The Origins of Goa Trance

“I think the name [Goa trance] first cropped up in the early nineties in Germany. It was popular in Asia, too, in Goa where a lot of my friends were going and where I went. And also in Japan what they were playing in the clubs was trance. It was a whole bunch of different techno, industrial stuff. And I guess psychedelic trance really happened around 93 in London when a lot of people who were travelling in Goa came back, inspired by a particular vibe of music that was played there—and honed into that sound. It felt quite fresh at the time. And then the media got hold of it and christened it ‘Goa Trance.’ It became a very strong category of music, then, which has limited it ever since I think.”

– Nick Taylor, in an interview with Michael Gosney, 1998