Psychedelic Trance meets the Big Apple

A fresh territory

I was introduced to the trance scene in Tokyo in 1994 and knew right away that it would have a profound impact on my life. I did not quite realize that within a couple of years I would take the decision to move to London to try to be more involved with the scene. In 1996, after trips throughout Asia, I spent a few weeks in Vancouver at a friend’s place. I got a chance to see how ‘behind’ North America was in terms of the underground trance scene, and having played some music to a local DJ who had convulsions when he heard “Angelic Particles” and “The Great Spirit”. After some time in Toronto I went to Montreal to spend time with friends and relatives before going to London.

Syncronicity

I had no idea that one mishap would actually take me and my whole London experience in a new direction. I was in the Plateau area of Montreal to visit my friend Eric. I went to his place but there was no answer – very strange, as we had clearly set up the appointment and he was really reliable. I decided to walk around the area and check out some stores. I went into one record store and found that they had no trance records; they did, however, have flyers for a party in New York that caught my attention. Return to the Source in New York?! The Source was a group that I hoped to connect with in London… but the line-up in New York was a dream! The Green Nuns of the Revolution, Hallucinogen, Transwave, Doof, Mark Allen, and Tsuyoshi. This was a marathon trance event, and it would be taking place at a science museum overlooking the Statue of Liberty a mere 2 weeks after I arrived in London.

It was too late to rebook my ticket and I would be overstaying my welcome in Montreal. I went to London as planned, and after a week there, went to Return to the Source’s regular party at The Fridge in Brixton. I connected with Alison from Matsuri and mentioned that I was considering going to the New York party. She was going and said it would be a blast. She also invited me to a Matsuri underground party that would take place the following night. I went, and there met Veronika, Tsuyoshi’s wife. The party itself was a bit of a bust, but it was interesting to see this slightly sketchy side of London’s underground scene.

Big Apple, here I come!

I decided to check out tickets to New York and found one on Virgin Airways that was really cheap. I called up my friend Anne-Marie, an opera student at Julliard who I had gone to school with in Montreal. She was able to put me up for a couple of nights, and so that was taken care of. I also called up Shoji, a wild party kid I had met in Japan who was studying in Florida, and he decided to fly up for the party.

I had an uneventful flight – pretty usual, but felt really excited to be going. Standard arrival at JFK and a classic taxi ride back. Apparently on a $33 cab ride, a $5 tip wasn’t enough and the Italian driver cursed me out with some of the foulest language I had heard in ages. I was indeed in New York!

Had a great time with Anne-Marie, and also phoned up a guy I had met on the train in Europe a couple of years previously (I had spent most of the ride explaining that the train was bound for Switzerland, not Sweden). He seemed interested in the party, so on Saturday we met up and went to buy tickets. I connected by phone with Shoji and we arranged to meet that evening. We all went and met some other Japanese friends of his, and took the trip to the museum, which was on the other side of the water overlooking the Statue of Liberty.

In the beginning…

When we arrived, there was an enormous line-up. I was a little concerned, but we went to the front since we had tickets and got in pretty fast, shortly after 11. I had never been frisked to that extent and was quite surprised by the whole procedure – yes, I was in New York!

Just inside the door, I met up with Jun and the rest of Organix, who I had last seen in July in Tokyo, and Keisuke, who was an up-and-coming Matsuri DJ. Alison and Veronika had clothes stalls near the entrance and allowed me to keep my bags with them. Connected and changed, I scoped out the territory.

The museum was about four stories high, with a stunning open atrium that extended up that entire height, at the bottom of which was the main trance dance floor. The area was carpeted and quite well lit, with black lights having been added. There were free water fountains and clean washrooms, and unobtrusive security personnel stood at the sides of the walls watching the spectacle, not quite sure what to make of it (and becoming less sure of what to make of it as the night went on).

High energy

I missed Chris Deckker’s opening drumming, and the Green Nuns were getting things going full blast at 11 o’clock, going through a number of their old high-energy tunes. Perhaps not the best programming at the beginning of the party, but the crowd that was there certainly seemed to enjoy it. Other than a few Japanese partyers in Space Tribe clothing, there was not much of the ‘psychedelic’ vibe in the appearance of the crowd. There were lots of glowsticks and way more breakdancing than I expected.

This was something that was completely non-existent at parties in Asia and Europe. People would group in circles and watch each other dance…I was trying to figure out how this was being done with such a different style of music and so were some of them – throughout the evening it started to dawn on some dancers that the regular rhythm of trance does not quite lend itself to this sort of exhibitionism. The North American dancers certainly did make an impression on those visiting from overseas.

Next was Transwave, playing (if memory serves me correctly) most of their second album, Phototropic, which had not yet been released. The more metallic yet still high-energy music was very well received. Doof was next, delivering some of the tunes made famous on TIP – like Transwave, a few weeks before the record’s release. Things were heating up as Nick danced around shirtless with his long hair all over the place.

The Guv’nor

And then Hallucinogen came on. Simon Posford had always been my favourite artist, and this was the first time I heard him live, and I was anything but disappointed. He played a couple of older tracks (including a remix of Snarling Black Mabel), but several new ones, including the just-released Gamma Goblins and Deranger, and the mind-bending, heart-wrenching remix of Soothsayer, a track which was to provide me with many a good stomp over the years.

Here, the crowd really started recognizing that this music was something different. Their perceptions of how to handle a dancefloor shifted as the more hardcore trance folk took up a bit more space – the invitation to do so in a carpeted, spacious arena was impossible to refuse – and there was more than one circle of dancers that this fluoro’d-up partyer danced through in delight. I had somehow expected a little more antagonism from the crowd, but was thrilled to find that beneath their rather rough exterior, these kids (and kids they were, much younger than most partyers in other countries) were really friendly and curious. They were not afraid to ask questions (“Where’j’oo get that hat at?” was one that I will not soon forget) and inquire about this radically different scene.

Here come the DJs

As Simon’s amazing set drew to a close, Mark Allen started up behind the decks for what would be one of only two DJ sets of the party. Opening with his just-released Quirk track “Robotized”, he went from a more mechanical sounding brand of trance into some thoroughly kicking numbers, including a Satori track with the great sample “The real question is, can we make it back to Earth,” which had more than a stunning effect on the crowd.

And then, Tsuyoshi got behind the decks. Tsuyoshi was an idol of mine. I had heard him three times, once each year over the course of my partying in Japan (a period when he was a resident of London) and had always been amazed at the incredible intensity, focus, and energy of his sets. This set was perhaps the most incredible that I heard him play, as he managed to weave an incredible web of musical mayhem and take the party higher than the crowd had felt it could go. New, soon-to-be-released classic tracks progressed from Process’ “X-1” to the final build-up of “Psychopod”, with its gloriously twisted yet beautiful melody, and Tsuyoshi’s own belter “Boundless”.

The jewel in the crown

And then the crowning glory… Simon Posford went up with a DAT, and together with Tsuyoshi cued up a track he had written for the party but not played – “The Loin King”. As this track’s four-note anthem built up, the mood reached ecstatic heights, and as the final waves of its conclusion cascaded over the blissed-out crowd, amazement and tears were in the eyes of many. The cheers were awesome, with chants of “Tsu-yo-SHI, Tsu-yo-SHI” coming from a group of youngsters who had, until this party, been completely oblivious to his existence, and whose Japanese had been limited to ‘Toyota’, ‘Honda’, and ‘Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto’. The maestro was looking more than pleased, and justifiably so. He had helped a revolutionary musical genre break through to new territory – although he had not done it alone.

This party played a huge role in bringing psychedelic trance music to North America. It wasn’t the first party, but it was a landmark event in terms of scale, location, and timing. It certainly set in motion a number of connections for me that would positively impact my experience with the music and its proponents both in London and internationally.