History and the uprising of goa trance

[Richpa]

After almost 5 months of delay, we finally translated complete Goa trance and Newschool goa trance history. Orginal was written on croatian, so here it is now on English (thanks to Arronax who did great job). When i started to work on this info text i used all reliable informations that was available on internet and there is too many sources to be named, from Wikipedia, to various forums and info texts on other websites. Feel free to use this text if you need to and enjoy Source: Neogoa.tk [link]

 

History and the uprising of goa trance

 

Goa Trance (often named as Goa or even 604) is a sub-genre of electronic dance music – EDM which had started to take its form back in 80’s. However, the very first instigators, ideologists and style formers can be found even further in the past, more accurately – during the period of psychedelic rock in the 60’s and 70’s. Considering the name of this style, it’s easy to relate it with the Indian province called Goa, which is located on the western bank of India. The historical and cultural heritage of Goa is known world-wide, for it was a colony that was fought over during many periods in the past. The first conflicts in that region were between Hindu and Muslim population. These conflicts can be tracked to as far as 10th century, and they had continued all the way to the 16th century.

 

In the year of 1510, Portuguese colonists arrived to Goa. They made a great influence in this Indian province, which can be seen in numerous catholic churches and monasteries that were built during that time. But, the Portuguese were not the only European nation that controlled Goa in the history. The British colonists occupied the region two times. The first period was from 1797. to 1798. and again from 1802. – 1813. During 1961. Indian army seized control over Goa, and integrated it into the sovereign country of India. Multi-cultural history of Goa has its place in history of Goa Trance genre, especially when we point out the very first parties that were organized on the beaches of Goa during the 60’s.

 

According to Ray Castle (one of the first DJs in Goa) the first colonists were hippies which were coming to India seeking spirituality. The second important factor which mostly attracted Europeans (and Americans) to this region was that there was no legal limitation to the consuming of hashish. This was a fact until the mid-70’s when the US government pressed the issue on Indian authorities to ban this practice. Early history of the pioneers of Goa and their first parties was never documented, but according to some witnesses (who were hippies at that time), the first Goa parties were organized in 1968. thanks to eight-finger Eddie who was probably the first modern settler on the beaches of Goa. Together with his friends, he discovered beautiful beaches and got friendly with the local villagers, which gave them a feeling of absolute freedom and happiness, which they had expressed through consuming psychedelic drugs and dancing on the beach.

 

The music at that time did not have any relations to the style of Goa trance, or even with electronic music in general, but the philosophy which they were following is almost the same as the one that Goa trance followers are sharing today. The music that had to do with Goa parties back then was more related to bands like Grateful Dead, The Doors, The Eagles, and Pink Floyd. Fred Disko was one of the first DJs in Goa who started to promote electronic music as well. After all, that decision gave him his “Disko” pseudonym. Besides Fred Disko, there was earlier mentioned Ray Castle, and Goa Gil, who promoted rock/fusion during the 70’s. Later, in the 80’s, Goa Gil started to promote Goa influenced electronic music too, and he gave it a rather “simple” name: the first post-punk experimental electronic dance music coming from Europe, the neue deutsche welle, electronic body music.

 

Ray Castle explained that the very first form of Goa Trance sound could be recognized with bands/projects like Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, Frontline Assembly. Fred Disko also mentioned the influence of classical-traditional Indian music which was easily recognized in Goa trance sound. The symbiosis of these rather different influences was inevitable. The reasons of that symbiosis become very clear, especially when you imagine 10 tablas, 6 sitars and an Indian female vocalist performing a song in the repetitive way, so that you can actually feel like flying. Fred Disko and Ray Cole said that the contemporary “scene” in Goa was formed from a handful of DJs who were mostly people from France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands and Switzerland. The main goal was to exchange and collect the music which was brought from Europe. They were all trying to obtain hard-to-get rare music as much as they could. They also wanted to have rarities which sounded more psychedelic. These quests were labelled as “The quest for weird psychedelic music”. The great part of their inspiration was hidden within the consummation of LSD, the drug which became a symbol of Goa parties, especially because it was easy to get, and mostly free of charge. It was known as “free acid punch”.

 

DJs of the late 80’s had often used DATs for their DJ sets, but the preparations for the show were hard and time-consuming. According to Steve Psyko (he was also one of the first Goa DJs), the DJs would often cut-out the parts of the songs mixing them with other tracks, in order to create a mega-mix which would be played at the parties later on. The use of vinyl records was not practiced because of the risk that the vinyl could actually melt due to high temperatures. Ray Castle recalls one time when DJ Sven Vath came to Goa with all his records, in order to become “Techno pope of India”. However, that didn’t work out well, because you just have to be used to DATs on such high temperatures.

 

Paul Chambers (British Goa trance DJ) recalls his trips to Goa and the very first electronic music parties that were held there. There were no more than 200 people on those events. The decorations were really colourful but not numerous and there were a few black-light lamps around. The first police raids occurred during the 1990. but the situation became better in 1991. and 1992. It was during these years, that the first hype and rush to Goa had started. The number of people on parties noticeably increased, and the numbers were from 500 to 1500 visitors. More and more people were coming to Goa, especially from Israel and Japan. With the increasing number of tourists that arrived to Goa to dance, consume drugs and live a free life, the whole underground feeling started to fade, and the music itself started to become more and more popular. This was even more supported by numerous English and other European DJs and publishers, which resulted in first releases in the 1993. The release which was probably the most influential for Goa trance uprising was the Project II Trance, released by Dragonfly Records. This release featured artists like Gumbo, Genetic, The Infinity Project, Total Eclipse, Mandra Gora and others.

 

Except for Goa trance in India, parties started to occur in other parts of the world, and the most known ones were in Byron Bay (Australia), where many hippies found their new place for Goa trance, since more and more tourists were visiting Goa and the scene was booming. In England, the first Goa trance parties were organized in London and Manchester. It was interesting that almost the very same DJs performed in Goa and in England, and the visitors were mostly the same in the both areas. It was just a matter of season where the caravan will be settled.

 

 

After Goa trance found its place in electronic music scene, many new artists, publishers and DJs had emerged. It would take a lot of time to mention all of the names which took part in the scene during the six golden years of Goa trance (1993-1999). Because of that, we will mention only some of them:

 

Publishers:

 

Dragonfly

Perfecto Fluoro

Flying Rhino

Blue Room Released

Matsuri Productions

TIP Records

Symbiosis

KK Records

Krembo

Trust In Trance

BooM

Platipus

Harthouse

Phantasm

Transient

 

Performers:

 

Doof

Kox Box

Prana

Hallucinogen

Astral Projection

The Infinity Project

Man With No Name

Green Nuns Of The Revolution

Juno Reactor

Etnica

Total Eclipse

Slinky Wizard

Cosmosis

Technossomy

Transwave

Shakta

Miranda

Electric Universe

Indoor

X-Dream

 

DJs:

 

Paul Oakenfold

Goa Gil

Ray Castle

Steve Psyko

Fred Disko

Rickard Ahlberg

James Munro

Dominic Lamb

Sven Vath

Tsuyoshi Suzuki

Planet B.E.N.

Mark Allen

 

Many DJs participated in several projects at the same time, like the New Zealander Ray Castle who was a member of Rhytmystic, Masaray, Insectoid, Mantaray. Also, there was Ofer Dikovsky who was a member of Phreaky, Omputer, Tandu, Indoor, Sound Pollution, Oforia, Pigs in Space.

 

The music in that period (1993-1999) was characterized as psychedelic trance-dance. That term was mentioned even earlier and it was often used as a title for parties. The tracks became longer than earlier, so the average track was around 8.30 minutes, and the tempo was around 145 BPM (beats per minute). Generally, the BPM range can vary from 120 to 160. The structure of tracks mostly had the same pattern, so almost every track had an atmospheric intro, 4/4 rhythm which was followed by oriental and eastern melodies, acid sounds (the legendary TB303) and vocal samples (mostly taken from SF movies).

 

The climax of the track would usually emerge around 5th minute, although some tracks didn’t follow that pattern. Iconography on parties, CD covers and T-shirts was mostly related to Hindu and Buddhist motifs. There were also science-fiction motifs (mostly aliens, UFOs and other characters), colourful psychedelic fractals and drawings.

 

The end of Goa trance music occurred in the period between 1998./1999. with the newly formed psy trance sound which was rather minimalistic comparing to Goa trance, containing less melodies, shorter bass lines and sharper kicks with emphasis on psychedelic sound effects. Many Goa trance projects started to fade, while others formed within the psytrance genre. Although, some other projects kept their former names while they adjusted their production to the present trend. One of such examples is a legendary Goa trance project – Etnica. Many publishers also followed the change, and one of the biggest trance labels, TIP records was renamed to TIP World. TIP Records used to publish Goa trance (The Infinity Project, Doof, Psychopod...) while TIP World started to publish new projects like GMS, Logic Bomb, 1200 Mics, and others.

 

Goa trance sound of the new millenium

 

Since I've already written about the history and the uprising of goa trance, this time I've decided to devote more attention to the reincarnation of goa trance music which has emerged in the new millenium. I am sure that I shouldn't write too much about the basics, but in any case, if you did not read the introduction about this theme, I recommend you to read History, uprising and the climax of Goa Trance. The Neogoa synonym is mostly used as an abbreviation of a popular phrase New School Goa which has already become common between the people in the goa trance community. It defines the whole spectrum of goa trance sound which was created after 90's.

 

The exact birth date of neogoa cannot be determined, but what we can use to mark the first steps into neogoa are the publishers (labels) which started to promote and release the very first new school goa trance music by a new school pioneer artists. One of those was a label from Finland, Tranceform Records, which released the first neogoa album called Anima Mundi, written by Ethereal back in 2003. Besides them, there was a Greek based label called Unicorn Music, which released a few goa trance and nitzhonot releases during the same year.

 

One year later, a Belgian label Suntrip Records published their first album: Filteria - Sky Input, which helped the label to build the foundations of neogoa sound, and to present itself as a pure new school goa trance publisher. Also in 2004, a well-known Kagdilla Records presented their first uptempo neogoa compilation: V/A - Pure Planet, while the Finnish Tranceform served us with the Ypsilon 5 - Binary Sky album.

 

It is very important to note that the year of 2005 was marked mostly by re-issues of classical goa trance albums, a trend which was also present in theprevious two years. According to this schematic, several re-issues have been presented, such as: Sandman - Witchcraft, Orion - Futuristic Poetry, Asia 2001 - Amnesia, and Indoor - Progressive Trance, Prana - Geomantik one year earlier. Concerning some new artists in 2005. Suntrip Records published their first compilation called V/A - Apsara, which presented names like: Goasia, Filteria, Radical Distortion, Lost Buddha, Ka-Sol, names which today represent leading artists in this genre. Also, one of the best artists that Suntrip Records presented in 2005 is Khetzal with his wonderful album Corolle (Khetzal - Corolle).

 

We could say that the year of 2006 was a turning point in a sense of distribution of the new goa trance style, because during that year the publishing of cheap mp3 releases was popularized on the Internet, so spreading the new sound became simple and best of all – available to everyone. A new publisher in the scene - Metapsychic Records was surely accountable for that. Their new compilation Pyramidal Trancendence (Lost Buddha, Astrancer, Travma, Mindsphere, Afgin) is, according to many fans of this genre, even today the best showcase of neogoa style. Then, there was the first release from Lost Buddha - Ataraxia EP. Besides Metapsychic Records' releases, Unicorn Music presented the album Radical Distortion - Regenesis, and also a split album Goasia vs. Omegahertz - Purple Energy 2. In the same year, Suntrip Records presented a full length release Ka-Sol - Fairytale, and a second Filteria's album Filteria - Heliopolis. Israeli collective Old Is Gold also released Afgin's album Afgin - Old Is Gold.

 

The year of 2007 was a year of mp3 releases, when this form of released albums and compilations reached it's peak. New labels and new artists were emerging quickly, and the fans of this genre were practically overwhelmed by the new releases. On the other hand, Suntrip Records presented their new CDs: Goasia - From Other Spaces (album), Dimension 5 - Transdimensional (remastered), and their second compilation: V/A - Twist Dreams. Metapsychic Records announced their first full length albums in 2007, and the first artist who got to release was a Turkish producer Mindsphere with his new album Inner Cyclone. The second album featured on Metapsychic Records was the one from a Croatian producer, Vox - Innerpolarity which was also in a free mp3 form. Along with the above mentioned, they also published their second compilation V/A - Human Hyperactivation, which featured two tracks of Croatian neogoa projects - Liquid Flow & Brain Technology. The Lost Buddha project (the co-founder of Metapsychic Records) released his another EP in the same year, and a full length Lost Buddha - Untold Stories (2004-2007) which contained some of his unreleased tracks. In Israel, Old Is Gold collective released their new compilation Golden Vibes 1 & 2. The scene became richer with a new label from Austria, Phototropic Records , which releases it's first album Nolax - Persistence 2.0. Besides these, Kagdila Records published their second part of Pure Planet compilation, and the Canadian net-label Ektoplazm published a couple of EP releases. In the end, it's worth mentioning that the 2007 was marked both by a great and bad news. The good one was the revival of the cult Flying Rhino label, while the sad one is the closing down of a young and perspective Metapsychic Records, which is covered by a rather long drama.

 

The year of 2008 was full of great releases by Suntrip Records, which started with the compilation V/A - Sundrops (Light In Motion). The same label published an album of the legendary Norwegian duo: Ra - 9th. Austrian label, Phototropic Records, released six albums: Amithaba Buddha - Goa Gate, Nolax - Persistence 2.0 (remastered issue), Zolphinia - Utopia, ArmagedDance - Dimension Surfers, Pandemonium! - Muinomednap! (side project Filipe Santos aka Lost Buddha) and a nitzhonot album Agneton - Horizon In Your Head. Besides the mentioned releases, there were also V/A - Jelly Marbles, and Amitahaba Buddha - Psyramid EP. Old Is Gold label from Israel released the third part of the Golden Vibes series, and Shivlink Records published V/A - Goa Times (Now And Then) which featured some of the old goa trance classics, together with neogoa tracks. Some of the notable EPs which came out in 2008 are those from a neighboring Serbian label Ultiva Records: E-Mantra - Signals EP, and Amanians - Induced Experience EP. Canadian Ektoplazm presented Magic & Witchcraft - Misty Shades EP in the same year, in a form of free release.

 

During the year of 2009, Suntrip strikes back at Phototropic with a significant number of releases in one year. Suntrip launched a bunch of interesting releases: Afgin - Astral Experience, E-Mantra - Arcana, Filteria - Daze Of Our Lives, Merr0w - Born Underwater, Radical Disortion - Psychedelic Dreams, and a MP3 album: Filteria - Remixes + Unreleaseds. The Russian Zvukotronika Records published two new free albums of a Russian project ArmagedDance: ArmagedDance - Homo Astricus & ArmagedDance - Kray Neba. In the same year, Ultiva Records released an album :California Sunshine & Har-El - Dark Side Of The Brain, while a Croatian project Liquid Flow made his first album for Kagdila Records, Liquid Flow - Presence. Newborn online label UAF Records (UAF - Underground Alien Factory) released it's first full length issue: SETI Project - Tribal Trance, and three free EPs: Goalogy - Secret Tales EP, NK47 - Outer Space Shaman EP and PharaOm - Awakening Bodhisattva EP. When it comes to compilations, the 2008 saw a lot of interesting releases, such as: Kagdila Records' V/A - Pure Planet Vol. 3, while Phototropic Records launched V/A - Artificial Sun, V/A - The Sitting Goddess and V/A - Ya Wichna. Moonquest Records from Romania published their showcase compilation V/A - Organic Vision. Israeli Cronomi Records presented some new names on their remarkable V/A - People Walk Funny compilation, while a newborn labels Sita Records and Ezel-Ebed Records launched V/A - Nitz-Ho-Goa and V/A - Alternative Colours, respectively.

 

The first half of 2010 was marked by a great album from Ukrainian project Alienapia - Goapocalipsis which was released by Ukrainian goa trance label Space Baby Records. It's also worth to mention great albums by a Polish project Artha - Influencing Dreams which was released on Israeli Cronomi Records as their first full length album. Also there was the second album from Goasia: Goasia - Dancing With The Blue Spirit on Kagdilla Records. For this year, Suntrip Records prepared two sister-compilations: V/A - Energy Waves & V/A - Temple Of Chaos where the main point was to present a difference between the positive and dark atmospheres in the neogoa sound. Turksih label Ezel-Ebed published their second compilation V/A - Elixir Of Life, while the guys in Phototropic published V/A - Goatronika. During this year, the second album by Amithaba Buddha is expected (Amithaba Buddha - Myself In The Mirror), and the second album by Nolax: Nolax - Turning Point. On the other hand, UAF Records & Ektoplazm have introduced some new names through their new EP issues: Beast303 , Somnesia, Grand Cheff, InnerSelf, Sky Technology and others. Cronomi Records presented the introduction to Artha's album in a form of a free online Mp3: Artha - Fluori Dolby EP. Nitzhonot forces from Sita Records also released their second compilation: V/A - Protozoa and announce debut Goalien album.

 

written by Richpa

[Procyon]

Great article Richpa, really entertaining and informative. It made me nostalgic, especially when you cited Mandragora. I remember I used to think: what a beautiful word, and what unknow mysteries is behind it.

 

The only thing I would like to comment is that between the end of the Golden age of Goa trance and the rising of NeoGoa, there were a lot of unknown (then and now) artists and DJs who kept the style alive, despite

their tracks never knew labels or recognition. I remember, back in 2001, you could find (after hours digging in dark, hard to find sites in the web) Goa tracks freshly made, but that only 5 people around the whole Earth

would listen to. I still have some of these tracks. Unfortunately, the time have passed for these unknown artists, but they kept Goa inside their hearts - to the point of making them write and produce even if there wasn't

a crowd out there. But there were some, eager to listen to them. I played a lot of these tracks at parties that had DJs before and after me playing endless IM, Astrix tracks sets.

 

So, I am not correcting your article, but it would be great if these really under-underground artists were remembered. They somehow kept the flame alive.

[@reyu]

Indeed a great article. You're doing a great job Richpa. Keep up the good work!

[Djuna]

Nice little piece of work, although I really had the feeling to read a promo-text when reading the part "Goa trance sound of the new millenium". It's even bigger than the history! It would've been better if you summarized the last 5 years the same as you did in the first part - imho.

 

By the way, EBM isn't a German but a Belgian 'wave'.

[Richpa]

So, I am not correcting your article, but it would be great if these really under-underground artists were remembered. They somehow kept the flame alive.

Don't worry Procyon, I started with this topic so that people can comment and add suggestions. There is a lot of informations that hasn't been mentioned and It would be nice to add them. For example you mentioned period of early psytrance and fullon era and some artists, yeah I agree but i didn't find any informations so shoot with releases I'll add it too

 

There is a lack of informations of music production and i think that someone who really knows about it should bring some informations about it too, what kind of equipment artists used at that time and stuff like that. Thanks for kind words, feel free to mention any information that you think it would be useful

[masen023]

Here is a Interview with Flying Rhino guys from 1997 also:

 

 

Jun 1997

Flying Rhino

uk

 

 

Interview and copyright by Goran Stetic & Damir Ludvig

Fascinated with all the quality releases and magical music released under the weird name label, we decided to find out for all of you who are those people known as "Flying Rhino" and why are they so special... Under the pressure of tons of faxes and zillion of phone calls, we managed to catch Sally Welch (FRR Label manager) for a few minutes to give us this cool interview... So take a cup of coffee, tea or whatever, and find out EVERYTHING about it!

 

History of Flying Rhino [idea, who, when, where, how...]

Flying Rhino Records was established in August 1994 initially as a collaboration between Zoom Records and three young trance DJ�s & Producers: James Monro, Dominic Lamb & George Barker. After a year with Zoom and four releases, I became label manager and Flying Rhino became an independent Limited Company handling all of its own manufacturing, distribution and promotion.

The name Flying Rhino comes from a very good friend of all the boys - Adam Boyd - who was tragically killed in an accident at James Monro�s stag (pre-wedding) party. At the time the boys were searching for a name for their record company. Adam had a clothing company called Flying Rhino, and it seemed the obvious choice. Adam is our spiritual manager here at Flying Rhino, and he is the "Rhino in the Sky" who we thank on every release.

Why psychedelic trance? Do you prefer name of this music as goa, psychedelic trance, just trance or something else?

We prefer not to categorise the music in any way, as we feel this just limits it. We are definitely trying to move away from the �Goa� tag, half of us have never been to Goa, and certainly most of our artists have never been. I personally hate the way that the press find it necessary to categorise everything, to put everything in a little box. I wish that they would be more open minded. If I had to give the music a name, I would give it a really broad title, for example "Electronic Dance Music".

Staff of Rhino? [who are Rhinos? how old are each of you? who does what?]

• A & R, Producers (Slinky Wizard, Technossomy...), DJs: George Barker (27), Dominic Lamb (26) and James Monro (29)

• Label Manager: Sally Welch (24) - I take care of manufacturing, distribution, licensing, all business affairs/deals, accounting etc.

• Annie Tyser (25) - My assistant, currently working 3 days a week for us, she started working for us in January 1997. She takes care of marketing, advertising, promotion etc

• Jason Smith (28) - Works for us on a freelance basis compiling our alternative (ambient) album

• Grant Lucking (30) - Merchandise & Promotion Manager

The label is owned by George, Dominic, James & Myself. They are the major shareholders, and I own a small percentage.

 

What are the main things and reasons that Flying Rhino represents top goa label, high-end rated quality releases, artists and DJs, professionally, great business image, although it�s young label and run by "few" people only...

We have all worked hard to establish Flying Rhino, we have been lucky to have some of the best releases and artists and DJs work with us. I have worked hard on the business side of things so I thrilled that you think we have a good business image!

Present and future of Rhino?

We have just finished moving into our new office complex. This has a huge office for the record company, a studio which is owned an run by George Barker from Slinky Wizard with Gus Till as the in-house engineer. It also has living space for Gus Till and an office for friends of ours who do computer, graphic design. This has given us a new lease of life and we are now getting on with the new compilation album ("Air Born") which will be released this Summer and is the follow up to "First Flight". Also this Summer we are doing a UK tour, covering 6 cities around the UK, doing gigs with Technossomy & Slinky Wizard playing live and DJs Dominic Lamb & James Monro. There is definitely a BRIGHT future for Flying Rhino!

Please name artists and DJs on Flying Rhino

• Flying Rhino Artists: Technossomy, Slinky Wizard, Blue Planet Corporation, Syb Unity Nettwerk, Process, Darshan - we also work closely with Psy-Harmonics in Australia - we licensed the Psyko Disko album from them, and we will be licensing more stuff from them in the future. (Andrew Till who runs Psy-Harmonics is Gus Till (our engineers) brother.

• Flying Rhino DJ�s: James Monro, Dominic Lamb, Sally

Forthcoming releases?

• 12"s: Darshan, Blue Planet Corporation, Psychaos (Joti Sidhu), Slinky Wizard.

• LP�s: Psyko Disko, Blue Planet Corporation, Syb Unity Nettwerk, Slinky Wizard

• Compilations: "Air Born" - 10 exclusive and unreleased tracks from: Slinky Wizard, Psychaos, Process & Tristan, Syb Unity Nettwerk, Stripper, Blue Planet Corporation etc; "The Singles Album" - tracks from the Flying Rhino Back Catalogue, on a continuous mix CD, mixed by Dominic Lamb

• + many, many more.... (Check their site for current discography!)

How long are you think that you will be keeping to release a vinyls?

We will continue to release vinyl for as long as there is a market for it. We are still selling a considerable amount of vinyl, and find it is as popular as ever.

Please comment artwork featured on Rhino releases...

Mark Neal is our main designer (we were the first label to use him for sleeve design), we have been experimenting with other designers - a company called Base Chakra did the artwork for the Technossomy album, and Blue Planet Corporation have their own designer doing the artwork for their forthcoming album.

Flying best-seller ever?

Our best seller to date is the "First Flight" Compilation.

How are you promoting your label and releases?

We promote our label and releases in a number of ways: through advertising in the press, through our mail outs to Journalists and DJs on our mailing list, through reviews in the press, through running competitions in the press, through live and DJ performances by our artists and DJs throughout the world. Also this Summer we are doing our UK tour which will promote Flying Rhino throughout the UK. We also have poster campaigns, and hand out posters and stickers.

Have you problems with distribution as all other labels seems to have?

At present we are quite happy with our distribution although we are trying to arrange distribution deals for territories such as U.S.A. We use SRD for our UK distribution, we were the first Trance label to get a deal with a major UK distributor and so far they have done really well for us. (Since we moved to SRD, both Matsuri and Transient have followed us.) On the Export side we have a number of really good export companies in this country who we work with, we also deal direct with shops and distributors throughout the world, eg. throughout Europe, South Africa, USA, South America, New Zealand, Singapore etc etc.

Your favourite food?

Thai Food

Do you have contacts with fans of Rhino? Do their opinion counts?

YES, YES, YES. Of course we are interested in what the fans think, they are the most important people in our business. Both Annie and Myself spend quite a lot of time responding to letters and E-Mails from fans. We have a database of people (built up from everyone who returned the response cards put in the CDs) and these people receive regular details of what is coming up, as well as receiving details of mail order, merchandise, parties etc. For those with access to the Internet our Web Site is also a great place to find out what is going on in Rhinoland.

Flying Rhino at parties - do you organise label parties? Where? How? [Do you prefer open-air or in-door parties?]

We do organise some label parties, but only if we can find a really nice venue etc. The last commercial label party we did was a Christmas last year for 1,000 people. This was a great party with amazing Decor and James, Dominic, Andre and Simon Posford playing. We also organise outdoor parties whenever we have access to a good venue (this is very difficult over here with the Criminal Justice Act and the power that the police have to stop this). Last year we managed to organise two incredible free outdoor parties in beautiful locations which were amazing.

The best party you Rhino�s have attended?

I think the best party that we have attended is the second outdoor party that we put on last year. We had a line up that included Dominic Lamb, Andre and Nik Taylor. The venue was an extremely beautiful spot by a river and the party went on until Sunset the following evening.

Are you tired?

Exhausted - no not really! I have been DJ-ing - both abroad and in the UK - every week-end for the last 6 weeks, so I am quite tired from that, and feel like I need to catch up on some sleep. Apart from that things are quite busy here, but I�m fine really - just moaning!

DAT circuits world-wide -> what is official opinion of Rhino regarding float of tracks on DATs before they get released?

We really try to stop any of our tracks getting out on DAT before they are released, because we feel that this dilutes the release and makes it less exciting for everyone, it can also affect sales - especially in territories such as Israel. We make it a condition when we take a track for release, that the artist doesn�t give it to anyone on DAT. The track will get played out by James and Dom and by Myself, so we can judge what people think of it, but we really try not to let anyone else have it.

Do your DJs prefer good old vinyls or are they involved in this DAT-DJ-thing?

Both James, Dom and Myself much prefer to play with vinyl records, as the whole fun of it is creating something in the mix. We also feel that you lose the flow of a set and thus dilute the energy of the dancefloor if you are continually stopping and starting - playing DATs. We all however do play the occasional DAT when we have new music that is not yet out on vinyl.

How do you pick your next releases and artists?

This is down to the A&R Staff, some people are signed from demos that they send in. People also drop in with tracks to play to us and we get some music like this. Both Dom & James hear about new acts etc on their travels and we get quite a lot of international music that way.

What should be new track having to be interesting for you?

We are very open minded here, and most of all we are trying to find things that are original and new and that break down barriers. We are also of course trying to find tracks that work on a big system and that work on the dancefloor.

Regarding artists freedom - do you permit your artists to record for other labels under the same name as they recording for F.Rhino?

Yes, we are happy for our artists to record for different labels, for artists that are signed exclusively we prefer them to use a different name when recording for other labels. To give you a good example, Slinky Wizard have released music on TIP, Dragonfly and Flying Rhino.

What is current temperature in London?

About 15 Degrees, it is raining quite a lot at the moment!

How you see present and future of trance scene in UK and world-wide?

I think the scene will continue to grow and expand into new territories world wide - for example, South Africa has recently got into trance and the scene there now is huge - Dominic played to 12,000 there at New Year this year. The great strength of Trance as we know it is that it is a truly Global Scene. Whatever the scene is classified as, there will always be an underground and overground party scene where this kind of music is played.

Internet?

Our web site is one of the finest on the net, check it out on http://www.flying-rhino.co.uk/

Phew! We finally come to the end of this interview. Thanks Sally, have a cold drink!

[Goa-Head]

It was never clear how Adam Boyd died.

[Richpa]

It was never clear how Adam Boyd died.

 

I think it was some motorcycle accident, not sure.

[Elysium]

Adam Boyd died jumping of a wall in a castle in the northern England on an acid trip (according to James, George and Dom aká The Flying Rhino Heads).

 

Back to the Goa History. Nice but as usual and predictable a very small handful of artists gets all the credits for the whole scene. They must have been extremely busy running the scene all by themselves .

[Procyon]

@Elysium: apparently, you didn't read this part of Richpa's post:

 

It would take a lot of time to mention all of the names which took part in the scene during the six golden years of Goa trance (1993-1999). Because of that, we will mention only some of them:

Adam Boyd died jumping of a wall in a castle in the northern England on an acid trip (according to James, George and Dom aká The Flying Rhino Heads)

I never understood why people think acid is ok. I know some guys, still young, who have holes in their brains. They're non-sequitur, whatever they do, there's never can finish it, because they can't remember

clearly what they started doing. Funny, the only thing they are really good at, is writing psychedelic tracks. It comes with the territory, I think. Sad, Slinky Wizard was a great act.

[Elysium]

@Elysium: apparently, you didn't read this part of Richpa's post:

 

 

I did read it. My point is that whenever someone write these "essays" its their own taste versus the real picture that shines through. Its a bit of a shame that only this handful always seem to get all the credits for so many other amazing artists contribution. As I wrote predictable.

 

If I was to write the true story I would not mention anyone by name. I would just state that there were many who contributed.

[Richpa]

I did read it. My point is that whenever someone write these "essays" its their own taste versus the real picture that shines through. Its a bit of a shame that only this handful always seem to get all the credits for so many other amazing artists contribution. As I wrote predictable.

 

If I was to write the true story I would not mention anyone by name. I would just state that there were many who contributed.

 

Hey there, feel free to add suggestions here, i would love to add even more artists that deserves to be listed as you said Anyhow, I added artists that are most known to people and in my opinion thoose projects are, maybe i forgot somebody, so that's why we have this topic

 

If I was to write the true story I would not mention anyone by name. I would just state that there were many who contributed.

Examples of labels and artists are for the reason that people know what kind of music is that, maybe even go to youtube, discogs and find some samples and listen to it.

[masen023]

About Adam Boyd... This is what i found:

 

maybe Adam Boyd was the guy that had a clothes-store named Flying Rhino and lost his life after a *accident* at a party.

I say it was an *accident* because he had taken acid and thought he could fly ... the party was at a castle, you know what happened ...

 

...and:

 

A Dream Creation magazine interview with Dominic Lamb and James Monroe partly reads as follows:

 

DOM: "There was a friend of ours Adam, who died, he had these dreams about a flying rhino. He was a really full on party person and a Rhino when it's charging is the most powerful beast"

 

Adam was one of the leading party people in Goa, after he died there was a wake in a field in Oxfordshire. We were dancing to the Blue Room soundsystem from midnight till noon, a fitting send off. Adam had a clothing company called "Flying Rhino".

 

JAMES: "The tradgedy happened at my stagnight and was while we were looking for a name, there was only one thing to call it really".

 

Hope this helps answer the question.

 

 

...And here is some more info... little mentioning Adam Boyd:

 

"As with many such groups, the history of this trance outfit goes back to the parties in Goa of the early 90s. Dominic Lamb began DJing at acid house clubs in London in 1988. Two years later he was travelling in India and met Adam Boyd in Goa, where they developed an interest in the techno-trance sound being played there. Lamb then DJed in Goa and around the world before returning to the UK in 1992, when he and Boyd wrote their first track together. Joining up with George Barker and "Ronnie" Biggs (who had both been organizing "Goa"-style parties in Britain), Slinky Wizard recorded The Wizard EP in February 1994 with Simon Posford (Hallucinogen) at Butterfly Studios; it became the first release on Flying Rhino the following December. However, the band tragically lost Boyd in an accident that summer. After collaborating with a number of different producers over the next 18 months, including Technossomy's Matt Evans ("Shivari Thing" and "The Wandering Prophet") and the Green Nuns Of The Revolution's Dick Trevor ("Shitty Stick"), in 1996 the band worked with Gus Till of Butterfly Studios, who had previously worked for INXS and Dogs In Space and quickly became a permanent member. "Funkus Munkus" was released on Flying Rhino's First Flight compilation, and "Licenced To Slink", a psy-trance take on the James Bond theme, was featured on the same label's Air Born. In 1997 Slinky Wizard's contributions to the Black Rhino and White Rhino collections signalled a change of tack as they moved from the standard "Goa"-style riffs and melodies of "Funkus Munkus" to the stripped-down, abstract sound of "Sacred Fist" and "People Like Us". The following year the band released The Monkey Comes Cheap EP and were also planning their first album. In the meantime, Lamb has continued to DJ at trance parties and festivals around the UK, Europe, Asia, North America and Australasia."

[rino]

Here is a Interview with Flying Rhino guys from 1997 also:

 

 

Jun 1997

Flying Rhino

uk

 

 

Interview and copyright by Goran Stetic & Damir Ludvig

 

So funny... These two guys made up the Dogma project, a former croatian psy trance output. From what I've gathered their album on Blue Moon Productions is insanely rare, fetching astronomical prices on internet auctions. Which is kind of weird, since I well remember it used to get sold at parties in Zagreb for (approximately) 13 euro...

Anyways, Damir Ludvig played as DJ Ludvig, and along with DJ Go Cut started the Astralis parties in Zagreb's club The Best in 1998 I think. They played predominantly old school goa trance, with excursions into the more dark progressive and psy.

Unfortunately, as all good things come to an end, it wasn't long before their new direction parted with my expectations and taste, so I gradually lost interest in their events. But they threw some awesome parties during their hey day!

 

As far as Flying Rhino, I think they brought both, Gus Till and James Monro in Zagreb around the turn of the millenium. If I remember correctly, one of them was great, the other disappointed. And I'd rely on my memory enough to say that mr. Monro was taking a complete piss, while Gus Till rocked the place with a perfect dark progressive set, which was a great indication as to where was AFR's sound heading.

 

My nostalgic notes.

[Procyon]

Ah! Blue Room . Such a beautiful name, I still have one ambient CD from Blue Room Released, it's wonderful, timeless.

[Imba]

You should add Harel and Edi Miss, they are big names and also there from start

[masen023]

About Adam Boyd... On the: Kundalini - Kundalini EP (http://www.discogs.com/Kundalini-Kundalini-EP/release/137088)

it says: The etching on side A relates to Adam Boyd. It reads: RIP THE BALD ONE...

 

...and on the: Various - Boyd In The Void, Vinyl Edition, (http://www.discogs.com/viewimages?release=85321)

there is 3 pictures on the backside..

 

Adam Boyd i guess...

[Tom!]

nice article Richpa - very interesting read.

 

Whats the first track in that NeoGoa Youtube clip of forthcoming tunes by the way? It's incredible!!

[Richpa]

nice article Richpa - very interesting read.

 

Whats the first track in that NeoGoa Youtube clip of forthcoming tunes by the way? It's incredible!!

 

Hey Tom, thanks for support.

 

First track is Nova Fractal - Perplexed and you can preview full track here - LINK

 

Enjoy

[Jeff]

Reminds me when I wrote A Decade of Psychedelic Trance eight years ago (OMFG, soooo long ago...). I'm pretty interested by what you wrote regarding the new millenium, thanks for the article!

[Richpa]

Reminds me when I wrote A Decade of Psychedelic Trance eight years ago (OMFG, soooo long ago...). I'm pretty interested by what you wrote regarding the new millenium, thanks for the article!

 

I know about this website/text, it was very useful! Thanks for sharing

[Sideffect...]

Good Job, Well done!

[TRANCELUZ]

By accident I got into this article, great post indeed Richpa but you forgot the dutch group, we were always part of everything and everybody, we were there as well, like Lucas, Ben, GMS and me, J'aime (Jaime),actually I had a few different names given, like Tranzite, Ananta(after playing 19 hrs in Vashist in 1995) or Sunyata.

 

I played the seasons 1994; 1995; 1996; 1997 and 1999/2000 and then I had an accident in Baliand I couldn't walk well for two years, so stay out of Goa.

I played with Ray Castle and even shared the same room with him, played with Fred Disco, Steve I met as well in Australia in 1995 and all the rest of the boys, in your post I didn't see the name of Stephan, he was also one of the first dj's, if not the very first one, unfortunally he died a few years ago, so he can not speak for him self, but he was a great healer a real trancer as well.

There were a few guys we got into it and others that were against it but after it became known did like they were always there, really jokers….

[technosomy]

wow... correction is definatley needed

welcome to psynews new old one!!

[Richpa]

By accident I got into this article, great post indeed Richpa but you forgot the dutch group, we were always part of everything and everybody, we were there as well, like Lucas, Ben, GMS and me, J'aime (Jaime),actually I had a few different names given, like Tranzite, Ananta(after playing 19 hrs in Vashist in 1995) or Sunyata.

 

I played the seasons 1994; 1995; 1996; 1997 and 1999/2000 and then I had an accident in Baliand I couldn't walk well for two years, so stay out of Goa.

I played with Ray Castle and even shared the same room with him, played with Fred Disco, Steve I met as well in Australia in 1995 and all the rest of the boys, in your post I didn't see the name of Stephan, he was also one of the first dj's, if not the very first one, unfortunally he died a few years ago, so he can not speak for him self, but he was a great healer a real trancer as well.

There were a few guys we got into it and others that were against it but after it became known did like they were always there, really jokers….

Hey man, thanks a lot for the informations, which I obviously back than couldn't find on the internet, one of the reasons why it's good to have this topic here and people can add something interesting and share their stories. For sure when there will be an update I/we gonna add the dutch group!

 

Welcome to Psynews btw!