Goa Trance: A Psykotropic Trip Through Tribedelic

Transcapes
By Fred Cole and Michael Hannan

Abstract
This article explores the phenomenon of Goa trance, a form of electronic dance party music originating on
the beaches of Goa, on the Indian subcontinent. The term "Goa trance" and the range of alternative terms
for Goa trance are discussed. The history of the Goa scene is examined in a number of stages. The
geographical area itself has had a fascinating history which is briefly summarised. Following that, the early
history of the Goa beach scene in the 60s and 70s is described, before a more detailed examination of the
heyday period in which the Goa trance style was developed. The decline of the Goa trance scene in Goa
itself is also discussed. Since Goa trance was developed in the Goa area by an international community of
DJs and recording artists from Europe, Australasia and other parts of Asia such as Japan, its dispersal back
to these parts of the world is explored. The current commercialisation of the style is described and the main
recording artists, DJs and record labels are identified.
The second part of this article is concerned with analysing some of the stylistic characteristics of Goa
trance. The aesthetic of the idiom is touched on before a more detailed treatment of aspects of musical style
and party practice. This is informed by analysis of some of the recent recorded repertoire, as well as
observations made while attending Goa trance parties.
The data for the historical and much of the descriptive material for this article comes from two main
sources. The first consists of interviews conducted by Fred Cole with a number of the important DJs and
artists who worked in Goa during the main period. These include Ray Castle, Steve Psyko and Fred Disko.
A second source of data is the World Wide Web. Many web sites are devoted to Goa Trance, including
home pages of important DJs such as Goa Gil.

Terminology
In the last decade of dance music there have been hundreds of terms coined to describe the main genres and
the various subgenres of musical production. Judging by its use in the dance music press and on the dozens
of WWW pages devoted to the genre, the term Goa trance has achieved some level of currency. In his 1996
interview, Ray Castle (in Cole, 1996a) stated that "it 's only in the last two years we've started hearing these
words 'Goa trance'... before that I used to call the parties 'Trance Dance'." Steve Psyko (in Cole 1996b)
believes that the term was invented by the English, because they "always want to put a label on something
like that". Further more, as with punk, "they have stereotyped Goa trance; they have decided that Goa
trance is just one kind of music." As this article proceeds it will become clear that one of the striking
characteristics of the music played in Goa since the early 1980s, is its stylistic diversity. None the less, the
contemporary recorded music marketed under the label of Goa trance or some variant of it, may indeed
have certain definable stylistic characteristics. This theory will be examined below under the heading
'Musical Style'.
The currency of terminology is also subject to waves of fashion. One UK party promoter on the Goa
Trance mailing list (Barron, 1996), claimed in October 1996 that the 'G word' is now so unfashionable that
"if you went into a record label over here (i.e. Dragonfly, TIP, Flying Rhino etc.) and called the music Goa
Trance you would be laughed at"; and furthermore that, if you used the term on a party flyer, no-one would
attend the party. He suggests "Psychedelic Trance" as a more appropriate term since most of the music is
being made in the UK, Australia, Israel and the US, not in Goa. Curiously, though, the party advertised in
his message refers to "Psychoactive Trance". There is some support for the term "psychedelic trance" from
other sources including the BooM! Records web page (1996), Hugh James Sharpe (1996a), and Ray Castle
(in Cole 1996a), who also has a predilection for the term "psychotropic trance" (Castle, 1996b). Both Castle
(1996b) and Sharpe (1996a) also use the elided form, "Psy-Trance". Other terms used by Castle include
"fluro" (based on the use of fluorescent lights and images), "altered state", "Goa techno trance", "electronic
trance" and "acid techno" (1996b, 1996b, 1996a, 1996c, and in Cole, 1996a). Sharpe (1996a) uses the term
"Ambient Goa", and Derek Jordan (1996), "Ambient Goa trance"; although it is not clear whether they are
referring to Goa Trance or to a [more] ambient variety of it. Mat Joyce (1996), a Goa Trance mailing list
subscriber, has ventured a few other alternative genre names such as "Uplifting", "High Energy", and
"Alien", but these suggestions were rejected by two other subscribers, including Hugh James Sharpe
(1996b).
Added to the possible confusion created by this plethora of terms, is the frequent association with other
established genres such as techno, acid trance, and acid house. Sharif (1996) suggests, for example, that
"among many of its devotees, [Goa trance] is considered to be the purest form of acid house music."

History of Goa Trance

The area of Goa, situated approximately half-way down the western coastline of the southern part of India,
has had a colourful history of occupation. From the tenth century until early in the sixteenth century it
vacillated between Hindu and Muslim rule. In 1510 it was taken by the Portuguese whose presence lasted,
except for a few short periods of occupation by the British from 1797-98 and 1802-13, until 1961. In that
year the Indian Army took possession. The presence of the Portuguese for 450 years had a strong effect on
the cultural life of Goa, clearly evident in the present era by the many Catholic churches and monasteries
and other characteristic architecture, but also reflected in the cuisine and the arts.
The multicultural history of Goa is an important background to the development of the Goa beach party
scene in the early 1960s. According to Ray Castle (in Cole, 1996a, p. 9), Goa is an unique part of India
with a "special vibe" related to the Portuguese background. He sees the hippies who flocked to Goa as the
"new colonists", and the locals as being as tolerant of their occupation as they were of the Portuguese. For
Castle (1996a, p. 3), the general attraction of India for the hippies and other misfits was both to its
spirituality and to its hashish, which was legal up to the mid 1970s, at which time the laws were changed
with pressure from the U.S.
The available documentation of the early history of the Goa beach parties is scant. Boyd (1996) states that
the hippies descended on Goa in 1968, "to sleep on the beaches, partake of the marijuana weed and
generally try to 'get their head together'." Richard Ahlberg (1996), quoted on the Goa Trance Mailing List,
adds that:

About thirty years ago a man named eight-finger Eddie and other ex-pats... found a perfect beach...
beautiful warm friendly villagers... and a paradise-like haven in which they could... with the utmost
freedom... enjoy a life free from all distractions... these people started to have "parties" on the beaches or in
the jungles... eating psychedelics and dancing to the music of the time.

The music of the time was, of course, nothing like the music that has come to be known as Goa trance.
Boyd (1996) suggests the Grateful Dead. Ollie Olsen (in Cole, 1996d), who has collaborated with the
pioneering Goa trance DJ, Fred Disko, recalls Disko telling him that around 1980 the staple beach party
repertoire still consisted of the Doors, Neil Young, the Eagles and perhaps some Pink Floyd. The name
Disko was given to him because he was one of the first to introduce electronic dance music to the scene.
Another pioneer Goa trance DJ, Goa Gil, who was "one of the originators of the famous Goa full moon
parties", played live with a band, and also DJed in Goa through the 1970s. When, at the beginning of the
1980s, he grew tired of the "rock/fusion/reggae" music he was spinning, he introduced "the first post-punk
experimental electronic dance music coming from Europe, the neue deutsche welle, electronic body music"
(Gil, 1996). Ray Castle (1996a, p. 3) supports this view, that "Goa techno trance actually originated from
hard line, electronic body music, groups like Nitzer Ebb, Front 242, Frontline Assembly, as well as from
Eurobeat."
The international character of the Goa scene seems to be a key to the development of the genre of Goa
trance. Fred Disko (in Cole 1996c, p. 8) mentions French and Italian DJs, specialising in electronic music,
Australian DJs playing rock, and others playing only South American styles. Disko, also believes that the
classical music of India played a strong part in the development of Goa trance:
If you go some place where you have 10 tablas, six sitars, some woman is quoted singing. After a while it
goes so fast, you know you just suddenly fly, like a trip. The trance is not coming only from the Goa trance
music; [it] is already there, everywhere. (p. 8)
Another international aspect of the Goa beach party scene was the variety of events. Disko (in Cole 1996c,
p. 7) remembers one night with two completely different full moon parties on different beaches: one
"electronic bom bom bom", the other "reggae, very cool". Disko's observations are supported by New
Zealander, Ray Castle (in Cole 1996a, p. 7), who refers to German, Dutch, French and Swiss DJs in Goa, as
well as to Goa Gil, an American. A few of these people were in Goa primarily to collect music from other
DJs, musicians and party participants. The collecting and exchange of music was a central practice of the
Goa trance community, as Ray Castle (p. 7-8) explains:

The freaks and the hippies used to collect the most mind-boggling psychedelic dance music they could find
and bring it to India and play it at these parties, and we used to exchange this music... In the old days we
used to call it "special music". It was very obscure and it was very hard to get your hands on. You were a
real connoisseur or collector, and Goa was a kind of fraternity of obscure, weird psychedelic music
collectors getting together, getting stoned, and getting off on the music; and sharing each other's music,
exchanging it, copying it, and then making parties out of it.

The quest for "weird psychedelic music" was inspired and facilitated by the use of LSD, the drug which
has become intimately linked to Goa trance parties. One of the extraordinary features of the Goa beach
parties in their heyday was the usual availability of free "acid punch" (Castle, in Cole, 1996a; Chambers,
1996).
The process of absorbing unusual music from diverse international sources often had a liberating, mind-
broadening impact on those involved. Steve Psyko (in Cole, 1996b, p. 3), for example, was inspired by the
"innovative and strange music" of some Japanese musicians living opposite him in Goa, forcing him to
reassess his musical aesthetic. Castle (1996a) has reinforced this idea, claiming that the international nature
of Goa "flushed out parochial attitudes and tastes."
Particular tastes had, however, developed among the Goa trance DJs in the late 1980s, and these
influenced the practices of preparing music for parties. Ray Castle (in Castle/DJ Krusty 1996a) has
described the process of remixing tracks to make them more aesthetically suitable:
There were always too many insipid vocals, and often tracks were too short. So we used to use Sony
walkmans--no DATs then --to cut up the track, edit it, and stitch it together in various versions to make
custom Goa mega mixes for the party.
Until DAT machines became common in the early 1990s, the predominant method of playback was using
cassette decks. Playing vinyl recordings was never a realistic practice in the heat of Goa as the vinyl would
easily warp. Castle (in Cole, 1996a) remembers DJ "Sven Vath coming to Goa with all his records wanting
to be the techno pope of India, but he couldn't do it". Castle advises that "you've got to adapt to tape decks
and DAT machines to pull off these parties and play for eight hours."
Paul Chambers (1996), a British Goa Trance artist now based in Byron Bay, Australia, recalls that on his
first visit to Goa in the 1985/86 party season that all the music was electronic. He recognised only a small
selection: artists such as Frankie Goes To Hollywood, Dead or Alive, and Portion Control; the rest was
unknown to him. He was particularly impressed by the rapid electro basslines in the tracks he heard, but
when he returned to England in January 1986 he discovered that "the real Goa sound proved very elusive to
find and hear [in England]. The nearest was on certain b-sides of 12 inch singles and dub mixes."

On his return to Goa in 1986/87 he discovered he recognised more of the music being played, but was
still unfamiliar with most of it. In both these seasons he remembers the parties involving a maximum of 200
people. A typical party involved: a PA, a few coloured lights, some black light, and occasionally some
psychedelic banners, but not much. There was one dance floor and the music normally started around
midnight. Local Indian ladies would set up mats to one side selling cakes, biscuits and chai. There were no
police hassles at the parties, though there were many stories about police busting people for drugs and
having to pay backsheesh (a bribe) to get away.
Ray Castle, who was to become one of the most influential Goa DJs, first went to Goa in 1987 as a partier,
"dancing [his] head off". The following year he returned and did some DJing but he was more involved in
"orchestrating" parties: choosing sites, hiring equipment, and finding people to do the artwork, the lighting
and the DJing. He began to organise extended parties including one which went for three days and two
nights with "non-stop doof" . In the 1989 season he did more DJing because he felt that some of the DJs he
had used were not playing enough "challenging" music. The staging of the parties was very informal and
spontaneous. Permission from the police was often secured by offering a little backsheesh of 50-100 rupees
or some beer. (Castle, in Cole, 1996a, p 8)
The police, however, started to crack down on the parties in 1990, but the atmosphere relaxed briefly for
the 1991/92 season, generally regarded as the last important year of Goa parties. Steve Psyko (in Cole,
1996b) sums up the situation:
When I was in Goa in 1991 --that was one popular year-- there was a party every two days. There had been
no parties for one or two years because of one or two problems with the police. Suddenly the parties were
on again; everything was in full scale... suddenly the feeling became something that that everyone wanted
to identify with... Suddenly everyone wanted to identify with the feeling coming from Goa.

By this time the size of the parties had increased dramatically and had become even more international.
Paul Chambers observed many Japanese and Israeli people, and estimated that the parties had between 500
to 1500 people and were held on average every three days. The parties were staged using "fluro light and
some coloured globes, with some fluro banners" (Chambers, 1996). Both Chambers and Psyko (in Cole,
1996b, p. 7) have identified Ray Castle as the main DJ of the 1991/92 season. According to Chambers,
Castle was involved in almost every second party, and the standard of the music being played was the best
he had heard anywhere up to that time. Chambers decided to leave Goa, however, after the police closed
down a big Ollie Wisdom party, causing a "widespread paranoia about police hassles" to develop.
Ray Castle (in Cole 1996a, p. 9) claims that the Goa party scene declined because it became too popular
and too visible:
The authorities became embarrassed by it... it was getting slammed in the West, about it being a drug
haven... and the Indian government were courting tourists and they wanted to bring more up-market tourists
to Goa. It never really worked because Goa doesn't really have the infrastructure to entertain those people.
The beach was a bit polluted; it was only good for the hippies and freaks. So they kept using the drug thing
and other things, and political chaos; so that every second year the party's been off in Goa. And then the
mafia moved in and wanted more backsheesh. It's more expensive to put on a party in Goa than it is in
London or in any big city in the world now. It's lost it's innocence- the locals have become a bit perverted
by the money.
International pressure was also a factor. Boyd (1996) cites a report that the "Israeli government put
pressure on the Goa authorities to clamp down on the beach parties- it seems that a sizeable contingent of
Israeli soldiers on R 'n' R in the area, returned home unfit for army service".
Apart from police intervention at parties, there were many reports of burglary, mugging and police
harassment of the foreign visitors to the Goa trance scene.

Goa Trance in Other Locations

What has become known as Goa trance, has, especially since about 1990, spread widely to other places
through the movement of DJs, artists and partiers, through commercialisation in clubs, and by the release of
recordings. The DJs from Goa have been performing Goa trance sets in other countries throughout the
history of Goa Trance. Fred Disko did parties in Nepal in 1985 and Thailand in 1987. Ray Castle did a
series of trance dance parties in Europe from 1987 to 1991 under the name of Pagan Productions. He has
also worked a lot in Japan and has stated (in Cole 1996a, p. 9) that the main circuit for Goa trance since the
late 1980s has been Tokyo-Goa-Amsterdam. Steve Psyko, who currently spends six months of each year
recording in Sweden, recalls (in Cole 1996b, p. 7) attending some Goa Trance parties in Sydney in the late
1980s, and he started making them himself in Melbourne in 1991. Despite the fact that an identifiable
musical style or range of stylistic approaches to music played at Goa trance parties has existed at least since
the mid 1980s, Ray Castle (in Cole 1996a, p. 9) believes "it wasn't until 1991 or 1992 that people went
back to Europe, or Japan, or even Australia, and began making music specifically for psychedelic trance
parties".
Goa-style parties and music making have emerged in subtropical Australia, specifically in the alternative
lifestyle region of Northern New South Wales. The scene is focused on Byron Bay which, like Goa and
Kathmandu, is one of the World's most popular backpacker tourist destinations. Ray Castle (1996b), who
lives nearby at Surfers Paradise, has described the cultural mix and the unique parties of the region:

The Byron Beach scene is a split between surfer, newage-sanyassin-yuppies, bohemian spiritualists and
wholelistic-counterculture misfits, many who have drifted in from the Asia traveller circuit or are
completely disenfranchised from urban culture. This psychotropic, rainbow belt, east edge, part of Aussie
has been notorious for its Goa-style, tribedelic meltdown, beach and forest parties over the last few years.
It's the full sunrise bliss experience in pure, untainted nature, in an extremely mellow, tolerant, country
environment. There are many DJs, artists and musicians living in this bubble, enclave. There are starting to
be many fusion, feral/techno groups like Trance Goddess and Curried Grooves. The parties are often quite
ritualistic with much fire twirling and didgeridoo huffing and puffing, and the participants sport the most
off-the-planet hairdos. A truly unique antipodean alternative, electronic music scene is mutating quite
ingenuously here with its own idiosyncratic, exotic flavour to the freakquency tweakages and style of party
production. An example of which would be the PsyHarmonics double compilation, "Dancing To The
Sound Of The Sun.

The true spirit of the Goa Trance phenomenon is kept alive in these Australian events which are often
non-commercial in their operation, in contrast with Goa parties in Europe. The outdoor atmosphere of a
subtropical beach or forest is also impossible to achieve in Europe. None the less one of the main Goa
trance events in Europe is an outdoor event, the Voov party. This grew out of the Amsterdam trance dance
parties that Ray Castle was involved with from 1987 to 1991, and it was inaugurated in 1992. The locations
change but are always outdoors on a farm or other suitable space. Ray Castle returned to Europe to DJ at
the 1996 Voov festival near Hamburg to a crowd of around 10,000.
The European venues are otherwise indoor. There is a London indoor party called Return to the Source
held in an old opera theatre but mostly Goa trance nights are held in clubs. Richard De Souza (1996) who is
cynical about the validity of the term Goa trance, is equally disparaging of the clubs that have emerged:

The only link between trance music in the UK and the Indian state of Goa is that some DJs and people
partaking of this activity have vacationed in Goa and may have attended the famed beach parties in Goa. In
an effort to recreate some of the "magic" they experienced at A BEACH PARTY, they renamed some clubs
in London and Manchester as Goan Trance clubs.

Melbourne-based Goa DJ Steve Psyko (in Cole 1996b, p. 6) maintains that Goa raves in European cities
are now attended by "a very mainstream crowd", and that he and his friends are dissatisfied with the way
the genre has been stereotyped and commodified. Psyko claims that "the English... have decided that Goa
trance is just one kind of music." This he believes is very "un-Goa", that "in the beginning the feeling from
Goa music is... anything goes." (p. 8). The current popularity of Goa Trance raises other aesthetic and
cultural issues for Psyko:

The parties are made for money... the music is made for money.... It reflects the Western mentality. What
attracted me in the beginning of electronic music was that it didn't reflect the Western mentality. I am not
really interested in any music that reflects that... where consumption is the basis of the mentality. (p. 6)
Melbourne-based DJ and recording artist, Ollie Olsen (in Cole 1996d, p. 8), has provided some clues as
to how this commercialisation has occurred. He claims to have introduced Goa trance recordings to Paul
Oakenfold, a very popular DJ, remixer, artist and label owner on the current English dance music scene.
Oakenfold began to spin Goa Trance recordings, and the style received a real boost with the presentation of
his "Full Moon Party" Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1. (Clubdub/Cybernia webpage) He also arranged to
have some of the small label Goa recordings reissued on his influential dance label, Perfecto, creating a
sublabel, Perfecto Fluoro, dedicated to Goa Trance. The fact that the music was then available on Perfecto
legitimated it for other big-name DJs in England.
Olsen (in Cole, 1996d, p. 6) has noted the commercial success of certain artists and labels:

In England in the last year the trance thing has got really big... bands like T.I.P. and their label... becoming
very big over there. Man With No Name is like the commercial end of the Goa thing... but he sells
incredible amounts of records now. I think that every 12" that Tsuyoshi puts out he's probably selling 5000
now, which has grown remarkably, and getting stronger all the time.
Sharif (1996) reports that "Goa trance has now become the latest vibe of city clubland- with tracks like
Robert Miles' Top 5 hit "Children" signalling its march into the mainstream". He also quotes French DJ
Yohann as saying that the Goa trance "craze [is] dominating house parties, pulling more than 4000 people
to each rave".

Artists, DJs and Record Labels

Below are lists of Record labels, artists and DJs who are currently commercially active in Goa Trance.
Although containing substantial numbers of names the lists are far from complete.
Labels include Dragonfly (UK), Perfecto Fluoro (UK), Flying Rhino (UK), Blue Room Released (UK),
Matsuri Productions (Japan), TIP Records (UK), M Track Records (The Netherlands), Psychic Deli
Records, Symbiosis (UK), kk Records (Belgium), Krembo Records (Israel), PsyHarmonics (Australia),
Trust in Trance Records (Israel), Orange Records (The Netherlands), Fairway Records (France), BooM
Records (The Netherlands) Orbit Records, Joking Sphynx Records (France), Platipus Records (UK),
Pyramid, Harthouse (Germany), Eye Q (Germany), Phantasm, 23% Records (US), Celtic, Transient, POF
(Germany), Tunnel Records (Germany), Tokyo Techno Tribe Records (Japan)

Artists include Doof, Kox Box, Prana, Hallucinogen (Simon Posford), Astral Projection, The Infinity
Project, Man With No Name, Green Nuns of the Revolution, Juno Reactor, Etnica, Total Eclipse, Slinky
Wizard, Bass Chakra, Kode 4, Black Sun, Insectoid, Boris, Rhythmystec, Sonic Sufi, Masaray, Mantaray,
Disco Volante, Cosmosis, Joking Sphinx, Technossomy, Tomahawk, Transwave, The Auranaut, Sirius 2,
Arcana, Shaktra, Miranda, SYB Unity Nettwerk, The Pollinator, Les Diaboliques, Genetic, Ayahusca,
Reflecta, Phreaky, Orichalcum, Synchro, Kuro, Johann, Witchcraft, Transwave, Psychaos, Voodoo People,
Mandra Gora, Voodoof, Einstein, Paul Jackson, Masa, Ree Kitajiima, Har-el Prussky, Nordreform Sound
System, Robert Miles, Kurusaki, X-tron
DJs include Paul Oakenfold (UK), Goa Gil (USA), Ray Castle (New Zealand), Steve Psyko (Australia),
Fred Disko (France), Richard Ahlberg (Sweden), Hugh James Sharpe, James Munro, Dominic Lamb, Sven
Vath (Germany), DJ Yohann (France), Tsuyoshi (Japan), DJ Lestat (France) Sven Dolise (Germany) Planet
B.E.N. (Germany), DJ Kuni (Japan), 333 (USA), Mark Allen (USA)
Many DJs are also involved in recording tracks for commercial issue often in collaboration with other
artists or DJs. For example Ray Castle is a member of Rhythmystic, Masaray, Insectoid and Mantaray,
collaborating with different people for each project. Another good example is Psyko Disko which is a
collaboration between two DJs (Fred Disko and Steve Psycho) and a musician/DJ (Ollie Olsen).

The Aesthetics of Goa Trance:

Goa Gil (1996) draws the link between the Goa trance phenomenon and the revival of awareness in ancient
tribal practices. He claims to be attempting to "use trance music and trance dance experience to set off a
chain reaction in consciousness", believing that "since the beginning of time mankind has used music and
dance to commune with the spirit of nature and the universe". His aim as a Goa artist is to "[redefine] the
ancient tribal ritual for the 21st century."
Like Goa Gil, Ray Castle (1996a) finds a strong connection between Goa trance and tribal culture:
Like the aborigine, eons ago, that contemplated the planetsphere, whilst hitting their sticks, blowing thru a
hollowed out pipe (didjeridu). These open-air, wilderness, tribedelic, pagan-like parties (rituals) are along
this line of primordial communion.
Furthermore, for Castle (1996a) "there is a transcendental, peak experience quality to these parties, that
have the potential to be quite transformational psychic events; catalysing a collective, group-mind,
interlocking, which is experienced beyond fashion, sex, ego, and commerce (at least in India where they are
free, besides the bribe money to the cops).". He sees his role as "a kind of channeller of frequencies and
beats to massage and activate the unconscious and the superconscious via ecstatic, meditative,
trance/dance; which becomes a form of europhoric, collective catharsis."
The DJ as shaman is a recurring metaphor in writings about Goa trance. It is also applied to the artists
(often DJs as well) who create the tracks of commercially issued recordings. The notes for TIP's Blue
Compilation suggests, for example, that the composers "vibrate the skull, gently massaging and revitalising
the brain, shaking out the psychic cobwebs" and further that "with their healing vibrational medicine [they]
transport us to megaverses of aural delights." The tribal emphasis in the aesthetic of Goa trance is also
reflected in the visual elements used in parties. Sharif (1996) comments, for example, that "Goa trance
inspired dance parties now being held in the UK and Europe ...heavily borrow from imagery of Indian,
Maori, Australian Aboriginal and Native American cultures".

Musical Style
There are various definitions relating to the musical style of Goa Trance available on the World Wide Web
and in other locations. Most of them are a mixture of subjective, often flamboyant descriptive phrases and
some technically oriented information. One typical example (on the Clubdub/Cybernia homepage) is:
Goa Trance is best described as a psychedelic dance music. In Goa, India, the main dance drug is LSD.
Needless to say, the music and its composers take full advantage of this, constructing each song with a
complex weaving of synth, 303 and analog noises into a powerful kaleidescopic tapestry of sound. Then
add to this strange samples from films and other sources, and wooshes and bleeps that further stimulate the
psychoactive mind. The beat is a steady 4/4 kick but is often hidden deep within the twirling array of
analog sounds. Much of the melody comes with a constant barrage of evolving 16th or 32nd note sound
streams.

Another web page (Dance Music Definitions) confirms the idea of intricate textures, notes the presence of
"psychedelic sounding wobbly noises, and acidy sounds" and "boingy wibbly noises", and remarks on the
inordinate length of tracks. Sharif (1996) suggests further that "Goa trance has its roots in rock and acid
house, also using Eastern inspired scales, rhythms and melodies. The tempo tends to fall somewhere
between 125 and 160 bpm, averaging around 130-145 bpm."
As with all attempts to define the musical essence of a particular genre, there are bound to be
contradictions and discrepancies in the various accounts unless a comprehensive quantitative analysis is
conducted of a large sample of widely accepted typical examples of the genre. This is not feasible within
the scope of this article, but some general remarks about musical style have been made below on the basis
of a survey of a number of Goa trance CDs, mostly compilations. These CDs are listed at the end of the
article in the Select Discography. Other comments relating to DJ performance practices are made below on
the basis of field experiences at Goa trance parties in Northern New South Wales, as mentioned above.
In general, the structure of a Goa trance track reflects the idea of a journey, both in a mythological sense
and as a reflection of the LSD experience. Paralleling the archetypal hero setting out on his quest, the tracks
start with subtle undulations of sound. These slowly intensify, with constant timbral evolution and
accretion carrying the listener along the narrowly defined pathway of the trance experience. As the hero
meets challenges on the way, so too is the listener challenged by periodic breaks in the trance flow, often
containing some mysterious text quotation or sample, designed to involve the mind on a different level to
that of the otherwise constant pulse of the music. When the beat kicks in after such an occurrence, its
intensity or textural density is proportional to the point of time reached in the track. The tracks are mostly
around eight to ten minutes in duration. At the fifth or sixth minute the climax of the track has been
reached, and from that point on the journey , as it moves towards its end, it mirrors the build up to the
climax. In the context of a party, as the main beat drops away or cuts out altogether, there is a feeling of
uncertainty as to whether the track will continue to build, or whether the DJ will cut to another track
altogether.
In the same way as each individual track takes the listener on a journey, there exists an expanded level of
this process in the DJ's set, which in the classic Goa full moon party can last eight to ten hours. When the
set starts, usually around 10pm the energy and mood of the music is relatively restrained, but it slowly
builds over the next four or more hours until around 2am to 4am, when the highest energy levels are
attained.. As dawn approaches the energy levels remain high, but there is a subtle shift in the sound of the
music, with a noticeable emphasis on increased high frequency content.

Tempo
The bpm (beats per minute) range of Goa trance tracks is most commonly from 140 bpm to 152 bpm, with
most DJ sets hovering around the 144 bpm mark. On the most recent compilations surveyed, the average
bpm seems to have increased with many of the tracks clocking at around 150 bpm, whereas an earlier
recording, Order Odonata (Dragonfly Records, 1994), has most of the tracks in the 130-140 bpm range.
This suggest that the tempo of Goa Trance is on the increase. Indeed there has been some discussion of the
tempi of recent tracks on the Goa Trance mailing list, with some subscribers complaining that the genre has
become too fast.
The issue of tempo is an interesting one considering the possible relationship between musical tempo and
human brain physiology. The frequency of alpha waves in the brain, critical in inducing trance states in
humans, lies approximately between 8 and 12 cycles per second, and varies from one person to the next. .
Many traditional trance-inducing musics of the world contain rhythmic elements which mirror these rates.
Typically performances start at the lower level and increase over a period of hours towards the higher level.
The gradual increase in frequency allows for the variation in different human alpha wave frequencies. In
Goa trance there is a constant stream of 16th notes which when played at the suggested average of 144 bpm
yields a flow of musical events at an average of 9.6 cps. This situation parallels that of traditional trance
musics. However if the average tempo of Goa trance has increased there is a chance that partiers with alpha
wave rates in the lower end of the range might not lock with any of the music being played in a party
situation. .
The speed variation limitations of the typical playback equipment used for Goa trance parties has effected
the practices relating to tempi of the tracks being played. The Djs using DAT machines (with no facility for
vari-speed in contrast to record turntables), tend to beat match the tracks in groups of four or five. Typically
they will then choose a track with a swirling beat-less breakdown, and bring in a beat with a different
tempo underneath. Goa tracks often have these extended beat-less endings to facilitate DAT mixing. This
practice may have arisen historically through the earlier use of cassette decks. According to Castle (in Cole,
1996a):

You had to guess the end of it; you had to know your music well; you didn't have the timer as precise as
you do with DATs. You'd get to know which tracks worked with which tracks... just make connections;
they wouldn't always be perfectly beat matched, but with this psychedelic music it's not so critical I think,
'cause each track is a journey, and they're long tracks with certain acid techno... a lot of psychedelic
tracks... have lush beginnings and lush endings.

Goa trance DJs rigorously label all their DATs with track titles, durations, and bpms. All tracks have ID
numbers to enable quick location. The use of CD players is becoming more common, as more Goa trance is
being released on CD, and vari-speed CD decks become more affordable.

Sounds
In common with most forms of techno, or electronic dance music, the most prominent ingredient of Goa
Trance is the kick drum. In Goa trance however, the kick tends to be quite dominant, often processed
through an effects unit independently of the rest of the track.The thick, 'beefy' bass drum sounds associated
with this style are often, if not exclusively, based on those of the Roland TR909 drum machine. This
machine, manufactured circa 1984, was the last of the Roland drum machines to incorporate analogue
synthesised drum sounds, as opposed to sampled waveforms. This meant that it was possible to shape the
sound using rotary knobs on the front of the machine to adjust parameters such as decay, attack, timbre etc.
As these machines are now hard to acquire, most Goa trance artists use samples of the TR909 or similar
vintage drum machines in their work. However, as the TR909 is capable of many hundreds of different
timbres, a large amount of variation through multiple sampling is still possible. The basic kick sounds are
often augmented by adding in a low tom, or sometimes even a sampled synth bass timbre, to give extra
punch and definition.
The Roland TB303, the 'bassline' or '303' in common parlance, has been extensively used in house and
commercial club dance music over the years, and is responsible for many of the acid bleeps, squelches,
squishes and whooshes found in traditional psychedelic trance. Goa trance artists tend to look for more
original ways of expressing high frequency chaos, mostly using sampled sources manipulated using the
filter section of the sampler (e.g. Kurzweil K2500, Roland S760, Akai S3000 series). However, the
influence of the TB303 sound can still be heard in many Goa trance tracks.
The hi-hats are used as propulsive glue, with subtle rhythmic emphases and variations providing a
contrast to the insistent kick drum and bass synth repetition. Commonly the half closed hihat is used on the
8th note offbeat as the track builds [eg. "Nothing like a good friend" - Inscape, TIP Blue Compilation
1995]. As well as the basic kick drum pulse there are overlaid sounds, sometimes indicating changes in
sections of the arrangement and sometimes to add textural focus. For example, "Megallenic Cloud" by
Green Nuns of the Revolution [Trancentral 4 - A Trip to Goa 1996] starts with a theremin-like overlay that
lasts almost 8 bars. Synthesised high frequency swirling sounds act like fills to signify the start of new
sections or changes of instrumentation.
A feature of Goa trance tracks is the inclusion of sampled voice snippets of texts taken mostly from old
movies. These are usually employed in the breakdowns , but are also sometimes used as overlays. As stated
at the beginning of the musical style section, they serve to provide a marked contrast to the insistent driving
pulse of the kick and 16th note rhythmic drive of the bass and other levels of the texture. For the dancer in a
trance state they are intended to stimulate the imagination before being grounded again by the return of the
driving kick drum rhythm. Examples of these quotations are "Got a hot date with a 3 stage rocket!" [eg.
"Wow" - The Infinity Project, TIP Blue Compilation 1995] and "Now ... To prayer ... It is time to charge
the spiritual battery" [eg. "U.R. The Alien" - Brainman, TIP Blue Compilation 1995]. The sampling of
fragments of traditional instrumental or vocal music is a technique used to make references to world music
cultures which are regarded as appropriate to the aesthetic of Goa trance. Some of the cultural areas
commonly targeted are Australian Aboriginal (e.g. the didjeridu), Japanese (e.g. koto, biwa), Indian (e.g.
tambura, sitar, tabla, voice) and Arab (voice).
Goa trance tracks nearly always have a 16th note single pitch repetition, using a sharply defined upper
harmonic filter swept synth timbre with the oscillator close to the point of resonance. The filter cut-off
point is often achieved graphically using tools found in the most popular computer sequencing packages
such as Steinberg's Cubase or E-Magic's Logic. This enables a simple 16th note single pitched repeated
note to become a rhythmic entity in its own right, as the audible component of the sound fades in and out of
the human hearing range. It can also take on melodic qualities as the resonance control on the filter
approaches higher values.

Form
The form of Goa trance tracks follow a fairly rigid framework, based on 8 or 16 bar building blocks. The
changes in texture invariably coincide with the 8 bar divisions, although sometimes an additional part will
fade in through an 8 bar cycle. Often a high frequency swirling fill will signal the beginning of a new
block. This track construction process is influenced by computer sequencer design, encouraging a building
block approach to composition. There is a process of layer interchange between subsequent blocks, where
one or two layers of the texture are added or removed, often using material rhythmically or melodically
related to previous sections.
Treatments
Sometimes long sustained sounds or samples, often incorporating slow harmonic filter sweeps are
subjected to 16th or 32nd note gating in a rhythmic pattern. Heavy distortion is often employed on the
synth and kick sounds. Oscillator cross modulation and hard oscillator sync produce wild, chaotic harmonic
shifts. Constant filter sweeps on all parts except the kick produce a continually changing frequency balance.
Different parts are often given different reverbs, to place each layer in a different acoustic space. Delay is
used as a compositional device, with the delay time synched to the tempo of the track, either in 16th , 8th
note, or some dotted note division. Repetition of single notes within the melodic fragments is used to
accentuate the trance like qualities of the multiple delay effects found in the majority of Goa Trance tracks.

Tonal and Melodic Devices

The pitch organisational basis of Goa trance, as with many other dance music genres, is the centering on a
single tone. This idea is related, perhaps coincidentally, to the modal centering of Indian classical music.
There are however several tracks among those surveyed that involve shifts to another centre, usually in the
middle of the piece. There a number of tracks that shift down to the centre defined by the flat seventh of the
main centre [eg "Sirius 2" - Satori Razor, Trancentral four - A Trip To Goa, 1996]; and a few others that
move up to the centre defined by the flat third of the main centre.
Middle Eastern or Asian influenced melodies or melodic figurations are common. Typically melodic
material is based on scales which have a flat second, flat third and flat seventh. [eg.A, Bb,C, D,E, G in
"Megallenic Cloud" - Green Nuns of the Revolution, on Trancentral four - A Trip To Goa, 1996] . The
notes of the Phrygian mode are often evident. Sometimes the sharp fourth is heard indicating that the
concept of scale construction may in fact be related to Indian scale (gat) theory. A number of tracks use
both the minor and the major third, creating a suggestion of the diminished blues [octatonic] scale. More
often than not, though, only a few pitched notes are used melodically in any one section of a track. The
most common tones found in melodic patterns are the tonic, flat second, flat seventh, flat third and perfect
fifth.
Melodic design generally takes the form of short repeated fragments which often morph timbrally over
time, using the envelope on the filter to mute or open the high frequency component of the sound, in a
similar sort of way to a wah wah pedal [eg. "Protozoa" - Blissed, on Rites of Passage, 1993]. Pitch bend is
commonly used to add character to melodic lines. Glissandi are often used as hits, emphasising accents in
the music.
Rhythm and Rhythmic Division
The introductory sections of Goa trance tracks typically contain wild analogue synthesiser sound textures
and a complex rhythmic or metrical organisation. The tempo of the track is often not predictable until
revealed by the entry of the kick drum. The 16th note is the basic rhythmic division of the style. 32nd note
rolls are sometimes used as fills at the end of a section. Rhythmic developments of the original motif
slowly build in density and intensity, usually in blocks of 16 or 32 bars. The quarter note kick drum 'doof'
will then drop out for a couple of bars. Often the whole track will stop and a soft voice will utter a thought-
provoking phrase such as "I don't know ... It may be something to do with being in the mountains' [DOOF -
Star Above Parvatti, TIP Blue Compilation 1995]. Then the track will resume with the re-entry of the kick
drum. The last section of a track is often a mirror image of the arrangement sequence at the beginning of
the track. The bass sequence is generally the prime rhythmic determinant in the textural organisation of a
track.

Conclusion
The use of the term Goa trance is contentious among many of the practitioners of the genre, but on balance
it appears to be useful for representing both the historical origins and practices of the Goa dance party and
the recent emergence of artists who are working with what seems to be a coherent set of stylistic practices
in the making of commercial recordings. The focus of Goa trance has always been on the DJ who takes the
participant on a mystical journey during the course of an all-night party. The DJs who regularly visited
Goa, particularly over the period from the early 1980s to the early 1990s, determined the emergence of a
range of existing recorded and remixed musical styles appropriate for use at Goa trance parties. These same
DJs helped spread the idea of the Goa-style party to other parts of the world, and also stimulated the
practice of creating recordings especially written for use at trance parties. In many cases the original Goa
DJs are also actively involved in the making of contemporary Goa trance recordings. The current
popularity of Goa trance has led to the establishment of many record labels devoted to the dissemination of
the genre to an increasing record buying market. The Goa trance party has evolved into a commercially
organised indoor event in the large cities of Europe and North America, but its original outdoor tropical
tribedelic character is still represented by parties held, for example, on the beaches and in the forests of
Northern New South Wales in Australia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Barron, Jon (1996), Goa trance mailing list (owner-goa@lists, intelenet.net), October 8.

Boyd, Brian (1996). "Hippy Hoppy Party Goas" in Irish Times, March 9

Castle, Ray (1996a) Interview with DJ Krusty (Melbourne DJ), by phone, August 1995

Castle, Ray (1996b). "Psychotropic Trance," on Goatrance homepage

Castle, Ray (1996c). Email to Fred Cole, September 19.

Chambers, Paul (1996). Email to Fred Cole, 11th October 1996

Cole, Fred (1996a). Interview with Ray Castle, Coorabell, 29th June 1996

Cole, Fred (1996b). Interview with Steve Psyko in Melbourne, 2nd April 1996

Cole, Fred (1996c). Interview with Fred Disko, Melbourne, 2nd April 1996

Cole, Fred (1996d). Interview with Ollie Olsen, Elwood, 29th March 1996
De Souza, Richard (1996) "Worn Out," on Goatrance homepage

Ahlberg, Richard (1996). As quoted by Melissa Woodrow on the Goa trance mailing list, [[email protected]],
24th July 1996

Goa Gil (1996). "DJ Goa Gil and Ariane," on Goa Gil Home Page.

Jordan, Derek (1996). "Mystical Experience" by Infinity Project" [record review], on Goatrance homepage

Sharif (1996). "Goa trance," in jmag, Spring issue, p.10.

Sharpe, Hugh James (1996a). Goa trance mailing list [[email protected]], 20th October 1996

Sharpe, Hugh James (1996b). Goa trance mailing list [[email protected]], 8th October 1996

WEBOGRAPHY

Clubdub/cybernia [http://cgi-bin.iol.ie/cybernia/clubdub/goa.html]

Dance Music Definitions homepage [http://arachnid.cm.cf.ac.uk/User/C.M.sully/terms.html]

Goa Gil's Home Page [http://scitexdv.com/Users/todd/Gil/bio.html]

Goatrance homepage [http://193.118.187.100/help/extra/people/goatrance]

SELECT DISCOGRAPHY

Blissed - Rite of Passage - Tokyo Tekno Tribe Records 1993

Order Odonata - Dragonfly Records 1994

Blue Compilation - TIP Records 1994

The Japanese Experience (trance in japan) - Krembo Records 1995

Dancing to the Sound of the Sun - Psy Harmonics 1995

Tantrance (A trip to psychedelic trance) - SPV Records 1995

A Voyage into Trance (mixed by Paul Oakenfold) - Dragonfly Records 1995

Trancentral four - A Trip To Goa - Kickin Records 1996

Hacking the Reality Myth - Psy Harmonics 1996

Infinity Hz - Matsuri Compilation 1996

Psyko Disko Psyko Disko - Psy Harmonics 1996