Artist Recommendation: Globular

Globular was recommended to me on Last.fm. From looking at his profile I expected just another artist starting out, nothing spectacular, but nothing bad either. Globular is on the plus side though, his music is really great, especially for fist releases. He is basically what you would get if you took Shpongle’s first album, mashed it together with Ott’s music and added a pinch of darkness.

I really like the dub vibe on both albums. It is not too dominant like it happens with Ott sometimes, it just blends in very nicely. Most of his tracks are pretty long, probably longer than psychill average. They develop slowly, get you in the mood and do their magic. It surely isn’t the most complicated music in the genre, it’s pretty basic, but the production quality and the mood created stand out. I really didn’t expect a project like this to have such great samples and overall quality, great job.

The minus might be that some might say they have heard this before. It is true Globular is nothing new, sound similar to artists that might have influenced them, but it is still a real treat to hear his music. Plus after just eight tracks released we can expect much more to come and then we can see what direction is his music going and see how it’s changing.

Quick reviews of the two releases:

Colours Of The Brainbow: Dark and mysterious is how I can describe it. Lots of Indian influences, great samples, perfect for just chilling out. 95%

In Formation: A little lighter sounding than “Colours…” The tracks are more uplifting, and psychedelic. Indian influences also present. 92%

You can download Colours Of The Brainbow for free and legally at Ektoplazm. Click to redirect.

A full length album is on the way as well. Globular is what psychedelic chillout and dub are all about and I can safely say he is the most promising new artist in these genres. Look out for news about this project here and spread the word about Globular!

Links:
Last.fm
Facebook
Youtube
MySpace

Artist Profile: Sebastian James Taylor

For those who don't recognize him by his real name he is also known as Digitalis, Shakta, Kaya Project, Hibernation and also for his collaboration work, most notably as Angel Tears with Lior Miller and Momi Ochion. If you still don't know who am I talking about then you're missing out. Seb Taylor is one of the most versatile electronic music artists, often compared to Simon Posford, but unfortunately not as well known His music styles range from pure goa trance through chillout with world music influences to IDM.

Taylor started out in the early 90s producing goa trance under the alias Digitalis. Sometimes described as breakbeat goa or psybreaks his work as Digitalis is pretty unique stuff, often being pure breakbeat. He's still producing under this alias with the last EP released in 2008. In 1996 he started his pure goa project for which he is probably best known, Shakta. With tracks like Silicon Trip or Lepton Head Part III he guaranteed himself a place in the goa trance history. His sound with this alias is pretty hard and heavy sounding goa. Around the same time he also released as Somaton, also goa, but in a little lighter melodic form. It never gained as much popularity as Shakta.

But even though he is an amazing psytrance/goa producer what impressed me the most are his chillout productions. He is one of the core members of Angel Tears which started out in 1998. Wonderful chillout, with calming melodies, amazing flute playing and hypnotizing vocals. Lots of indian, arabic and african influence here. Some tracks have a bit faster beat, but overall Angel Tears offers very calming, meditative music. We hear a lot of authentic instruments like indian sitars, arabic violins, tibetan flutes etc. After Angel Tears, Kaya Project followed. Pretty similar by definition, but with a more natural, "dry" sound. It's hard to explain what makes Kaya Project unique, but just give the latest album a listen and you'll know what I mean. Really passionate music. Just when you would think Seb Taylor can't do any more styles he released an IDM album as Hibernaion. Well maybe not pure IDM, but very different from his other chillout output. You can hear some influences from the days of Angel Tears, but it's something completely new. Let's hope that's not the last he has to offer as Hibernation.

In the sixteen years of producing he released 13 albums, 9 solo and 4 with Angel Tears, and numerous EPs. Everything I heard so far is just amazing music and he keeps on evolving. And what's most important he hasn't gone commercial. We can hear passion in his music and as long as he is passionate about what he does we can only wait for another masterpiece.

Solo Albums:
Somaton - Future Memories (1997)
Shakta - Silicon Trip (1997)
Digitalis - The Third State (1998)
Shakta - Enlightened Ape (1999)

Shakta - Feed The Flame (2004)
Kaya Project - Walking Through (2004)
Kaya Project - Elixir (2005)
Kaya Project - And So It Goes (2008)
Hibernation - Some Things Never Change (2008)

Collaboration Albums:

Angel Tears - Angel Tears (1998)

Angel Tears - Angel Tears Vol. 2 (2000)

Angel Tears - Angel Tears Vol. 3 (2002)

Angel Tears - Angel Tears Vol. 4 - Vision (2005)

For his complete discography go to Discogs. He has many more aliases and collaborations with only a few tracks for compilations or one or two EPs. I only covered the most notable projects.

Links:

Discogs

MySpace

Kaya Project - Official

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.

MySpace - Last.fm - YouTube - Official - Discogs

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.

Last.fm - Official - Discogs

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.

MySpace - Last.fm - Official - Discogs

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.

MySpace - Last.fm - Official - Discogs

More artists:

Artifact303 (Romania) - MySpace - Last.fm - Discogs
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.fm - Discogs
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.fm - Discogs
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.