Please open your mind again

• Written by DJ Shahar

It’s been more than 18 years since I stumbled upon my first trance party by pure chance. There was this girl, she asked me to come along to a party surrounded by nature far away. She was good looking, so I crawled out of the dark smoky alcohol fumed clubs I used to hangout in and went with her. And my life changed.

18 years - that’s a long time, a real long time. It means this culture of ours is not a new one any more. A lot has changed since. It started as small gatherings of 50 people arranged by friends somewhere in nature. People brought tapes of unnamed underground electronic music made by freaks from around the world experimenting with new sounds, and small speakers. They danced all night till morning came, altering their minds and experimenting with their consciousness. The word spread, flyers were distributed, it moved around the world, got a name, the Internet came and a movement was born. Tribes of good people dancing somewhere in beautiful nature, changing the world, or at least dreaming about it. A reunification of contemporary digital culture with the old tribal concepts.

A lot has happened to trance since. Today we have big business party organisations, events attended by thousands, huge festivals with people from all around the world, tons of labels releasing music covering many styles, names and genres. We have big online communities, ‘big name’ artist and DJs, regular trance club events. It seems that a lot of party-goers don't want to be a tribe of good people somewhere in beautiful nature, don’t want to change the world, and don’t want the world to change. They want to have some fun and blow their minds off at the weekend, not too far from home, and get back to everyday life as quickly as possible.

Now don't get me wrong – I'm not saying this is bad, I don't say the old times were better. I only observe that this is how it is. Different. The people are different, their values are different, the ages are different and the world is different. You cannot expect things to stay the same after almost 20 years, and indeed it would be unnatural and boring if they did. The trance community has just changed. A lot. I'm not saying that you can't find any more little tribes of people dancing in beautiful faraway places and even hoping to change the world a little bit (or at least being really nice to each other), you can and I believe you always will. I know enough people who, that in the event that they can't find a good party will make one. And I'll try to be there too.

However, there is one thing that seems to be lost and has to be found again or this culture will wither and die. We have to open our minds again. When I went to that first party, I still wore my new wave punk outfit, and it was cool with everyone. I didn’t know the name of the music, didn’t recognize the tracks, didn’t know anything about the guys who stood and changed the tapes - and that was true to most of the people there, and it was cool with everyone. Actually this was the essence of the party - come as you are, be what you want, open your mind, no definitions, no formulas, no rules, no expectations, be accepted. With time things developed and changed. The culture got a name, an identity. Then it fragmented, formulated, defined. And choked. The mind closed. How can there be development when definitions are so tight? So many people in this musical movement are so preoccupied with genderising, labelling and formulating everything. In this reality, once you develop - you're out! Psychedelic trance culture is not an open mind culture. Contradiction in terms? Sad reality! I think the best thing that can happen to trance parties and culture is that the pattern will be broken. That different music will be present. That people will leave the mould and open their minds. Hearing the same music again and again isn't psychedelic at all. Listen to old trance CDs from the beginning of the 90s - the music that started this culture. Every track sounds totally different. There's no way that they would be on the same CD today. We have progressive parties, minimal parties, full on parties, dark parties. I remember surprise parties. Never knowing what is going to happen. I'd love to have that back. Please open your mind again.