Psychedelic trance
Encyclopedia
Psychedelic trance, psytrance or just psy is a form of electronic music
characterized by hypnotic arrangements of synthetic rhythm
s and complex layered melodies created by high tempo riff
s. It appeared in the mainstream in 1995 as with reporting of the trend of Goa trance
. The genre offers variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full on, dark
, progressive, suomi
, psybreaks and psybient
. Goa Trance continued to develop alongside the sub genres.
s who arrived in Goa
, India
in the mid 1960s were drawn there for many reasons, including the 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-70s was legal.
During the 1970s the first Goa DJs were generally playing psychedelic rock
bands such the Grateful Dead
, Pink Floyd
and The Doors
. In 1979 the beginnings of electronic dance music
could occasionally be heard in Goa in the form of tracks by artists such as Kraftwerk
but it wasn’t until 1983 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 from Frontline Assembly, Front 242
, Nitzer Ebb as well as Eurobeat.
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 custom Goa-style mixes.
scene had a pulse of its own, though the term 'Goa trance' didn’t become the name tag of the genre until around 1994. New artists were appearing 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 still-running VuuV festival in Germany.
In 1993 the first 100% Goa trance
album was released, Project 2 Trance, featuring tracks by Man With No Name
and Hallucinogen
to name two. Goa trance enjoyed its commercial peak between 1996 and 1997 with media attention and some recognised 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 failure of record labels, promotion networks and also some artists. This ‘commercial death of Goa trance’ was marked musically by Matsuri Productions in 1997 with the release of the compilation Let it RIP.
, Middle Eastern music
, and trance
using drums and other synthesized instruments. The different leads, rhythms and beats generally change every 8 bars
. 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. Psychedelic trance makes heavy use of the cutoff frequency
control of the modulating filter on the synthesizer. Reverb and Delay are used heavily, with large, open sounding reverb present on most of the lead synthesizers in the track.
The Roland TB-303 (acid) sequencer, Juno 106 and Roland SH-101 are heavily used and sampled in Psychedelic trance, usually processed through a distortion effect.
by X-Dream
.
In 2002, 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 recently been a movement attempting to ‘return to the source’ and bring back the original Goa trance sound, such as Metapsychic Records (2006 - December 2007) 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.
The sound of this music reportedly contains higher levels of intense and full power twisted patterns which has a far richer quality when compared with the standard commercial side of the scene.
The tracks was shared exclusively among the similar-minded acts and also to a few numbers of handpicked Djs and was very difficult to obtain by people outside that `inner circle` which has generate the development of the new, but yet diffrent in many levels genre Dark in 2004 by mainly former audience.
basslines and rhythms into otherwise heavily psytrance-influenced tracks.
Style typical Tracks: Drone - Pulsar, Morphonix - Island Sanctuary, and Planewalker - Spellbound.
during the late 1990s. The expression “full on” is taken from the first out of a seven compilation album
s series and the first album ever to be released under Hom-mega Productions in 1998
, titled Full On, which comes from English slang. Other sources say it comes from the "Full" "moon" 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 may also refer to the drug use 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.
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
, 40%, SOM
and Vibe Tribe
.
Some Full On Record label
s: PsyShark
, Phantasm Records
, Hommega, B.N.E, and many more.
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
characterized by hypnotic arrangements of synthetic rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...
s and complex layered melodies created by high tempo riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
s. It appeared in the mainstream in 1995 as with reporting of the trend of Goa trance
Goa trance
Goa trance is a form of electronic music that originated during the late 1980s in Goa, India.-History:The music has its roots in the popularity of Goa in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a hippie capital, and although musical developments were incorporating elements of industrial music and EBM...
. The genre offers variety in terms of mood, tempo, and style. Some examples include full on, dark
Dark psytrance
Dark psytrance is a darker, faster and more distorted form of psychedelic trance music, with tempo ranges usually from 145 to 180 BPM, but reaches +220 BPM...
, progressive, suomi
Suomisaundi
Suomisaundi, also known as suomisoundi, suomistyge or spugedelic trance, is a style of freestyle psychedelic trance that originated in Finland around the mid 1990s. "Suomisaundi" literally means "Finnish sound" in Finnish; music that features many of the characteristics of suomisaundi has gained...
, psybreaks and psybient
Psybient
Psybient, also known as ambient psy, psychedelic chillout, psychedelic ambient, ambient goa, ambient psytrance and more commonly within the Goa/psytrance scene as psychill and psydub, is a genre of electronic music that combines elements of psychedelic trance, ambient, world music, new age and even...
. Goa Trance continued to develop alongside the sub genres.
History
Start of the movement
The first hippieHippie
The hippie subculture was originally a youth movement that arose in the United States during the mid-1960s and spread to other countries around the world. The etymology of the term 'hippie' is from hipster, and was initially used to describe beatniks who had moved into San Francisco's...
s who arrived in Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
in the mid 1960s were drawn there for many reasons, including the 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-70s was legal.
During the 1970s the first Goa DJs were generally playing psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock
Psychedelic rock is a style of rock music that is inspired or influenced by psychedelic culture and attempts to replicate and enhance the mind-altering experiences of psychedelic drugs. It emerged during the mid 1960s among folk rock and blues rock bands in United States and the United Kingdom...
bands such the Grateful Dead
Grateful Dead
The Grateful Dead was an American rock band formed in 1965 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The band was known for its unique and eclectic style, which fused elements of rock, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, country, improvisational jazz, psychedelia, and space rock, and for live performances of long...
, Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd were an English rock band that achieved worldwide success with their progressive and psychedelic rock music. Their work is marked by the use of philosophical lyrics, sonic experimentation, innovative album art, and elaborate live shows. Pink Floyd are one of the most commercially...
and The Doors
The Doors
The Doors were an American rock band formed in 1965 in Los Angeles, California, with vocalist Jim Morrison, keyboardist Ray Manzarek, drummer John Densmore, and guitarist Robby Krieger...
. In 1979 the beginnings of electronic dance music
Electronic dance music
Electronic dance music is electronic music produced primarily for the purposes of use within a nightclub setting, or in an environment that is centered upon dance-based entertainment...
could occasionally be heard in Goa in the form of tracks by artists such as Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
but it wasn’t until 1983 that DJs Laurent and Fred Disko, closely followed by Goa Gil
Goa Gil
Goa Gil is an American-born musician, DJ and party organizer. He is one of the founders of the goa trance and psytrance movement in electronic dance music.-Biography:...
, began switching the Goa style over to electro-industrial
Electro-industrial
Electro-industrial is a music genre drawing on EBM and post-industrial that developed in the mid-1980s. While EBM has a minimal structure and clean production, electro-industrial has a deep, complex and layered sound. The style was pioneered by Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly, and other groups,...
/EBM
Electronic body music
Electronic body music or industrial dance is a music genre that combines elements of industrial music and electronic dance music...
which was now flooding out of Europe from Frontline Assembly, Front 242
Front 242
Front 242 is a pioneering Belgian electronic music group that came into prominence during the 1980s. They are known for being the premier pioneer of electronic body music and as a major influence on the electronic and industrial music genres.-Formation:...
, Nitzer Ebb as well as Eurobeat.
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 custom Goa-style mixes.
Development
By 1992 the Goa tranceGoa trance
Goa trance is a form of electronic music that originated during the late 1980s in Goa, India.-History:The music has its roots in the popularity of Goa in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a hippie capital, and although musical developments were incorporating elements of industrial music and EBM...
scene had a pulse of its own, though the term 'Goa trance' didn’t become the name tag of the genre until around 1994. New artists were appearing 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 still-running VuuV festival in Germany.
In 1993 the first 100% Goa trance
Goa trance
Goa trance is a form of electronic music that originated during the late 1980s in Goa, India.-History:The music has its roots in the popularity of Goa in the late 1960s and early 1970s as a hippie capital, and although musical developments were incorporating elements of industrial music and EBM...
album was released, Project 2 Trance, featuring tracks by Man With No Name
Martin Freeland
Martin Freeland, also known as Man With No Name or M.W.N.N., is a British Goa trance artist and one of the defining artists of the Genre. Originally a techno record producer, Freeland changed style at the beginning of the 1990s....
and Hallucinogen
Hallucinogen (musician)
Hallucinogen is the stage name of Simon Posford, an English electronic musician,specializing in Psychedelic trance music. His first studio album, Twisted, released in 1995, is considered one of the most influential albums in the genre; the first track "LSD" in particular remains the defining sound...
to name two. Goa trance enjoyed its commercial peak between 1996 and 1997 with media attention and some recognised 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 failure of record labels, promotion networks and also some artists. This ‘commercial death of Goa trance’ was marked musically by Matsuri Productions in 1997 with the release of the compilation Let it RIP.
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 a very distinctive resonated bass beat that pounds constantly throughout the song and overlays the bass with varying rhythms drawn from funk music, technoTechno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
, Middle Eastern music
Middle Eastern music
The music of Western Asia and North Africa spans across a vast region, from Morocco to Afghanistan, and its influences can be felt even further afield. Middle Eastern music influenced the music of India, as well as Central Asia, Spain, Southern Italy, the Caucasus and the Balkans, as in chalga...
, and trance
Trance music
Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s.:251 It is generally characterized by a tempo of between 125 and 150 bpm,:252 repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and breaks down throughout a track...
using drums and other synthesized instruments. The different leads, rhythms and beats generally change every 8 bars
Bar (music)
In musical notation, a bar is a segment of time defined by a given number of beats of a given duration. Typically, a piece consists of several bars of the same length, and in modern musical notation the number of beats in each bar is specified at the beginning of the score by the top number of a...
. 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. Psychedelic trance makes heavy use of the cutoff frequency
Cutoff frequency
In physics and electrical engineering, a cutoff frequency, corner frequency, or break frequency is a boundary in a system's frequency response at which energy flowing through the system begins to be reduced rather than passing through.Typically in electronic systems such as filters and...
control of the modulating filter on the synthesizer. Reverb and Delay are used heavily, with large, open sounding reverb present on most of the lead synthesizers in the track.
The Roland TB-303 (acid) sequencer, Juno 106 and Roland SH-101 are heavily used and sampled in Psychedelic trance, usually processed through a distortion effect.
Related sub-genres
In 1996 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 the 1998 album RadioRadio (X-Dream album)
Radio is a psychedelic trance album released by X-Dream in 1998. Widely considered one of the most successful albums in the genre, this was one of the first albums to introduce a darker, more minimal sound which was later emulated by other artists...
by X-Dream
X-Dream
X-Dream are Marcus Christopher Maichel and Jan Müller ; they are also known as Rough and Rush. They are producers of psychedelic trance music and hail from Hamburg, Germany...
.
In 2002, 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 recently been a movement attempting to ‘return to the source’ and bring back the original Goa trance sound, such as Metapsychic Records (2006 - December 2007) and Suntrip Records
Suntrip Records
Suntrip Records is a half-French, half-Belgian record label, releasing Goa trance and melodic Psychedelic trance.Suntrip Records was set up in the summer of 2004 by Fabien "Mars" Marsaud, one of the founders of the Psynews.org website and Joske "Anoebis" Vranken, a Belgian DJ and...
, which are dedicated to reviving the roots of the scene and promoting artists trying to recapture the original feeling of the music.
Underground
In the early days of psychedelic trance scene (c. 1994) a side project was established by pioneers such as Simon Posford, Joti Sidhu (Psychaos), Dominic Lamb, Olli Wisdom... who produced tracks intended to be exclusively played at so called ´real or heavy Psychedelic` parties.The sound of this music reportedly contains higher levels of intense and full power twisted patterns which has a far richer quality when compared with the standard commercial side of the scene.
The tracks was shared exclusively among the similar-minded acts and also to a few numbers of handpicked Djs and was very difficult to obtain by people outside that `inner circle` which has generate the development of the new, but yet diffrent in many levels genre Dark in 2004 by mainly former audience.
Psybreaks
Psybreaks or psychedelic breakbeat is a form of psychedelic trance originating in the late 90s, splicing breakbeatBreakbeat
In 1992, a new style called "jungalistic hardcore" emerged, and for many ravers it was too funky to dance to. Josh Lawford of Ravescene prophesied that the breakbeat was "the death-knell of rave" because the ever changing drumbeat patterns of breakbeat music didn't allow for the same zoned out,...
basslines and rhythms into otherwise heavily psytrance-influenced tracks.
Style typical Tracks: Drone - Pulsar, Morphonix - Island Sanctuary, and Planewalker - Spellbound.
Full on
Full on is a form of psychedelic trance that originated in IsraelIsrael
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
during the late 1990s. The expression “full on” is taken from the first out of a seven compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
s series and the first album ever to be released under Hom-mega Productions in 1998
1998 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1998.-Events:*January 28 – "Weird Al" Yankovic gets LASIK surgery to cure his myopia...
, titled Full On, which comes from English slang. Other sources say it comes from the "Full" "moon" 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 may also refer to the drug use 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.
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
1200 Micrograms
1200 Micrograms is a psychedelic trance act from Ibiza. The members are Riktam and Bansi from GMS, Raja Ram and Chicago. Raja Ram is Australian, but has lived in London for over 30 years. Bansi and Riktam are Dutch, Chicago is American, and the 3 live on Ibiza Island, Spain...
, Astrix
Astrix
Astrix is a Psychedelic trance DJ and producer specialising in the sub-genre of Full On Psychedelic Trance....
, 40%, SOM
Som
Som may refer to:* Som * Som, Uttar Pradesh, India* Som, slang for sommelier* Som, an alternative name for the Hungarian wine grape Furmint* Som , a Bengali Indian surname...
and Vibe Tribe
Vibe Tribe
Vibe Tribe is the project of producer Stas Marnyanski.Stas Marnyanski, Russian born Israeli, has been producing electronic based music since his early teens , 4 years of experimentation of thorough learning kick started his professional career....
.
Some Full On Record label
Record label
In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...
s: PsyShark
PsyShark
PsyShark Recordsis a psychedelic trance music record label,that was founded in 2006 by Valentino Jorno in Tel Aviv City, Israel....
, Phantasm Records
Phantasm Records
Phantasm Records was one of the first Goa trance record labels established in London in 1993.The label was started by veteran DJ John Phantasm who is the father of psychadelic trance DJ and producer known as Eskimo, his "prodigal son". Phantasm is one of the biggest record companies in its music...
, Hommega, B.N.E, and many more.