mushroom magazine intershroom edition 03/2003 by mushroom magazine

WELCOME publishing company: mushroom media e.k. Arnoldstrasse 47, 22763 Hamburg Germany / Planet Earth For partyinfo please call our famous mushroom hotline +49(0)1805-68747666 fon: +49 (0) 40-398417-0 (office) fax: +49 (0) 40-398417-50 info@intershroom.com If you send a mail to... contact@mushroom-media.com you will get an email with all contact of mushroom media publisher (V.i.S.d.P.) Matthias van den Nieuwendijk editorial staff: Kai Mathesdorf, die.jennie, Liese, Mat Mushroom, Sina Karow, Claus Baldauf, Franziska Gangloff editorial assistance & photos: TomRom, Wolfgang Sterneck, Geko, Tomtron, taxy, Solar Flaires, Jinno+Jiga, Barrelfull Of Monkeys, Aruna and more translations: Pablo von Waldenfels, Uwe Scholz, Claus Baldauf books: Steffi Hoyer thanks to our trainees: Stefan Design: Mat Mushroom, Sina Karow, Liese, Claus Baldauf, Franziska Gangloff, Serhat Divrik www.intershroom.com: Marc-Oliver Reichel title picture: photo & collage by Mat frame artwork by Felix advertisements: „Liese“, Matthias van den Nieuwendijk, see our pricelist in the internet at: www.mushroom-online.com/intershroom printer: Druckerei Brünnler • Hamburg circulation: 60.000 copies worldwide

space ship intershroom „episode 3“ Hard Times out there. The next adventure will take us to the most far away places you can imagine. Places filled with love, light and happiness. In times of bad news we move out to show the bright side of life On that way we lost a lot of good allies. Good luck to all the rhinos in this world and the survivors of the superNOVA(tekk) in Germany not long ago. We are very sorry that commander Livne and commander Borgen got lost on that way, the good die young. We'll always remember you. What you have done and tought us will help us to continue our common path. Still, after all this the family of intershrooms is growing slightly … All things considered we decided to shorten the gaps between the ignitions and are happy to announce that we will have four of these

spaceships taking off in 2003. This to bring a bit more psychedelic flavour even to the darkest corners. This time we decided to forget about the unfriendly small price tag on the cover. Our mag should be for free, as it had been in the past and everybody interested must get his own. But always keep in mind that every single issue is printed in Hamburg/Germany and that the gentile person who gave you this one has probably paid the cost for the shipping. Support your local dealer and for sure bakshish is always welcome! If we should send you a box of intershrooms directly to you then please inform yourself about the shipping conditions on the advertisement on page 53 in this issue or ask the next trance specialized CD distribution in your country...

www.intershroom.com The international portal for mushroom online is now www.intershroom.com. Here you can find more than 10.000 articles, written in english and german language (For international articles just click the "english"-Button...). Just in time we opened our „edit“-section at http://edit.intershroom.com because the international mush-

next intershroom The next issue of the international mushroom magazine will be out in May 2003. Deadline for all content and advertisments will be end of march. Until then we would like to wish you a lot of fun with the third Intershroom! CU on the dancefloor ! your mushroom Team A special thanx to Andre & Lisa for the amazing Boom Photos

room magazine and mushroom online is YOUR magazine – it would not exist without the psychedelic community. We very much appreciate your contribution. You could write reports on parties or even write a little report about the Psycommunity in your country. You can also submit your artist profile, DJ charts, partyinformation, and much more... Do what you want to do :-)

We are deeply sad to inform you that 23 year old Avihen Livne died in a traffic accident during a stay in India at the 10th of February. He was a very special person and an extreamly talented musician. His death is both - a tragedy for his very good friends and family and for the international trance scene. Only some days before his death we have made an interview with him for the February issue of the German mushroom magazine. We’d like to reprint it here once again for the international trance crew. The name of the first track of his new album was the interview's titel and had the intention to let the people know about his unbelievable musical qualities. Now it has one more sad meaning. text: tokyokid & Kai Mathesdorf layout: Kai Mathesdorf Avihen Livne, born 1979 from Kiryat Bialik near Haifa in Israel, started his musical way in the dark clubs of Haifa and the area, listening to new wave and more electronic stuff like Depeche Mode, Sisters Of Mercy, The Cure, Front 242, etc. Affected by the trance scene and after years of parties he started to make music in 1998. He has been into computers since he was very young, making music with it was kind of natural to him. First he worked with Benny Risher as Diablo. They released the album "Insufficient Memory" in 1999. In 2000 Avihen started to work under the name Cosma. A lot has changed since then in the way he grasps music and in the making of it. His debut album "Simplicity" was a milestone and for sure one of the best trance albums ever. Is Avihen a child prodigy? Kai: What’s the mean-

PROFILES

ing of your name?

Cosma:

The name Cosma has a couple of meanings. It's like the relation between earth and cosmos, but the main meaning is the born of the unknown.

Kai: What’s the sense of your music? What’s your philosophy, your message, what do you have to say? Cosma: My music is connected to the brain and mind and not only made for the feet. I'm trying to create harmony and deep feelings.

Sometimes after I come home from a really good party and when the atmosphere is still really close I take it directly to the studio and from there it goes back to the people.

tokyokid: Do you work on more than one track at the same time? In which way do you make the arrangement and the mix? Cosma: Normally I'm working only on one project. Sometimes the final mix is not really perfect so I have to open the old project and to make a new mix.

tokyokid: What kind of equipment do you use and how do you work with it? Cosma: The main gear that I use is a PC with many plugins and instruments. Today it's not really necessary to buy real studio equipment. It can help for sure but I think less buttons, less problems. My main program is Nuando/Cubase SX and for all my studio working under audio mode I have a Yamaha keyboard as controller and good Tannoy speakers. tokyokid: How do you get such a clear sound with a sound blaster card? Cosma:

My "Simplicity" album was made with a normal sound blaster. It was very hard to get this kind of sound with this kind of sound card. A good acoustic room is very important and a big part of the mix. Good mix = good sound!

tokyokid:

The arrangement of my tracks is very simple. Every sound has its own channel. The Mix is a very important part of the track. For every track I make a separate mix and later I check the sound in different systems.

How do you build

up a track?

tokyokid: Give some hints for beginners, please.

Cosma:

Most of my tracks are made like flashes in one or two days. It's like the story of my day or the feeling of a moment.

Cosma: Don't waste your money to buy a full studio in the beginning, the main gear is always

PROFILES

the PC. Try to look for sounds and the effects you really like.

tokyokid: Tell us about your daily life. From where do you get your Inspiration? Cosma: I like to travel and learn from many different people about life. Animals make me as happy as a brilliant out door weekend! I have a dog and a house and it's very nice to go for a walk outside on a sunny day. I like the blue sea and most, I like to eat!!! Inspiration is something that always comes from a different

trance scene works still with P.L.U.R. (peace, love, unity and respect)?

Cosma: It was like this, but not anymore. I don't think you can say today that the trance scene is underground. For sure and I'm happy for this that there are still underground parties all over the world, but locally the trance becomes commercial. Good people with a very good vibe started with P.L.U.R, they are still with us, but there is a big part of people that only heading the scene and the good people! tokyokid: What's your connection to ambient? Cosma: I really like to come down with ambient and chill electronic music and for sure I’m going to do it a lot in the future. This year my next project will be an ambient CD. tokyokid: Your album "Non Stop" is on the way to be released. What kind of stuff we have to expect? What's your favourite track?

part of my soul. Inspiration is not always coming. Sometimes when the mood, the atmosphere is blocking you a million steps away from the speakers, it's really hard to go into the studio. I'm living in a very turbulent place, the situation here takes a lot of good energy from me, but I teach myself how to find the peaceful way and the good vibes.

tokyokid:

Do you think the

Cosma: "Non Stop" is different from the first album. The style is still a Cosma story, but the music is stronger than "Simplicity". The target is to kick dance floors with the mind and to let the people enjoy the music at home. My favourite track is "People On Hold". Kai: You have said, that "Non Stop" will be stronger than "Simplicity". What's does "stronger" mean? Try to describe the new album, please. Cosma:

"Stronger" simply means "stronger". It's a full on album that starts with progressive aggressive trance, the music is more dancefloor music but also made for home listening.

The album is a development from deep trance to psycho - and full on. There's also one ambient track on it, nine tracks in total. Every track is going to somewhere else. Cosma music works in different styles but in every style there's the vibe of my music.

Kai: Your music sounds a bit like Swedish trance. On that first album there’s a respect link to Anti. Any special connection between you and Scandinavia? Cosma: People that hear my music know that I make a lot of styles, including the Scandinavian style. As I made my first steps as Cosma two years ago DJ Anti visited me in my studio and gave me a very professional statement about my music. In Simplicity I tried to take the full on site and the minimal to combine them. About the melody part of me it came long time ago on the Diablo project. Scandinavia is a factory of music like Israel, and there is a connection between the music. The Swedish artists have the deepness that a lot of ours don't have.

tokyokid: Minimal vs. full on? What will be the future of trance? Cosma: I think that every couple of years the crowd is changing and the music also. Full on is music that can fill the dance floor very well, but to listen to it at home is boring. Minimal music can work in both places. www.cosma.co.il www.bne.co.il Avihen’s album “Non Stop” will be out at 1st of march 2003

When in 1995 the Fraunhofer Institute had the music-compression program MP3 patented, nobody knew then which far-reaching consequences this would have for the entire music market. The invention attracted many fans quickly and soon it was blamed for the millions of losses in music business. Nobody bothered to ask, why the customer wouldn’t or couldn’t pay more, but instead criminalised him and the providers of Internet exchange sites like Napster, Audiogalaxy or Kazaa. For the time being industry restricted itself to fight the supposed evil.

With the introduction of the CD during the 80’s music industry and the huge companies of customer electronics wrote the record off. Broadband advertising media as MTV were created, in order to supply the newly discovered market of the 13 to 30 year olds with videoclips of continually more mediocre music and to stimulate the purchase of the next maxi, album or compilation – worldwide – heavy rotation – 24 hours a day. Earlier releases were „newly“ released on CD and sold a second time dressed up. Music business became a growing market, while the music sector saw the fusion of many labels into 5 majors, united in the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America), the lobby of music business. „The Big Five“: Universal, Sony, Warner, EMI and BMG divided 75 % of the music market between themselves, shared an increase in turnover till 1997 and raised prices of CDs continually. Music publishers became turned into corporations, which in the year 2002, brought in a 20 billion dollar turnover worldwide. However, the profits were not invested in innovation and the

MP3

support of talents, but instead paid to success zombies like Michael Jackson, who for example received 30 million dollars for the production of one single album, solely for studio bills. Other artists were paid millions not to sing. Other interest groups apart from the young were criminally neglected. As early as 1998 consumers showed less enthusiasm spending money for the soulless off-thepeg products of the majorlabels, and provided their friends with home-burnt CDs out of their new CD-burner. Consumers rather put the saved money in computer and consumer electronics, or in horrendous online-rates. This money was not lost for music business though: for example in 2002 Sony had a turnover of 42 billion dollars through consumer electronics, Time Warner took over AOL and earned the earth with its best-selling high speed Internet access worldwide, while BMG invested millions into Napster … shortterm profit thinking was far more helpful for manager careers than thinking about the far-reaching consequences of their decisions and paying attention to the quality of products and demands of their customers. It wasn’t until turnover in the music departments of the majors dropped during the last couple of years, that thinking about changes started. Online-portals were opened, where the opportunities offered by the new medium were used by providing music „on demand“, that is instead of an entire album only single tracks as MP3 can be downloaded for charge.

THE RETURN OF THE UNDERGROUND Small companies suffered much more from pirate copies and the Internet-exchange places, because in contrast to the majors, they had no possibilities to compensate the losses through other sources of income. Many of these labels have almost closed down or have long since disappeared. The last chance and one avenue out of the crisis could be the skilful use of the worldwideweb in combination with digital formats like MP3 and Ogg Vorbis for small labels, artists, consumers and possibly even for retail trade. It has become possible for each artist to gain worldwide attention through the Internet even without a contract. He can disseminate his music through sites working like networks eg. www.tonspion.de (recommendation!), or release his music on free, legal MP3 Sites as eg. www.electronic-scene.com (cool!!!). If he wants to receive money for his music he has the opportunity of getting it to the listeners in the boundless expanses of www.MP3.com. In the future record shops and their online branches will increasingly have the role of a pre-selector, because meanwhile even the music of one particular

MP3 genre has become unmanageable for the user. Good psytrance will still be available in the relevant record shops and those not having one nearby will have to rely on a good mailorder shop. To be sure, small companies had their failings too. Mailorder providers willing to distribute are as a rule not supplied by labels and artists with helpful material, like cover-shots or excerpts of tracks. Each mailorder shop requires trainees in order to take care of new deliveries in detailed work lasting several hours. The setting up of a mailorder-onlineshop system alone costs the owner an average of up to 40.000 Euro, which is a risky investment given the modest profit margins in music retail trade. Additional costs for manpower taking care of new products let many an ambitioned onlineshop fail because they could not cope with the amount of work after a short while. In the meantime one label after the other went bankrupt, because the music was not sold any more but only „exchanged“. With regard to psytrance there are no providers of MP3 downloads of psy-top acts for charge up to now. This is one of the reasons driving potential psytrance customers to Kazaa. The number of consumers who are listening to music with an MP3 player or the PC and DJs who are using MP3 DJ-Software is ever increasing – it is time for Psytrance labels, sales and retail trade to discover the new channels of distribution.

another solution for the distribution of licenced mp3-files in the Internet which facilitates the establishment of their own distribution platforms for digital formats for labels and distributors. That in turn is used by the label Superstition from Hamburg which also runs the labels Pokerflat and Dessous Records in the genres Techno and House. Their onlineshop www.conzoom.com with MP3 Mart „inside“ ;-) provides besides the tradional offers of a label-mailorder like vinyl, CDs and merchandising products, music in MP3 format to download for charge as well, even all brandnew tracks!

We asked Tobias Lampe, head of Superstition, which experience he and his label have gained since 2002 by selling MP3 through the net.

Basically it has been accepted very favorably. User friendliness has been highly praised. Especially from countries where it is traditionally difficult to purchase our music products at all we have gained a lot of customers. Financially speaking MP3's are not yet a considerable turnover, but it increases steadily by the month. We are especially proud, to have gained several regulars with periodic downloads.

Why did you expand your distribution into a MP3 Shop ?

Which quality do the downloads (kbps) have ?

We started the development with Dot Media Inc. approximately 2 1/2

At present 128 kbps. We are suprised about the fast distribution of cable and DSLaccess to the Internet. That is why we are currently considering an improvement of the quality up to at least 160 kbps. 128 kbps seemed to us the ideal compromise, because when creating Mp3s we take care that the quality of the MP3s is o.k. and still ensure that users with 'normal' Internet access are not put off by excessive times for downloads.

THE WORLDWIDE RECORDSTORE There are different, sophisticated solutions for the digital sale, distribution and promotion of music in MP3 format in the Internet meanwhile. Through new distribution systems artist, labels and sales can distribute their digital music maintaining total control over their content and the resulting turnover. The largest provider of one such infrastructure is OD2, to which various online trade partners, mostly large distributors are associated. Mp3-mart developed by the German company Dot Media is

years ago, because then we already saw, that you have to offer an alternative to illegal downloads. We thought it was not enough simply complaining about the downloads but offering no alternative, because obviously there was a demand.

Has the service offer been accepted ? Which feedback do you get from users ?

Do you plan offering other formats like eg. WAV / Ogg Files ? The software of the shop, which by the way is free for sale, supports these formats as well. But wave files are much too big and Ogg is

not yet widespread enough. The MP3 format is and will still be the best format in our opinion.

How do you evaluate DJ software like eg. Traktor and FinalScratch, with regard to the future of the DJing guild and the sale of MP3s ? Will playing MP3 really be the future for DJs ? Difficult to judge. What I believe in any case, more and more people do it. Richie Hawtin does it, Steve Bug now also, a couple of weeks ago even I have played MP3s during a DJ gig in the Maledives, because I hate to play CDs and they did not have turntables. Especially for gigs in foreign countries it’s ideal. But I will never be able to do without vinyl. The digi-

MP3 again that the plight is his fault and don’t even offer an alternative. Because there are many who are willing to pay for MP3s at the source, namely the label or the artist. In the first place, it is much less complicated and you can be certain about the quality, and in the second place, you thereby support your favorite label and musician.

What are your artists saying about the marketing of their music in MP3 format ? Are they worrying or rather hopeful ? They see it exactly the same way as we do. An alternative to the illegal downloads is the best you can do.

Which consequences does it have, for labels and artists, that consumers can make their compilations on demand ? In any case it is another incentive to keep on releasing material of which we are a 100% convinced.

Are you satisfied with your shop system ?

talization of my collection gets on my nerves. For the gig on the Maledives I needed 3 months to digitize the most important tracks of my collection. At the same time it is cool of course being able to sell the tracks as MP3s.

In your opinion will it be a necessity for labels in order to stand up to the demands of the future to offer music in MP3 format ? I don’t think so. You have to consider, that records are also a cultural possession which one handles with pleasure and wants them to be in the stands. Certainly it is not important to everyone, but it will never disappear to an extent that records would have no significance. I believe though that it is mandatory to provide users with an alternative to illegal downloads. Indisputably there is a demand and you cannot mess around with the user by telling him again and

Yes, sure, since we have participated in its development. I have not yet discovered a comparable shopsystem, which offers mailorder and Mp3 at the same time at a reasonable price and so user friendly for small companies. We and Dot Media are in fact proud about this. Additionally Dot Media did a super job programming. The shop has so far run solidly and offers very many useful features of which we only use a fraction up till now. Of course using it you come up with details worthwhile improving all the time, which we install in succession.

Did you have high investment costs / was it a lot of work installing the system ? Do you now have a lot of technical equipment ? Since we had been integrated into the development from the beginning I can’t very well claim, that it has

been little work. Plus you should not underestimate, that a professional digitalization of the entire back catalogue, depending on size, naturally requires some logistics and work. Also legal questions had to be clarified, eg. concerning the Gema. But the work was worth it and had a lot of positive side aspects for the standard work of the label. Now you have our complete catalogue at your disposal on our internal server with just a fingertip and every information has been loaded into the database. This is also a prerequisite for converting into MP3's which at our place hold all the information of the title as an ID3 tag. Our provider Dot Media Has a relatively normal server, an over-dimensioned technical effort is not really required.

How do your distributors / retail traders react to your online service offer ? Will the traditional record store become extinct ? We do not perceive ourselves as competition to record stores or distributors. Moreover with the MP3 supply we are trying to offer a legal and user friendly alternative to the illegal downloads. Mailorder

MP3 are the causes for the decrease in the music market in the last couple of years, what are your predictions ?

is also rather a support for the distributors, because eg. it gets permanently harder to achieve a well sorted back catalogue in the record stores and there are indeed enough places on this planet where it is difficult in the first place to lay hands on good music. There is a steady influx of music into the market and what we hear from our customers, is that they could not get records, because it would asking too much of retail trade having to store everything. That is why we are sometimes the sole supplier of older releases, worldwide.

Are you supplying retail trade with any help for sales like MP3 prelistening-files, and eg. jpgs of the cover, so that it would be more easy for them, to take care of their online shops in turn ? Yes. Websites of our label are virtually a database containing all the information, accessible for everyone. And for those, who donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t understand we mail information per email ;-)

In your opinion what

Without assessment as follows: economic situation, the Teuro, still increasing competition in the entertainment sector (DVD, PSX, etc) but no more money in the purse. Too many products not novel at all in the market and in general TOO MANY. Not enough promotion of new talents in the media: eg. the horror scene of radio stations. Inadequate trade scene with too few creative concepts where it is hardly any fun buying sound carriers (small shops where you get advice and service are becoming extinct, wholesale chains gain). Counterexample: FNAC in France ! (chain of retail shops with a very good concept) Too little risk and creativity and too much stress on security in record companies, clubs, media, trade and also at least in part amongst artists and consumers. For example I will be never be able to grasp why you would have to buy hits which you daily listen to in the radio 20x anyhow, as records, whereas one could discover something new for oneself instead. Prognosis: Painful reparcelling with good perspectives for the future. It is also certain, that the market will keep on shrinking, but never as much as predicted in some horror scenarios. Music has got a great status and good music will always have a chance. Even on sound carriers. In any case we have not been deterred to continue ;-)

Who will be winner or loser faced with the development in the music business? That is hard for me to predict at this time. The customer will be the

winner rather, if he will still be prepared to pay money for music and will thus enable artists to live on their music. In whatever form. Even now many artists and record companies are naturally more like the losers, if you consider the many bankruptcies and the many people who canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t live on their music any

longer. A lot of creativity has been lost thus. Independent structures have significant advantages over cumbersome majors led by shareholders in the end. The winners are certain already at least for me. Thanx to Tobias Lampe for the interview. Greetz to Katja and Thomas from support !

Digital compression programmes as MP3 were employed by the users at first, it is high time that labels and artists do not fear this format any more, but instead use the new, worldwide channels of distribution. No one should worry about Britney and the majors really, but about the small, free labels, whose music interests us â&#x20AC;&#x201C;will there be solely mainstreamsound of the majors tomorrow ? Online shops of the majors as Pressplay (Sony &Universal) and Musicnet (BMG, EMI, Warner) will only be successful, if there are changes concerning the qualitative weak points in musicbizz and no

Cosmic Tone “Overwhelming”

V.A. “Zoo 2”

Magnetrixx “Phase Shift”

V.A. “ISRAliens 4”

most CDs:13,9 0 Euro price including VAT register 2 our worldwide distribution mushroom-mailorder & trance shop Thomas Keunecke Dessauer Strasse 21 21339 Lüneburg / Germany fax: +49 (0) 4131 - 70 76 97 EMail: thomas@trance-shop.com

Yahel “Hallucinate”

Infected Mushroom “Deeply Disturbed”

Maxi CD o n l y 7, 9 0 E u r o

MP3

legal measure against providers like Kazaa and Soulseek, as well as their users will help them in this respect. More and more people listen to music through the computer and aren‘t automatically criminals because of this, but would rather like to spend money for good music. Therefore here is an appeal to our labels: Trust in your listeners - let us pay for your music.

Text & pics: Jennie Translation: Uwe Scholz

| THE SHOP www.conzoom.com | THE SYSTEMS www.dot-media.de www.od2.com www.mpdqx.com/digitalstructures free track from the new Vibrasphere album! – greetz to peter www.isratrance.com relaunch incl. mp3 – greetz to shahar | ARTIST SITES www.cygneticrecords.com www.kwik-kut.co.za www.royale.ontheweb.com www.lui-mp3.net

| ARTIST-NETWORX www.electronicscene.com www.musikplaneten.dk www.homemusic.cc www.angelfire.com www.djfactory.ru/goa_index.htm www.nafura.it www.goatrance.de/goacidia | DJ MIXES http://trance.techno.cz www.partyvibe.com http://psytrance.us www.goa-trance.de | STREAM http://www.philosomatika.com

| MORE www.mushroom-online.com On top of this article you will find a linklist on the subject and many (mostly free-) download sites of various artists and labels.

PROFILES

Creative heads of psytrance – the people who really move our body and soul... There is much more to know about the personalities behind the names of labels, artists and projects. Who are these persons? Where and how do they live? What are their ideas and visions? What equipment do they use? Which tracks are their personal favorites? We asked several creative heads of music.

BOSHKE BEATS 1. Name of company/motherlabel: Boshke Beats records 2. Where are you located? Toronto, Canada Benicasim, Spain 3. Labelconcept and -philosophy: We believe that we can explore and develop the depths of the now days electronic dance music through our own perception on freshness, experimentalism and variety of ideas. As a team including our artists to be creative for the maximum and not to be locked on something ONE in specific, to move forward with every release, design, idea we have while breeding and blending everything which creates high quality produced Triple Distilled Neo Techno Music for the global dancefloors! Still psychedelic to the "core" of its understanding and not as a music style definition! Avangarde and Futuristic! We are not talking about trance here! Trance is a state of mind! Boshke!

ALEX TOLSTEY (LABELHEAD)

4. Number of releases up to now: 2 CDs 7 singles 5. Copies per release (Vinyl / CD): Vinyl now starts from 1500 copies CD compilation starts from 2000 copies CD album starts from 3000 copies 6. Milestones: - best selling releases: Midimiliz" Passages" album CD + 3x12", The Delta "Hero Fx" 12" single - releases you consider to be milestones in the labelhistory: Midimiliz "No Exit" single – for its freshness, diversity and inspiration

given to all the planet earth! "Chronika chapter one" compilation – as our first compilation opening the CD releases and exposing our vision to the masses, opened minds, eyes and hearts of music lovers to our label and its concept. Midimiliz "Passages" album – as our first artist album, and as our main achievemnt for the moment it’s been released. This album started the new Era for us all stepping 3 steps forward to our future releases, ideas and plans. 7. Artist pool: Midimiliz, The Delta, Authentik, Fuzzion, Metalogic, Spiralkinda, Neser D.N.A (12 Moons), Paul Brtschitsch, Triple Distilled, Paste + special guests always! 8. Contact: A&R: Alex Tolstey (25) info@boshkebeats.com www.boshkebeats.com

MAGMA RECORDS 1. Name of company: Magma Records 2. Where are you located? Bologna, Italy 3. Labelconcept and -philosophy: Magma is a young Italian label that promotes emergent and well known artists who produce innovative music abroad and in Italy, the psychedelic trance environment. 4. Number of releases up to now: Only two, "Eruption" in 2001 and "Suria - Magnitude", the album in 2002. In January I released:

V. Italian A. "Spaghetti Pizza And Psychedelic" (Prog. Trance), V.A. "Speed Of Light" (Full-on Trance) Golikem "Atmadelica", Album and 4 vinyl 12" singles to be released in February 5. Copies per release (vinyl/CD): - Eruption 1300 copies - Suria - Magnitude 1000 copies for now 6. Artist pool: Magma artist groop: Flashback, Golikem, Pulsar, Drift, Cryptamine, Shankara Project, U.F.O., Bobo, Spectres, Mathematica, Magnetic

Wave (all Italian artists). We started to collaborate with ifollowing international artists: Suria, Quantico, Insect Sun, D-Nox & DJ Sly Flynn, Magnetrixx, Expect, Oryx, Frederik Flanger, S.O.N.U.S., Strixx, Cicero, Intergalactic & Eitan Insection from Kagdila Rec., U.S.A. 7. Contact: www.magmarecords.it e-mail's: Nicholas, magenticwave@hotmail.com info@magmarecords.it Tel. office: ++39 (0) 51 6810384 Fax office: ++39 (0) 51 827544 Tel. mobile : ++39 338 3258884

PROFILES

PLUSQUAM RECORDS 1. Where are you from? Hamburg, Germany 2. Labelconcept and -philosophy: Plusquam aims to promote only the highest standard in progressive trance. The trance scene's constant evolution has led to a vast caleidoscope of styles and producers. Our mission is to provide the listeners with the best progressive cuts around. We want to be open for different styles. Our releases will cover the complete range from progressive psychedelic to progressive house. Plusquam stands for special and unique kind of sound. Our concept includes artists like Timetech, Buzz, Auricular, Hopefiend, Bitmonx... We want to create a community of artists, supporting each other.

3. Number of releases up to now, Copies per release (vinyl/CD): 38, diverse 4. Milestones - best selling release: SBK - Morgenlatte Remixes 5. Releases you consider to be milestones in the labelhistory: The label history is maybe too short to have lots of milestones, but... a) Hopefiend - Out Of Know-Ware It is Mark Allen's first solo album and marked a totally unique and innovative style. Progressive, a bit housy, but very psychedelic. b) Timetech - Notes The new sound of Hamburg, smooth housy influenced trance. 6. Contact: contact@plusquam-records.de www.plusquam-records.de

LAURETH

7. Who is Laureth? Your style? DJ since 1990, inspired by the techno movement. Founded the label Tatsu recordings in 1998. Nowadays A&R of the labels Plusquam records and Spirit Zone recordings. Progressive psychedelic trance and progressive house. EMail: laureth@plusquam-records.de

BNE / YOYO REC. & HOMmega Productions

1. Name of company: BNE/Yoyo Records 2. Where are you located? Holon, Israel 3. Labelconcept and -philosophy: "It's all about electronic music." 4. Number of releases up to now: 56 5. Copies per release (vinyl/CD): 5000 - 30000 6. Milestones: - best selling release: Infected Mushroom - B.P.Empire - releases you consider to be milestones in the labelhistory: * Infected Mushroom - Classical Mushroom * Cosma - Simplicity 7. Artist pool:

Infected Mushroom, Violet Vision, Oforia, Mo Shic 8. Contact: mail@bne.co.il; www.bne.co.il

1. Name of company: HOMmega Productions 2. Where are you located? Holon, Israel 3. Labelconcept and -philosophy: â&#x20AC;&#x153;Music is the soundtrack of your life." 4. Number of releases up to now: 30 5. Copies per release (vinyl/CD): 3000 - 15000 6. Milestones: - best selling release: Yahel - Waves of sound - releases you consider to be milestones in the labelhistory: * Xerox & Freeman - Human Race * Psy Sex - Hardcore Blastoff * Astrix - Eye To Eye 7. Artist pool: Astrix, Cosma, Psy Sex, Xerox, Psy Craft, Hujaboy, Delirious, Sub 6 8. Contact: hommega@netvision.net.il www.hommega.com

PROFILES

S-RANGE 1. Your Style? Full-on progressive morninng trance 2. Where are you from? Gothenburg, Sweden 3. A short introduction: Anthony Sillfor s aka S-Range is a trance act from Gothenburg, Sweden. He is a Spiral Trax artist which performes both as a live act and a DJ. Sponsored by Steinberg Media Technologies AG as a part of their world wide artist relationship pool and Psico-Street clothing company from Brazil. S-Range has been releasing music for four years on various record labels such as Spiral Trax, Spirit Zone, Flying Rhino, MDMA, Medium and Tsunami records. S-Range is constantly touring the world after the huge succes of his previous album "2001", which was released on the Swedish record label Spiral trax. 4. Where do you want to go? I want to travel with the Hitchhicker's guide to the galaxy and explore it. 5. What do you do on that way? Join the great conspiracy.

ANTHONY SILLFORS

9. Whats annoys/inspires you? Lack of time/the future 10. Your sense of life? Enjoy life while still living, life is to short to be wasted.

6. Try to describe your music: S-Range music is totally inspired by the massive activity that hap pens around the world which most people will relate to Science Fiction. 7. The best thing you did in life? Started to make music.

EMail: info@srange.com Website: www.srange.com

8. What will you do next? I am about to release my second S-Range album "Space" on Spiral Trax records. This one will come out febuary 2003.

Expect a full size interview with Anthony for March in the German edition of mushroom magazine.

11. Contact: www.s-range.com

PROFILES

FREQUENCY: DELUXE

1. Who is Frequency Deluxe? Frequency Deluxe is Ken Small and Alex Cornfeld. Shanti Matkin also was an original member of FD. I (Alex) occasionally work in the film industry. The last project I worked on was an IMAX rock-concert film. Ken is the production manager at an incredible organic market. Ken was a techno DJ in L.A. (DJ Metro) in the late 80's. I was also a DJ in the mid 1990's. For both of us, the jump to making music was quite natural as the next step. 2. What’s about your local scene?

In L.A. there used to be a good scene, though its always been small. But it's quiet now. Up in San Francisco they have a great scene, though it's also small, well, perhaps "tight knit" is a better term. 3. How do you go about producing your music? Where do you get the inspiration? We can be working on something for a long time, not completely satisfied, and all of a sudden, for no readily apparent reason, it will all come together. When it comes together, and there is that specific moment when the groove appears, it is a great feeling. And it's what keeps us coming back for more. All of the music we have ever listened to - good, bad, or other - has influenced us. But we would like to think that we are developing our own style... 4. What’s your favourite gear? We love the new G4 and Logic Platinum 5. The Kurzweil 2500 is a workhorse. We have two Roland JP 8000's, the Nord Lead 2 and an

FrequencyDeluxe.com is under construction or through our label Kagdila records.

open to all facettes of psychedelic and progressiv trance. The style of the Chapter Two Compilation travels directly on the thin line between classic Goa tunes and progressiv trance productions. 9. What will you do next? The next big thing is the organisation of the fourth ov-silence open air festival in August and we will release a new compilation before summer. Furthermore we will organize a label tour (partypromoters feel free to contact us :-).

10. What inspires you? First sunbeams in spring (good weather). 11. Your sense of life? Don‘t dream your life, live your dream! 12. Artistpool? Dj‘s: ov-silence.oli (label & event manager, A&R, founder of ovsilence), Olli (A&R, event organisation, actname: Tool), Aris (grafix & flyer), Tamahuka (A&R), Live Act‘s: 6th Floor, Paraphonix, Auralis, Yare, Block 4 13. Contact: mail@ov-silence.de www.ov-silence.de Ov-silence, P.O.Box 702225, 22022 Hamburg/Germany

Access Virus C which I think will soon be our favorite piece - it is very phat. The outboard effects, an Ensonic DP Pro and T.C. Fireworx are both nasty. And we have a T.C. Finalizer which does double duty as an A/D converter for tracking and as a matering processor. 5. Do you think the U.S. psy trance scene will grow? I wish I knew how to make it so. Actually there are a lot of psy artists just starting to come up in the U.S. so hopefully their emergence will naturally spur the scene to grow. 6. Contact: alex@frequencydeluxe.com

OV-SILENCE 1. Labelconcept & -philosophy? Let it flow 2. Number of releases up to now: Three 3. Copies? Vinyl – 500 CD – 2000 4. Best selling release? Ov-silence chapter two VA/CD 5. Releases you consider to be milestones? Every Release is a milestone 6. Describe your project/music: ov-silence recordings & events is a project to support all kinds of the progressiv and psychedelic scene. The two clubs are perfect to promote artists, labels and organisators of this movement and last but not least ourselves. We are

PROFILES

TURBOTRANCE 1. What kind of label are you? A label for psy and funky trance 2. Name of company: Turbo Trance records 3. Where're you located? La Fare les Oliviers, near Marseille in the south of France. Feel free to visit us! 4. Labelconcept and -philosophy: To develop trance through french scene and more. Create a team of artists, united for a same passion: the music. We want to be close to the public, share with them our feelings. Help the scene to be more professional!! Show trance to the world as a culture, a life style. 5. Number of releases up to now: 5 CD releases and 3 Vinyls 12" 6. Copies per release: CDs: 3 000 copies (more or less) 12": 1 000 copies (no more !) 7. Best selling release: TTrCD001- V.A - Origins 8. Releases you consider to be milestones in the labelhistory: TTrCD005- Mumbo Jumbo - Speaking In Tongues (in a near future, I hope) 9. Where do you want to go? I want to go to heaven!! And with this project of Turbo Trance music label, I want to go as far as possible with my artists and try to bring them higher as possible. 10. What do you do on that way? To go to Heaven, I believe in God. For the label project, I work very hard in the most honest way possible. Honest with me and with the others

Lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ELF

and believe in what I'm doing... 11. Try to describe your music: Manage a label is not an art, more a business, so, to be professional is very important and shows to others that they can trust in you. Be intelligent and clever! 12. The best thing you did in your life? Realize a dream I had, create Turbo Trance records is maybe the best thing I did (for me). Love people around me is the best thing I'm doing... 13. What will you do next? Any plans? I (L'Elf) will release my own album in collaboration with Triptych under the project of "BPK" before the end of the year which is a kind of psychedelic and funky trance, very tribal and light. My plan is to release all the music projects I like as Cameleon (Bamboo Forest & Ninja). That I'll release very soon and also I develop this jewel called Triptych who is the best ambassador we have to represent Turbo Trance records. I really believe in Triptych since the beginning and I know that's I'm right! We'll restart our clothes line "Turbo Trance Wear" very soon. I'm

very interested by clothes fashion and I want to have something else than music to represent Turbo Trance. Of course, our clothes line is like our music, dedicated to the "cyber and psychedelic culture". 14. Whats annoys you/inspire you? Stupid people really annoy me, this kind of people who just look their ego and think that they can destroy everything on their way to success. Stress people who don't take the time to enjoy their life, who don't see that they are lucky to have everything they need to be happy irritate me. The MP3 sukkers and trance trader world really annoys me!!! The smile of happy people inspires me, this kind of shining stars they have in the eyes when they are happy. The difference between each person also inspires me... 15. Your sense of life? Be happy, realize my dreams even if too much crazy dreams! The love is maybe the real sense of my life, it's so easy and so hard in the same time. My passion: The music. 16. Contact? Turbotrance 3 rue Saint Exupery 13580 La Fare les Oliviers (France) lelf@turbotrance.com Tel: 0033(0).490.425.019 Mobile: 0033(0)603.561.965 www.turbotrance.com

PROFILES

TRANCE-SHOP.COM 1. What is it? Trance Shop & mushroom mailorder 2. Where‘re you located? Lüneburg, Germany Tel Aviv, Israel 3. Concept and -philosophy: mushroom mailorder hotline for all readers of this magazine, website for customers worldwide and distribution. Fine prices and service for all. 4. Number of releases up to now: more than 800 different Releases on Stock on CD, vinyl and DVD Clothes, party tickets and magazines are also available 5. Best selling releases:

Infected Mushroom – Classical Mushroom Astrix – Eye to Eye Cosma – Simplicity BLT – God is Love Releases you consider to be milestones in your history: specially all Infected Mushroom releases 6. Label pool: HOMmega, BNE, Phonokol, Shaffel, Shiva Space Technology, Alchemy, Domo, Agitato, Tatsu, Nephilim 7. Contact: Thomas Keunecke, 21

orderline: +49 (0) 4131 – 85 99 00 infoline: +49 (0) 4131 – 710 393 fax: +49 (0) 4131 – 70 76 97 thomas@trance-shop.com 8. Organisation: -name of sublabel: www.trance-shop.de (German mailorder) www.trance-shop.com (worldwide mailorder) www.trance-shop.biz (worldwide distribution) 9. Style full on, psychedelic, progressive, minimal, downbeat and chill

PSYSHOP.COM & PSYSHOP.NET What are you doing? internet sales & distribution We are specialists in Goa, psychedelic and progressive trance as well as ambient and chill-out music, offering a wide online collection of CDs and Vinyls. We offer: - An incredible selection of more than 2.000 CDs and vinyls - Worldwide delivery to more than 200 countries - Very good prices

- Excellent customer service We deal with more than 50 labels worldwide such as Tip World, 3Dvision, Shiva Space Technology and Acidance. You can easily order brand new trance acts or the classical Goa style, dancefloor and ambient releases at www.psyshop.com Customer service: service@psyshop.com Also available: Psychedelic t-shirts, DVDs and

videos. Special features: - Sound samples of every product. - Online order status check. - Upcoming releases announcement - Add your banner to our online shop. Attention Music Resellers: Register your business at www.psyshop.net for Wholesale prices and a daily newslist ! Business contact: info@psyhop.net net: www.psyshop.com

DJ-CHARTS

Cosma's greatest: charted by DJ Eyal Yankovich BNE / HOMmega - Israel 1. Domestic Cosma “Sleep of peace“ 2. Cosma “Find Out“ 3. Cosma “The time has come“ 4. Cosma & O.M.C “Keep your mind“ 5. Cosma “Out of range“ 6. Cosma “People on hold“ 7. Cosma “Keep going“ 8. Cosma “Yok yok“ 9. Cosma “Nonstop“ 10. Cosma “Kusanam“

- your music will be with us until we met again! GoaGil - India (in no particular order) Neuromotor “Black Planet“ (Parvati Records) Digital Talk “Xtreme Process“ (Avatar Music) Kluster “Bom Shiva“ (Ketuh Records) Fungus Funk “Duck the Mechwarrior“ (Avatar Music) Hyper Frequencies “Firestorm“ (Mechanik Sound) Osom “Acid Tonic“ (Parvati Records) The Nommos “Life is a Dance“ (Avatar Music) Parasense “Mail Delivered“ (Acidance Records) Kin-Dza-Dza „May Muna Remix“ (CDR) Neuromotor “El Guerrero Primitivo“ (Avatar Music) "COSMA" AVIHEN LIVNE (1979-2003)

DJ Sam / www.chaishop.com – Germany (in no particular order) Chromosome “Calming Feather“ (Spiral Trax) A.I.R. “Breathe“ (Zlide) Astral Projection “Chaos“ (Trust in Trance) Tryptyc “Jana“ (Turbo Trance) Nimbler “UV Pagan Pilots“ (Mushroom Mafia) Paraphonix “Alltag“ (Ov Silence) Tegma “Tribe of Akabar“ (Digital Structures) Penton + Dipasquale“ “Alluvion (unr.) Timetech “Sensuality“ (Plusquam) Haldolium “In the wind“ (Free Form)

DJ Lestat / Talamasca - France 1 Talamasca „Aries“ (Zodiac Album) 2 Altom „Escape from the structure“ (Arcadia music) 3 Nomad „Mad attack“ (3d vision) 4 Talamasca „Leo“ (Zodiac Album) 5 Growlmonizer „Eject“ (Spun rec.) 6 Talamasca vs Silicon Sound „Lysergic warping“ (3d vision) 7 CPU „Killer rabbit“ (3d vision) 8 Talamasca „Libra“ (Zodiac album) 9 Talamasca „A french man in Tokyo“ (Arcadia music) 10 1200 mics „LSD - Talamasca Rmx“ (TIP world)

DJ Laureth / Plusquam - Germany

LESTAT

1. Paste „Code Bed“ (Interzone) 2. Buzz „Breath It“ (Plusquam) 3. Insane Creation „Te Fööl“ (Plusquam) 4. Vibrasphere „Lime Structures Album“ (Digital Structures) 5. Bitmonx „Blindspot“ (Plusquam) 6. Paste „Neurotrop“ (Interzone) 7. Shiva Chandra “„Subsonic Album“ (Spirit Zone) 8. Shaman „Sound of Science“ (Plusquam) 9. Nugen „Braaj“ (Release) 10. Filterheads „Protection“ (Pitchblack)

DJ L'Elf / Turbo Trance records / BPK - France 1. Triptych “Accelerator“ (Turbo Trance) 2. Mumbo Jumbo “Jax Bac“ (Turbo Trance) 3. Aphid Moon “Disco Biscuit“ (Dragonfly) 4. Golong “Into the Mordor“ (unrel.) 5. Cameleon “Searching remix“ (Turbo Trance) 6. Wizzy noise “Aqua Blue“ (Turbo Trance) 7. Kuro “Matrox“ (Candyflip) 8. Triptych “Rock from another sphere“ (Shiva Space Technology) 9. Ninja “Brazaliens“ (Turbo Trance unrel.) 10. Psypilot “Air“ (Turbo Trance)

DJ Ans / Nano Records – South Africa

ANS

1. Protoculture “New Directions“ (Nano Records) 2. Talamasca “5th Revelation“ (Tip World) 3. Rinkadink “Ultima protoculture remix“ (Nano Records) 4. The Electric Ant “Toxic Dart tripwire remix“ (Nano Records) 5. The Antidote “Empty Dot hallucinogen remix“ (Solstice) 6. Broken Toy “Devil’s Playground“ (Nano Records) 7. Intergalactic “New Generations“ (Bionic?) 8. Aphid Moon & The Electric Ant “Vicious Cycle“ (Nano Records) 9. Pogo v Protoculture “California Sunshine“ (Nano / Dragonfly Records) 10. Whiplash “Open Your Eyes“ (Alchemy)

DJ-CHARTS

DJ Shawnodese - Netherland 1. Logic Bomb “Vector (Alternate Vision rmx)“ (Psyforce) 2. Earthling vs. Paul Taylor “Anti Gravity“ (Spun) 3. Bushman vs. Blanca “Robotnix“ (Spun) 4. Xenomorph “Haunted“ (Acidance) 5. Rinkadink “Kitty Cat Fireball“ (unrel.) 6. Psysex “Soda Pop“ (unrel.) 7. Safi Connection “Club X“ (unrel.) 8. 1200 Mics “D.M.T. (Soundaholix rmx)“ (unrel.) 9. Tripteaser “Kakti“ (S.S.T.) 10. N.R.S. “Trouble on Tlon“ (Unrel.)

DJ Yaniv / Cosmophilia / Hadshot - Germany 1. Son Kite “recive part 2“ (digital structuers) 2. Planet B.E.N “third avenue“ (hadsSHAWNODESE hot) 3. Yahel “run“ (phonokol) 4. Joujouka “invade“ (radiosonic) 5. Infected Mushroom “Tasty mushroom EAT STATIC rmx “ 6. Planet B.E.N “third avenue“ (hadshot) 7. Ticon “some simple sounds“ (digital struct.) 8. Voi “dirty harry“ (balloonia ltd.) 9. Ticon “Don’t tell me I sing like a robot“ (digital structures) 10. PPS Project “Timer“ (hadshot)

DJ Shu-Ki / Kagdila Records - USA 1. Delirious “Magical Object“ (un-released) 2. VOI “Destany“ (Kagdila records) 3. Vibe Tribe “Special Places“ (Kagdila records) 4. Mad Processor “Astronomical“ (Kagdila records) 5. Mungusid “Dead King“ (Kagdila records) 6. Mungusid “Organizm“ (Kagdila records) 7. Kompset “Koncept“ (Kagdila records) 8. Kompset “Quem Falou(2003 remix)“ (Kagdila records) 9. Setherian “kalifornia solitude“ (Kagdila records) 10. Setherian “reaching a moonlight“

Gabriel Le Mar / Saafi Brothers – Germany SHU-KI

1. Masun “Störaktionen“ (ProTone) 2. Marmion “Schönberg / TechnasiaRMX“ (Superstition) 3. Messina & Sebbo “Examples“ (PV) 4. Camouflage “Me & You / Pascal F.E.O.S.-RMX“ (Zeitgeist/Polydor) 5. Thomas Schumacher “The Fortunate Ones Remixes“ (Superstition) 6. Optimizer “One Single Reality“ (Phono Elements) 7. Sascha Zistral “Midnight Funk E.P.“ (Frisbee Rec.) 8. Sieg Über Die Sonne “I´m Not A Sound /Josh Wink RMX“ (multiColor) 9. Saafi Brothers “Liquid Beach“ (Saafi Rec.) 10. Solomonic “12" (UK-Import)

DJ Fred / Neuromotor / Mechanik-Sound Records – France

FRED

1 Hyper Frequencies „Sensory toy s“ (Mechanik Sound) 2 Xenomorph „bizarre temporary dissociation“ (Mechanik Sound) 3 Central processing Unit „Shot-Shot“ (unreleased ) 4 Neuromotor „Valentino walks on the moon“ (Mechanik Sound) 5 Skazi „Ramba Tsamba“ (Mechanik Sound) 6 Earthling „Pagan“ ( Acidance ) 7 Parasense „Takashi“ ( Acidance ) 8 E.s.x.s „There s no turning back“ (Mechanik Sound) 9 Talamasca „The t.h.c philsophy“ (Mechanik Sound) 10 Hyper frequencies Erotica 7“ (Mechanik Sound)

Dj Kri Samadhi's / www.touchsamadhi.com - USA 1. Cyber Cartel “Sacred paths“ (Agitato records) 2. Astrix “Life system“ (Hom-mega) 3. Sesto Sento “Alchemistica“ (Balloonia) 4. Steptime “Drama“ (Stoneage) 5. Quantum State “Q generation“ (Boom!) 6. Rabdom l “Kill switch“ (Timecode) 7. Mind Manipulation “Beyond all insanity“ (Various labels) 8. Hujaboy “Kazzam“ (Balloonia) 9. Cosmo Chaos “Ghost inside wired“ (AP and Double-Agents) 10. Trashlords and lrie “Smilefile“ (Stoneage)

Send your charts to charts@mushroom-magazine.com or edit your online-article @ edit.mushroom-online.com

KRI

MUSIC BUSINESS

an article by DJ Yaniv / Alienews Label Group / Hadshot Haheizar Before I start I would like to apology to all who I might offend with this article, if I do so it was indirect and without any bad intention, I would also like to declare that all the quantity numbers which I’m stating here are my own estimation and not based on real facts (it could be that my estimations would be far from reality). This article is to supply sufficient answers to all those new age people with colorful clothes, which often ask things like: How much sold your best selling title? Why do the distributions kill the labels? Why do the labels kill the artists? What does it take to be distributed by a distribution company? How can I open a label? If I make a good track, how much do you pay? What does "exclusive” mean? What’s the difference between trance, full on, progressive- and techtrance? Who killed JFK? How many licenses can I get? Is the scene going commercial? To those who look upon the Trance Scene (trance, psy trance, full on, psychedelic, progressive trance, tech trance, trance with housy touch) from the side and say "wow, so many

artists, music, labels, distributions, parties, magazines… these scene must be a pumped up money machine” You are wrong! The truth about this scene is that it’s so small and uninteresting which makes it almost unknown, in other words if you will look in the yellow pages you will not find the Trance Scene no. inside. This scene relies on psycho sound junkies, party freaks, psychedelic fast food drug lovers, people who appreciate the evolution of the electronic music and the ones whose ears have passed the sound barriers and just looking for something innovative (I wish that this would be the majority). All those people are so extreme in their way of life that they will dedicate all their resources, money and time to become a part of this machine. I don’t know about you, but I started a label and later on a distribution only because I love this music and I wanted to spend all my time around this music without any interruption of a regular job and so on, I also know that many of the labels and the distributors which you know today have started for the same reason. What reason for they do it today is another question… To answer on behalf of myself, I’m doing it because I’m interested in music business, in interesting well-produced music and – I don’t know what I could do instead! In this scene there is nothing like a "big” artist or a "big” label, if

you will ask 100 random people in the streets of any city of the world (except of GOA) who is ‘Hallucinogen or ‘Infected Mushroom (or any other artist which you consider to be big in this scene) if you will get lucky, one will tell you that he heard this name once before…….. That’s the fact Trance Lovers, your heroes are nobody! This music is unknown! It is not played in TV, it is not played in international Radio Stations, and it is not reviewed in any global music magazine! When an A&R (Artist and Repertoire) in a major music company will get a demo of any project band which you imagine that they are the biggest seller of this scene he will put it in the garbage because things selling below 75.000 copies world wide are not subject for negotiations! Ok, we got rid of the majors and we left with the independent companies 10 - 8 years ago everything was simple, because there were only 1 distribution, 5 labels, 20 artists and 10,000 people who were looking for this music. Today you have at least 10 big distributions far more than 50 known labels, over 500 artists and less than 10,000 people who want to buy this music. About the distributions: Every distribution has their key labels and mainly the same imports, whenever a distribution lists a new label in their catalogue, they reduce the sales of the other labels in their catalogue, due to the fact that most customers have a fixed budget, which needs to be divided by the number of releases.

MUSIC BUSINESS

Whenever a distribution doesn’t take a new label to their catalogue they make their competitors stronger.

1. The customer will get in touch with the label direct, promise them big promises and convince them to sell to him direct on credit.

Whenever a distribution dares to sell to a shop or another distribution for credit, they have to face the following risks:

This action can lead to two possible situations: 1. Since the label can’t supply this customer with important releases every week they will be added to the bottom of the ‘urgent’ payment list and maybe will not be paid at all, until they will have their next big product to come. 2. Since the label supplies the buyer direct he will not pay his previous invoices to the original distribution and so the distribution will not be able to pay their open invoices to the label…

1. The buyer is a new cutting age hippie who decided that from today on his business will be selling records but neither he has the budget to back-up his wishes, so maybe he will not pay his bills to the distribution, the distribution will fail to pay the labels bill, the labels will fail to pay their artists or printing bill – somebody might go bankrupt! 2. The buyer is a well known distribution discovering a ‘new’ trend, they stock giant quantities and after some time they realize that they can sell only a third of what they ordered, so they return the goods to the distribution, the distribution will return it to the label, the label printed too much upon demand, they get half of the quantity 6 months later (when they hardly can sell it any more). With 2 or 3 times things happening like this – the label will go bankrupt! Whenever a distribution does not agree to the customer requests for selling him on credit, they stand in that high-risk point:

All this actions lead to a chain reaction of unpaid invoices which always lead to a bankruptcy of at least one company sooner or later… Another problem of the distributors is the turn over: The distributors have to reach ‘x’ turnover to be able to run their company, Now the products have a very short life 1-3 weeks and than it’s not so hot anymore, So they have to find every week new products to make their list interesting enough for the shop to order every week. Result: the market is full with unnecessary products, which compete each other.

About the labels: The labels try to get their hands on the trendy stuff in a good time, release fasts and sell a lot but they have few problems: 1. If they are a new label they will have a problem to find a distribution, because all distributions are full of labels already… 2. They have to pay advances to the artists, pay and print the records and get paid within 90120 days if they will get paid at all, that slow them down and by the time they release the music, the "smart” artists already gave their trax to all their friends which swapped it with other friends and distributed on MP3 – by the time the album is out, nobody wants to buy it anymore. There are 3 kinds of labels: 1. the major related or big budget label: This labels comes as a division of a major record company who wants to invest in an upcoming style and he has to grave the market by the balls, or totally rich guys that find nothing else to spend their money for. Those labels pay ridiculous high advances to the big artists (advances which never justify these sells), they pay those advances because they want to catch the market with big names and they have a big budget to spend and they don’t give a fuck about the future of the scene. Mostly those labels make few experiments with the style – see that its not profitable and go on to the next thing – leaving the scene with blown-up ego artists which got used now to big advances and will not accept less in the future… 2. the long timer hard survivors: Those labels work on a small budget and pay well-calculated advances in relationship to expectation of sales… those labels discover artists, make them big and later on loose them to category no 1… 3. the "open/close-labels” Those labels are newcomers that want to have a label for mostly artists who never manage to get a record deal in the first 2 cate-

MUSIC BUSINESS

gories and decide " we will make it by ourselves”! The result: 1. after 1-2 releases they are fed up with investing money for no profit and they close their business down. 2. since they find no distribution they gather with some more "open/closelabels” and create their own distribution, which lead to a market full of unnecessary products and confused consumers. About the artists: The artists are standing in an electronically competition since what counts for good music in this scene is the fattest sound and the coolest samples. For this they have to be daily updated with new software and machines, which cost more, than what can be covered by selling their music. This scene is infected with new young artists who have fresh ideas and more knowledge about software than the big dinosaurs. This scene is full of different projects made by the same artist. The reason is to be able to sign as much tracks as possible to different labels avoiding breaking the exclusivity section in their contract. This scene is full of non-innovative artists, which produce one-timehits to meet the markets demand. The result: no big name, no fame, no money, no fans, no picture, no bikini girls in video clips. About the consumer: There are few kinds of consumers for this music: 1. the junkies: Crazy kids spending all their money (and their familie’s money) on CDs and records. This people buy every week at

everyone want to be a part of the machine – you can expect that one day trance will eat itself. In a scene where freaks try to run a business – you can’t expect correct payment days and good book keeping.

least 5 different products, they play it one - two times and then want to get more (unfortunately this is an endourgies species) 2. the "wanna-be DJ”: These people are the most updated ones; they buy everything, they record all and they swap whatever, just for the chance that they might be booked to play for free in a future party. 3. the "Mafia guys”: three guys come in the shop and buy three different CD, but later on all three of them have all three CDs! 4. the "wanna buy”: "I want to buy all this 10 records but I don’t have enough money because I spend it all on lollipops, so can you keep me this 3 for next week – and when will you get new stuff?” 5. the classic consumer: "hmm… I love this goa parties and I love this music, so I should have at least one CD of goa at home. Do you have a special CD with GOA sound?” 6. the smart ones: These guys know exactly what they want and what they need, if they get it in advance by swapping or MP3 its good, if not, they buy it. Conclusions: In a scene that demands new sound every day – you can’t expect big sales from just a single product. In a scene where a DJ requires only ‘new’ sound to be able to play – you can’t expect to hear amazing innovative sets. In a scene where all consumers’ look like pirate drug addicts – you can’t expect positive support by the media. In a scene, where everybody who has a computer and a bit of software can make a track – you can’t expect to have plenty of good music. In a scene, where

Suggestions for solutions: 1. The Distributors have to take care to sign serious and quality Labels with a promising concept and output. 2. The Labels have to take care to show the artist correct calculations about how much their record can really sell and not promise them unrealistic no based on unrealistic advances just to reduce them to sign a deal. 3. The artists might want to be more innovative and to spend a bit more time on each track they make, instead repeating on the prototype. in order to support the scene, which feeds them instead ripping it off by copying. 5. The club owners and party organizer should look that the DJ´s that they book will carry with them some original CDs or records and not just copied material… (hey, you pay them so much money – at least make sure that a part of this money goes back into the scene), we all know that clubs have to pay royalties to their local society for playing music – maybe they could ask the DJ´s what tracks he played and give this list to the society – so the money that they pay goes back to the artists… BUT… …I do have something positive to say: Just imagine that this scene will be successful being played in the radio and TV all the time. The sells of ATMOS t-shirts will top Michael Jackson… Would you continue to feel so special whenever you put a new CD in your player? Yaniv

VISUAL ART

„There are many different ways how to express the idea as white paper“

Sola was born in germany and is living in Ibiza since end of the 80ies. She decorates in many countries in all over the world. Sie hat Grafik-design gelernt und dann angefangen Diskos zu dekorieren. Dabei hat es sich rausgestellt, dass es gar nicht gross genug sein kann. She uses a technic she developed herself, which is a light net, tape and flouro-colours. This technic lets the wind thrue, you see the shape of the design and as well you still see the bakkground, mostly nature. Used in layers it gets a 3D-effect. Sie

works with symbols of many cultures and tries to find the right colours for every piece. Her artistic expression devides in two directions: on- and off- season. The on-season is from April to October. It is the time to work outside, in a team, big decorations - big parties... The other time is for die Ruhe finden sich ihrer Kunst zu widmen... Her other love is painting oilpainting. She concider it as most free, most tempting and most difficult. The ideas for the deco comes in

many different ways. Mostly an organizer have certain ideas/ limitations. So the infinit world of ideas is already reduced. If there is a theme - she digest it and look at it in her very personal way. „I like a lot to have the time to let float the proposal in my brain. Without stress. I live my normal life, and suddenly there is the ´clickmoment.´. Or I heard or saw something inspiring...or suddenly it´s clear with what I want to spend my time...then I start to scetch.“

Contact: sola@ibiza-mail.com

VISUAL ART

„Art is a medium for communicating the unexpressable“ His influences are certain french comic designers, but also graffiti, some abstract art, and of course mother nature.

Felix is born and living in germany. He is decorating many parties with his pictures in places near and far since ´97 He was rejected at the state art school, so he learned everything by himself. His style is very airy-fairy, psychedelic. Somewhere in the middle of the nineties he cames in contact with the goa-trance scene and soon started painting with fluorescent colours. Though he’s more interested in every picture itself he is able to decorate a room with one style. He have different groups of pictures that fit together by colour and theme, like abstract industrial soundstreams or myceloid fairy forests and dream cities. Lately he even made some minimalistic, groove-orientated more techno-inspired geometric progressive fashionable bullshit.He paints on cottonbedsheet with black ink liner and then colourize with acrylic fluoro-paint. He mixes his own colour with base and pigments.

„Me inpire especially trees, rocks, animals,people I meet,…probably everything in the past present or future that´s happening around me somehow condensates when I develop an idea for a new picture“

Contact: www.projektpan.de/felix

VISUAL ART

„I always want to incorporate visual things to the music“ Cyril is an 27 years old french guy who lives since 3 years in London. He makes Visuals Communication, the combo of Illustration, Model making, Graphic design, Multimedia … in other words, Handcraft in contrast with the latest technology mixed together or not. His mother used to draw and paint together with his dad for their own pleasure, maybe it did start from there and gave him an influence and a push for doing his things today. Further on time, in London, he started working with the Flying Rhino crew 2 years ago, firstly with a graphic company where I became “art director” and since last September on my own as an Independent Artist… He do take his own pictures whether it is Digital, 35 mm or Medium Format because he cannot work with somebody else’s pictures, unless he is working with friends who do like to take photographs too, otherwise he don’t use photo banks for the impersonal side of it. He do find it very important to work with his

photographs and his own material; this is one of the key elements for doing original pieces of artwork in his sense. He makes Visual Art because he loves it, it is important to express himself through his work, and as the majority of artist for the need of recognition but first for personal satisfaction. He combines visual and acoustik arts, besides his being as designer, he is a DJ since 1996. He always wanted to incorporate his visual things to the music „I get my inspirations from a lot of things, such as walking in the forest, taking the tube, listening to some music, watching movies, books…a lot of thoughts (sometimes too much), friends, and family and off course Joel Peter Witkin.“

Contact: cyril.moumen@btinternet.com phone: 0044 (0) 786 772 64 64

GLOBAL TRANCE EVENTS

We have all information needed for this years party summer. The biggest festivals in Europe and also around the globe are presented on the following pages. Like to have your internationally relevant event in our next issue? Then please fill our form on: http://edit.mushroomonline.com or send a mail to (release is May 2003, deadline). We’d like to expand our party section next time so let’s keep in touch!

One of the most exciting parties of the last year was definitely the Boom Festival in portugal (picture above). So we are happy to show you some pics of this wonderful event. Thanks to Andre & Lisa for the amazing Boom-photos. Please visit them at zuvuya.net .

Sat 22.03. Psygate meets Elsewhere, London / U.K. DJs: Young (Italy - UK), Dj Boxer - Dark Soho (Israel - DJ Set), Paul Taylor (UK - Ibiza - Spain) Chill: Nova & Arc–I Live: Talamasca (France - UK exclusive) Loc: Mayfair Club, Vauxhall, London/U.K. Info: www.antiworld.net Psygate and Elsewhere are very proud to bring you their first birthdays parties together for a night of kicking psychedelic trance! After having rocked venues like the Drome, The Rex and The Historic Fridge we are very happy to invite you to the Mayfair Club in Vauxhall London. This is going to be your 2003 London favourite venue … as it is in Zone One, close the tube and with an excellent underground feel to it … coming from its excellent security and very peaceful managements … Come and join our First Birthdays in this massive new venue and for your musical voyage we have the line-up you see above. There are only 200 Advance Tickets on sale for 10£ ! Group discount welcome: buy 10 tickets and get 1 free at www.psygate.co.uk & www.antiworld.net

GLOBAL TRANCE EVENTS Fri 06.06. - Sun 08.06. Psychedelic Circus (Schwerin / North-Germany) The Psychedelic Circus is the perfect take off for summer season in Germany. The populartiy of this event is growing from year to year. Join us, it’s about to start ... The World Wide Tribe presents the Psychedelic Circus for the fifth time in a row. Located between Hamburg and Schwerin, as always, we realy look forward to this fest. This legendary open air has become an important meeting point for the scene. Some of the best known artists worldwide are invited to create a three-day-experience of a special kind! The line up for this year will blow your ears with all kinds of pychedelic sound, giving place to all flavors of trance. The crew wants to create a fest perfect for positive psy experience and fluorodelicclownery!

Fri 20.06. - Mon 23.06. Tshitraka Project Open Air ( North-Germany ) After a party with 2000 people last year, Montagu and Golkonda (the organisers of Samothraki) will top it all this year! The follow up to one of last summers best events in Europe grows: Three days and twonights is the timeframe for this years fest. Besides the internatiolized line up from Germany, Sweden, Israel, Danmark and Mexico impressing decorations are build up. On last years eyecytcher - an inca pyramid - a performance will take place. For the chilli moments there’ll be a chill- and groove-floor serving head cleaning sounds. Starting with great fireworks the fest will hopefuly become something amazing and unforgettable.

Fri 04.07. - Sun 06.07. Shiva Moon Inside ( between Hamburg and Berlin / Germany ) Because of its large size Shiva Moon likes to have an insider party with special guests only from the old goa families. The party will take place in germany between Hamburg and Berlin on a uncredibly beautiful location. There are two dancefloors. Most of the sound will be traditional goatrance. The Shiva Mooon Inside is mainly for those who know the goascene since the beginning and who value a real family. No matter what the size of the insider Shiva Moon is - all of the the phantastic decoration will be used. More Info at www.shivamoon.de

Wed 09.07. - Mon 14.07. Trancendence ( near Alto Paradiso / Brazil ) DJs:

Riktam, Serge, Alex, Stephane/Yann, Dimitri, XP, Bansi, Avi, Christof, Shanti, Celli, Ekanta, Feio, Mack, Swarup, Tati, Gabe, JP, Lipe, Mahadeva, Fast Lane, Rodrigo, V.O.R., Matera Live: Parasense, Soundaholics, Antidote, Space Cat, Bamboo Forest, Wrecked Machines, Skulptor, Mukunga Umbura Deco: Solar Flares Loc: Alto Paraíso / Brazil, Festival location is 230 km north of Brasília Info: +55 62 446-1078, www.solarflares.com.br, entry: $ 45 A 5-Day Electronic and Dance Music Festival in the heart of Brazil, the Chapada dos Veadeiros. The region is famous for its tablelands and high mesas, the abundance of rivers and waterfalls and, of course, the the crystals that are everywhere...

GLOBAL TRANCE EVENTS Sun 13.07. - Thu 17.07. Fullmoon Festival (Northern Germany) DJs: Goa Gil, Yahel, Skazi, Bim, Gabe, Iguana, Edoardo, M:A.C.K., Brain XL, Exanimo, Highko and many more Live: Astral Projection, Astrix, Wrecked Machines, Prototype, Shawnodese Xtra: chill in by Fish & Chill-Laden-Crew, limited cheap discount tickets are available Loc: Northern Germany Weg: Autobahn A24, Exit No.21, Herzsprung Info: www.fullmoon-festival.com, email@fullmoon-festival.com, Tickets: tickets@fullmoon-festival.com

Fullmoon-Festival...an experience of international electronic art & culture.For all partypeople doing all german festivals this summer and of course all other trance heads never stopping o party, the fullmoon crew wants to sweaten the week before Antaris Project (see below for info). As always they have a line up packed with international Acts and DJs. The festivals page is updated frequently containing all news and information nedded for this event. The fullmoon crew gives away five free tickets to the intershroom readership. Just send a mail to info@intershroom.com until 05.31.03.

Fri 18.07. - Mon 21.07. Antaris Project (near Berlin / Germany) DJs: Roger, Yoshi, Sven Looping, Sally Dolally, Sun Psilo, Rupesh, Trevor, Mirco, Ma Faiza, Jackomo, Steff , Nirmal, Doctor High, Zig, Dirty Frank, Fred, Zappl, Jupiter, Werner, Elastic Om & KrisĂ¤, Shamane, Stu, Atit , Ralleken and more Live: S.U.N.Project, Logic Bomb, Didel, Johann Bley, Dari Sana, Xtra: Free entrance for all disabled people and "birthdaykidsâ&#x20AC;? Loc: near Berlin Info: www.antaris-project.de, doors: 32 EURO / Presale 27 EURO With an incredible soundsystem (100.000 watt) and a breath-taking blacklight deco by the UV artist Ananto (Infin-E.T. Berlin), the Antaris Project will be the most authentic Goa festival on german ground again this year 2003 for yet another time! The lake located directly at the festival invites you to relax and go for a swim when it gets too hot.You can get everything your tranceheart desires at our huge section of shops.

Fri 25.07. - Sun 27.07. Excalibur Open AIr (Northern Germany) Weird creatures were spotted, amazing things happened (we ourselves haven't even thought it before) and the music just went on and on, with happy people jumping around all day & night. So after a very uplifting and magical festival 2002 (pictures can be viewed at www.excalibur-festival.com/gallery.html we are looking forward to july this year, where the holy

sword will rise again. As our festival has become more and more international lately, we hope to see a crowd as mixed and colourful as ever at our very beautiful and enchanting open air location in northern germany (bear Berlin and Hamburg). Love light & magic More Infos: www.excalibur-festival.com

Fri 01.08. - Sun 03.08. Shiva Moon (Northern Germany) The big Shiva Moon will not be on the same location as the Insider Shiva Moon, but also in northern germany between Hamburg and Berlin.

GLOBAL TRANCE EVENTS Fri 08.08. - Sun 10.08. Voov Experience (Northern Germany) Since more than a decade the VooV Experience festival attracts thousands of trance lovers and psy travellers from all over the world. During 3 days and 3 nights a huge trance village is created on an amazing location surrounded by unspoilt nature. VooV Experience is the most international festival in Northern Europe, it's the heart of the trance scene with quite a long history already. Unique about VooV Experience is also that no names of djs or live acts are announced until the beginning of the festival, so everyone will get a good surprise once again by the excellent and innovative choice of artists to create a magic atmosphere. Apart from music being the main thing on 3 different dance floors, visuals are much emphasised. UV decoration, VJs and light design will create an unforgettable impression which plays with your senses and gives you a new and exciting experience. Performers in fantastic costumes will entertain you during the whole weekend. For an experience of your inner realm, visit the „healing area“. There you can get massages and various other body work treatments, find the space for meditation or you might simply relax and recharge while listening to fine ambient tunes. Of course there is also a spacious „market area“ where you can get the most international range of food, drinks, clothes and treasures. Due to their rich and profound experience, the organizers and their crew will once more create a perfectly arranged festival. For you to share the vision of the international psy trance tribe. And here's your chance to win two free tickets to the VooV Experience festival: check our website and send us a mail with the subject "free ticket". Good luck! For further information and many more details, please also check www.voov-experience.de. See you at the dancefloor!

Thu 28.08. - Wed 03.09. Samothraki Dance Festival (Samothraki Island / Greece) Please check our article on page 44-46 where you can get a lot of info about this special festival :-)

Thu 28.08. - Wed 03.09. Indian Spirit Open Air (Northern Germany) The crowning end of the summer in germany will be the Indian Spirit Open Air, this year also organized by World Wide Tribe – this should be a guarantee for a great event. Additional to the three dancefloors there will be a reaggeafloor for all the rastapeople. An international Line Up of artists will create an unforgettable experience. They will take you in a shamanic empire. More infos at www.indianspirit.de

Turbotrance Accelerator Tour Dates We don’t want to forget the Accelerator Tour of Turbo Trance Records. Here are the dates from february to march: Sa, 15.02. in Lisboa (Portugal) with L'Elf, Stella Nutella and Live Acts Triptych & Mumbo Jumbo ••• Do, 20.02. in Madrid (Spain) with Stella Nutella ••• Sa, 01.03. in Goïas (Brazil) with L'Elf ••• Sa, 08.03. in Sao Paulo (Brasil) with Charles aka Triptych ••• Sa, 08.03. in Aeken (Belgium) with Stella Nutella. More Infos: www.turbotrance.com

„When a certain critical number achieves an awareness, this new awareness may be communicated from mind to mind. Although the exact number may vary, the Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon means that when only a limited number of people know of a new way, it may remain the conscious property of these people. But there is a point at which if only one more person tunes in to a new awareness, a field is strengthened so that this awareness is picked up by almost everyone!“ Ken Keyes, Jr, „The Hundredth Monkey“ The Barrelfull of Monkeys (BOM) are a global network of ravers and mischief makers, dancers, lovers, activists, artists, DJs, tech fetishists and idealistic dreamers, pleazure Terra-ists and media savvy memetic sculptors surfing the inphomation tsunami filtering through the last wave of culture before the End of The World As We Know It in 2012, by which time everyone will have got their shit

VISIONS

together and linked up in hive minds for the pure creation and transmission of Art, and we'll have a party to end all parties on Monkey Island, kundalini rainbow beacons shining from the dancefloor. I guess with the monkeys it all started out on the dirt dancefloor in the Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ) and the sacred space of group mind consciousness. The BOM are a journey through time as well (to 2012), as all the good people I meet I give a real barrel of monkeys monkey to and thread into the group. Back when outdoor parties was my main focus that meant getting a lot of trippers and party people in the barrel, which was basically a loose collection of friends and acquaintances I kidnapped into the barrel … For instance, with the world turning and the ‘new world order’ being forced on our consciousness by the global spin doctors, the parties started to be protest parties, there started to be rallies, we all party/protested in the carnival against capitalism on Sept 11 2000 in Melbourne when the WEF were in town, and that changed everything, I think. The subculture around us crystallized and the BOM started to change

and to reflect that, becoming focused on the issues facing this generation and trying to fight the injustices that are destroying our culture and threatening our entire planet. At the heart the core ideals like Monkey Island – an utopian space where we can all do our own thing – are just that, utopian ideals. But with the momentum of an activist culture where DIY (Do It Yourself) is the central meme the childlike ideals are in a culture where they now have the chance to be reali-

zed through a lot of hard work and participation. Monkey Island for me isn’t just a dream, it’s a reality I am working towards and want to join with other like minded folk who want that too. It’s a label for an intentional community that a lot of people in the counterculture are saying they want as the world goes to hell in a breadbasket – a space where we can control our own community, go solar and eco-tech friendly, experience alternative communities and lifestyles and live the dream. Anyway, what I see the BOM beco-

VISIONS ming is what I see the culture becoming this decade. People are linking up in cells/activist groups/ communities because they have to – they have no other choice when things are disintegrating around them in the mainstream, skyrocket prices, alienation, isolation, death and destruction. Technology and control of media (the old Marxist chestnut) is finally available to the common person and as the mainstream media outlets are losing their grip on a passive consumer audience, that same audience is waking up and becoming the producer, the artist - the dreamer is becoming the maker. Passive culture that allowed the world to get so bad, put under a spell by the corporations and governments is seizing back control. Its all about being ACTIVE-ATED. Over the next 10 years the seeds have been sown and now it’s time to till the soil. It’s time to live the life and the meme of participatory community and all that embodies we have the people and the resources. We will put on fundraising and community building parties over the years to fuel our journey, and the party is what brings us all together and where we all came from. But beyond the party is the community, and the output of that community, artistic and practical that provides an example for and is inspired by all the other like minded folk doing the same. That’s what it’s all about and the plan is open ended and open source to interpretation and participation by all those I’ve kidnapped into this mad endeavour, because it’s what we make of it, after all. Do you want to play the Game ???

Rak / BOM

There’s a monkey sitting on a skyscraper eating a banana … What do you think he’s dreaming about? Tush Gun: He may be dreaming

about a lost way of life, non-teknikal world, nature-value, he may be dreaming that building is huge toilettes of the human society and puke on it!!!

Tim:

Hmm, the only obvious answer I can see is …

aeroplanes!

Diva:

A monkey on a skyscraper eating a banana would be dreaming for more bananas.

What do you see personally in the Barrelfull of Monkeys? Diva: The Barrel is a dream of an idea … or a junket for art for art's sake …

Tim: The Barrelfull of Monkeys can not be organized at all, it just happens. Diva: Life is a cycle … history repeats itself and if you believe in a spiralish nature of evolution then it all returns but shifted … so

whatever the timeframe or the "matrix", humans will be humans and monkey around.

On the way to the monkey-utopia … the beat goes on, and maybe opens an inner way which becomes an outer one to this utopia … What role have parties / raves to achieve a new awareness (if they have one …) ? Tush Gun: Only fun baby.

Tush Gun: Free-circulation of the information, activism for freedom by nu-kulture … Rak: It is part of the evolving global Network of like minded folk, from the Cybertribes to the Tekno Renegades putting on free parties in your neck of the woods, to the mad trippers dreaming in the new frequency in urban crashpads across the sprawling homogenous trading zones of the New World Order. It started as an idea and now it’s becoming a reality …

Diva: It has been shown that deep growling bass played for 22 out of every 24 hours actually enhances the hormonal activity in the banana plant thus making the bananas grow bigger. Rak: Parties provide nodal points across the globe for elevated consciousness/group mind dynamics. Not always, and drug abuse is as big a problem as ever, but at the right place at the right time with the right people – magic happens. Group mind awareness. Psychic collectivism. It feels good!!!!

VISIONS

And don’t forget to have fun!

Drugs can be a step to a new awareness, but also step in the other direction. What do think, which kind of role have psychoactive substances …? Tush Gun: Drugs drugs drugs … maybe just free our mind from all the shit around us, help our inner peace to win the war against oppression, phreak out society, moralization … Diva:

governments were and are trying to steal our dreamtime lands out from under us and sell them as commodities to the corporations, and some wonderful people of all ages took them on and tried to stop this – and it’s still ongoing! Ferals is a whole ‘nother subject and maybe someone else could say more about it. It’s mutated a bit and there are lots of ‘city ferals’ hanging out in the concrete jungles in collectives now, too.

All drugs have a good side and a bad side … like MonKeys …

Can you tell us a bit about the Australian Earthdreamfestival?

Tim:

Diva: Earthdream is for everyone … you make it what you want I believe … one of those ‘… if you build it, they will come’ adventures and if you are meant to be there you will … what ever your beliefs and connections …

A tool. No more.

Rak:

They are catalysts, interfaces to our own consciousness within.

It seems that there is a link in Australia between political activism and the Techno/TranceUnderground especially on the fight against the politics of uranium mining under the label ”Ferals“ ... Rak: Yes, there are quite a number of ferals and feral like monkeys in the barrel. Australia had the right social climate in the 90s to breed a generation of informed activists – and we had the causes to fight for – Jabiluka, anti uranium mining, anti logging, Aboriginal land rights – the

nes? Is there an influence of the Dreamtime-Vision on the scene? Tim:

Depends who you

ask …

Diva: Techno/trance/ferals/ aborigines/and white urban bitches like me are all defined by which substances we abuse. Rak:

Small but growing

Tim: Earthdream Krew rock on, respect to all massive! Rak: It varies in size and quality from year to year according to participants and their resources as it’s totally independent out in the desert. Lots of real Mad Max ... Which kind of connections are between the Techno/Trance/ Ferals-Scene and the Aborigi-

influence as some people go beyond ‘drugs’ and into ideas of sacraments and consciousness exploration. Earthdream has been a strong link to this forming bonds with Aborigine communities on the land – and it takes years for them to trust whitefellas – so its an ongoing process …

Authors: Barrelfull of Monkeys www.barrelfullofmonkeys.org

Remix by Wolfgang Sterneck Graphix by Tush Gun tushgun@yahoo.fr Complete version on: www.sterneck.net/cybertribe/bom

SAMOTHRAKI / GREECE

Text: Tomrom Photos: Taxy

Samothraki Dance Festival 2002 Being at the Boom Festival in Portugal was probably one of the few excusable reasons for not going to Samothraki 2002. Samothraki was not just another party. It was one of these real transformation parties. Those people who went to this unique little island next to the Turkish border know why. We have a look back and also give you information on Samothraki 2003.

“The truth is”, says Mike, one of the organizers, “that we were thinking only about this island from the beginning of the organizations in 2001, as it goes long way back with its significance. It is home of some of the most powerful mysteries of the ancient times, the ‘Kaveiria’. Many great people have passed through the island like Pythagoras, Great Alexander and his father the king of Macedonia.” Samothraki is not only a mystical place with antique ruins, old traditions of witchcraft, Dyonisos-cult and celebration places of other ancient cults but also a unique biodiversity with crystal clear lakes, wonderful waterfalls and mountains up to almost 1700 meters. Some say it’s one of the strongest electromagnetic power places in the world. A perfect place for a fantastic psy-trance festival. Mike maybe has a good explanation for this: “Samothraki is also the birthplace of Armonia (Har-

mony), the music goddess. For us only a few other places on this planet are so psychedelic and powerful as Samothraki Island.” In fact there are very few places in the world where it is possible to dance naked at the dancefloor while having a shower – or to swim and dance in the sea at the same time. Samothraki was really the digital reincarnation of the Woodstock Festival 1969. Mike, I.Mike, Marios their team Kostas (sound operator), George (chill out stage / manager), Andreas (bookings), Ian Ion (sound operator) and Gregory (festival site manager) worked about half a year to organize this huge festival, which will forever be an unforgettable knot in the matrix of our psychedelic memory. “Good contacts with authorities, the church and the media helped to make the festival possible”, Marios says. No wonder that the organising crew was satisfied with the festival. But not everything turned out to work as it should, as I.Mike points out: „There were problems with the food shops and catering inside in the festival area and with the main boat transportation from Alexandroupolis – that were difficult issues.“ In 2002, so the organizers say, 20 official shops and stalls offered a wide variety of food but there were big problems with the catering company, and this year food will

be organized by the locals. There were three shops of the organized catering, some small shops with snacks and sandwiches and a canteen inside the area with souvlaki and meat dishes. Some vegetarian food and soups were served in individual shops, as I.Mike points out. It wasn’t possible to allow shops from abroad as they couldn’t have the legal food and drink licenses to work in Greece. The organizers tried their best, but: „We had agreed the catering with one of the biggest companies of Greece in food & sweets but it turned to be a fiasco, as they didn’t deliver to the festival what they should.“ But I.Mike is sure that there will be no further food problems at the Samothraki Festival. „As we saw the catering stories after hosting two festivals, we know now how to work it out and make it happen for real.“ Also the problems with the complicated bon system for food and drinks at the bars will be solved, the organizers say. „Many festivals work with this system successfully years now“, Mike says. „In our occasion, it was a bit more complicated as the catering company was in charge of the bon system as well and screwed it up, too. This doesn’t take the responsibili-

SAMOTHRAKI / GREECE

ty from us, but sure it made us think more and made us think how we will improve this part of the organization to really cater the full capacity of the festival.“ The small super market in the festival site wasn’t able to serve all the people without waiting in cues. „It’s not designed to cater the full capacity of a festival, just the full capacity of the camping in normal standards“, Mike explains. „It actually doesn’t belong to the organization of the fest, but to the municipality of Samothraki.“ There was yet another thing causing difficulties – again Mike: “Except from the fact that we had limited time to work the festival out, the main problem was political! To explain this in a few words: Right after the end of the festival the elections for the new mayor of Samothraki would be held. As you can imagine several other parts against the mayor and our progressive movement tried to cause problems to the fest (police in ports, transportation problems in general) and to the mayor and his party in the elections. Sounds kind of weird but this is also an aspect of the Greek reality… – unfortunately for them, the mayor (who opened the festival with a small speech) has been re-elected and for the next four years all these politics problems are history.”

„We did face some problems with the police but NOT on the island“, I.Mike says. The problems were focused in the intervention of police in Athens and Kavala ports, by searching several people. „These interventions caused mostly from anonymous reports about drug dealing in these ports and as you understand were a setup to bring some problems to the festival. Now we are very pleased with the fact that the 2002 festival proved to the authorities and the Greek society that a trance festival is not what they thought it was.“ This fact, as the organizers hope, will stop the police and some ‚good friends’ from accusing festivals and movements like the global trance scene of specific crimes and states of mind. Samothraki certainly took place and was not cancelled as false rumours said that went around on the Boom Festival. The funny thing was that on the Samothraki Festival there were also rumours about a cancellation of the Boom. Both rumours were bullshit as everybody knows today. Only the Voama Festival unfortunately was cancelled. “We don’t believe that the cancellation of the Voama Festival increased the visitors of Samothraki Festival“, Mike says. „We were not happy when we heard about it. It didn’t look well for the Greek festival scene globally and the irresponsibility of the organizers caused fear and doubt to many people. We are sure that people feared to fly to Greece cause of this and that worked definitely opposite for our festival … As an overall it didn’t really affected us as our festival is built in a different way – between organizers, artists, people and people know and trust this.“ The organizers also apologized for the transport problems from

Alexandropolis due to the lacking support of the ferry company. This lead to real fights between some fraggles and the ferry company employees. Ferry tickets were sold on the black market six times more expensive than in the ferry office. Mike: “Quite a problem was the lack of communication between the festival-team and the boat agency from Alexandroupolis that was giving away the tickets to local tourists and not to the festival travellers. We’ve seen and heard many bad stories about this, some of them very serious to be investigated. As a result of that many people got stuck in Alexandroupolis for more than 24 hours! Even though we had agreed on having more boats on the fest days still it didn’t worked as planned.” I.Mike emphazises. “All these things matter to us and we keep repeating and pointing these problems out as we are going to take better care of them in the future. For this year’s event we have come to an agreement with the boats owners and we will pre-sell the boat ticket to everyone having the festival ticket through our website, plus we will be able to distribute the boat tickets from Alexandroupolis to Samothraki ourselves (concerning the festival dates and a few days before), something completely different from the 2002 festival.” Facilities were organized very well in 2002 compared to the year before (Sola LuNA 2001). The healing area included massage, reflexology, several spiritual therapies and experienced psy-doctors for people with mental problems and a medical team for physical problems. A lot more showers and toilets than ever reduced the waiting lines. On the festival site you could find trash bins that were regularly cleaned. During the whole week, there were no real problems concerning drug abuse, violence, robberies or similar things. It was a peaceful and magic gathering of the tribes. Summarized in a few words:

SAMOTHRAKI / GREECE Samothraki 2002 has already become a legend. A place absolutely worthy to go! In 2003 the festival will take place on August 28 to September 3. Mike: “This summer we will have two stages, the main and the chill out. The line up of the main stage will have a variety of artists as new names and styles will be added. X-Dream, Eat Static, Talamasca and Antaro is to name a few along with the usual suspects like Hallucinogen, Tristan, Koxbox, James, Serge and Dino Psaras plus some surprises and new killer live acts. Also in the chill out and world music stage we will have some innovating artists together with the interchill

crew, patchwork, odo and solar quest.” “At every festival we work the maximum possible in order to bring the maximum result and this is what we are doing in the organisation of the 2003 festival. Every time we like to create something better, something new and this because the festival evolves as we do … Despite all this, every year we carefully collect and consider peoples feedback and this is what truly matters. What we can say now after two successful festivals is that Samothaki Dance Festival 2003 will be revolutionary!!! We want to thank everyone who has helped us through the years to make it real and happening – from the Artists to you ... “

Samothraki Dance Festival 2002 More than 100 musicians, producers and DJs from all over the world performed in three different areas at Samothraki 2002. At the main floor people were able to enjoy one of the clearest sound systems ever heard with 80.000 Watt. Even the second floor had 40.000, the ambient floor 15.000 Watt. And the organizers are planning to expand the sound systems to the double (!) in 2003. Almost 10.000 fraggles, including 400 workers and the artists, came to the island for a festival that lasted a whole week (including the after party). The main floor light concept was a perfect combination of three art elements: Avikals huge brilliant fluoro-objects similar to Antaris 2001 covering the dance floor, three projection screens of El Gekos ingenious video visuals from Austria, the optically multicoloured Matterhorn-like pyramid above the stage and the digital laser concert creating a extragalactical impression of a universe full of fascinating, virtually living beings cut into misty veils. The great decoration and installations at the chill out and

world music stage was done by the most promising Greek artists ::BONE::. The lineup was a collection of almost all names of musicians and DJs who personalize the history and presence of psychedelic trance. "What we did was to invite more than 100 musicians, producers and DJs so they can serve the people till the end!", Mike explains. "The last two years that our festival is taking place all the artists have shown up – and even more than listed in the flyers and posters. We believe that this means a lot … As a result of having all these quality artists, it was practically impossible not to have two or three artists playing at the same time." We can’t mention and characterize all these sets but the amplitudes of feelings were during the permanent psychedelic storm of Lotus Omega (playing during full moon), Pleiadians, Max Lanfranconi and Bamboo Forest. Also Koxbox, Tristan and GMS didn’t give time to sleep or enjoy a quiet breakfast. On sunday morning, GMS managed to rock the crowd

to the max – one of the best live acts of the festival. The stage was full and 7000 people danced to amazing full-on tracks under the water of a firetruck! They had already danced a lot before to the sound of musicians like DJ Akira, Man With No Name or James Monroe while others like Etnica or Dino Psaras were yet to come. Unforgettable also the huge amount of uplifting and positive energy created by the set of Logic Bomb on Monday morning. Unfortunately Ticon and Logic Bomb played at the same time on two different stages and many people moved to stage 3 where Simon Posford played his ambient set. Later on Simon returned to share the party with really everybody: Hallucinogen as always did the closing down of the festival with a live set. The genious Simon Posford created total chaos one more time with his twisted tunes, the dancefloor was overcrowded and delirious … – there are no words known so far to describe this. The festival ended after 42 hours of music – and 48 hours of after party began ...

SOUTH AFRICA

text & pics: geko "Only 4 the strongest 2 reach" may have been the motto for the cooperation of Vortex-Production (Southafrica), Aliensafari (Southafrica) and Etnicanet. During the night you where able to smell and hear the lions of the Krugerpark nearby the location. Right in the middle of nowhere, in the bush this modern ritual was supposed to take place. The chosen 2500 people that made the hard way to that spot were rewarded with nice chill out and the most beautiful figure made out of clay I have ever seen! At the end of the party this "Patrona Africana" was entirely coated with silica donated by parytpeople. As opening the tribes of Madonsi and Limpodo living in that region made a ceremonial dance: The "trance naturale africane" – completely unplugged! It was the ideal take off for a five day psy trance festival, only with drums, acute pipes and monotone chants. Before that a brief but sincere speech of the tribe’s chief. Then the solar eclipse: It was all cloudy but Tristan played soulful music, the crowd took off for this 96-hour-journey with a collective landing at the end. Everybody felt free and relaxed in these impressive natural surroundings of Kruger Park. This international mix of active freaks made one of the strongest energy covers over a dance floor I have ever experienced! In the course of the festival nobody was able to avoid the dance, starting with the crowd, the security and even the chief of the tribe! All dancing, all felt as one! The dancefloor was decorated by people that

arrived early enough to contribute something plus they had string art by Avikal and visuals by El Geko. Rumours say that they are planning to cooperate in the future. Musicwise we heard some Saiko Twins. Dhya Droidlock (snugasabug), Dino Psaras (torturedbrain) and Max/Mauricio (etnicanet) played nice sets as well as Antaro (spiritzone), Serge Souque (Antidote), Young (etnicanet) and Akira (solstice). The live act by Wrecked Machines was the absolute highlight – hard to describe but they had crystal clear sound, a class of its own! Other highlights where Etnica, Lotus Omega and Mikos E-set. Sometimes they had like a light commercial touch but that gave people wings to fly. I saw older men in wedding dresses sucking on their chillums, as well as mud people and bodies whirled through the air. Big shoutout to all being part of this. You where delightful, divine and strong! Thank you for that experience! The social aspect of the party was amazing as well. Locals where integrated to the structure of this fest. The tribes in towns of that area where deported to small reservations in the sixties. The government wanted to have

only wild and dangerous animals for the tourists in Krugerpark but no Madonsi tribe. I asked myself why because if somebody should live there then it has to be this tribe with its strong link to nature! The fest took place in their small reservation where they live a simple and primordial live. Three kilometres away of the last town, direction to Krugerpark the organizers built up a whole lodge-camp with two wells of 18 and 20 meters because as everybody knows water is the greatest good of all! Three traditional buildings made out of clay where built. They served as provider for the needs of the crowd, first aid, information desk and as storehouse. Instead of bringing a main stage from the city to this place in the middle of nowhere (not that cost effective) they decided to make it the traditional African way. They took wood trusses, clay, termite’s clay, water, grass and cow dung and constructed this building that was handed over to the locals at the end of the festival. It will be used as scholar camp and as a cultural centre in the future. Something remarkable is that in this area there are no locks and inside the reservation there is already no criminality! These people really carry the sun within their hearts and know what ritual trance is about!

LONDON

text: samia

The Antiworld Trance party was launched officially at the Drome in March 2000. Combining trance, techno, psychedelic trance & chillout in first 3 then 5 rooms, attracting a global peaced up crowd, the party celebrates its 3rd birthday in April 12 based at its new home The Fridge. Changing with the times it continues to create a special atmosphere wherever it goes albeit in diverse ways. Having rocked the Drome many times with sell out events Antiworld moved on to more

diverse venues & settled at The Stratford Rex in East London a year later. Hitherto a drum’n’bass/garage only venue, Antiworld introduced a new & positively easy crowd to this awesome, atmospheric old cinema by introducing the magic of all things trance music. Psygate & Elsewhere, the psychedelic arms of Antiworld, were launched at the Rex at the beginning of 2002. For promoter, venue & crowd, this proved a success in more ways than one. These events effectively propelled The Rex onto the psychedelic scene & have earnt it a reputation as the strongest psychedelic venue in London today. The early teething problems for a venue & security not used to the promoter, production, music or crowd were gradually removed & replaced with an understanding friendly rapport that makes it such an easy place to party in! Almost one year on & Psygate & Elsewhere will soon be celebrating their first birthdays together. In keeping with the changing times, the New Year & even the Polar Shift, its promoter has decided to find another new venue somewhere in London & launch it too! A pretty gutsy decision based on how great the Rex is! Anyhow, the main room & chill-out are priorities as well as being able to create festival style vibes within them. The more underground, the better! So with that in mind, the setting, wherever else it may be, for the First Birthday of Psygate & Elsewhere will bring a UK EXCLUSIVE LIVE set from TALAMASCA & the weird & wonderful sounds of resi-

dent Paul Taylor. Plus special guests, top quality production & atmosphere that are what you would expect from a crew that has travelled the road from a squat party in a pub to a sell-out event at the Drome a year later, that discovered a wicked new venue a year later & moved its hard trance Antiworld party into the Fridge another year later. A year on, it’s 2003 & who knows what’s in store! The Rex will remain a haven for special one-off events, the new venue will be launched in March … what else we know … is written below…. until the next time … Peace & Love The Antiworld, Psygate & Elsewhere Crew

more pics at: Antiworld, Psygate, Recoverworld & Teknoworld 30 Carlingford Road N15 3EH London, Uk www.antiworld.net info@antiworld.net www.recoverworld.com info@recoverworld.com www.psygate.co.uk info@psygate.co.uk www.acidpark.co.uk info@acidpark.co.uk Office : 0044 (0) 208 365 89 18 Mobile : 0044 (0) 7940 527 867

LONDON

text: Tom Rom Photos: Taxy To cover all of Londons psy-trance scene is an impossible thing. Also to mention all the venues, DJs, organizers, places to go and history of the scene would fill a small book and this book exists already: it’s called Shangri-la-la (www.Shangri-lala.co.uk). The leading British trance guide – made by Nick Mindscapes, Nigel Photon and other insiders – is a good source to check the scene in the Uk and there are close connections with the German mushroom magazine. Before going to London it’s recommendable to check also Amins info-website (www.acces sallareas.org). Amins shop in Camden is one of the knots where all informations about the trance scene meet. But not only trance, he also got lots of knowledge about the techno-, acid- and hardtrancescene too, which seems kind of melting in London. It’s definitely the first place to go. His nephew Alex from Austria is working every day in his shop and is able to give you the best tips in German. Some other important places are very near from Access All Areas. To get there: go with the Northern Line to Camden and get off at Camden Town Station. From there it’s only a short walk to 117 Kentish Town Road where the shop is situated. Amin is very helpful in getting all informations you need as a psy-trance fraggle being in London. From there you can walk about 10 minutes to the Camden Market. Here you’ll find the Stables

Market, probabely the biggest and freakiest market for psy-trancers in the world: headshops, fluoro-clothes, trance-music, informations, cheap food (2 pounds for a big Indian, thai or any other oriental meal if you come after 4 o’clock) – you’ll get everything there you might need for a successful evening. Experience the science fiction aura of the Cyberdog tunnel, get into Nigels Psychedelic Dream Temple, have a chai or one of the 15 different types of Arabic tea in the upper floor and take a look into a book in the interesting bookshop upstairs. Another cloth-shop very close by is Eran’s Hexagon. He is one of the organizers of the Paradise waterfall Party on NYE 2001 in Koh Phangan. He is specialized in Space Tribe clothes and other psychedelica. Also Oddity and other shops in Stables Market and more light- and fluoro-shops along the Chalk Farm Road are really worth to go. Don’t miss the back rooms of these shops and you’ll get into a real fluoro-universe sometimes. Often you’ll find the party flyers you are looking for tonite. Another good area is the traditional freaky Portobello Road with the big market area on Saturday until 6 p.m. Don’t miss the little difjuzen shop of Pan from Etnicanet (www.etnicanet.com) in

195 Portobello Road: fancy clothes, flyers and lots of important information from a real insider. If you are in London on Sunday, don’t miss the Sub:Sunday:Mellout at Subterrania every fortnight just off Portobello Road on W11 Acklam Road. It’s easy to dive there into a world of psychedelic trance music, performances and poetry on a magical Sunday afternoon until midnight. The German guy domSpiral, who lives with his family in a multimedia bus, has been living in London for 5 years now, and he’s one of the psy-event organizers in London you should meet there (www.idspiral.org). On NYE 2002 he and his IDSpiral-crew organized a wonderful party in a squat church which will always be unforgettable. Another fix party is the monthly Chichime in the EQ Arena in Hackney Wick (www.chichime. co.uk). Watch out for their flyers in Camden. The NYE party 2002 there offered a bombastic full-on floor with S-Range and the organizers and DJs Kristian and Phil played the people’s mind off on that evening. Also Nigel Photons set in the chilly ambient room was very nice. Outstanding also the beautiful decoration and the mindblowing lazers there on the full-on floor. Both parties were crowded with the real London underground psychedelicians if they were not already in Goa. Koh Phangan, Bali or other second homes… London is not a place to discover in a very fast way. Take you time and hang around!

ISRAEL text: Tomtron

Four o'clock. I woke up early in order to get to the airport of DĂźsseldorf in time. I wanted to travel Israel with my friend Claudia. She liked to get her own impression of today's situation in Israel. After standard checks in Germany and Swiss we flew to Tel Aviv. At our arrival the weather was friendly with pleasant 25 degree Celsius. The security check lasted half an hour. They wanted to now in detail why we had come to visit their country, they were insisting but always friendly. That's hard compared to Germany! Driving through the city you get the impression that everything is going well there. All was packed with busy people, nice surroundings with palm trees everywhere. You don't get to notice all the huge problems they have. Nadi and Avi of Domo Rec. picked

us up to their place in the north of Tel Aviv. From there it was only five minutes to the beach. Without our connections (like Jigga and Jinno of AP Records) we probably never got there. On our way to Nadis home young policemen escorted us, normal for Israelis but new to us. It made us feel secure. The first afternoon we went to the Schenken street, a place packed with colourful shops. Lots of artists and freaks live there, it was kind of like it is in Spain or Portugal, all people friendly and smiling all the time. We had gone to this coffee shop where Nadi and his friends meet and drink their coffee. Then we went to the Usta Krembo shop to see Zoob. He had a gig for me to play the next day in the label's club called Dinamo Divash. The shop was that beautiful that I was likely to forget that I was travelling the same country I saw in German TV with all this war and trouble. After that we went to Domo's home talked, ate and went to sleep. Next day I woke up so early that everybody else was still sleeping. After one boring hour I woke up Claudia and we went to the the

beach to enjoy the odour of the sea. It was so beautiful, I can tell you! We spent the rest of the day chilling, I needed the energy for my gig that night. There were a lot of people waiting in front of the club when we arrived. For us it was no problem (we went in without security checks) but the others had to wait quite a long time because of the high security standards. It was good for my ego to see all these people. I had to play the last set of the dance and the DJ before was supposed to play a hard full on psychedelic and fast set. My style normally is psychedelic as hell but I thought they wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t bring a German DJ to Tel Aviv to play the style they always get to listen. So I decided to pitch the records down to about 138 bpm and played only European progressive

ISRAEL up. I had to play after him and I can tell you it was a great pleasure! To be on stage with Simon Posford and Jean Borelli was a great honour. I played my progressive set but this time already knowing they wouldn’t hate me for it. The main floor was right behind the hotel in front of the desert with all its mountains and stuff.

sound. It was odd for the crowd at first but it turned out to be a nice time for all and the friendly feedback of the crowd and Zoob (the organizer) approved my decision. After some Wodka-Red Bull we had a break of only three hours and then left Zoobs home again for a party in Eliat nearby the Red Sea. We started the journey and I felt sick right away … maybe the Wodka was still doing its job. That would have been no problem if we didn’t have to travel the desert for six hours in a row. There I was with my head wanting to explode but the astonishing countryside kept me awake. It was so beautiful I will never forget it! We played at the Dodo party – it all seamed like a nice unreal dream: We arrived at a five star hotel resort. It was the best address in town, directly to the beach of the Red See. We met the organizer of the event and went to our rooms were I finally got some sleep. After a few hours Zoob woke me

The party went on for three days and we were invited to stay there. After an extensive sleep we went to the main beach of Eliat just the way every tourist would do. We bought some gifts for our friends in cold Germany and enjoyed ourselves. It was different there, not so much police and security as in Tel Aviv. There you were able to forget about the trouble in that country. Zoob made it possible for us to spend one day more at that special place and we joined in. We spent the extra time we had meeting other artists and exchanging information about Israel and Germany. The last night we went to our room to watch some German TV. Suddenly Yossi (the organizer) came over and invited us to a dinner with all artists and the whole team – nice! Next day Claudia, me and some of the others went to what I think is the smallest airport worldwide. The hardest flight control and longest security check I have ever gone through brought you back to earth immediately after three day

of mind blowing experiences. I had to answer about 100 questions before I got on the plane! It didn't bother me that much because the officers where as friendly as in Tel Aviv. In Tel Aviv we just had to leave the plane and it took us only ten minutes to get to Nadi's place. Back there we spent the time drinking and laughing about the stories told of the last days. Next day I gave an Interview for Israeli radio, we talked about two and a half hours, played some of the joints I had with me and I think they liked it! The last day commenced and we felt sorry to leave this unforgettable, beautiful and friendly country behind, all these nice people we had to leave, it was sad. For sure this country has serious problems but still it is so inviting and amazing! One time I said to a friend there: How do you manage to smile so much with all the trouble? He just answered: If you don't smile here you'd have to cry all day long! There are five things that really matter: Good food, nice women, beautiful country, take care and enjoy but never use the bus. I want to send big thanks, love and light to: Zoob, Jinno & Jigga, Nadi, Pnina, David, Huda, Avi, Cid, Eran, Yossi, Sunshy, Annat, Maeli and everyone i forget. www.djtomtron.com

text: Tom Rom photos: Taxy There had been many psychedelic trance parties since the beginning of the 90’s in Austria. The scene grew bigger since then, especially in eastern Austria and Hungary around ‘masterminds’ like GoAndi and other Methusalem-fraggles. It’s almost impossible to mention all the different groups and psyroots movements which arose in the past decade. Therefore i will describe the scene as it is today, with some links to the past. The Austrian party scene has evolved to a mass phenomena, especially in the last 2 years. More and more fraggles came from different scenes. Three years ago the fraggles had to come along with two to three parties a month. The famous Landsee-Festival, for instance. Everytime on a castle wheter in Burgenland or in Kobersdorf. Now every weekend is packed with dozens of parties in many parts of the country. Most of the events take place in eastern Austria including Vienna, Tyrol, Salzburg, Styria and Linz. Yes, now we can say, we have one of the biggest psy-culture scenes in Europe and it’s still flourishing. One of the most active party organizers has been Wolfgang and his crew around the "Garden Eden”. Wolfgang and the famous deco artist LydiArtika are always planning very special psy-trance parties with a distinguished spirit that has the direct spiritual link back to the 60s era. Packed with fabulous deco, and international acts such as "Mr. Voov” Antaro or Atomic Pulse last year. Wolfgang also promotes newcomers. The Garden Eden parties became a legend in the Austrian goa scene, nobody

AUSTRIA

wants to miss a single one. Another organizer is Alfredo, throwing unique parties. He usually is hooked on a vision what HIS party has to look like, regardless to the costs. He also revived the Shambala party concept, a project which was well known in the mid of the 90s. Both of these organizers still have the old spirit and provide parties with a certain ‘goa’ feel. One of the most active Goaheads is Andi ndx. In summer 2000 he and his crew organized the "Rivertrance”-Festival at the banks of Danube river. Andi and his friends, especially Londblondsilvia, Ravemona, Derrick and many others became also famous for the

"Elfenflug”-Parties (Flight of the Elves) in different locations with a lot of interesting live acts. It took them less than 2 years from small familiar events in the Viennese Wirr-Bar to the big Sunday Chai Tents with hundreds of Fraggles coming every second Sunday to the Flex-Club in Vienna offering one of the most astounding sound systems in Europe. The Chai Tent of the "Adopted Project” is an alternative to afterhours and a meeting place for a number of Fraggles in Vienna. There’s always a fancy deco and market area, chai and selfmade cakes. Free fruits and snacks included – and all this for the low price of 5 or 6 Euro. Since summer 2002 the related A-Team were busy

organizing the Shakti parties with a huge market area forming an Anjuna-Flea-Market-like atmosphere in the middle of a gorgeous light and deco cosmos. For 2003 they are planning an even bigger artist area with theatre, dance performances and different kinds of psychedelic shows. Flyer, Promotion and Deco concept is from Schwarzlichtmiljöö. All these parties are represented on a website, offering a daily frequentated guest book, a chat and tons of fraggle related informations (www.goanetix.at). It’s THE virtual meeting place of the Austrian Goa Family between the weekends. Another well known Goahead in Austria is the DJ Xela L. He is the founder of the "Psychic Reaction”events, home for many young DJs who came up in the last 2 years. These events take place every second week in the Viennese Club Subzero. He also organized many big outdoor weekend festivals in the Austrian forests with superfancy deco from his girlfriend and fluoro artist Eve.s.stochholm. Xela also tries to bring together different styles such as Goa, UK-Trance, Tribal, House, Groove, Funk. Big international names like Sun Project, Analog Pussy and recently Alien Project participated. Xela works together and promotes the so called Cosmixed Society, a DJ- and organizer network around the DJs Horizon and Beetle. They always celebrate the Goa Shamanism in summer and winter with an uncommercial and deep enthusiasm. Very famous is the Spiegel (=Mirror)-Club in Moedling near Vienna. The organizers Georg and Alenka are real psy-fraggles spending much time in Goa and Koh Phangan every year. Their SpiegelClub is the home for very nice and

AUSTRIA

familiar psychedelic parties almost every month. In the last few months Jojo alias DJ Ri 2 works together with the Spiegel crew. Another Goahead is DJ Zsuki and his Realtribe Network. It’s a pool of DJs, artists and deco people grown together to a big trance family. Now the Realtrobers are connected with the G-isis-label and want to increase their activities in 2003 bringing international live acts and DJs to Austria. Ther ia a lot of activity around the area of Wiener Neustadt near Vienna involving the DJs Maxximus, Manoo (mostly seen in ping pong sets), Magus Solaris and their friends. Two years ago Psy Haus came to psy trance, organizing parties, putting a studio together and it seems that they become important part of the Austrian psy trance community. For more than 5 years now DJ Acan and Marc from Chactun Cyberstore in Vienna continued their Suntribe party project ranging from trucks at the Love Parade in Vienna to indoor- and outdoor events around Vienna. Their concept includes

futuristic video projections e.g. from El Geko, cosmic UV decorations, fire shows (Phoenix Firedancers), live acts and big names from all over. Focussed on progressive trance, their parties are fully packed attracting many people from other electronic music dance scenes.

There are a lot more party organizers around all over Austria. A long tradition has the big Skywalker outdoor party which is organized only once a year. Unfortunately the Headland Production parties around the DJs Alizard, Dalibor and Dejan, offering the hardest psychedelic Isatrance in Vienna, are about to stop their activities by the end of 2002. Hopefully some of them will go on with these important concept. On the other hand new party organizers come up such as Matthias from "Moondancer” combining different trance styles at parties in Vienna, Vorarlberg and Upper Austria. The Fraggles are already looking forward for Chiva Chandra in March 2003. Other examples are the Wonderland in Viennas famous U4-Club, the Progressive Club Partys in Himberg and the so called "Wolke 18” in Wolkersdorf near Vienna. Other examples are the X-Chat-Bar in Burgenland or the traditional Space Club in eastern Tyrol. In Tyrol there are a number of organizers doing their best to celebrate nice parties. But in summer 2002 they had big problems with bad media reports and the police. Now they are re-starting the scene for a new revival. Very famous is "Psychedelic Visions” around DJ Chiellana and "Mystery World” around DJ Natan. The music in the western part of Austria is harder, more psychedelic and less commercially oriented than their clubby neighbours in the east, as many people say. In Salzburg all the Fraggles know Christoph and Werner from "Otherland Productions”. Their events in Rockhaus and other locations even attract the Bavarian crowd from Germany to show up. As you can easily see, it’s very hard for Mushroom-writer Tom Rom and photographer Taxy to cover all the events going on in Austria every weekend and the scene will grow even bigger in 2003.

Find here some of the organisers working in Austria: Andi ndx and friends Contact: ndx@chello.at Web: www.goanetix.at Xela L. and Psychic eaction Contact: alexander.lebeda@chello.at Web: www.subzero.at/ psychic-reaction Maxximus and Manoo Contact: maxximus@gmx.at, manoo@rtb.at Web: no website yet Cosmixed Society Contact: jessie_horizon@ hotmail.com Web: http://cosmixed society.tripod.com Spiegel, Moedling near Vienna Contact: spiegel@kabsi.at, jojovangoa@aon.at Web: www.spiegel.kabsi.at Zsuki and friends Contact: info@realtribe.org Web: www.realtribe.org Moondancer, DJ mat.Ri Contact: moondancer @madscientist.com Web: www.moondancer.org (coming soon) Suntribe Contact: office@chactun.at, office@suntribe.at Web: www.chactun.at, www.suntribe.at Psychedelic Visions Contact: psychedelicvisions@hotmail.com Web: www.psychedelicvisions.at Mystery World Contact: mystery_world@aon.at Otherland Productions Contact: otherland_productions @hotmail.com Web: www.otherland.at

BRAZIL

SOLAR FLARES PRODUCTIONS text: Solar Flares Solar Flares was founded in the year 2000 to celebrate the birthday of one of its partners in Alto Paraíso de Goiás, Brazil It was the first time that Bansi, Riktam and Shanti from GMS and Rossi from Lotus Omega played in Brazil. From this party, came the inspiration to produce Trancendence in June of 2000. The festival took place in the Chapada of the Veadeiros, a pristine region north of Brasília, famous for its canyons, waterfalls,rivers and, of course, its crystals. Over 1,000 people came to see Absolum, GMS, Space Cat, Total Eclipse and many others.

also made with bamboo.

The following year, in July of 2001, Trancendence took place in a ecological sanctuary, called Vale da Esperança, with plenty of waterfalls and rivers to explore. More than 2,000 people gathered in the heart of the Chapada dos Veadeiros for this experience. One of the unique characteristics of the festival was the organic decoration, in particular, the geometrical bamboo structure forming the dance floor and of course, the alternative amazonian structure, called the Oca, as the chill out,

Solar Flares is also a record label, which released the compilation called Trancendence in 2002 for sale in Brasil. The second release, called High Paradise, also based on Trancendence, will be released worlwide in January, 2003. The compilation has nine amazing tracks by the artists that played at Trancendence, including GMS, Absolum, Bamboo Forest, Orion, Earthling, Vatos Locos, Shanti vs Bushman and Mukunga Umbura.

For Trancendence 2002, Solar Flares formed a partnership with Vale da Esperança and invested in permanent structures, in particular the amazing Oca, with a eucaliptus structure and a palm thatched roof. The Oca was the center of atraction, offering a space to meet friends around the fire and relax to ambient music. Over 3.000 people came to hear Bamboo Forest, Logic Bomb, Absolum, Skazi, Alien Projet, GMS, Vatos Locos, Soundaholics, Zorba, Lotus Omega, among many others....

more pics: www.solarflares.com.br

MEXICO

All about our bizarre Trip to Mexico text: Jiga + Jinno

Analog Pussy Our connection flight to Mexico from Germany lands in Houston, USA. We're stopped by an agriculture customs officer because we "smuggled" two apples & a tomato in our hand bag. He checks our tomato carefully: ..."normally, you should pay 250 bucks penalty for entering the US with this. but i will let you go..." He continues Clint-Eastwood style ... "Because today is your lucky day !..." i'm not sure what he meant, but from that moment on everything went weird. When we arrived to Mexico City, we lost a case with our studio machine inside. The one we use for the live show. It was found the next day and we had to pay tax on it. Then we got sick. High fever, shivering, vomiting. We assume it was some kind of a nasty flu. Night of the party in Mexico City... DJ Vazik is playing his last track. We're next, both still sick and very weak. Almost about to faint. I don't believe in god normally, but this time i closed my eyes and prayed: "Dear, Dear god, please make me well for one hour and 20 minutes..." my wish came

true. For one hour and twenty minutes i was on adrenaline. Can't tell you what happened on the show, i don't remember much, it is all quite blurry. One picture is stuck in my head - when i took my spacey bass guitar everybody screamed. They were waiting for this We didn't play an encore because god interpreted my wish literally

and gave me exactly one hour and twenty minutes, not more. Apologies to this lovely crowd, they were so disappointed! Following week Jinno and me were still sick in the hotel. Plans to visit the pyramids have been cancelled. Thursday, we're at Mexico-City airport, just about to catch a flight to Monterrey for our next gig. Jinno collapsed on the floor at the airport, weak and feverish. I immediatelly called a security guard. They took him to the airport clinic and

the doctor told us that we have a bad stomach infection. A few days later we felt fine, thanks to mega doses of Antibiotics. The gig in Monterrey - a blast. I spottted this gorgeous girl in our crowd. She's really into the music. I invite her to come up. We sit on stage hugged, a synth on my knees. She plays it and i turn the cutoff knob. Suddenly i realize that the *guys* in the audience are freaking out. Then i got it -2 hugged girls playing a synth to a psy trance beat.... They thought itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s as a lesbo show ! When we returned to Germany i was stopped by a giant German customs officer. I had nothing to hide but he scared the hell out of me. He orders to open my bass case. I did and then he goes in an admiring voice - ..."wawwo, a 5 string bass, where did you find it? I play on a Fender Bass i am a bassist..." on and on he talks about his instrument, waving his giant hands in the air. Everything seems surreal, trippy, hallucinated. Inside my head i can still hear the American agriculture officer: ..."today is your lucky day !..." and now take a look at more pics: www.analog-pussy.com Pics by: Nancy Chavez and Luis Barclay, Annie and Dex & Gustavo from kinetik.tv

SWITZERLAND www.interzone.ch. I wanted to know how the so-called Goa scene is seen, their changes and where it probably will go. It was really exciting to read all these statements received and I would like to say a big THANX to all who were participating.

... there was a tiny little country in the middle of Europe. A movement emerged in the nineties which was never seen before. It nearly seemed as if this small spot of earth overslept the wild sixties and seventies and wanted to catch up with everything it missed at that time. Suddenly everyone seemed to be on a journey to search something new, they all were on this trip which guaranteed something marvellous and ultimate. Travellers brought their impressions home and there was an extense dance and celebration outside as if it was at the beach of Goa or Thailand. More and more parties took place in fields, forests or in castle ruins. The common experience was indescribable and took many people into its spell. The movement grew and grew and parties, DJs and communities shot like mushrooms from the ground. Fairies, trolls, gnomes and hobbits came out of all their hiding places and there was great joy and peaceful experiences. As we know light also throws shade, and this slowly became

apparent in many different forms. The whole thing started to lose its thrill by the huge number of events. Each weekend you could choose between approximately a dozen of different parties. An advantage of course, you can follow your preferences and go to a sweet little party in the forest or

to a big event with international lineup. But sometimes, a scene yields strange fruits. It gets split somehow and this whole bunch of hippies sometimes don’t really seem to be as tolerant as you thought. A ditch starts to build between progressive listeners and classic lovers and – to express it a bit exaggeratedly – if the chai does not taste as it does in Arambol, the party must be wack. To get an overview of feelings and tendencies in my country, I started an inquiry on the best-known web platform of Switzerland,

Remarkably in all these mails the big love is speaking out of them which connects the writers at this movement. This has not changed. Some people think the spirit is lost and gone. But what is "spirit"? Isn’t it the human being who creates the spirit of something with thoughts and feelings? If this spirit seems to be gone then probably the attitude of people has

m go th ra an sto

Be te so th ca "G sc

changed. Some like to reduce the changes in the scene by changes in drug consumption. They say that in former times, there were more hallucinogen substances consumed and today more substances which keep you up and dancing. A recurring discussion is the question about this "commerce / non-commerce"-thing which sometimes can not be taken really seriously. Some would like to have parties where everything is for free – entrance, bowle and an open bar – but with a great international lineup and an expensive decoration. Sometimes it seems that there is awareness missing about size of a budget for a satisfying event and how much energy it takes to make it happen. Another widespread phenomenon is the one that probably moves humans since ancient times: the past and the future, tradition vs. changing times. Some still hang on the old and golden past, they miss former times and its atmosphere. Others are looking forward, the term "Goa" has lost its

Sw loo we is un no fly lec am

Th th wi loo th Sw

Ev ce an wh wh tio th M

meaning, they are having fun, oing with the flow, indulging into he full spectrum of life in geneal, the entire sound spectrum nd flow of life which can not be opped anyway, fortunately … J

esides reporting this general ndency, we also want to turn to ome facts. You can’t talk about he so alled Goa cene of

witzerland“ without having a ok on www.interzone.ch, the ebsite already mentioned, which operated and maintained by nselfish idealists for many years ow. The agenda is always full, yers including pinboards are colcted here and you can read musing reports after the parties.

here is a new Link-Database on he home page which certainly ill get expanded. There you can ose yourself for hours traveling he various shapes and aspects of wiss Goa Cyberspace.

very weekend thousands of daners get their information out the nnouncements of interzone, here their favorite DJ plays and here all these sound and decoraon artists, chai cooks and all heir friends canl be found.

Most of the events take place in

SWITZERLAND the German part of Switzerland, we could say that the region between Berne, Basel and Zurich is our "Golden Triangle". Not so often, but also regularly you can find parties in the French and Italian area. In summer time there is smoke rising from many fires in forests and fields and in winter time the club scene becomes stronger again. But there is an increasing open air trend noticeable in the last couple of years also in winter time. Unforgettable the snow party about two years ago where strong rainfall transformed snow into ice and the area became an enormous ice-skating field. The pool of organizers and DJ’s is wide. It is not really easy in Switzerland for musicians, sound artists and labels anyway and today maybe even a bit harder. There are two labels worth mentioning here: Traktor Schallabor and Interzone Records, which inspire with innovative work and with their powerful label parties in past autumn. Both, www.interzone-records.com and www.schallabor.ch just released fresh new material.

led with stories of all these DJ’s, organizers, parties and so on... However, it might be interesting what will happen to the ZOOM, the huge festival which took place after the Streetparade in Zurich for many years now. After ZOOM sank in the mud last year, future became uncertain. Might there be luck to this unique gathering and its organizers, the icons of the Swiss party scene. www.zoom-party.ch My highlight of the past festival summer was the Hallucination Festival of Synthetic Vibes, www.syntheticvibes.com, organized with a lot of love, enthusiasm and professionalism. A great event in the center of our marvelous mountainous surroundings and hopefully will finds its repetition next summer... and many others too! Well … there is a lot of love and light! And even if winter is long, it is anything else but cold in this tiny little country, in the middle of Europe … And certainly we all dance into eternity! Aruna

Producers could be listed in great numbers, it sometimes seems as if there is a studio hidden in each third cellar, just behind the homegrown supplies. To those not mentioned here, remember: we love you all J !!! Internationally in demand are PASTE, www.pasteten.info, and Silent Sphere (Medium Rec.), very cool guys with great creative energies in their souls. My personal bet for the future are Sven Snug and VTunes, watch out!! And of course, books could be fil-

aruna@deeplumina.com

AUSTRALIA