The History Of Psytrance.

All of these are valid questions and all questions i have asked myself. Im not an expert on all this but i have taken the time to get a background on what i beleive in... The things we do when we involve ourselfs in the world that is psytrance makes and brakes how it will progress into the future. We hold the key to keeping this form of magic alive, but we have to want it and we have to work at it. Understanding something is the first step to practicing what we preach....

I hope this helps you understand a little bit more!!

When the first foreigners or "hippies" first arrived in Goa, India in the mid 60's Psytrance or psychedelic Goa trance didn’t exist. The Beetles arrival in India changed the way the world viewed this magical and spiritual place. The music scene that that the "hippies" were involved in was started buy Eight Finger Eddie (who is still to this day partying his way through the scene) and his crew, who introduced the psychedelic rock scene to Goa with such names as Jimmy Hendrix, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd being played to a crowd of free spirited tripped out “hippies”.

Hippies were drawn to Goa for many various reasons, the beautiful beaches and landscapes, cheap living, inviting and friendly locals, spirituality and of course Marijuana or hashish that was at the time 100% legal. People were there to enjoy. LSD and Magic Mushrooms were being consumed alongside the locals with hash or charas as its known in India went hand in hand.

The Beatles In India

 

83 was the year all this started to change. The introduction of electronic music to Goa, revolutionized the scene.  Goa Gill and others were the pioneer of this movement, as they began to change the style from psychedelic rock to the Electro scene that was becoming popular in Europe. The style was to remix hit tracks from Europe, removing the lyrics and and re-sequencing the beats and the melodies with loops and generally twisting the sounds onto more psychedelic patterns and re-releasing them as a new style Goa remix's.

By the year 1985 the only sounds coming out from Goa to the rest of the world was the Goa remix's and people were going crazy to find tracks that they could remix in to this new genre. As this was not yet a mainstream genre of music it was impossible to find these remixes in shops and stores. Even today you rarely see a psytrance release in stores.

In 88 the pioneers of the Goa trance scene was being created, by memorable names like Eat Static and Juno Reactor.
By the year 94 psytrance was being flooded out into the world with new artists and dj's appearing from every nook and cranny and finally coining the name Goa Trance and giving birth to the world famous festival The VooV in Germany. Psytrance enjoyed huge media attention and sprung into the mainstream community between 96 and 97 with some of the biggest dance names in the world converting to the psytrance community. However this didn't last long and the hype and the media died and many record labels went out of business. Sales went down and it lost its spot in the limelight.

The Israeli people took control of the psychedelic trance community giving birth to huge name artists and even parties. They would come out of their mandatory army service and go to Goa. They would party hard and enjoy even harder, taking back home with them this new style of partying. This didn’t last long and the authorities after a while came down hard on the parties, closing them long before there intended time. However this didn’t stop them from partying. Far from it. They developed an idea that meant that right from the word go they would bang out the music load and proud until the were eventually stopped but at least they had had the maximum dancing experience.

Infected Mushroom Live



96 was the year that Goa trance no longer suited this psychedelic and imaginative genre of music and it was changed to what we now know as psytrance or psychedelic Trance. The music that was playing had changed from melodic, lyric less remixes of famous tunes from Europe. The melodies were replaced with repetitive banging bass lines and kicks and psychedelic sounds that took you into a trance and played with your senses, hypnotizing you and sending your mind flying around the dance floor, leaving nothing behind.

Goa trance still existed and certain artists still kept the melody and style that was originally intended and grew it into a sub-genre of psytrance that was more appealing to the rest of the world. People like GMS and TIP kept the spirit of Goa trance alive but mutated it into there own styles. The psytrance that is played today has many sub-genres and there are many artists that fit and fill these with there styles. People like Rinkadink and Shift pioneered the tribal psytrance scene, with their stompy bass lines and twisted melodies. Kindzadza, Cosmo and Highko keep the full on psychedelic trance style alive with there hard and fast passed music and people like Azax Syndrom, Skazi and Exail flung out there hard yet slightly commercial version of psytrance that has people flying every time.

Rinkadink - Live



These days Goa isn't exactly how the 'hippies" would have liked to have seen it become. The local people of Goa are dealing with a new reality, traditional tourism and package tourist have marginalized the Goa psytrance scene. This year has been one of the worst years for the regular psytrance community to get together and party. Anjuna once the hub for all that is psytrance in Goa, is now under new rule post "Scarlet". This Christmas and new years 2008 with the increased threat of terrorism, after the Mumbai attacks saw an interesting phenomena not seen for many years, a benevolent police force, whose job was to protect us rather than harass us. Very few psychedelic parties are allowed. People who now crave that same experience and feeling that psytrance parties left with you have been disappointed and forced to find a new location and outlet for there cravings.

Russian Xmas party 2008



Goa is no longer known for its 3 day parties and its liberal view and tolerance on psychedelics. The energy in the parties has changed. There is no longer a feeling of a communal environment. Headphones have replaced 10k rigs for noise pollution reasons and to stop the party being ended abruptly. The people are spread out into their separate groups and are unlikely to talk to people not included in that group. The drug scene in Goa that was once a magical and beautiful experience with the help of certain psychedelic substances, namely LSD, Magic Mushrooms, Mescaline etc have been replaced in recent years by Cocaine, MDMA, E and even more recently "Gat".

From my own personal experience of Goa, psytrance is meant to be a way of enjoying yourself and enjoying the surroundings/people around you but this no longer seems to be the case. I agree with Bill Hicks, psytrance and LSD open the mind in a way that made Goa famous and to put an end to this would be damaging to what LSD and Goa are meant to represent. When psytrance and LSD were on the scene people and the parties were enjoyable and fun. Now that the drugs have changed the vibe that Goa represents is soulless and monotonous.

Bill Hick - Positive LSD Experience



Psytrance is still alive and will live on as long as the people that listen to it and make it, stay true and keep the original idea alive. The idea that the mind is a precious toy that we should respect and love yet should stimulate everyday. Don’t take my word for it see for your self and i hope you enjoy.

Azax Syndrom - Cutting Edge Science - Japan