I just spent the last week at the Ozora Psytrance music festival in Hungary and it was a pretty amazing experience, especially as it was the first music festival I've ever been to.
What I was not prepared for however, was the gobsmacking amount of Israeli propaganda just absolutely everywhere, and it only got more and more blatant as the week went. I'm being made to understand that this is actually fairly normal and apparently "Israelis love colonizing festivals". Apparently they also really love psytrance festivals, and used every opportunity to invoke the memory of the NOVA psytrance festival that was caught in the crossfire on Oct. 7th.
I posted a direct response about it in the festival subreddit here, but I feel like there is so much left unsaid.
The whole thing being rooted in psychedelics just adds several additional points. First, it is straight up baaaad vibes, in place where "vibes" are super important, the constant barrage of blatant propaganda just absolutely pollutes the headspace. I found myself being unable to ignore it at multiple levels of tripping. The propaganda spanned from the more mild but still blatant "in remembrance of" sorta stuff, up to straight war propaganda including what I can only describe as "Star of David Totenkopf" which is probably the most disgusting thing I've seen in awhile (I'll attach it as the main image).
It's a psychedelic hippie festival, everyone wants to be yoga, free love, and good vibes, no one wants to escalate or fight the Israelis, so they go entirely unconfronted on their disregard for everyone around them.
I'm also trying to process how psychedelics revolutionary potential appears to be completely captured, how they were meant to be a tool to free the mind from fascism, but then here it appears to be made near totally inert, incorporated into this new sort of "Candy Fascism". I get how a type of nihilistic hedonism is part of fascism, but how this has actually developed boggles me.
I'm sure you know this but psytrance is like, a pretty Israeli genre in the first place. Was developed by Israelis for the most part (although imo the best psytrance producer is hallucinogen who is British).
Good to know though, that's fucking awful and I will stay far away
Ok this is good to know, because I could see that there had to be some reason it was so popular with Israelis but I have no idea what.
Yeah, so psytrance emerged from Goa Trance, and Goa Trance is called that because it was developed in Goa, India. Goa was a hippy spot known by lots of hippies I think I. The 70s and 80s and became a destination I think for Israeli draft dodgers. Then they returned to Israel eventually and brought the music with them. Hence why it's so big in Israel. Also infected mushroom is Israeli and they are like the biggest psytrance act so yeah.
Tbh though I kinda hate modern psytrance. Origins are very very fun and interesting but limited, as far as I can tell. I only have a handful of psytrance albums that really speak to me and most are not Israeli, which I think has a bit of a darker sound. The gathering is crazy though
I've listened to a lot of psytrance in my day, a bunch of Infected and LOUD included, and I wanted to say I agree 100%, especially the part about Hallucinogen
Yeah. It's also kinda fucked that like, the genre peaked Imo in the mid to late 90s. At some point the genre stopped being about taking you on a journey through an album and idk, became about having a really punchy kick drum. for me the coolest thing about psytrance is how dynamic it is and how artists can really build and release energy through an album. Beyond the Infinite by Juno Reactor is like, I think the pinnacle of building and releasing energy, although it's not nearly as fun and whimsical as a lot of other albums)
Oh, sick! I have a personal preference for Bible of Dreams due to a special experience with the album but yeah Beyond the Infinite is one of my faves too
For me it's extra good when producers do a little music theory with their psytrance. I like melody and harmony! Hallucinogen and Juno Reactor are real good about that. I mean, come on, that time signature change in Snakey Shaker?? It's nothing complex really but it works so well!!
Bible of dreams is fucking crazy. It was the first psytrance album that like blew me away and got me into the genre.
And yeah, I mean idk what to even say about lone deranger. It may be a perfect album