Rocking for the free world in USA

Author: Jeff Whitmore aka Machinelf
Date: Nov 6, 2008
Views: 7231

Although the United States invented hippies, rock music, surfing, and house and techno music, psy-trance is not mainstream at all and probably won’t be, until the pirate look come back into fashion. The original avant garde of late 90’s era psy hippies has given way to a more decentralized online community. In any event, the Internet has enabled far flung cohesiveness.


Geographically, the music and the scene itself started on the coasts and have moved inward. The lifecycle of a trancer usually starts with tripping at a good party; they might go through a rapid phase of partygoing before settling in to a long period of slow burning, MP3 downloading, and maybe even production, with an occasional relapse into full blown activity.

New York’s fabled scene of the late 90’s was battered by 911 and the recession and hasn’t recovered to its glory days despite valiant efforts and fortunes wiped. There's still the occasional Tsunami and Alladin Project megaparties, along with 6362 Metaforce, TDC, a renewed DMT and 28th Day. Philadelphia’s Gaian Mind has solidified its role as the largest East Coast gathering, complete with a home made American Stonehenge. In North Carolina there are Those people and Touch Samadhi's Powow festival keeps drawing them in. ATL in Atlanta has brought the music to Georgia, and Roe Revolution in Florida.

 

Midwest psy climbed to new heights in 2007. New music collectives and production crews are sprouting up in Missouri and Oklahoma, including Oklahoma’s stellar I/O Audio Visual project. Psymbolic, the audio/visual engineers, have started releasing quality works by psy-trance, ambient and multimedia artists. Iowa’s Mind Outpsyde is still throwing ragers.

 

Outside of the many Midwest Chilluminati events, three exciting gatherings were held in Arkansas last summer. The AUM festival was the first attempt to draw together all the North American tribes at one festival. The psychedelic powerhouses Goa Gil and Simon Posford also made their first Midwest appearances in Arkansas this summer, with the legendary Hog Ridge Hollow being pulled out of dormancy to serve as a venue. At the Midwest goahead-burner nexus, the MindLicker psy-trance theme camp continues to provide a platform for psy-artists around the region to coat burner brains with psychedelic saliva.

 

Burning Man culture is finding a sustainable future in regional communities. Burning Man regional contacts and communities can be found in most Midwestern states now, including new burns in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin. The most recent and shocking development has been the founding of a South Dakota burner community. InterFuse & HullabalU, two Missouri burns, are in their 5th years. If visiting Colorado in the summer, be sure to hit their regional burn, Apogaea, and for a non-burner but visionary experience, also check out the Dreamtime festival, famous for its high quality workshops.

 

Colorado is the stomping ground for pure psy collectives Metamine, Secret Psychedelica, Wacky Shack, and Paradigm Productions. Overmindworks keeps bringing quality psy-trance to the deserts of the American Southwest. Of course, Texas, the granddaddy of all regional burner communities is still celebrating radical self-expression with their events, Burning Flipside around Austin and Myschevia in North Texas. Flipside, especially, draws many visitors from around the country and the world.

 

On the west coast Los Angeles continues to be the epicenter of larger trance events. Green Sector and Psytribe hold it down monthly at various indoor venues as well as hosting outdoor day parties at Woodley Park. Newcomer crew Terrakroma are doing exclusively progressive parties in the downtown LA area.  San Francisco's premier festival is Symbiosis, a multi genre event with a solid chunk of full on & progressive. Synchronize is the long running weekly there. Also in SF are Phoenix Family, Tantra, & CCC. In San Diego music crops up in Psycircle.

 

In the Pacific Northwest, through their series IOSIS Art Party in Seattle, Infinite Connections has merged psy and progressive over the last three years, while Molecular bonds the dark psy in Goa flavors. The remnants of Apollo’s Lute still organize in Portland. In Hawaii, Evolving Arts has psychedelic luaus and The How Weird Street Fairie returns in San Francisco celebrating its ninth year as Americas longest running electronic music festival in the streets.


Come see the United States. Its dirt cheap and the people need psy-trance!

 

Links / Contacts

www.tranceamericana.org
www.psymbolic.com
www.chilluminati.org
www.divinebalance.com
www.goaheadproductions.com  
www.tribes.tribe.net

www.audiognomes.com 
www.touchsamadhi.com
www.goaheadohiopsytrance.tribe.net
www.sidetrakkt.com
www.overmindworks.com
www.gaian-mind.com
www.psytribe.com
www.terrakroma.com
www.gaian-mind.com  
www.shivatrance.com
www.extremeunderground.net

 

Text

 

Jeff Whitmore AKA Machinelf
Machinelf@tranceamericana.org
Bon vivant, writer, promoter, man about town based in New York. He was assisted by contributors across the USA.

Author: bboylj30 / Date: 04.01.2009 18:07:45


Thank you for haard work.
I am refinding my life again after a long drought of music. and need all the help I can get!
Thank you James Jones ( aka BBOY JJ)

Author: gattomatto / Date: 09.11.2008 04:59:21


more links for the US scene...

http://greensector.com
http://geomagnetic.tv
http://vaporvent.com
http://symbiosisevents.com

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