What do you do to help the world discover Psytrance?

[FatKidWitAJetPak]

Hey everybody, I am new here and am an addicted listener/producer of music. No, this isn't an introduction of myself, but rather an opportunity for discussion on where we all started and how we grew to love the world of Psytrance. I also ask, what are we doing to spread this unique concept into the minds of other people? Here is my story...

 

I have been exploring the virtual corners of the globe for some time now, introducing myself to new vibes and visions expressed by a multitude of wonderful musical cultures. Starting out with European Trance, I moved across the musical spectrum yearning to grow and understand everything that is sound. I became extremely interested in ambient production when I was 16 and began experimenting with turning internal experiences from depression into raw, untainted emotion. I began making music.

 

Everyday, I would sit down with my computer and dabble in on-screen synthesizers, craving that certain vibration that told stories words could not. I worked on a few concepts, and after a couple of years I managed to produce an album I called "Ironesque Valley". It was a fun experience, but for me there was nothing more to express into music, at least for now. This is when I jumped back into focusing on other people's work, and in 2012 I discovered the magical universe of Psychadelic Trance.

 

At this point, Glitch, Trip-Hop, Dubstep, Drum n Bass, Ambient, Progressive, Trance, Electro, House, and many more filled the rows of my iTunes library. I thought I had covered most electronic genres, but then my friend played a song I described as "tribal" while driving down the sunny roads of Little Rock, Arkansas. In the United States, I rarely came across anyone who knew music outside the walls of Country, Hip-Hop, and Rock. It was refreshing to meet such an open minded character, and simply remarkable that he introduced me to something new. I asked, "Wow, what is this?" And he told me it was "Psychedelic".

 

This is where it all began. He began showing me music I have never dreamed of, and one day in late 2012 we discovered Ektoplazm, an online global community of Quality, Psychedelic, and totally free music. A new perspective was born, and my interest multiplied by thousands. I downloaded many albums, starting with a get-started section. At this point, I was ready to dive into anything thrown at me. I yearned for something different, something exciting, somewhat that would blow my mind. Psytrance did just that.

 

Now, I spend my hobby time reviewing various albums here on Psynews and on Ektoplazm. I have introduced the site to many of my friends and they love it as I do. It is truly incredible how far we have gone on musical theory. In fact, in the last 20 years there has been more done than there has in the past 2000 years. It is phenomenal, truly. I currently am spreading the music by playing it at every party when I DJ. I have to be careful, of course, since most Psytrance I largely unheard of by the United States. I plug it into house mixes and people have given me excellent responses, claiming the music is something they have never experienced before.

 

So, I ask you Psynews, what is your story? Where did it all start for you? What are you doing to help the world discover Psychedelic Trance? I look forward hearing from you!

[FatKidWitAJetPak]

Man, I remember first discovering Astral Projection, Etnica, and all the widely known pioneers. It's definitely the place anyone interested in Psytrance should start. That way, you can recognize the development overtime and understand just how far we have come. Examining the styles is a large factor in appreciating such an intricate community. Now, we have things like Darkpsy, Full On, and Psycore, genres that are largely built upon the original Goa origins, yet they twist it into something totally different.

[DJEuforiske]

So I browse and basically live on this site called livingelectro.com and was mainly interested in bass music (dubstep) that sort of thing, until a couple months after i've been there as a regular this young kid comes to the site. He was like 13 year old, Turkish kid and he told me to add him onto skype as soon as I met him. So long story short he ended up annoying the hell out of me with his young friends in this skype group and i came to dislike this kid as he was always so nice to others . So one day somehow a group of us were discussing trance which at the time i despised with all my heart i don't know why I did. Its basiaclly what keeps me alive these days. So this kid told me he only listened to psy/goa trance music which i had never heard of at the time, so i asked him to link me a track : Spectro Senses - Everybody In Noise , after listening I played it off told him it was tolerable but I was pretty much hooked from that day forward. fast forward to today about 7-8 months later i'm fully addicted buying and listening to numerous albums a day. I'm working on my first psy production and hope to be known by you guys one day

 

Thats basically my story

[Shpongled247]

Mmm I started with Shpongle and other psybient stuff, and being interested in all psychedelic music lead me to psytrance and goa.. Not that I call most of today's full on "psychedelic" at all, but that's another topic.. Not sure if it was the "worldly" kind of sound of goa or the maximal style of layer upon layer of sounds, but its what I loved the most from the start... It resonates the most with me.

 

Anyway, as to what I do to help, probably just support the artists I love. And go to as many parties/festivals where producers/djs I like are playing. I soon realised long ago that regular people are often not that open to psytrance, so I stopped trying to introduce anyone and everyone to it.

 

I did however introduce my beautiful gf to it and she went from "it sounds like Nintendo music" to asking me when the next gig is and stealing my collection after her first party.

[Pandemonium]

I discovered psytrance back in 2002 when I was 18 years old. I moved to Japan and a friend of mine took me to my first party in Tokyo and popped my psytrance cherry. My mind was blown and I was hooked immediately. Now 11 years later I own over 800 CDs. I'm an old schooler. I never download. Now I live in Arkansas where psytrance is non existent. But the spirit stays alive within me and I continue to order music. I have tried to share my passion of this magical music with countless people in the years I have lived here but the people are extremely simple and close minded. Im a sole psytrancer in the middle of a culture that only listens to shallow music. People hate change so its very hard to introduce them to this type of music. I have to travel to different states to get a tiny morsel of psytrance. Makes me miss Japan. The largest town in Arkansas is little rock and the scene Is disgusting. Locals think DJ Irene and Dj Micro are what's In. The egos are so bad I never go out to any local club or event anymore.

[FatKidWitAJetPak]

I live in Little Rock Arkansas as well... what the odds?!! I totally agree with you there dude, the local electronic scene is full of shroomed out kids who think overplayed brostep is great electronic music, when in reality all they want is an ass to grind on and a beer to drink. I think it is really incredible that you own CDs. I would love to, but my sources like Ektoplazm offer an easy to manage MP3, WAV, or FLAC download file that I can take anywhere and everywhere. I will send you a PM man.

[K-BAN]

I made friends mixed cds but its not like they dug further into it. I just continue to play it loud in my car. Maybe it catches the right ear and that person must seek it out and never look back. ^_-

[Richpa]

First contact with psychedelic trance and goa music happened when I borrowed Pulse vol.1 CD compilation from friend of mine (who bought it because of nice cover (lol), in that period of time I was more into trance/gabber/techno music, listening to Trancemaster compilations and stuff like that. I don't remember exactly the year when this happened but I remember very well that after listening to both Pulse discs I got sucked into this kind of music and thanks to internet i discovered many great artists and names. in that time, mp3.com website was great for finding proper goa music, music from astral projection, etnica, imperial project and cygnetic rec crew, etc.

In 2004. i started with djing and it was fun, but i decided to quit in 2007 because i did not found myself in that, and many friends told me that i never should stop doing it, but hey, i'm pretty much happy with things im doing right now.

 

In 2010. i started working on some info texts regarding goa trance music and culture on croatian language and with a little help by Arronax we posted english version/translation here on psynews aswell. in that period of time i was amazed by metapsychic, suntrip, phototropic and cronomi releases, so i came with idea to have all releases, labels and artists at same place so i created simple html page 'Neogoa.tk' with aim to have all listed there and it worked well couple of months until i decided to collect music from known and less known artists for promotion of genre and website so result was Dimensional gateway compilation, released for free. I was really inspired by Pyramidal Trancendence back than so i wanted to create something like that, to give free and quality music for people who share similar passion for goa trance and after that it turned out for me like some sort of routine or hobby, and now three years after i feel like im doing the right stuff. So in numbers it looks something like this: from 2009 I compiled 8 compilations (3xDimensional Gateway, 2xEntities, Future Architecture with Imba, Pantheon with Stryder and The Omega Point), released over 15 hours of goa and ambient music for free, designed and created over 30 artworks and countless number of flyers and posters and still i have hunger for better and more, hopefully i'm gonna have enough of energy and inspiration to keep the pace in 2013 aswell,even in 2012 i started doing reviews and this year i wanted to try with interviews aswell, that ammount of work requires a lot of energy, organization and commitment.

I think that's it

[Panoptes]

Nothing anymore. People just don't like it in the US.

[Guest D N H]

I have tried to share my passion of this magical music with countless people in the years I have lived here but the people are extremely simple and close minded. Im a sole psytrancer in the middle of a culture that only listens to shallow music. People hate challenge so its very hard to introduce them to this type of music.... The egos are so bad I never go out to any local club or event anymore.

I totally agree with you there dude, the local electronic scene is full of .. kids who think overplayed brostep is great electronic music, when in reality all they want is an ass to grind on and a beer to drink.

I made friends mixed cds but its not like they dug further into it. Maybe it catches the right ear and that person must seek it out and never look back.

 

Other than that, taste plays a good role. Not everyone can like psytrance or electronica.

 

What can someone do to introduce psytrance to the world? Maybe with a youtube account, links and videos reference in a social media profile with friends and their friends. Another way is giving a party to friends and familiars in which inserting some psytrance music.

 

But personally, i avoid to make known my musical preferences with the exceptions of persons i think have a culture of heartfelt connection with soulful music or of a perception of quest. And that's because music preferences to the eyes of many put you in a flock of people and any images or styles, wrong or inaccurate, colorize your person.

[K-BAN]

I thought this was a different thread and reading the first post now, I am realizing I made a mistake not telling my story, woops! ;p

I was 15 or 16 years old in 2002 when I started to grow an interest in any music. My family was starting to use the computer to download music. That year my dad was into a nightly radio show called Heavy Mental that played all sorts of trance and Im guessing its the hard trance I was more interested in but at the time, it was all 'trance' to me. I should borrow his cassette tapes and see what it is ;p anyways, I decided to go on AIM chat and use their radio station to maybe find something I like. browsing the trance and techno channels. I wrote down some names from the trance channel, the few that interested me. I found this list last year and it was nostalgic. a few mainstream artists but the ones I remember for goa were Psygone tracks 'Outer Limits' and 'Twisted Minds' absolutely floored me! I believe another goa track I wrote down was one of the Shakta & Ping Pong tracks. searching these names into the download program just led me into more and more goa trance. searching up names of the ablums and artists on the internet gave me more names to search and download. It was then I realized 'goa trance' was the genre and things were already nuts haha! Im just now realizing how lucky I was to find the music that year.. 2002 and definately 2003 were HUGE for full-on psy or psytrance in general, which barely any of that was available yet on the sharing networks. just the classic goa. growing up with oldies is definately essential.

furthering the story, I discovered the internet radio site DI.FM the next year on halloween day, made an account the following day and omg it was a snowball effect! so much more music to discover and friends I've made. the years have gone by fast and hard to believe I've been with this music 11 years now. At a recent party where I met a lot of new friends, it was cool to chat with them and how they came upon psychedelic trance too and that they were all only into the music for 1-3. few were around for the oldies too.

but then my friend played a song I described as "tribal" while driving down the sunny roads of Little Rock, Arkansas. In the United States, I rarely came across anyone who knew music outside the walls of Country, Hip-Hop, and Rock. It was refreshing to meet such an open minded character, and simply remarkable that he introduced me to something new. I asked, "Wow, what is this?" And he told me it was "Psychedelic".

any idea what song it was?

 

 

in all honesty, I dont care if the music spreads much or grows tremendously. Lets keep it underground to avoid commercial sound inflation and preserve the original sound and vibe. anyone who is already a fan of this music, continue to support the artists and we'll be fine. 8) do we really want it to be the next dub-step where we cannot avoid it no matter where we go?? ;p

[K-BAN]

Spectro Senses - Everybody In Noise ,

 

Bummer that is what you were introduced to but Im glad it got you hooked from then on 8) That is the psytrance sound now-a-days I just cant do. 2002 was the big start for epic psy albums but 2003-4 was the golden age. I did a little project recently to once and for all find out how many artist albums came out those 2 years.. It was over a whopping 130!!!! some of the albums I didnt like but the majority of them - hell yeah! then you have all the compilations that released during that time. JUST INSANE! Not sure what you have dabbled into since the last year but if you need classic psytrance recommendations, Im you're guy ;D

[Tatsu]

Nice thread!

 

I think it was arround 2001, when I was in my early twenties, when I started to go to parties where electornical music was played. My first love was trance but then a friend of mine took me to a psy party where her brother was djing. From then on I was hooked. I never produced anything and I just started djing now but back then I was buying records and CDs like crazy. Which is also my main way of supporting the scene. And there is so much nice stuff to discover! The old classics but also the isratrance-stuff and a bit later the first wave of melodic full-on. That's also when I discovered psynews and the reviews section. I wrote some reviews but there were other who put out way more. For me those were the golden days! Nowadays lots of psy sound generic to my ears. But there are still gems coming out. I also go to psy-parties but only a few a year.

[DJEuforiske]

Bummer that is what you were introduced to but Im glad it got you hooked from then on 8) That is the psytrance sound now-a-days I just cant do. 2002 was the big start for epic psy albums but 2003-4 was the golden age. I did a little project recently to once and for all find out how many artist albums came out those 2 years.. It was over a whopping 130!!!! some of the albums I didnt like but the majority of them - hell yeah! then you have all the compilations that released during that time. JUST INSANE! Not sure what you have dabbled into since the last year but if you need classic psytrance recommendations, Im you're guy ;D

Defiantly message me recommendation on some classic psy stuff I've pretty much just been building my digital collection of old school goa albums

[FatKidWitAJetPak]

 

...any idea what song it was?

 

It was a Goa album produced by a deceased musical artist close to my friend who showed me the track. He told me his friends parents were over zealous in their religious beliefs, and they deleted / trashed his compositions. There are only a few of his CDs in existence right now. He passed away a few months before the CD was shown to me, and I wish I could tell him how he changed my world through discovery and expansiveness. I do not recall the title. That was back in 2009, and I began DJing soon after to try and introduce the closed-minded world I lived in to new horizons.

 

Great replies guys!!! Keep them coming. I am writing a book that goes over the Psychedelic movement (1994 - Present) and am interviewing / reviewing every producer and enthusiast I come across. I will definitely include some of these stories in the book! I am not sure when it will be done, but I feel expressing my studies into a concrete form would be the perfect journey for myself and an excellent way to express the community of Psytrance as a whole.