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From Psychedelic-Traveller
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[2008] An empire of sounds in RUSSIA
- Article from "Trancer's Guide To The Galaxy" 2008 written by Unitone
The very first seeds for psy-trance were deposited into mother Russia’s expansive terrain during the early 1990’s soon after DJ Gabriel (of St. Petersburg) and XP Voodoo (of Moscow) returned from their musical expedition to India. Though, it can be said that the roots of this psychedelic Indian tree have been transplanted into the limited soils of the two major Russian cities, the last 10 years have seen branches sprout all over the country’s vast territories.
2008
At present, trance parties are held in almost every region of the country. Nevertheless, Moscow remains the only city where on any given weekend one can find the party of one’s choice regardless of how esoteric a sub genre one desires. In this setting, psychedelic dance music is played by top international artists. From fat progressive tunes to crazy Suomisound and high-bpm stuff, the variety is limitless. Subsequently, the last few years have also witnessed ”the mushrooming” of new artists and labels in numbers that would suggest they had burgeoned moments after a psychedelic downpour.
Artists
Among the rising progressive stars is Vacuum Stalkers, who will be releasing their debut album in the early part of 2008. Likewise, Overlap Project is anticipated to bring cutting edge full-on with their second album to be released under the label, Planet BEN records. In addition, Glooex, Pantomiman, M.M.C, and Paper Squad are producing a form of ”twisted” psy-trance which is becoming increasingly popular. Of course, Russia’s famous ”dark side” is also certain to be represented as Manifold and Furious albums hit the market.
Apart from Moscow, St. Petersburg possesses the highest concentration of upcoming producers. Samadhi, RED, Pan Psychic, and Nasca continue their international releases with projections of full length albums for sometime in 2008. As for the chill out needs of our country being satisfied, Russia retains its internationally renowned high caliber acts such as Unstable Elements, Koan, Chronos, Scann-tec, Khooman, Izzum, DAF, and Kadang, to name but a few.
In truth, the most significant strides taken over the last few years have been made by the many party organizers who have expanded their repertoire to include owning record labels and supporting artists.
Labels
Besides the already established Moscow labels like Vertigo and Insomnia, newcomers like Nuclear Force, Organic Alchemy, Hippie Killer Production, Technical Freaks and Sun Station from St. Petersburg are busy making their mark. Significantly, the laws against illegal or so called pirate productions have been made more stringent thereby upping the level of protection for local labels and artists.
Parties
Summer 2008 promises to be a memorable one, as some of the more outstanding events such as Solar Eclipse Festival at Altai Mountains, the Trimurti festival and the Armagedon Festival (organized by one of Moscow’s best promo teams, Technical Freaks) collude to make an unforgettably sunny season. For information about parties and scenes in the capital city, popular web portals such as trance.ru, aeroboard.ru, and psytrance.spb.ru (for St. Petersburg) prove indispensible aids – the one shortcoming is that almost all the information presently available is in Russian.
