The most newschool Goa sounds

[Scandinasia]

Hello dear Psynewers !


A few weeks ago, a very interesting topic started by Taika-Kim was asking : what are the most oldschool-ish producers of our contemporary Goa scene. This lead to an exciting talk about the great comeback of the old vibe in modern Goa music.

However, it seems to me that this talk must be completed by reverse questionning :

_What is the most newschool Goa songs and artists ? Those who are firmly Goa, but that have very few in common with 90's Goa.
_What are the common points between those songs/artists ?
_Do these songs/artists express a trend that is to be developped in the next fex years ?



Then, to start this topic, I'll submit a few candidates for the top rank of the most newschoolish sounds, and I will conclude with a short analysis.


1. Eleusyn (and Emmanuel Carpus in general)

 

 

Hypno & Eleusyn - Ganduri (Eleusyn Remix)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ckl4b-7FFsE

 

According to me, the Eleusyn Project (consisting of E-Mantra and Reasonandu) is the best example of Newschool Goa. It is, at the same time, a very effective conveyer of the Goa energy and a very inovative project with futuristic sounds.

 

E-Mantra - Liquid Frequencies (2008 mix)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrKK_jLXImI

 

E-Mantra is obviously one of the most creative and inspirationnal Newschool project, leading Goa music to a kind of new trend based mostly on deep, subsconscious, spiral melodies and heavy rolling basslines. But this track in particular is very intriguing. It is Goa Trance, without using any of the traditionnal Goa sounds : no eastern patterns, no Goa bassline, no acid whirling.

 

 

2. Fractal Vivisection

 

Fractal Vivisection - Molecular Instability

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4J5EN8UPh_g

 

This songs begins like a Darkpsy track, and then turns Goa. This artist is only at its beginning, so the quality has to be improved, but the important fact here is the kind of sounds used in the Goa recipe.

 

3. Nova Fractal

 

Nova Fractal - Perception

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8R41bccqvI

 

In my opinion, this song embodies the most what is the Nova Fractal Project is : an oniric voyage through simple but efficient formulas, with those crystalline melodies typical of the Newschool era, and the integration of the full-on sound.

 

4. Filteria - Perpetually Delayed Voyage

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3J6FsuT-m4

 

Filteria, although the fact that he's considered as the spear-head of the Newschool scene, can't be considered, IMO, as the most newschool project, since it is more a continuation, by modern means, of the Pleiadian spirit. But this song in particuar - Perpetually Delayed Voyage - has nothing to do with oldschool, and sounds like a vision of the future. It insists more on onirism than psychedelism, combines uplifting tones with a modern full-sound, and has a very contemporary storry-telling.

 

5. Lectro Spektral Daze (Sorry, the video embed doesn't work for my two final links. Please consider clicking them.)

 

Lectro Spektral Daze - The Third Eye

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5fsdbVK6tY

 

Lectro Spektral Daze do stay faithful to some oldschool melodic patterns. But it the way he plays with them that is brandly new. He enriches the oldschool spirits with a lot of modern sound taken from psytrance and progressive, and this engineering makes IMO of this project one of the most newschool one, alongside with its innovative acoustic experiences that can be heard in the climax of this song.

 

6. BlackStarrFinale

 

BlackStarrFinale - Star Cloister

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMRNbOVKB0c

 

When dealing with newschoolish sound, you cant' forget the project of Luis Pabon. He's a very newschool artist by the way he turns the full-on sound into a Goa sound, and develops blurred melodies scattered between the kicks.

 

 

A brief analysis

 

All the songs and projects quoted hereabove are pretty different from each other. However, we can notice some similtudes.

 

The most striking aspect of all those songs is the fact that, in their definition, they aren't so a continuation of oldschool Goa that an evolution of the 2k's psytrance scene. They seem to be more an evolution of psytrance than an evolution of Goa, and the fact that Neo Goa concentrates most of the creative potential of the whole psy-scene and attracts more and more young artists makes me think that this melodic trend of psytrance will develop, and perhaps replace former genres, while newschool oldschool will keep spreading in parallel.

And, a second point that links several of these songs is that they insist more on onirism than psychedelism, and insists much more on storry-telling than the 90's artists ever did.

 

 

What do you think of it ?

[Ormion]

I agree about E-Mantra and Nova Fractal.

[ravenation]

inb4 this thread fills up with youtube videos in every post and no discussion

It's a complex thread and topic.
I love all the tracks you posted except three of them.
It's cool that you mentioned Perpetually Delayed Voyage. It dont get enough love. It's as you say, a very mature and contemporary storytelling track.


Since you didnt mention Artifact303, I will.

His track "Feelings" is for me the epitamy of Newschool Goatrance. 05:08-> of that track is for me so floating, spacey and emotional, I never heard anything like it. Still haven't.
Nova Fractal's "Common Cold (Unreleased Mix)" or perhaps "Connect" is also a true definition of Newschool Goatrance.

[johnb820]

Yes I was going to say Artifact303 as well. The newschool style is pretty melodic, lots of bright shiny synths, very busy track arrangements, fast paced yet never dull bass lines, higher bpm. A lot of newschool also tends to make more use of consonant chords, minor pentatonic, some major stuff like Nebula Meltdown.

[Padmapani]

artha!

 

and of course e-mantra/eleusyn, nova fractal, bsf, filteria (daze and later stuff) and artifact303. aguably also psy-h project. maybe also ra.

 

they all fully integrate what has happened in psy since oldschool fell out of favour and use elements known from fullon/progressive(/dark) in unambiguously "goa" ways.

just one example is the "newschool bass" used in many tracks by all of them. it sounds nothing like oldschool basses or the stereotypical, overused and boring fullon basslines but brings the energy of fullon to goa without getting formulaic or giving up the variety of goa basslines (or drowning out the low end from the kick). if you didn't know the artist you'd know it's a newschool track from the bassline alone, but every artist has a characteristic style that's immediately recognisable, even though there are differing bass sounds in various tracks.

 

 

also i see music like nova fractal (or blackstarrfinale) as the true successors to (the good kind of) fullon, taking (many of) its good characteristics further instead of taking them out and replacing them by... (insert another rant about how (non-goa) psytrance has gone to shit here ).