Darkpsy Djs
Darkpsy djs, digital shamans if you will, are the equivolent of the tribal drummers of the ancient trance dance rituals. They take us on deep psychedelic journeys and induce the trance with their seemless mixing and choice of dark atmospheric music. Below you will find a list of darkpsy djs from all over the world beginning with our resident dj, Dj Fantapsy of Shaman Films Records. If you are a signed dj and would like to have your profile added please send us your details (bio, pic, label etc) and if possible a recent mix that we can share in the mixes section. Mark Redfern aka Dj Fantapsy was born in England (1980) but now resides in the beautiful Swedish capital of Stockholm. He grew up listening to rock and heavy metal (the heavier the better) and then used that music as a catharsis for teenage angst. Then one day at the age of 17 (1997) he was given a cd called Distance to Technoland (1 cd techno, 1 cd trance) which featured LSD by Hallucinogen, from that moment forward he found a new catharsis and his passion for psytrance began. He started going to Brixton's world famous club 'The Fridge' and nearby 'Mass' seeing acts such as Astral Projection, Infected Mushroom and Space Tribe which further cemented his love for the music and culture. In 2001 he went travelling for a couple of years and whilst living in Thailand he began djing full-on psytrance - subsequently playing at the Full Moon parties + other smaller parties and then having a residency in The Vinyl Club on Koh Phangan's infamous Haad Rin beach. In 2005 he moved to Stockholm where there is a very healthy darkpsy scene. The dark, heavy, twisted, sounds reminded him of the atmospheres from the heavy metal of his youth and at last he found his niche. In early 2007 Fantapsy was signed as a label dj on Shaman Films Records who are home to many of the craziest night time acts and he is also a part of the 'official' Triplag Family. You can now find him playing full power night time psy in Sweden's clubs and forests. Dark, hard and fast but always with a certain groove to it. Dj Acetic discovered goa trance in early ’99. After finding inspiration in the music he became more interested in the whole scene in general. As time passed, goa trance became psytrance and Acetic began collecting cds and quickly realised that darkpsy was where he was at. Soon afterwards he began djing. After practising solidly for a year and collecting the dirtiest, most psychedelic music he could find he got his first gigs at some small parties. Now however he is looking forward to the international stage as a representative of The Squarez and Materia Prima crews. Alanita is an 18 year old girl from the Brasilian area of Porto Alegre. Her powerful style of mixing and insane choice of tunes has finally given her the recognition she deserves within the Brazilian darkpsy scene. She began listening to psytrance 4 years ago and found her passion lay within the dark and twisted psy style. At the end of 2006 she started producing tracks with Marcelo Noxious from Cannibal Barbecue and subsequently they have started a project called Succubus, with their first track, 'Otherspace Divergents' being featured on the compilation 'The Black Sun'. Alanita is the official label dj of Shaman Films Records, who are home to many big international darkpsy acts such as Baphomet Engine, Polyphonia, Blisargon Demogorgon, Cannibal Barbecue, Claw, Para Halu, Datakult, Ocelot, Paranoize, Silent Horror and Hishiryo to name a few. These are also some of the acts who influence her sets. Cinder aka David Sheker is a talented dj hailing from Northern California in the USA. After practicing classical music theory there he moved to Atlanta, Georiga where he became very involved with dark drum 'n' bass scene. In late '05 however, he discovered 'trauma trance' and from that moment onwards was unable to look at d 'n' b in the same way. In '06 he joined forces with the Atlanta Psytrance movement and began promoting events and playing at the local gatherings. Towards the end of '06 he joined the D-A-R-K Records crew and Those People Productions. At the start of '07 he became a part of new label Anomalistic Records and will be releasing his first VA, Hotdog Gymnastics, on Leap Day in February '08. CRX aka Costas Arabanos is a talented dj from Athens, Greece. As well as djing he is also a dedicated collector of music, psychedelic movies and visuals. Costas first became interested in music in ’93 when he began playing the drums taking his inspiration from traditional rock and metal bands. In ’95 after 2 years of practicing he got a break playing for Lycanthropy, a death metal band influenced by a mixture of brutal Florida death metal, Black Sabbath and Down. This is where he learnt to handle a rhythm. In around ’94 Costas started going to psy parties and raves and became hooked so he began learning to dj and started playing officially at parties and clubs in ’01. In ’03 Costas, along with Narcosis, N.O.M and a little later Cymazz, established the Paranormal Research collective which was made up of djs, vjs and artists and based in Athens. Since then the collective has grown considerably having joined forces with Dark Elf and the KGB laboratories and transforming into the Athens Tribal Unity who are responsible for the biggest darkpsy parties in Greece. Costas also created Helicon Sound System Recs, an independent label dedicated to releasing the most popular tracks from ATU parties. On top of this he is also responsible for the decks for the Mind Antivirus liveset along with N.O.M on Nuendo. The core of HSS is driven by Costas’s love for the music and his personal point of view reflects onto the label, supporting all forms of electronic music and spirituality in electronica. Australia's Cyberwlf is a dj, organiser, promoter and also the host of weekly internet psytrance radio show Psyke Out. Cyberwlf has been into the electronic music scene since the end of the 80's. The natural progression for him was to move into the psychedelic arena. His love of heavy metal, industrial and other alternative music brought him to his new passion of darkpsy where many old metal heads have found a new source of inspiration. Darkpsy became an instant love and he has explored it's realms for many years now. In early '06 he was invited to join highly respected and innovative label Nabi Records and he hasn't looked back since. Since '01 Cyberwlf has organised and promoted many indoor and outdoor psytrance parties though since '03 his efforts have been focused purely on hard, dark psytrance. Amongst these ventures were a series of darkpsy events known as Psykedelic Therapy from which all profits were donated to charity. It was also in '01 that he launched internet radio show Psyke Out which has built itself a solid reputation for always playing the very best in cutting edge night time psy. As well as playing at indoor and outdoor events up and down the beautiful East coast of Australia he has also played in places such as New Caladonia, England, Wales and a host of other European countries. Dennis is from Örebro in Sweden. He is very well known and respected throughout the Swedish scene as well as internationally. Along with Peter 'Vegetal' and Alex 'Kiriyama', Dennis runs the successful Devil's Mind Records and he is also the label dj for Russian label Insomnia Records. Dennis plays all over the world so keep your eyes out for him on a lineup near you and prepare to be blown away. (Vic) FungusOK was born in the depths of Dublin, Ireland and grew into a man with a passion for extreme and experimental sounds, a characteristic which he feels has been with him throughout many past lives. FungusOK's life force, his soul, is driven by the dark and twisted beats of the real night time psychedelic, no fluff, no floating melodies, just pure darkness that drives mercilessly through body and soul. In July 2005 his rage against the fluffy psy (!) realised itself and gave birth to Triplag broadcast which then spawned Triplag Music, a way to keep the darkness flowing 24/7, 365. Since then he has himself compiled and released several VA albums, Triplagitus, Shamanitus, Samowarez and the very soon to be released Keep The Faith. Goa Gil is probably the most well known figure on the darkpsy scene and is considered by many to be 'the Godfather of psytrance'. When Gil plays, he really plays, often mixing continuously for 24 hours at a time. There is an entirely spiritual meaning behind his philosophies and his music and to see him play is an awe inspiring thing. There is so much that can be said about Gil, his life, his beliefs and his status within not only the darkpsy community but also within the sacred circles of the Indian Sadhus that I have dedicated an entire page to him. To read more about this fascinating man please follow this
Goa Gil link.
Kutanimal is Fábio Fauvrelle who is originally from Mozambique. At a very young age he moved to Portugal where he lived for 17 years but after that he also spent time living in England, France and Holland. His musical journey began at the young age of 7 when he used to play techno and house records with his brother. During the 90’s he was a thrash metal guitarist in a few garage bands. In ’97 came his first contact with the psychedelic scene and in 2000 he began djing psytrance. Since then he has organised private as well as free parties with the intention of showcasing quality new talents. This intention was fulfilled at least twice when he was the first to book both LAB, and 2 years later, Rawar. Both of whom have now become respected international artists. In ’07 Kutanimal’s hard work finally paid off and he was signed as a label dj to fast growing label Pleiadian Records (Mexico), an accomplishment he is particularly proud of. Mezcalito is José Salvador S.M Narro from Mexico City. From a very early age music has strongly influenced him. In 2000 he got his first taste of psytrance when he was given Juno Reactor’s ‘Bible Of Dreams’ by his mother! From then on his thirst for psytrance grew and grew and he began going to as many parties as possible. As time went on he started to feel that many of his favourite artists were becoming a little too mainstream and losing their psychedelic edge whereas the darkpsy that was appearing was becoming more psychedelic than ever. It was then that he decided to focus his attention purely on darkpsy. In 2003 he began mixing and then in 2004 he met Ectick and Cerebral Death, subsequently playing vs sets with both of them. They taught him a great deal and he developed a nice mixing style. He plays pure darkpsy with hard basslines and very psychedelic atmospheres. José is signed as a label dj for Shaman Films Records and is a member of both the Caffix and Sound Blasters crews. Miazu aka Mia is a female dj from Finland who plays groovy full on / darkpsy. Mia's dream of becoming a dj started at a very young age. A youth project in her area advertised a djing course and so naturally she applied. Unfortunately, though perhaps unsurprisingly for that time, they did not welcome girls on the course. Her dream however was not going to be destroyed by the prejudices of some so Mia started practising with friends instead until 1 day, in 2003, her dream came true when she was given the chance to play at a party. Since then she hasn't looked back. To Miazu being a dj is more of a lifestyle than anything else and she is constantly practising and improving her skills behind the decks. Recently she has also started down the production road too. The sheer volume of positive vibrations have held her passion strong and she has been an active member of the psychedelic scene for a long time now. She loves to, in fact feels obliged to share the magical feeling with others and constantly strives to channel strong positive vibes to the people on the dancefloor. Miazu currently plays for Exogenic and Moonsun Records and is a part of the People Of The Butterflies crew. Narcosmix is Andy from Belgium. After hearing psytrance for the first time sometime last millennium it was a case of love at first listen! After many many parties over the course of many many years Andy decided he too wanted to dj so he bought some equipment and began ‘bedroom djing’ but then subsequently began being invited to play at small parties in Belgium. At the end of 2006 he was invited to become part of the notorious F.U.B.A.R crew who are well known for their amazing parties. This step up was followed by him being asked to be a label dj for Skitzophrenik Lifeform Records in mid 2007. He has quite an eclectic style, liking to play weird, creepy, bizarre, uplifting, trippy, mind-melting darkpsy as well as really fast, energetic, aggressive, fucked up, pounding darkpsy with powerful drives that make your eardrums bleed though you won’t notice as you’ll be too busy dancing like a maniac! His mixing philosophy is that variation is the key and his goal is to make people dance, smile and go crazy whilst showing them the beauty of the darkness. Gabi 'Pacifist', originally from Spain, now lives in the capital city of Sweden, Stockholm. He has been playing for many years though he considers mixing a hobby more than anything. Pacifist has a great reputation not only in Sweden but internationally as a powerful and reliable dj who never fails to destroy every trancefloor he is asked to preside over. Gabi, along with his friend Talos, run the Hypnotica Records label together which has become highly respected. Pacifist has also recently finished his first compilation for Hypnotica entitled 'Feel The Pain'. Expect nothing less than carnage from this man! Polly is a dj from Finland who plays something between full on morning and night time darkpsy, always coming straight from the heart. Polly discovered psytrance in the mid nineties and shortly afterwards made his way to his first party. Since then psytrance has been a big part of his life. These days Polly plays as a label dj for Space Boogie Productions and is a part of the People Of The Butterflies events crew. He has shared a stage in Finland with many well known acts such as Miraculix, Wizack Twizack, Ka-Sol and Electrypnose and has also played in Germany, Sweden and Spain. Dj Psytour is Stefanos who was born in ’79 in Athens, Greece. Stefanos started djing in ’98 and played in places such as Belgium, Poland, Russia, Germany, Denmark and Romania. In 2000 he began organising parties in Athens and took many nice artists there, the likes of Derango, Whicked Hayo, Psyfactor, Claw, Freaking and many many more. It was also in ’06 that Stefanos created the Night Oracle Records label which had it’s first release, The First Oracle in ’07 which was a great success on dancefloors everywhere. Next for the label will be the Whicked Hayo album release and a new VA, both hopefully before the end of ’07. Back To The Darkpsyde Homepage
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