There are several reasons why psytrance sounds as most of you say. I would pick only a few in the comment: 1. Technology - everybody is using the same gear today ( same VSTs, plugins, it’s all way more available today than it was back then ) 2. Social Media - promotion of long arrangement music with a good story is impossible today in the formats social media is allowing today 60-90 sec 3. Crowd expectations - as crazy as it might sound, I’ve been experimenting with a lot of different arrangements, and crowd reacta only on the typical one. Average listeners are not that open to changes, and if you aim to succeed, playing a living from the music, then experimentation might prolong the success most of the artists or producers are not the ones with plenty of self-esteem and they choose not to risk and they mostly go with the formula they know will work. 4. Managers - Agents: the influence of the managers and booking agents is high today. They mostly advise producers and artists on what they should do, and what is popular and they mostly influence them to make something they believe they could sell. 5. Promoters - promoters are booking artists that can sell tickets, and seeing who is selling tickets, artists will try to make similar music so they can stay active on the scene. To be unique, you must have a financial background and not care for financial benefits from your artistic career, or you should be so sure of your identity and refuse any influence from the other. The majority will never have any of these two!
Audio quality has improved massively - but this is because of technological improvements and access to technical tutorials. Sure, back in the day the overall audio quality was not as good, but there was far more creativity and uniqueness to artists. I feel this is due to the fact that artists were not drawing inspiration from other psy artists (there weren't many before 1995), they were drawing inspiration from psychedelic rock, acid house, industrial, dub, nu energy, etc, etc.. So, one artist's palette of inspiration would differ massively from the next. A few generations down the line, psy artists are inspired by other psy artists, closing the creative loop and the snake has swallowed its own tail. Another factor to consider is how DJ culture changed psy music over time. DJs tend to mix songs that neatly fit into each other. This has lead to many original ideas being chucked aside because they stand out too much from whatever else is being produced. What we are left with is DJs playing cookie cutter generic music, and producers feeling they need to fit in rather than stick out. My learned friends. STICK OUT! MAKE UNIQUE MUSIC! THIS IS FREAK MUSIC!
But when someone's trying to create something different, it gets ignored... People like what they already know. Most people aren't open minded unfortunately. We identify with the genres we like. As soon as we hear something different, we put a label of 'not the stuff I like'. Knowing that, it's difficult for artists to dare to take the step of doing something different. We should try and be open to new ideas. This would encourage artists for innovation. This means things like: - not instantly clicking away when we see an artist with a small following - not instantly clicking away when we see certain genre labels we think we don't like - not instantly clicking away after the first 30 seconds of a track Thanks for this video. It's an important discussion!
i recently had a friend tell me that unless im on the psy stage, they wont even bother because they never know what i am going to play... isaid, im confused , you dont like music? my taste in music? you dont like ... variety? she says no, i just like predictability... i said , how are you my friend? the very definition of psychedelic would have you think that i means mind opening... but in fact, it means mind manifesting... meaning that the mind will create more of what it already knows it can handle when left alone... and throwing crazy styles of music at people who are perfectly content with the level of risk theyve taken leaving the house... nevermind listening to something that is undefinable....you get a very homogenized crowd very quickly who think they are cutting edge because theyve found something differet than normal life... but as far as the entirety of the realm of even a singular genre (which is really almost 20-30 genres) most people dont have minds open enough for that,. the music im making is not coming out exactly as psy or techno or whatnot... its going well, we use these benchmarks because people have done them well,.,.. too well, so everyone strives to meet these achievements of precision crafted audio .... and try to emulate it so that it sounds just as good as the other guy... welll how do you know if it sounds as good if it is not the same song>? you cant... and that is why we have so many artists trying to meet the benchmark, using the same sounds, arrangement , synths, fx, poresets, mastering.... and sure, it sounds great. its amazing. but it is i dare say, all getting to be a bit much. just as painters still using oil paints are still emerging with new visions it is possible to achieve a standout innovative result that will be the new benchmark. i havent heard anything in psytrance in a minute that is definitively striking, that emulates the masters but evolves past it... everyones reaching for this next lone deranger....
This has been a really interesting video to watch. Ive grown up listening to post 2010 psytrance, though there a number of earlier days tracks which remain my all time favourites mainky due ti how unique they are. I cant even imagine a psytrance party like the ones youre describing where the sound changes so kuch between each set - it seems like ive really missed out! Though i do think there is actually a huge variety of psytrance music being produced today. Massively varying styles e.g. Zenon, psytechno, hitech, dark, forest, fullon, deep progressive etc. Personally i believe the issue mainly lies with the party planners and organisers. Theyre sticking to formulas, they dont want to upset people, keep it formulaic, easy, trance inducing. I know where I'm from party planners are like "nope we've gotta keep it fullon all day, then night fullon, then dark, and then high tech". Now imagine the bigger festivals where there are entrenched interests frim the poppular record labels - which all happen to be mostly fullon and progressive sounds - youre just nit getting rhe variety which does exist showcased. The rise is psytechno and zenon stuff ok like Dekel has been a huge breath of fresh air to the scene. Im actually noticing a lot of people who are into the more trance inducing styles if music are moving away from psytrance and into deep and hypnotic techno. And some if them are bringing that stuff bsck into the trance world which is really cool. Im an aspiring producer myself and i know for a lot of us starting out there is huge pressure to replicate an existing style in order to get noticed. Noticed both by small scale local psrty planners who want something which fits their mould, and secondly bu big labels whi can promote and play your music. Additionally psytrance has become HUGELY technical to produce these days. The quality of tracks is absolutely through the roof from a sound design and polishing perspective. So as a beginner to production its very natural to stick to what works and what is being showcased by successful producers in order to create that peofessiinak sound
Just watching people on Gathering in Japan on Vision quest on 2004,2005,2006, with Astrix, Dino Psaras and Delirious is the one of the best psytrance experience in my life...
Been on the same wavelength for several years now - sounds like 90% of the producers only have 1 preset pack between them. So weird and disappointing, especially considering that 'psychedelic' means 'mind-manifesting'?! Looking forward to a new breed of sonic adventurers breaking fresh ground
Thanks for the input. Everything evolves, but in the case of Psychedelic trance scene, unfortunately, the evolution has gone in the wrong direction. The problem is the music scene itself, which is more digital than analog. And you can hear it in the sterile arrangements, repeated sounds, the same bass line, the unchanged structure of each subsequent song... There are no artists who would create underground music again. Besides, the musical honeymoon that I thought lasted from the mid 90s to the early 2K is over and will never return. All that remains is to go back to the old songs and enjoy them. Which is very sad. Of course, there are a lot of good songs, but these are the exceptions that prove the rule. The last great album I heard, "when I flew into the stratosphere" :), will probably be Astral Projection remixes.
Some of us "old-timers" has said this for a long time. Welcome to the club! We came from the 80s new wave and synth-pop and the 70's psychedelic rock and shaped a new music style with lots of experimentation and uniqueness. Today almost every wannabe artist only draw inspiration from one source = Psytrance (and not the good kind) which makes the music boring, generic and extremely stereotype.
Been saying this for at least 5 years now. So much of the popular contemporary psytrance is, in my opinion, atonal, devoid of melodies, and lacking any signature element which differentiates one artist from the next. A lot of the tracks seem to use exactly the same elements and FM leads. It doesn't appeal to me whatsoever, hence why I am continuing to do my own thing, and gravitating always to music that appeals to me - artists that in my view all have a distinctive signature style and sound. I can always distinguish a Shift track, a Tryambaka track, an Iliuchina track for example. A lot of parties only feature a limited range of music. I find myself going back to artists like Phatmatix who had clear musicality in their work which is far more appealing to me than 6 mins of rolling bass with no melodic or tonal elements. It's just not interesting to me. Each to their own though 🖤
I've been going to psy festivals since the 90's and have been hearing some really good stuff recently. There are genius artists among all the same same if we just look a little. Nothing wrong with a little nostalgia though. I get the same with 00's DnB.
I totaly agree with you bro, i make a different style of psytrance but it so hard to find label, they all want the same thing...its all stagnant nobody seems to want to take a leap into something new and this reflects on the festivals and parties altogether
I get the feeling. Thankfully there's also playful exceptions like Yudhisthira, Kala, Daksinamurti, Terrafractyl, Skizologic, slip Hypnotic and way more. I love the current sound as well as the old sound. Within each subgenre, there's great stuff and not so great, it's a matter of taste, so some I like, some I don't. One big pro of the old sound was that a lot of it was psychedelic, but also kind of light to ears and mind. Nowadays almost all the cool stuff is really intense on all levels as the whole frequency range get used to the max.
I've been in the scene to some extent or another since the mid-90s. My formative years of parties were with the goa / trance. Now approaching 50 I don't party, but I'm still somewhat familiar with what's going on in the genre. Here's my take. late 80s - Early 90s the scene was exciting and fresh. New sounds, new directions, people discovering what was possible, and at parties everything was. You could mix jean michelle jarre in with acid house in with newbeat even rave, it was all good. It was all the vibe. But then commercialism got a hold of the sound, it appeared in movies, Oakenfold's goa mix took things mainstream. The originators of goa wanted to get away from that commercialism - maybe it was attracting the wrong crowd to parties? I dunno. From that movement the true psytrance found its sound in the late 90s and early 2000s.. but with it the scene had a more guarded view of itself and outsiders. An almost tribalistic view to psytrance as a genre and its sub genres emerged - it was harder to get differing sounds played at parties - if you were a DJ or an artists known for one genre of psytrance that's all you could play. Now we even see labels specialisng in niche subgenres and nothing else. And that's a problem. The cross-pollination of ideas, of spirits, of sounds and dreams that was there in the 90s is lost. (or maybe I'm just old)... and as a result the genres stop evolving. From a producer's point of view, now it's easy to learn how to produce. the cost of entry to making trance is next to nothing. And all the secret codes of how to do it are there on youtube, or take the easy route and buy some serum preset packs, or hit up splice for some pre-made stems. The whole eco-system is geared for certain pre-defined sounds. There's so much music being produced, none of it is getting played, and as a DJ / label it's impossible to search through that much noise. So, you stick to what gets people dancing at parties, and selling on beatport... and as a result the genres stop evolving.
Psy/Goa trance was pretty big in the 90's (Cosmosis, X-Dream, Cygnus-X, etc.) - here is a psytrance DJ mix you might enjoy from my time in the 90's: ua-cam.com/video/ZqQdScvCA4s/v-deo.htmlsi=dX_s1WhAmyJP7Q_Q
was dipping in and out of goa back in 99 till 03 and i remember this sound more or less, still remember dark soho and big fan of Israelian goa, fun watching and listening, thx
lol around 20 years ago I showed a few tracks like conga fury and mona lisa overdrive to my friends out of the psy trance scene. I just got the reply "that's no psytrance!" Maybe it is much more the crowd that created that "predictable style" then the artists. but yeah back then I liked the weird stuff and now the weird stuff is to be found at the Hi-tech and dark stages :) it is still there I think just a bit more split up in subgenres. And with that go listen to a few new Modus tracks :D
I’m still stuck at iono- and tessaract-style progressive Psytrance from around 2012 haha. Some artists still put out bangers today but as you said it became extremely predictable and boring most of the time. Wish they would apply modern production techniques to older, less drop focused styles
Mhmm, I think what you wish for might already exist. "Freeform Psytrance". My favorite boundary pusher is Procs! There's still loads of exciting stuff out there! The brave producers are probably just drowning in the "accepted" ones. Sadly we can't force the masses to like it. I prefer the darker, more twisted styles, because that's where you would encounter the most experimental stuff.
@@SPSquirtle yeah, and with the old sound, many kick bass and rhitmic combo's where simply what you could easily find by yourself when playing around with sound design. To find a cool sound and to produce it well are two different stories.
@@SPSquirtleI disagree, it's mixed as it should be, it's pure artistic freedom. Thinking something needs to be mixed according to rules is what made everything stale and uninteresting at the least and not psychedelic at its worst
I'm a recent psytrance producer and I've only 22 years old, so I enter in psytrance scene in last years and I absolutely agree with you. Psytrance is becoming all the same, the same vibe, the same sounds and instruments, no more music travels and emotional tracks, just energy to make the crowd jump. Some sets looks like a 1hour long track. I'm trying to make my own sound, express my feelings, create my identity and make music who I like and not to the others like, but sometimes being different doesn't result to the people who don't understand the travel I made in my music and it's okay. I don't want to sound like the best producers in the world, I want to sound like who I am, and that's what I'm doing.
The initial phenomenon of psytrance encouraged many artists to look for sounds that "worked" on the dance floor, and the artists who managed to somehow "professionalize" their work created the first formulas. Some time later this culminated in the creation of "sub-genres", but inadvertently it was also the beginning of the degradation of creativity. In the past, the scarcity of technologies and study and reference material, or even the lack of a clear definition of the elements that formed the "psychedelic trance" genre, allowed greater originality among artists, as a lot of creativity and effort was required to produce music. The absence of ready-made formulas forced creators to explore new sounds and styles, resulting in greater diversity within the genre. Today many artists are motivated by the desire for fame, being guided by what is easily recognizable as "sellable", limiting their styles to what is commercially viable. This fact means that originality is sacrificed in favor of greater acceptance by the public (focus on the masses) and, consequently, greater success. Finally, new generations tend to like different things than previous generations. Furthermore, the evolution of digital media has transformed the way content is produced and sold, making marketing more important than the music itself for artists looking to establish themselves. source: my humble opinion.
Great insight how music not only in psytrance genre was before more original more inspirational, i think in those times we lost that, everything is just and industry and about the money.
So sick of it all having the same bom bom biddly bom bloody basslines listen to some of the early goa party videos in 1990-92 for some real innoative stuff. good stuff is still being made it's just the djs don't play it live & a lot of todays stuff like dark forest is too fast & dark to be fun to dance to.
This trend of making crappy ,predictable and boring music became standard not just in the music industry. You can easily notice it within film industry as well where lot of the films are based mostly on CGI effects.That`s the reason why people still prefer old films and old music. It felt more real and natural. It seems like the modern stuff as we got access to better and more advanced plug ins and audio equipment lost its human touch and creativity for the favour of being overproduced. Back in the days I think artists had to put a lot more thought into the tracks since there weren`t that many sounds and samples available so you had to get creative.Now everything is served on a silver platter at your fingertips and we simply got lazy. Lot of artists go for the quick buck as well.New psytrance is severly boring and repetitive to me and I mostly listen to old stuff 2000-2005 era which to me was the best. Also in the past ,every artist had unique style and you could easily distinguish between them.Now it sounds like all of the tracks are made by the same artist.
I have to say the generic nature of things is upsetting as I saw the same happen with the trance scene, copy after copy, I still DJ psy trance on a regular basis, but I will be honest I play nothing past 2015 ha ha ha, I went to a psy trance event recently and was horrified to sit there trying to find melody, tune, or anything to grab hold of to dance, then I experienced something that sounded like being in an MRI machine, this was apparently psycore? It's heartbreaking, but while there's some of us with superb past tracks, we will cling on to keep this scene alive, I am slowly moving over to Tekno, as I originated from hard house and I see much more variation in the music, I totally agree with you and happy you were brave enough to say it, thanks so much
this is a trend in music overall due to the commodification of the internet, what is rewarded online, and a lack of appreciation for something totally out there/experimental/original. social media algorithms have exacerbated issues of plagiarism/copying and now we have tutorials 'how to make x genre of music' rather than people experimenting with software, or creating new genres and subsequently less willingness to do things the 'wrong way' so to speak. so now everything is totally bland, no flavor, dry and less diversity
I'm not as old as some people here, "just" 30 and I discovered goa trance about 15 years ago, but with my friends we were listening mostly stuff from the 90s and early 2000s. Of course I listen also to modern psy-trance, but my devotion is just for few names and goa trance from the 90s for me is still the music of choice for partying!
Old man yells at clouds.. I’m so happy that psytrance has “progressed” from the 90s. I appreciate the history, we all stand on the shoulders of giants etc, but the music is WAY better today than ever before.. psytrance isn’t stuck, your listening to shit generic music.. 😂
I don't understands how people go to a festival and spend a week dancing the same way since the first music until the end!! My daughter with 15 years old, first time in ZNA Portugal, in the first 30 min she said: Dad this ia easy, is always the same!!!! One dj one time in boom, we where taking about that and he told me the "secret": is the fórmula!!!!!
The reason for this. Producers are Not musicians these days… so they focus on the sound… while back in the day…. Dimension 5 for example where a band…multiple people mixing creativity and knowledge… they where focussing on fun and creating a unique sound. 💛🙏
@@PolycultureArt We'll the art of producing is more focused on sound. In these modern times, producers have less musical knowledge so they need to rely on limited melodic patterns: for example: build in there DAW or pre-installed arpeggiators in software synths; this has the a lot of influence on music in a scene. All music starts to sound the same, cuz they build there music from the same patterns, arps and melodies. Before, especially in the 90-ies , we had (rock)artists, musicians, ... (in the sense having musical knowledge)They were experimenting with synths and making their own unique apps and melodies. They produced a unique sound filled with creativity and various unique sounds. Im not saying producers can't be musicians. It's actually 2 arts to master. Sound quality and Great compositions. All the love and have a great day.
You opened a new genre for me, and now it's inspired me to open up the Rapid Flow template and experiment a bit, maybe a cross between soul and trance to add some elevation with vocal harmonies. It would be the end of Psytrance as we know it. What would we call that. How bout "Trancend"?
As a long time "psytrancer" and DJ, what i feel now is that we are living the remix, of the remix of the remix of the same sounds and tricks of the "old-school" tracks from 20 years ago... Nowadays I only play tech-trance and psy-progressive stuff on my "psytrance" sets, The majority of the festivals nowadays have become comercial and corporative, so the line-ups trend to be more repetitive and only interested on attracting the public and selling tickets than to present new music... The more fast sub genders like hitech are the exact same "evolution" that happen on the Techno scene back in the day when hardcore has arrived... The true is that only a very small number of more unknown and smaller festivals still try to bring some diference and present innovative and talented artists, as the majority have become just copy/paste "music programmers" searching for the next "hit" on Bandcamp Top 10... The hole Psytrance scene has become unfortunately an ironic joke of itself living on the slogans and image of the past but without any real vision for its future, populated by greedy "pseudo -hippies" selling "something" and profiting with the scene... Only in the smaller and more intimate parties one can still enjoy some of the vibes that created this movement 40 years ago...
The (Mine, as a passionate Goa party visitor since 1998) only correct answer: Capitalists pounce on underground scenes to exploit them financially. Whatever is at the top of the 'charts' is repeated/copied as often as possible in order to make more money. This attracts more people who are already addicted to capitalism (and who don't care about uniqueness and creativity or have no sense of it). A sure-fire success, as in almost all scenes.
I grew up in the 90s with psytrance....My first Vinyl was Electric universe - Neutron Dance ( 1994 )....and i still have it ❤ after 30 years. The BEST psytrance Record ever.
@@UDRGSelection I know 👍👌. I've gotten so used to the word "psytrance". But I still say Goa Trance. For example, when I go to parties I say "Goa Party".
Never know whether criticism like this is musical or political. The increase in sound quality you refer to is due to highly technical standards becoming the norm. Would be good to hear which artists you DO think are pushing the boundary.
Fair question.. my intention with this video is to stir a discussion that hopefully results in more varied tracks & festival and party bookings. Sadly I can't answer the questions which acts are pushing the boundaries today... Perhaps others could chime in which acts are innovating today? I have moved to listening to different music, about 20 - 30 BPM slower :)
How can you say it’s all the same and lacking originality when YOUR NOT EVEN LISTENING TO CURRENT ARTISTS. Sorry man but your argument (or whine) is blown over like a house of cards with that comment. If your going to make outrageous claims (driven by pure nostalgia) then AT LEAST listen to the music you are criticizing. I was willing to entertain your perspective, but how would you know if someone is pushing the envelope or not if you don’t even give it a try, sort the wheat from the chaff. You are throwing out the baby with the bath water my guy.. P.s. I’m not hear to be a keyboard warrior, say nasty stuff, but your argument is basically the same as boomer parents saying rock n roll music “all sounds the same”… “music was so much better when I was young” etc. it’s not an argument, it’s an opinion (and a misinformed one at that)
@@PolycultureArtI still go to a few parties every year, mostly when friends invite me when they are playing, and what I hear is always the same. Has been for years..
@@RapidFlow_Shop Im sorry but this is all so subjective its not even worth "stiring" a conversation about.. You don't provide any examples of whats "bad". You give examples of a style from the early 90's and say that it should still be around (like a conservative ha ha, stuff changes for the better). Talk about ironic. To stay a WHOLE genre of music is stuck and not progressing, but advocate for old school revivalism of super outdated music from the early 90's instead.. 🤦♂ This whole attitude and opinion reeks of conservatism (the opposite of what the music your talking about aims to produce). "Back in my day" is just hot air. Its not your day anymore and thank the lord, otherwise, we would all be "stuck" in a badly produced, ramshackle mish mash of prepubescent dance music. (I want to point out that I started my trance journey with a lot of the artists you mention in the video, so im not uninformed or particularly biased. But just like your tasebuds, flavours change as you mature and sample more of the smorgasbord.) I reiterate. There is more beautiful, amazing, psychedelic and straight up progressive trance than there ever has been before. I'm not sure whether to feel sad or sorry that you can't seem to find it, but believe me my guy.. It exists! Maybe if you open your ears and your mind it will find you ;) Why not start here :) polyculture.bandcamp.com/album/entropy
Lastly, I am not saying that there ISNT shit, generic psytrance out there. There is a ton of it, VINI VICI comes to mind for me straight away. Hummana hummana triplet garbage, with overused serum patches... But to say ALL psytrance is the same (aka bad) is just ignorant and uninformed. If your going to make an 8 minute video about it, at least do some research. Because if you did you would find some amazing music and wouldn't NEED to make a 7:28 piece of nothing that only seeks to tear down artists that are doing great things.. Ok im out.
Have u been living under a Rock ??? The reason why there is so much music that sounds the same is because these artists have been making careers in teaching ppl. I have even seen artists selling templates of their tracks ... this music is the fast growing in terms of evolution and to this day keeps the evolution going that explains the amount of sub genres that exist of psytrance...from the high frequency based goa trance to the low frequency based psycore there is a massive amount of different sub genres with all sorts of bpm... so if artists are spreading their knowledge and creating armies of mini "me's" the amount of music that sounds the same is inevitable
Psytrance hasn't been original for a little over 20 years. People jokingly say hi-tech is fast full on, it isn't far from the truth sadly. Listen to suomisaundi if you want something fresh. It's the only subgenre where you can make a whole party where not 1 artist sounds like the other.
Bruv it all went to shit around 2010, even the few years before that we were running on fumes. I dont even listen to psytrance any longer. The newschool all sounds like the same 4 tracks. Chiva Chandra live in South Africa was one of the peak experiences of my life.GMS was unreal. You left out Talamasca...
I had the same thoughts before many years.first of all is the economy situation.garbage are growing up when the economy falls,second the machines produce more cheap sounds are not so expensive,third the generation in the decade of 90s comes directly from the decade of 80s they had listen so many genres of music.Metal rock jazz blues disco new wave front 242 Depeche mode classical music and most of they played an instrument.Belong to bands.first of all they were musicians djs
Its because artists are learning to produce by copying their predecessors. All the tracks of the artists you listed are from dudes who have tonnes of audio engineering experience outside of psytrance. They also came from a time when there was not really anything you could use as a template, even if you could audibly, you couldnt drop it into your DAW and hyper analyse it with modern DSP heavy plugins. Edit: I will add too that this isn't a problem in just psytrance, pretty much every single other genre I listen to its 95% predictable copying and repeated tropes and i can probably name all the artists on one hand that are doing something genuinely interesting.
This is a hugely important point I think. myself and many others i know who are aspiring to becoming psytrance producers are mostly replicating and learning from existing artists. So naturally tracks are sounding very similar.
Evolution my man. at first it was primordial soup and over time it pulled itself together into identifyable flows. music can never stay still. It is easier for me to use DnB for my description.. once it was all called DnB and now it is so wide and varied that some types of dnd sound awful compared to others. I cannot stand a huge chunk of dnb and get almost all of my kicks from the sub genre specifically known as Ragga Jungle DnB. Psytrance is now so wide and varied that it is NOT all psy trance. And forming itself into sameness is EXACTLY how genre tighten themselves up into types of their own. I heard at least 3 or 4 distinctly different sub groups of psy in your music even if I dont know the subgenre names or even if they have them yet. This is the kind of psy I like. ua-cam.com/video/gyIpuVYXO9Y/v-deo.html
Hello! I have to say from my side is many years that psytrance is less interesting it’s about 5 years minimum for me…became a empty product like many other style of music, is missing the psychedelic and the soul… but fortunately there is still who want to keep up the vibe, not so many artists but still there is… nice video, anyway I was speaking with many friends about how much less interesting became psytrance in the last years…a lot of new artists but the music is the copy of the copy of what we listened 10 years ago…
... suomisaundi.... is the free thinkers psy, the adventurers , unafraid to get goofy, silly, spugedelic ... a massive well of incredible music that has a strong forcefield... even crazier tracks ,.. nat for the faint of heart... some of the extreme weird bendy sloppy slurpy sounds are too much for me, even and i love it.... people used to the formulaic derivative just add kbbb to squiggles will either be enamored and fascinated by some variety (surprise its been going on for 30 years) and the rest brush it off as silly wonky and absurd... .when in fact, and my opinion,,, not much psytrance really stands a chance when it comes to funk, individuality, expressiveness and variety... .and while the sound design is on par with the best in the world, its overlooked because it is just , too psychedelic for most people. that is the way it goes. sisu!
It's always the same everywhere, old people complain that everything used to be better. Everything is fine with psytrance, it just doesn't correspond to your listening habits... it's like when old Metallica fans can't cope with the fact that they no longer sound like on Master of Puppets... you immediately find others who agree with you and that's how it is Here too, there are still plenty of artists/musicians/producers who don't follow the mainstream, but you have to make the effort to find them, you won't find them in the first 50 search results on UA-cam...or even not on UA-cam at all , once you didn't find your oldies there either, did you? ;) and I would probably make more friends with my answer , if I would agree with you...
Just like humans. The music (with technology) evolves. Let's hope it like life all circles and comes around again. 😅 Ps. (Yeah maybe we middle age and getting old 😂)
There are still great artists the produce old school goa vibe psytrance you just need to find the right party lineup, its true that seens 2006 most of psy trance music is generic and in a way boring to the old school goa trance music lover😂 nice collection of old tracks
I dont think you are exploring HOW we've moved but just show somehow THAT we've moved towards the sound of same same and hardly different. But maybe thats something you leave to the comment section :) To continue; i dont get why you show this graph. Suppose psytrance would have stayed as diverse as it was, do you think psytrance would be more popular now? The biggest commercial EDM festivals have over 400 k visitors, the styles played there score high on the chart and are imo much narrower in predominant style. These kind of charts are about the big numbers, not about small parties here and there. If there is a correlation, i would expect it to in reverse. So psytrance is still to popular..:) I agree that more diversity in psytrance would be welcome, good point you make. My only critic about your video is that you dont't show us your track of diverse psytrance that is high quality. Otherwise this is just a variation on the usual : psytrance is dead topic. That is not very diverse.
94-99 was amazing. and a few after mill. until 2005 . i lost complete interest in this kind of music. i love the old world stuff (90s) and i agree since 2010 something it all sounds the same. i also dont like all this festival bullshit. voodoo demonic dance
are you actually listening to psytrance these days? the scene is amazing and there is always new genres and people spending time to add their touch in it. if you speak only about goa trance maybe you're right, but man look at the psytechno scene, even forest/darkpsy is still buzzing and evolving. there are productions patterns in goa trance as well as in any other psychedelic genres, you're just talking about taste. the tracks you showed in the video sounds wrongly mixed to me, with a chaotic sound design and arrangement, nothing to do with production level nowadays. just go deeper than astrix or tristan and you'll find way more special tunes and genres than few years ago
@@RapidFlow_Shop Probably went to spam - I included some bandcamp links and that may have triggered it. I mentioned that I believe there are tons of amazing and unique psytrance currently, but due to algorithms, they are seldom discovered or pushed. Many artists also now don't label their music psytrance and instead use "techno" or "neotrance" or "tekkno" when that's not exactly accurate. Examples would be tracks like: Baptiste Schaller - Night Shot LDS - Mvoper FM Atikka - Slackline Notable labels: awa awa, area137, Space Trax Some festivals do promote forward-thinking psytrance like Mo:Dem, but your overall point in the video is of course accurate. I'm just offering a little insight into smaller corners of the scene. Generally though... yea, psytrance is very uninspired at the moment.
there is an German Artist called Karl Friedrich Schinkel, who once said: the human is only really alive, when/where he does something new, unknown.
David Lynch said: The Best music is one ive never heard ❤
There are several reasons why psytrance sounds as most of you say. I would pick only a few in the comment:
1. Technology - everybody is using the same gear today ( same VSTs, plugins, it’s all way more available today than it was back then )
2. Social Media - promotion of long arrangement music with a good story is impossible today in the formats social media is allowing today 60-90 sec
3. Crowd expectations - as crazy as it might sound, I’ve been experimenting with a lot of different arrangements, and crowd reacta only on the typical one. Average listeners are not that open to changes, and if you aim to succeed, playing a living from the music, then experimentation might prolong the success most of the artists or producers are not the ones with plenty of self-esteem and they choose not to risk and they mostly go with the formula they know will work.
4. Managers - Agents: the influence of the managers and booking agents is high today. They mostly advise producers and artists on what they should do, and what is popular and they mostly influence them to make something they believe they could sell.
5. Promoters - promoters are booking artists that can sell tickets, and seeing who is selling tickets, artists will try to make similar music so they can stay active on the scene.
To be unique, you must have a financial background and not care for financial benefits from your artistic career, or you should be so sure of your identity and refuse any influence from the other. The majority will never have any of these two!
Back when it meshed with acid techno and hard trance in the mid 90s, psy/goa were awesome
Audio quality has improved massively - but this is because of technological improvements and access to technical tutorials. Sure, back in the day the overall audio quality was not as good, but there was far more creativity and uniqueness to artists. I feel this is due to the fact that artists were not drawing inspiration from other psy artists (there weren't many before 1995), they were drawing inspiration from psychedelic rock, acid house, industrial, dub, nu energy, etc, etc.. So, one artist's palette of inspiration would differ massively from the next. A few generations down the line, psy artists are inspired by other psy artists, closing the creative loop and the snake has swallowed its own tail. Another factor to consider is how DJ culture changed psy music over time. DJs tend to mix songs that neatly fit into each other. This has lead to many original ideas being chucked aside because they stand out too much from whatever else is being produced. What we are left with is DJs playing cookie cutter generic music, and producers feeling they need to fit in rather than stick out. My learned friends. STICK OUT! MAKE UNIQUE MUSIC! THIS IS FREAK MUSIC!
But when someone's trying to create something different, it gets ignored...
People like what they already know.
Most people aren't open minded unfortunately.
We identify with the genres we like. As soon as we hear something different, we put a label of 'not the stuff I like'.
Knowing that, it's difficult for artists to dare to take the step of doing something different.
We should try and be open to new ideas. This would encourage artists for innovation.
This means things like:
- not instantly clicking away when we see an artist with a small following
- not instantly clicking away when we see certain genre labels we think we don't like
- not instantly clicking away after the first 30 seconds of a track
Thanks for this video.
It's an important discussion!
i recently had a friend tell me that unless im on the psy stage, they wont even bother because they never know what i am going to play... isaid, im confused , you dont like music? my taste in music? you dont like ... variety? she says no, i just like predictability... i said , how are you my friend? the very definition of psychedelic would have you think that i means mind opening... but in fact, it means mind manifesting... meaning that the mind will create more of what it already knows it can handle when left alone... and throwing crazy styles of music at people who are perfectly content with the level of risk theyve taken leaving the house... nevermind listening to something that is undefinable....you get a very homogenized crowd very quickly who think they are cutting edge because theyve found something differet than normal life... but as far as the entirety of the realm of even a singular genre (which is really almost 20-30 genres) most people dont have minds open enough for that,.
the music im making is not coming out exactly as psy or techno or whatnot... its going well, we use these benchmarks because people have done them well,.,.. too well, so everyone strives to meet these achievements of precision crafted audio .... and try to emulate it so that it sounds just as good as the other guy... welll how do you know if it sounds as good if it is not the same song>? you cant... and that is why we have so many artists trying to meet the benchmark, using the same sounds, arrangement , synths, fx, poresets, mastering.... and sure, it sounds great. its amazing. but it is i dare say, all getting to be a bit much. just as painters still using oil paints are still emerging with new visions it is possible to achieve a standout innovative result that will be the new benchmark. i havent heard anything in psytrance in a minute that is definitively striking, that emulates the masters but evolves past it... everyones reaching for this next lone deranger....
I agree. Most of it sounds the same. That's why i started producing my own psytrance. Be the change If you want better music, Make it!
Best advice!
This has been a really interesting video to watch. Ive grown up listening to post 2010 psytrance, though there a number of earlier days tracks which remain my all time favourites mainky due ti how unique they are. I cant even imagine a psytrance party like the ones youre describing where the sound changes so kuch between each set - it seems like ive really missed out!
Though i do think there is actually a huge variety of psytrance music being produced today. Massively varying styles e.g. Zenon, psytechno, hitech, dark, forest, fullon, deep progressive etc. Personally i believe the issue mainly lies with the party planners and organisers. Theyre sticking to formulas, they dont want to upset people, keep it formulaic, easy, trance inducing. I know where I'm from party planners are like "nope we've gotta keep it fullon all day, then night fullon, then dark, and then high tech". Now imagine the bigger festivals where there are entrenched interests frim the poppular record labels - which all happen to be mostly fullon and progressive sounds - youre just nit getting rhe variety which does exist showcased.
The rise is psytechno and zenon stuff ok like Dekel has been a huge breath of fresh air to the scene. Im actually noticing a lot of people who are into the more trance inducing styles if music are moving away from psytrance and into deep and hypnotic techno. And some if them are bringing that stuff bsck into the trance world which is really cool.
Im an aspiring producer myself and i know for a lot of us starting out there is huge pressure to replicate an existing style in order to get noticed. Noticed both by small scale local psrty planners who want something which fits their mould, and secondly bu big labels whi can promote and play your music.
Additionally psytrance has become HUGELY technical to produce these days. The quality of tracks is absolutely through the roof from a sound design and polishing perspective. So as a beginner to production its very natural to stick to what works and what is being showcased by successful producers in order to create that peofessiinak sound
Just watching people on Gathering in Japan on Vision quest on 2004,2005,2006, with Astrix, Dino Psaras and Delirious is the one of the best psytrance experience in my life...
Been on the same wavelength for several years now - sounds like 90% of the producers only have 1 preset pack between them. So weird and disappointing, especially considering that 'psychedelic' means 'mind-manifesting'?! Looking forward to a new breed of sonic adventurers breaking fresh ground
Thanks for the input. Everything evolves, but in the case of Psychedelic trance scene, unfortunately, the evolution has gone in the wrong direction. The problem is the music scene itself, which is more digital than analog. And you can hear it in the sterile arrangements, repeated sounds, the same bass line, the unchanged structure of each subsequent song... There are no artists who would create underground music again. Besides, the musical honeymoon that I thought lasted from the mid 90s to the early 2K is over and will never return. All that remains is to go back to the old songs and enjoy them. Which is very sad. Of course, there are a lot of good songs, but these are the exceptions that prove the rule. The last great album I heard, "when I flew into the stratosphere" :), will probably be Astral Projection remixes.
Some of us "old-timers" has said this for a long time. Welcome to the club! We came from the 80s new wave and synth-pop and the 70's psychedelic rock and shaped a new music style with lots of experimentation and uniqueness. Today almost every wannabe artist only draw inspiration from one source = Psytrance (and not the good kind) which makes the music boring, generic and extremely stereotype.
Been saying this for at least 5 years now. So much of the popular contemporary psytrance is, in my opinion, atonal, devoid of melodies, and lacking any signature element which differentiates one artist from the next. A lot of the tracks seem to use exactly the same elements and FM leads. It doesn't appeal to me whatsoever, hence why I am continuing to do my own thing, and gravitating always to music that appeals to me - artists that in my view all have a distinctive signature style and sound. I can always distinguish a Shift track, a Tryambaka track, an Iliuchina track for example. A lot of parties only feature a limited range of music. I find myself going back to artists like Phatmatix who had clear musicality in their work which is far more appealing to me than 6 mins of rolling bass with no melodic or tonal elements. It's just not interesting to me. Each to their own though 🖤
I've been going to psy festivals since the 90's and have been hearing some really good stuff recently. There are genius artists among all the same same if we just look a little. Nothing wrong with a little nostalgia though. I get the same with 00's DnB.
I totaly agree with you bro, i make a different style of psytrance but it so hard to find label, they all want the same thing...its all stagnant nobody seems to want to take a leap into something new and this reflects on the festivals and parties altogether
I get the feeling. Thankfully there's also playful exceptions like Yudhisthira, Kala, Daksinamurti, Terrafractyl, Skizologic, slip Hypnotic and way more.
I love the current sound as well as the old sound. Within each subgenre, there's great stuff and not so great, it's a matter of taste, so some I like, some I don't.
One big pro of the old sound was that a lot of it was psychedelic, but also kind of light to ears and mind. Nowadays almost all the cool stuff is really intense on all levels as the whole frequency range get used to the max.
Forest sound!
@@czarnyksiezycrogaty Yes! Forest is the answer!
Penta.
I've been in the scene to some extent or another since the mid-90s. My formative years of parties were with the goa / trance. Now approaching 50 I don't party, but I'm still somewhat familiar with what's going on in the genre. Here's my take.
late 80s - Early 90s the scene was exciting and fresh. New sounds, new directions, people discovering what was possible, and at parties everything was. You could mix jean michelle jarre in with acid house in with newbeat even rave, it was all good. It was all the vibe. But then commercialism got a hold of the sound, it appeared in movies, Oakenfold's goa mix took things mainstream. The originators of goa wanted to get away from that commercialism - maybe it was attracting the wrong crowd to parties? I dunno.
From that movement the true psytrance found its sound in the late 90s and early 2000s.. but with it the scene had a more guarded view of itself and outsiders. An almost tribalistic view to psytrance as a genre and its sub genres emerged - it was harder to get differing sounds played at parties - if you were a DJ or an artists known for one genre of psytrance that's all you could play. Now we even see labels specialisng in niche subgenres and nothing else. And that's a problem. The cross-pollination of ideas, of spirits, of sounds and dreams that was there in the 90s is lost. (or maybe I'm just old)... and as a result the genres stop evolving.
From a producer's point of view, now it's easy to learn how to produce. the cost of entry to making trance is next to nothing. And all the secret codes of how to do it are there on youtube, or take the easy route and buy some serum preset packs, or hit up splice for some pre-made stems. The whole eco-system is geared for certain pre-defined sounds. There's so much music being produced, none of it is getting played, and as a DJ / label it's impossible to search through that much noise. So, you stick to what gets people dancing at parties, and selling on beatport... and as a result the genres stop evolving.
This is really spot.on thank you for your input!
Dam i'm turning 50 this year... I thought it was yesterday all this tracks 😅 what a great time
Tell me about it! I'm 50 next year...
Psy/Goa trance was pretty big in the 90's (Cosmosis, X-Dream, Cygnus-X, etc.) - here is a psytrance DJ mix you might enjoy from my time in the 90's:
ua-cam.com/video/ZqQdScvCA4s/v-deo.htmlsi=dX_s1WhAmyJP7Q_Q
Agreed, I've been in the scene since early 90s but in the last few yrs it is disapointing. I like to think outside the box not mainstream ✌☺
Amazing! Didn't knew you were prahlad, I used to listen that project back in '07 😮
Nice one 😊 yeah that was the first music project I started with, back then on Cubase with a Powercore and some VSTs. Good times.
was dipping in and out of goa back in 99 till 03 and i remember this sound more or less, still remember dark soho and big fan of Israelian goa, fun watching and listening, thx
lol around 20 years ago I showed a few tracks like conga fury and mona lisa overdrive to my friends out of the psy trance scene. I just got the reply "that's no psytrance!" Maybe it is much more the crowd that created that "predictable style" then the artists. but yeah back then I liked the weird stuff and now the weird stuff is to be found at the Hi-tech and dark stages :) it is still there I think just a bit more split up in subgenres.
And with that go listen to a few new Modus tracks :D
I’m still stuck at iono- and tessaract-style progressive Psytrance from around 2012 haha. Some artists still put out bangers today but as you said it became extremely predictable and boring most of the time. Wish they would apply modern production techniques to older, less drop focused styles
And conga fury 😭 it’s so good, one of my gym bangers haha
Lots of great artists from that period, my favourite was Lyktum.
Mhmm, I think what you wish for might already exist. "Freeform Psytrance". My favorite boundary pusher is Procs! There's still loads of exciting stuff out there! The brave producers are probably just drowning in the "accepted" ones. Sadly we can't force the masses to like it. I prefer the darker, more twisted styles, because that's where you would encounter the most experimental stuff.
Also Suomisaundi is really awesome. Texas Faggot, Salakavala, Omitomi etc.. just few examples
I'll check it out!
@@deeeksidesound2368 Suomisaundi "creatively" is amazing, but a lot of it so badly mixed
@@SPSquirtle yeah, and with the old sound, many kick bass and rhitmic combo's where simply what you could easily find by yourself when playing around with sound design. To find a cool sound and to produce it well are two different stories.
@@SPSquirtleI disagree, it's mixed as it should be, it's pure artistic freedom. Thinking something needs to be mixed according to rules is what made everything stale and uninteresting at the least and not psychedelic at its worst
I'm a recent psytrance producer and I've only 22 years old, so I enter in psytrance scene in last years and I absolutely agree with you. Psytrance is becoming all the same, the same vibe, the same sounds and instruments, no more music travels and emotional tracks, just energy to make the crowd jump. Some sets looks like a 1hour long track. I'm trying to make my own sound, express my feelings, create my identity and make music who I like and not to the others like, but sometimes being different doesn't result to the people who don't understand the travel I made in my music and it's okay. I don't want to sound like the best producers in the world, I want to sound like who I am, and that's what I'm doing.
That s really great to read! Keep at it mate 👍🏾🎹
Wake up u are not talking about psy trance u are talking about a sub genre of psytrance...
The initial phenomenon of psytrance encouraged many artists to look for sounds that "worked" on the dance floor, and the artists who managed to somehow "professionalize" their work created the first formulas. Some time later this culminated in the creation of "sub-genres", but inadvertently it was also the beginning of the degradation of creativity.
In the past, the scarcity of technologies and study and reference material, or even the lack of a clear definition of the elements that formed the "psychedelic trance" genre, allowed greater originality among artists, as a lot of creativity and effort was required to produce music. The absence of ready-made formulas forced creators to explore new sounds and styles, resulting in greater diversity within the genre.
Today many artists are motivated by the desire for fame, being guided by what is easily recognizable as "sellable", limiting their styles to what is commercially viable. This fact means that originality is sacrificed in favor of greater acceptance by the public (focus on the masses) and, consequently, greater success.
Finally, new generations tend to like different things than previous generations. Furthermore, the evolution of digital media has transformed the way content is produced and sold, making marketing more important than the music itself for artists looking to establish themselves.
source: my humble opinion.
Great insight how music not only in psytrance genre was before more original more inspirational, i think in those times we lost that, everything is just and industry and about the money.
Juan Verdera, Astral Projection, Electric Universe, Juno Reactor... these psy artists are simply different, better.
So sick of it all having the same bom bom biddly bom bloody basslines listen to some of the early goa party videos in 1990-92 for some real innoative stuff. good stuff is still being made it's just the djs don't play it live & a lot of todays stuff like dark forest is too fast & dark to be fun to dance to.
Great video brother! See you in ZNA 2026!! 😊
This trend of making crappy ,predictable and boring music became standard not just in the music industry. You can easily notice it within film industry as well where lot of the films are based mostly on CGI effects.That`s the reason why people still prefer old films and old music. It felt more real and natural. It seems like the modern stuff as we got access to better and more advanced plug ins and audio equipment lost its human touch and creativity for the favour of being overproduced. Back in the days I think artists had to put a lot more thought into the tracks since there weren`t that many sounds and samples available so you had to get creative.Now everything is served on a silver platter at your fingertips and we simply got lazy. Lot of artists go for the quick buck as well.New psytrance is severly boring and repetitive to me and I mostly listen to old stuff 2000-2005 era which to me was the best.
Also in the past ,every artist had unique style and you could easily distinguish between them.Now it sounds like all of the tracks are made by the same artist.
I have to say the generic nature of things is upsetting as I saw the same happen with the trance scene, copy after copy, I still DJ psy trance on a regular basis, but I will be honest I play nothing past 2015 ha ha ha, I went to a psy trance event recently and was horrified to sit there trying to find melody, tune, or anything to grab hold of to dance, then I experienced something that sounded like being in an MRI machine, this was apparently psycore? It's heartbreaking, but while there's some of us with superb past tracks, we will cling on to keep this scene alive, I am slowly moving over to Tekno, as I originated from hard house and I see much more variation in the music, I totally agree with you and happy you were brave enough to say it, thanks so much
very very interesting ! thank you for this great review ! MAD RESPECT
this is a trend in music overall due to the commodification of the internet, what is rewarded online, and a lack of appreciation for something totally out there/experimental/original. social media algorithms have exacerbated issues of plagiarism/copying and now we have tutorials 'how to make x genre of music' rather than people experimenting with software, or creating new genres and subsequently less willingness to do things the 'wrong way' so to speak. so now everything is totally bland, no flavor, dry and less diversity
This is an interesting take...
old is gold
I'm not as old as some people here, "just" 30 and I discovered goa trance about 15 years ago, but with my friends we were listening mostly stuff from the 90s and early 2000s. Of course I listen also to modern psy-trance, but my devotion is just for few names and goa trance from the 90s for me is still the music of choice for partying!
Old man yells at clouds.. I’m so happy that psytrance has “progressed” from the 90s. I appreciate the history, we all stand on the shoulders of giants etc, but the music is WAY better today than ever before.. psytrance isn’t stuck, your listening to shit generic music.. 😂
I agree, nothing crazy is happening with Psytrance these days...
I would like to sample some of youre sentences. I agree and learned alot.
Go for it
Thank you for this message. 🌈 ❤
I don't understands how people go to a festival and spend a week dancing the same way since the first music until the end!! My daughter with 15 years old, first time in ZNA Portugal, in the first 30 min she said: Dad this ia easy, is always the same!!!! One dj one time in boom, we where taking about that and he told me the "secret": is the fórmula!!!!!
You are not talking about psytrance you are talking about a psytrance sub genre
The reason for this. Producers are Not musicians these days… so they focus on the sound… while back in the day…. Dimension 5 for example where a band…multiple people mixing creativity and knowledge… they where focussing on fun and creating a unique sound. 💛🙏
So what are producers if not musicians? How can you make music, but not be a musician?
@@PolycultureArt We'll the art of producing is more focused on sound. In these modern times, producers have less musical knowledge so they need to rely on limited melodic patterns: for example: build in there DAW or pre-installed arpeggiators in software synths; this has the a lot of influence on music in a scene. All music starts to sound the same, cuz they build there music from the same patterns, arps and melodies. Before, especially in the 90-ies , we had (rock)artists, musicians, ... (in the sense having musical knowledge)They were experimenting with synths and making their own unique apps and melodies. They produced a unique sound filled with creativity and various unique sounds. Im not saying producers can't be musicians. It's actually 2 arts to master. Sound quality and Great compositions. All the love and have a great day.
so much amazing Memories hearing those Tracks ..😍
Half of them I hadn't heard in 15 yaars either, was great to make this 🙌🏾
You opened a new genre for me, and now it's inspired me to open up the Rapid Flow template and experiment a bit, maybe a cross between soul and trance to add some elevation with vocal harmonies. It would be the end of Psytrance as we know it. What would we call that. How bout "Trancend"?
As a long time "psytrancer" and DJ, what i feel now is that we are living the remix, of the remix of the remix of the same sounds and tricks of the "old-school" tracks from 20 years ago... Nowadays I only play tech-trance and psy-progressive stuff on my "psytrance" sets, The majority of the festivals nowadays have become comercial and corporative, so the line-ups trend to be more repetitive and only interested on attracting the public and selling tickets than to present new music... The more fast sub genders like hitech are the exact same "evolution" that happen on the Techno scene back in the day when hardcore has arrived...
The true is that only a very small number of more unknown and smaller festivals still try to bring some diference and present innovative and talented artists, as the majority have become just copy/paste "music programmers" searching for the next "hit" on Bandcamp Top 10...
The hole Psytrance scene has become unfortunately an ironic joke of itself living on the slogans and image of the past but without any real vision for its future, populated by greedy "pseudo -hippies" selling "something" and profiting with the scene... Only in the smaller and more intimate parties one can still enjoy some of the vibes that created this movement 40 years ago...
The (Mine, as a passionate Goa party visitor since 1998) only correct answer: Capitalists pounce on underground scenes to exploit them financially. Whatever is at the top of the 'charts' is repeated/copied as often as possible in order to make more money. This attracts more people who are already addicted to capitalism (and who don't care about uniqueness and creativity or have no sense of it). A sure-fire success, as in almost all scenes.
That's why I think electronic bluegrass is something to think about...
⚡️🔵🌾🪕🎻🎚🎛🎹⚡️🔵🌾
🔥🔥🥀🥀🥀🌹🥀🥀🥀🔥🔥
Bluegrass progressions in today's electronic music...
🤙🥀👊
So think what you could do with the concept bluegrass psytrance...
🪽🌌🪽
I grew up in the 90s with psytrance....My first Vinyl was Electric universe - Neutron Dance ( 1994 )....and i still have it ❤ after 30 years.
The BEST psytrance Record ever.
in 94 it was all called goa and acidtrance. the name psytrance came in 97
@@UDRGSelection I know 👍👌. I've gotten so used to the word "psytrance". But I still say Goa Trance. For example, when I go to parties I say "Goa Party".
Never know whether criticism like this is musical or political. The increase in sound quality you refer to is due to highly technical standards becoming the norm. Would be good to hear which artists you DO think are pushing the boundary.
Fair question.. my intention with this video is to stir a discussion that hopefully results in more varied tracks & festival and party bookings. Sadly I can't answer the questions which acts are pushing the boundaries today... Perhaps others could chime in which acts are innovating today? I have moved to listening to different music, about 20 - 30 BPM slower :)
How can you say it’s all the same and lacking originality when YOUR NOT EVEN LISTENING TO CURRENT ARTISTS. Sorry man but your argument (or whine) is blown over like a house of cards with that comment. If your going to make outrageous claims (driven by pure nostalgia) then AT LEAST listen to the music you are criticizing. I was willing to entertain your perspective, but how would you know if someone is pushing the envelope or not if you don’t even give it a try, sort the wheat from the chaff. You are throwing out the baby with the bath water my guy..
P.s. I’m not hear to be a keyboard warrior, say nasty stuff, but your argument is basically the same as boomer parents saying rock n roll music “all sounds the same”… “music was so much better when I was young” etc. it’s not an argument, it’s an opinion (and a misinformed one at that)
@@PolycultureArtI still go to a few parties every year, mostly when friends invite me when they are playing, and what I hear is always the same. Has been for years..
@@RapidFlow_Shop Im sorry but this is all so subjective its not even worth "stiring" a conversation about.. You don't provide any examples of whats "bad". You give examples of a style from the early 90's and say that it should still be around (like a conservative ha ha, stuff changes for the better). Talk about ironic. To stay a WHOLE genre of music is stuck and not progressing, but advocate for old school revivalism of super outdated music from the early 90's instead.. 🤦♂
This whole attitude and opinion reeks of conservatism (the opposite of what the music your talking about aims to produce). "Back in my day" is just hot air.
Its not your day anymore and thank the lord, otherwise, we would all be "stuck" in a badly produced, ramshackle mish mash of prepubescent dance music.
(I want to point out that I started my trance journey with a lot of the artists you mention in the video, so im not uninformed or particularly biased. But just like your tasebuds, flavours change as you mature and sample more of the smorgasbord.)
I reiterate. There is more beautiful, amazing, psychedelic and straight up progressive trance than there ever has been before. I'm not sure whether to feel sad or sorry that you can't seem to find it, but believe me my guy.. It exists! Maybe if you open your ears and your mind it will find you ;)
Why not start here :) polyculture.bandcamp.com/album/entropy
Lastly, I am not saying that there ISNT shit, generic psytrance out there. There is a ton of it, VINI VICI comes to mind for me straight away. Hummana hummana triplet garbage, with overused serum patches... But to say ALL psytrance is the same (aka bad) is just ignorant and uninformed. If your going to make an 8 minute video about it, at least do some research. Because if you did you would find some amazing music and wouldn't NEED to make a 7:28 piece of nothing that only seeks to tear down artists that are doing great things..
Ok im out.
Careful now, your name may be added to a list and you’ll disappear 👽☠️💀
Hahahahahahahaahha getting some Amsterdamned vibes 😅
for sure, to many producers and to few musicians around, since what, last 20 years or such...
Have u been living under a Rock ??? The reason why there is so much music that sounds the same is because these artists have been making careers in teaching ppl. I have even seen artists selling templates of their tracks ... this music is the fast growing in terms of evolution and to this day keeps the evolution going that explains the amount of sub genres that exist of psytrance...from the high frequency based goa trance to the low frequency based psycore there is a massive amount of different sub genres with all sorts of bpm... so if artists are spreading their knowledge and creating armies of mini "me's" the amount of music that sounds the same is inevitable
Psytrance hasn't been original for a little over 20 years. People jokingly say hi-tech is fast full on, it isn't far from the truth sadly.
Listen to suomisaundi if you want something fresh. It's the only subgenre where you can make a whole party where not 1 artist sounds like the other.
Bruv it all went to shit around 2010, even the few years before that we were running on fumes. I dont even listen to psytrance any longer. The newschool all sounds like the same 4 tracks. Chiva Chandra live in South Africa was one of the peak experiences of my life.GMS was unreal. You left out Talamasca...
I had the same thoughts before many years.first of all is the economy situation.garbage are growing up when the economy falls,second the machines produce more cheap sounds are not so expensive,third the generation in the decade of 90s comes directly from the decade of 80s they had listen so many genres of music.Metal rock jazz blues disco new wave front 242 Depeche mode classical music and most of they played an instrument.Belong to bands.first of all they were musicians djs
Its been shit for years no melodies just randomized synth sounds all the time(some exceptions off course)
Its because artists are learning to produce by copying their predecessors. All the tracks of the artists you listed are from dudes who have tonnes of audio engineering experience outside of psytrance. They also came from a time when there was not really anything you could use as a template, even if you could audibly, you couldnt drop it into your DAW and hyper analyse it with modern DSP heavy plugins.
Edit: I will add too that this isn't a problem in just psytrance, pretty much every single other genre I listen to its 95% predictable copying and repeated tropes and i can probably name all the artists on one hand that are doing something genuinely interesting.
This is a hugely important point I think. myself and many others i know who are aspiring to becoming psytrance producers are mostly replicating and learning from existing artists. So naturally tracks are sounding very similar.
This music was born out of acid. People now do mostly other stuff so the creativity and values went out the window.
Spot on :)
Evolution my man. at first it was primordial soup and over time it pulled itself together into identifyable flows.
music can never stay still.
It is easier for me to use DnB for my description.. once it was all called DnB and now it is so wide and varied that some types of dnd sound awful compared to others. I cannot stand a huge chunk of dnb and get almost all of my kicks from the sub genre specifically known as Ragga Jungle DnB.
Psytrance is now so wide and varied that it is NOT all psy trance.
And forming itself into sameness is EXACTLY how genre tighten themselves up into types of their own.
I heard at least 3 or 4 distinctly different sub groups of psy in your music even if I dont know the subgenre names or even if they have them yet.
This is the kind of psy I like.
ua-cam.com/video/gyIpuVYXO9Y/v-deo.html
Dude that hole in the cliff is in Ibiza right? It is one right side of one of Norden beaches
This is Southern Portugal 😊
@@RapidFlow_Shop dang - them holes in cliffs
Hello! I have to say from my side is many years that psytrance is less interesting it’s about 5 years minimum for me…became a empty product like many other style of music, is missing the psychedelic and the soul… but fortunately there is still who want to keep up the vibe, not so many artists but still there is… nice video, anyway I was speaking with many friends about how much less interesting became psytrance in the last years…a lot of new artists but the music is the copy of the copy of what we listened 10 years ago…
agreed, its so boring these days no spiral tribe anymore ^^
... suomisaundi....
is the free thinkers psy, the adventurers , unafraid to get goofy, silly, spugedelic ... a massive well of incredible music that has a strong forcefield... even crazier tracks ,.. nat for the faint of heart... some of the extreme weird bendy sloppy slurpy sounds are too much for me, even and i love it.... people used to the formulaic derivative just add kbbb to squiggles will either be enamored and fascinated by some variety (surprise its been going on for 30 years) and the rest brush it off as silly wonky and absurd... .when in fact, and my opinion,,, not much psytrance really stands a chance when it comes to funk, individuality, expressiveness and variety... .and while the sound design is on par with the best in the world, its overlooked because it is just , too psychedelic for most people. that is the way it goes. sisu!
It's always the same everywhere, old people complain that everything used to be better. Everything is fine with psytrance, it just doesn't correspond to your listening habits... it's like when old Metallica fans can't cope with the fact that they no longer sound like on Master of Puppets... you immediately find others who agree with you and that's how it is Here too, there are still plenty of artists/musicians/producers who don't follow the mainstream, but you have to make the effort to find them, you won't find them in the first 50 search results on UA-cam...or even not on UA-cam at all , once you didn't find your oldies there either, did you? ;) and I would probably make more friends with my answer , if I would agree with you...
Raver for Life!
How much down the Goa Gil rabbit hole have you been?
Never heard him play
Just like humans. The music (with technology) evolves. Let's hope it like life all circles and comes around again. 😅
Ps. (Yeah maybe we middle age and getting old 😂)
There are still great artists the produce old school goa vibe psytrance you just need to find the right party lineup, its true that seens 2006 most of psy trance music is generic and in a way boring to the old school goa trance music lover😂 nice collection of old tracks
I dont think you are exploring HOW we've moved but just show somehow THAT we've moved towards the sound of same same and hardly different. But maybe thats something you leave to the comment section :)
To continue; i dont get why you show this graph. Suppose psytrance would have stayed as diverse as it was, do you think psytrance would be more popular now? The biggest commercial EDM festivals have over 400 k visitors, the styles played there score high on the chart and are imo much narrower in predominant style. These kind of charts are about the big numbers, not about small parties here and there. If there is a correlation, i would expect it to in reverse. So psytrance is still to popular..:)
I agree that more diversity in psytrance would be welcome, good point you make. My only critic about your video is that you dont't show us your track of diverse psytrance that is high quality. Otherwise this is just a variation on the usual : psytrance is dead topic. That is not very diverse.
This was cool, man…I’ve been a Psy-head since liu Kang fought reptile in the mortal kombat movie….
😂👍
yea Mortal Kombat also got me into Psytrance 😈
Paytrance 🎉
94-99 was amazing. and a few after mill. until 2005 . i lost complete interest in this kind of music. i love the old world stuff (90s) and i agree since 2010 something it all sounds the same. i also dont like all this festival bullshit. voodoo demonic dance
the shitshow started with skazi and chemical mafia
are you actually listening to psytrance these days? the scene is amazing and there is always new genres and people spending time to add their touch in it. if you speak only about goa trance maybe you're right, but man look at the psytechno scene, even forest/darkpsy is still buzzing and evolving. there are productions patterns in goa trance as well as in any other psychedelic genres, you're just talking about taste. the tracks you showed in the video sounds wrongly mixed to me, with a chaotic sound design and arrangement, nothing to do with production level nowadays. just go deeper than astrix or tristan and you'll find way more special tunes and genres than few years ago
This has happened to most genres. Just got too commercial and bland.
I feel like Infected Mushrooms did all what human can.
And I keep coming back to the Astrix - Artcore album.
Yeh its been shit since 2010, what has happened to originality turned into corny shite
Really hope you didn't just delete my comment.. cause it disappeared just now. Cheers.
I haven't deleted any comments?
@@RapidFlow_Shop Probably went to spam - I included some bandcamp links and that may have triggered it. I mentioned that I believe there are tons of amazing and unique psytrance currently, but due to algorithms, they are seldom discovered or pushed. Many artists also now don't label their music psytrance and instead use "techno" or "neotrance" or "tekkno" when that's not exactly accurate. Examples would be tracks like:
Baptiste Schaller - Night Shot
LDS - Mvoper FM
Atikka - Slackline
Notable labels: awa awa, area137, Space Trax
Some festivals do promote forward-thinking psytrance like Mo:Dem, but your overall point in the video is of course accurate. I'm just offering a little insight into smaller corners of the scene. Generally though... yea, psytrance is very uninspired at the moment.
@@RapidFlow_Shop Adding another rec:
DJ Huntsman - Neuroknobs
UA-cam has been deleting a ton of comments, it's bots.. No actual human deleting stuff. It will become better once the elections in USA are over
I'm no musician but psychedelic parties and psychedelic music now is better than ever imo
You are part of the problem with ur tutorials and templates 😂
I remember you from an old .CZ site, can't really remember the name, you were doing great music.