Archive for August, 2006
Posted on August 31, 2006 - by dionysus
X-dream's Jan to Jam at CoSM
The New York psytrance community received a bit of good news: The psytrance collective 28th Day is having another one of its parties held at Alex Grey‘s Chapel of Sacred Mirrors. The ‘CoSMosis’ event on the night of September 16th is a return of the collaboration that brought NY scene its memorable parties in early 2006. We can only hope that the two will continue the trend into the future, and bring more artists to visit us in the only psychedelic safe-house in the city.
Jeff Whitmore had this to say about the collective’s recent initiatives:
I am so glad [28th Day] is doing not only big things but innovat[ive] things. That’s why you won’t see the DMT this summer. We were needed back in 2004-2005 but not now, [which is] like the 2002-2003 Omnitribe daaaaaze.
X-Dream‘s Jan Müller will be joining us as DJ, while Fredrik Larsson will perform as Krumelur live. The former I am well-acquainted with, the latter comes with high praise from the progressively-inclined.
Posted on August 29, 2006 - by dionysus
mouse party
(via apophenia) Have you seen the Mouse Party before? The University of Utah put together a Flash-based visualization of the effects of various intoxicants upon the brain.
You analyze the brains of a group of highly-intoxicated mice, trapped in a genetics lab together listening to downtempo grooves. They all seem quite mellow, despite their extremely different head spaces.
The information is nothing groundbreaking; the presentation is. You will learn something.
Posted on August 29, 2006 - by dionysus
soon comes the end of summer
Time for the seasons to change again, almost. We have one month left to dance under the open skies before the cold forces East Coast psytrancers back into lofts, warehouses, and clubs. Now, with CKA3KA just behind us, there remains in September two regional festivals; Samadhi in the north, outside of Montreal, and KaPow in the southern forests of Asheville, NC. There will of course be smaller local events during the month for those who do not wish to travel quite so far from home.
The young Samadhi Festival runs Sept. 1-4, this coming weekend, in the rural countryside outside of Montreal. This is the first year they are bringing in major talent
Kapow! runs later in September, and is the follow-up festival to last year’s PowWow. This is one gathering I can personally recommend. TOUCH Samadhi is a talented crew, and their events reflect a deep understanding of the communal spirit of psytrance. The Deerfields is a magical place, a bit of uncut indigenous American forest preserved and gently modified by druidlike hippie landowners.
Closer to home, 28th Day will be throwing a beach party Sept. 9th. They have not yet announced the new location or lineup; check their site in the coming days for the announcement.
Rumor has it that X-Dream and Krumelur will be visiting us here in New York come the end of September. They will not be performing in a hideous commercial club, either, but in something of a more spiritual location.
Posted on August 25, 2006 - by dionysus
Shpongle floating down the stream
I am just home from the Shpongle boat cruise in Hudson Harbor. John-Emmanuel, Luis, and co. successfully organized a novel experience for a few hundred trancers, CoSMites, Postford devotees, Body Templars, and Bisco kids.
The cruise was slightly shorter than the advertised three hours, but even just two-and-a-half hours of Shpongle mixed with Hallucinogen left everyone quite pleased; the massive sound system left us dazed but only slightly deafened. Watching the Manhattan skyline unfold to Simon’s warped sounds for a solid five minutes was worth the price of admission alone.
Since few of the local community veterans were present, this marked the first floating trance party for most present. The crowd was very couple-heavy, as the time constraints made it a perfect date for the psychedelically-inclined-yet-not-ready-for-a-fullon-party people. The youthful enthusiasm in the voices and faces around me recalled to mind my own times at Tsunami parties past.
UPDATE: A gallery finally turned up on isratrance.
- Link (Flickr photos)
Posted on August 22, 2006 - by dionysus
sunday in the park
I’ll consider penning my own subjective experience of day, but for now the aggregate opinion will stand in its stead. It was a truly amazing party in all, the highlight of the year and easily on my “Top 10 Trance Party” list. Below are a few of the community’s responses to the “Prog in the Park” party (via Isratrance):
There is hope for this city, maybe even this world. Life is a glorious gift. Yesterday reminded me.
§
I haven’t been to a party for ages not to say an outdoor one. Yesterday was a reminder why once I loved it so much, the party was In the middle of a jungle, yes it was a concrete jungle but you can call a park in Bedford Stuyvesant jungle. It was out doors (I don’t know how the guys from 28th day production got the permit), under a sunny (mostly) sky and we were dancing bare feet people.
The interesting part was that the locals di ,oh and all the technical stuff like good sound, great music, smiling beautifuldn’t know what hit them, a bunch of long hair/tattooed/colorful hippies dancing in the middle of a day to a boomingsound of progressive/psycadelic trance, there was a little “fence” surrounding the big lawn that was the “stage” and they were standing behind it for quite a wile, looking at us thinking … who cares what they were thinking. I think they had fun too.
Oh and to those people who called this event the after party, no way!!!It was the main event, the main event of the summer in NYC.
§
We just came and were us, the locals came out and were just who they are, and it worked out great, we all came together and had a beutiful day, no more, no less. That is the essence of the beauty of Sunday. Now the challange is to focus on and hold on to that love and live by it.
§
Wow.
I am still letting the whole experience sink in as I am sitting in another airport on my way to Tokyo. The 28thday crew really pulled off something special. I am so happy I got to participate in the event and in a part of the permitting process. I fully believe that the integration with the locals was a next level expression of the universal language of music. Thank you to all who made this event possible, and I hope to see you all again soon!
Scott from 28th Day also wrote:
A big THANK YOU to everyone who came out and helped make Prog in the Park such a ridiculously good time this past Sunday! This was truly a communal creation, and we would also like to acknowledge the following individuals for their support:
Aaron, Anrei, Ben, Dandraver, Guy, Mayur, Pat, Pedro, Ron, Sahil, Stas, Steve, Vlad, Zev, the entire 28thday and psyNY crew, all the DJs and producers, the NYC parks department, NYPD Community Affairs, everyone who helped us set up and tear down, and the local Brooklyn community. Also extra special thanks to Joanne for negotiating with Mother Nature some unexpected beautiful weather!
Posted on August 16, 2006 - by dionysus
psychedelics in the public eye
Its been a good year for ethenogenic awareness; it has seen a number of encouraging reports in the general media directly contradicting years of “common sense” understandings of psychedelic experimentation.
First came the LSD Symposium in early spring, bringing together the global village’s academics and enthusiasts for a research festival (if you will). The benefits of that gathering will be with the psychedelic community for years to come.
Next came a report confirming the positive effects of LSD and psilocybin on cluster headaches in February.
A number of reports the results of a Hopkins study on the subjective mystical states experienced during psilocybin use, perhaps indicating that they may not be subjective at all. Later picked up by mainstream media, the report stimulated some insightful discussions around the ‘net.
Most recently, the (obviously) progressive drug policy officer in Vancouver announced plans to explore psychedelic research as a way to treat clinical depression in his city.
- Link (headache relief)
- Link (symposium results)
- Link (official psilocybin report, full PDF)
- Link (interview with the author)
- Link (commentaries & editorial PDF)
- Link (discussion on psychedelics)
- Link (transforming medicine)
- Link (addiction treatment in Vancouver)
Posted on August 13, 2006 - by dionysus
Shpongle in NY Harbor
A friend just informed me that Simon Postford will be visiting NYC next Thursday, the 24th of August. He’ll be playing a Shpongle DJ set for a three-hour boat party with deco courtesy of the Manhattan skyline. Not a full dance-until-dawn trance party per se, but more of a psychedelic appetizer to get the weekend started. There are, after all, two festivals ((Cha3ka and Camp Bisco)) within driving distance of the city starting the next day.
John-Emmanuel Gartmann gets the karma for arranging this little gem of an experience. He’s pushing an aggressive schedule of late-summer events to mark Tsunami’s ten-year anniversary in New York and, coincidentally, psytrance’s ten-year anniversary in the United States.
Visit the Tsunami site for more details.
Posted on August 12, 2006 - by dionysus
dancing in the dunes at dawn
Last week’s visit to cape cod put us on one of the finest beaches on the continent. 
We arrived on the beach late Saturday, near midnight, sliding down a vast slope of sand to the party at the base of the dunes. The music remained cautiously muted; our hosts anticipated the night’s conclusion, correctly as it turned out.
The local police visited us first, lurking about the cars massed in the parking lot. A ranger walked through with an ominous warning soon after. The mood grew pensive. Most of the eighty-or-so people slipped away then, all the non-trancers from Boston — students and hippies, mostly. The wiser participants wandered off the opposite direction, further down the beach where the darkness enveloped them. An interlude of rest then, listening to the roar of the waves echoing off the wall of sand behind us. Eventually our hosts retrieved us. The renewed party continued merrily for a few more hours, until Federal rangers swept powerful beams across the beach, pinning the crew and dancers in light.
What followed was an officious explanation of Rules and Regulations, invisible lin
es in the sand where jurisdictions ended, began, or were suspended. Threats of confiscation, ignored, then looming fines that were paid on the spot with collective nonchalance ((For the record, it came out to ten dollars a head. )). The officers warmed to their audience, then, and launched into an explanation of the rules; people are allowed to exist upon the beach, but music and the gasoline engine that powers it is not. So they forced us to turn the music off, but pay to allow the party to continue. Nice guys, really, if hopelessly nerdy.
All the while the local police lurked in cruisers beyond the edge of the parking lot, constrained by the imaginary borders described to us by the rangers. We did not leave; they waited impotently, then fled with the lightening of the sky in the east. I imagined them shaking a fist in the air as they drove off into the retreating darkness. Perhaps with a hiss.
The sun rose soon after, as us and the Sonic Beating tribe sat in tranquility. Seals came in from the ocean to watch the change with us, floating easily in the water before us. With the light came the hooping and the dancing, when the full majesty of the location was revealed. Truly amazing…the pictures taken by Dana (shown here) and myself do not do it justice.
This kind of experience is the norm for 
New England’s primary tribe; a talented crew in a beautiful location, obstructed only by the Puritans in positions of authority. The trancers remain tight-knit, their gatherings intimate. It is the best way to avoid detection, or deal with it properly when it occurs with annoying frequency. Whatever trouble comes is quickly forgotten in the transcendant dawn experience that follows. We didn’t really miss the music that trip, not even in the car on the way home later that afternoon.
- Link (photostream)
Posted on August 11, 2006 - by dionysus
[video:] PSI Pine barrens
(Via psyNY) Here is video of the sunday morning stomping grounds at the PSI party, mentioned here and here, previously.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5703776954676570153- Link (google video)
Posted on August 6, 2006 - by dionysus
talkback from Boom!
Via NYC604: One of our local trancers, Rebecca, emailed her thoughts on the Boom! festival. It is good to know that a few friends represent us — carrying our goodwill — at what is arguably the pinnacle of all psychedelic trance festivals.
Greetings from BOOM!
Hellow, so wonderful being here at BOOM! It’s like a psychedelic resort! Lots of places to swim, cloudless skies everyday, food aplenty (portions are huge!) bamboo showers, workshops, gallery, a daily paper called the Daily Dragon, and the music is steller indeed.
We do the Freakshow tomorrow night, been busy building the stage and getting lights and stuff together. Lots of work but doing it with love in my heart. We’re so gonna rock the show. Saw Pedro here on the dancefloor. He told me Sharon was here. Haven’t seen Charlie and Mio yet but I’m sure I’ll be bumping into them soon. Blacklight is loving being here too, he’ll be dancing for the freakshow. So glad he said yes. After Boom we go the the official afterparty called UTOPIA. Omananda is doing visuals there and we have a Freakshow bus so onwards- The internet cafe here is small and well hidden- there’s is a love connection going on, worldwide…
BOOMing it!
Rebecca*
Sounds big, Burning Man big. It may even be better, if only for the truly international culture. Let’s face it — Burners are obnoxious, in an endearingly-American sort of way.
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Upcoming Events
Flickr Photos
Global Party Feed- 01 Aug 10 * IDANHA SUMMER FESTIVAL 1 a 31 Agosto * Idanha-a-nova (Portugal)
- 26 Feb 11 * Schalltherapie 5 (Progressive Goa) Live: DJ Fabio * GOSSAU ZH (Switzerland)
- 03 Sep 10 * Crossroots Festival * Salching bei Straubing (Germany)
- 05 Feb 11 * AUDIORESONANZTHERAPIE * Kiel (Germany)
- 06 Aug 10 * Psy Tribe Open Air Part 3 * Hof Meteln near Schwerin... (Germany)