Dark psytrance
Template:Infobox Music subgenre
Dark psytrance (also killer psytrance, dark psy, horror trance, horror psy, psycore, or black trance) is a darker, faster and more distorted form of psychedelic trance music, with tempo ranges usually from 145 to 180 BPM, but can get up to over 500 BPM.[1][2] Originating in Russia and Germany, the style has recently expanded to other countries worldwide.
Characteristics
Dark Psytrance generally does not use vocals, though sampling is common, with speech and other kind of samples usually being taken from different kind of movies (especially horror or sci-fi movies), or occasionally from other tracks. Sometimes sampling elements from other genres of music is done to in an inane attempt to mock the original tracks.
The atmosphere and theme of the tracks very loosely resembles those from genres such as dark ambient, musique concrète, darkcore, power noise and industrial music. At times faux atmospheric and cheesy "deep" sounds are used in an attempt to create a haunting and Gothic effect (examples of this include Xenomorph, Parasense and Kemic-Al), some times artist such as Baphomet Engine add in metal samples to darken the music, linking it to industrial metal. Little use of any real musical technique can be found in most dark psytrance music.
Recently, some artists who previously were dark psytrance artists, such as N3XU5, Darkpsy and Fungus Funk, have started producing a more melodic, South African-like sound, whilst some others are starting to experiment with using melodies and morning trance elements in dark psy like Deja Vu Fabrique (Zolod from Parasense), Psyc0ma, and C-P-C.
Since the early days there have been many different festivals, also known as open air parties or raves, going on all around the world. Some of the prominent ones are the Psycrowdelica Music and Art Festival in Germany, Vorax in Barcelona, Spain, Liquid Moon in Zurich, Switzerland, Goa Gil's Birthday Bash, Earth Dance festivals, and World Bridge in Asheville, NC. Some of the original compilations of the sound originally went by the genre title Goa 2003, before Dark Psy was established as a sub-genre name in itself.
Some well known Dark Psytrance record labels include Parvati Records, Noise Poison records & Lost Theory Records. Some notable artists include Fungus Funk, StiTch, Osom, Kindzadza, Psykovsky, Penta, Scope, Mubali, Mandari, Psyc0ma. Highko, Cosmo, Kashyyyk, Parametrik, Kokobloko, Shiva, Baba Yaga, Kerberos and Grapes of Wrath, who are more accessible to new listeners of the genre.
References
- ^ http://www.psybient.net/en/scene.html
- ^ [1] "It is in Russia where so called "Dark psy"(experimental genre of psytrance music, which traits include gloomy infernal aestethics in the tradition of Hardcore, high BPM level, dense basslines, lack of melodies, and the introduction of variety of samples from Horror films, screaming, different noises and effects) is getting to the popularity of Full On"