After nearly two years of service to the global psytrance community, the time has come to announce the closure of the Ektoplazm BitTorrent tracker. Instead of using BitTorrent to distribute the free music featured on Ektoplazm, I now plan to host everything on the web for direct download. As a result, there is really no need for BitTorrent any more. Effective immediately, the tracker is closed for business! If you would like to know more, read on. Continue reading the rest of this post »

The Metapsychic Records saga reached its inexorable conclusion today: operations have now ceased at the influential netlabel. Formed in late 2006 to contribute to the old school Goa trance revival, Metapsychic Records earned widespread goodwill with the release of their debut compilation, Pyramidal Trancedence. This was followed by the release of Vox’s debut full-length album Innerpolarity and Pandemonium’s A Mad Scientists Night EP, both of which were very well-received.

Sadly, several public gaffes marred the release of Metapsychic’s second compilation, Human Hyperactivation. Although the label officials presented a united front, strife and turmoil were slowly consuming Metapsychic Records from within. The announcement made by the label provides a thorough overview of who was involved and what went wrong; read it here.

With the demise of Metapsychic Records comes the hope of renewal. The label representatives were tireless in discovering new talent from all over the globe, and it is my hope that their many artists will continue to produce beautiful music and share it with the world. At least we’ve been left with a parting gift: Mindsphere’s album Inner Cyclone.

Here’s a tip: Hujaboy and TechTonic recently leaked a pair of remixes that might be of interest to anyone with a fondness for mid-nineties “electronica” (as it was marketed back then) and an active appreciation of modern full-on psytrance. Hujaboy, as most readers may know, is one of the top producers working in Israel these days—just check out his latest album, Black Belt. TechTonic, on the other hand, is a newcomer from Tel Aviv. Together they have taken on two memorable anthems from the good old days: Orbital’s Remind and Setting Sun by the Chemical Brothers. Both have been retooled as effective dance floor hits in the 140-142 BPM range; don’t expect anything too deep and sophisticated! Hujaboy and TechTonic provided this disclaimer with their initial post: “Please take note that both tracks were not made for commercial use of any kind. They are just for fun and listening at home.” If you’re keen on checking out these cover versions they are available in WAV format; download them here.

Despite the immense amount of music released under the umbrella of psychedelic trance, the production of music videos has never been commonplace. The few that we now have access to by way of sites like Youtube are not, on the whole, very good. Perhaps this is because individual psytrance songs are not usually associated with any specific message; the meaning derived from the music is primarily one of the listener’s own making. This works well enough for pure sound, but I find that the visual medium demands a little more substance to maintain interest. Whatever the case, original psytrance music videos with a compelling conceptual scope are few and far between. They do exist, however! One such example would be the video for The People vs Hujaboy, originally released on Hujaboy’s self-titled debut in 2002. Flash is required:

If you’re curious to find out what Hujaboy is up to these days, check out the info sheet for his upcoming album Black Belt, or sink your teeth into Party Animals, one of the best releases from TIP World in recent years.

The Bonfire Blaze

Continue reading the rest of this post »

Psygarden has recently announced the launch of a parallel site intended to compliment their efforts at building a community space for visual artists. Psytracks.com, their new venture, is conceived as a home for unsigned artists to create a profile, share their music, and interact with fans and other artists The software in use is Jamroom, a neat little application that provides music charts and other fine features to help listeners discover fresh tunes. Although MySpace has become the standard for unsigned artists wishing to promote their work, Psytracks provides an underground alternative that is sure to blossom in the coming months. Sign up now during the beta phase to obtain 250Mb of space to work with! Once the site begins normal operations, the free account granted to new users will provide for 100Mb. This seems like a good initiative, so if there are any independent artists out there seeing a psychedelic community to join, visit Psytracks.com and see what it’s all about!

Youtube users have been incredibly resourceful in unearthing video content previously unavailable to anyone interested in the history of trance. The following clip, dated late 1996, is a brief Channel 4 (UK) news report detailing the emergence of the Goa trance phenomenon into the public sphere of awareness. Since this is British programming, the emphasis is on Dragonfly, TIP, Flying Rhino, and Return To The Source, with soundbites from trance pioneers Simon Posford, Youth, James Monro, Chris Deckker, and Raja Ram. Beware the “nostalgic” graphics!

Despite the age of this clip (now more than a decade old), it still serves as a reasonably well-articulated primer on what distinguishes the Goa trance movement from the rest of electronic dance music culture. By its very nature, the report provides an outsider’s perspective—one which would not necessarily match that of someone within the movement, then or now—but I think it manages to strike fairly close to the mark, for its time. It is interesting to reflect upon all that has changed over the years since those early days, and also to consider what elements of psychedelic trance culture have remained relatively unaltered over the years.

Thanks go out to Chechko for the find.

Calling all Facebook users! I’ve made it simple to share content posted on Ektoplazm with all your friends. Below each post you will find a row of icons that light up whenever you hover your mouse above. The Facebook sharing icon is the one on the very far left; click on it, and you can instantly post an item to your profile and mini-feed for your friends to enjoy. If you hear a free release or DJ mix you enjoy, share it with this new feature!

I have also opened an Ektoplazm group on Facebook that I would encourage existing users to join. News, updates, free music notices, event listings, and other goodies will be cross-posted to this group.

Not sure what this is all about? Facebook is a smartly designed social networking web site that has recently become wildly popular in some areas of the world, surpassing MySpace and other similar services to become the number one web site in Canada. Toronto (where Ektoplazm is based) has emerged as the Facebook capital of the universe; one in ten residents have an account! Privacy concerns (the dreaded Big Brother/CIA connection) have been raised, so I am not about to advocate that anyone join the site… but if you’re already a member, I hope you will find the new sharing feature useful!

Update: Check out the Ektoplazm and DJ Basilisk fan pages on Facebook.