So how do you perceive/define Psytrance?

[franki]

Like I said, I could be convinced to allow prog to stay.

[Ormion]

I guess the reason Psyshop is doing that is because the last years they also sell Progressive Trance and House. I don't mean the Progressive Psytrance, just pure Prog Trance and House.

Another truth is that Progressive Psytrance was always on the edge of the Psytrance field. One foot was already in the Trance, Techno, House territory. Since the last years Progressive Psytrance has became even more commercial and clubby it's very difficult to tell a Psy Prog vs a normal Prog.

Back in the old days you had artists like S>Range or Human Blue that had a Progressive sound, but more psychedelic that normal Prog. Today AFAIK they are a rarity.

[Jaza]

One thing to keep in mind is how heavily influenced progessive psy has become by the shifts in the broader trance scene.

 

For many, many years there was psytrance and club trance. Quite different. Back then the psytrance was all more psychedelic, and club trance a lot narrower on the whole.

 

But time changes and genres evolve. The history of the changes in psytrance would be well known to most of you reading this.

Club trance had a few tangents, i.e. one particularly notable one was a tech focus which lasted some years around 2008ish iirc. But over time the most prevalent shift in the club trance scene was the commercialisation of the music - big electro infuences, excessive vocals, a strong drop in tempo over almost a decade, and just generally a loss in overall music writing quality.

 

Around this time progressive psy had begun to really take off. It had been brewing for some time as an off-shoot of psytrance, but the specific sound encompassed by Iboga Records and related artists ~10 years ago really took off.

 

Club trance degraded heavily in the years that followed. During this time people who liked the classic, melodic trance sound but weren't otherwise attracted to psytrance would find stuff they liked under "progressive psy". Those who shunned the rubbish that club trance was becoming could find their melodic trance in "progressive psy".

I was listening to both psy and club trance for years preceding 2008, and it was amazing how many of my friends who didn't like psy came to me with tracks from Liquid Soul and co in the ~5 years thereafter. These were people who would never (!) listen to the full power psychedelic stuff. "Progressive psy" basically filled a big gap that the commercialissation of club trance (and to a lesser extent the death of the German hard trance sound) left behind.

 

Whilst this is good in a way, as it meant melodic trance never died, the long-term affect is much "progressive psy" has stagnated as artists appeal to this massive group of people. Much of the new prog psy is a world away from the early stuff, which had more psychedelic influences. I can understand not grouping some of this new stuff psytrance at all, but the original prog psy and still some of what remains is very much a branch of psytrance IMO.

 

EDIT: And for my personal opinion, I consider psytrance the umbrella term with a range of genres. The forest stuff is psytrance, goa trance is a type of psytrance, dark psy is a type of psytrance, hi-tech is a (very extreme!) form of psytrance, etc.

Psytrance covers so many different things now, which is why sub-genres are needed. The term "full-on" has evolved over time to cover a lot of sounds that were once just called "psytrance", which is a little unfair as "full on" has bad connotations to many (it originally meant the 1200 Micrograms type sound), but such is life.

[Rotwang]

^ Interesting post, I don't follow regular trance so that's all news to me, but it makes sense.

[remnant]

I don't mean the Progressive Psytrance, just pure Prog Trance and House.

Back in the old days you had artists like S>Range or Human Blue that had a Progressive sound, but more psychedelic that normal Prog.

One thing to keep in mind is how heavily influenced progressive psy has become by the shifts in the broader trance scene.

 

For many, many years there was psytrance and club trance. Quite different. Back then the psytrance was all more psychedelic, and club trance a lot narrower on the whole.

 

But time changes and genres evolve. The history of the changes in psytrance would be well known to most of you reading this.

 

Around this time progressive psy had begun to really take off. It had been brewing for some time as an off-shoot of psytrance, but the specific sound encompassed by Iboga Records and related artists ~10 years ago really took off.

 

Whilst this is good in a way, as it meant melodic trance never died, the long-term affect is much "progressive psy" has stagnated as artists appeal to this massive group of people. Much of the new prog psy is a world away from the early stuff, which had more psychedelic influences. I can understand not grouping some of this new stuff psytrance at all, but the original prog psy and still some of what remains is very much a branch of psytrance IMO.

 

The term "full-on" has evolved over time to cover a lot of sounds that were once just called "psytrance", which is a little unfair as "full on" has bad connotations to many (it originally meant the 1200 Micrograms type sound), but such is life.

Indeed. The thing with the "progressive" style is abit messy. The psychedelic "progressive" sound progressed from the days of Human Blue, Atmos and the rest back in '99 to a more "open" style with broader influences from progressive trance and house around 2005, and again (from what many have commented) to a more commercial direction the recent years.

 

I add too that Progressive Trance is a different genre from Psytrance although the Progressive sound since the late 90s relates both the Trance and House fields, there isn't a very clear line.

[Padmapani]

Psytrance is 3 things :

 

 

1_It is trance that is psychedelic, and begins with Goa trance in the late 80's.

2_It's a term used to distinguish Goa trance from less organic, more modern forms of 604. It includes darkspy, full-on, prog, and all that is not Goa.

3_It's a precise form of psychedelic trance that is not full-on, not dark and not full-on and that sounds like forest, but with a more tech-ish feeling.

 

this.

but i'd call the former two "psy" to distinguish them from number 3, (maybe unsuccessfully) trying to prevent confusion.

 

 

 

btw:

what is this "psytechno" anyway. i never know if it's the minimal with a few psy sounds or stuff like x-dream's irritant.

[Arroy]

Psytrance is the tree and all subgeneres are branches.

[Ormion]

3_It's a precise form of psychedelic trance that is not full-on, not dark and not full-on and that sounds like forest, but with a more tech-ish feeling.

I think people call this UK psytrance or UK full on.I personally call it Doof style from the Israeli label. AFAIK it doesn't have a "official" name yet.