Various - Goatronika FLAC

Radical Distortion is up first with a nice midtempo warmer track. Nothing exceptional but a very nice starting track, making you really want to find out what's up next.Space Elves come with a VERY nice oldschool vibe. I mean, REALLY oldschool, stuff that remind me of the good ol' days, not the modern newschool interpetations that we have gotten used to expecting to hear when someone mentions "newschool". Definately one of the best tracks I've heard this year. Keep up the good work lads ;)Alienapia up next with a great blend of forest trance and newschool, my absolute favorite track on this comp. As far as I'm concerned, THIS is the way of the future for goatrance!No let the name fool you,Sky Technology's Next Steps to the Stars has nothing to do with Miranda's classic, it just shares a similar name. A nice track but personally I find that it lacks focus, it's as if the artist doesn't really know where he's going with this, just trying out different ideas.Amithaba Buddha up next with some nice oldschool 303 lines on top of some nice swirling melodies, although I always find that there's something missing in his work... can't tell what, cause all the elements are there, but they don't quite fit my definition of a great track.Hypnotic Signal up next with trance straight from Siberia (nice to see that the goa spirit has spread so far BTW ;) ). Some nice ideas tried in there and a pretty good melody, although this isn't quite top notch material IMO.Psynews' own Blackstarrfinale gives us his debut track which is a great first effort but a bit too generic to my ears.Vox up next trying out some interesting stuff, mmmmm this is definately my cup of tea... the melody that kicks in around 3:00 is absolutely SUPERB and makes my heart melt... although it is VERY similar to a certain Shiva Shidapu - Virtual Voyage... but hey, I guess that most people into the scene today don't even know of the original so bringing back such a great melody can't be a crime, let's just call it a tribute ;) Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, copyright issues aside, this is one great track :)NK47 starts off pretty generic but if you're patient enough and stay with it you'll get a nice rewarding melody in the end (around 6:30), reminding me some nice oldschool israeli trance from the good ol days. My only complaint is that the "good part" only lasts for about a minute :(The closer is from Arronax. You might think he's a newbe to the scene but it turns out he's been releasing stuff already since 2004. Personally I've never heard of the guy but I guess it's better late than never ;) He gives us a track that's a bit more on the dark and fast side of things. Again, some nice ideas explored in there but somehow I find the track as a whole is lacking something.Conclusion A nice add-on to an ever-growing newschool collection. Of course, just like other comps this isn't perfect and still suffers from that generic plasticky sound that the first generation of newschool productions had, although this is definately another step in the right direction :)Favorites: 2, 3(!!), 8(!!)

Obviously, maroko made a point concerning new goa and this album in particular. But I'd like to point out a track that stood out both album and the whole phenomena-wise.That'd be Sky Technology's "Next Step to the Stars". Despite having ripped off a title from Miranda's classic, this track brings the traditional goa soul with clear complex melodies and a structure that actually functions together to create a thorough experience.Goa ever was a genre of melody. Unlike darkpsy, where producers forge melody through careful selection of samples and synth lines (good darkpsy anyway), goa melodies are infused through... sheer melodies alone. That said, it isn't so much the uplifting manner nor the dullness of the melodies that don't do it nowadays, it's the lack of integrity within the track itself. If producers spent more time tailoring their track structure, carefully fitting profound melodies and boosting all that with bass that complement one another. It's goa afterall. And goa means melody.Five years after "Corolle", a little less since Mindcrawlers churned "Firebloom". Sky Technology can easily claim to be on the revival side of new goa.

I'm not really convinced this time around. As happy and glad as I was by the alleged advent of goa trance, the vast majority of this output just tries too hard to be "out there". Despite having a fine roster of some affirmed names going hand in hand with newly arrived forces, you will have an impossible task of telling who is who on "Goatronika". One too many melodies sound the same, a lot of them are plain dull, screaming and just too damn uplifting, ten consecutive tracks just have too much in common for any of them to really stand out above the bunch. Now, not a single piece here is atrocious, but not one shines either. Many older goa trance heads will be familiar with "V/A Accidental Occidentalism", a vintage old school classic compilation, which I've listened to just before giving this one a spin. Now, even after the running time of "V/A Goatronika" was up, I could not recognize or remember a single lead, sequence, bass line or kick, or whatever you chose from this compilation, but instead, my head was loaded with instantly memorable moments from a 1995 release. Well, I won't stop and talk about the music too much, because, at the end of the day, this is goa trance, and I am not trying to prove that fact wrong. My main question here how many more times will we be exposed to the same track eight to ten times over during one release? I know I am making it sound like a cheap rant here, but as much as I used to find something mystical and off the chain in the old days, this is, well - kill me for saying it- formulaic, text book goa trance. The melodies are just uplifting, they resemble the israeli nitzo style, or worse yet, leave me with an impression that I'm living in an area where the polar light is not just a passing phenomenon, but a permanent climatic state. Sure, not everything has to be night time music, but can we please drop the whole cheerleader goa trance aesthetic. A fine example of a modern goa trance release which forecasts far more interesting things yet to come is "V/A People Walk Funny" on Cronomi Records. As straight forward and simple as this one is, for us who have heard it all a thousand times over more than ten years ago, Goatronika is not an obbligatory stop. However, if you have enjoyed releases by the now defunct label Metapsychic, Suntrip Records, or even the debut compilation by Ezel-Ebed Records, then I see no reason why not toss this one in the shopping cart as well. Those looking for goa trance taking off in new exciting places with the new upcoming decade might want to stay patient for a little while.

~