On October 15, 1994, my friends who had first introduced me to electronic music a month earlier took me to a one-off event that featured ‘DJ Oli from Goa’. When I walked into the dance space that was illuminated and exuding an otherworldly atmosphere, the first thing I saw was a UV-reactive psychedelic batik...

Everyone who is part of the Goa/Psychedelic Trance scene has clear memories of their first experiences with this unique brand of music. Mine are inextricably linked with Olli Wisdom of Space Tribe, whose passing on August 23, 2021 is a massive loss to all of us in the scene. What follows is a detailed tribute outlining the formative...

  After being invited to submit a retro mix for the Old Dogs, New Tricks programme on Strummer Radio, I thought back to my first experiences in the scene as inspiration. My first years of attending Goa-style parties in mid-90s Tokyo, where I first encountered this genre of electronic music, were formative influences of which...

My first experience at the ZNA Gathering in 2015 was stellar. Several old-school artists whom I’d admired for decades were there to give performances, some of them (like Slinky Wizard and Crop Circles) performing live for the first time. My own morning set – between the two aforementioned artists (a bit of video here) –...

I’ve had multiple requests to record podcasts highlighting my experiences in the formative years of the ‘goa trance’ movement – so, here are the beginnings of that endeavour. Stay tuned for updates: Episode 1 Episode 2

Today is Record Store Day, and so I thought I would share the upload of the compilation which was the first Goa CD that I found back in late 1994. I had been dancing at one of the Tokyo ‘Odyssey’ parties and a friend leaned over and said ‘If you like this, you’ll probably like Dragonfly...

This film footage from a 1992 party in South Anjuna in Goa features DJ Antaro Ahrens, who would later create and run the brilliant label Spirit Zone. There are several things worth noting here, one being the wide array of musical styles presented, some works being more organic in nature, others being more overtly...

This week – the final Flashback Friday of 2016 – a beloved artist’s 1997 release that encapsulates the essence of our global movement: Shakta’s classic track ‘Spiritual Beings in Physical Bodies’. A versatile musician producing various styles that include breakbeat, world music, psychedelic trance, and more orchestral downtempo music under projects that include Kaya Project,...

This edition, two long-time producers and DJs with distinctive sounds in a classic early track: Kristian Thinning Andersen & Jean Borelli with their amazing Sheyba track ‘Into the Fourth Dimension’. A long-time DJ and producer of various styles, Kristian used the moniker Chris Anderson to get around a contract with Nova Zembla in the...

This week’s edition of Flashback Fridays features an artist with a particular flavour different from what was often heard in the more mainstream Goa sound: the great German producer Tim Schuldt. Already playing the guitar at the age of 7 and in metal and grunge bands starting at 12, Schuldt would later shift to the...