You checked out the new Cosmosis album yet? Fumbling for the Funky Frequency : really nice old school stlye Cosmosis. One of his best recent efforts imo. I'd also recommend any of Mr Peculiar's 3 albums. Huge open sounds with lush melodies
Hey, I stumbled across this list and had a right good read. I've been listening to goa/psy trance ever since the heydays of the early to mid 90's and I have to say that your list does include the best of the oldschool goa albums. I'm slightly disappointed by how dismissive you are about anything that came after about 1998 when the scene underwent a fairly dramatic shift. The Goa lable fell off the genre mostly in an attemt to make it more mainstream marketable (think of Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling playing Man with no name, Astral Projection, Juno Reactor among other on Radio 1 in the UK). While I have to agree tat the sound certainly underwent a huge change around this time I think you're issing out hugely on a massive amount of incredibly good trance that still continues to be produced to this day (one look at Psyshop or Saikosounds will confirm this). Indeed many of the originators still release and perform regularly - Green Nuns have made a revival, Hallucinogen is still the bigest draw on the festival scene, Transwave with a new release, Juno Reactor playing in London this October, etc.
The change in sound came as much from new technological inventions as the need for the producers and party goers to always be at the leading edge of the psychedelic shockwave. It comes as no surprise that as the original Goa sound gained more widespread acceptance that people would push to somehting more extreme and so the scene fractured. From the all-encompassing umbrella of Goa trance we now have darkpsy, morningpsy, progressive, psybreaks, the list goes on...
Good quality oldschool psytrance (I only ever called it psytrance ever since the beginning) is still out there and being made - check out the new Cosmosis album - it just takes a bit more tracking down.
As far as your list goes,
Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger - every bit as good as the first and still the most well produced trance album ever made. Posford really ups the technological game compared to Twisted.
Cosmosis - Synergy - again a second album that is every bit as good as the artist's first (if not better) with the benefit of better production. Higher Access (track 5) is one of the most euphoric, mind-meltingly psychedelic tracks ever.
Space Tribe - any of the first 3 or 4 albums contain some of the best tunes of the genre in particular, God's Chosen People and Know Your Dopefiend.
Shamanic Tribes on Acid - nt that well known but perhaps one of the most psychedelic artists that there was (sadly Jake is no longer with us) - Check out his "Mad Gatter's Acid Tea Party" album
Psychopod - Side project of Koxbox and much more psychedlic
Infected Mushroom - The Gathering and Classical Mushroom. No matter how much you may hate their awful wailings nowadays these 2 albums are both masterpieces.
I could list more but I'd need to go trawling through my old CD collection to jog the old grey matter.
Music is always so much better ( I feel) if you don't try to compartmentalise it too much. Psytrance is more popular now than it ever was, probably because the sound does keep evolving, so stop bemoaing the loss of the good old days and go and find a party and have a good stomp :)
Oh yeah, probaably my idea of what constitutes a good "Goa" track is totally different from yours ;)
You checked out the new Cosmosis album yet? Fumbling for the Funky Frequency : really nice old school stlye Cosmosis. One of his best recent efforts imo. I'd also recommend any of Mr Peculiar's 3 albums. Huge open sounds with lush melodies
Hey, I stumbled across this list and had a right good read. I've been listening to goa/psy trance ever since the heydays of the early to mid 90's and I have to say that your list does include the best of the oldschool goa albums. I'm slightly disappointed by how dismissive you are about anything that came after about 1998 when the scene underwent a fairly dramatic shift. The Goa lable fell off the genre mostly in an attemt to make it more mainstream marketable (think of Paul Oakenfold and Danny Rampling playing Man with no name, Astral Projection, Juno Reactor among other on Radio 1 in the UK). While I have to agree tat the sound certainly underwent a huge change around this time I think you're issing out hugely on a massive amount of incredibly good trance that still continues to be produced to this day (one look at Psyshop or Saikosounds will confirm this). Indeed many of the originators still release and perform regularly - Green Nuns have made a revival, Hallucinogen is still the bigest draw on the festival scene, Transwave with a new release, Juno Reactor playing in London this October, etc.
The change in sound came as much from new technological inventions as the need for the producers and party goers to always be at the leading edge of the psychedelic shockwave. It comes as no surprise that as the original Goa sound gained more widespread acceptance that people would push to somehting more extreme and so the scene fractured. From the all-encompassing umbrella of Goa trance we now have darkpsy, morningpsy, progressive, psybreaks, the list goes on...
Good quality oldschool psytrance (I only ever called it psytrance ever since the beginning) is still out there and being made - check out the new Cosmosis album - it just takes a bit more tracking down.
As far as your list goes,
Hallucinogen - The Lone Deranger - every bit as good as the first and still the most well produced trance album ever made. Posford really ups the technological game compared to Twisted.
Cosmosis - Synergy - again a second album that is every bit as good as the artist's first (if not better) with the benefit of better production. Higher Access (track 5) is one of the most euphoric, mind-meltingly psychedelic tracks ever.
Space Tribe - any of the first 3 or 4 albums contain some of the best tunes of the genre in particular, God's Chosen People and Know Your Dopefiend.
Shamanic Tribes on Acid - nt that well known but perhaps one of the most psychedelic artists that there was (sadly Jake is no longer with us) - Check out his "Mad Gatter's Acid Tea Party" album
Psychopod - Side project of Koxbox and much more psychedlic
Infected Mushroom - The Gathering and Classical Mushroom. No matter how much you may hate their awful wailings nowadays these 2 albums are both masterpieces.
I could list more but I'd need to go trawling through my old CD collection to jog the old grey matter.
Music is always so much better ( I feel) if you don't try to compartmentalise it too much. Psytrance is more popular now than it ever was, probably because the sound does keep evolving, so stop bemoaing the loss of the good old days and go and find a party and have a good stomp :)
Oh yeah, probaably my idea of what constitutes a good "Goa" track is totally different from yours ;)