I wrote this on my previous blog, but it was a good one so I wanted to share it here.
Feb 3, 2020
I’ve been listening this week, and last week really, to a lot of Goa Trance. It hit me today: No one knows about it in the mainstream music world. So here is some enlightenment.
Here is what I know off the top of my head about Goa trance.
In the 1980’s, acid music was starting to become very popular. That was a style characterized by strong Tb-303 synth basslines originating in England. A lot of people who enjoyed that style either went on holiday in Goa, India, or they moved there completely. A lot of them were hippies, like Goa Gil, who was one of the very first DJ’s of the goa trance style of electronic trance music.
A lot of small parties formed on the beaches during the early 1990’s, and by 1992 electronic music had become a thing. I think they played music on casette or DAT, or something like that, first, because they didn’t have turn tables. But they would chop & splice acid house/trance and make it into something more psychedelic. And there you have the birth of goa trance.
Acts would soon spring up from all over the world by the mid to late 1990’s. Some of them were Astral Projection, Koxbox, Etnica, Pleiadians (who were also Etnica), Man With No Name, and Prana, to name a few. Goa trance is mostly characterized by rolling arpeggiated basslines and often times with a sort of ‘indian’ or ‘middle eastern’ melody. At least it was back in the old days, now the ‘neo goa’ has been made with modern instruments/software, so the style has changed a little bit. It still rolls heav on the acid sounds though, which is a definitive difference between Goa and regular psytrance. Sometimes Nitzhonot/Nitzhogoa can sound very similar to Goa trance, as well.
In 2001 I went to a goa party and had so much fun, so I went out and purchased a Various Artists album. The World of Goa vol. 2 and soon I purchased Vol 3 right after that. Instant fan.
My favorite track in this style of all time is Astral Projection’s “Kabbalah”, but it is also tied with Man With No Name’s “Teleport” (the original mix). These 2 tracks are amazing, and both came about in the mid 1990’s.
Apparently around this time in goa acid was free or next to free, so everyone was on acid which made the psychedelic sounds and visual accompaniments so much more visceral.
I wrote this blog entry merely to pimp my latest DJ mix, a goa trance delight.
https://www.mixcloud.com/aliennavelcord/goa-01/
If you like the mix, drop me a comment on mixcloud or on here and let me know what you like, or what I could do better for the next one!
An example of a Goa party from India circa 1992:
And an image of a new-skool style (neogoa) Goa party (psytrance party now):
If I missed anything please let me know, drop a comment about it.
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