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How was dark-psy born?


Procyon

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Oh dear. There has always been the distinction between night and morning music in the music played in Goa. It all comes down to making a journey, music wise and also psychic wise. During the night there is supposed to be heavy and dark (...) music, which gradually turns to lighter and more melodic music, which is timed with the dawn and the morning. What you refer to as goa is generally morning music.

 

When we (BotFB) entered the scene in 1994/95 we started out with making quite melodic, yet twisted music. (Check the BotFB facebook group for free wav-files of tracks from that time!) But we were drawn to the night music, being very inspired by Psyko Disko and other australian stuff. We made a lot of night music thinking there was not enough proper night music, but we were definitely not alone. There were hundreds of artists making dark music right from the start, but all the big names were the more melodic groups and artists. Neither X-Dream nor Parasense was the first to make dark psychedelic music. Maybe "darkpsy", whatever that means.

 

Here's a list of artists and tracks I labelled as night music in my DAT-book from 95-97. Some of this might not be labelled as night music nowadays, but it's about the general feeling, and the oomph of the bass and the bassdrum. :) Also a general lack of melodies makes for a good psysical night track. Bear with me now, I'm on a roll and I'll just write down a lot of music that may be completely mislabelled, but it may be interesting for someone.

Shaolin Wooden Men -NN (No name lol, great start)

Ubar Tmar various tracks

Alcaloid

Sandman - Nostradamus (illegal mix)

Ka-Sol - Professor Mephisto, Tracy Snake Charmer, We don't know etc etc etc

Loads of BotFB, Church, Marchaos etc.

Insearch - Spiritual Essence

Cosmic Energy - No comprende

Alienated - NN (man Alienated rocks, fucking kick ass hard stuff, with the right feeling)

Nucleus - Dark Horse

Cydonia - Frontline remix

Indiadrop + Purple Oz (Tim Schuldt?)

Sephalpod - Eliptical Orbits

Neuro Electric - Elgar

Pan - Qualia

GMS - Jaws

Alphanaut - Neurozap

Planet B.E.N. - Questionmark and Trippy Future Garden (my ghod this still rocks my socks off)

Reflecta - Itchy Witches of Androgenetica

UX - Masters of the Universe

Parasonix - Warp Phase

Psyko Disko - Deep

Brain - Special Go Man (or Brainman Go Special...)

Mandragora - Whiteout (Johann Bley)

Insectoid - New Wistas (Ray Castle)

Rhytmystec - Plutonica (also Ray Castle)

Juno Reactor - Millenium

Mental Sparkle - Smells Electric & Greasy

TIP - Noises remix

Virtualizer - Dolphins

Fata Morgana - Code of Consciousness

Gravity Kills - Guilt Juno Reactor remix (still so insanely hard this one)

Man - Children of the Night (pure evil)

Greenhouse Effect - Spawn (Sandman?)

Use - Exorcism

Sun Project - The Suburbs

Process - X1

The Visitors - Tiny Little Engines

Manmademan - Scien (?)

Squid - SXS

Gangguru - Fear in the Dragons Forest (brilliant stuff, still unreleased iirc)

Antedeluvian Rocking Horse - NN

Excesshead - Chama (?)

Lorenzo - The Fly (if anyone can find this one for me I'd be very grateful, my DAT-tape is destroyed...)

Quirk - Dimension Disco

Technossomy - Wet Textures (amazing raw first mix)

Syb Unity Network - Limited Access to the Files (one of my favorites)

Frequency Generator - Strange Days (brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!!!)

Spect R- Tripbyrd (Tim Schuldt?)

4 Cary Nuts - Weird Egg (Tim Schuldt!)

Deranger - Astral

Rip van Hippy - Elemental Spirit

Sandman - Nostradamus (some DAT-remix, not the released stuff)

Deflo - Mono (lol, insane)

Nervasystem - Stardust

Proton - Starscrew

 

Yeah well that's the interesting stuff. Then we have shit like Delta - As a child I could walk on the ceiling and other boring stuff. X-dream and GMS and their clean production and fart sounds destroyed the scene.

/rant off, over and out

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"Dark" is such a misused term when we are speaking about this certain style nowadays called "Dark-psy". Why? Because everything can be dark. My point is as D-Dave that there's always been dark psytrance or Goatrance. The difference lies within the extreme high Bpm's and the music itself.

 

I know there are different approached to "Dark" psytrance. Some just like the fast Bpm's, some like the noises and then there are those who for some weird reason think it's cool to link psytrance to the Wicca religion.

 

To me there is good dark psytrance and bad dark psytrance. Nowadays most is horrible fast noise and when they add the Wicca religion, or just plain stupid track titles and samples taken from various evil horror movies, then I am the first to walk away.

 

It's all about taste but personally I will never get into the interpretation of dark psytrance in today's scene.

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@D-Dave: you're right that there was a lot of music that could be described as "dark psychedelic trance" before what we call darkpsy came along, but I think the question was about the modern subgenre - whether you think the name is appropriate or not, the fact is that it's useful to have a name for the recognisably distinct trend that people like Parasense started, and for better or worse the name darkpsy has stuck.

 

 

And, please excuse my ignorance, but BotFB stands for what psy band? I can't associate these letters with any group.

 

Battle of the Future Buddhas.

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@D-Dave: you're right that there was a lot of music that could be described as "dark psychedelic trance" before what we call darkpsy came along, but I think the question was about the modern subgenre - whether you think the name is appropriate or not, the fact is that it's useful to have a name for the recognisably distinct trend that people like Parasense started, and for better or worse the name darkpsy has stuck.

 

Agree 100%

 

Battle of the Future Buddhas. Of course!! :D

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i'm playing some gangguru and more darkish tunes this weekend over here, and darshan will be all over the next online mix, so watch out!

 

Tromesa can be added to the list if it's not mentioned before, their album 'pseudomental' from 2001!

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Yeah well that's the interesting stuff. Then we have shit like Delta - As a child I could walk on the ceiling and other boring stuff. X-dream and GMS and their clean production and fart sounds destroyed the scene.

/rant off, over and out

 

X-Dream? Clean production? Associating X-Dream's sound, with GMS's is laughable.

 

Peace out.

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I don't know about you guys, but above a certain tempo, those deep, rolling, intense basslines have an almost meditative, surreal, calming feel to them.

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Psytrance for me has always been more or less fast, dark and aggressive, which is why I got into it. I don't think one can pinpoint an artist or album that started "dark psychedelic." It's part of an evolution that's based around a style of music that is inherently fast, dark, strong and psychedelic, written by skinny, geeky white[-ish] kids who feel the need to assert their inner muscularity through music. Works for me, as a skinny, white, geeky kid. That said, I agree that a straight line can be drawn to Parasense as a decisive mutation towards what we now know as "darkpsy."

 

I think D-Dave has X-Dream issues. I know, should've been called "D-Dream."

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I really think there should be made a distinction between "darkpsy" and "psy-core" (or what ever you want to call it) I mean one hand you have the more trancy/hypnotic stuff like old Kindzadza or Parvati stuff, and then you have the more "glitchy/fast/breaky" stuff that came with Alien Mental, Cosmo and Osom that sort of stuff... for me there is quite the distinction already back in '06, and when you listen to it I think most people will be able to hear that!

 

Psy-core

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYs-ZECwE98

 

vs

 

dark-psy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DpOTnEqyaU

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Tromesa did tech-trance, in my book. Not DP.

 

Is it me, or some of us are taking tech-trance as dark-psy?

To my ears, they're completely distinct. I simply LOVE tech-trance, so I know the difference.

 

Put this in your tech-trance pipe and smoke it :P

 

http-~~-//www.youtube.com/watch?v=bReIvgDkdHM

 

but I haven't heard pseudomental which might be the one you are referring too?! Their two previous albums (Pasma Czasu & Gdyby...) does in indeed has some night-time goa/psy feel to them!

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I also believe that darkpsy producers are the most talented artists in our scene.

 

Disagree, but you'd say its all a matter of taste. Tastes aside, the "subgenre" as a whole has the worst sounding mixes.

 

Peace.

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Yeah well that's the interesting stuff. Then we have shit like Delta - As a child I could walk on the ceiling and other boring stuff. X-dream and GMS and their clean production and fart sounds destroyed the scene.

/rant off, over and out

 

I hadn't read this part. But you didn't need that D-Dave. Sure, GMS has been doing crap for the last 10 years. X-Dream also did some with their "vocal" trance. But both X-Dream an Delta are on a league of their own.

You can rock a party with their tracks only. And I don't know where you got the idea that they destroyed the scene. To me, you can blame the lame-trance that GMS, IM, Astrix, Skazi started.

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I hadn't read this part. But you didn't need that D-Dave. Sure, GMS has been doing crap for the last 10 years. X-Dream also did some with their "vocal" trance. But both X-Dream an Delta are on a league of their own.

You can rock a party with their tracks only. And I don't know where you got the idea that they destroyed the scene. To me, you can blame the lame-trance that GMS, IM, Astrix, Skazi started.

 

You knows it.
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More generally Darkpsy is an excuse for lame music creation and drug abuse (usually both).

 

the miracles of warez, internet and cheap amp. music making doesnt take more then a couple of downloads and 2-3 picks from the next door dealer, and its funny cause most of the listeners have a similar background. you have no idea how much i have been shouting about this virus around.

 

ps, i had appetite for this sort of music too, there are even tunes that i enjoyed which were dark for me and a lot of people here might not agree on that.

 

 

no matter how much addrenaline rushed i was at that time, i never enjoyed stuff harded then this level, notice HARDER, darker was even more senseless to me

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More generally Darkpsy is an excuse for lame music creation and drug abuse (usually both).

 

That's a blunt generalizing. Same could be generalized and said about the hippies (Goa scene) and their fascination for LSD and MDMA (also a drugs). The world is not Black/white ;)

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That's a blunt generalizing. Same could be generalized and said about the hippies (Goa scene) and their fascination for LSD and MDMA (also a drugs). The world is not Black/white ;)

 

You seem to take this part of judgement very personal, and what you just said is absolutely correct, whatever they were in Goa, at whatever time, drugs played a major role there, whether it was a psychoactive or a stimulant, i understand your view as a drug, but so is my ibuprofen that kept me alive for the last 10 years.

i dont know what you have against generelizing when "things" that "certaint people" do results to a generalization. I was forced once to a Gabba party, every person was on fucking speed there, guess how i generalised them? you/we are human, it is normal to come to such conclusions when one see's the effects of certain chemicals (or experiences)

 

anyway, no need to deviate the topic just for expressing opinion there

 

back to topic, einstein said darkness doesnt exist, it is only the absence of light, and something tells me that none of the dark producers have ever produced a track during sun light :P

 

what einstein meant is, loads of artists can sound dark without having anything to do with it, like Cujorius One :).

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Disagree, but you'd say its all a matter of taste. Tastes aside, the "subgenre" as a whole has the worst sounding mixes.

 

Peace.

 

Not that I'm an expert, but I respectfully disagree.

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back to topic, einstein said darkness doesnt exist, it is only the absence of light, and something tells me that none of the dark producers have ever produced a track during sun light :P

 

what einstein meant is, loads of artists can sound dark without having anything to do with it, like Cujorius One :).

 

Pretty sure that's not what Einstein meant.

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