Psy/Goa Trance charts

Review: What goes around, comes around, at least when it comes to dance music culture. The rise in new productions informed by early psy-trance and hallucinatory ambient techno jams has led to a swathe of reissues of long-forgotten releases from the 1990s. Here's another, and a chance to cop London outfit Shpongle's 1998 debut album, Are You Shpongled. As an LP, it's very much of its time, with the pair brilliantly blurring the boundaries between spacey ambient, dub, chill out room-ready downtempo grooves, intergalactic-sounding drum & bass, flute-sporting soundscapes and the kind of bustling rhythms and shroom-fuelled electronics that were once the preserve of new age travellers in brightly coloured trousers and slightly damp woolly hats.

Review: Continuing the research project started last year, Sound Metaphors, Transmigration, and historian Ray Castle present an in-depth analysis of the dancefloor scene in Goa during the 80s and early 90s, before trance became a mainstream genre. This tropical underground haven thrived on unique aesthetics, with dedicated collectors and DJs curating the finest "special goa music" from the era's emerging electronic tracks. This compilation features impactful new beat, proto-techno, early progressive, trance, industrial, EBM and house music tracks, accompanied by event photographs in a double LP gatefold with a poster and liner notes by Ray Castle. Re-mastered in Berlin, it's an essential addition to any record collection.

Review: Sphongle continue to gift their fans with these exquisite reissues of their illustrious catalogue, catching up to more recent times with the richly dynamic sound of Museum Of Consciousness. This 2013 epic leant in on every dimension of Simon Ponsford and Raja Ram's sound, at once bristling with kinetic electronica energy while keeping their much-loved mysticism front and centre. It's a trip, like a Sphongle album should be, but it's also got a certain bite which more than stands up to the rigours of the modern dancefloor. One of the group's great skills has been in moving with the times while staying true to a certain deep-rooted, festival-friendly playfulness. Grab a slice of cosmic delight, freshly remastered for your brain to happily feast on.

Review: British psy-trance oddity Sphongle have been traversing the highways and byways of transcendental music culture since the late 90s, and they remain as adored within the scene as ever. Their third album, Nothing Lasts - But Nothing Is Lost is considered one of their great opuses - a twisting and turning fever dream of exotic passages, mind-warping synthesis and lysergic grooves from the studios and brains of Simon Posford and Raja Ram. Split into 20 tracks, but supposedly formed of eight phases in a cohesive dream sequence, it's the ultimate trip, and it's finally getting a repress on vinyl via Posford's legendary Twisted Records, one of the true bastions of psy-trance culture.

Review: Reissued on vinyl for the first time, here comes Juno Reactor's 1997 LP Bible of Dreams, also newly remastered and available on double black vinyl. Juno Reactor's fourth album, Bible Of Dreams came with a staunchly different sound compared to the group's previous albums, and moved away from the traditional dance beats by implementing tribal influences. The band collaborated with Amampondo, a traditional South African percussion act, on the single 'Conga Fury'. Watkins and Amampondo went on a five-week tour of the US, opening for Moby. With many of its tracks appearing in acclaimed pop culture soundtracks - the likes of The Matrix Reloaded, Animatrix, Mortal Kombat Annihilation and Beowulf - its composer, producer, musician and performer Ben Watkins has gone on to become an essential innovator of modern electronic music and a pioneer of trance.

Review: DC Salas' second album To The Places I Call(ed) Home is a personal journey through memories, loss, and the idea of home, blending house, progressive, new beat, acid, Goa and trance. Created over two years in Brussels and on tour, it became a form of healing after personal tragedies and reconnects Salas with his Peruvian heritage. Featuring collaborations with Curses and Moroccan artist Zaatar, each track captures significant moments in his life while honoring his past. Despite its themes of grief, the album remains uplifting, offering bright dancefloor energy and a sense of renewal.

Review: Sama' Abdulhadi is a DJ who very proudly represents her Palestinian roots and is the first artist from her homeland to break out onto the international stage. She has a passion for sound design and has famously been arrested and jailed for eight days for desecrating a religious site when she played a set, with permission, at Nabi Musa. Her entry into the legendary fabric series is a doozy with emotive techno and cavernous deep house from the likes of Michael Klein, Carbon & Peter Groskreutz and Acid Arab as well as her own cut 'Well Fee' (feat Walaa Sbait).

Review: Cubic Space by SYT is a highly sought album from UK's mid-90s underground trance/rave scene, originally released on the Magick Eye Records, the label co-founded by Swordfish from Astralasia. With SYT short for "shave yer tongue" - don't ask us, we don't know - Cubic Space amounted to the only record outputted by the pseudonym, yet still went on to charm club-goers, owing to its unique trance sound-sources not available to the average high street shopper, and its many sprouting tangents through futuro-"tribal" sounds, dashing any concerns over tempo regulation or idiosyncrasy in the process; an ill a fellow artist might suffer from. Club numbers like 'Eclipse' and 'Global Drift' are torrential enough; it's the filterpassed breakbeats of the likes of 'Nu Dawn', and the punctiform, recherche sound design of 'Lost Cargo' that really get us moving.

Review: Juno Reactor's 2004 album Labyrinth makes its vinyl debut, presented on double 140g black vinyl. This sixth studio album from Ben Watkins, a key innovator in electronic music, melds orchestral, industrial, and techno elements with the band's signature tribal sound, exemplified in tracks like 'Conquistador II.' Labyrinth also includes two collaborations with Don Davis from The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions: 'Mona Lisa Overdrive' and 'Navras.' While Labyrinth represents a departure from the psy-trance roots of its predecessor Shango, leaning more towards dark d&b influences, its intricate detailsiespecially in percussion and Latin guitar elementsireveal themselves after multiple listens. The album is a distinctive listening experience, enhanced by Juno Reactor's unique fusion of electronic and global sounds. For fans of dark, immersive dance music and live percussion, this vinyl release provides a rich, sonic journey through Watkins' experimental vision.

Review: On Rotation label regular Lisene makes an impressive album debut here with his Science Friction long player which is a tribute to the psychedelic prog-trance sound he helped pioneer. Crafted with meticulous attention over several years, the album seamlessly transitions between diverse moods and grooves while showcasing Lisene's unique production style. It features club-ready tracks and bass-heavy electro perfect for DJs alongside expansive, slow-motion soundscapes for home listeners. Lisene describes it as a 15-year journey that captures his musical evolution and future vision. With its rich, cinematic flair, this one is a doozy.