Where we have been going, versus where we may wish to go

• Written by Aaron Ocelot Peacock

Global psychedelic trance culture has survived 2 decades. What has enabled it to survive is the network of individual people maintaining contact with each other (the scene) and joining together in the ritualized celebrations known as parties. The musical vibes coming from our culture have influenced the music of the world as a whole, and is continuously being influenced by the musics of the world. If it were up to popular culture and the mainstream music press we would have gone away a long time ago. They do not like or understand us very well. The danger today is that the culture (music, art, philosophies, etc) we are spreading does not have anything to FEED this global traveller underground scene. I have seen it said that "psytrance is my religion" but for this to be so we need to elevate and respect the culture of our scene and ensure its future survival in terms of its core ideals. We need to deepen our art and culture, not make it more shallow and pop. TRYING to be popular will not result in our scene BECOMING popular, but rather we will simply copy the values of the commercial electronic scenes and disappear. We will cease to exist as a unique family and source of culture. Preserve the culture, preserve the lore. remember the old music, not as something to get fixated or stuck in, but to better understand the trends of today. For example, I saw the high bpm trend in the mid 90's with GMS going above 150bpm etc… I remember gabber and hardcore techno, thus i see nothing new or futuristic in this fast trance. just my opinion and just one example.

The danger of conservatism, is, of course, that we can become conservative about the wrong things- preserving the slavish fan mentality of the mainstream scenes. ("worshipping" artists, festivals, dj's, etc.)

The mass marketing techniques still work on us. "You are not good enough and you NEED us or our product to be complete" still resonates with people as does playing to the lowest common denominators: Rock, Retro, old tunes people remember…treating the scene like a collection of morons will produce exactly that- a collection of morons. I prefer to party with smarties ;) (Contrast this with the current "Diesel" advertising campaign of "Be Stupid" - I think this says it all about pop culture. It is a parasite that uses our weakness as food.) We too easily sell our birthrights of independence, being outside the system, etc. for a tiny chance of the mainstream culture approving of us, yet, if we were to TRULY please the 'base' of the global psychedelic trance traveller culture, we would see larger attendances at parties and a thriving global scene. if this psychedelic trance scene is not to become a trend that passes away, we need to think about the future and provide a true alternative society in every aspect.

Regional Biases: I have partied with trancers worldwide and have noticed in each country or region that there is the perception that whatever the tastes are THERE, are the same everywhere. this is simply not true

Russia, Portugal, Switzerland, West Coast USA, East Coast USA, Northern Brazil, Southern Brazil, Japan, etc. each have their own regional tastes in music etc. There is a tendency for people to sit in their homebase and think they see the bigger picture of psychedelic trance without actually getting out and traveling to see the other scenes. Get out and see the world! Travel! If YOU cannot, then encourage a friend to go and report back what they see and hear. Visit the large festivals- its a good opportunity to hear different things than you are used to. Who knows, you may end up enjoying a particular artist or dj playing sounds you generally would think you don't like or identify with. This is the problem i have with multi-stage lineups. i remember in the good old days of the Boom Festival you could hear the mainstage from all parts of the festival and if something came on that you LIKED to hear you could come running to dance. Today its all by the program and this is catering to a closed-mind. People think they already know what they will like. This is ridiculous. I met someone once who told me "I already know all the people i want to know"

Do not be like this person. Learn, live, grow, change, evolve, and bring your new information back to our community. We are truly one global family and someday, more people than trenchers will realize that. But for now, our job is to keep the global web alive and the concepts flowing. Peace