Psychedelic trance

Psychedelic trance or psytrance is a form of electronic music characterized by hypnotic arrangements of synthetic rhythms and complex layered melodies created by high tempo riffs. It first broke out into the mainstream in 1995 as the UK music press began to report on the trend of Goa trance. Since then the genre has grown immensely and now offers much variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full on, dark, progressive, suomi, psybreaks and psybient.

History

VooV Experience 2005- one of the longest existing psytrance openair events

An indoor event

The first hippies that arrived in Goa, India in the mid 60’s were drawn there for many reasons, including the beautiful beaches, the low cost of living, the friendly locals, the Indian religious and spiritual practices and the readily available Indian hashish, which until the mid 70’s was legal.

During the 70’s the first Goa DJs were generally playing psychedelic rock bands such the Grateful Dead, the Pink Floyd and The Doors. In ‘79 the beginnings of electro music could occasionally be heard in Goa in the form of tracks by Kraftwerk but it wasn’t until ’83 that djs Laurent and Fred Disko, closely followed by Goa Gil, began switching the Goa style over to electro-industrial/EBM which was now flooding out of Europe in the shape of Frontline Assembly, Front 242, and various other bands.

The tracks were remixed, removing the lyrics, looping the melodies and beats and generally manipulating the sounds in all manner of ways before the tracks were finally presented to the dancers as 100% Goa-style mixes. By ’85 all Goa music was electronic and people were constantly searching for new music to remix into the new Goa-style. It was impossible to buy this type of music in stores; even today most psytrance sales take place over the net rather than in physical shops. Arguably the first commercially released trance tune came in ’88 and is accredited to UK acid house outfit the KLF with What Time Is Love. However, at the same time Goa music was being created by pioneers like The Orb, Juno Reactor, Eat Static and also by The Infinity Project.

By ’92 the Goa trance scene had a pulse of its own, though the term 'Goa trance' didn’t actually become the name tag of the genre until around ’94. New artists were springing up from all over the world and it was in this year that the first Goa trance festivals began, including the Gaia Festival in France and the now world famous and still running VuuV festival in Germany.

In ’93 the first 100% Goa trance album was released, Project 2 Trance, featuring tracks by Man With No Name and Hallucinogen to name just two. Goa trance enjoyed its commercial peak between ’96 and ’97 with a fair bit of media attention and some huge names in the DJ scene joining the movement. This hype did not last long and once the attention had died down so did the music sales, resulting in the downfall of record labels, promotion networks and also some artists. This ‘commercial death of Goa trance’ was marked musically by Matsuri Productions in ’97 with the release of the compilation Let it RIP.

Israel also played a part in this development. Until ’88 India’s borders were closed to Israelis. When they were eventually opened many Israelis travelled to India after completion of their mandatory military service looking for a cheap, fun place to unwind. When they returned to Israel they took music and drugs back with them and in ’90 the first psychedelic ‘full moon gatherings’ on Nitzanim’s beaches began. The music was not as dark as modern darkpsy but different from what was already available.

The quantity of Goa music coming into Israel and being played in the clubs provided a lot of inspiration to the younger generations of Israelis and soon new top quality producers were popping up on the scene, the most famous of which is Astral Projection. Other well known artists include Intense Sanity, Infected Mushroom, IMIX, Elec3 and Alchemix.

However, the police clamped down hard on these psychedelic gatherings and with such a likely possibility of police intervention it seemed that a new formula was needed, one that would allow trancers to get maximum enjoyment from the party before it was shut down. This formula was basic, fast, and cheesy, with short intense sets; this allowed party goers to have a consistently intense experience from the beginning of the party until it was stopped.

In ’96 the music had changed so much from its Goa beginnings that the term Goa trance no longer seemed suitable and the new term of psychedelic trance, or psytrance for short, was coined to refer to this new style of music. The multi-layered melodies of Goa trance were stripped away and a darker and more repetitive form of music concentrated on rhythm and groove appeared. A landmark album of this change would be ‘98’s album Radio by X-Dream.

In ’02 however melodies became popular again, heralding the beginning of full-on psytrance.

Currently, there are many sub-genres within the psytrance scene, including minimal/progressive psy, morning psy, full-on psy, and dark psy. There has also recently been a movement attempting to ‘return to the source’ and bring back the original Goa trance sound, such as Metapsychic Records and Suntrip Records, which are dedicated to reviving the roots of the scene and promoting artists trying to recapture the original feeling of the music.

Style

Psychedelic trance has a distinctive, speedy sound (generally between 140 and 150 BPM) that tends to be faster than other forms of trance or techno music. Psychedelic trance uses prominent bass beats that pound constantly throughout the song, and overlays the bass with varying rhythms drawn from funk music, techno, EBM, Middle Eastern music, and trance using drums and other synthesized instruments. The different leads, rhythms and beats generally change every 32 beats.^[1] Layering is used to great effect in psychedelic trance, with new musical ideas being added at regular intervals, often every 4 to 8 bars. New layers will continue to be added until a climax is reached, and then the song will break down and start a new rhythmic pattern over the constant bass line. Psychedelic trance tracks tend to be 6–10 minutes long.^[2] Psychedelic trance also makes heavy use of the cutoff frequency control of the modulating filter on the synthesizer. Reverb is also used heavily, with large, open sounding reverb present on most of the lead synthesizers in the track.

Related sub-genres

Psybreaks

Psybreaks or psychedelic breakbeat is a form of psychedelic trance originating in the late 90s, splicing breakbeat basslines and rhythms into otherwise heavily psytrance-influenced tracks. Style typical Tracks: Drone - Pulsar, Morphonix - Island Sanctuary, and Planewalker - Spellbound.
The psybreaks genre is under-represented in the larger breakbeat and psytrance communities. But thanks to blog sites such as Global Psybreaks more listeners are being connected with the music every day.
There is much discussion amongst fans of psybreaks about the specific qualitites that define the genre. Many electro tracks are produced with "psy" elements which blurs the distinction between pure psybreaks and breaks tracks that have psy samples.

Full on

Full on is a form of psychedelic trance that originated in Israel during the late 90's. The expression “full on” is taken from the first out of a seven compilation albums series, and the first album ever to be released under Hom-mega Productions in 1998, titled Full On. Some other sources say it comes from the Fullmoon festival's name, whilst others argue that it is derived from a phrase widely used to describe particularly high-energy music ("That tune is really full-on!"). It actually may also refer to the drug abuse sometimes witnessed ("full-on drugs") on the festivals, as this music is regarded "pushier" than other psytrance styles, thus more exhausting to dance to and the requirement of bodily stimulating drugs is more apparent. Full on usually has higher bpm than psy trance.

The most easily recognizable element of full-on psy-trance is the so called "rolling" bassline, which crams two or three short bass notes in between each hit of the 4/4 drum.

Some commercial morning artists associated with the following style: Sesto Sento, Gataka, 1200 Micrograms, Astrix, Silence Projekt, 40%, Vibe Tribe, Aquatica, Shemtov, Eskimo, Headroom, Flip Flop, Allaby, Zen Mechanics

Dark

Dark psytrance (killer psytrance, dark psy, Forest trance, fullon darkpsy) is a darker and faster form of psychedelic trance music, with tempo ranges usually from 145 to 160 BPM. Originating in Russia and Germany, the style has recently expanded to other countries worldwide. Full On Dark Psytrance is a popular variation and can include melodies from morning trance. Some well known Dark Psytrance record labels include Parvati Records, Noise Poison records & Lost Theory Records. Some notable artists include Fungus Funk, StiTch, Osom, Kindzadza, Psykovsky, Penta, Scope, Mubali, Psyc0ma. Highko, Cosmo and Grapes of Wrath, who are more accessible to new listeners of the genre.

Progressive Psychedelic Trance

With a slower BPM range around 125 to 140, Progressive Psychedelic Trance has a clean crisper sound than other sub genres and is better known for well constructed percussion underlying a complicated series or evolution of musically rooted melodies. At times uplifting, Progressive Psy has made a home for itself during the morning and day time sets of many outdoor dance parties, particularly in the Australian doof scene, as well as at posh nightclubs worldwide. Prominent labels such as: Zenon Records, Spin Twist, Blue Tunes, Iboga works with important artists like Planewaker, Sensient, Tetrameth,Vibrasphere, Sun Control Species, Visua, FREq, Shadow FX, and Motion Drive, are a few reputable sources of this sub Genre.

Suomisaundi or Freeform Psytrance

This is the "freeform" variation of psytrance where the artist has almost no limits but still bear a specific "Finnish" style (which is also produced in other countries but the originating Suomi designation is in wide use).

References

1. ↑ Trance music. A definition of genre. Trance, goa, psy, house, progressive and more
2. ↑ Easwaran, Kenny. "Psytrance and the Spirituality of Electronics". April 2004.

External links

Psychedelic Trance at the Open Directory Project