This unique book about the Goatrance movement is an anthology of the international Goa and Psytrance generation. It is the first book that describes the scene as a whole. The articles are written by 41 insiders of the international Psytrance scene from five continents. The pictures originate from some of the best photographers globally. The book highlights the evolution of the scene in the last 20 years and looks ahead to the future. The book comes along with a DVD and a poster, together as deluxe version, and both book and DVD will also be available separately. Both products are contemporary documents of a generation and photographic and filmic masterpieces.
For the newcomer in the Psytrance scene, this easy-to-read book is a ticket to an world of music, mind, feeling and love in a unique common psy-universe. For the long-term Goa-trancer it will be a revelation of backgrounds of the scene, a diary of the personal evolution and a heart-moving must to complete und re-feel the individual history.
Facts:
The book will be published in English and German first, then also a Portugese and a Japanese edition is planned. Together with the book there will be published a DVD by Psynema/El Geko and a poster.
The editors gathered many renowned musicians, deco artists, painters, VJs and makers of the scene together to form a most comprehensive picture about the scene world-wide: Ananto, Artur da Silva, Brad Olsen, Charles de Ledesma, Christian Rätsch, Eyal Yankovich, Goa Gil, Gregory Sams, Gui Lotus, Hans Cousto, Kai Mathesdorf, Katarina Bartovicova, Kei Fujishiro, Kranti Pessoa, Lui Raptor, Marc Brouard (Phoenix Firedancers), Martina Hoffmann, Omananda, Pascal Querner, Peter Ziegelmeier, Psynema, Rober Hannah Cleaver, Roger Liggenstorfer, Sam Chaishop, Scotty, Tom Rom, William Miller/Fish, Wolfgang Sterneck and some more.
The contents and articles cover a wide range of topics in the Psytrance scene: history and evolution, culture, spirituality and drugs, music, art, trance-dance and performances and scenes from all over the world as well as critical thoughts and previews to the future of Psytrance. Other important chapters are dedicated to the Cosmic Octave, shamanism, ecology and social codes unique to this scene. The book also provides glimpses to history, making and backgrounds of several festival such as the Boom, Voov/Vuuv, Burning Man, Solipse and the national scenes of Australia, Brazil, Israel, Japan, UK and many other regions of the world.
The legendary DJ Miko has been a fixture of the Trance scene since its early days in 1989. He has played marathon 12-hour sessions in underground Goa parties, attracting travelers worldwide. He was the first DJ to introduce Trance parties in Japan, and to show the Trance movement as a visionary way of life. DJ Miko's vision was to show people a happier way of living—outside the system, free.
DJ Miko is the man behind huge number of Trance events all over the world, one of the pioneering figures of the local Israeli and international scene, a true activist. Miko is also known for his groundbreaking successful projects California Sunshine and X-Wave. In 1995 DJ Miko and Harel Prussky created the groundbreaking band California Sunshine. The first track they created was the single "The Summer of 89", aka "The Dolphin Track", which was released on their first self-titled album and became a worldwide hit in underground trance parties, and was remixed by Paul Oakenfeld.
The "California Sunshine" CD sold more than 50,000 albums worldwide, and over 100,000 copies in Israel. Even though the CD was released over 15 years ago, it's still being bought due to its special energy that still keeps it selling time and again, till to this very day. California Sunshine was very prolific, releasing the CDs "Imperia", "Nasha", "Flying Eye Land", and "Wonderland".
Tracks from all of California Sunshine CDs have come out in many compilations around the globe. DJ Miko then released three CDs under the name X-Wave which featured artist friends such as Tsuyoshi, GMS, Spacecat, Skazi, X-Dream, Melicia, Safi Connection, and Euphoria. DJ Miko's latest album is D-Clock, a collaboration with gifted artist Roy Sela, This combination of a seasoned DJ and a rock musician has made the D-Clock CD a highly mature, polished release, bearing new elements, motifs and atmosphere, a breath of fresh Trance active air.
D-Clock is a special double CD release, which includes the Trance side of D-Clock packed with epic beauties on one hand, and a chilling floating ambient delicatessens CD2 on the other. D-Clock have definitely gone a step farther, pushing the boundaries and limitations, and with this fine debut have succeeded in creating a set of mindblowing tracks with a solid seal and stamp of originality.
DJ Miko and Roy Sela have definitely triumphed in their task and deliver one hell of a release, bound to affect and amaze music lovers around the world. Aside from producing solid, innovative dance floor sounds, what really places D-Clock in a league of its own is its unprecedented live act show, live on stage, emitting vast amounts of energy to the dance floor.
DJ Miko has always pushed the boundaries of Trance in his sets and has always succeeded in creating a force of energy that brings people to new heights of emotion. DJ Miko's message has always been one of unity, of creating an energy on the dance floor that unites people and brings them together as one, making all the people of this earth as one.
Goa trance:
Is form of electronic music and is a style of trance music which originated in the Indian region of Goa. The music has its roots in the popularity of the Goa region in the late 1960's and early 1970's as a hippie mecca, although the actual Goa trance style would not appear until much later. As the tourist influx tapered off in the 1970's and 1980's, a core group remained in Goa, concentrating on improvements in music along with other activities such as yoga, recreational drug use, and various New Age pursuits.
The introduction of techno style and technique to Goa led to what would eventually become the Goa trance style; early pioneers included Goa Gil and Mark Allen. Many parties (similar to raves) in Goa revolve entirely around this genre of music; Goa is also often played in other countries at raves, festivals and parties often in conjunction with other styles of trance and techno.
Goa is essentially dance-trance music(and was referred to as Trance Dance in its formative years), and as such has an energetic beat, almost always at 4/4 and often going into 16th or 32nd notes. A typical number will generally build up to a much more energetic movement in the second half of the track, and then taper off fairly quickly toward the end. Generally 8-12 minutes long, Goa tracks usually have a noticeably stronger bassline than other trance music and incorporate more organic squelchy sounds.
Goa trance parties have a visual aspect as well, the use of fluoro (fluorescent paint) is common in clothing and decoration. The images are often associate with topics like aliens, hinduism and other religious (especially eastern) images, mushrooms (and other psychedelic imagery), shamanism and technology. Goa trance has a significant following in Israel, brought to that country by former soldiers returning from recreationalpost-army trips to Goa. A great deal of Goa trance is now produced in Israel, but its production and consumption is a global phenomenon.
Goa Trance effectively morphed into psychedelic trance during the latter half of the 1990's. Both styles are generally non-commercial and underground compared to other forms of trance. The goa sound is more likely to be heard at outdoor parties and festivals than in clubs and places like Ibiza. For a short period in the mid-'90's it enjoyed significant commercial success with support from DJ's like Paul Oakenfold. The artist man with no name probably came the closest to being a goa trance.
Psychedelic Trance:
Psychedelic trance (often referred to as psy trance) is a form of trance music, developed in the late 1990's. Trance has a fast beat, in the range 125 to 150 beats per minute (bpm), compared to ambient trance music and other forms like house and techno. It has a strong bass sound that beats continuously without change and is overlaid by many other rhythms. This type of trance is popular in the UK, but is a truly global phenomenon, and interestingly there is an under representation of American artists, although Israeli artists are well represented. As of 2002 many Japanese artists have started to take in this genre from the influence of UK DJ's.
Psychedelic trance, often referred to as psytrance, is a form of electronic music that developed from Goa trance in the early 1990s when it first began hitting the mainstream. In some psychedelic trance circles and online communities, 'Psychedelic' is the preferred name for the genre as it provides an umbrella term for the many divergent styles including Goa, full on, dark, prog and suomi. Referring to it as "psychedelic" also distinguishes the style from the 'clubbier' type of trance music and reinforces the roots of Goa trance in the psychedelic community. Psychedelic
Psychedelic Trance
trance generally has a fast tempo, in the range 135 to 150 BPM but has developed into numerous different styles within the genre all with their own range of tempos. The emphasis in psychedelic trance is placed strongly on purely synthesized timbres in terms of programming and lead melodies. The original Goa trance was often made with popular Modular synthesizers and hardware samplers, but the preference in Psychedelic trance has moved to sample manipulation and storage in VST and AU software sampler applications. The use of analog synthesizers for sound synthesis has given way to digital "virtual analog" instruments like the Nord Lead, Access Virus, Korg MS-2000, Roland JP-8000 and computer VST and AU plugins like Native Instruments Reaktor. These are usually controlled by MIDI sequencers within Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) applications.
Psychedelic trance is most popular in the UK, Israel, Portugal, Mexico, Germany, Japan, Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Belgium, Serbia, Macedonia, Netherlands, the Nordic countries and India. The genre is not as well known outside its scene as uplifting or progressive is.
The club and dance scenes worldwide have been using psychedelic trance in performances along with Goa trance, ambient trance, progressive trance, and minimalist trance. The mixture of Goa and psychedelic trance music is the popular kind of trance performance to many trance listeners. Psychedelic trance can be considered an offshoot of Goa trance. Popular artists that make psychedelic trance include Astral Projection, Space Tribe, Infected Mushroom, Atmos, Total Eclipse, Cosmosis and Simon Posford. Psychedelic trance is often played at outdoor festivals. People at these festivals sometimes consume psychedelic drugs like LSD, ecstasy and psychedelic mushrooms. The festivals often take place over a few days with music being played 24 hours a day.
Ambient Trance:
The precursor to Progressive Trance, Ambient Trance is a dreamy, hypnotic and intelligent style of trance, mostly German, that utilizes atmospheric pads, epic melodic progressions and occasionally symphonic arrangements. It is not to be confused with commercial, mainstream trance from artists such as ATB or Darude. At times borrowing elements from the earlier acid movement, such as rezzy 303 leads and minimal percussion, but based more on the spiritual experience that Goa Trance has since trademarked, Ambient Trance is an often-forgotten but extremely influential style that took rave music to a higher and more profound level. Sometimes called Oldschool Trance because it has since been left behind for the harder styles popular today.
Ambient Trance is not as much a specific genre as it is a period in the history of dance music's most notorious style. When The Orb and other early dance pioneers were mixing ambient records with current club-oriented sounds, many producers and DJs in the UK and Germany began taking notice. As early as 1990, German musician Harald Bluechel (aka Cosmic Baby) was experimenting with classical piano and synthesizer melodies contrasted against techno rhythms, and in 1993 released one of the most popular trance songs of all time,Cafe del Mar (under the pseudonym Energy 52) which is still being remixed today.
Perhaps the most prolific figure in trance, then and now, is Oliver Lieb. Recording under the aliases Paragliders, The Ambush, Spicelab and LSG, Lieb remixed almost every trance producer of note during the 90's and continues to do so today. His albums spanned entire genres, from tribal, ethnic fusion to spacey trance to rough and tough techno. Considered by many to be one of the gods of trance alongside Paul van Dyk, Lieb was a huge reason why the style remained powerful and important in dance cultures around the world.
As with all styles, Ambient Trance eventually morphed into something different and by the mid 90's, it was almost entirely abandoned for harder and more progressive sounds. However, a few producers of that time still remain today producing intelligent trance, among them Humate, Salt Tank, Lieb and Paul van Dyk, albeit in a more modern setting. But most fans of dance music will fondly remember the early and mid-90's as the good old days of trance, with some of the most beautiful and profound tracks produced during this time.
Progressive Trance:
This trance is generally more laid back than Euro, it tends to be a lot deeper and has a less commercial edge. It is also usually slower (130 - 140 bpm) and has a wider variety of sounds - many progressive tunes use a lot of tribal techno and breakbeat sounds. The rifts in progressive music are much more subtle than that of Euro and never as uplifting. Progressive music relies more on subtle builds and drops guided by the DJ throughout the night, whereas Euro builds and drops in each individual tune. Recently much progressive trance has moved towards deep tribal sounds and breaks. This is often referred to as progressive house. Hard Trance
Hard Trance:
As the title suggests, blends traditional trance sounds and structure with harder elements more reminiscent of Acid and Techno. The tempo is generally increased to between 145 and 155 and the kick drum and bass is usually a focus for a clubbing audience.
