Various

𝙁𝙧𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙝 𝙙𝙪𝙤 𝙁𝙪𝙡𝙡 𝘾𝙞𝙧𝙘𝙡𝙚 𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧 𝙖 𝙘𝙤𝙧𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙫𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙝𝙤𝙡𝙤𝙜𝙮 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚, 𝙘𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙗𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙤𝙤𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙥𝙨𝙮𝙘𝙝𝙚𝙙𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙘 𝙙𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙢𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙘 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙞𝙩𝙨 𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙮 𝙙𝙖𝙮𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙂𝙤𝙖 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙖 𝙨𝙡𝙚𝙬 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙡𝙪𝙙𝙜𝙮, 𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙪𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙖𝙡-𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙙 𝙣𝙚𝙬 𝙗𝙚𝙖𝙩, 𝙀𝘽𝙈, 𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙮 𝙩𝙚𝙘𝙝𝙣𝙤 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙩𝙤-𝙝𝙤𝙪𝙨𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙪𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙥𝙧𝙞𝙤𝙧𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙯𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙮 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙩𝙚 '𝟴𝟬𝙨/𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙡𝙮 '𝟵𝟬𝙨 𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙞𝙢𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙨𝙚𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙤𝙧𝙨. 𝙒𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙩𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙠𝙨 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝘾𝙖𝙗𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙩 𝙑𝙤𝙡𝙩𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙚, 𝙁𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙩 𝙇𝙞𝙣𝙚 𝘼𝙨𝙨𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙡𝙮, 𝘾𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙠 𝘿𝙑𝘼 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙑𝙖𝙣 𝘽𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙚, 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙘𝙧𝙪𝙘𝙞𝙖𝙡 𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖𝙣𝙮𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙑𝙡𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙢𝙞𝙧 𝙄𝙫𝙠𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙘 𝙭 𝙄𝙫𝙖𝙣 𝙎𝙢𝙖𝙜𝙜𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙭𝙞𝙨.
Long maligned by "serious" heads more drawn to chopped amens than syrupy beatbox cycles and lysergic bleeps, Goa trance has long been in need of a Rosetta Stone - something to separate the overblown hearsay from the one-the-ground knowledge. Alexis Le-Tan and Joakim do the heavy lifting here; the two DJs have been excavating Goa trance for a decade at this stage, after Le-Tan realized that some 12"s in his scrap pile sounded better on 33rpm than they did at 45. Now, motivated by the availability of historical compilations that tell the story of The Loft, The Paradise Garage and the Balearic sound, they've decided to pull together 11 tracks that characterize the sound of the earliest Goa parties. In the '60s and '70s, wide-eyed, open-minded hippies had flooded to the tiny Indian state, and by the late '80s local parties were playing industrial records, new beat, acid house and eccentric electro pop instrumentals, cutting movie samples and thinly-veiled drug references into their 4/4s.
- Joakim and Le-Tan tap into this particular early phase - before Paul Oakenfold popularized the genre with his 1994 mix - and focus on the genre's slow-mo industrial roots. They start things off with Front Line Assembly's 'Enemy Number One', an early demo that first appeared on their second 'Total Terror' cassette. This is a sly nod to the Goa parties' humble beginnings, when traveling heads would pass tapes to each other containing any tracks that might fall into the orbit of whatever DJs (like Goa Gil and Laurent) were playing at the time - the original demo was limited to only 100 copies. The sounds that would later characterize the Goa sound are more upfront on Joi's breakout 1992 debut single 'A Desert Storm': chopped, trippy vocals; cinematic samples; arpeggiated synths; and celestial Bengali-inspired vocals. The British-Bangladeshi duo capture the era's unrelenting air of fusion, weaving half-speed breaks through their mesh of woozy electronics and dense, hallucinogenic chatter of garbled voices.