The music is maybe the most subjective sphere of life. Two different persons can receive the same sounds in totally diametrical way. Even if they like the same sound structures. Probably as majority, I am opponent of putting any tags to artist's music. However, to linguistics describing of the music we must use simply and clearly terms. To describe CDs material and artist's ideas there is important to have a standard names. When I'm writing an artist biography or a review I'm not searching for a very technical terms, I'm focusing on emotional dimension. But technical point of view have got an advantage because it's the most objective description. This is why I decided to describe basic styles of dynamic (uptempo) and slow (downtempo) kinds of the music to which I have dedicated Psybient.net website. Following descriptions was based on Wikipedia portal and on my own knowledge from experience with these beautiful music.


Trance is a form of electronic music that was born in 1990s. Tempo of this music oscillate from 130 to 160 BPM (Beats Per Minute). Characteristic signs of trance music are: simply melodies, rhytmical bass line and regular kicks on 4/4. Subgenres of trance music are f.e.: acid trance, tech trance, hard trance, uplifting trance, euro trance. These styles are commercial variant of trance music. Especially euro trance has gain a big popularity in Europe, mainly in Germany. This style has been particularly popularized in Berlin's Love Parade. More ambitious styles of trance music are desrcibed at the bottom, trance music is here only marked as a main form from which most of the psy- music has been evolved.

Goa trance (named also as goa or 604 in a number where G=6, O=0, A=4) is a form of electronic music, style of trance music. This music was born in the late 1980s and early 1990s in ex Portuguese colony in India, in Goa state (this is where the style have taken its name). As other styles of trance music, also goa was developed mainly in Europe. But the most important country for this music, with country which this style was indentified to, was Israel. In Europe goa was developed especially in Great Britain and in Germany; outside of Europe: in Japan, Brasil, South Africa and Mexico. The major success of this music was in 1994-2000. Inclusive till 1997 this music has a very specific, melodic character, next - till 2000 - goa artists have been searching for a new sounds and ideas. On this stage goa evolved in psytrance (psychedelic trance) direction - less melodic, but more "psychedelic" (focusing on more drilled rhythms with many whistle samples). In the late XX century goa term was interchangeably with psytrance. Goa music in XXI century practically doesn't exist, but a new albums in this style with today production are still produced. Goa tempo oscillate between 130 and 150 BPM. Basic elements of goa music are: energy, dynamism and melodies influenced by Middle East or cosmos. The composition of this style (also as other styles) lasts seven to ten minutes. The greatest representative of goa are: Astral Projection, MFG, Hallucinogen, Pleiadians. The best year for this style in its history: 1997.

Psychedelic trance (psytrance) is a style of trance music which derived from goa music when that have celebrates its most triumphs. Although goa trance is a part of more largely style named psytrance, psytrance is not a part of goa trance; sometimes these two names are mentioned alternately - we can easily say that goa has exist till 1998, but it's difficult to say the difference between goa and psytrance between 1998 and 2000. So psytrance is a large name that live on the scene till now, on which we can single out styles: goa trance, progressive psytrance, dark psytrance, full-on and suomi (Finnish, not widely known style). Psytrance tracks have a tempo between 135 and 150 BPM. So they are dynamic, but to psytrance scene we can add chillout music as well, because this music have goes also in this direction (look: psybient). Psytrance scene is popular in Israel, Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Greece, Portugal, Spain, Great Britain, Germany, Mexico, Brasil, South Africa, Netherlands, Japan, Italy, in Balkans. Still have non commercial status, however the newest style (full-on) goes definetely to more commercial side. Average album's sale is 2,000, when a CD is selling in more than 5,000 copies then it is a success. There are only a few artists that has cross a barrier of 20,000 sales CDs, and they're f.e.: Astral Projection, Growling Mad Scientists, Hallucinogen, Infected Mushroom, Transwave. "Twisted" album by Hallucinogen has achieve the biggest commercial success: 85,000 CDs was sold. After the goa era, but before the full-on era, we can isolate three main courses in psychedelic trance: psytrance as such, dark psytrance and progressive psytrance. These three styles exist side by side between 1999 and 2003, then to these styles have come full-on, and dark psytrance passed to the new sounds. For the psytrance the breakthrough was an appear of projects such as Israeli's Infected Mushroom, Space Cat and Oforia, which in the end of XX century to melodic structures added many new ideas which have been a help for the evolution of psytrance, since then psytrance have more own sounds and it has been a kind of alternative for goa music. The paradox implicit in this statement is that these mentioned-above projects have help psytrance to go to the more commercial state - state of full-on.

Dark psytrance (known also as killer psytrance, dark psy, dark, horror trance) is a very dark, fast and more distorted form of psychedelic trance music, originating in Russia and Germany, the style has recently expanded also to other countries worldwide. Today this is definiteley the most non commercial side of psytrance music. Dark psytrance have two faces. For the first time this music constituted in the end of 90s when melodic goa trance went for the second plan and from psytrance were born new sounds. Precursors of "old" dark psytrance (though as dark were named these projects at that time that created some more dark sounds, this wasn't exactly a completely new style at the time) can be described four groups: German's The Delta and Xenomorph and Israeli's Sandman and Dark Soho. From the technical point of view the most characteristic feature of their music were a symphony and gothic samples and melody lines. Since about 2002 dark psytrance has changed its profile to the one that live till now. It's based more on disharmony, doesn't have "real" melodies, and it's very fast (about 150 BPM, even faster). The most known acts from the "new" dark psytrance are f.e. Kindzadza and The Nommos.

Progressive psytrance (known also as minimal psytrance, psyprog, prog, minimal) is a style of trance music developed between the end of 90s and the early of 2000s, developed as a sub genre of psychedelic and goa trance. Progressive psytrance combines the elements of minimal sounding progressive electronic music and complex developments of psychedelic music. Its heritage can be traced back to the developments of minimal techno (before) and minimal house (now). The style of progressive psytrance can be described as generally darker and edgier than mainstream psytrance. It is also slower in tempo and is more "progressive" than melodic psytrance. Currently, Denmark, Sweden (where the style was born with the releases: "Headcleaner" by Atmos and "Echo" by Vibrasphere), and Germany have created the most renowned labels. The best labels in its history we can named Spiral Trax Records and Digital Structures from Sweden and Iboga Records from Germany. The most important projects: Atmos, Etnoscope, Shiva Chandra, Son Kite, Vibrasphere.

Tech psytrance (also called psychedelic techno) is a style of psytrance that core is based on techno, so it's without typical melodies, but it's rough, mechanical and besides got a dark atmosphere typical for dark psytrance. Techno path in psytrance music grow in the end of 90s, but their sign in this music were noticeably after the short era of "old" dark psytrance exist. Colossal influence for main tech psytrance image was the music by The Delta which the first CD was "old" dark psytrance, but the second we can describe easily as tech psytrance. The style is representative f.e. by Midi Miliz, Spirallianz and releases from Boshke Beats Records.

Full-on (also referred to as morning trance and isra trance) is a style of trance music, the youngest form of psychedelic trance firstly originated in Israel at the early 2000s. Full-on is an evolution of psytrance which is more influenced by a clubby trance genres than by psychedelic. Full-on tracks are fast, have a simple arrangement, sometimes have vocals and guitar riffs. The expression "full-on" is probably taken from the compilation albums series, and the first album ever to be released under HOM-Mega Productions in 1998, titled "Full On". Also some other sources says that the name came from Fullmoon festival's name. This is the most spreaded style in today's psychedelic scene, but it's also criticized for not being loyal to its goa trance roots, making psychedelic trance less "underground", and blame it for selling out and over-commercialization. The most recongized labels: BNE - Brand New Entertainment, HOM-Mega Productions, Utopia Records.


Chillout is a term derived from a slang injunction to relax, emerged in the early and mid-1990s as a catch-all term for various styles of relatively mellow, slow-tempo music made by contemporary producers in the electronic music scene. A number of compilations with "Chill Out" in their titles were released in the mid-1990s and beyond, helping to establish the genre as being very closely related to downtempo and trip hop but also incorporating, especially in the early 2000s, slower varieties of house music, nu-jazz, psybient, and lounge music. The genre also includes some forms of trance music, ambient music and IDM.

Psybient (short form of psychedelic ambient) is a kind of electronic music connecting elements of psychedelic trance, ambient and world music. Also known as "ambient psy", "ambient goa" and "psychill" is linked with the evolution of goa and psytrance music. The first album that outlined this style into the masses was released in 1998 first Shpongle album called "Are You Shpongled?". But it is important to say that slower tracks in goa/psytrance genre were developed before that time on "normal" albums those projects as f.e. ending track of the album. The first album, that style can be described as a full psychedelic ambient, was "Mystical Experiences" done by The Infinity Project in 1995. However, the key album for evolution was Shpongle and its release from 1998, but even success of this album not created a massive impulse for the style which really fast its popularity a few years ago and bacome a competitor for the styles from grew up before. Many new projects were form up and their releases gained sometimes relatively high selling as for psychedelic music. With about 2004 many new labels came into life and many uptempo labels created its sublabels that aim for chill sounds.

Ambient is a musical genre that incorporates elements of a number of different styles - including jazz, electronic music, new age, modern classical music, traditional, world, and noise. It is sometimes characterised as possessing a sense of resonant sonic space and of being designed to function equally effectively for both passive (background music) and active listening. The term "ambient music" was first coined by Brian Eno in the mid-1970s to refer to music that would envelop the listener without drawing attention to itself, that can be either "actively listened to with attention or as easily ignored, depending on the choice of the listener". In psychedelic music ambient act a great role because it was a huge source for new inspirations from which a psybient genre was born.

Psybreaks (called also as psychedelic breakbeat, psy'n'breaks) is a form of electronic music that developed as a fusion of psytrance and breakbeat. The style is based on breakbeat basslines and rhythms and psytrance-influenced tracks. As the genre is still sufficiently new to not have developed its own independent scene yet. Some view psybreaks as being simply another addition to the existing psytrance "stable", and so it is possible that psybreaks will become one of many sub-genres of psytrance, rather than a separate genre in its own right. The best productions we can find from Digitalis, Deviant Electronics, Polyploid and Violet Vision and some of the last Blue Room CDs.

Dub is a form of Jamaican music, which evolved out of reggae in 1960s Jamaica. Hallmark of the dub sound is the massive low bass and emphasized of the percussion. In the dub form is being produced many psybient albums.

World music is a music term includes: traditional music (sometimes called folk music or roots music) of any culture that are created and played by indigenous musicians, other non-Western music (including non-Western popular music and non-Western classical music). The term does not include Western popular music and Western Art music (ie. European classical music). The term was born in the 80s. World music is, most generally, all the music in the world. More specifically, the term is currently used to classify the many genres of non-Western music which were previously described as "folk music" or "ethnic music". However, "world music" does not have to mean traditional folk music, it may refer to the indigenous classical forms of various regions of the world, and to modern, cutting edge pop music styles as well.