Goa Trance Legacy by DJ Psara in collaboration with Spacedock Records A storytelling journey of Expansive Psychedelic Trance
It’s always a funny thing to write about something one does and more over when it’s in the line of promotional content, because it’s going to be set out to the world, and everyone will make their own mind about it, whatever one says. Or so one hopes... But in the end posterity will decide. Besides that, I would rather go through the journey as I feel it in the style of the reviews I’ve been writing, from time to time, for a group of likeminded friends with whom I share a deep love for known, Rare & Unreleased Expansive Psychedelic Trance.
1. The compilation starts with a magnificent sounding tune by Manmademan from 20 years ago. Oh my… the quality of these analogue sounds is just breath taking… It had to be our way into this listening but also very enjoyable dancing experience. “Hex Hard (’97 Unreleased)” is a ritual of initiation that builds up smoothly and slowly through a hypnotic world of expansive psychedelia. Very powerful trance as we all know them to excel at. A perfect example of rocking magic for the dancefloor mixing perfectly the strong flavours of power rock and the angelic lift of beautiful whispers from another world that is still our own. This is an invocation of the spirits to be, from now and beyond. A portal to the other side. Clearly a personal favourite. A kind of prologue that sums the whole thing up: We are them! 2. Having been initiated into the other side we open the time cycles of the fourth dimension with “Kalachakra”. Artha follows some of the Hallucinogen standards without ever becoming standardized in this masterful arrangement of time signatures, taking us into a perceptic tempo shifting ride that goes straight to the core of abstract abduction. Starting with the ethnic feel of syncopated Sub-Saharan drumming the spaceship soon takes off to the stars with a happy and strong playful range of melodies, glissandos and acid lines, bursting in a joyfully hypnotic climax. Modern storytelling at its best. Melancholy in the nostalgia of the future. The future is here! 3. Up there, ready to ride the universe, our journey now turns into a pleasurable expressive mood. The uniqueness of fauvism in a pitch board. Vast regions of desert above the clouds. “Space Rubble” is a field of blissful glissandos which starts beautifully with a sort of stellar dust slalom of galactic proportions, going up and down, magnificently filtered. New Born is known for his introspective power space rock blues with an exotic feel. Tighten up your seatbelts for a slightly darker trip in which we’re brilliantly divided between the mellow echoes from the far distances of space and a very reliable engine to ride it through. We’re preparing to go inside our minds. 4. With “Pangea” the whole of “this Earth’s” continents are in front of our eyes, equalized into one place, one plane, literally. It’s all out there in front of us. Hypnagogia brings a more Full On flavour of trance to the fold and also a bit of the new Goa Trance feel without ever becoming obvious. There is no standard here, not really. This is a very strong and groovy moment in which we’re still awake but starting to go into wakeful sleepiness. A transfixed uplifting enforcement of ground so we can go further inside and explore the unknown depths of the mind without losing ourselves. 5. And we’re about to unravel the angst of our journey. With hints of melancholic sadness and a metallic cold feel throughout the scope. This is the funky madness of dark Goa Trance. Shadowed in blue with the piercing bright spiking sparks of wielding swords on a fight for which fear might outdo itself… and we could be getting lost in our mind. “Autopsy Degradation” is an exploration of our innermost challenges in a very positive forward attitude. There is so much going on in this tune it’s hard to get it all in a first go. Deep and cold, I like to think of this darker side of Goasia as ‘Gopsy’. This is a fight between giants in our inner cosmos. We touched it.
6. It’s rescuing time and the turn of the tide with one of my favourite tunes by one of my favourite bands. The wobbly psychedelic perfection of Technossomy turned a bit stronger by James for their comeback — after almost two decades of absence from dancefloors — in ZNA Gathering 2015. “Electron Bender (’94 Remaster)” in here as a brilliant comeback to self-empowerment with a touch of humour in William Burroughs famous words of introduction: “Words of advice for young people”. It’s almost unbelievable how this rocking track was first released in 1994. The quality of these sounds, the mixing and arrangement… lost for words. Wonderfully unique and new. Beautiful mix of different vibes in well balance equilibrium, soon tipping in cascading steel band sounds while plentiful psychedelia keeps us going up at a steady beat, “Trying to improve our public image”. But I find nothing to improve here. Emotional key changes so akin to their earlier work sooth the soul for a body rocking groove to rip us of our feet. Wobbly, wobbly, wobbly. Arms stretched up into soft and blissful abduction. What a build-up. And we’re back in the game! 7. Having been widely awaken to the sonorities of space and time, dark and light, we’re about to explore the outer-world of the known universe. A rocksteady deep ride structure giving us both a strong drive and crystalclear vision. Ufomatka knows exactly what he is doing here. It’s now very clear that we are high up in the awakening ladder without following any formulas. We’ve been abducted into ourselves so now it’s time for release. Are we Searching for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence or are we it? The words of Kent Culler from the SETI Institute: “The interesting thing about the SETI search, is that although we claim that we’re looking for extraterrestrial intelligence, we can’t actually define what an intelligent signal is. And so, a starting point is to say, we look for a signal which nature will not produce by any mechanism that we understand.”, open the possibility that it might just be an attribution of meaning derived from our limitation of understanding. “Extraterrestrial Intelligence” is mental and intelligent but also powerfully reassuring, brilliantly written and masterfully mixed. Everything is in the right place and now we’re taking the commands of the ship. We’ve been abducted onto ourselves. It’s as if we are them after all. An eye-opening space ride through the cosmos with playful power melodies. It’s impossible not to smile in this mystical ride. 8. We have crossed to the otherworld of time and we’re now ready for the very cool groove of “Chronos”. M-Run is widely and justly recognized as one of the best from the new generation. Totally fresh, unique and creative, he has evolved into a very mature style of his own. In a slightly more progressive ride we still get the wide array of elf-machines he does so well, pulling us up to his crazy wonderful dancing moods. We’re already unified here. The journey reached its centre. There is a high peaceful platform of our own creation and we’re blissfully dancing in one vibe. We are one. 9. The journey reaches its destiny with a hymn to the Sun. “Heliocentric” is an anthem to the majesty of the more melodic old school Psychedelic Goa Trance. Raw and authentic in it’s simple but yet very sophisticated writing, Fluorest shows us that not everything was done yet and we can still be completely true to the source without following standards and formulas. We recognize many influences that we love but this totally and utterly unique. In 2015, I pointed Sérgio as the best producer from Portugal in the Mushroom Magazine’s Trancers Guide to the Galaxy and this has been proven and confirmed over and over, with the so many genres he can write. Could there be any better way to finish this storytelling ride? Slightly alien and deep, open and fluttery, with an astonishingly beautiful melody. Romantic without being cheesy, strong and psychedelic without being heavy, great uplifting story arch with all the ingredients of a spiritual healer for the light. This is the perfect sunriser. To close this review coming from a psychological standpoint of the storytelling experience, I will leave you with the words of a friend who with I share a deep appreciation for old school Expansive Psychedelic Trance. Mark Ainley a.k.a. DJ Solitaire from DAT Records generously wrote: “What I love about the CD is that it is a journey in itself. Tracks made across different eras by different producers, some known, some less known, in a variety of styles. It is reminiscent of DJ sets of the past, where more than one style was played and where there was a real progression and flow to the journey. This CD is in itself a story, and there were a few styles of music I haven't listened to as much in a while that really piqued my interest. A really well-thought-through and carefully crafted creation!”.
Lisbon, September 15th, 2017 Sara Constança a.k.a. Psara