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| quote: | | What I wanted to bring up is what exactly is the difference, if any, between the terms psytrance and goa? |
whoa, that's a tricky one... to clarify that, we need to get into the history of goa. most of you don't know that goa is actually a former portuguese colony on the west shore of india - it's a province with beautiful climate and coast, and the people there are mostly christian, as opposed to the dominant hindu/buddhist religion in the rest of india (the portuguese brought their religion with them and spread it). during the flower-child era (1960/70's), goa became a resort for a lot of hippies. 20 years later, it was their children who started visiting goa and following the footsteps of their parents. psychedelic drugs were always a part of the goa culture, and the atmosphere there was very tolerant. ancient shamanic and tribal rituals were ressurected and the music (a variety of styles) was blended into one. as years progressed, a steady 4/4 beat was combined with psychedelic sounds and mellodies that borderlined with classical eastern music, in this case indian, full of semitones and 1/16's. the visual aspect was also of that kind, full of variety - hindu gods, buddhist beliefs, christian tolerance, earth (gaia) being the centre of man... it all followed a trend of "west meets east" and people were getting away from their everyday worries and capitalism and were blending into one with their tribe (which is still the basis of today's electronic music parties). anyway, during mid-90's, there was a sharp decline in goa as "the" party scene mainly because of the fact that police started banning and raiding parties. what once were parties for 50-100 people now turned into giant raves with 5,000 visitors - not only was that harmful for nature (which is quite funny, since worshiping mother earth was always a part of the goa culture), but your average goa trancer is not a typical tourist - he's able to spend 5 days dancing and fly straight back home, without even spending $1 on, well, whatever the authorities thought the money should be spent on. clearly, goa trancers weren't wanted there anymore, especially since a lot of famous people (such as movie stars) were choosing goa as their vacation destination, building multi-million dollar houses on the beach and buying a lot of land around. there has also been an increase in maffia activity who also wanted their share of the cash for keeping things "safe", not to mention drug policy getting harder. it was about then that the goa scene shifted into israel, where it's still massively popular. a lot of people that came to goa were israelis, anyway - given the constant state of war they were (and still are) in, goa trance was a great way for them to relax. there was also a major initiative from the israeli government on the indian one to clamp the parties a bit since a lot of their manpower was "on vacation" and that posed a major security hazard. the media also had their share in the raid - documentaries were filmed and aired on national israeli TV that showed what "your loved sons and daughters are doing out there". all of that resulted in the fact that goa trance changed its name to psychedelic trance (also a bit due to commercial reasons). it was time to start experimenting with the music, so a lot of producers started changing their style: whereas the 'old' goa music was full of mind-elevating mellodies which suited psychedelic drugs, the expansion of dance-related drugs (MDMA, methamphetamine) lead to music that was more monotone and body-oriented, though still full (if not fuller) of various psychedelic effects; mainly the mellodies were lost with the expansion of psytrance, but this was a cross-breed that tried to appeal to both streams. the trend of minimalism continued and today we don't even have psytrance but psytekk, psychedelic techno, which is basicly your average progressive/minimal techno music with a pumping bassline and a couple of effects thrown in for good measure. some people shifted in that direction, some have not, including myself - the reason that i fell in love with goa were the mellodies and the immense energy they packed. it was not uncommon to have three or even four distinct mellodies playing at the same time in a song, so you could basicly "tune" into any one you preferred while you danced (as well as the bassline, which often played it's own melody, of the drum track, or whatever you preferred). given the set and setting, you could hear the same song 5 times on a party and feel like it's new every time the DJ played it. the original goa trance crew also got older, tired of partying, got married, had kids ... and left the scene to the new kids on the block. i don't know what the situation is like out there in the world, but here in croatia there's a constant decrease of the average party-goer age - 5 years ago you couldn't see anyone younger than 18, now we have drugged up 14-year-old kids. i *can't* enjoy a party when i see such a thing, so i basicly stopped attending them a couple of years ago, though i'll never refuse to go to a small open-air summer goa party for 50 people, 40 of which i already know.
| quote: | | The reason I ask is because you will get a different response from just about anyone you ask. I was introduced to this music as psytrance and when you acutally ask people like Kode IV or IM what it is they play, they will tell you that it is psytrance not goa adding more to the confusion. |
because they _do_ play that and you'd insult them if you said it was goa 
IM appeared a few years ago and set some new standards with their "classical mushroom" album which combined psytrance with some classical music elements. it was innovative and nice to listen to, but i don't consider most of their songs to be dance-floor stuff. later they even went overboard and had some extra stupid elements in their songs, such as babies crying or people burping ...
| quote: | | As I have been told Goa is different in that it is more slowed down than psytrance. |
weeelllll ... yes and no. most goa songs are in the range of 138-145 BPM, but personally, i enjoy sets at 150+ BPM the most. psytrance was a bit faster by default, but psytekk is again slow - anything above 140 BPM is too much for it.
| quote: | | Anyways, to you d_sub or for that matter any of you TA psytrance lovers out there, I want to know what your number 1 all-time favorite psytrance or goa as some may call it, track of all time... Mine is without a doubt, MFG - Wonderland If any of you out there have never heard this track get it immediately off of AG, turn your speakers up loud, and get blown away... |
ahhh, wonderland, from MFG's album "the message" (1999, IIRC)... it's goa. not full-scale, but it's goa. the album is halfway through psytrance and goa, but leans on the latter a bit more. anyway, here are some of my favorites (the ones you should *definitely* get first are marked with an exclamation mark). i'd be able to list a thousand songs, but that'd be too much  ... if i had to choose a single favorite song, i couldn't. but AP - mahadeva and MWNN - teleport sharing the #1 place, that would work.
goa
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astral projection - !kabalah, !mahadeva (the original, not the remixes!), dancing galaxy, black & white, let there be light, ...
man with no name - !teleport (the original, of course), !own the world, floor essence, sugar rush, ...
MFG - peaceful relaxation, !alien's land, !new kind of world, shape the future, ...
!power source - the whole "cosmic waves" album
!brain accident - orange acid (from the pulse 1 compilation, one of the best albums, IMHO)
!shakta - lepton head [deedrah remix]
!hallucinogen - l.s.d.
x-dream - !the second room (a-trip), the 5th dimension (feat. planet b.e.n.)
cosmosis - sanyacid
faithless - god is a DJ [astral projection remix]
miranda - !year 2000, magnetic levitation, !step to the star, ...
!pergamon - endorphin
radiotrance - boctok 5
s.u.n. project - space dwarves
psytrance
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pleiadians - !alcyone, asterope, zeta reticuli
prana - !boundless
bypass unit - nanosphere courier
green nuns of the revolution - ring of fire
the delta - travelling at the speed of thought
logic bomb - frequent flyers
!jupiter 8000 - jupiter 8000
!hallucinogen - hmmm, get everything ... i don't know where to put him, simon posford is a class of his own
psytekk
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hate it. can't recommend anything. try something made by ticon or necton if you want to brainwash yourself.
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Astral Projection - Live @ The Brotherhood Beach Party,Tel Aviv
I'm just getting into psy-trance,so that was really what I needed.But the reason this post is here,is for the tracklist.Help appreciated!
