The single most defining characteristic of goa trance, that sets it apart from non-goa psytrance, is the distinctly eastern/oriental/middle-eastern/asian/indian sounding melodies. Melodies that, while not necessarily based on authentic middle-eastern or indian modes, do approximate the mood and quality of music we associate with said parts of the world.

If you wanna get technical about it:

quote:

Tonal and Melodic Devices The pitch organisational basis of Goa trance, as with many other dance music genres, is the centering on a single tone. This idea is related, perhaps coincidentally, to the modal centering of Indian classical music. There are however several tracks among those surveyed that involve shifts to another centre, usually in the middle of the piece. There a number of tracks that shift down to the centre defined by the flat seventh of the main centre [eg "Sirius 2" - Satori Razor, Trancentral four - A Trip To Goa, 1996]; and a few others that move up to the centre defined by the flat third of the main centre. Middle Eastern or Asian influenced melodies or melodic figurations are common. Typically melodic material is based on scales which have a flat second, flat third and flat seventh. [eg.A, Bb,C, D,E, G in "Megallenic Cloud" - Green Nuns of the Revolution, on Trancentral four - A Trip To Goa, 1996] . The notes of the Phrygian mode are often evident. Sometimes the sharp fourth is heard indicating that the concept of scale construction may in fact be related to Indian scale (gat) theory. A number of tracks use both the minor and the major third, creating a suggestion of the diminished blues [octatonic] scale. More often than not, though, only a few pitched notes are used melodically in any one section of a track. The most common tones found in melodic patterns are the tonic, flat second, flat seventh, flat third and perfect fifth. Melodic design generally takes the form of short repeated fragments which often morph timbrally over time, using the envelope on the filter to mute or open the high frequency component of the sound, in a similar sort of way to a wah wah pedal [eg. "Protozoa" - Blissed, on Rites of Passage, 1993]. Pitch bend is commonly used to add character to melodic lines. Glissandi are often used as hits, emphasising accents in the music.

http://web.archive.org/web/20031225.../Goa_Trance.htm

Listen to a representative sample of each and you should be able to hear the difference for yourself. Talking about music is always secondary to the understanding you can gain from listening to it.

Wow, I feel old. I have almost every single song mentioned in this thread either on vinyl, cd or mp3.

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Jay Selway & Magnus - Big Break [Pharmacy Music]
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goa is a more organic sound. almost generally something you'd expect to hear from the innards of a living animal, but warped to fit high tempo.

psy is a more synthetic sound. futuristic, mechanical sounds.

that's the way i categorize it. pretty fitting, given how psychedelics would be natural or synthetic. man vs. machine, in a sense.

Darkarbiter, can you please explain exactly what 'forest psy' is and post two examples?

It's probably Dark Psy.

quote:

Originally posted by Domesticated Darkarbiter, can you please explain exactly what 'forest psy' is and post two examples?

I am also interested in this. I guess it would be a goa/psy hybrid with more goa influences, maybe sitars/guitars and shit.

To be perfectly honest, I find music with too many goa influences to be boring, full-on without a solid structure and wide array of sounds lame/cheesy, and a lot of psytrance to be random and incoherent. That being said, there are still plenty of awesome tracks in each genre, and it takes a long ass time to hunt down the good ones.

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Set Archive | TA DJ Challenge

I'm a big fan of the two genres. I didn't did through all 6 pages to see if they we're mentioned but what about infected mushroom?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6hL6fkJ1_k

quote:

Originally posted by xeroxed I'm a big fan of the two genres. I didn't did through all 6 pages to see if they we're mentioned but what about infected mushroom? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6hL6fkJ1_k

together with GMS I rank Infected Mushroom as the shittiest psy producers ever. They made psy into a pop factory, spitting out shitty tunes non stop.

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quote:

Originally posted by RebeL9 together with GMS I rank Infected Mushroom as the shittiest psy producers ever. They made psy into a pop factory, spitting out shitty tunes non stop.

Seriously?
I know their recent "stuff" is shit but I don't consider Classical Mushroom and The Gathering to be shit albums.
Neither do I dislike Chaos Laboratory and The Growly Family

I'm not really into psy tho, I much prefer Goa.

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goa trance can suck my balls

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