I have never understood why psytrance subgenres are so focused on BPM range. There is so much more to music than the tempo, it has always felt overly reductive to me. I had a friend who was a psytrance producer and even hearing him talk at length about it, I was never convinced that BPM was a critical differentiator. Also respectfully I think categorizing a subgenre as falling within 4 BPM is outrageously too narrow. Many casual listeners cannot even detect such a small change in tempo.
Casual listeners can't detect it, but it strongly affects the possibility space for production purposes. For instance, if you're writing happy hardcore music at 170+ BPM with a kick drum on every beat, you will get surprisingly little time between those kicks to work with the bass and other instruments. While this is a somewhat extreme example, even something like the difference between 128 BPM and 138 BPM can change what you're making. A commercial house track produced at 128 BPM may sound like 90s Eurodance when played at 138. Similarly, a deep house track produced at 122 might feel like radio EDM when played at 128.
While you could certainly make psytrance at 150 BPM, it's going to pack a different punch. You'll make different decisions about what works and what doesn't, and then it's going to end up sounding even more different from the rest of the 138 PBM psytrance -- oops, you've shifted genres. Slow it down to 110 and then people aren't dancing to the track quite the same way anymore. Try dancing to the same song at 100 BPM and then at 120 BPM... you'll notice the difference immediately. Tempo isn't everything, but it's much more than just a number.
If you're interested in some BPM fuckery, there's a small-ish contingent of artists/labels doing some cool things around the 80/160-ish BPM range. Folk like Donato Dozzy, Patrick Russell and Forest Drive West have been putting together some great sets that sound like this militant-ish blend of Techno and Drum and Bass and just get really 'out there' in, in my opinion, the best way possible.
There's one moment in a Forest Drive West set (I wish I could remember which one) where he plays the first 45-ish minutes at 160-ish, and then drops down to 125-130 for the last 1hr+ - but he does it in a manner that you never hear DJs do and almost doesn't work. He leaves the ~160BPM track playing, and brings in the 125-ish track over it in a way that creates this really cool syncopated rhythm. It's risky, and there's a reason you usually don't see people do it, but he pulls it off. I have a particular fondness for Jazz music, particularly Jazz musicians who fuck with time in a similar manner, so to hear a DJ pulling off something like that is awesome to me.
But yeah, highly recommend checking out Dozzy's surprise closing set at Terraforma[1] and Patrick Russell's Mostra[2] set.
Edit: The FDW set I'm thinking of is his set from Boom Festival[3].
Ah what a pleasure to see Donato Dozzy mentioned on here! One of my favourite DJs/artists. Hearing his Labyrinth 2008 set [1] had a big impact on my musical tastes - I was into techno already, but hadn’t discovered anything so deep and hypnotic.
It actually might appeal to people on here who like psy trance - it’s a different style (hypnotic/deep techno) and tempo but it shares some structural and sonic elements.
I’ve had the pleasure of seeing him play many times and meeting him and he’s just as lovely as you’d hope!
I think they are touring as VFTL again, I saw them perform the first album here in London at the start of the year and they are back next week with all new material! So there’s hope that they might come back to whatever part of the world you’re in :)
> Tempo isn't everything, but it's much more than just a number.
Does this specifically apply to Psytrance where I think the tempo stays more or less constant for most of the song. In general is there any Psytrance where tempo evolves during the song, goes up and down? I understand it might be difficult to dance to.
In Psytrance, and dance music in general, most BPMs will stay the same throughout the track. You may have moments where the track will cut to half-time and "feel" slower, even though it's kinda not, but more often than not you're going to find that dance music tracks maintain the same BPM throughout.
DJs, however, will often be the ones switching the tempo up during a set, either slowly adjusting it up and down over the course of the night, or switching things up and suddenly bringing in a track at a completely different BPM.
I play psy-trance at a range of tempos, from dub stuff at 70-80bpm, through prog stuff around 110-130bpm, to more high energy stuff up at 140-150bpm.
The main reason for sticking to a tempo is because psy-trance, and (good) trance music in general is about the constant pulse. The goal is to put the listener in 'the zone' (a trance even :P), and then give them a bunch of ear candy in the mids and highs to keep their happy little brains occupied.
So for any given set DJs generally pick a tempo and stick to it and deliver a driving, consistent pulse, and everything else is just colouring in on top.
"Many casual listeners cannot even detect such a small change in tempo."
Maybe not consciously, but their heart can probably (literaly) feel it and react differently, which is what this is mostly about. And in general I totally agree, that there is way more to music than tempo and I am only partially into anything techno as I like more instruments and variations, but with electronic dance music the rhythm simply matters the most for dancing.
> Many casual listeners cannot even detect such a small change in tempo.
I DJ both electronic formats as well as "general pop hits" nights. People may not consciously tell, but you take a well know track, and speed it up 3-5% (which also increases the pitch, unless you enable pitch-time stretch correction), and it injects a noticeable amount of energy into the dancefloor.
It's also just a social/"conformal" thing. Tempo regions serve as a kind of Schelling point for styles and energy levels. So if you have a given sub-style or vibe, you are likely to produce music in that style and speed, so it can readily mix in the same context.
Again, all of these micro-genres listed still fall under the aegis of "psytrance" and djs can and often do mix across boundaries and pitch stuff up/down as a part of their art. It's really about self-association and capturing specific vibes, vs exclusion or genre-policing.
Since the target audience is 'people who dance to the same music from ~midnight to sunrise', the ability to sustain a steady pace over that period matters the same way it would for a marathon runner or similar. I haven't gone racing in a while but goa parties used to have a pretty consistent cycle of warmup for an hour, take off over an hour, full-on for 4-6 urs depending on the time of year, then the sun comes up and it would switch to 'sloa', basically the same musical flavor but coasting down to a walking pace.
Yeah, but with most genres, you typically don't find them isolated to such small BPM ranges (I see on this guide ranges as low as 2 BPM). Most genres have a much wider range, eg ~10-ish or more BPMs. I really don't think it's accurate to limit these genres to such a small range, when a genre is more about the specific sound and style of a track.
Yeah, I'm not saying all the genres operate the same with BPMs. Compared to most house and techno events I go to, I do feel that psytrance events are a bit more "unrelenting" in bpm where I wish there was more variety.
Because DJs don’t want to change the tempo of what they play by too much until it sounds wrong, and most electronic music is produced to be played at clubs
And because the dance styles that match ranges of bpm are so different, audiences find ranges they prefer. Try dancing to 125bpm old berghain tracks and compare with how you’re able to move your body in sync with 155bpm hard groove. It’s a completely different experience. This is dance music.
Some of my favorite dancefloor moments have been hearing a track I love played at a wildly different BPM than I'm used to hearing (whether it's playing a 33 as a 45/vice versa, or using a CDJ to really stretch the tempo). The way the vibe of a track can change completely, and shift your perspective of a piece of music, is always super cool to me.
I caught Rhadoo a few years back and he spent two hours playing this dark, kinda spacey techno that just chugged along real nicely at around 125BPM. I didn't love the tracks, but thought the way that he was blending everything was interesting - I'd recommend seeing him play if you can solely for the master class in mixing that he'll give ya.
At any rate, a little over two hours in, I started to hear a familiar hi-hat. My body knew the track, but I couldn't place it. Then he started fucking with the low-end EQs and you could hear it - Happy Cycling by Boards of Canada (the original, not a remix or an edit or anything), a 100BPM downtempo-ish track, coming into the middle of this dark, chugging techno set at 125BPM. Literally my favorite BoC track and the last thing I'd ever expect to hear in the middle of such a set. It was like he'd built the whole set up to that moment, and it worked so fucking well. I still get chills thinking about it.
This is a weird setup and way to approach it and anyone involved with the scene in its glory days etc never was classifying things this way. Styles based on description of sounds sure but not bpms. This is some weird engineer take on things.
