Forums › Rave › Free Parties & Teknivals › Music and Majick in the UK!
Music and Majick in the UK!
http://www.trancersguide.com/u.k..html
The UK has a very rich ancestral history, and an enduring connection to Mother Earth that is near unexplainable. You can find many mysterious and majikal places like the Glastonbury Tor, Stonehenge, Avebury, Crop Circles and all are connected in some way with music! From the druidic chants at Stonehenge and Avebury, to the many musical references found in the Crop Circles (which are by the way in season from April to August). You can find a rich history here and no matter what part of the UK you’re in, the beautiful lush countryside is always a short drive away.
The UK rave scene started in the late 80s before trance was even defined as such. Rave culture seemed to peak in the summer of 1992 when the biggest commercial raves attracted 25,000 to 35,000 people while the illegal techno traveller festival at Castlemorton Common drew an estimated 30,000 to 40,000. There’s no doubt that the UK has spawned some of the top labels and producers in the psytrance scene. Labels such as Phantasm, TIP, Twisted, Dragonfly, Flying Rhino, Transient, and artists like Hallucinogen, Prometheus, Tristan, Eat Static, Darshan, Infinity Project, MWNN, Green Nuns of the Revolution, OOOD, Joti Sidhu, and Cosmosis helped paved the way for many … and the talent still keeps coming and suprising us at every turn!
Organic Records has proven serious staying power and is still going strong, with a superb debut album by Voice Of Cod last year and new releases coming this summer by both Chris Organic and OOOD, not to mention the launch of a chill side to the label. Other labels giving us great music now are Alchemy with Rinkadink, Dark Soho, Freakulizer, Broken Toy; Nano with Aphid Moon, Commercial Hippies, Hydrophonic, Protoculture, and Ambivalent with Scorb, NRS, and Deviant Species. This year also sees the return of Transient with a new comp by DJ Kristian – called »Resurrection« – and lots of new plans including new progressive releases on Automatic. Newer labels to emerge are also putting their mark on the scene. Liquid Records (arising from the infamous underground crew Liquid Connective) houses artists such as S>Range, Tron, Fromem Ory, as well as a chillier side such as Organismic, Slack Baba, Mood Deluxe, Nagual Sound Experiment. Wild Things Records focus on the release of UK based underground psytrance, playing host to EVP, Error Corrective, Hoodwink and Reality Grid. Although new, both labels have made an imprint in the psychedelic scene extending far beyond the UK and you can expect many 2006 releases, as well as appearances by artists from both labels at festivals and parties around the globe!
Chill/Downtempo rooms at parties have always been prevalent and hugely popular, and are definitely the hot spot to hang out and enjoy a cup of chai. The music you will hear now is not what most people expect from the term »chill« but can encompass everything from ambient to roots to booty shaking electronica, just kept on the downbeat. The »new« chill is crossing genre boundaries and evolving to include more IDM, DnB, and Breaks. Nano and Breaksday are teaming up for an event called STIR – May 13 and Liquid Recs are releasing a psybreaks album this year by Mood Deluxe, so keep your eye open as you will start seeing more DJs meshing the two. Downtempo rooms throughout the world will be playing host to UK based Ott, Western Rebel Alliance, Flexitones, Slack Baba, Organismic, Nagual Sound Experiment, Graham Wood, Tripswitch and Nova.
The English summer provides many outdoor parties »renegade« style. Barefoot hippies relish in the sun, dance under the stars, and celebrate the sunrise. Festivals are a plenty as well with the Big Chill, Turaya, Glade, and Glastonbury all which have lineups catering to all music lovers, and all are kid friendly. There are many quality crews and organizations throughout the UK. In London, Antiworld hosts large-scale indoor events; Liquid Connective, well known for being one of the premier underground crews; Fairy Tales will celebrate four years of multimedia-focused events this year; The Synergy Project, a multi-room culturally rich and diverse monthly, Mindscapes will be back with some great parties this year and lastly there’s Chichime, hosted in Brixton @ the Mass. In Kent, Omniscience have wonderful in- and outdoor parties. Heading out west on the M40 you’ll run into Baraka in Oxford, who will this year be celebrating its eighth year by doing many collaborative events with other UK labels and organizations. Bristol is home to Tribe Of Frog, Planet Shroom, Freefall Monkey, and Hoi Pol Loi – all providing quality lineups to a very tight trance scene, the largest scene in the UK outside of London. Not far from Bristol is Toadstool in Gloucester; down south is Party Possible, Insight Dynamiks and finally in the North, Leeds has Cabbage and Sheffield has Planet Zogg, both mixing trance and techno with psytrance. Bradford houses Kulu, you’ll find Sunrise in Manchester and Alien Resonance in Liverpool. There have also been many new psy nights rearing their heads recently including Stereo Chemistry and Mess Media in Birmingham, the student run Crystal Yamantaka in Leeds, Psycle in Nottingham and FatMoon who do indoor free parties in Sheffield. Just across the water we have Dream Tunnel who are doing monthly parties now and who are hosting Irelands first psy fest in June, http://www.life-festival.com with Eskimo, Kristian and John Phantasm. Last but not least is Scotland: Divinorum does smaller events with UK artists, and The Wickerman Festival hosts techno, psy, and chill areas.
Some highlights of 2005: Kundalini came back this year for a most impressive ten year anniversary party, Synergy Project opened the new Synergy Centre allowing for many smaller events with some of the UK’s best kept secrets, and Psy-Forum.co.uk’s fundraiser where all artists played for free to supporting our forum. As well we have now seen the birth of the webbased New Wave Radio program, which was set up in conjunction with Ministry of Sound as a vehicle to promote the global psychedelic sound to a wider audience … and this is just the beginning!
Facts
Shops: Chaos Unlimited (Brighton based online shop) http://www.chaosunlimited.co.uk
Lovely Psychedelic Dream Temple in London had to close down, check their website for future plans http://www.dreamtemple.co.uk
Main Party Resources: Access All Areas in London, a great place to start for party information and drug awareness info – http://www.accessallareas.org
http://www.psy-forum.co.uk
Drugs: Cannibis is still illegal, but if you are sensible and discreet you should have no problems, and as long as your stash is a small personal amount all should be groovy. On a down note, fresh mushrooms were made illegal last yearL
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Robin Annal
Triskele Management
robin@triskelemanagement.com
MSN: triskelemanagement@hotmail.com
Label Marketing and PR / Total Artist Management
“This is not a mind trip…. This is a body journey!”
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Forums › Rave › Free Parties & Teknivals › Music and Majick in the UK!
