - Midnight Soul Dive (Aleph Zero)

4) Pushmipulyu - 133 ThursdaysVA

5) Sync24 - Source

 

 

€dit: Changed

€dit²: Changed according to the new Rules

€dit³: Another Edit

[yerg]

My favourites from 2007->

 

1. ESP - Sensory Overload (Space Tribe Music) (October 2007)

2. Various - Kaleidoscopic Vision (Space Tribe Music) (May 2007)

3. Deeper In Zen - Silence (Soular Records) (Jul 2007)

4. Various - Pure Planet Vol. 2 (Kagdila Records) (May 2007)

5. Various - Human Hyperactivation (Metapsychic Records) (Aug 2007)

[Ormion]

I agree, expand the period!

 

Also 3 questions:

 

Albums/Compilations that are available only by downloading like Mindsphere-Inner Cyclone or Golden Vibes 2 count?

Re-releases of old albums don't count, right?

Albums with old tracks like Transwave-Backfire do count, don't they?

[Tatsu]

I went through the psydatabase to get a list of all releases and here is what I'm considering for my top 5:

 

v/A- Moonshadow Beats

D-Nox & Beckers - Left Behind

Cosmosis - Psychedelic Melodia

Dancing Devil - Forward Into The Past

Khooman - Life Is A Flexible Liquid

Talamasca - Obsessive Dreams

v/A - The Hidden Dimension

Vibrasphere - Archipelago Remixed

Benza - Schwarze Now, The Defender

Life Extension - Side Effect

v/A - Positive Alchemists Vol. 3

v/A - Twist Dreams

v/A - Orientation Vol. 2

Freaked Frequency

 

 

I have to say that there are lots of albums I haven't heard since I didn't have that much money to spend for new releases. I think I might ad Chiller Vol. 1, the new Kuba and the Freaked Frequency album to the list but I might not be able to hear them before the voting ends.

 

Right now my top psytrance 5 is:

 

1) Vibrasphere - Archipelago Remixed (Digital Structures, 20.03.2007)

2) v/A - Positive Alchemists Vol. 3 (Avigmatic Records, 2007)

3) v/A - The Hidden Dimension (Laugh And Dance Records, 24.03.2007)

4) v/A - Mysterious Force (Mahogany Records, 13.04.2007)

5) v/A -Twist Dreams

 

and here's the downtempo top 5:

 

1) Khooman - Life Is A Flexible Liquid

2) v/A - Moonshadow Beats

3) Younger Brother - The Last Days Of Gravity

4) Kukan Dub Lagan - Step Ina Rasta Step

5) v/A - Chiller Vol. 1

 

03.01.2008 Damit, I allready have to do to first edit since I totaly forgot about v/A - Mysterious Force. Tough decision about the top 5 now...

[traveller]

 

yb

prometheus

d-nox & beckers

haldolium

 

 

maybe I edit later. Didn't care about pie too much this year.. emo rock ftw

[abasio]

It's been a damn good year. I've managed to fill top fives in Trance, ambient & chill

 

Trance

 

1. Sienis - From A Nutter Perspective (Gi'iwa Productions Feb 2007)

2. Solar Fields - EarthShine (Ultimae Records Nov 2007)

3. Sattel Battle - Sounds Cool (Gi'iwa Productions Jan 2007)

4. Various - Mainspring Motion (Par-2 Productions Jul 2007)

5. Gus Till - Best Of The Rhino Years Vol.2 The Missing The Unreleased & A Coupla Classics (Sonic Dragon Records Oct 2007)

 

Ambient/Chill

 

1. Cymphonic - Strataradialis (Databloem Sept 2007)

2. Shulman - Endless Rhythms Of The Beatless Heart (Aleph Zero Oct 2007)

3. Various - Oxycanta : Winter Blooms (Ultimae Dec 2007)

4. Evan Bartholomew - Caverns Of Time (Somnia Nov 2007)

5. Krill.Minima - Nautica (Native State Records Dec 2007)

 

 

 

 

Runners Up

 

Pan Electric - Conscious Pilot (Absolute Ambient 2007)

Asura - Life² (Ultimae 2007)

Spielerei & Mantacoup - Cold War (Silentes 2007)

Mathias Grassow & Thomas Weiss - Insights (Databloem 2007)

Jason Corder & Opium - Autunno

Sync24 - Source (Ultimae 2007)

Takagi Masakatsu - Private/Public (Epiphany Works 2007)

Various - Midnight Soul Dive (Aleph Zero 2007)

Various Artists - Twist Dreams (Suntrip Records 2007)

Scorb - Ipso Fvcto

Eat Static - De-Classified

 

edit: while my trance side stays pretty much fixed, my chill keeps changing depending on my mood. Right now I'm in an ambient mood so more downbeat has had to make way.

 

edit: changed my trance side slightly & my #5 chill suddenly shot up to #1 as I realised I play it just about every day & love it so much

[moni]

I agree, expand the period!

 

Also 3 questions:

 

Albums/Compilations that are available only by downloading like Mindsphere-Inner Cyclone or Golden Vibes 2 count?

Re-releases of old albums don't count, right?

Albums with old tracks like Transwave-Backfire do count, don't they?

What do you mean by "available only by downloading"? What kind of download are you talking about? Free, paid, rip off?

 

For the old albums or releases with old tracks, I don't have a full answer yet, I'm still discussing with the mods.

[Rotwang]

I would like to add to the calls for a longer voting period - there are still a lot of 2007 albums that I haven't got round to buying yet, and I usually have to own an album for at least a month before I have a reliable idea of how good it is.

 

Anyway, my tentative top five (subject to change, though it's very unlikely that anything will be able to knock KDD off the top spot) are:

 

Uptempo:

 

Kindzadza - Waves from Inner Space - Osom Music - June

Alien Mental - Mind Hack - Insomnia - November

Dimension 5 - Transdimensional - Suntrip - June

Braincell - Transformation of Reality - Glowing Flame - August

Mr. Rogers - Ooze System - Geomagnetic.tv - December

 

Chill:

Khooman - Is a Flexible Liquid - Ajana - April

Various - Oxycanta (Winter Blooms) - Ultimae - December

 

Not been a good year for Darkpsy IMO - the genre has changed direction, with more artists incorporating the Horror Place-style bassline and the less organic noises used by people like Highko, Cosmo etc., and I don't think that many people are able to pull it off (with my choice for no.1 being an obvious exception).

[Goa Bill]

Pretty easy vote this year. :drama:

 

1. D-Nox & Beckers - Left Behind (Electribe)

2. Younger Brother - Last Days of Gravity (Twisted Records)

3. Ace Ventura - Rebirth (Iboga Records)

4. Perfect Stranger - Changed (Iboga Records)

5. Prometheus - Corridor of Mirrors (Twisted Records)

 

Bonus picks:

*6 VA Uncharted (Flow Records)

*7 Sun Control Species - Scienza Nuova (Iboga Records)

*8 Twisted Records DVD (Twisted Records)

*9 Vibrasphere - Exploring the Tributaries (Tribal Vision)

*10 Bigwigs - National Heroes of Sonic Parallel (Horns and Hoofs)

[Sideffect...]

simple, didn't listen much to psytrance this year

 

1. D-Nox & Beckers - Left Behind (Electribe)

2. Dimension 5 - Transdimensional - Suntrip

3. Ace Ventura - Rebirth (Iboga Records)

4. Cosmosis - Psychedelic Melodia

5. Antix - wanderers

[rino]

1) Outolintu- Odd man out (Faerie Dragon Records) (2007)

2) Tea Chairs- Tea chairs (Demon Tea Recordings) (2007)

3) Goasia- From other spaces (Suntrip Records) (2007)

4) Gus Till- Best of the Rhino Years vol. 2 (Sonic Dragon Records) (2007)

5) Transwave- Backfire (3D Vision) (2007)

 

*post edited, since I am NO fan of downtempo/ambient music, I have not bought a single release that would fit in that category during 2007.

[Snapinho]

These for sure:

 

Trancey

Eat Static - De-Classified

Solar Fields - Earthshine

Scorb - Ipso Fvcto

 

Chilled

Younger Brother - Last Days of Gravity

Asura - Life²

Mr Rogers - Ooze System

Krusseldorf - Smokers Lounge

Liquid Stranger - the Invisible Conquest

 

 

And some more, my mind doesn't work right now.

[Ormion]

What do you mean by "available only by downloading"? What kind of download are you talking about? Free, paid, rip off?

 

For the old albums or releases with old tracks, I don't have a full answer yet, I'm still discussing with the mods.

I'm talking about legal downloading. Releases that are available by their labels only through the net. Mindsphere-Inner Cyclone by Metapsychic records for example. Does it count?

[Oopie]

Psytrance:

 

1. Vibrasphere - Exploring The Tributaries

2. Outolintu - Odd Man Out

3. va - No Tone Unstirred

4. Troll Scientists - Useless Science

5. The Observer - New Born EP

[RTP]

my top 5 for 2007 are:

 

Matenda - Natural Development (Global Phonehead Rec.)

Solar Fields - EarthShine (Ultimae Rec.)

Vibrasphere - Exploring the Tributaries (Tribal Vision Rec.)

Protonica - Search (AP Rec.)

Sync24 - Source (Ultimae Rec.)

 

Matenda clearly won it for me. Definitely the album of the year...

 

edit:

okay, since it's seperated into psytrance and ambient/chill now, here it goes:

 

PSYTRANCE:

1. Matenda - Natural Development (Global Phonehead Rec.)

2. Solar Fields - EarthShine (Ultimae Rec.)

3. Vibrasphere - Exploring the Tributaries (Tribal Vision Rec.)

4. Protonica - Search (AP Rec.)

5. Funky Dragon - Massive (Iono Music)

 

AMBIENT:

1. Sync24 - Source

(I don't own more ambient from this year ... give it the 5 points please, it's a good album )

[Ormion]

PSYTRANCE

1. Transwave - Backfire (3D Vision records)

2. Various Artists - Golden Vibes 2 (Old Is Gold records)

3. Frozen Ghost - Edible Technique (Yabai records)

4. Mindsphere - Inner Cyclone (Metapsychic records)

5. Cosmo - Akustical Pollution (Noise Poison records)

 

AMBIENT

1. SynSUN - Unstoppable (Spliff records) - double CD, ambient CD voted

2. Asura - Life² (Ultimae records)

3. Audela - Audela (Plague Recordings)

4. SYNC24 - Source (Ultimae records)

5. Various Artists - Tibet, A Culture In Danger (Space Tepee records)

 

 

Edit:

I already edited my reply for both dance and ambient stuff. In my downtempo list I chose SynSUN-Unstoppable album. This is a double album, the first cd is dance and the second ambient. It counts, right?

[Sawfly]

Here's the trance;

 

1. Solar Fields - EarthShine (Ultimae Records)

2. Furious - Uncanny Beats (Insomnia Records)

3. Trold - Time of Illusion (Glowing Flame Records)

4. Various - Twist Dreams (Suntrip Records)

5. Gappeq - Speaker Seeker (Wirikuta Recordings)

6. Suncontrolspecies - Scienza Nuova (Iboga Records)

7. Shadow Fx - Direct Influence (Zenon Records)

8. Various - No Tone Unstirred (Faerie Dragon Records)

9. Various - Holocryptic Audio (Sanaton Records)

10. Sienis - From a Nutter Perspective (Gi'iwa Productions)

 

 

...and here's the downtempo stuff;

 

1. The Peaking Goddess Collective - Organika (Peak Records)

2. Flooting Grooves - Upsyde Downe (Peak Records)

3. Asura - Life² (Ultimae Records)

4. Proem - A Permanent Solution (n5MD)

5. Kettel - Whisper Me Wishes (Djak-Up-Bitch (DUB)

6. Swod - Sekunden (City Centre Offices)

7. Master Margherita - Mastura (Electrik Dream Records)

8. Legiac - Mings Feaner (Sending Orbs)

9. Dymons - Druids Brew (Elestial Records)

10. Architect - Lower Lip Interface (Hymen Records)

 

 

Damn that was hard It's been a good year for sure

[Banan]

maybe we should vote for top5 albums in more categories, at least two: trance and downbeat. because it is impossible to me decide that what is better asura - life2 or eat-static's album

[moni]

I'm talking about legal downloading. Releases that are available by their labels only through the net. Mindsphere-Inner Cyclone by Metapsychic records for example. Does it count?

Yes.

[Pavane]

1. Twist Dreams

2. Goasia - From other spaces

3. Transwave - Backfire

4. Chronos -

5. Asura - Life²