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130 BPM vs. 150 BPM
Progressive & Psychedelic Rifts!

Are we standing at a cleft where Psychedelic Trance is beaming away from the rest of it's brother genres? Why are people fluxing Psychedelic and Progressive and other related genres?

If we talk about condemnation of trance music by others, both psy and proggy have come a long way. There are great records to amateurish records affecting our perceptions about the music. The latter especially subjugates the opinions a layman forms after listening to it. But really, this happens with every genre. Every genre has seen it's own critique and haters, the people who enjoy their music, enjoy it anyway. For example: How would one define trance? Loud banging music? How would one define psychedelic or rock? Lot's of noise? The real listeners know the right answer. However, people have taste in all the genres & music styles and some listeners are sternly genre specific.

Trance has become a diverse word where the genre conceptions occur with it's revolutionizing characters. Let us check out how progressive and psychedelic genres are faring and forming their own keyed listener base.

Psychedelic, the music associated with colours, feel-good factors like fraternity and peace, morning, UV, monsters, secretive & mysterious locations, nature, raves, spirituality, substance intake, festivals, Shamanism, Goa, Israel, hallucinations, sex, sacral release etc.

Progressive, the music associated with lights, glow sticks, euphoria, lasers, individuality, highway, dance, club-culture, modernization, seclusion, future-visions, bass, emotions, breakdowns, energy, vocals, space, speed, Netherlands, Germany, Ibiza or anything one can feel while listening to it!

The origin of Psychedelic is older than Progressive Trance. It occurred in the early 90s. It is said that due to a war in Israel a lot of people migrated to Goa, a psy hub in India. They discovered Goa trance which relaxed them off their worries and day to day chores. World then saw a boom of Psychedelic Trance. Whereas, Progressive Trance was born in German clubs, somewhere in the mid 90s when housie and techie sounds became more melodic and uplifting. The sounds got played more in Dutch and German clubs and vividly branched out different sub-genres.

The technics of psy and proggy are quite similar because the production manner is electronically driven and the tunes are made on synthesizers. The static tempo of psychedelic is set to 150 BPM with really fast loops and acidic feel that get inhibited by scary-dark pads and intense musical revelations for the ultimate delight. It is generally a free flow of various accumulated sounds with lower limit depth core intensity, yet the non-melodic and fuzzily funked-up sounds leads one to powerful outbursts, pertaining to intuitions inflicted by the momentary spiked impact on our minds. It is a hard truth that psy is chaining more but limited listeners on underground level who vie for collateral sound effects and rapid beats melded with an overall drastically illusive experience. The music will most probably stay non-commercial, simply because it is for the rare types and only who want to travel with the bound of time. A very perplexed form of music!

People, more of who don't listen to trance fail to distinguish between Psychedelic to Progressive and have formed a major misconception that people into trance are into drugs! In fact, it is a bitter truth prevailing ever since the Psychedelic genre was born; drugs are what initiated the birth of sub psy genre like acid! Experienced psyheads commit to the fact that the pleasure of listening music peaks up after substance intake and they go on to what we call an inexplicable escape. But isn't it realizable that any kind of music can be enjoyed under the influence of drugs? After all, the stimulation part is done by drug itself and not music. People who call music their drug are the true listeners.

How many times you proudly told someone you are "into trance" and they asked you back, "Do you do drugs?" Oh how we go down the momentary setback! Though drugs are consumed in most of the rave parties, it's the clubs that are responsible to mend away the name of drugs from progressive trance; because none would be allowed an entry after encountering their Xtacy pills. Psy lovers define other genres and 'normal' trance but Progressive Trance holds the edge to bring up the deepest of emotions. Some may not even like the vocals introduced in psy trance, the reason, monstrous voice samples! Again, progressive gets edgier serving our pleasure zones with lush female vocals oozing an ultimate listening experience. The parallel beats in psy music have faced much criticism, not up to the mark to provoke spirits as they surface while listening to vocal or melodic trance! As for a psyhead's take on progressive, usage of less layers and immature synths while producing that he finds uninteresting. These are just a few things I personally got to hear regarding trance and the two under-debate sub-genres.

On the name of music we are getting used to destructive forms of enjoying it. More and more raves are being busted in India and are giving trance a very bad name. Similarly, in other countries trance is largely accepted and enjoyed with drug intakes so that they can watch the omni colours, see the effigies rise on their heads and appear bigger in size, talk to themselves while they go at split's end and even smile at others with no apparent reason! One can actually experience all this in a Rave party.

The assumptions occur within the mind and are altered by individual preconceptions that may or may not matter to others and could lead to arguments! A genuine trance lover would appreciate both the genres profoundly.

For people who do not fathom trance music, please give it your ear and do not assume trance just as a console music, you will actually drift away on your prejudice. Yes, trance today is highly prejudiced. Progressive and Psychedelic tunes differ greatly and have their own cults. Some of the top psychedelic & goa trancers include Infected Mushroom, Astral Projection, Goa Gill, 1200 Micrograms etc. who produce top quality psy. We already know who all are pioneering progressive music scene! The names of Tiësto, Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren or even fresh talents like Breakfast, Glenn Morrison and Sander Van Doorn are very much heard in the progressive trance scene.

Unless and until there is Psychedelic Trance, drugs are meant to stay and be practiced, for every new generation would want to try the momentary escape. Drugs are fading away from the progressive scene and the listeners are coming out clean. Maybe, the answer lies somewhere in the future of this music. Figure it out.

Our mailboxes are always awaiting your suggestions and opinions and we are ready to guide you through this music here on Trance Hub.

Written by: Apoorv

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