Various – Project II Trance

A few very early Anjuna Beach classics on this release with the tracks Transmission, Feeling Weird and Total Eclipse. The first 2 tracks I heard in San Francisco in May of 1992 courtesy of Goa Gil at an event I was producing Sunday mornings called Resurrection. When I hear Transmission and Feeling Weird, it takes me back to the infancy of Goa Trance at a time when tracks were just beginning to be called Goa Trance. Without Goa Gil coming into my life, I never would have heard Goa Trance or ever travelled to Anjuna Beach in the earliest days of the scene or even travelled to India. I have no idea who I would be without those experiences and thankfully I will never find out. RIP Babaji AKA Goa Gil AKA Gil Levey. Much Love and gratitude to you wherever your Soul finds itself.

how can that epic Goa label be rated at 10 EUR / record

A rather excellent early compilation of chilled trance, like a harder version of Planet Dog's "Feed Your Head" compilation, released at about the same time in 1993.

Trance indeed....

For anyone that has Genetic - transmission on vinyl you will be aware that is much shorter than the cd variant featured on this cd release

Well here it is, arguably the first official Goa compilation to hit the UK. This CD (or LP, if you're lucky) introduced legendary Goa/psytrance artists to the world, and as any Goa fan will tell you, Dragonfly is a key player alongside TIP and Flying Rhino for decent British Goa.

With all this in mind and knowing that the Order Odonata series was awesome, I paid through the nose for this CD and hoped for the best. The tracklist opens with Gumbo's 'Quickening', a Posfordian creation that was somewhat ambient sounding compared to 'LSD' et al. It certainly wasn't the mind-blowing Goa trance I was used to but as an opening track it eases you in gently.

Next was Genetic's 'Trancemission', better known to me as the opening track to Paul Oakenfold's 'Voyage...' mix CD. Having it on Dragonfly Classix and Genetic's 'We Are Genetic' album meant it wasn't anything new but still highly enjoyable. Certainly shades of 'What Time Is Love' in this one...

Unusually for a compilation, Genetic then appears again for Track 3 with 'Oracle'. I had high hopes for this track, but sadly it was little more than an early prototype for the electro-edged 'Analogico' track on Genetic's first album. Very dull and peakless. 'Analogico' is way superior.

Next it's Total Eclipse's self-titled debut, a trance track which has a hint of Goa but more of a Belgian late 80s New Beat. The cheesy 'Total....ECLIPSE' vox are a bit naff too.

Then Black Sun's first of two appearances. 'Godstar' is again a fairly bland track, a meandering riff with a taste of Goa. Promising, but overall a disappointment.

Ah, Infinity Project! At last a decent track, though 'Feeling Weird' has appeared on other Dragonfly CDs and of course TIP's album, so really by this point I was beginning to wonder if 'Project II Trance' was worth buying in the first place.

Next, two fairly harmless tracks from Mandra Gora and Black Sun, again pretty peakless and slightly boring, with 'The More You Look The More You See' featuring a very long American speech which is more than a little irritating. 'Gypsy Trance', however, has more industrial sounding elements, despite the promising title.

1000 Micro Dats: The Centre. Has its moments but again fairly dull and not worth sitting through for seven minutes. Again a bit industrial in places.

Wicked Warp!!! A classic Order Odonata track from Mandra Gora, and a different version! Many will scoff but I actually prefer this version. Certainly refreshing, especially as I thought I had this track beforehand.

Deezal Electric: Moth. Seriously, can five minutes seem any longer? YAWN.

Rounding off with 1000 Micro Dats again. 'Underworld' is almost has a stripped-down, proggy psytrance feel to it, but it certainly wasn't the psychedelic mind-blowing finale I was expecting.

So, overall? Not really what I was expecting, but definitely a highly interesting encapsulation of trance at the time. Not only can you see how tracks like 'Trancemission' and 'Feeling Weird' shaped Goa, but you can also see the earlier roots of Goa, with industrial and New Beat elements that were pretty much erased from history after 'LSD' and company came and changed psychedelic trance for good.

I wouldn't recommend this CD to anyone who loved the Order Odonata series and wants more, as the decent tracks are easy to find on other CDs. However, to those interested in Goa's early offerings and want to hear rawer, rougher sounding tracks, this could just be up your street.