Quality not quantity in Denmark

Despite its small size, the Northern European country Denmark has played a big part in the development of the Psytrance music. It was one of the first countries to get infected with Trance music at the beginning of the 90's, and early acts like Koxbox/ Psychopod/ The Overlords, Elysium, Orion, Orichalcum and Bypass Unit/ ColorBox undoubtedly helped shape the sound we know today.

Today Danish artists and labels are still to be found at the forefront of the Psytrance scene with music falling mainly into the subgenres of Progressive and Psychedelic (Dark Psy), although there are exceptions like Genetic Spin who has moved to Full-on. Emok and Banel’s Iboga Records is still one of the world’s leading Progressive label and among some of their local resident artists we find Phony Orphants, Behind Blue Eyes, Reefer Decree, Frogacult, NASA and Beat Bizarre. Other Danish Progressive acts include Bufo, Tribalistic Society, Comadose, Navajo and Pythagoraz. Parvati Records on the other hand is one of the key players in the development of the Dark Psy sound, with Danish acts like Grapes Of Wrath, Meteloids and Jahbo on their roster. Other Danish Psychedelic acts worth mentioning are Mussy Moody, Alrune and AnnoyingNinjas.

Contrary to the music being made, the party-scene is mainly Full-on. In Copenhagen, most of the parties are held at a venue called Bryggen, which is open almost every Friday and Saturday, but venues like Amager Bio, Halvandet and Bazookaclub also hold regular events. Party organisers Eclipse, Audiobahn, Vibration Records, Tribal Gathering and Raveplanet are usually the ones behind the island's festivities.

In the mainland Jutland (Jylland), the parties are more widespread, but generally focused around the two biggest cities Århus and Ålborg. Here, Electrobeat.dk, Scientific Sequence, Psysociety, NoiZy WiZardZ, Logarythm and Electronic Dimension are the main party crews.

In Jutland we also find the 2 Danish open-air festivals, Middle Earth (organised by Scientific Sequence) and SEMF, both of which have been held annually since 2004 both of which run for 3 days and attract quite strong lineups consisting of both Danish and international headliners. There are also several one night open-air parties during the summer, again mainly concentrated around Copenhagen, Århus and Ålborg.

The future of the Danish party-scene is pretty hard to predict. There is no doubt that the biggest parties are getting increasingly commercial and narrow-minded music-wise, but if you look beyond the most flashy parties, there’s still something to be found for most tastes in the Psytrance spectrum.