Psychedelic Trance is a form of electronic dance music with strong Psychedelic and hippie counter culture influences. It first emerged in the very early nineties, and became most strongly associated with the Indian state of Goa. The popular tourist resort has been known as a hippie haven since the sixties, and the music first gained popularity among travellers from many different countries around the world at outdoor rave parties in Goa. Today it is most popular in Israel and Brazil, but also has strong followings in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Russia, Australia, South Africa, Mexico, France, Germany and Japan. Apart from in Israel and Brazil, it is generally less well-known and accepted than other forms of dance music. It is generally heard at outdoor raves and festivals, rather than in clubs, and is not often played alongside other forms of dance music.

Psychedelic Trance, as the name suggests, is music which attempts to convey the sensation of a Psychedelic experience or trance. Its most defining feature is it's driving, hypnotic sixteenth or thirty-second note patterns, almost always over a steady four/four kick drum. The speed of the music is generally 145 beats per minute; a steady stream of sixteenth notes at this speed is exactly the same as the alpha brainwave pattern of the human brain. It has been suggested that this is what lends such hypnotic, trance inducing quality to Psytrance, as well as to other rhythmic percussion music used in ancient trance rituals. As many Psy-heads say 'it's just impossible to get out of your head.'

The driving note patterns are most evident in the bass, and Psytrance is generally seen as even more bass driven than other forms of music. A track is usually seven or eight minutes long, although they may be much longer. They usually build from a slow, spacey beginning, gradually introducing layers of synth lines as the energy of the track builds. Chord changes are generally minimal, but there is a great deal of use of effects to make the synth sounds morph and mutate throughout the track.

The careful layering and building of sounds and elaborate effects make Psytrance one of the most skill-full and time-consuming genres to produce. Squelchy or squealing sounding effects are common, as are those imitating the sounds of voices, chants or gibbers. It is common for electronic sounds to mimic real ones, before morphing beyond recognition. Heavy metal guitar solos and riffs are also used, as are synths which imitate the sound of the electric guitar. There are many artists which fuse Psytrance with live music, besides guitars most often using flutes, dideridoos, percussion or wordless vocals. Lyrics are less common but are used by some more mainstream artists. However Psy makes heavy use of spoken word samples, often from films, and usually concerning mind expansion, madness, Psychedelic drugs, alien lifeforms and the like. Although Psy is driven by a four/four kickdrum rhythm breakbeats and polyrhythms are often incorporated into sections of tracks.

The overall effect is of an endless sea of sound, swirling, unrelenting, insinuating, constantly changing, throwing familiar elements in an unfamiliar setting. This is all in attempt to capture the feeling of a psychedelic experience: ordinary things change, ordinary rules do not apply, perceptions freely associate with each other and everything appears to be moving in rhythm. The best Psychedelic Trance can 'Trance you out,' causing the listener to be completely lost in the music and unable to resist dancing to the rhythm, in effect putting them in a 'Psychedelic Trance.'

The origin of Psytrance is difficult to trace, but is typically traced back to Acid House, Industrial Music and Psychedelic Rock in the late 80s. Since the 60s Goa has been a hippie haven, and all-night beach parties with amplified music have been popular there long before electronic dance music existed. At some point in the 80s the most popular style of music at these parties had become early electronic dance music such as Synthpop and Industrial.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the world in the late 80s Acid House music exploded dance music and raves around the world, produced by such artists as DJ Pierre, A Guy Called Gerald and The K.L.F. While the term 'Acid' is used to describe the distinctive sound of the Roland TB-303 synthesiser which is the staple of Acid House, it is generally seen to have a Psychedelic element.

The music focused on the repetitive caustic sound of the TB-303, modulated and manipulated over time, and which has been compared to the sound of Psychedelic rock guitar. Repetitive, hypnotic synth lines, morphing over the course of the track are an integral part of almost all Psytrance. Acid House and Acid influenced Techno are also seen as the precursors of other forms of Trance music, although at the time Psytrance and other forms of Trance music were not yet separate entities.

A precursor to the massive outdoor raves of the late 80s in England were the smaller free festivals which had continued since the 60s. Nomadic groups, calling themselves 'New Age Travellers' had been continuing to live the hippie dream, with a healthy dose of Celtic Pagan mysticism thrown in. Moving around the country, they organised free festivals where bands playing updated Psychedelic Rock grew popular.

One such band are The Ozric Tentacles, and were enormously influential. Their sound is almost entirely instrumental, weaving a complex pattern of virtuoso, brain-frazzling psychedelic guitar, squelching, bubbly synths, lush ambient textures, dub-reggae rhythms and ethnically infused flutes, chants and percussion. Their synth sounds heavily influenced Psytrance and they also set the sound for Ambient Psy and Fusions of Psytrance and live music.

A particular sub-genre of Industrial music, Electronic Body Music became popular both in Europe and in the beach parties of Goa at around this time. It focused on hard, driving electronic beats, although it also featured guitars and vocals, and its early innovators included Nitzer Ebb and Front 242. It is impossible to say who first pulled all of these threads together, but by the dawn of the 90s music which combined the driving beats of E.B.M., the pulsing, repetitive synths of Acid House, and Ozric Tentacle flourishes and textures was the music of choice for beach revellers in Goa, and it would soon be referred to as 'Trance Dance,' 'Trance,' 'Goa Trance' or 'Psychedelic Trance.'

There are many artists who are seen as important in the birth of Psytrance: Eat Static were among the first, and began as an off-shoot of the Ozric Tentacles, focusing on the more electronic, dance music influenced side of the Ozrics. Juno Reactor released some of the earliest Psytrance, although largely moved on to other styles later on. Goa Gil was one of the DJs who first popularised the music at Goan beach parties; he himself was part of the first wave of Psychedelia in the 60s. Another survivor from the Summer of Love, Raja Ram, formerly of the Psychedelic Rockers Quintiessence, was among the first to produce the music and was instrumental in bridging old-style Psychedelia with dance music culture. Other important early artists are Hallucinogen, Man With No Name, Cosmosis, Doof and Astral Projection. Among the earliest labels to release Psytrance were Tip (now called 'Tip World' owned by Raja Ram), Flying Rhino and Dragonfly.

Psytrance, like most dance music, is generally performed by a DJ playing pre-recorded tracks through a powerful sound system. Unlike most other dance music, Psytrance is very rarely played on vinyl: in Goa vinyl records warped in the sun and were too bulky to move to the remote location of the parties. Psy DJs use cds, or mix straight from a laptop. Psy sets are carefully structured, with light, upbeat or progressive music played during the day at festivals or early on in club nights, building up to harder, wilder, darker music as night progresses before turning back to the light, uplifting Psy with the coming of dawn.

Psytrance also has a strong emphasis on live performance. Psytrance, by its very nature, is very hard to recreate in a genuine live, improvised setting. Live performance generally takes the form of loops of pre-recorded material being mixed by a producer, with effects being applied to them and synthesisers being played over the top. Live instruments are also sometimes played over the top as well, and some groups, such as Morph and Highlight Tribe play Psytrance or Psytrance influenced music in a traditional live setting.

 

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