Goa trance
Goa trance – also known as Goa, cosmic trance, psychedelic trance, psytrance or psy – is a trance subgenre which emerged in the early 1990s.
Goa trance usually has a tempo between 130 and 150 bpm (sometimes even up to 180 bpm) and an energetic, stomping/pounding 4/4 beat featuring a low, fat and vigorous bass drum with strong sub-bass frequencies. Further characteristics are drone- or acid-like basslines, experimental synth sounds as well as hypnotic melodies and rhythms, as Goa trance aims to have a collective experience of bodily transcendence by creating a hypnotic feel (dance as an active meditation). Goa tracks are usually instrumental but sometimes featuring vocal/spoken word samples with mysterious themes like science fiction, drugs, extraterrestrial life, time traveling, dreams, parapsychology etc.
As the name implies, Goa trance has its roots in the Indian state of Goa. From the mid-1960s to mid-1970s Goa had been a hippie hotspot. One of these free spirits was American musician/ dj Gilbert Levey aka Goa Gil, founder of the Full Moon Parties at the beaches of Anjuna and Vagator which can be seen as the origin of Goa/psytrance festivals. In the beginning, the music played at Goa beach parties was (live) psychedelic rock or reggae. In the early 1980s electronic music found its way into the scene. The first one to play electronic music there was probably French dj Fred Disko – but the main influential figure was fellow Frenchman DJ Laurent. In his often 10 hour long sets he played an eclectic mix of electronic music from all over, be it EBM, new beat, Italo disco, new wave, goth, hi-NRG, techno, synth pop – anything that fitted the vibe. DJ Laurent heavily edited the tracks (using cassette tapes), extended instrumental and rhythmic parts, cut out unwanted vocals, messed with the tempos... creating some kind of futuristic sixties psychedelia on the »dancefloor«. Thus, some see him as one of the pioneers of the trance genre in general – and this »old school« Goa music mix was called »trance dance«. Other notable djs were Guy Moran, Swiss Rudy, Ray Castle, Dr. Bobby and DJ Chicago.
In the early 1990s things began to change when artists like Ron Rothfield aka Raja Ram came to Goa and began to produce music inspired by their experiences. Back home in the UK, Rothfield founded »The Infinity Project« in 1991 (with Graham Wood and Anjee Sian) and the label TIP Records in 1994. Artists began to produce music for and with Goa in mind, underground Goa parties were held all over Europe and Spanish island Ibiza became kind of an European counterpart of Goa. A new genre of electronic music was born: Goa trance or later called psychedelic trance/ psytrance. Other pioneers of the new genre were British project Juno Reactor with its mastermind Ben Watkins and the 1993 album »Transmissions«, German band X- Dream and their 1994 album »TripTo Trancesylvania« and Danish project Koxbox with the album »Forever After«(1995). In 1994, BBC1 broadcasted »The Goa Mix«, a two-hour dj mix by Paul Oakenfold which was released as a record in 1995. One of the most influential genre albums was the also commercially successful debut album by Simon Posford aka Hallucinogen, »Twisted« (1995). Another influential artist was UK dj/producer Martin Freeland aka Man With No Name (M.W.N.N.), known for tracks like »Floor Essence«, »Neuro Tunnel« and »Lunar Cycle« (all 1995).
Further notable genre artists include Italian project Etnica and their side project Pleiadians, Olli Wisdom aka Space Tribe (singer of UK goth band Specimen and co- founder of legendary London goth club The Batcave), Israeli group Astral Projection (with tracks like »Mahadeva«, »Utopia« and »Liquid Sun«) or Dutch/Ibiza-based duo Growling Mad Scientists (GMS), known for their 1997 album »Chaos Laboratory« or their 2002 milestone »No Rules«. Later artists and albums of importance were French projects Talamasca with »Beyond The Mask« (2000) and Deedrah with the album »Reload« (2001), Russian project Parasense with »Apple« (2001) as well as Israeli artists Ari Linker aka Alien Project with »Midnight Sun« (2001), Avi Shmailov aka Astrix with »Eye To Eye« and Infected Mushroom with »The Gathering« (1999) and »Classical Mushroom« (2000).
The first Goa label was probably Dragonfly Records, founded in 1993 by producer and Killing Joke-bass player Martin Glover aka Youth as a sublabel of his Butterfly Records. Further genre labels include the aforementioned and highly influential TIP records, UK labels Matsuri Productions, Transient Records, Flying Rhino Records, Blue Room Released, German label Spirit Zone Records (founded by Wolfgang Ahrens a.k.a. DJ Antaro) and Israeli label HOM-Mega Productions.
