Posted on September 14, 2007 - by dionysus

DJ lineup as sacred ritual

In a post to her Tribe.net social journal, 6362Metaforce party organizer Rachel reflected on the structure of a traditional (dare I say orthodox?) trance party.

Once upon a time, there was a regular rhythm and ritual to trance parties ….

12 – 2 am – warm-up night music…
2am – 4am – full-power dark night music….
4am – 6am – the peak slot. could be anything … but usually the more twisted the better, getting us ready for the sunrise… this was the original twilght music
6-8am – the sunrise set… welcoming the sunshine with tremendous energy and power, however the DJ chooses…
8am- 12noon – morning music.. still psychedelic but more gentle, perhaps more melodic but never formulaic

Rachel then goes on to describe how psytrance parties in the US do not follow this model, at least not anymore. Being a traditionalist myself, I fondly remember parties following that natural progression. These days however, a whole new generation of party promoters unaffiliated with the globetrotters of the Goa era are doing the event planning, and their dharma is different.