Trancers Guide To The Galaxy 2008 by mushroom magazine

TRANCER’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY 2008 ttg@trancersguide.com • www.trancersguide.com Welcome! You’re reading the fifth edition of our annual magazine »Trancer’s Guide to The Galaxy« – the worldwide travel guide for the psychedelic and progressive trance scene. In 30 country profiles authors and photographers from the countries introduce you to their local scenes and give you an overview about what is happening worldwide. There’s a big picture behind all local trance scenes. And for that purpose Trancer’s Guide delivers those fascinating stories and pictures that pave the way ahead. The magazine seeks to combine interesting news with the greatest names and parties of the year. To give an insight view of this multi layered and ever changing culture of ours. This year we welcome our new chief editor Markku from Finland, the photo editor Jörn from Germany and a bunch of new country authors PUBLISHING COMPANIES (international) mushroom magazine (international version) co/ Format Promotion GmbH Arnoldstrasse 47 22763 Hamburg Germany +49 40 398417-0 info@mushroom-media.com www.mushroom-online.com Chaishop c/o Jankowski I.C. (international version) Kl. Schäferkamp 35b 20357 Hamburg Germany +49 40 4111 5913 info@chaishop.com www.chaishop.com PUBLISHING COMPANY (Brazil) 4ideas! Productions (brazilian version) Rua Brás Lourenço, 59 – Vila Mariana São Paulo – SP – Brasil +55 11 5549-8645 contato@4ideas.com.br www.4ideas.com.br www.trancersguide.com.br

and photographers (as mentioned in the country profiles). They were collaborating in a real international sense with texts being written worldwide, edited in Helsinki (Finland), corrected in Budapest (Hungary) and layouted in Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia). Photos were shot worldwide and edited in Iserlohn (Germany). The advertising sales and managing was done in Hamburg (Germany) and Sao Paulo (Brazil). And we have other great news: This year we will print a second edition of Trancer’s Guide to the Galaxy in Brazil in cooperation with our Brazilian partner 4ideas. This edition will be completely in Portuguese language! 20 000 copies will be produced and distributed in Brazil in addition to the 30 000 copies that we produce for our worldwide distribution. The Brazilian edition will be released in March. EXECUTIVE EDITOR Markku Salmi PHOTO EDITOR Jörn Meisterjahn EDITORIAL CREW Editors and photographers as mentioned in the country profiles DESIGN & LAYOUT Sören Pawlik, Stephan Meinking, Cynthia Grieff & Liese THX 4 BACKGROUND INSPIRATION Mandy Günther and the Golden Boy MANAGEMENT Sam@Chaishop, Mat Mushroom (international version) Jigar@4iDeas, Ricardo@zuvuya (brazilian version) PRINT RUN 30 000 (international version) 20 000 (Brazilian version)

Unfortunately we had to limit the number of countries featured to 30 instead of 35 as of last year. Trancer’s Guide lives on advertisement bookings from the scene and the worldwide trance scene is not doing that good currently. However you will find additional country profiles on our web site. We’d love to hear your thoughts on the current magazine so please write us a mail to tgg@trancersguide.com. We want to develop our magazine in collaboration with our readers. Last but not least our big respect goes to all contributors, the core team, our advertisers and everyone – artists, labels, party organizers, shops, dancers and others – who are making our scene as magic and divers as it is! Take care of yourself and others, The Trancer’s Guide Crew. ADVERTISEMENTS Chaishop Media (World except Brazil) www.chaishop-media.com Oscar Castañeda, Sam@Chaishop, Colin Crawshaw FORMAT Promotion GmbH (World except Brazil) www.mushroom-media.com Mat Mushroom, Kris Holst, Frank Frehse 4iDeas! & TTG Brazil (Brazil) www.4ideas.com.br www.trancersguide.com.br Jigar Assar, Ricardo Janczur DISTRIBUTION Worldwide via Trancer’s Guide distribution points (international version) Brazil-wide via Trancer’s Guide Brazil distribution (brazilian version)

TRANCE ACTION MAP 2008 www.trancersguide.com/tranceaction

Country

Page

Australia

Austria

Belgium

Bolivia

11 30

Brazil

Canada

Colombia

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

India Ireland

32 30

Israel

Italy

Japan

Lithuania (Estonia) 42

Mexico

Netherlands

Portugal

Russia

Slovakia

South Africa

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

Ukraine

USA

Legend World Trance Center Heavily Tranced Intermediate Action Trance Seed 60

Unrecognized

Personal evolution through Trance Culture 6

www.trancersguide.com/tranceculture It was year 1996 when I was sitting in a beach hut in Goa Anjuna. The place had a psychedelic sounding name Pie in the Sky. I was chatting with a deejay friend of mine, who was spending his winter holidays in India. We had this large than life conversation about Terence McKenna, consciousness and evolution, space migration, the end of history, psychedelic yoga and the 60s hippie culture. Now it is year 2008. More than ten years has got behind us and no one told us where to run. We are like rats and mice in an old Chinese folktale, which were left alone in a monastery to take care of the place in case of natural disasters and unwanted visitors. Suddenly the entire Future is coming upon us in full force and most unpredicta ble

ways. It has truly been a year of Transformation like the German VuuV 2007 festival slogan put it. We are living in the world that faces growing problems and complexity – global warming, terrorism, poverty, media illiteracy, hunger and war – testing the reservoirs of our hope. On the other hand were heading for a better future in multiple ways. Material wealth and eco-consciousness is spreading all over the globe. We have solar panels, hybrid cars, low impact houses, organic cotton clothes, and improved process technology. We are witnessing the rise of neo-greens, showing that our eco-trend lifestyle can make a difference. There is high potential of spiritual and philosophical energy in trance culture. It thrives on variety and diversity, differences that make difference. Launched creatively and distributed worldwidely, it can topple systems of

thoughts and institutions. People go out to the open-air festivals, identify with that culture and find truths about themselves reflected in it like ecological awareness and communal living. »The trance scene is about getting back to your roots, respecting the world and others«, like Youth once said. Those who have felt the energy must trust what they know to be true: Now is the time for a birth of a new planetary culture. Our lifestyle relies on dialog, not conflict. We offer a peaceful solution in a violence wrecked world. New technology and media tools are a force that is bringing us together. Communications networks are creating a global mind allowing us to instantly know the thoughts and feelings of people everywhere. The large amount of interesting people, new ideas and crazy experiences at the parties is a huge source of inspiration. Psychedelic trance reflects the change that is going on in the world. This change is fueled by ordinary peoples’ quest for freedom. What we dare to envision, is already reality. Societies build on radically green design, sustainable energy and closed-loop cities and villages, a civilization afloat on a re-

7 about showing up on the dance floor; it is about how you work with your mind and the experience. Thinking globally, acting locally, and living personally. Redesigning your own life according to Tao – »Like the ocean, the weather, or a coral reef, it behaves as if it is«. And there will always be the yin and yang, black and white like those two smart street kids in an anime movie called Tekkonkinkreet. Tekkonkinkreet shows us in an adventurous way that though we have to face the harsh realities of life and our own deep rooted fears, imagination can be stronger than knowledge and dreams can be more powerful than facts. At the end hope triumphs over experience and love over everything. cyclable technology. A pioneer mothership of this way of living is the Boom festival in Portugal taking place again in 2008. The problem is how we work personally in such a way that the flow of material well-being and technological development follows the desired sustainable flow of evolution and not vice versa. The an-

swer lies in self-empowerment. Enlightenment is at the heart of trance culture like it is everywhere else. It is an ongoing learning process enabling people to choose to take control over and make decisions about their own lives. Trance parties are a great way to socialize and cultivate our habits. But it is not

TEXT Markku »Cosmo« Salmi (photo left) Chief editor @ Trancers Guide to the Galaxy Long time journalist and party activist, youth welfare worker, future studies researcher, writer. »Loves martial arts and Japanese popular culture.«

Photos Johanna (1), Bart A.B.E. (1) & Liese (1)

Massive festivals in AUSTRALIA www.trancersguide.com/australia

LINKS

• www.australiens.net • www.bio-sine.com • www.earthcore.com.au • www.earthfreq.com • www.espsyd.com • www.exoduslivefestival.com • www.freakreationfestival.com • www.giiwa.com • www.myspace.com/ openrecordsaustralia therealilluminatirecords zenonrecords • www.oztrance.com • www.rainbowserpent.net • www.sundance23.com • www.tribeadelic.com • www.uprecords.com.au

SHOP

• IZWOZ Fashion www.izwoz.com.au For many people, Australia is a distant land on the other side of the world, known mainly for its weird wildlife, amazing natural scenery, sporting teams and not much else. For the trance traveler however, there is a lot more than meets the eye. The past decade has seen Australia firmly establish its place in the global scene – it’s vibrant and culturally diverse people, high cal-

iber artists, stunning outdoor locations, and a busy party culture that extends to all reaches of the continent, make the land down-under one of the best places to experience pure psychedelic culture in the world. Festivals, bush doofs and indoor nights are held all over the country throughout the year, from the more well known centers like Melbourne, Sydney and Byron Bay / Northern New South Wales to emerging scenes such as Cairns, Brisbane, Newcastle, Perth, Adelaide, Tasmania and Darwin. While it’s quite busy over the cooler months, Australia’s busiest season is the summer, around the time the northern hemisphere tucks in for the cold of winter. The months from November to March bring massive festivals to the southern and central parts of the country, and it’s when the Australian party scene comes out to play. Festivals such as Rainbow Serpent, Earthcore Global Carnival, Exodus and Tribeadelic have all had long histories and are the best known of the summer parties; while new festivals such as Freakreation, Matreiya Festival, Akasha Project, Summer Solstice celebrations and Earth Freq have all become strong parts of the festival circuit in recent years. The cooler months shouldn’t be discounted either, as many of the northern parts of the country experience near-perfect weather and are busier in this period. The Winter Solstice Festivals in Cairns and Melbourne are particular highlights of the winter months.

In September, the Earthdance events are some of the best attended parties of the year, with numbers in the thousands attending parties in all major centers. The Sydney event has grown to massive proportions with over 40 000 punters, making it the global base for the Earthdance phenomenon and one of Australia’s largest festivals. Aside from the larger scale events, many smaller parties and club nights support the scene throughout the year, guaranteeing that if you really want to find somewhere to go while you’re in Australia, you won’t have to look too hard. Web sites such as Oztrance.com, Australiens.net and Inthemix.com are good places to start, as most events are listed on there and are a good way to network with the local partygoers and find out where to go and who to see. Musically, Australians enjoy a broad range of electronic music styles, and the parties tend to feature a little bit of everything to ensure everyone is happy. There are a number of Australian producers that are quite well known throughout the world, but the past few years have seen a number of new artists, labels and production crews emerge, guaranteeing the scene will continue to grow into the future. TEXT Jesse Kuch aka Suspekt Open Records Australia myspace.com /suspek t _ jesse

Star Spangled Banner in AUSTRIA www.trancersguide.com/austria

Since 2003 Austria’s psy-trance scene has been associated with some of Europe’s biggest international festivals. Look no further: Sonnenklang at the castle of Dobra in Lower Austria. In 2006 the five days festival attracted around 8000 people. In 2007 only 1500 people came because of heavy rainfalls. Unforgettable was Olli Wisdom’s gig with his new guitarist mixing Purple Haze and Star Spangled Banner of Jimi Hendrix. Many other Austrian festivals and big parties have been cancelled or had troubles in the summer due to problems with authorities or the police such as the Progressive Base and Drops Reflections but others made Austria the center point of Europe’s psy-trance scene in 2007. The four days Spirit Base organized by Goaran is still Austria’s second biggest festival and the line-up was as impressing as in any other year with names like Azax Syndrom or Klopfgeister. The vicinity of the Ozora Festival and Shivamoon in Hungary attracted lots of people from all over, but most crowds came from neighbouring Austria. Lots of festivals are already scheduled for 2008. While the dark-wave scene is more based in the western parts of Austria you’ll find all kinds of psy-trance in Vienna and the surroundings and you can be sure that there will be no weekend without at least one gorgeous Goa-

party in Austria throughout the year. In Salzburg the one to mention is Otherland with the Uni te Parade and many Goaevents or the young Synt ax Sense as well as the 24/7-labelparties and in Tyrol and the renowned Mystery World is still on air. Also the new Malice in Wonderland parties are among the finest. In Upper Austria the biggest are Klangbewusstsein, in Lower Austria Sunshine Explosion and the Samsara group and in Styria Pro. Tuberance and Alchemy in Graz. If you are really looking for the biggest scene then you’ll have to look in Vienna. The Cosmic Space Disco of the »Lustige Astronaut« and DJ Samurai established a regular club up to 800 people in the WUK. The almost monthly great Sunday Chaizelt in Flex of Andi and team is THE family meeting point in FLEX. Still one of the most unique locations in Vienna is the »Sargfabrik« (coffin factory) where Club Dolphin of Ed takes place. In this location you have the opportunity to dance in a big hall and if you want there is a sauna, tepidarium, deck chairs and a swimming pool to dance naked if you want in a nicely visualized wet area. Other successful organizers are Funnymoon and Drops Reflections and the Wichtl events. Another favoured club is the Florido Club at the Waterslide with parties indoor in winter and outdoor on a raft on the Danube river. The future of the Fairytales Club in Weberknecht is still up in the air cause the location recently closed .

LINKS

• www.aurinshop.at • www.cosmic.ag • www.elgeko.org • www.indras-planet.at • www.klangbewusstsein.at • www.mystery-world.org • www.otherland.at • www.psy604.com • www.sonnenklang.at • www.suntribe.at/synergetic • www.twenty4seven.cc • www.wasserbar.at.tf • www.wirikuta.at

SHOPS

• NASPEX T-Shirts Design for beautiful Future & People www.naspex.info Some of Austria’s new uprising producers are Ianuaria, IMIX, Kajola, Materia and Freelander. Austria’s most renowned psy-VJs are Geko, playing as Psynema with Basti, the Funny Astronaut, Fade X and Sikanda. And not to forget the most psychedelic performance wonder group, the Phoenix Firedancers. The future of Sonnenklang festival is unclear – many questions are still unsolved. TEXT Tom Rom To m r o m 24 @ c h e l l o . a t , w w w.psyevents.at /tomrom, Mushroom Magazine Austria, TTG, promo, media, Goa-Newsletter »Be conscious and conscientious – be a part of the protectors of the earth!«

Unity and diversity in BELGIUM www.trancersguide.com/belgium

LINKS

• www.dacru.be • www.psychedelic.be • www.psygarden.be • www.psytracks.com • www.purplesnow.net • www.suntriprecords.com As is in the scene worldwide, there is a lot of diversity in the psy-trance genre. More and more the scene is splitting up into four or even five pieces. People tend to only visit parties with their favorite style(s). However, one massive event in 2007 proved, despite all the difficulties, which we are all part of one scene, and nothing can break that apart. 2007 showed us that our scene is rapidly expanding. But the rising costs and the big number of parties in Belgium forced promoters to ask for higher entrance rates, or to set up collaborations, in order to split the invest-

ments. Also our problems in the past with the authorities forced us to organize events in a more legal way, what also caused more investments. Nevertheless we are spoiled and every weekend we can choose from three or four parties, all focusing on a particular style. Kairoo Records and B2B, based in Antwerp, focus on full-on. They both hosted rooms/stages on two of the biggest dance events, with up to 20.000 visitors. The veterans have grown to appreciate the progressive style nowadays. The well-respected crews of Purple Snow (with founder R’Deem) and Smiley Tribe are focusing on minimal/progressive and have brought the biggest names to our country. In Ghent, one of the two trance centers in Belgium, progressive is also emerging in smaller club events. For many years we had Kairoo Records providing us quality releases and EPs. In 2007 they released the well-accepted debut album of Bitkit called Logical. Nowadays Dacru Records and Suntrip Records are taking over. 2007 proved that they have more ambition than just organizing good parties. Dacru Records released the compilation Orientation Vol. 3, a very well accepted release. For 2008 we can expect a lot of this label, with the second release of Digicult and the debut album of Ephedrix. Also newcomers Aquila and Sufi will release a full album later in 2008. On the darker side of trance we can expect the debut album

of Wicked Hayo on Night Oracle Records. Suntrip Records is probably the only melodic Goatrance label nowadays on this planet. In 2007 this Belgium/France combo resulted in the rerelease of the classical Dimension 5-Transdimensional album and the debut of rising star Goasia. For 2008 they announce albums of Dimension-5 member Ra, Filteria and Merr0w. Furthermore I can only hope that we will see the rise of a mind blowing Belgium progressive act, but the future looks promising. The biggest event in 2007 should have been the fifth year of existence celebration of the Kairoo Records label. Kairoo Records invited some of the major promoters in Belgium to host rooms with full-on, progressive, oldschool/nuschool/Goa, dark and chill out. The government, due to safety issues, canceled the event after it had started already. The authorities ignored even a positive court advice, so the evening ended with hundreds of people invading the streets in Antwerp. But the event proved that there is still unity in our scene, and despite the big loss, we hope that Kairoo Records will emerge from it foundations. TEXT Sanaki sandrookie@hotmail.com www.myspace.com/sanaki Progressive DJ and resident for the Plastik Karma crew

Photos Melanie Krichner (2)

Mystical resurrection in BOLIVIA www.trancersguide.com/bolivia The trance scene in Bolivia has been going on for years. It is the most important underground electronic movement there. This mystical country in the center of South America has many traditional expressions of local identity. Because Bolivia’s extreme geographical diversity it has a heterogeneous culture. It has millenarian mystical legacy that makes it the perfect place to rediscover you. Bolivia is a Mediterranean country in the center of South America. The extreme climatic and geographic differences divide the country in two major sub regions. One is the western Andean region, with high mountains, valleys and the vast Altiplano (a highland at 3800 meters above sea level), where the mystical Titicaca Lake is located. Two thirds of the Bolivians live in this side where the most important cities are La Paz and Cochabamba, and the eastern Llano Region with deep jungles, enormous rivers, sandy deserts like the Chaco. One third of the population lives in the country’s biggest city, which is Santa Cruz. Most psy-tranced region is western Andean and it seem like the eastern is more house-electro. This is probably because Andeans have a stronger mystical folklore that is attached to the ancient legacy of Tiahuanaco an Incan Civilizations. The tourism is really incredible. The psy-trance scene in Bolivia started in 1996 with some memorable parties produced

by Ultraflecha Productions. Many new producers appear on the scene within the next two years like Boltek, Psyworks, Moonchild and Neurotrance. Later in 1998, The Earthdance arrived to stay as the most important psy-trance event for the community. Organized in the year 2000 was the first rave parade, named Lapazparade that attracted about 2000 people. Some important artist played in festivals around Bolivia; there were names like Vibrasphere and X-Dream during 2002 and 2003. Years passed and many clichés and misinformation made the movement to be chased sporadically by local police. Sometimes, hundreds of people assist to parties that are made in forests near cities. Some are public and some are not, but you can find your way to one, there is often one nearby. Live acts are of international level and DJ’s show a great dexterity in their field. Live act projects like Abstract Microdot, Elektrogen, Erofex, Cosmic Unit and Astro Delay are at the forefront of Bolivian psy-trance and some of them are signed to international labels. Erofex has already made five albums and newer »paceño« (from La Paz) projects like Astro Delay that have one, Abstract Microdot who has two. 2008 announces the born of new Abs Mic album Infinite viewpoints. Kano, Trans, Pituko, Izak, Steve Bravo, Psy Fly, Mero Mero and Winner are names of widely respected psytrance DJs. As the country’s new socialist political views arise, new free thinkers are con-

LINKS

• www.neurotrance.org • www.phpbbserver.com/ neurotrance • www.neurotrance.org/erofex • www.ravebolivia.8m.com • www.myspace.com/ abstractmicrodot

CONTACTS

• alpha.tsunami@gmail.com • oyoyoyoy.yoyoyoyo@gmail.com • radiotype_warman@hotmail.com forming part of a new conscience revolution that psy-trance mean to be designed for. TEXT Beto Guerra alpha.tsunami@gmail.com Producer, artist, journalist, owner of El Astllero electronika studio. »We are witnessing the birth of a new era«

Photos Alberto Guerra (2)

Winds of change in BRAZIL 12

www.trancersguide.com/brazil Brazil is nowadays one of the countries where trance music is most listened. Mixing different races and all kinds of crowd, Brazil is the biggest epicenter of trance earthquake which shakes the planet. Its worth to visit it! Since the very first crazy parties at Trancoso beach back in the middle of the 90’s a lot has changed in Brazilian psychedelic trance. Years have gone by and the music has left the shores of Bahia conquering the whole country and psy-trance pumps in every single state of this continent called Brazil. Hundreds of trance parties happen all over every weekend and you can enjoy them as you like. From thousands of people and superstar line up like XXXperience and Tribe, to small underground parties in all the country you can help yourself: dark-psy, full-on, progressive and even minimal techno and electro, which have somehow invaded trance par-

ties here taking a bit of trance spirit out of mainstream parties. São Paulo owns still the biggest concentration of parties a weekend and the smaller ones have started re-opening people’s minds, willing to show the real essence of psy-trance in parties like Respect, Etnica, and the ones produced by 4iDeas such as Earthdance SP and Goa Gil. Not only in Sao Paulo promoters can count on full support of professional management agencies being able to bring trance from all over the world and providing a great interchange for crowd and artists. The spirit still lives in festivals, at gorgeous landscapes, from rocky mountains to warm windy beaches. Coming to Brazil not knowing any of these is like not coming to Brazil. Universo Paralello (NYE) is the first one that comes to the mind, but also Tranceformation Festival and Trancendence (July), back after 3 years, join Cachoeira Alta (June), Festival Fora do

Photos Taguro Izumo, Simone Stoicov (3)

Tempo (July) and others as important as these to celebrate in paradise. Besides the well known artists such as Rica Amaral, Du Serena, MACK and Swarup, the development of the scene has brought up many DJs and producers presenting a great talent, releasing albums internationally and touring the five continents taking Brazilian powerful music to aliens and freaks from all over the world. The First Stone, Burn in Noise, Life Style, Audio-X, Wrecked Machines performing in the biggest festivals in the globe, not to mention Magma Ohm, Becoming Intense, Neo Vox , Baphomet Engine, whose tracks are on the B side of psychedelic releases. In southeast the main parties besides the ones already mentioned are Kaballah (SP), Euphoria (RJ), both touring Brazil with their parties, Soulvibes (ES). In Belo Horizonte Trance movement Crew puts up big parties for over six years joining Calangute, Flowers, and E-nigma, younger parties full of power. Moving south we have strong movement in Curitiba with Cosmoon and DJ Rodrigo CPU´s actions including two podcasts for psy lovers. And taking the teletransport up to the northeast you reach wonderful beaches and pure feeling

parties by Soononmoon crew at Salvador and great audio and visual artists. Every place is special: Recife, Natal, Fortaleza has their own beauty and you can always find some trance options on the web sites. Heading north, the middle of the jungle shelters Amazon Tribe Festival in September. When you come, you have to spend more than one month to get to know the wonderful places and parties in here. One of the biggest export hits Brazil has, is probably the »Wave-Bar”, which for example will take care for the service at BooM-Festival in Portugal. Police strictness against parties, make some think only the big promoters will survive, but some think is the only way to bring truly psychedelic essence back, since parties could be forbidden here. However it’s certainly the best place in the world to spend great vacation. So get packed and come down for a killer freak season. The best time to come is summer, from December to February. Brazil is not as dangerous as people paint over. Just stay as aware as in any other tourist place in the world. Not evTEXT Ricardo Janczur janczur@thefullonproject. com.br DJ, psychedelic freak and responsible for the TTG Brazil. »See you on the dance floor.«

erybody speaks English, b u t p e o ple are so friendly you’re going be understood. Make sure you visit Alto Paraíso and its wonderful landscapes.

LINKS

• www.4ideas.com.br/4am • www.amazontribe.org • www.baladaplanet.com.br • www.casadaindia.art.br • www.cinemadinchaos.com • www.emusicbrasil.com • www.psycotrance.com.br • www.psyte.com.br • www.raveon.com.br • www.thefullonproject.com.br • www.universoparalello.art.br • www.wavebar.com.br • www.zuvuya.net

A wilderness paradise in CANADA www.trancersguide.com/canada

LINKS

• www.area709.com • www.coastalconscious.com • www.crystalandspore.com • www.ektoplasm.com • www.entheosgathering.com • www.motionnotion.com • www.psyfreaks.ca • www.technohippycrew.ca • www.techsafari.ca • www.tribalharmonix.org

CONTACTS

• Eastcoast: cafrine@techsafari.ca • Westcoast: naasko@interchill.com Canada is a country where you can dance under the stars and the glow of the Northern Lights on a warm summer’s night or take part in a snowbound weekend retreat tucked away in a warm winter lodge. Blessed with one of the largest territories in the world to explore, the Canadian trance scene is as diverse and beautiful thing to experience. The land and the elements have by necessity fostered a friendly and cooperative community of trancers. The history of psy-trance in Canada is spread across a few main cities and regions in which this style of music first began to emerge. The first event was the legendary Emergence held in Montreal in the spring of 1995 produced by Mobius.

After this, a number of production groups came into being: Team Psyence in Alberta (1996), Deleria in British Columbia (1998) and the Black Light Activists in Toronto (1999). Other noteworthy production groups from the past are The TeknoCollective (Alberta), the Goa Chill Nights (Quebec) and Deep Sea Fish (Toronto). During the summer months the most well know psy-trance festival in the country is Montreal’s Eclipse festival which summer 2007 featured artists such as Koxbox and Protoculture. Motion Notion in Alberta is Canada’s other top psy-trance festival which also features other genres as well as live bands during the day. Entheos Gathering, Diversity, and Shambhala are all events held in British Columbia and each feature their own styles and energies. Along with the Harvest Festival on the full moon of September in Ontario they all make for a great season of outdoor events. In the winter months the main promoters hosting indoor gatherings are Area709, Phonolite, Ganesha, Black Light Activists, Techno Hippy Crew, 7th Harmonic, Shakti, Metamystix, Seed of Life, Organix, Deliria and Beats without Borders. We also have visionary artists creating psy-inducive environments such as Neil Gibson, SPAK, DeJahVu, Deliria, Myth Makers, Ekstasis Dance, Luke Brown and Crystal and Spore. Canadian producers have enjoyed another successful year of releases and include such artists as Nuclear Ramjet, Ben

Rama, Zen, Axiomata, Metalogic, Azriel, Akhentek, Adham Shaikh, Biobazar, Anahata, Freeworm, and LOGM. Canadian Labels have also been very active and with the addition of Area709 Records are strong sources of local sounds capes. They include interchill.com, nativestaterecords.com, spaceportrecords.ca, coldgroove.com and enthogenetic.com. There are a number of places to connect with fellow trancers when visiting Canada. Weeds Café in Calgary, Shanti Baba in Toronto, Psychonaut in Montréal and Highlife Records in Vancouver are also great shops to get info from. As well long standing club nights such as Amazone at SPAG in Montréal and Organix at Club 23 in Vancouver are also natural meeting points. There is much more to the Canadian underground trance scene that simply can not be included. With a smile and a sense of adventure the search for a welcoming community and world-class music will be an easy and enjoyable one. TEXT DJ Nokturnal darvin@area709.com, Founder of Area709.com, Label DJ Zenon Records, part of Sons of Aurora, Monthly Beatport Chart »When you are lost in the act of creating, your passion becomes your pathway to finding the divine within.«

Photo Justin Miller (1)

Psy-spirit is spreading in COLOMBIA

miliar parties, then you’re very welcome. The only risk is that you’ll never want to leave this amazing country. Promised! See you on the trance floor. Peace, love and light.

LINKS

• www.euphoria2012.com • www.infinite-perspectives.com • www.psycologic.com • www.trancefusion.org • www.turismocolombia.com

CONTACTS

• info@euphoria2012.com • info@infinite-perspectives.com • neo_jazz@hotmail.com • nomo44@hotmail.com • elfede@gmail.com TEXT Moctezuma d jmo c te z u ma @ eu pho ria2012.com Party organizer, artist, DJ, light warrior.

Photo Moctezuma (2)

www.trancersguide.com/columbia Several indicators show that the large global prejudice of the last decades, that Colombia is still dominated by the influence of the civil war, is part of the past. At last year’s World Tourism Congress hosted in Cartagena, the figures showed that Colombia recently enjoyed the highest growth in tourism in the world, by 13.3 percent. Also the increase of the local construction industry within the last years has been huge, supported by political and economic stability. Infinite possibilities are the reason why a group of local artist created the joint venture called Infinitive Perspectives. If you planning to visit Colombia, that’s the place you want to go, if not then its time to make those plans. Surrounded by nature, rivers and eco-walkways, you’ll find a Club/Resort/Hostel with huge campingarea, swimming pool, restaurant and most important a dance-floor and 24/7 chill-out area with relaxing-zone, massages and other workshops. More info you find at their web page. Past New year eve, hosting Euphoria 2012–5 Festival, this sacred place was inaugurated by local and foreign psyconauts sharing their energy to this global vision of peace, love and respect. Don’t miss the next chapter Euphoria 2012–4 on New Year’s Eve 2008/2009. As the psy-spirit is spreading around, you’ll find already small tribes in Cali, Pasto, Pereira, Manizales, Medellin, Bucaramanga, Barranquilla and Bogota. If you’re bored from major league festival, looking for smaller and fa-

Authentic Suomisound and global beats in FINLAND 16

www.trancersguide.com/finland With its past firmly rooted in what is commonly referred to as »old school Suomisound« (Suomi, being the native name for Finland), the Finnish psy-trance phenomenon, ironically, made its first appearance under the balmy shade of palm trees growing in Goa. As the varied tropically psychedelic approaches to sound made their way to our Nordic region in the early 1990’s, they were soon reinterpreted, adapted and infused with local flavors, paving the way for artists such as Texas Faggott, Squaremeat, Mandalavandalz, and Luomuhappo. All of the aforementioned artists are still actively gigging – the past year alone includes a host of overseas tours ranging from Japan to Israel. In a country with a plethora of forests and lakes, it does not take too much imagination to conclude that it is outdoor underground summer parties which still account for a large percent of the scene’s local popularity. Besides the Suomisound acts already mentioned, artists such as Kiwa, Eraser vs Yöjalka, Lemon Slide, Troll Scientists, Haltya and Vishnudata play throughout the long white nights that constitute Finnish summer. As summer extravaganzas are concerned, Konemetsä Festival is as good a gauge as any for ongoing local enthusiasm. Here, Finnish artists annually play side by side with world renowned talents such as Koxbox, Eat Static, and Paul Taylor. Local deejays such as Miazu, Poliisi and Anar enhanced the overall mood by playing their own superb dance floor selec-

tions. Summer 2008’s Konemetsä promises, once again, to be an event worth noting. Although Finnish summer is relatively brief, the psy-trance scene does not go into hibernation for the winter. Instead, it heads for the »great indoors«, with parties organized all across the Helsinki and even as far as the Tampere area. Wider Visions, Space Boogie, Exogenic Records and NEO are but some of the few who arrange brilliant clubs and parties where Finnish acts and deejays play along with international headliners such as Tsuyoshi Suzuki, Kindzaza, Rinkadink, Cosmosis, Infected Mushroom and Hallucinogen. In addition to the shows, this year’s psytrance enthusiasts have seen many internationally acclaimed new albums being released by Finnish labels. Kiwa, Highpersonic Whomen on legendary Exogenic Records, Finland Boogie Files compilation, Vishnudata and Astroschnautzer on Space Boogie Records and Cosmic Dream compilation on Cosmic Theatre Records, are some noteworthy mentions. Freakdance Records gave their always thrilling contribution in the form of the debut of Lemon Slide while Antiscarp not only continued their free download site but also saw the release of a printed CD compilation. Likewise, Troll Scientists, Haltya and Texas Faggott are anticipated to release their long awaited new albums in 2008. Back To Mad, the twice in a month psytrance radio program on Bassoradio, has regular listeners eagerly awaiting each new pro-

LINKS

• www.antiscarp.fi • www.basso.fi • www.cosmictheatre.info • www.exogenicrecords.com • www.freakdance.net • www.klubitus.org • www.konemetsa.net • www.neohelsinki.fi • www.spaceboogie.net • www.widervisions.com gram. Likewise, the highly specialized publication for electronic music, Syke Magazine, continues to maintain its position as a purveyor of contemporary culture. TEXT Johanna Virmavirta Dance-floor activist, music journalist, photographer, radio DJane for Bassoradio. »Action speaks louder than words.«

Photos Markku Salmi (2)

Syke MAGAZINE

THE MAGAZINE OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC CULTURE FROM FINLAND LOVE LEADING THE WAY TO PLANETARY CULTURE presenting sponsors

Passionate trancers in FRANCE 18

www.trancersguide.com/france

Photo Hadra.net

France is a country where you will see some of the most beautiful smiles, stay for days at parties, see landscapes that you will remember for years and hear some of the best DJs in the world. The French trance scene saw its birth in the year of 1990. The first parties were held in mushroom fields and mass graves like Gaia concept parties held by Rakam. Since these pioneer years, there has been changes but the French scene is still vibrant and enthusiastic. In 2007 the trancers could go to a party every weekend if their heart desired. Most parties took place around Paris or in the southEast, and a couple of them in the West part of France. One of the nicest parties held last winter was Mahotsukai by Hadra, which took place in March in a gigantic gymnasium. But unfortunately, the sad news came a few weeks later. Without a proper location the Hadra group were not able to organise the Hadra Festival. But good humor and a positive attitude prevailing, the agenda was filled

up with summer parties and festivals. In the south, Any Gmatick throw a large outdoor party in July near Nice. Then World People offered us a very nice and friendly festival in southern mountains near Perpignan. One of the highlights of summer 2007 was the Arcadia Festival thrown by Aqua Veda 200 kilometers from Paris. Another of the highlight of the year 2007, was the three days party launched by Electrohm at le Mans, a region near Brittany. This party was extremely well organized and saw such names as Electric Universe and Shagma. These happenings really showed the capacity of the French psy-trance organization with 1200 people partying to their heart content. During the fall, OOBE surprised many of the trancers by throwing a large party in a castle near Lyon. More than 2000 people came to support this association showing that the trancers are not just there to party but also to help each other. Finally, an other association to watch out for is Mystic Chrysalide, an association from the south-west region of France throwing parties on a regular basis. So if you are going to that region of France make sure to check their web site to see for the upcoming parties. In 2008 everyone can find something they like from small parties with a family flavor to larger ones where one can loose himself among 2000 or more party goers. There are many organizations and passionate groups of people throwing parties all year long, mainly in Paris area or in the south-east. One of the biggest difficulties for them is to find a place, indoor or outdoor and get the authorization.

LINKS

• http://polackos.spaces.live.com • www.anygmatik.com • www.aqua-veda.com • www.dragon-hunters.net • www.electrohm.fr • www.gaiaconcept.com • www.hadra.net • www.muzik2mars.com • www.tranceload.com • www.ultimae.com

Hadra is planning the third edition of its festival but is still looking for a place or waiting for an answer from local authorities. And after years at the same nice forest place, AquaVeda is also looking for a new location. Muzic2mars is also announcing a party that will be held every two month called Psychedelik Connexion and is planning a bigger party in Paris after summer. Transplosion is planning a large festival with an other association this summer. Space Buddha and Cyber Cartel are names which will mostly likely be seen on the line up. TEXT Florence aka Limpts chrystalineensavoie@yahoo.fr Trance activist and volunteer, 14 years with the scene. With the help of Tristan from Hadra.

Psychedelic ramifications: GERMANY 20

www.trancersguide.com/germany Psy-trance in Germany is still blooming. Just like a tree that is getting older, the scene developed several branches which are reaching out to different directions. So there is some interesting musical development going on. Although the scene gets confronted with the »c-word« from time to time there is definitely still a huge non-commercial underground with a lot of positive and creative energy. Starting in the very s o u t h o f G e r m a ny you will find a lot of mountains and large woods like t he fa mous black f o r e s t . I t ’s t he per fec t area to go snowboarding or skiing in winter or wandering in summer. The more n o r t h yo u g o, t he le s s moun tains you will find. In the nor theast of Germany where also most of the big festivals take place you can find hundreds of beautiful lakes. Germany has

Photos Liese (1), Bakke (1) a coast at the N or t h Sea and one at the Baltic Sea where you will find nice beaches and also some great surf spots.

Interestingly enough there is not o nl y a c e r t ain c our s e f rom t he s ou t h to the nor th concerning the countr yside. The laws are also variable. T he s ou t her n s t a te s are ver y s t r ic t in terms of drug polic y, and permissions for event s. T he more nor th you go the m o r e l i b e ra l t h e la w s g e t . O f c o u r s e drugs are illegal ever y where in Germany and promoter s always have cer t ain problems with the authorities but in the nor th you don’t feel the legal pressure that strong.

SHOPS

• THC HEADSHOP 01099 Dresden, Alaunstr. 43 +49 (0) 351 8032105 Head, Grow, Freak www.thc-mfg.de • GREENLIGHT-SHOP 12099 Berlin, Industriestr. 4–9 030 70 370 820 Grow,Books,Head,WWW www.greenlight-shop.de • MINISTERIUM FÜR ENTSPANNUNG 10245 Berlin, Laskerstr. 5 +49 (0) 163 7354453 Club-house

This might be one of the reasons why almost all big festivals take place in the northeast although the southern states would have a lot of beautiful venues, too. Another reason might be that the northeast states are pretty poor compared to the southern ones. That is why communities welcome festivals as an annual source of income. For example in Putlitz, the place where VuuV Experience takes places since a few years, there is a swimming

• GRAS GRÜN 10999 Berlin, Oranienstr. 183 +49 (0) 30 6113190 Grow, Books, Head, WWW www.grasgruen.de • HANFBURG 22359 Hamburg, Neuer Pferdemarkt 22a Beratung +49 (0) 40 4305399 Grow, Hemp, Books order: 0800 4263287

Photos Bakke (3)

pool which has only survived from the revenues they made around VuuV weekend. Germany has been one of the most traditional countries in the psy-trance scene ever since the early 9 0’s. Lots of important artists and labels hail from this country and there are thousands of trance people and with them a very strong scene. Germany has a large number of promoters and parties in around the country during both summer and winter season. Even in rather remote, small town areas you will find a psy-trance party every weekend if you are willing to

24 travel a few kilometers. In Hamburg and Berlin, the two largest cities, you will find several parties every weekend. The Ruhr Area in Western Germany is another focus point for trance events where you will find at least

SHOPS

• APOCALYPSE 46483 Wesel, Damaschkeweg 41 info@apocalypse.li WWW, Grow, Herbs www.apocalypse.li • GOA-SHOP 59065 Hamm, Osterstr. 17-19 +49 (0) 2381 24763 Pierc, Head, Grow, Gift • SHISHA HEADSHOP 65183 Wiesbaden, Röderstr. 5 +49 (0) 611 5440879 Head, Grow • LIQUID CRISTAL MUSIC www.liquid-crystal-music.de fresh progressive Psytrance • PSYSHOP www.psyshop.com CD & Vinyl Mailorder • TRANCECARD.DE www.trancecard.de CDs, Fash & more

three big parties with international artists every weekend. But the southern metropolis is in no way inferior to the northern ones: Longstanding promoters from Munich, Augsburg or Nuernberg deliver huge events as well as nice family oriented parties from weekend to weekend. But there also is a certain development going on which was already described in the edition from last year: Really a lot of festivals lost money in 2007. Well, I can name the usual reasons: The weather was not that good this summer. But hey: This is GerPhotos Golden Boy (1), Bakke (1), Jesseen (1)

many, it’s quite normal! People might not have as much money as they did before to spend on parties- but people have never been really rich in this scene and they still visited a lot of events. One plausible reason might be: There is an inflation of parties. Every year more and more promoters show and end up organizing big festivals with more or less huge lineups. When you visit an ordinary party you might sometimes get the impression that every second person is a DJ and every third one a promoter. Perhaps it‘s just getting too much? Are there already too much fruits on the trance branch so that it will break off? Another reason might be the musical development of the scene in Germany.

26 Concerning the music at parties there are big changes going on for a while now. Quite a few of the original progressive producers and DJs have become barely distinguishable from original techno artists. Sebastian Krüger aka SBK, one of the most successful progressive trance producers from Germany, might be a popular example. He plays excellent techno sets nowadays. Also Laureth from Plusquam Records is now additionally involved into Kom-

LINKS:

• www.agentaudio.net • www.antaris-projekt.de • www.chaishop.com • www.cosmrecords.com • www.electricuniverse.de • www.freshflyer.com • www.fullmoon-festival.com • www.fusion-festival.de • www.goabase.de • www.liquid-crystal-music.de • www.liquidtime.com • www.mushroom-online.de • www.plusquam-records.net • www.robpapen.com • www.spintwist.de • www.tshitraka.de • www.vuuv2007.com • www.wald-frieden.de

Photo Jesseen (1) pass Musik, an independent label from Hamburg for minimal techno and minimal House. As an effect of this tendency the play lists from alternative floor DJs are often not really different from those from techno DJs. But it somehow seems like only a minority of the trance crowd really likes this sound on parties and those who prefer this music often change the scene and attend pure techno events. On the other hand there have also been quite a few controversies about the always getting faster and darker psychedelic sound. A popular quote which appeared in an internet forum after a big festival this summer

was: »That wasn‘t psychedelic trance, that was psychedelic death metal!« It seems like its still the certain »nordic progressive« sound that makes most people go crazy on the dance floor. Not too slow, not to hectic – not too twisted but also not boring. That’s definitely the sound people still like most at the parties in Germany – today just like yesterday. Text Roberdo www.roberdo.de Journalist, Musician, Hedonistic Freelancer

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Trance to the beat in GREECE 28

www.trancersguide.com/greece To start of with, Greece is unquestionably a country with a long trance history. Opening with underground raves near the beginning of 1990’s, many people discovered an unexplained sensation in this music and turn out to be true believers and supporters. International artists started appearing in Greece to bring a miraculous sound that everyone was in love with. In addition, numerous Greeks started their personal trance carriers as artists, DJs, promoters, label owners or by appearing in local secretive events. In warehouses or mountains by traveling out of the country to perform and to gather new music. They’ve also started to organize their own events as well as compiling albums and compilations for the music they were devoted to. /Last but not least, the wonderful vibes, the unity and the atmosphere of those events, is something that still many people perceive as the »good old days« era. Nowadays, things have progressed a lot, and Greece has developed into a very »active« country in the trance music movement. Well known party organizers like Camoflash, DJ Movement, Eternal motion, Free Frequency, Neverland, Plasmatica, Twilight Zone in Thessaloniki, as well as Moonsun, Natural High, The Cube, Xtra Vibes in Athens, continue to provide new events almost every weekend. Most of the times, line-ups consist of international artists in conjunction with local DJs.

Moreover, new organizing teams are popping in the scene like mushrooms. Some of them make it, some don’t with many people already criticizing promoters for providing bad services (unorganized events, fake artist entries, bad sound, toilets missing) even when ticket prices remain high. However, Greeks know too well how to party and celebrate and regardless of the organizational mistakes most of the parties end up with big attendance. Regarding music, the Greek legends Wizzy Noise have by now finished their new album which will be soon released by Harmonia Records. A lot of new releases are also soon to be out by Greek labels like Candyflip, Slikt’it (sublabel of Candyflip), Headstick, Harmonia, Moonsun, Medusa, Mental Cruelty, Night Oracle and Cosmicleaf/Unicorn Music, have already been released this year, and more are preparing to hit the market in 2008. When it comes to Greek trance culture magazines, we must mention Freeze, which is the leader in the field, providing free CDs and exclusive interviews from well known international and domestic artists. International acknowledged and recognized Greek web-radio called Bassline.gr Radio, continues to provide high quality, fresh psychedelic-progressive trance plus chill out tracks, DJsets and live-shows, as well as new exciting interactive features. For fans of progressive, house or electro, the answer to their needs is called Danceradio.gr, which provides a fully featured music portal for the music lovers.

LINKS

• www.bassline.gr • www.camoflash.com • www.candyflip-records.com • www.cosmicleaf.com • www.djmovement.gr • www.harmonia-records.com • www.itathens.com • www.joystick-music.gr • www.medusa-records.com • www.moonsun-records.com • www.noizeconspiracy.com • www.plasmaticagroup.com • www.psychedelic.gr • www.psy-trance.gr • www.unicorn-music.net • www.wizzy-noise.gr As for upcoming festivals, there are rumors about the continuance of Butterfly Dance Festival, and a possible festival from Twilight Zone team, but nothing is yet confirmed by the organizers. TEXT Thanasonic info@bassline.gr DJ, producer and mastermind of the internet radio www.bassline.gr

Photos Absolut Zero (2)

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Can it get any better in HUNGARY 30

www.trancersguide.com/hungary Feel the spirit of magical valleys and the taste of Palinka, meet the hospitable tribes in boat parties and cozy cellar clubs or spend half of the summer going from lake side psychedelic parties to festivals of international rank in Hungary. The biggest psychedelic community of Middle-Eastern Europe keeps the scene moving more than ever. The Hungarian psy-trance movement took its first baby steps back in the early 90’s with DJ Oleg receiving weird mix tapes from Israel and India. A year later he threw the first series of parties where he would mix Goa trance with acid, breaks and techno. The vibe started to spread across the country but needed the help of an Israeli student delivering Goa trance vinyls for the rising number of DJs in Budapest. Psy-trance events became weekly frequent from around 2000. During winter and fall there are regular psy-trance nights in Budapest where you’ll find pretty much the who is who in psy-trance today with such names as Atmos or Domestic. Inner city »psy heaven« K2 often hosts these and most of the relevant indoor parties during the year. Open-airs are quiet abundant near Budapest thanks to number of fishing lakes in the areas or ancient forests. As for mountains: Bakony will host its third psychedelic weekend this year with Gataka and Zen Mechanics already booked. One thing is for sure Goa Gill will be making his annual pilgrimage to Hungary in July.

OZORA Festival takes place fifth time in August 2008 with new decoration but with the same perfect location. The 7 000 visitors that graced the festival last year will only grow when they get the chance to see the line up for 2008 that includes Juno Reactor, Hallucinogen, Atmos, Logic Bomb, Ott, Youth and others that will give this festival the chance to rise into the hall of fame of psy festivals. Hungary’s other love child No Mans Land Festival, turned more than a few heads with its last edition in 2007. The multi-stage festival offers a wide spectrum of psychedelic music again this time at lake Balaton at the end of July. Scene is growing but isn’t as fast as the number of teams organizing separately fullon, dark-psy or progressive parties, which unfortunately like in other countries have created a separation in the crowd leaving dance floors often enough half-empty. Good news seems to be though that some of the crews have started to cooperate with each other pleasing various tastes as they try to gather the community again. Only few years have passed since Para Halu placed Hungary on psy-trance producers’ world map opening the door for new talents like Wooden Monsters who recently got their first album released on Nabi. Psybaba Records goes on with upcoming local dark psy projects Chemical Spoon and Irgum Burgum. Psylife Music presents the fifth Para Halu album this spring and Halu Beats releases the decade-long awaited debut-album from Kalumet, ultimate prog-psy hero of Hungary.

LINKS

• www.clubk2.hu • www.goa.hu • www.kalumet.hu • www.nomanslandfestival.com • www.myspace.com/ woodenmonsters • www.ozorafest.hu • www.parahalu.com • www.partyfuture.com • www.psylife.net • www.psybaba-records.com • www.thehumantouch.eu

CONTACTS

• info@psylife.net • info@partyfuture.com • adam@parahalu.com • kalumet@gmail.com Besides the labels, the first artist management agency called Human Touch begins its work in 2008. Hungary’s psy-trance future seems brighter than ever since.

TEXT Susan Hirschl sue@psylife.net Travel addict, journalist, manager www.psylife-music.com

Photos nekopix@gmail.com (2)

Characterized by colorful culture in INDIA 32

www.trancersguide.com/india The trance virus that was initiated by hippie tourists during the early 1970’s did not take long to infect the Indian subcontinent. International acts at nature parties became a common form of musical fete, which resulted in exultant sensations across the country. The scenario ameliorated until 2006 – the year that witnessed the colossal failure of the first Indian Psychedelic Trance festival (Moondust), and the subsequent year 150 ravers were imprisoned on the auspicious »festival of colors« party in Pune. However, there exists a flip side to this particularly psychedelic coin, with the India section on the renowned Isratrance forum resurrected, and a large number of artists becoming conspicuously visible in the international market. Analogous to the rising economy of the nation is its entertainment industry – what with international bistros such as Ministry Of Sound and Hard Rock Café in cosmopolitan cities. Trance in particular has not been sensationalized and organizing outdoor nature parties is next to impossible. The capital city of New Delhi usually gets a strong dose of club parties featuring international acts during November – February while Mumbai, Chennai and Pune are relatively dead.

Enter Goa – the sanctum sanctorum for ravers worldwide. Most importantly, Goa continues to maintain its lay as a state of mind more than anything else. While major party season kicks off mid December and views its terminus around the end of February, small parties are not uncommon; a good trancer can always find his way around! Goa might not be able to promise it’s visitors all that it did during the Golden era, but it will definitely make your trip memorable! If you are looking for a calm holiday in a nonrestrictive environment, Manali is the ideal holiday spot. Party season in Manali is from April– August. The village of Kasaul is another similar location. The festival at Pushkar (a popular holiday destination in Rajasthan) occurs every year during the concluding month of the year. In Kerala, you will find the most picturesque back waters and can pamper yourself to a traditional Ayurvedic oil massage; and the best news is that psy-parties are on the rise. Gokarna in Karnataka is also worth of checking. A trip to India is almost always going to be spontaneous and it’s best to adjudge the scenario once you arrive! As far as record labels are concerned, young blood has taken over. One of the main record labels continues to be Shivlink Records. Owned

LINKS

• http://forum.isratrance.com/ forum-india • www.mastimusic.com • www.sam-sara.com • www.shivlinkrecords.com

TRANCE ACTS

• Kohra (Shivlink Records) • Kerosene Club (Temple Twister) • White Wizard (Samsara) • Silent Horror (Devils Mind) • Ma Faiza (Masti Music) • DJ Nick (Shivlink) • DJ Varun (Materia)

CONTACTS

• info@shivlinkrecords.com by DJ Nick, Shivlink has played host to a number of international acts and released four compilations since its birth. Nick is also responsible for the latest Indian up rise Samsara Recordings. While Beyond Logic Records and Third Eye seem to be hibernating, Tantrumm Records and Temple Twister Records have been proactive as well as Goa based Disco Valley Records. Deep Electric India compilation showcases the fast growing progressive dance music scene in India. Ma Faiza (Masti Music) is an editor at Rave Magazine and is well recognized for her ample contribution to the scene. TEXT Divyan Salotra divyan@shivlinkrecords. com Promotions & marketing manager Shivlink Records, author of India Section on Chaishop, freelance journalist. »Tune in, Turn on & Trance Out!«

Photos Divyan (1)

Take off with fairies in IRELAND 34

www.trancersguide.com/ireland The Irish musical giant is slowly waking up! A young, vibrant and friendly scene is getting ready to inject psychedelic trance with an influx of new musical talent and energy. Two young and fresh labels were created in Ireland in June 2007. For now, both features mainly international acts, but are trying hard to tap the well of Irish creativity and create a platform for local trance producers to release their tunes worldwide. For, even though there are parties in most major cities of the island, very few people actually produce psy-trance, as most Irish musicians still prefer the traditional way of making music. Triplag Music, a natural development of the successful Triplag web radio that has been running for two and a half years, has already released two compilations Dark Love and Keep The Faith, featuring a host of internationally acclaimed psychedelic acts, one artist album from Russian psy-trance pioneer CPC in collaboration with his friends, and three digital EPs. Syncronize Records is also in full swing with two artist albums to date and a compilation in the making. The first release, Psychogenica is the debut album from Ajja, a

globe-trotter who lived in Ireland and gigged in the music scene for many years and who is an inspiration to many local producers. The second release is Phantasmatika from legendary French psy-trance wizard, Hyper Frequencies. New label projects have been announced, and in a country that has raised marvellous musicians such as Ian Dury, Van Morrison, Thin Lizzy and the Pogues, to name just a few, it is only a question of time before Ireland has its own major psy-trance acts. The party scene in Ireland started in the early 1990s, with a rush of new-age travellers and Goa old-timers. Small communities of freaks settled across the country, mainly in the South and on the West Coast. Due to strict licensing laws and a closing time of three a.m. for clubs, the scene remained underground, keeping the Goa spirit alive in free parties for up to 200 people in private houses, the woods or on Ireland’s beautiful beaches. A major Irish psy-trance promoter is the Dublin-based Neutronyx crew. Their name first appeared on the Global Festival calendar in 2006 with the Life Festival. By the second edition they had become a well-established trance festival aiming to encourage and stimulate youth culture, by means of juggling, poetry, drama and music in all its different aspects and styles. What’s more, they keep the psy-

LINKS

• www.dreamtunnel.com • www.life-festival.com • www.neutronyx.com • www.syncronizerecords.com • www.triplag.com chedelic vibe alive with their Neutronyx parties in the capital. In the last few years, party organizations like Cosmic Fusion and Equinox have developed in the bigger cities like Galway and Cork, as well as in more rural areas. Also, bridging the old divide between the Republic and Northern Ireland is Dream Tunnel. This psycommunity, led by DJ Druid, is involved in psy-trance promotion and party organization on both sides of the border since 2002. Come and experience the magic and mystical beauty of the Irish countryside and enjoy its psychedelic party scene! TEXT DJ Shore Bar Axel istalea2@eircom.net Syncronize Records Label manager. Thanks to Vic (Triplag Music) and Tanina Munchkina (Peak Records).

Photos Mike Patterson (2)

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All the trance you can eat in ISRAEL 36

www.trancersguide.com/israel The constant wars with the mandatory army (three years for men and two for women), hot weather and hot Mediterranean temper combined with growing high tech industry spiced with a search of something different made Israel the perfect habitat for trance to have it’s first steps and then spread like Infected Mushrooms. Israel has had a huge effect and influence on the global trance scene with such pioneers like Astral Projection, Oforia, California Sunshine and Space Cat. Most of them continue to shape the scene till this day. The journey to India after finishing the army became an Israeli ritual that helped develop the scene and made this genre the most popular for young people in the country. For many years Israel was labelled as the fullon nation, but lately the scene has started to wonder towards the progressive and minimal districts. New progressive labels like Echoes pop up alongside existing ones like VP, Dance N Dust and Ear Peaks (Domo). On the full-on side we still have the most famous and suc-

cessful labels such as Hommega with artists like Astrix, Dali, Domestic and the label manager Eyal Yankowitz, BNE/YoYo with Infected Mushroom, Fatali and Oforia, Compact, Agitato, Mushy, Trancelucent, Phonokol and Chemical Crew with the notorious Skazi. To take a dive into the realms of relaxation and down tempo you can find Aleph-Zero along with the superb Shulman. On the darker side we have the new comer labels like Zaikadelic and Psyshark together with the veteran Doof records that represent Zirkin (one of the owners) Double REL and Entropy. Doof are also making an annual festival during the days of the Jewish holiday Passover which usually occurs in April and had great success on their last one with almost 5000 people making a dust mushroom in the air. This year for the first time we had four festivals during September which is the holiday season for the Israelis. T.A.Z festival run by the third Empire crew brought four days of progressive, minimal, electro, tech music in the South, Moksha crew made an unforgettable 24 hours fest at Achziv beach at the North with 5000 ravers dancing to Simon Posford and X-Dream and creating a vibe that hasn’t been seen for long time, Holy Rave at the South tried to capture a decade later, the historic landmark in the Israeli trance scene – Ganey Huga festival in 1997 (which you can see on the movie Karahana), but the massive media advertising and the fact that it occurred on the same dates as the Moksha

Photos Julian Ribnik (4) event prevented it to recreate the same effect, and Morrison Drops festival who made a full-on festival at the dead sea. Always hungry for more parties and an opportunity to dig (the Israeli slang for dancing your ass off) the Israeli scene resulted in more parties during the week in various pubs and clubs like Sakaya’s Mondays & Saturdays infront of Jaffa sea shore (during the summer time and Bar Gyora during the Winter) Funky Beats @ Comfort 13 on Thursdays, The Maxim Progressive (and sometimes house/minimal/electro) Thursdays run by DJ Zombi. When it comes to nature parties, all you have to do is bring your dancing shoes because we have it all. If you are a progressive/minimal/electro fan you should go to the third Empire, Underground Team and Laplad. If you like the full-on style then you should go to TFN, Morning Glory and Panda & Hen Hen. For the Suomi and Goa madness you can look for Amanita, Psyzion, Rupas, Psyspirit and Virus & Spirala.

And if that is still not enough to relax your Trance soul you have trance radio shows in most of the students radios across the country like Matantrance on Kol Hanegev 106.4 (South) Wednesdays @ 20:00, Hafirot (Wednesdays @ 13:00) and Hypnoza (Sundays @ 20:00) on Kol Hakampus 106fm (Tel Aviv) and Psyfreaks in Netanya area Kol Netanya 106fm. This year we had parties closed by the police every weekend and even at authorized and Independence Day parties so when you come to a party in Israel you should take this under consideration. Although the mainstream media is quite indifferent to the trance scene, there have been several appearances by Israeli trance artists on the main news TV Channels and newspapers. Israel can no longer be defined as one particular expert of trance culture rather than a growing empire of one of the biggest exporters of artists, labels and crazy dancers that will leave an unforgettable mark everywhere they go.

LINKS

• www.106fm.co.il • www.bne.co.il • www.chemical-crew.tv • www.doofrecords.net • www.isratrance.com • www.myspace.com/ hypnozaradioshow106fm • www.zaikadelic.com

SHOPS

• SPIRITWEAR beautiful fashion www.naspex.info

Text Elinor C. tiptipe@hotmail.com Editor of Trance channels on cable and satellite TV Broadcaster of Hypnoza and Hafirot Trance radio show’s PR Manager for BNE records.

From acid sounds to melodic trance in ITALY 38

www.trancersguide.com/italy

By the mid-1990s electronic underground music was becoming more and more popular genre in clubs and discos in Italy. At the same time however, people began gathering in small parties where they could follow a trend which in other countries had already been perceived as a proper movement : the trance movement.

Since then there has been a shift in interests in Italy that had two consequences. One being a gradual disappearance or reorganization of the electronic genres that people used to love previously yet on the other hand, the new-born trance genres won an increasing number of people’s approval. Trance music itself has undergone a significant change over the years in Italy. At the beginning Goa trance and the acid sounds were the most played styles at parties. The sound then became more melodic and harmonic with more emotion and less

acid and then it all end up in the present full-on and progressive which represent the two most liked genres in Italy nowadays. Lot of young people however like the minimal style the most. This genre is simply the »old progressive« revised and rearranged to a tempo of 145–155 BPM, and it is usually played by young Italian and foreign producers. Minimal music is sometimes considered to be a sub genre of psychedelic trance but as a matter of fact it has nothing to do with the usual psysounds promoted in the rest of the world. As far as a general Italian outline is concerned it could be argued that the Trance movement has gained popularity for different reasons. Firstly, lots of par ties take place every week. They are of various kinds, some are bigger and others are smaller and they feature every sort of psy and even the entry fees vary from cheap to really expansive. Most parties are organized in the North and Central regions especially in cities such as Bologna, Milan, Turin, Padua, Florence and so on. The best festivals are usually open-air, for example

Photos Blind (1), Szymon Nikta (2)

the Sonica Festival, Summer Celebration and Magnetic Moon that are considered to be the main ones. Some of the most important events have been promoted in the last few years by some Italian organizations, namely Veleno Staff, MK, Looney Moon, Sound Splatters, Trancemission, Goa Spirit, Technoexperience, Neosphere, Electronic Brain, M.S.C.M.A and many others with the help of some Italian decorator teams, together have created impressive settings for their events. Among these teams are Neuro-sys. lab, Psy Fly, Fasù, Moon Flowers, Atlantix, Paramatma, Psycho, and so on. Thanks to the quality and peculiarity of their works these decorator teams can be said to have recently equalled the most esteemed foreign ones. Last but not the least , Italy offers some of psy trance’s greatest artists

and some record labels that promote their works such as Neurobiotic, Magma, Pixan, Solarsiv, Fabula and Veleno. It could be stated that the trance movement has reached its peak and its major expansion in Italy but there is always the other side of the coin. The fact that more and more people are following this trend could be regarded as a good way to spread the trance philosophy, mentality, music and spirit, which brings the genre’s epic quality. TEXT Jimmy 9 / Supernatural jimmy9dj@hotmail.com DJ, producer, member of Veleno staff and Pointzero rec.

LINKS

• www.beatspace.com • www.electronic-brain.it • www.goaspirit.it • www.looney-moon.com • www.magmarecords.it • www.myspace.com/neurosyslab • www.neurobiotic.com • www.psyconauti.org • www.sonica2006.com • www.technoexperience.com • www.trancemission.it • www.velenostaff.com

SHOPS

• MACKY MAD HOUSE RECORDS (MMHR) Psy Trance Full On Label www.mackymadhouse.com

Back to the underground in JAPAN 40

www.trancersguide.com/japan The word of trance culture was first brought to Japan by eclectic travelers during the 1980s and continued arriving through the 1990s and was positively booming by the time the millennium rolled around. Japan became a global hub of trance music, and the scene was kicking for a while. But then came mega festivals, money, gangsters, drugs, cops, the media … you know the formula. It wasn’t long before the parties became reliably uninspiring in Japan and yet behind the scenes artists and organizers committed to »the vision« continued doing their part to make it happen in the underground. Right up to the present day. There has been a general decline in the momentum of large scale outdoor trance festivals in Japan. Vision Quest and Solstice, some of the biggest names in the organizing scene still do such festivals. Mother has become a major organizer in the Tokyo-area, with two major annual events that are highly regarded even by the old heads in the scene. The Nagisa Music Festival is another major event that combines a variety of electronic music genres for two annual daytime parties in the spring and autumn. With a crowds of 20 000 it’s

an important meeting point for all those involved in the scene. Turning to West Japan, festivals such as GodBless, Blissdom and Yabai have grown greatly in the past few years. While the energy is still fresh and strong the shadow of capitalistic organizing in all of its predictable forms is unrolling onto the West Japan at an astounding rate. The hottest trance scene in Japan today is probably the dark-psy scene. BrainBusters, an organizing team headed by Dana and his partner from San Francisco Spliffnik, make great parties and a good place to meet the Tokyo Party Tribe. Chikyuya has been organizing parties since the 1990s although they are often secretive and difficult to find. The Goa Gil 24 hour party organized by Chikyuya every summer at the base of Mt. Fuji is one of the best parties of the year. In Osaka, New World led by Mondo has switched genres from full-on to dark-psy and has become very popular with it. Digital Shiva Power is yet another up and coming organizer in the Osaka area. Magazines such as Posivision or Sonic Traveller are great for finding information about parties and trance culture in Japan. Quintrix Records, a shop in the lively Shibuya district of Tokyo is another great spot for info-hunting. If you are in Osaka drop into Exodus near Shinsai-

LINKS

• http://exodus728.com • www.brainbusters.info • www.nagisamusicfestival.jp • www.posivision.com • www.quintrix.jp • www.sonictraveler.biz • www.totalsolareclipsefestival.jp • www.wakyo.jp bashi which is an organic restaurant run by party freaks with local info for the taking. Just remember, when it comes to getting you to the right party in Japan, information is everything. With a full solar eclipse happening here in 2009, it seems that the universe is planning an evolutionary turning point for the Japanese trance scene and the world. Will you be there? TEXT Shotu shota@posivision.com Editor of Posivision magazine. Supported by Kei (Quintrix) & Michael McAteer (www.kyotomike.com) »Boom Shankar!«

Photos Naveen (2)

Psychedelic pagans in LITHUANIA www.trancersguide.com/lithuania

The Baltic countries are newcomers in the global trance-scene but are in no way new to the culture which trance has its roots in. This being the fundamental culture of the worship of the earth, stars, sun and moon. Maybe it is the fact that the Baltic countries were a bit outside of the turmoil of the Christianization, later to be trade unions and military onslaught that followed. Seeing the spirit and hanging out in these countries can give oneself a deeper understanding for his roots as a European. Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia are still somehow not affected by the trends that sweep all over Central Europe and Scandinavia. The culture and the arts that flower here are vibrant, alive and true to the original roots of deep psychedelic shamanism. Check out the Yaga festival and Tundra in Lithuania or Klusa Daba in Latvia. The scene in Lithuania is young and important to mention, very spiritual. It is about gathering and sharing experiences rather than just to party senselessly. Existent promoter crews collaborate each time when one of them is organizing an event – equipment, deco, DJs, VJs and ideas come together for no fee. It’s all being moved further by common enthusiasm, love for nature, music, dance and gatherings

LINKS

• www.tranzu.yra.lt • www.yagathering.org

under the skies. Even foreign DJs and Liveacts come and play for free. These factors make people work together in favor of the spirit to create a certain vibe that makes psychedelic scene a tool of transformation. Moreover, most of the multi-day events have different aspects of alternative knowledge featured workshops, documentaries and spiritual practices that are quiet common that only help the spread of important knowledge and luckily this fact is understood among promoters. The story started in 2001 when a Germanbased crew Crazy People E.V. organized a very rare of its kind, shamanistic event called Ragana festival. It happened at the autumnal equinox in a very beautiful yet powerful place around former pagan capital Kernave. A truly mystical space and time made Ragana an outstanding experience that has greatly inspired those who decided to continue. The first locally organized full moon openair – Tinai (2003) attracted not many but the very core of the Baltic psychedelic community. It inspired »sleepy« activists in the Baltic countries and united the families for future projects. In summer 2003 the first Shambala festival took place followed by many other parties. The scene in the first years was very isolated from the outside world. Yaga (formerly Shambala) is undoubtedly the main purely psy-trance gathering which in 2007 attracted around 1000 participants including a number of international guests.

Usually outdoor gatherings and indoors reach 150–200 people with a few exception but the scene though very slowly, is growing. In the last couple of years the number of people involved with party organizing and music production in Lithuania has increased noticeably. TEXT Anton shoomjegaveda@yahoo. com Universal soul, artist, event organizer »Imagination is the power. Vision is the future. Dream the future. Now!«

Photos Forest (1) Yagasyke (1)

Love, light and loads of fun in MEXICO www.trancersguide.com/mexico After the storm calm comes again, and seems like now more than ever Mexico is ready to show its best to the rest of the world. Mexico is more than tequila, mariachi, and sombreros: it’s about love, light and loads of fun. Trance clearly started to break in Mexico more than a decade now. From small Goa parties the scene started to quickly build up a nice, groovy, trippy, mystical and unique atmosphere. In the lands where very strong pre-hispanic cultures once lived, the drum beats came back to seduce the Mexican ears and those beats came to stay forever. Nowadays we have two sides of the coin: parties with more than 5000 people, where the energy is quite strange and in most of the cases the production is quiet cheap, and then we have parties with 200–3000 beautiful dancing people. Crowds can be very different from one to another, where in the very big parties there is a younger generation around and then in the smaller and medium ones the crowd is not full of kids which we much more prefer. There is also a big difference into the styles and sounds at parties around the country, seems like the northern states are more into dark and fast psychedelic trance, when in big cities like Mexico, Monterrey, Cancun or Guadalajara some people are more open for progressive. Nowadays Mexico City is the capital for progressive and groovier music in the whole country.

It isn’t easy to organize an open air party in Mexico, unfortunately there are still some people that try to get in for free to the events or won’t pay the whole price of the entrance ticket. This small group of people that go to parties with a wrong behavior stays an important fact that does complicate the making of a beautiful festival that lasts more than two days. Most of the big events don’t go longer than 24 hours. Marakame (2000) was the best three day festival in Mexican trance history. In the year 2007 we had amazing open air parties that really uplifted our spirit: Radiance Festival (Sounds of Earth) and Tribal Vision’s Label Party (Delria) were more than amazing. Watch out for 2008’s editions, they will rock. The scene has been opening to new places and cities; spots on the trance map are multiplying and there are good parties (even with international artists) being held in »new« places and spots. Unfortunately there aren’t enough beach parties as we should have, but you can still find some around the Caribbean, Veracruz and Jalisco. There are many artists and DJs doing a great job, who aren’t only recognized in our country, but worldwide. The list (for trance and progressive) is big but we must talk about Ecliptic, Tron, Odiseo, Hamelin, Shove, Forza, D-Tek, Trancemission, Barak, Jey & Ex, Jerga, Valeria, Visua, Sankha, Tini Tun, Karlos Elizondo and many more.

LINKS

• www.deliria.org • www.elektroamerica.com • www.maia.com.mx • www.soundsofearth.net • www.trance-it.org • www.proyectogdl.com

CONTACTS

• vazik@yahoo.com • dev@trance-it.org • arturo@maia.com.mx There is still a lack of specialized music stores in the whole country, in Mexico City we have »Discoteca« (located at Condesa) that do a good job trying to spread and sell a wide range of electronic and alternative music, but sometimes it isn’t enough. On the other hand, people are starting to support and buy more tracks trough the internet in digital shops like Beatport and DJ Downloads. TEXT Victor Ezcurdia (DJ Vazik) vazik@yahoo.com vazilorfeno@hotmail.com International DJ, Sounds of Earth Label Manager »Life is short… Let’s rock«

Photo soundsofearth.net (1)

International trancers: THE NETHERLANDS www.trancersguide.com/netherlands

While psy-trance sprang from the und e r g rou nd a nd co n s ol id a t e d ove r ground, the »Dutchies« have increasingly seen the growth in the quality of their parties and producers. Although the scene in The Netherlands is as old as

SHOPS

• AZARIUS www.azarius.net herbals and more • SHAYANASHOP Smartshop www.shayanashop.com • BOTANICA-ART 3131 BP Vlaardingen Hoogstraat 116 +31 1 04601958 Herbs, Grow, Smart, Fash, Gifts, WWW www.botanic-art.com • KOSMIC KITCHEN 7511 Enschede Korte-Haaksberger-Str. 34 +31 53 4344894 Smart, Head, Rec www.kosmickitchen.nl • CONSCIOUS DREAMS »KOKOPELLI« 1012 JD Amsterdam Warmoesstraat 12 www.consciousdreams.nl

psy-trance itself, it has been keeping itself to its shores. Yet, moved by an artistic urge of expression and expansion, Holland is now looking up while stretching its wings across Dutch borders. Psy-trance in the Netherlands has been spreading its wings for a very long time. It began at the Ruigoord, the squatted village that later became legalized. This pioneering era was also felt in the club Trance Buddha, where local DJs hosted regular nights. Meanwhile, psy-trance was also morphing into an underground scene while the old squat the Silo pumped wild psychedelic parties in its basement. With the closing of the Silo, the scene moved to the Elf, the squat ted embassy of Belgium that for three years became the glowing light of psychedelic trance. Housing up to 300 seasonal members and many t raveller s f rom ever y w here in the world, the Elf made an impressive imprint in the Dutch psy-trance and opened it for international trancers,

Photos thehospages.com (2) br ing ing t he ver y spir i t of G oa to t he Netherlands. With the increasing control against underground parties, the scene went overground and nights are now usually held in clubs with early closing times. This policy brings pressure to organizations, which operate mostly with local artists due to the high risks of hosting short parties. As well, these parties often clash with outdoor illegal parties, which can be fun, but make it harder for international artists to be included in the line-up of well organized events. Still, some organizations are having the courage to bring international artists and we are seeing a growth in the quality of party production and line-ups. Organiza-

46 tions operating regularly in Amsterdam are Art of Noiz, Prog as a Frog, Namaste, Ruigoord, Trance Mafia, Bom Voyage, Tranceformers and Bleep Bizarre. In the country

LINKS

• www.1000feet.nl • www.cytopia.org • www.elixier.com • www.goatrance.net • www.goatrance.nl • www.ruigoord.nl • www.thehospages.com

we have Rootz, E:volved, 3rd Bit, Shut Up and Dance, Children of Ganesh and Cosmic Combination. The Netherlands has been in the global map of topnotch producers since GMS came along. Our most respected artist at the moment is Zen Mechanics, due to release an album this year and many are developing their craf t as well as releasing tracks and albums, such as Fitalic, Liftshift, Mad Contrabender, Aerophobia, Cyrus the Virus, Zebra -N, Jocid, Stikka, Tzolkin, Rebelix, Bassid, Boobytrip, Rev and The Wizard. In the 2008 we are seeing an increase in the number of of ficial open air parties. A lthough recei v ing a permission from the government is no easy business, some organizations are working against the clock to bring open air events to our spring and summer. So far, only the Ruigoord can yearly organize the Solstice festival, which runs for t wo days and marks the shif ting seasons in June. A s an alternative, some organizations are joining larger fes ti vals w hich are mostly commercial, but can offer a stage exclusively for psy-trance.

Photo thehospages.com (1) Holland also has an outstanding annual event on 30th of April to celebrate the birthday of the Queen. Amsterdam becomes the great focus with a series of open air parties and Bom Voyage is the psychedelic star, holding its ninth edition this year. Queensday is a traditional day attracting international public and international artists who come to play and enjoy, surely an event to be included in the global trancer‘s agenda. TEXT Back to Mars info@backtomars.net DJane & Producer from Amsterdam »Music is the best drug.«

Portrait in PORTUGAL 48

www.trancersguide.com/portugal Portugal has been a key figure in the trance scene. Recently its fame of having the best European open-air festival season is stronger than ever. While Nordics can feed us all with an industrial amount of music production, in Europe’s West Coast the main concern is partying in tolerant atmosphere. Boom Festival is the paradigm of a psychedelic festival, every two years since 1997 it brings to Portugal thousands of people from the worldwide community. Furthermore in 2007 Portugal revealed Freedom Festival as other type of trance festival produced in this country. With an attendance of 12 000 it was simply the biggest psy-trance festival in Europe in 2007 beating Sonica in Italy and the historical VooV (VuuV) in Germany. And if we consider that both Boom and Freedom will happen ever y t wo years, we can conclude that

all trance punters will be heading to Europe’s West Coast annually to attend to summer festivals. What reasons can explain that this country of ten million inhabitants (with five million emigrants living abroad) has such a strong reputation in this scene? We can explain it with three different reasons. The first and obvious reason is the weather. For instance the beautiful and exotic Portuguese capital Lisbon has an annual average temperature of 18° Celsius and 2700 hours of sun exposure annually. In the psytrance subculture the open-air factor is essential and Portugal have a pleasant weather all year long. This leads to people coming to Portugal not only to attend to festivals but also to enjoy holidays on a sunny, cheap and exotic climate. Secondly, this is a country built on the influences of Europe, Africa, Brazil, Muslim and Iberian influences. These multicultural inputs are deeply rooted in the DNA of the people and in the art, architecture and culture. The consequence is a country that is a sum of its past influences so you don’t feel that European standardized mood while being here. Time is slower, people are lazier, there is more chaos, its not a full formatted place… Thirdly is the quality of the events, mainly Boom Festival. Based on the psy-trance scene i t has evolved ever since and is now a platform for different art forms, activists, freaks, lecturers,

LINKS

• www.boomfestival.org • www.crystal-matrix.org • www.flow-records.com • www.quest4goa.com • www.myspace.com/ ensofproductions swingmusicagency • www.visitportugal.com

CONTACTS

• info@quarkagency.com • juggler@chaishop.com

visionaries, party animals, tribes, artists, neomystics, to name just a few. Boom became an intercultural (and inter subcultural), inter generational and multidisciplinary event feeding up the global psychedelic scene of new concepts. Moreover its independent ethos (not accepting corporate sponsorships) is an activist role model to the general trance scene. TEXT Artur Soares da Silva shlopix@yahoo.co.uk Journalist and the owner of that Boxer called Enky.

Photos Spiderman (1), Selwyn Leeke (1)

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An empire of sounds in RUSSIA 50

www.trancersguide.com/russia The very first seeds for psy-trance were deposited into mother Russia’s expansive terrain during the early 1990’s soon after DJ Gabriel (St. Petersburg) and XP Voodoo (Moscow) returned from their musical expedition to India. Though, it can be said that the roots of this psychedelic Indian tree have been transplanted into the limited soils of the two major Russian cities, the last 10 years have seen branches sprout all over the country’s vast territories. At present, trance parties are held in almost every region of the country. Nevertheless, Moscow remains the only city where on any given weekend one can find the party of one’s choice regardless of how esoteric a sub genre one desires. In this setting, psychedelic dance music is played by top international artists. The most well known psychedelic sound wizards from Russia are Parasense, KinDzaDza and Fungus Funk. They are still delivering new interesting music meanwhile the scene is becoming more diverse with new artists and labels. Among the rising progressive stars is Vacuum Stalkers, who will release their debut album in the early part of 2008. Likewise, Overlap Project is anticipated to bring cutting edge full-on with their second album released on Planet BEN records. In addition, Glooex, Pantomiman, M.M.C, and Paper Squad are producing a form of »twisted« psy-trance which is becoming in-

creasingly popular. Of course, Russia’s famous »dark side« is also certain to be represented as Manifold and Furious albums hit the market. Apart from Moscow, St. Petersburg possesses the highest concentration of upcoming producers. Samadhi, RED, Pan Psychic, and Nasca continue their international releases with projections of full length albums for sometime in 2008. As for the chill out needs of our country being satisfied, Russia retains it’s internationally renowned high caliber acts such as Unstable Elements, Koan, Chronos, Scann-tec, Khooman, Izzum, DAF, and Kadang, to name just a few. In truth, the most significant strides taken over the last few years have been made by the many party organizers who have expanded their repertoire to include owning record labels and supporting artists. Besides the already established Moscow labels like Vertigo and Insomnia, newcomers like Nuclear Force, Organic Alchemy, Technical Freaks and Sun Station from St. Petersburg are busy making their mark. Significantly, the laws against illegal or so called pirate productions have been made more stringent thereby upping the level of protection for local labels and artists. Summer 2008 promises to be a memorable one, as some of the more outstanding events such as Solar Eclipse Festival at Altai Mountains, the Trimurti festival and the Armagedon Festival (organized by one of Moscow’s

LINKS

• www.aeroboard.ru • www.chilloutplanet.com • www.insomnia-records.ru • www.intrance.ru • www.khanaltay.org • www.omind.ru • www.psytrance.spb.ru • www.shanti.spb.ru • www.sunstation.ru • www.technical-freaks.ru • www.trance.ru • www.trimurti.ru • www.vertigo-records.com best promo teams, Technical Freaks) collude to make an unforgettably sunny season. For information about parties and scenes, popular web portals prove indispensable aids – the one shortcoming is that almost all the information presently available is in Russian. TEXT DJ Unitone unitone@sunstation.ru A&R, promoter, freelance writer. Supported by Misha »Sunsay« »Actually we do not understand things we just get used to them.«

Photos Spiderman (1), dElpHin (1)

Discover the eastern beauty in SLOVAKIA www.trancersguide.com/slovakia

Wherever your travels take you, Slovakia promoted as a »little big countr y« should definitely be one of the stops. Beautiful scener y in the countryside and dominant mountain ranges provide remarkable places for outdoor events where nature itself might be counted as an amazing decoration. Yet we tr y to be counterpar t of most that ’s going on in world within psytrance scene. I n t he year 19 9 9 Cosmic dance or gani ze d f i r s t p s y - t rance e ve n t aime d to w ider audience. Since then various crew s st ar ted to organize ps y-par ties. In 2000 Zdeno and Rolo baba, wondering around the world, founded beautiful tradition of Hill Top festival (named af ter famous par ties in Goa) located in central Slovakia. Hill Top is considered to be the largest outdoor event in Slovakia to celebrate summer solstice uniting the whole scene together.

LINKS

• www.dendy.sk • www.isotoxin.com/hilltopfestival • www.myspace.com/ cosmografix rahatmahatix • www.mystika.psyverse.sk • www.psyverse.sk

Slovakian psy-trance scene could be di v ided into three larger par t s according to geographic al regions. Each par t has several cre w s organi zing in and outdoor event s. The scene remain strongest in western and central part of the countr y. Among the most ac tive is a crew called Spectral Sound based in Nitra. Ellisdee and Gyrro ac tivated themselves in 2003 with the part y called Awakening that greatly echoed among people. They have decided to continue in organizing club events and later on in 2006 founded a nice tradition of Mystika open air festival, where artists like Cosmosis and Electric Universe performed. Among organizing psy-trance event s they design their own decorations and make their own trance-clothing as well as produce music. Another quite ac tive tribe in this par t of Slovakia in Piestany is Qadradelic Societ y since 2003, organizing in and outdoor event s like Summer Gathering or Journey to Wonderland. Wes tern par t of Slovak ia is consid ered to be quite ac tive and many crews w o u l d d e s e r ve t o b e m e n t i o n e d l i ke Radical Karma Crew or Planet Blue Societ y but also the young ones tr ying to attract communit y with new projects. Cent ral par t of t he count r y has al way s playe d impor t ant role as to t he

scene development and fresh ideas. Coining usual word of psy and name of tiny village, near Brezno, Valaska we get P s yalaska repre sent ing for mer l y chill organizers and deco ar tists. Since 2004 each year guys organize outdoor event at Chvatimech hill. Not to omit dynamic Space At t ack crew shif ting c ards in this region. Since 2006 Bizzare projec t took over organization of Hill Top festival and introduced ar tist s like CPU, Space Tribe, Digital Talk, Absolum, Black and White and many others to Slovak psy communit y. It permanently cooperates with respec ted ar tis t s like Zion, Galac tika or DJ Dica. Among individual producers it wouldn’t be fair to omit ar tists who either have already released their projec t s like Cosmo per forming worldwide or those waiting to be discovered also abroad such as Rahatmahatix, Ray Subjec t, Gyrro are probably best representatives of mostly full-on Slovak scene. TEXT Sha esther762b@yahoo.com Party organizer, Bizzare Project member

A psychedelic rainbow nation in SOUTH AFRICA www.trancersguide.com/southafrica South Africa has become an intern a t i o n a l t r a n c e r ’s p a r a d i s e , w i t h a n e x t r e m e l y f a vo u ra b l e e xc h a n g e ra t e e n c o u ra g i ng ove r s e a s v i s i t o r s to come par t y with us and an active psy-trance scene of which we are so proud. In Cape Town, of ten referred to as »Africa’s psy-trance capital«, we have outdoor festivals (called parties here ) ever y weekend during our extended summer season September to May every year. Although we have over t went y par t y organizers in South Africa, there is an unspoken understanding avoiding having multiple par ties at once, and trancers having to make a choice. In this way, the whole scene is sustainable and ongoing, with some of the older organizers like Vor tex and Alien Safari, still arranging successful festivals af ter more than ten years. Psy-trance found its way to SA in the m i d -19 9 0 s – c o m i ng f r o m a d e l i c a t e background, we are ver y open to, and accepting of all cultures and are proud of how far we have come as a developing nation in a relati vely new democrac y. I n C ap e Tow n, w i t h t he sk y line dominated by our famous Table Mountain, we have an ex tremely eclectic and friendly bunch of trancers, which cre ates a great vibe at the par ties. There is a good following locally and it is com-

mon to get 60 0 0 people at bigger outdoor festivals. The scene has spread to the cities of Johannesburg and Durban, but Cape Town remains the place to visit if you love psy. In 20 07 we were honoured with visit s from international ar tis t s like P s yfly, Manic Dragon, Zirkin, Menog, Paink iller, Bliss and Space Tribe, to name just a few. Our local ar tist s have done us proud, with signings by Peak Records of The Jester, Yabai Records of Frozen Ghos t and 3D V ision of Los t & Found. In 20 08 we are looking for ward to visi t s f rom K ind z ad z a, Er ror Cor re c t i ve, E skimo and Mr Peculiar, amongst others, and expec t our Ar tifak t, Protoculture, Shif t and more will venture overseas again. I n ge neral, t he s ce ne is more f ull on and hardcore than progressive, alt houg h big ge r p ar t ie s c a t e r for b o t h with t wo dance f loors. There are hundre ds of ac t i ve ps y- t rance DJs in S A , w ho c an b e s e en not onl y a t t he big Saturday night par ties, but also at the smaller indoor venues like Labyrinth @ F i c t i o n , O r g a n i k @ R o o t s a n d Tr a n s lu x @ Classic Corner ever y Wednesday night. We use w w w. 3am.co.za for info and buying psy-related items or w w w. b o m e l a k i e s i e . c o. z a f o r p s y - i n f o a n d post-par t y chats. Arrange transpor t to par t ie s w i t h w w w.kabshu t t le.co. z a

LINKS

• www.3am.co.za • www.bomelakiesie.co.za • www.bpmmag.co.za • www.callapizza.co.za • www.kabshuttle.co.za • www.monkeysfist.co.za or ask for a lif t on the thread on Bom. Tr a n c e - f r i e n d l y b a c k p a c ke r s i n c l u d e A shanti Lodge and Sunflower Stop. Entrance fees to parties are from 5 Euro to 30 Euro for the biggest. One known local hangout is the only psy-trance dedicated pizza shop in Africa, Call-A-Pizza in Sea Point, where you can tr y a pizza named af ter psy-artists / organizers, get psy-info and buy par t y tickets and watch part y videos and hear the latest psy-trance tunes played.

TEXT Ricky Sidelsky aka DJ Mad Hatter I together with Yolanda Chambers. Both total psy-trance addicts, owners of the CallA-Pizza South Africa and MINDMELT Productions.

Light and darkness in SPAIN www.trancersguide.com/spain

2007 has been again a year of light and darkness for trance in Spain. Despite of the amount of parties (more than 200) and the new collectives that appear every year , the lack of attendance to these events is pushing the scene deeper in underground while electro and minimal scenes are growing bigger. Al-Andalus is a new festival in the South of Spain celebrated in August. The organization is United Tribes and the place is astounding. It is located in the shores of a beautiful lake. No doubt, the best party of the year. Freaky Dragons festival couldn’t take place due to the lack permissions and the Guardia Civil (a kind of police) used force against the visitors. The organizers (Dragon Hunters) claim that they had an oral agreement with the authorities.

LINKS

• www.muskaria.com • www.cosmictrance.com • www.spunrecords.org • www.ingart.com • www.oxygenrecords.com • www.sindarpsy.org • www.tranzexperiences.net

Happy Festival took place in the Cullera beach (Valencia) in October. There was rain the previous days and so the festival had to set up in the last moment. Many people entered for free due to the lack of fences. There were also problems with the sound system, but the overall experience was good. Organizers (Katarsis) have permissions for five more years, so we trust in a worthy experience for 2008. Existence Festival (Catalonia, NYE) was cancelled due to the lack of pre sales. 2006 edition was very successful so nobody understands what happened. Organizers (Sindar) offered a good party in Barcelona with Exaile, Mekkanikka and Tribe of Frog. Catalonia has been the most active region with several collectives working hard for the scene. Muskaria Crew made several parties mainly in clubs with an international line-up: Altöm, Poli, Alien Project, Atomic Pulse, Pixel, Marco Menichelli (Sun Project) and Max Lanfranconi (Etnica), John Phantasm, Celli, BioTonic. Also an outdoor party in Monegros desert. Sindar Crew organized a monthly party in Mephisto Club with several international acts like Skazi, Kuntact, Vibrasphere, Black&White and Buzz T. Trykomadelik crew made nine parties (indoor and outdoor) in Tarragona bringing Absolum and Domi Pastor.

Cosmic Trance, veterans from Barcelona made Trip to Trance II party with Kali and Toxic. Selektronics celebrated regular parties in clubs. Materia Records made a Label Party in Lleida with DJ Anahata and Djane Moira. La Penya del Bronx and Friends organized some parties in Vilafranca del Penedes. Madrid area had weekly indoor parties in Selenium session (Ya’sta Club) with Talamasca, Bushman, Sirius Isness, GMS, Safi Connection, Andromeda, X-Dream or John »00« Fleming. Mithology Crew brought Meller to a club party and organized Beat Da Street Project, a parade in the Madrid streets with a Trance truck throwing psychedelic sounds to the passers-by. Veteran Furthur collective pulled up two beautiful parties in the surroundings of Madrid. Sinergia crew celebrated third anniversary with Audialize and Kuntact in Ya’sta Club. New collectica, AMAR apperarec. Also Kinki Aliens had small actions in raves. Levante Area has shown a growth in terms of collectives: Kantala Sound celebrated their second year making seven parties, Delysid and Ganesha Space Garden created Everland. Also Psylove and Acid Minds made several small parties in the area. Aztlan Festival in Valencia was a good Spanish collective reunion with some internationals. Andalucia region has increased activity: Dinamik (Málaga), Psylocibe (Sevilla), Transition Crew (Huelva and Seville). Carismadelic (Málaga) celebrated their first anniversary with Rinkadink in a beach party. Ibiza had few small parties that were mostly private.

TEXT Sergio Diez aka DJ de Palo DJ and promoter www.yastaclub.net

Photo Oliver Eisele (1)

Northern enlightenment in SWEDEN www.trancersguide.com/sweden Sweden is famous for meatballs, northern lights, beautiful people, outstanding troll forest environment and a lot of great music in a wide range of genres. The collective mentality stands in relation with the seasons. It’s almost impossible to hold legal events due to a repressive political climate. Almost all organizational tries of a true trance festival has been stopped by our authorities. But still, there are a few dedicated Trance freaks doing everything possible to produce a big and well organized event where the spirits is still run high. To mention some open-air gatherings that aimed to bring the true Viking tribe, Trolltyg that marks the beginning of the summer season, attracting about 1500 visitors. Highlight in 2007 was without a doubt the INTI & Family reunion made by the INTI Design team and also the Goa Gil / 070707 party made by DivineMusicTribe. The day party Blommor & Bin continues to put a smile on people’s faces. Mytiska Hålet I Marken is an outstanding gathering with people from all over. Other events worth mentioning are Wizardry of the Woods and also The Tribunal made by L.I.S.A. To tell you »how it all started«; In the early 1990s some dedicated acid freaks brought their visions from Goa and made the first party in legendary Kilsbergen in Örebro. In Stockholm Docklands had their imprint in

the scene and within it came both positive and negative aspects when the police started to put energy into the surveillance of this new age party culture. Ever since then the psychedelic spirit spread all over the country, though mostly to the major cities like Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. Producers however are more spread out over the whole country. 2007 didn’t quiet end with high spirits, but signs point toward a promising year 2008 with more well organized events in the name of »summer of love, freedom and spirit« . However, our beloved producers have put a lot of energy in the release of good music. To name a few respected artists that released in 2007 were: Vibrasphere, Matenda, Solar Fields, Silent Horror and also Astrix released an EP at Spiral Trax which after a year in silence is now back in the game. What is scheduled for 2008? Chromosome, Wizack Twizack, S-Range and the newcomer Panta Rei are about to release their new album. Other artists worth mentioning is Hux Flux, Son Kite, Miraculix, Ticon, Total, Ibojima, Atmos and Arremakki. Sweden also have quite a lot of skilled DJs such as Morg, Kvasi, Anti, Peter Digital, Stygnet, Anneli, Bröte, Gen6, Zloj and Joseph. Worth to mention is Connection that invented the new style »flipflum-on«.To mention a few active decorators is INTI Design, Diffus and NOS.

LINKS

• www.080808.se • www.arvikafestivalen.se • www.divinemusictribe.com • www.flexible.to • www.psydb.net • www.swedish-mushroom.com For 2008 a lot of organizations are planning great new events. Which will stay as a dream and which will become reality is hard to predict. One highlight to keep on eye on will be the vision of Sweden’s first true international Trance festival 080808 – project Kul Tur will be a continuation of Freaky Forest produced by the familytribe of Enlighted, DivineMusicTribe and friends from all over. Arvika festival attracting more then 15 000 people will as usual dedicate a stage for Trancemusic. TEXT Stygnet blessed@enlighted.org DJ, journalist, festival manager, label head at Enlighted Network, supported by VaPPa »We are spiritual beings, having a human experience!«

Photos badboll.nu (2)

Psychedelic open-mindedness in SWITZERLAND 56

www.trancersguide.com/switzerland The new trance generation in Switzerland knows no musical frontiers and is experiencing a revival of psychedelic open-mindedness felt in all parts of the country. The country renowned for its warm hospitality, characteristic events, spectacular natural scenery, and for the most fun loving dance crowd on this planet. This unique melting pot of languages, styles and tastes has developed throughout the years into one single magnitude and constitutes to a modern way of thinking, sharing and breathing the same fundamental values as our global tribal scene. Although laws are supposed to apply nationwide, there are strong differences concerning the handling of party allowances which results in variably strong party activity patterns, of which the German part has the strongest (about 20 parties a month) followed by the French part (about 2 parties a month) and Italian part (about 1 party a month). Furthermore, parties in these areas never last longer than 5–6 hours. Effectively it is easier to organize a full-scale legal party in the German part without greater complications, whereas for the scene activists in the other parts of the country there’s no other possibility than to throw an illegal free-spirit event out doors. In most cases, for example Mental Soup, this might end in disaster cause of missing permits and neglecting communication between the organizers and the authorities.

Small in size, but vast in choices, the Swiss party calendar is filled with lots of nice little treats. One of highlights, which took place in the beautiful surroundings of the pre-alps region in Grison, is Summer’s End Festival 2 symbolizing love, tolerance, and peace. It turned out to be one of the big surprises of the year and the sequel for next year is already in the realization process. More of the psychedelic approach is Forgotten Ritual Festival, a dark-psy gathering which goes back to the psychedelic roots; raw music with a message and purpose for mind, body and soul. Some of the more important organizations, the pillars in our colorful Swiss scene, include names like Nandan, USP, Biolive, Vibrative Sounds, Klangwerk, DMT, Hertz, Kinky Beats, and many more. Swiss Music, created by constructive minds and generally on a high production level, expresses itself through many genres of trance. Top producers like Electrypnose, Midimal, Freakulizer/Khainz, Dancing Devil, Yab Yum, Vibracoustic, Subconciousmind The Peaking Goddess Collective, Spectral Paradisis, and so on, stand for the acoustic muse harmonizing in quality. A handful of Swiss record labels are gaining world wide recognitions with their artists and releases. There is a wide spectrum of sound and covers for all the psychedelic tastes. The Key players are Peak, FrakaSound, Woodroom, Kumquat Tunes and Fractal.

LINKS

• www.eve-rave.ch • www.forgotten-ritual.org • www.frakasoundrecords.com • www.goatrance.ch • www.mysticalforum.ch • www.peakrec.com • www.sexualproduction.ch • www.swisspsy.ch • www.woodroomrecords.ch • www.fiin.ch

SHOPS

• SECRET NATURE GMBH 3600 Thun Obere Hauptgasse 11 +41 33 2234900 CD, Herbs Smart www.secret-nature. Outstanding DJs, technically all very skillful and with the instinct to rumble any dance floor include names like: Müstik, Jackomo, Nygma, Ondrej, Milosz, Pinky & Brain, Pinch & Sam Smiler. Be sure not to miss their sets if you see their names on lineups. TEXT Nygma nygma@frakasoundrecords.com Passionate long term trancer, DJ. Support by Tuso, klangarena association, DJ(ResQ) djResQ@klangarena.org

Photos Alex (2)

Psychedelic tribes of the magic kingdom in the U.K. 58

www.trancersguide.com/u.k. Our beloved psy-trance scene just keeps growing and its popularity is on the increase. Weekly offerings of clubs, outdoor parties, forest gatherings and squat parties tend to keep the UK psy-trance calendar full. In all the shires throughout the land, you will find a community of psy-freaks networking and partying together as one. The UK psy-trance scene evolved during the early 90’s and has grown into a beautiful, vibrant and flourishing underground c o m munit y. Spawned out of London, the

scene has managed to thrive and spread throughout our ancient magic kingdom. Nightclubs large and small, sound systems, artists, VJs, DJ’s and collectives all endeavor to unite to build and create what has become, a Utopia for psychedelic trance in Western Europe. Party organiser numbers are on the increase and new events on offer – whatever part of the kingdom you find yourself in, you will uncover a psy-tribe that holds regular events and delivers the essence of what we love. Antiworld and the Synergy Project offer us some of the biggest events in the capital. The mighty Tribe of Frog will be found pushing the boundaries in Bristol, along with Freefall Monkey and Planet Shroom. Toadstool in Gloucester keep supplying warm vibes with festivals such as Glade, Waveform Project, Life Festival and Shamania taking us back to the garden. With a multitude of smaller rigs and forest parties making the rest of the summer busy for all who attend.

The Alphawave Project can be found in Plymouth and in the Midlands we have MessMedia keeping the Spacehopper vibe alive. The Psycle crew can be found in Nottingham, Trancemission in Leicester and Baraka in Oxford. In Liverpool we have the legendary Alien Resonance with a true family community that keeps flourishing. Soma Sonic is a new tribe which have had some fantastic nights with more to offer and Ultra Violet pouring their cosmic brew from the Fort on the Wirral. If you fancy a night out in Manchester you will be drawn to the delights of Sunrise, the hokus pokus of Illuminaughty and weird sensations at Strange Daze, where you will be guaranteed a night out you won’t forget. Fatmoon offer thought provoking wonderment in Sheffield, while further up in Yorkshire you will be treated to Kulu in Bradford and Cabbage at Leeds, both well respected and long established trance nights. Then onto Psybase at Hebdon Bridge,

Photos Selwyn Leeke(3)

LINKS

where friendly faces and happy vibes rain down on all. Nearer the Scottish border the likes of Trauma Trance in Tyneside and the Dreaded Fairies over in Carlisle, who will cater for all your psy requirements. The Scottish Highlands provide Planet Monkey from Edinburgh, who run regular nights and hold an annual festival worth checking out. Wales seems to be quite active considering its small population, with Chaos Theory flying the flag in Cardiff, Psy Fly and Magic Psycle from Swansea. Along with Symbiosis in Aberystwyth, all infecting the South and West of Wales quite nicely. The Cidfloss Corporation serve up lovely chilled nights in Bangor, with close neighbours the Psilocybe Tribe conjuring their Celtic magic, within the beautiful mountainous surroundings of North Wales. An increase in virtual networking leans towards more organized and well laid out parties, with collectives and merriment makers on the increase. A community united. Progressive, full-on, dark, nightime and

chillout, whatever genre you are into, the Kingdom of Tribes will provide, deliver and unite your true love for psy-trance. London is one of the hotspots in the world of music. It saw the rise of movements like punk and new romantic amongst many others and has always been the breeding ground for up and coming talent. The psy-trance scene has always been strong in London thanks to the great amount of people from all over the world who live in the city, the last few years has seen a massive number of Brazilians flooding the capital with their party vibes adding great strength to the numbers at parties as well as a great dance floor vibe. Nights like Antiworld, Acid Monkey, Mindscapes and the Brazilian crews Venom and Psy Invasion are leading the London scene with regular parties and top line ups. Other nights worth mentioning are Roots, Chichime, Implosion, Outerlimits, and new up and coming nights like Atom and The Bubble Jam Parties. If you are out looking for some Music or alternative clothing Camden is the place to go, although now slowly being taken over by larg-

• www.accessallareas.org • www.celticpsyforum.com • www.psy-forum.co.uk • www.tranceculture.com • www.ukpsytrance.co.uk • www.myspace.com/elestialrecords • www.idspiral.org • www.wildthingsrecords.co.uk er shops like Virgin. You can still find places like the stables market with some interesting shops Like Cyber dog and The Dream Temple plus Access All Areas always providing the latest party info. London is also the place where most of the scenes legendary labels where born Like Tip, Phantasm, Transient, Twisted, the now defunct but never forgotten Flying Rhino and New labels like Pukka, Free Spirit, Alchemy and Point Zero. TEXT Ash ash@psilocybetribe.co.uk DJ, Psilocybe Tribe and Celtic Psy Forum admin With the help of Kristian Vinales »Open-mindedness, awareness, understanding, respect and creativity.«

Psychedelic utopia in UKRAINE www.trancersguide.com/ukraine

LINKS

• www.chill.org.ua • www.euphoria-promo.com • www.psyshine.org.ua • www.skygravity.org • www.sentimony.com • www.semi-conductors.info Psychedelic music showed up in Ukraine in the mid-1990s. In 1996 Sergey Tovstoluzhsky (RIP), also known as DJ Yehuanah, was the first DJ who started to play psychedelic trance in Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. He introduced this music to DJ Pubert who became the first successful Ukrainian psyparty organizer. In cooperation with DJ Tolya, Pubert promoted psy-trance in the radio project Misyachni Trombony (Lunar Trombones) on a Kiev’s local radio station. In the same time the first psy-events began to pop up in Kiev and with time psychedelic rhythms rushed to the South – via Odesa to the magical Crimea peninsula. Besides, in 2000 the second fully psytrance oriented FM radio project Ohm was founded in Odesa by SOAP SS. N o w aday s t he ma i n trance events still lay on the same axis: Kiev – Odesa –

Crimea. Of course, psychedelic parties are constantly being organized in other places all over the country and even average cities have their promo groups. All of them do their best to bring magical, unique atmosphere to each event, and that’s what Ukrainian parties are known for. Friendly relations between promoters help them to unite and make bigger gigs together. During the last decade Ukraine saw such artists as Atriohm, Blisargon Demogorgon, Digital Talk, Encephalopaticys, Haltya, Hyper Frequencies, Infected Mushroom, Jelly Heads, Ocelot, Para Halu, Skazi, Space Buddha, Spindrift, Troll Scientists, X-Dream and many others. The leading promoters are Semi-Conductors, Psyshine, Moon Koradji, Cube Group, Clocktail Monks, Japanamatic Pro, Kinetic Society, Psy Quest and Euphoria. There are several festivals that are held by Ukrainian promoters. The biggest one is Sky Gravity, a massive event on the Black Sea cost in Crimea, which gathered artists from all over the globe and up to 1000 people every year. The festival has its own label and annual compilation, which’s second volume, is distributed world-wide by Wirikuta. Crimean territory is the real heaven for party promoters. Owing to its landscapes varying from beautiful mountains through magic forests to large beaches and wild nature, Russian promoters also throw parties and festi-

Photos PsycoZaika (1), nu4to (2)

vals there: e.g. Space of Joy, Liquid Beach and Udiva. All of these events are held in cooperation with Ukrainian promoters. There are two active labels that are working in psychedelic directions nowadays: Skygravity and Sentimony Records, which are both quite young and ambitious. The cluster that forms Ukrainian psychedelic scene is growing fast in chorus with the quality of its production. The artist’s work results in releases on a variety of labels abroad. And surely each band feels proud to have its track released by Ukrainian labels. To date, the most successful projects are SynSun (Phonokol), Overdream (Avatar), Already Maged (Tantrumm), Saikozaurus (Zaikadelic), Shivaz, Zymozis, Kadasarva, Sphingida, Harax and lots of others. Ukrainian scene got huge luck with info and web support from Alienatix, a man who founded the web portal Psyshine.org.ua and gathered trancers there. Its forum became the Ukrainian analog of Isratrance.com. TEXT Stotyka stotyka@gmail.com DJ, designer, Good Energy Group With the help of Makus and Dana Do. »The Universe is infinite as well as atom«

Rocking for the free world in USA www.trancersguide.com/usa

Photos www.dimka.com (2)

Although the United States invented hippies, rock music, surfing, house and techno music, psy-trance is not mainstream at all and probably won’t be, until the pirate look come back into fashion. The original avant garde of late 90’s era psy hippies has given way to a more decentralized online community. In any event, the Internet has enabled far flung cohesiveness. Ge og raphic all y, t he music and t he scene it self star ted on the coast s and have moved inward. The life c ycle of a trancer usually starts with tripping at a good party; they might go through a rapid phase of par t y going before set tling in to a long period of slow burning, MP3 downloading, and maybe even production, with an occasional relapse into full blown activity. New York’s fabled scene of the late 90’s was battered by 911 and the recession

and hasn’t recovered to its glory days despite valiant efforts and fortunes wiped. There’s still the occasional Tsunami and Alladin Project megaparties, along with 6362 Metaforce, TDC, a renewed DMT and 28th Day. Philadelphia’s Gaian Mind has solidified its role as the largest East Coast gathering, complete with a home made American Stonehenge. In North Carolina there are Those people and Touch Samadhi’s Powow festival keeps drawing them in. ATL in Atlanta has brought the music to Georgia, and Roe Revolution in Florida. Midwest psy climbed to new heights in 2007. New music collectives and production crews are sprouting up in Missouri and Oklahoma, including Oklahoma’s stellar I/O Audio Visual project. Psymbolic, the audio/visual engineers, have started releasing quality works by psy-trance, ambient and multimedia artists. Iowa’s Mind Outpsyde is still throwing ragers.

Outside of the many Midwest Chilluminati events, three exciting gatherings were held in Arkansas last summer. The AUM festival was the first attempt to draw together all the North American tribes at one festival. The psychedelic powerhouses Goa Gil and Simon Posford also made their first Midwest appearances in Arkansas this summer, with the legendary Hog Ridge Hollow being pulled out of dormancy to serve as a venue. At the Midwest goahead-burner nexus, the MindLicker psy-trance theme camp continues to provide a platform for psy-artists around the region to coat burner brains with psychedelic saliva. Burning Man culture is finding a sustainable future in regional communities. Burning Man regional contacts and communities can be found in most Midwestern states now, including new burns in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin. The most recent and shocking development has been the founding of a South Dakota burner community. InterFuse & HullabalU, two Missouri burns, are in their 5th years. If visiting Colorado in the summer, be sure to hit their regional burn, Apogaea, and for a non-burner but visionary experience, also check out the Dreamtime festival, famous for its high quality workshops. Colorado is the stomping ground for pure psy collectives Metamine, Secret Psychedelica, Wacky Shack, and Paradigm Productions. Overmindworks keeps bringing quality psy-trance to the deserts of the American Southwest.

LINKS

Of course, Texas, the granddaddy of all regional burner communities is still celebrating radical self-expression with their events, Burning Flipside around Austin and Myschevia in North Texas. Flipside, especially, draws many visitors from around the country and the world. On the west coast Los Angeles continues to be the epicenter of larger trance events. Green Sector and Psytribe hold it down monthly at various indoor venues as well as hosting outdoor day parties at Woodley Park. Newcomer crew Terrakroma are doing exclusively progressive parties in the downtown LA area. San Francisco’s premier festival is Symbiosis, a multi genre event with a solid chunk of full on & progressive. Synchronize is the long running weekly there. Also in SF are Phoenix Family, Tantra, & CCC. In San Diego music crops up in Psycircle.

In the Pacific Northwest, through their series IOSIS Art Party in Seattle, Infinite Connections has merged psy and progressive over the last three years, while Molecular bonds the dark psy in Goa flavors. The remnants of Apollo’s Lute still organize in Portland and in Hawaii, Evolving Arts has psychedelic luaus. Come see the United States. Its dirt cheap and the people need psy-trance!

TEXT Jeff Whitmore AKA Machinelf machinelf@tranceamericana.org Bon vivant, writer, promoter, man about town based in New York. He was assisted by contributors across the USA.

• www.extremeunderground.net • www.audiognomes.com • www.chilluminati.org • www.divinebalance.com • www.extremeunderground.net • www.gaian-mind.com • www.goaheadohiopsytrance.tribe.net • www.goaheadproductions.com • www.greensector.com • www.infiniteconnections.org • www.mistprodonline.com • www.overmindworks.com • www.psytribe.com • www.shivatrance.com • www.sidetrakkt.com • www.terrakroma.com • www.touchsamadhi.com • www.tranceamericana.org • www.tribes.tribe.net/mindoutpsyde • www.tribes.tribe.net/sgoa

CONTACTS

• allen2012@gmail.com • apollos_lute@hotmail.com • eg_bot@yahoo.com • eklypz@gmail.com • doctorspook@hotmail.com • ksoze604@hotmail.com

SHOPS

• CRYOFLESH.COM order@cryoflesh.com

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