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Psytrance the future...again??
So I came across this arcticle on the gaurdian website:
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Clubbers fall under spell of Psytrance
Anushka Asthana
Sunday April 4, 2004
The Observer
It was a scene once found only on the beaches of Goa. Women with dreadlocked hair stood by the sea swinging leather straps around their bodies making patterns out of the fire-lit ends.
Ageing hippies sat on the sand beating their drums, and a mass of bodies dressed in luminous clothes and adorned with beads and piercings would dance as one to the deep trance beats and electro notes. Soon it made it to winter squat parties in London basements and summer free parties in fields - a few travellers wanting to relive their Indian experience would re-create the theme.
But last night Psytrance - a mix of psychedelic and trance music - made the final move out of the underground and exploded on the national club scene when 4,500 people descended on London's Brixton Academy for The Psychedelic Academy, the largest indoor festival of its type in the UK.
Old and young danced under three huge lasers and seven screens showing psychedelic images. Entranced by the music, travellers, professionals, students and city workers had the time of their lives, bringing together a more diverse group than that found in any other type of music.
You may not have heard of it, but Psytrance is about to hit the big time. The music has electronic, tribal and thumping layers that can almost instil a meditative state in the clubber. It is a producers' dream, with a wealth of opportunity to experiment. Originating from peace-loving travellers, it carries the philosophies of peace and free thinking. But now it has moved from the circles who adore yoga and meditation to a mainstream crowd.
For the first time last night, the organisers put the hard trance into room two and dedicated the main stage to this new trend. 'We always had this music in the smaller room,' says promoter Enrico Sorbello, 'but more and more people were packing in. It has gone from a time when you would get 200 people in a basement to now, when we can sell more than 4,000 tickets.'
And this summer it will become even bigger when Glastonbury dedicates a full day on the Glade stage to it and some of the same organisers branch off to produce the first ever, three-day-long Glade Festival.
'Psytrance is absolutely huge within dance music now,' says Gavin Herlihy, features editor at Mixmag. 'There have been loads of nights springing up and they are all getting packed. It has come from people travelling to places like Goa, and it is about a hippy culture that more people have tagged on to because they feel alienated about things like the war. It carries with it a lot of psychedelic drugs, many of which are legal, such as mushrooms and leaves like Salvia divanorium. Lots of kids who have taken ecstasy for years at mainstream clubs are trying Psytrance as something different.'
At a pre-party in Camden's Dream Temple, clubbers are getting themselves ready for a big night. Eleanor is dressed in a nylon skirt with a zip up the front and yellow, luminous edges, a plain black top and trainers. She is excited about the night ahead.
'I went to a party with a friend a few months ago and I have been a regular ever since,' she says. 'Everyone is incredibly friendly and you meet loads of new people.' She looks sheepish when drugs are mentioned. 'I am going to take some mushrooms and maybe some MDMA tonight, but it is the one type of music that I can go out to without anything. It is not just about getting trashed.'
Although this scene is more interested in herbal highs than illegal drugs, there is no doubt that much of the production is inspired by hallucinogenic experiences with big-name acts called suggestive names like Infected Mushroom and Hal lucinogen. Now it is attracting an array of new types of people, from pill-popping kids, to professionals, to the older hippies who have loved it for years. There is no snobbery between them.
At Access All Areas, an information network in Camden that promotes the music, customers were last week discussing mushroom experiences. 'I just closed my eyes, but I could see a sheep,' says one young man.
Promoters are revelling in the boom. 'I don't mind it going overground at all,' says one of the organisers of the festival and co-owner of Nano Records, Anselm Guise. 'The more people who listen to it the better. I just saw 6,000 people having a great time at the stage at Glastonbury last year and thought it was amazing.'
The success of the music has been replicated in the record industry, with a proliferation of new labels. One of the larger British labels, Organic, has seen sales more than double in the past year.
At the Dream Temple, a music, clothes and books shop, the owner, Nigel, says: 'This used to be about the person who went to India with their dreadlocks and didgeridoo, but now there are so many more parties and promoters have done a fantastic job bringing everyone together.'
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I love psy to death, but I'm not sure if this is what I want. Kinda takes away the whole underground essence of the it. What do u guys think about it??
Last edited by Dj Dissent on Jul-23-2004 at 19:45
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