This comment is in reference to Creative Commons in Practice: Notes from the Trenches of the Independent Electronic Music Industry by Björn Hartmann, founder of the Textone netlabel. At the time of publication I called it required reading for anyone interested in the ideology behind Ektoplazm and the free music movement in general, but it doesn’t appear to be online…

In the mid-nineties, the legendary Mazzo nightclub in Amsterdam formed several record labels to showcase a diverse array of electronic music styles heard within their walls. Founded in 1995, the M-Track imprint was chartered to release trance and techno—most of which was written by local Dutch producers like Synchro (Jeroen van Garling), Cwithe (Jens Waldebäck and…

Sebastian Krüger (SBK), Linus Wessel, and Victor Harder began working together in the mid-nineties as part of the group Digital Sun, eventually releasing their full-length debut The Spiral of Power on Polytox Records in 1997. That same year, Wessel and Krüger founded Tarsis to explore a more progressive approach to trance music, emphasizing slow-building arrangements and (at that time)…

Youtube users have been incredibly resourceful in unearthing video content previously unavailable to anyone interested in the history of trance. The following clip, dating back to 1994, is a brief Channel 4 (UK) news report on the emergence of Goa trance as a social phenomenon, right around the time it first oozed into the public sphere of awareness. Since…

The following piece is an article I wrote about the Toronto psytrance scene for the 2007 edition of the Trancer’s Guide to the Galaxy, an annual publication with a circulation of 30,000 copies worldwide. This 80 page postcard-sized magazine provides a high-level overview of trance activity around the globe. It is aimed at the neo-hippie jet set: globe-trotting “trancers” keen…

This coming Saturday I will be playing a special Y2K retrospective set at the Darkrave 7 Year Anniversary party, their 80th. Expect to hear old tunes from The Delta, Infected Mushroom, Tim Schuldt, Cydonia, Logic Bomb, and other big names from the turn of the millennium. In hindsight, it can be said that the regular Darkrave and R351570R events helped…

The biggest shop in the U.K. is shutting down at the end of the month! From their mail-out: Chaos Unlimited, the original Psy Trance webstore, will close on 31st August 2006 after 10 years in the Psy Trance scene. This is due to personal health issues combined with the continued decline in Psy Trance CD sales.

Late April of 2006 marks a full decade since my first experience of trance. Ten years ago I attended my first electronic music event: a party thrown by Syrous, one of Toronto’s early large-scale rave production organizations. The party was held in a huge warehouse complex in the industrial wastelands of the west end. Three rooms featured jungle, house, techno,…

EAC or Exact Audio Copy is a very handy tool for music fans. Every time I receive an order of new CDs, the very first thing I do is rip and burn two copies of every CD–one for the backup spool, and one for the binder that I bring out to gigs. Making backups and copies for playing out…