Darkpsy Artists Darkpsy artists, what can I say? To me they are masters of sound, sonic shamans if you will, with the ability to pull me in so many different directions and let me feel carefree, happy and good about myself with just the use of sound waves, but hey, that's just my standpoint, we all have our own unique connection and history with the music. The sounds of darkpsy are very hard, deep and hypnotic and much more appropriate for inducing a state of trance. After all, when 'the trance dance' first originated the music was played on deep bass sounding drums, not a fluffy melody in sight, just pounding, raw beats that became faster and faster and therefore pushed the ‘trance dancers’ deeper into a trance. Of course things have progressed a little since then but the core element of the music, hard, deep beats, remains the same. Below is a list of some of the darkpsy masters of today who provide us with the trance inducing soundscapes and beats that are loved so dearly by psytrance fans all around the world. If you are an artist and wish to be included on our list please use the contact form to send through your up-to-date profile, a promo pic, preferably of yourself in action and your Myspace if you have one. Your profile will then be added after evaluation. Aku Aku is 21 year old Timor Babayev from Israel. Timor discovered psytrance at the age of 14 and step by step got into the scene. Today he is a very competent darkpsy producer who continues to electrify us with his crazy sounds. His style is deep and dark but with a lot of scratch sounds. He doesn’t play with leads or FX like many other producers. It is his basslines that give his tracks their crazy edge and it plays straight into your brain! Alien Mental is a project from La who comes from Chennai, India but currently resides in San Francisco. He began his musical journey playing in a variety of bands from the metal, jazz and punk scenes. After hearing some ‘obscure’ electronic sounds from Japan and Europe in 2000 he was drawn into the world of electronic music. After moving to the States he started the Alien Mental project. The aim is to push the boundaries of goa/psy/darkpsy by taking them and fusing them together with sounds from many other genres to create a whole new crazy sound. La also composes under the name of Sonik Scizzor and furthermore has a project with Zik called Jibber Jabber. Ankur, which is his real name, grew up in West Germany though he is actually half Indian. Ankur first discovered electronic music through the trance wave of ’99, having been introduced to it by his older brother. By the end of that year he had fallen in love with the music and the scene and attended the majority of parties where he lived. He began learning to mix on cdjs in 2001 and a year later started playing at parties in Germany. In 2003 he went on a trip to Goa which changed his direction toward even more psychedelic music and in turn he began to spin that music too. Today he lives in Berlin, arranging parties with Dj Raoul (Rapid Eye Movement) as well as producing with artists from around the world in his home studio. His style is best described as bouncy, playful darkpsy that really pulls you into the moment. Atriohm is made up of 2 brothers, Leonid and Aleksander Golcev from Macedonia. They have both had a musical education and have been involved in various musical projects, Leonid as a keyboard player and Aleksander as a drummer. In 1996 they discovered psytrance at a party organised by some of their friends. Having been consumed by the magic of the sound they began playing chill out and trance at parties in their hometown of Skopje and in 2003 they decided to start their own project, Atriohm. They make twisted psytrance with deep bass lines and cruising melodies. They also compose chill out and down tempo music too. Audiopathik is Gilbert Wendlandt and Alex Urias from Mexico. They got together to create music in 2004 and between them brought a lot of different influences such as hardcor/gabber, acid techno, jungle, goa and from within the trance genre the sounds from Scandinavia and Russia. The end result is powerful bass lines, crispy tweaks, twisted atmospheres and ‘glitchy’ breaks, a real breath of fresh air in the darkpsy scene. Belgian born Kevin Erckens is the man behind Azidax. He began djing and producing darkpsy in 2004 and in no time at all he was a well known name on the Belgian scene having been given a dj residency for the party crew Materia Prima. He dazzled people with his skills and became one of Belgium’s most popular darkpsy djs, with a reputation for playing ‘dark, twisted, high speed crazy madness’ in his sets. In 2006 he was invited to join ‘The Squarez’, a dark psychedelic underground party crew founded in 2003 by Pzyko. To date Azidax has only officially released one track, the absolutely crushing ‘Toywomb’ which was featured on Skitzophrenik Lifeforms VA album ‘Psychedelic Religion’. Azidax is now working on his full length debut album. Watch out for this terrifying new talent. The Baphomet Engine project is a collaboration between Fabio and Luiz. They came from very different musical backgrounds, punk and metal bands, but in ’98 they both made the move from traditional instruments and bands into the world of electronic music. With their true musician roots and a very psychedelic state of mind, they create an incredibly powerful and energetic experience. Experimenting with a wide array of frequencies and sounds and are developing their music to reveal to you the chaos and insanity of the ‘true’ world. Baphomet Engine today are recognised as one of the most creative and innovative acts that Brazil has to offer. With real night time musical energy they tell stories that take you on a deep journey. Bodhisattva 13:20, or Bodhi for short, is Christopher Martin, an award winning musician who has had quite a few tracks released on darkpsy compilations as well as releasing 2 full length albums entitled Excursions Through Ancient Future and Secrets of the Mojave. He produces and compiles for Truffle Records and has also provided music for a couple of independent films. Alongside Arahat he runs a collective who organise psytrance events,plays at a monthly club, tours Mexico and North America playing at many many parties and festivals and on top of all that is a full time student studying for a geological engineering degree!!! The Cannibal BBQ project began in 2005 when 3 dirty cannibals met up in search of human flesh!!! The 3 in question are Marcello and Thierry (Psynatorium) and Felipe (Neo Vox) and the results are blistering. A truly innovative and twisted sound combined with a (bad) sense of humour, an absolute pleasure for the nigh time when you want to trip hard! In 1994 the Cartoons project started life, originally under the name of Caashkavally, with 3 members, Dejan Ignjatov, Jovo Mijovik and Bozidar Nikolovski. Bozidar left the project in 2005 and Cartoons was born. The music is a unique blend, deep dark music with melodies seemlessly drifting through it, deep rolling basslines and extremely powerful sounds. Roughly 2 years ago two Hungarian friends, Tomi (Tamás Bársony) aka Liquidspoon and Dj Paya (Pál Trencsényi) got together and started making music. The result is the Chemicalspoon project. Even before they joined forces the 2 had had their own separate successes. The idea is simple, make music that is both danceable and hard and roll it into one! They incorporate a lot of deep atmospheric sounds as well as good tough basslines. The duo had their first release on the Hungarian VA album Hungry For Hungary (Psybaba Recs) and since then have had a lot of other label interest. As well as the Chemicalspoon project the guys also have a number of sideprojects, Bionic Boys with Dj Tsubi, Liquidspoon, Proctor and Chemicalmord with Badsector. The mind behind the Claw + CHP projects is Charalambos Pieris from Cyprus. He began learning about production in 2001 having followed electronic music from a very young age. Charalambos showed more interest in house music and he even released a couple of tracks under the name CHP. He felt the need to explore more regions of the underground scenes and after finding a home in darkpsy, the Claw project was born. There are a great many Claw tracks to be found on darkpsy compilations and also a split album with Paranoize called Deadly Alliance. The Claw style is powerful and explosive with dark and futuristic sounds intertwined. Charalambos is still produces chill out music too. He says the majority of his influence comes from everyday life around him. Cosmo is Peter Cubala from Slovakia. Having survived his crazy psychedelic experiments he burst onto the scene bringing with him a new style that for many was a breath of fresh air. His style is fast, furious, brutal full power darkpsy with an array of crazy breaks and glitches designed to keep your mind and legs working overtime. Apart from tracks on compilations, he has released the album ‘Gravity’ which came in 2006. Peter is also half of the darkpsy project Highcosmos with Highko and they released the album ‘4real’ also in 2006. CPC is a particularly dark project from Russian born Vladislav Radostavin. Vlad was born in ’77 and started his technological and musical career in ’92 when he began programming Z80 based computers, subsequently writing music for video games of that time. In ’98 he became interested in and started djing which led him into professional electronic music composition in 2000. When Vlad isn’t writing music as CPC he also composes music for the advertising and movie industries. In 2002 Vlad was given the opportunity to work in the Moscow studios of highly respected label Déjà Vu Records. After tireless work the end result was the 2005 release of the first full length CPC album Ueber Den Angst. CPC is one of the most sought after and respected darkpsy acts on the scene having released many tracks on VA albums as well as the aforementioned Uber Den Angst and also the 2006 follow up album Double Bouble. Josh Stubbs and Ted Brunning are the duo behind the Cuboid Atom project. They began making psytrance in August 06 when they bought Reason 3. Now however they have switched to Ableton 6 and started to experiment with different styles and ideas. Finally they found their niche was in darkpsy and decided to carry on in that direction, finding it a much more intelligent and interesting style of psytrance. Unbelievably they are both still teenagers, however, their production quality is amazing and their music is powerful and intelligent. Full power dirty rolling basslines, twisted melodies and a wonderful array of crazy dark sounds and samples always keep you wondering what's coming next. So far they have released 2 promo ep's, Eat The Fridge and Psyjazz (Check the Free Albums section of this site). Keep your eye on these 2 guys, Cuboid Atom are coming and they will blow you away. The man behind Cymazz is John Revis from Athens, Greece. Having burst onto the scene in 2006 with his first release Evil Or Good on the Freemason Conspiracy album his popularity has quickly been established. His music is powerful, dark and hypnotic and has even earned him the reputation of ‘an alien from another planet!’. From Paris, France comes the Dejan project. He first found electronic music in ’95 and became interested and involved in production shortly after. In ’98 he went to his first psy party and became instantly absorbed by the crazy sounds. Having fallen in love with the style, he began to write his own psytrance. Dejan has collaborated with many other artists and has the following side projects: The Many Faces (with Karim from Jellyheadz), Loko (with Baphomet Engine and Electrypnose) and 0.0.0 (with Judzign and Virgile). As well as writing darkpsy, Dejan also writes chill out tunes. Demonizz is the project of Thiago Pasetchny and Leandro Morales. They started making music together in early 2005, but were only really noticed in 2006 when they were invited to play with some of the best Brazilian artists darkpsy scene and finally getting the chance to show the dancers what the other artists already knew they could do! One of the most memorable of their shows would have to be at the Etnica gathering where the duo appeared alongside Baphomet Engine and Cannibal Barbecue and completely destroyed the place.Finally all their hard work paid off and they were invited into the Black Magik Records family and bringing them some well deserved international recognition. The Demonizz style is phat, driving grooves, and a whole array of influences, creating a very deep twisting hallucinogenic atmosphere. The pair have a new project called DuoPhonix that is fast, groovy and agressive. The project has a whole new level of intelligent darkness and they will surprise you with their new tracks. Derango is Jens and Ola, 2 Swedes who have had several electronic music projects in the past before they began making darkpsy together in 2000. They have many tracks released on various psytrance compilations and in 2005 they released their first full album ‘Tumult’. The creativity of Derango is a full expression of the psychedelic experience transferred into music. Their huge sound comes from the combination of a solid warm bass line with waves of synth sounds and samples on top in a constant change and movement. The result is a unique wrapping effect that gives listeners the contrasting feeling of on one hand being safe and belonging to Mother Earth’s womb but on the other hand providing the challenge of discovering and understanding that our minds and spirits have no borders. Their music is like a visual, and the expert psy listener will be carried away! Detonatik is Jasi from Mumbai, India. He was exposed to a great assortment of music from an early age and heard the sounds naturally evolving. In the late 90’s he found psychedelic trance and was hooked. His perception is this: “Music is geared towards seeing dance as an active form of meditation going at a sonic speed, an inner journey not limited to our normal perceptions of space and time. A journey on a wide horizon of soundscapes with atmospheres which are intense but at the same time make people reach out for more.” His style of darkpsy could be described as many things, heavy, twisted, chaotic, groovy and deeply psychedelic though are probably the best words to use. Thomas Franske is the Swiss man behind the Digitalist project. In 1999 he made his connection with psychedelic music and began djing. In 2000 he took his first steps with production and started creating sound with analogue synthesizers!! In 2002 the Digitalist project was born with the intention of performing powerful, driving, futuristic music. He has worked with many of the scenes leading producers and is constantly seeking to improve his psytrance productions. His self titled debut promo album was released in 2006. The man behind the DigitalX project is Alexis from Cyprus who has been both djing and producing for the past 10 years. Alexis spent 5 years taking music production classes at SAE College and Thames University in London and post graduated in ’04. More recently though his performances have made him and his musical style popular to a huge audience in Cyprus. Considering just one and half years ago this same style of music was considered too different and too annoying by the majority of these same people, that is some conversion! Alexis must be credited for turning the scene around somewhat there. Alexis is a determined man, always on the lookout for new sounds and meanings to further his unique music production conception which you can really hear in his more recent work. His music always retains the underground spirit and his distinguishing hard yet groovy darkpsy style is both different and memorable. To read our exclusive interview with DigitalX please
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Electrypnose is Vin Le Barde from Switzerland. He is a very talented producer who, having started the project in 2001, works with many different sound styles including ‘intellitrance’ (both morning and hard night-time darkpsy), experimental and chill out. Since 2004 he has released many tracks on compilations and has also released the full albums, ‘Brain Stretching’, ‘Le Tireur Des Ficelles’ and ‘Subliminal Melancholies’. He has also released albums with other producers, for example the ‘Geomancia’ album with Melodix. Encephalopaticys is the darkpsy project of Vasko Velickovski. He was born and lives in Macedonia, a place full of high hills and spirits unknown for the majority of listeners. The Macedonian landscape and nature is one of the reasons for his powerful sound and unique darkpsy style. In 2001 Vasko began djing, using it as a stepping stone to his dream of turning his own visions into sound. After a few years of djing and spending time immersed in psychedelic music he began his own experimentation with psychedelic sounds and began creating his own psy sounds in his studio. In 2003 the Encephalopaticys project was born. Although hard to describe his unique style of music, many would call it darkpsy/powerful night-time trance. Powerful deep bass lines combined with psychedelic sounds and creepy forest atmospheres inspired by his natural Macedonian surroundings. The duo behind the Entropy project is Pitt and Omer. Both were born in Southern Israel and with a huge combined musical background. Pitt played piano as a child before losing interest and then discovering electronic music. At first drum and bass, techno and house then psytrance which took hold of him immediately. Omer studied hard and has a degree in sound engineering. They were both in the scene in the early days as ravers but a chance meeting with party organiser Shay led to a successful project collaboration known as the Kopsses project. Their debut album was then released in 2002. After some time however Shay felt that he wanted to go in a different direction to them and left to follow his own path leaving the 2 of them to move further into darkpsy territory. The Entropy project was then born and after 2 years of hard work their second album ‘The Second Law Of Thermodynamics’ was released in 2004 and in 2006 the third instalment, ‘Purple People’ was unleashed - hard, dirty psytrance. Efrain Candia aka Erofex is a dj/producer from La Paz, Bolivia with 10 years experience behind him. In ’99, having worked as a dj at an electronic music disco in Peru for 2 years, Erofex (then known as Dj W.N.N) decided to start organising trance parties. He set out on travels through Bolivia and the surrounding countries as a guest dj. In 2000 he was invited to visit Japan which is where his work really began to become more professional. He was subsequently signed to TechPro (Japan) and is invited to be a producer and dj at many of their events all over Japan. In ’01 he returned to Bolivia and begins again working as an organiser, dj and producer within the psytrance scene which he still continues to do to this day. To date Erofex has released 5 full albums as well as countless tracks on VA albums. ExtAzya is Yoni Dayan who comes from the southern region of Israel. His musical journey began at the tender age of 13 when he began creating his own music and subsequently playing at parties. At the age of 14 he learned how to create both instrumental and electronic music professionally. After a few years he had his first release on a VA album, the track was called Shamanas Garden. He is now also signed to Secret Psyde Records. As well as releasing tracks on VA albums he is also hard at work on his debut solo album and continues to play his music at parties around the world. Behind the Fragletrollet darkpsy project is Norwegian artist Magnus Storen Wedén. “Originally born several millennia ago he has undergone intensive (re-)incarnations which have in turn given birth to an array of different of different perspectives. Using these perspectives he is able to present a very eclectic style of music – in his own words, interesting and emotional psychedelic mindscapes for infinite mystical experiences both on the dancefloor and on the couch at home." The Fragletrollet project is emotion, fun and fantasy all fused together to make a huge vat of troll elixir! The resulting sound is highly innovative and unique, taking its influences from the likes of psychedelia, Goa, hardcore and several other electronic mediums. With so many differing styles at work you will find that one minute you will be floating on a blissful cloud of warmth and the next moment you find yourself in a dark, creepy and hellish cavern. For a taste of the Fragletrollet experience please check the Live Sets section of this site. One of the best known and loved artists in the scene is Fungus Funk aka Sergey Prilepa from Moscow, Russia. Sergey first started producing in ’98 and had his first release, on Acidance Records, in 2001. Since then he has released more than 40 tracks on various labels as well as his first full album, F-People, which was released in 2006. His style is quite wide ranging, from balls to the wall full power darkpsy to dark full on to full on and even some psy ambient tracks too. Whichever style of tunes he is making, his arrangements and complex textures lead the listener on an intricate journey for that hazy time between the night and the morning. Keep your eyes out as Sergey will also be releasing 2 new albums this autumn. His second full length Fungus Funk album, Electric Grooves, and also a split album with Samadhi entitled Vostok 1: Escape The Gravity. To read our exclusive interview with Fungus Funk please
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Gain Reduction is made up of Venzi Stoev and Angel Dimitriov, both from Polvdiv, Bulgaria. They have been working together on different projects since 1998 and before that they each had separate projects within the grindcore and death metal scenes. They both graduated their classical guitar course at Polvdiv’s music academy though by the end of the 90’s they were more fascinated by the sound of electronic music. Not long after then the Gain Reduction project was born and has since then become one of the acts at the forefront of the Bulgarian darkpsy scene. Ghreg on Earth hails from the west coast of north America and has been weaving his unique musical concept as a producer, dj and A&R manager since the late 80’s. He is tremendously passionate and dedicated to creating truly innovative soundscapes known for their timeless cinematic spaces that push the medium of the trance far beyond it’s formulaic parameters and ‘limitations’. At the end of ’05 Ghreg’s debut album Sigilweaver was released and set ablaze the trance scene, setting a new benchmark in sound exploration. It is a timeless masterpiece that continues to drop listener’s jaws, taking them on an incredible journey through deep night time psyscapes. Gidra is Thomas Aquino Lobo’s solo psytrance project which was started in 2003. Originally from Goa, Thomas has always been surrounded by a wide selection of musical styles and has himself played guitar since a young age. After attending his first psytrance parties in the late 90’s he found a whole new culture and it was then he decided that he had found the music he wanted to create. He started experimenting with software and it flowed from there onwards. He now focuses on writing night-time darkpsy music with strong freaky rhythms and demented loops rooting from the dark forests of Goa.
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