Psychedelic trance forum Psynews recently ran a poll where they asked their 10,000+ users to vote for the best uptempo (psytrance) and best downtempo (psybient) albums on the noughties. Here are the albums that topped the poll, with Spotify links!
[table id=14 /]
[table id=15 /]
Here are a couple of new Spotify playlists, featuring some of the latest releases in electro-industrial and progressive and psychedelic trance. If you like either genres you can use these playlists as jump-off points to explore full albums from each artist. I use them as a quick and easy way to have per-genre playlists for Spotify mobile, without cluttering up my list of playlists and without having to remember what to search for.
Yesterday’s Spotify update included a massive selection of progressive and psychedelic trance music, thanks to updates from labels such as Iboga Records and Tribal Vision. Included were several of my favourite trance albums from the past year or so, including the brilliant “Rebirth” album from Ace Ventura, the infectious “Wanderers” album from Antix, and the excellent debut from Israeli duo Invisible Reality.
Finally, we have trance on Spotify! I’ve been looking out for these genres to appear on Spotify for ages, so I was particularly pleased to see yesterday’s Spotify update including some of my favourite progressive and psychedelic trance (psytrance) acts, as well as a healthy dose of psybient and some progressive trance too. Here’s a summary grouped by record label:
Twisted Records
Simon Posford’s UK-based label specialise in psychedelic trance and psybient. If you’ve never heard psychedelic downtempo band Shpongle then you’re in for a treat: try their second album Tales Of The Inexpressible and your head will feel like a frisbee 😉 Twisted artists on Spotify now include Shpongle, Hallucinogen, Koxbox, Ott, and Prometheus.
Tribal Vision Records
Tribal Vision are a Czech label who publish legendary Swedish progressive project Vibrasphere. I highly recommend this band, they’ve been making some incredible electronic music for the past few years now. In particular, check out their Exploring the Tributaries album.
Iboga Records
Denmark’s Iboga Records is mostly known for its minimal psytrance acts, but more recently a couple of Europe’s biggest progressive trance acts come via Iboga. Spotify now has albums from both Ace Ventura and Liquid Soul.
Spin Twist Records
Based in Germany, Spotify now has a compilation album as well as the excellent debut “A Place to Be Real” from Spin Twist artist Day.Din.
HOMmega Productions & H2O records
Psytrance grew up in Israel, so it’s fitting Spotify now includes Israeli labels HOMmega and H2O. There’s one album from each of Astrix (2004’s “Artcore“) and Quadra (2008’s “Voice of Reason” album).
Ultimae Records
French home to Sweden’s Solar Fields and Carbon Based Lifeforms. You might have heard Solar Fields on the Mirror’s Edge videogame: now Spotify has the complete discography of both artists, as well as albums from Aes Dana and Cell.
Astral Projection
Self-published, “Dancing Galaxy” the 3rd album from Istraeli psytrance act Astral Projection is now on Spotify.
Platipus Records
The British label that first got me into the trance genre back in the mid 90s, the regular compilation CDs fom Simon Berry’s Platipus Records became a must-by for me. It’s fitting then that Spotify now feaures their two-disc compilation “Platipus Beginner’s Guide” featuring tracks from Union Jack, Terra Ferma, and Quietman, all mixed by the legendary Art of Trance. I’m especially pleased to see this release includes the sublime Summit Temple from Quietman: my favourite ambient track of all time.
As always, keep an eye on the Spotinews blog for up-to-the-minute details on what’s new on Spotify.
I’ve started a thread on the isratrance forum about this, and created a best-of playlist called “Afront’s In a Trance” 😉