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"dark" & "light" are illusions/delusions...
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Colin OOOD
OOOD/Voice of Cod
Started Topics :
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5380
Posted : Apr 22, 2005 00:16
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Back in 'the day' (mid 90s for me) the terms 'light' and 'dark' were, even then, being bandied around. Most tracks were written - to my ears, at least - with a definite positive atmosphere, and what many people seemed to be referring to back then as 'dark' was, to me, more something to do with intensity. I know people sometimes told me they thought our tracks were dark and I know for sure they were written only with a sense of fun, and wanting to give people a good trance experience on the dancefloor.
These days though, there certainly does seem to be music around written with the aim of introducing ideas to the dancefloor that could definitely not be classed as 'fluffy', and which to me suits the label of 'dark'. But maybe this is just me not understanding properly the particular level of intensity these artists are working at!
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offthenutboom
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
55
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928
Posted : Apr 22, 2005 01:58
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DeSerT.StOrM
I do not think language destroys thought. But, it constantly conditions our perceptions of reality, creating an illusion of our surroundings. Words are just tools, it is the chemical connection to an emotion that conditions our mind, body and perception of the universe. So language sometime limits our vision. I mean for example the word psychedelic represents something different within all of us. It might trigger fear in some, love in others, ambiguity, hate, respect. This emotional reaction triggers a chemical release send to every cell in the body as well as stablishing new connections in your neuronetwork shaping the way you think. |
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mono mono
Onnomon
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5
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314
Posted : Apr 22, 2005 02:23
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Yes, there are alot of different meanings for the word "dark". One of them deals with lumenosity but since we're not dealing with photons we can cast that one aside. Although most nighttime psytrance parties are "dark" anyways, lights out eh?
I think defining "dark" in terms of "light" skirts the concept too much- i'll skirt that discussion right now. We can see "dark" as a form of "brooding", similar to "intensity" but it can still have melody. We can see "dark" as the "unknown", perhaps that non-melodic form of trance we've been talking about of late falls into this catagory, with some "intensity" thrown in- because you have to "intensely concentrate" to "find the melody" in those weird noises, in their rooms with their lights turned off.
There are social connotations (i.e. memetic)of "dark" too. For example, Orff's Carmina Burana is often associated with "dark" music probably because Hollywood has Shanghai'd it for their devil movie soundtracks. Or a simpler cases even, consider the standard minor scale, the "sad" scale. Or, the pentatonic scales (particularly the black keys on a piano), the "chinese" scale. Or, the "blues" scale. These memetics help give music their soul, at least to us westerners. Other continents have their own scales, ragas,pelogs and slendros, ngonis,...their interpretations may be completely different according to their culture's memetics. {There's a whole generation that thinks of satan, green bile vomit, little girls whose heads rotate 360 degrees when they hear Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells, you know who you are} I'll have to say that this connotation of dark is a great deal of illusion but the effects on people are real. You have to strip out history to shake loose of it. Is this "being in the moment"?
Today what we're calling "dark" trance is in some ways abstract, except for the rhythms. From the production side of things, throwing the melody away relieves you, the producer, of coming up with a set of notes that's non-stupid, catchy, cool, weird, psychedelic, original. If you could make these on-a-whim then i'd imagine you could be as successful as Elton John, Billy Joel, Paul McCartney,...
and so on.
-dean
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mono mono
Onnomon
Started Topics :
5
Posts :
314
Posted : Apr 22, 2005 02:33
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On 2005-04-22 01:58, offthenutboom wrote:
DeSerT.StOrM
I do not think language destroys thought. But, it constantly conditions our perceptions of reality, creating an illusion of our surroundings. Words are just tools, it is the chemical connection to an emotion that conditions our mind, body and perception of the universe.
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I think Buddhist (among other demonimations) monks demonstrate that so-called higher beings can especially transcend emotional responses. Of course, words are not atomic, their meanings are based on relationships between physical realities and abstract groupings. A word is not an island. In some ways, words and their meaning are a reflection of our physical neural hierarchies. Certainly art in all its form seems to represent concepts not so easily described by words. Synthesis and creativity demonstrate that the mind is already capable of dealing in relms beyond that what exists around us, and on paper. That's not to say that people can get trapped by words but words do describe situations commonly experienced. I think we've all experienced a multitude of forms of the word "dark", and many of them are similar. Again, it's your choice as to whether you want to strip experience from history. Certainly that's one reason we're doomed to repeat it.
-dean
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offthenutboom
IsraTrance Full Member
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55
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928
Posted : Apr 22, 2005 05:24
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True, I mean if you meditate and clear your mind and body from this sensory attachments and implode, you will be centered and things around you will be sense as they are. But, for many it is very difficult to achieve this state of nirvana and transcend. Specially if I like "dark psy trance" in the morning, on my way to work @ 8AM he he It just makes me feel "psychedelically good" |
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wicc@
Started Topics :
5
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500
Posted : Apr 22, 2005 05:42
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this topic gives me the chance to say wat i usually tell about music all this time i am listener and dancer... the sound i like best and touch my inner rythm, and makes me dance while fulls on my energy and felings, is the music that has a story to tell, that has no beginning and no end, that has everything of all types of sounds, a music...that a n y th i n g...can happen and a n y t hi n g can be felt while you listen to it....not of any particular style, but as trippy as it can be, the magick for me into music, is the variety of emotions it cause u, from the shamans drums to the a c i d w a v e s, all together in one psy x periment of sounds...travelling to another dimention...the dimention of the spirit world.......... 
**OHM NAMAH SHIVAYAH**
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Jewbacca
Started Topics :
6
Posts :
295
Posted : Apr 22, 2005 06:30
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i am semi new to the scene (i was involved like 3-4 years ago and then fell out but im back now) (i used to listen to d&B and house now its psytrance) so anyways i am relatively new to the scene and in my opinion you can not have an event where there is just dark or just light, its kinda like the force (sorry) u need to balance out your music. its not a question of which is better its a question of which can move you...either physically or emotionally... the darker music makes me at least wanna dance and get down but the lighter soothes my mind and makes it an easy transition out the door........sorry if this is rambling to some of ya but i THINK i tried to make some point here |
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mono mono
Onnomon
Started Topics :
5
Posts :
314
Posted : Apr 22, 2005 07:33
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So do you find that the parties you go to typically have the same subspecies of trance for the whole duration?
I can loudly proclaim that the Gaian Mind crew here in Philadelphia truly mixes it up, particularly at their festival. They're very aware of the "monolithic trance syndrom". Lately the Alladin crew in NYC has done a commendable job in offering some variety during the same event.
I was impressed by the Moksha crew in Israel, the New Year's party I was at had a great variety of styles. They let the full-on guy blow out the last 4 hours, squeeze the last bit of energy from the crowd.
Last year Burning Man was a bit disappointing, seemed everyone was playing the same 145+ BPM full-on. What was missing was some good psychedelic tribal progressive. The Magnetrixx I put on while the sound system was being debugged sounded pretty damn good out there.
It's like the drugs, a different drug for a different purpose. Different tempos elicit different physical and mental responses. Now that i've listened for a while i'm quite a bit more picky. and jaded to some extent. It helps to be tripping, when the defences are down and the child-like innocence reappears. At this point it can become overwhelmingly psychedelic. Also, what you might think is dark, i'm might burst into laughter hearing the same thing.
so it's not really "light vs dark" as much as a term like "dark", to a music producer, will tend suggest a compositional approach [see earlier post about melody]. You know, like "goa", or "full-on", or "minimal". Just a word tag, doesn't mean its evil. Don't we call that "horror trance" anyway. Then there's "circus trance", "booty trance", and "oh fuck I'm going to miss the bus" trance...
-dean
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Alixr
Started Topics :
1
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4
Posted : Apr 22, 2005 22:33
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Please give us an example of some "oh fuck I'm going to miss the bus" trance.
That would be a great style to play right after some "oh my god it's so beautiful" trance, right?  |
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DeSerT.StOrM
Started Topics :
1
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108
Posted : Apr 25, 2005 20:55
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Language does truly stop humans from communicating to our full capacity because all words do is try to describe concepts, and everyone describes them differently. i find this to be true more and more when people are describing a psychedelic experience to me or me to them, we could be talking about the exact same thing and not even know it because there just arent the proper words to describe some things. that was my only point. some thoughts can not be expressed in words. many things are waaaay beyond any of the languages in existence. |
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