Today’s Flashback Friday features another incredibly important project on the psychedelic trance scene that was active in the formative years of the movement: the Italian group Etnica.

Originally consisting of four members – Max Lanfranconi, Maurizio Begotti, Carlo Paterno, and Andrea Rizzo – who had known each other since the 1980s, Etnica released their first EP in 1994 and their first album the following year (a rarity entitled ‘The Juggling Alchemists Under The Black Light’ that will be reissued by Dat Records).

Like many projects in the early years of the scene, Etnica had a distinctive tonal palette while still producing tracks with a variety of different moods, from slower stormers to full-power uplifting numbers, all with a consistently other-worldly atmosphere.

‘Screaming Butterfly’, from their 1996 Blue Room album ‘Alien Protein’ (speaking of other-worldly atmospheres), is a slower track with a strong rhythmic pulse and declamatory motif that gives the work a distinctly tribal feel, punctuated by a vocal undercurrent with other voice-like choral patterns and minor-key lines that together add a mystical element to the track.

Max and Maurizio continue to make music together today, with a style that continues to evolve while still sustaining their cosmic flavour – full-power interplanetary dance music for the ages!