If you’ve been to a dance music festival in the last decade, there’s a good chance you’ve seen a tent packed with colorfully dressed humans dancing nonstop to fast-paced, vaguely alien music. It’s called psytrance, and its fans are absolutely spellbound by its psychedelic, trance-like qualities. Psytrance is booming around the world, particularly in Europe, Australia, and the Middle East, but has a growing presence in the Americas, too. And its culture extends beyond music, influencing clothing, art, and even lifestyle choices.
The ethos of psytrance culture promotes values such as personal freedom and spiritual growth. Psytrance communities often emphasize sustainable living practices, and festivals typically feature eco-friendly initiatives, such as waste reduction and renewable energy usage. Of course, it can simply be about dancing all night, too.
Enthusiasts say the experiences facilitated by psytrance music can lead to profound personal insights and transformations, and some use it as a tool for healing and awakening. It’s common to hear people talking about all-night dancing to psytrance as a ritualistic form of therapy; when fans integrate loving, insightful dance floor experiences into their daily lives, it can be a force for long-term positive change.
READ: 10 of the Best Psytrance Artists
Within psytrance are a number of subgenres like darkpsy, forest, hi-tech, and “full on.” This article will focus primarily on the subgenre known as “progressive psytrance.”
All About Progressive Psytrance
Progressive psytrance is on the deeper, more “long groove” side of a genre already known for deep, long grooves. Because of its consistent and immersive nature, progressive psytrance can serve as a scaffolding for some of the more introspective moments of a psytrance set. Its slow builds and rich textures reward patience and close listening. Yet the label of “progressive psytrance” is broad, and not always properly understood.
What Is Psytrance?
To start, let’s define “psytrance” more broadly. Short for psychedelic trance, psytrance is a dance genre rooted in trance music and connected to psychedelic festival culture. Emerging from the Goa trance movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s, it has grown into a vibrant subculture that spans the globe. Its essence lies in its hypnotic rhythms, beautiful melodies, fast tempos, and the ability to create otherworldly soundscapes that fans say facilitate altered states of consciousness.
The genre’s repetitive beats and intricate patterns are designed to induce a trance-like state, promoting a sense of unity and connection among listeners. This communal aspect is a hallmark of psytrance culture, where festivals and gatherings become sanctuaries for self-expression, spiritual exploration, and collective celebration.
Psytrance events, such as the renowned Boom Festival in Portugal and Ozora Festival in Hungary, are characterized by mind-boggling visuals, interactive art installations, and a deep sense of community. These festivals are more than just parties, often serving as holistic “transformative” experiences that incorporate elements of yoga, meditation, and workshops on topics like sustainability and futurism.
What Is Progressive Music?
Progressive psytrance partakes of the “progressive” tradition that has emerged in various musical genres. It began with “progressive rock,” a term coined in the 1970s to designate experimental, often psychedelic rock music that differentiated itself from traditional rock and roll by incorporating classical instrumentation and a more self conscious approach to the artform.
READ: 24 of the Best Psytrance Songs
Later, producers of disco and house music used the term “progressive” to differentiate a sound emerging in the 1980s and 1990s, which drew on fresh influences like Italo disco and Euro disco. Progressive house grew out of the U.K. rave scene in the 1990s, and was defined by what Mximag then called its “hard but tuneful, banging but thoughtful, uplifting and trancey” qualities. In fact, the term “progressive house” was once used interchangeably with “trance” — so progressive psytrance is, in some ways, a return to much earlier forms of dance music.
Prominent names in the early progressive house scene include the British electronic group Leftfield and Scottish duo Slam, as well as labels like Guerilla Records and Soma Records. Groove Armada, Danny Tenaglia, and Opus III were also associated with the sound. Today, producers like Deadmau5, Benny Benassi, and Eric Prydz have all produced house tracks labeled as “progressive.”
What Is Progressive Psytrance?
Progressive psytrance, known to psytrance heads as prog, progpsy, or psygressive, blends the progressive and psytrance elements described above. It is somewhat more laid-back compared to “full-on” psytrance, with a more groove-oriented approach typically in the tempo range of 130 to 140 BPM, making it slower than subgenres like psycore, hi-tech, and forest. It emphasizes gradual buildups (as opposed to climactic “drops”) and deeper, more hypnotic rhythms, making it suitable for both dance floor and introspective listening at home. Progressive psytrance is sometimes seen as more accessible to newcomers due to its melodic and harmonious nature.
Progressive psytrance is not defined by its textures or samples, but rather by its structure. Melodies and loops are drawn out for much longer than in other kinds of psytrance, sometimes lasting the entire duration of a seven- to 10-minute track.
Daniel Sokolovskiy, a DJ, producer, and label manager who curates for Beatport and runs the online Psytrance Guide, has written that progressive psy “doesn’t utilize one particular type of sound, but rather focuses on the groove, the flow, and how it progresses over time.” While some dance music listeners might be tempted to scan through a track in search of the drop, progressive psy is “very consistent, often with no climax or big emotional peaks,” he says. “But if you listen carefully from start to finish, you’ll notice how one layer builds up over another,” culminating in an “immersive” and “mesmerizing” experience.
A former moderator of the subreddit /r/trance who goes by the handle Redrot has a similar take, noting in a comment the term may be flexibly applied to various types of psytrance (sometimes leading to confusion), but is generally “more driving [and] less reliant on breakdowns and in your face basslines.” Additionally, Reddit user Jaza_music believes that when “club trance” began to replace the earlier trance sound, “proper trance-heads” turned to prog psy “to get their fix,” making it a “gateway drug into the world of psytrance for literally tens of thousands of people.”
While progressive psytrance can take many forms and has evolved throughout its history, it remains defined by repetitive grooves that invoke particularly introspective and immersive trance states.
Key Progressive Psytrance Artists and Tracks
The online Psytrance Guide lists Botond, Emok, Freq, Ikon, James Monro, Migdalor, Mindwave, Porat, Protonica, Psycrain, Sphera, Widox, and Zen Mechanics as “notable artists” of the progressive psy sound. The notable progressive psy labels listed in the guide are Bassclef Records, Comet Collective, Iboga Records, Sourcecode Transmissions, Stereo Society, TechSafari Records, TesseracTstudio, and Uxmal Records.
Guide creator Daniel Sokolovskiy’s specific article about the progressive sound cites “Psychic Experience” by Ace Ventura & Liquid Soul (2007), “Full Moon” by Funky Dragon (2005), and “Milk Tooth” by Beat Bizarre (2005) as three archetypal tracks of the early progressive psy sound. The present-day examples offered by Sokolovskiy include “Future Race” by Funky Dragon (2017), and “Dance of Rebirth” by Atacama (2018). Sokolovskiy notes that in these newer tracks, production quality has improved and become more dancefloor-oriented.
For those seeking to experience progressive psy in the durational manner heard at festivals, Reddit user and former /r/trance moderator Redrot links to this one-hour set played by Animato and Ticon at Boom Festival 2018 as “representative of modern progressive psytrance.”
Other Psytrance Genres
Goa Trance
Goa trance is the precursor to modern psytrance, originating in the Indian state of Goa. It features melodic, euphoric tunes with a strong emphasis on spiritual and transcendental themes. Goa trance is characterized by its use of organic sounds, tribal influences, and a generally uplifting vibe.
Full-On
Full-on is one of the most popular subgenres of psytrance, known for high-energy, fast-paced beats. It often features catchy melodies, powerful basslines, and a structure that builds up to intense, climactic drops. Full-on is perfect for peak-time dancefloor moments, driving the crowd into a frenzy.
Dark Psytrance
As the name suggests, dark psytrance (also known as darkpsy) delves into the darker realms of the psyche. This subgenre is characterized by its heavy, fast beats (often exceeding 150 BPM), eerie atmospheres, and sinister soundscapes. Dark Psytrance is designed to challenge and confront listeners, taking them on a journey through the shadowy aspects of the mind.
Fusions: Psybient, Psycore, Psybreaks
Psybient, also known as psychill or psychedelic ambient, blends the rhythmic elements of psytrance with the soothing, atmospheric qualities of downtempo ambient music, while psycore is an aggressive fusion between psytrance and hardcore in the breakneck tempo range of 190 to 200 BPM — twice as fast as psybient — so quick you may barely catch a groove. Psybreaks is a sound not commonly played today, but was popular in the 1990s for its fusion of Goa trance melodies with the drum patterns and rhythms of breakbeat genres like drum and bass.
Hi-Tech
Hi-Tech is a fast and futuristic subgenre of psytrance characterized by high tempos in the 170 to 200 BPM range, complex rhythms, and digital sound design. It pushes the boundaries of psychedelic music, incorporating experimental elements and an often chaotic, frenetic energy.
Forest
Forest psytrance leverages natural sounds and samples to cultivate the atmosphere of a psychedelic forest. According to the Psytrance Guide, it is “very similar to dark psy in many ways,” but faster and more straightforward, with fewer breakdowns and beat interruptions. In place of dark psy’s robotic noises, it offers more ambient, yet at times “creepy” sonic textures.
Suomi
Suomisaundi, also known as suomisoundi or spugedelic trance, is a particularly free-form subgenre that emerged out of Finland in the 1990s (its name literally translates to “Finnish sound”). Its typical BPM range is 135 to 145, and it’s defined by wildly experimental production that tends toward melodic, tribal, and “acid trance” sounds.
