The Phenomenon of Goa Trance

History of Goa Trance By Fred Cole and Michael Hannan

This article explores the phenomenon of Goa trance, a form of electronic dance party music originating on the beaches of Goa, on the Indian subcontinent. The term "Goa trance" and the range of alternative terms for Goa trance are discussed. The history of the Goa scene is examined in a number of stages. The geographical area itself has had a fascinating history which is briefly summarised. Following that, the early history of the Goa beach scene in the 60s and 70s is described, before a more detailed examination of the heyday period in which the Goa trance style was developed. The decline of the Goa trance scene in Goa itself is also discussed. Since Goa trance was developed in the Goa area by an international community of DJs and recording artists from Europe, Australasia and other parts of Asia such as Japan, its dispersal back to these parts of the world is explored. The current commercialisation of the style is described and the main recording artists, DJs and record labels are identified.

The second part of this article is concerned with analysing some of the stylistic characteristics of Goa trance. The aesthetic of the idiom is touched on before a more detailed treatment of aspects of musical style and party practice. This is informed by analysis of some of the recent recorded repertoire, as well as observations made while attending Goa trance parties.

The data for the historical and much of the descriptive material for this article comes from two main sources. The first consists of interviews conducted by Fred Cole with a number of the important DJs and artists who worked in Goa during the main period. These include Ray Castle, Steve Psyko and Fred Disko. A second source of data is the World Wide Web. Many web sites are devoted to Goa Trance, including home pages of important DJs such as Goa Gil.

In the last decade of dance music there have been hundreds of terms coined to describe the main genres and the various sub-genres of musical production. Judging by its use in the dance music press and on the dozens of WWW pages devoted to the genre, the term Goa trance has achieved some level of currency. In his 1996 interview, Ray Castle (in Cole, 1996a) stated that "it 's only in the last two years we've started hearing these words 'Goa trance'....before that I used to call the parties 'Trance Dance'." Steve Psyko (in Cole 1996b) believes that the term was invented by the English, because they "always want to put a label on something like that". Further more, as with punk, "they have stereotyped Goa trance; they have decided that Goa trance is just one kind of music." As this article proceeds it will become clear that one of the striking characteristics of the music played in Goa since the early 1980s, is its stylistic diversity. None the less, the contemporary recorded music marketed under the label of Goa trance or some variant of it, may indeed have certain definable stylistic characteristics. This theory will be examined below under the heading 'Musical Style'.

The currency of terminology is also subject to waves of fashion. One UK party promoter on the Goa Trance mailing list (Barron, 1996), claimed in October 1996 that the 'G word' is now so unfashionable that "if you went into a record label over here (i.e. Dragonfly, TIP, Flying Rhino etc.) and called the music Goa Trance you would be laughed at"; and furthermore that, if you used the term on a party flyer, no-one would attend the party. He suggests "Psychedelic Trance" as a more appropriate term since most of the music is being made in the UK, Australia, Israel and the US, not in Goa. Curiously, though , the party advertised in his message refers to "Psychoactive Trance" . There is some support for the term "psychedelic trance" from other sources including the BooM! Records web page (1996), Hugh James Sharpe (1996a), and Ray Castle (in Cole 1996a), who also has a predilection for the term "psychotropic trance" (Castle, 1996b). Both Castle (1996b) and Sharpe (1996a) also use the elided form, "Psy-Trance". Other terms used by Castle include "fluro" (based on the use of fluorescent lights and images), "altered state", "Goa techno trance", "electronic trance" and "acid techno"(1996b, 1996b, 1996a, 1996c, and in Cole, 1996a). Sharpe (1996a) uses the term "Ambient Goa", and Derek Jordan (1996), "Ambient Goa trance"; although it is not clear whether they are referring to Goa Trance or to a [more] ambient variety of it. Mat Joyce (1996), a Goa Trance mailing list subscriber, has ventured a few other alternative genre names such as "Uplifting", "High Energy", and "Alien", but these suggestions were rejected by two other subscribers, including Hugh James Sharpe (1996b).

Added to the possible confusion created by this plethora of terms, is the frequent association with other established genres such as techno, acid trance, and acid house. Sharif (1996) suggests, for example, that "among many of its devotees, [Goa trance] is considered to be the purest form of acid house music."

The Musical Aesthetics of Goa Trance

Goa Gil (1996) draws the link between the Goa trance phenomenon and the revival of awareness in ancient tribal practices. He claims to be attempting to "use trance music and trance dance experience to set off a chain reaction in consciousness", believing that "since the beginning of time mankind has used music and dance to commune with the spirit of nature and the universe". His aim as a Goa artist is to "[redefine] the ancient tribal ritual for the 21st century."

Like Goa Gil, Ray Castle (1996a) finds a strong connection between Goa trance and tribal culture:

Like the aborigine, eons ago, that contemplated the planetsphere, whilst hitting their sticks, blowing thru a hollowed out pipe (didjeridu). These open-air, wilderness, tribedelic, pagan-like parties (rituals) are along this line of primordial communion.

Furthermore, for Castle (1996a) "there is a transcendental, peak experience quality to these parties, that have the potential to be quite transformational psychic events; catalysing a collective, group-mind, interlocking, which is experienced beyond fashion, sex, ego, and commerce (at least in India where they are free, besides the bribe money to the cops).". He sees his role as "a kind of channeller of frequencies and beats to massage and activate the unconscious and the superconscious via ecstatic, meditative, trance/dance; which becomes a form of europhoric, collective catharsis."

The DJ as shaman is a recurring metaphor in writings about Goa trance. It is also applied to the artists (often DJs as well) who create the tracks of commercially issued recordings. The notes for TIP's Blue Compilation suggests, for example, that the composers "vibrate the skull, gently massaging and revitalising the brain, shaking out the psychic cobwebs" and further that "with their healing vibrational medicine [they] transport us to megaverses of aural delights." The tribal emphasis in the aesthetic of Goa trance is also reflected in the visual elements used in parties. Sharif (1996) comments, for example, that "Goa trance inspired dance parties now being held in the UK and Europe ...heavily borrow from imagery of Indian, Maori, Australian Aboriginal and Native American cultures".

There are various definitions relating to the musical style of Goa Trance available on the World Wide Web and in other locations. Most of them are a mixture of subjective, often flamboyant descriptive phrases and some technically oriented information. One typical example (on the Clubdub/Cybernia homepage) is:

Goa Trance is best described as a psychedelic dance music. In Goa, India, the main dance drug is LSD. Needless to say, the music and its composers take full advantage of this, constructing each song with a complex weaving of synth, 303 and analog noises into a powerful kaleidescopic tapestry of sound. Then add to this strange samples from films and other sources, and wooshes and bleeps that further stimulate the psychoactive mind. The beat is a steady 4/4 kick but is often hidden deep within the twirling array of analog sounds. Much of the melody comes with a constant barrage of evolving 16th or 32nd note sound streams.

Another web page (Dance Music Definitions) confirms the idea of intricate textures, notes the presence of "psychedelic sounding wobbly noises, and acidy sounds" and "boingy wibbly noises", and remarks on the inordinate length of tracks. Sharif (1996) suggests further that "Goa trance has its roots in rock and acid house, also using Eastern inspired scales, rhythms and melodies. The tempo tends to fall somewhere between 125 and 160 bpm, averaging around 130-145 bpm."

As with all attempts to define the musical essence of a particular genre, there are bound to be contradictions and discrepancies in the various accounts unless a comprehensive quantitative analysis is conducted of a large sample of widely accepted typical examples of the genre. This is not feasible within the scope of this article, but some general remarks about musical style have been made below on the basis of a survey of a number of Goa trance CDs, mostly compilations. These CDs are listed at the end of the article in the Select Discography. Other comments relating to DJ performance practices are made below on the basis of field experiences at Goa trance parties in Northern New South Wales, as mentioned above.

In general, the structure of a Goa trance track reflects the idea of a journey, both in a mythological sense and as a reflection of the LSD experience. Paralleling the archetypal hero setting out on his quest, the tracks start with subtle undulations of sound. These slowly intensify, with constant timbral evolution and accretion carrying the listener along the narrowly defined pathway of the trance experience. As the hero meets challenges on the way, so too is the listener challenged by periodic breaks in the trance flow, often containing some mysterious text quotation or sample, designed to involve the mind on a different level to that of the otherwise constant pulse of the music. When the beat kicks in after such an occurrence, its intensity or textural density is proportional to the point of time reached in the track. The tracks are mostly around eight to ten minutes in duration. At the fifth or sixth minute the climax of the track has been reached, and from that point on the journey , as it moves towards its end, it mirrors the build up to the climax. In the context of a party, as the main beat drops away or cuts out altogether, there is a feeling of uncertainty as to whether the track will continue to build, or whether the DJ will cut to another track altogether.

In the same way as each individual track takes the listener on a journey, there exists an expanded level of this process in the DJ's set, which in the classic Goa full moon party can last eight to ten hours. When the set starts, usually around 10pm the energy and mood of the music is relatively restrained, but it slowly builds over the next four or more hours until around 2am to 4am, when the highest energy levels are attained.. As dawn approaches the energy levels remain high, but there is a subtle shift in the sound of the music, with a noticeable emphasis on increased high frequency content.