How did it all started? Life is everywhere we look, from worms in the soil beneath our feet to tiny plants in the purest spring water, in the air we breathe. Where there is life there is evolution; it’s a part of the deal. Evolution affects not only the physical forms life takes but also its behaviour, and homo sapiens has certainly developed some remarkably complex cultures and societies over the millenia. But also music is constantly evoluting… That’s why there is Goa-Trance right now!!

Now let’s jump to the sixties and remind ourselves of a place called Goa in India. During the late sixties Goa has turned into a beach for freaks, rock stars, travelers, and various other excitement hunters, who lived by the ancient mantra of “sex, drugs and rock and roll”. Although the fab of Goa has dropped by the late 80’s, a hard-core group of Europeans and Americans have remained in that place. By the early 90’s, people in Goa have found out the wonderful effect of the Acid music on a stoned head and started to further develop the style. The first people to do so were Goa Gil (It’s really THE Goa-guru and a completely insane hippie from San Francisco) and his friends, who were living in Goa and experimenting with various musical styles to dance to since the late 60’s (They made a LP with their post-industrial band Kode IV on Belgium’s KK label).

Anyway, in the 80’s there was still no Goa-Trance in Goa, at that time you’d be likely to hear Talking Heads or Yello. The turning point was Techno, in the times before it was cool or had even been named. The days when it was Industrial or New Beat. While Acid House was shaking the UK, Goa was being pounded by the Belgian group Front 242 or A Split Second.”It had the type of stomping groove that people could settle into for hours and hours” explains Mark Allen, famous Goa-DJ, owner of the Phantasm-label and member of Mindfield.

But there were more influences as the New Wave/Industrial music of Front 242, Einstürzen Neubauten, Killing Joke and the likes. At the same time there was the electronic disco of Detroit and because of all the hippies there was still a psychedelic influence from the music from the 70’s. All those styles were mixed together till there was a new kind of music. The people discovered that this music was still very psychedelic and XTC and LSD-friendly! Since that day this Trance-music had a name: Goa-Trance!