Oct 6, 2009

The Rebirth of Goa.

The golden age of goa trance is widely considered to be between 1993-1999, the most known artists being Man With No Name, Hallucinogen, Etnica, Transwave, Cosmosis etc. After that the genre pretty much died. Psytrance took over with acts like Infected Mushroom gaining huge popularity and that made many goa producers turn to psytrance or psychill and later on full-on etc. Very few goa albums were released after 2000 and most of them had a lot psytrance influence. Goa was basically forgotten by most producers up until about 2005 when a lot of new names showed up with new goa compilations and albums. The leading label in all this has got to be Suntrip with 10 full length albums released since 2004, several compilations and EPs. Many artists also started releasing the music online on their own. I'll do a small overview of artists from the "second wave" of goa.

New artists:

Filteria (Sweden) - Probably the most famous "neo-goa" artist with three full length albums released since 2004. He produces beautiful melodic goa, a little bit darker compared to most Suntrip releases. His latest album is, in my opinion, the best goa release since Khetzal's Corolle.



Khetzal (France) - One of the best new goa artists. Corolle is definitely one of the finest examples of the new wave albums. Just like Filteria's, his tracks are full of swirly melodies, but his music is generally light, nothing heavy sounding. Since 2005 he only released a few tracks which appeared on various compilations, but lets hope he has more to offer.


Afgin (Israel) - Perfect representation of new goa. His albums are lighter as well, and he sounds a bit more old school compared to other artists. He moved to Suntrip after releasing his first album on his own. A bit cheesy at times, but not in a bad way.

MySpace - Last.fm - Official - Discogs

Goasia (Serbia) - This duo makes very powerful, pounding goa. A little less crazy than Filteria for example, but extremely atmospheric. Their tracks actually sound scary at times. I heard new album rumors, but so far nothing has been confirmed.




Mindsphere (Turkey) - Inner Cyclone is his only album so far, but what an album. Probably the most powerful sound out of all neo-goa albums I heard so far. He has confirmed he's making a new album, but there is no official release date yet.

MySpace - Last.fm - Discogs

Radical Distortion (Greece) - Another good project. The BPM is a little lower here for the most part. Besides their three albums they made many compilation tracks as well. New album just released on Suntrip on October 2nd so come back to read my review ;)

MySpace - Last.fm - Official - Discogs

Merr0w (France) - One of the most recent artists with his first album released this year. His style is a bit different from the other neo goa artists, but still amazing stuff. Worth checking out.


More artists:

Artifact303 (Romania) - MySpace - Last.fmDiscogs
E-Mantra (Romania) - MySpace - Last.fm - Discogs
Lost Buddha (Portugal) - Last.fm - Discogs
Aerosis (United States) - MySpace - Last.fm - Official - Discogs
Travma (Turkey) - MySpace - Last.fmDiscogs
Goalien (Serbia) - MySpace - Last.fm - Official - Discogs
Liquid Flow (Croatia) - MySpace - Last.fm - Discogs

First wave artists still producing goa:

Chi-A.D. - MySpace - Last.fm - Official - Discogs
Ra - MySpace - Last.fmDiscogs
California Sunshine - MySpace - Last.fm - Discogs
Cosmosis - MySpace - Last.fm - Official - Discogs

There is a few "stars", but the rest remains virtually unknown with only 2 or 3 tracks released on compilations or a single EP. Only a handful of full-length albums have been released since 2005, but there is a lot of compilations (often combined with psytrance tracks) and more is being released each year. The new stuff from old producers is often very close to psytrance which can't be said about most of the artists from my first list. So, for the fans of Dimension 5, Etnica and similar goa acts that never really trusted the new guys it's time to catch up because they are really up there with the old masters.

I'll make a neo-goa playlist on YouTube soon and post it up here so come back soon if you want to give a listen to it here before buying or downloading.

2 comments:

  1. Unfortunately the your called FIRST WAVE artists dont even get near the ID GOA. though i must say the new comers are far more better then what the old days had, maybe not the perfect parties that used to be but still they do have a lot of good equipments and better sound.

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  2. So who would you say is even near the ID goa? I know Hallucinogen or Man With No Name are not pure goa, but they are widely considered as the most popular goa artists.

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