Best Kept Secret on Earth: CANADA
Canada is one of the best kept secrets on the planet: The country is fairly liberal, friendly to travelers, peace loving, and it’s HUGE: coast to coast it’s the same distance as from North America to Europe! You can find plenty of regular tourist info online so let’s get straight to the point; the mainline thing you need to know is this: a) while the winters may be long (with lots of snow and freezing temperatures), the summer’s are awesome, and packed with underground festivals of all shapes, sizes, and colours with a vibe that harkens back to the beginning of the scene. b)The crowd is relatively young compared to Europe. c) downtempo and organic sounds (live bands, or shows that blend musicians and electronica) are often the best gateway to psychedelic experiences here.
 Main Parties: Montreal’s Eclipse festival in July (www.techsafari.ca) is the best dedicated psy trance festival in the country. Shambhala (www.shambhalamusicfestival.com) in August (in Nelson, B.C. on the west coast) is the Burning Man of Canada, and features psy in the Portal stage. Motion Notion in mid July near Edmonton, Alberta (www.motionnotion.com) features psy and other styles, and is the main party in that province. Evolve in beautiful Nova Scotia on the east coast, features all styles of electronica and jam bands. Harvest festival on the full moon of September is a great outdoor event (www.harvestfestival.org). There are also many excellent smaller events across the country promoted more by word of mouth.
Music Producers: (trance): Nuclear Ramjet, Zen, Metalogic, Azriel, Akhentek (ambient): Adham Shaikh, Biobazar, Anahata, Freeworm, LOGM.
Some Labels: (ambient): interchill.com , nativestaterecords.com, (trance): spaceportrecords.ca, coldgroove.com
Meeting Points: Apart from going to a festival, club night, or small gathering, the best place to meet ppl and find info is online at the various trance websites.
 Experiences: as the summer parties are out in nature, and distances are far in Canada, sometimes getting there is half the fun. I love a good road trip, arriving early at the site, setting up camp, meeting friends and sharing special experiences in nature. Over the years parties like Eclipse, Shambhala, Natura, Harvest fest, Space Gathering, and others remind me why I’m still in the scene. Other parties that left there mark include: Emergence, the Return to the Source tent on Christian Island in Ontario, Earth Dance events, Om festival, Passage events, and Delerium’s west coast gatherings.
Coolest Trance Shop: Psychonaut (154 Prince-Arthur), in the heart of the Plateau district of Montreal.
 Developments and Opinions: “Intentional Gatherings” are the most interesting development; you’ll find them in key places like the Sunshine Coast, and here in Quebec, where creative ppl align with other’s less traditionally associated with the trance scene (hippies, meditation practitioners, dancers, artists etc.). Together, they create a sacred space where music and spirituality combine. Other than that, what’s good about the scene is what still draws us back to it: the spirit of a community of friends celebrating together in nature, and the power of good music played well. Some of the new generation has no idea of the history of the scene, and tends to like sounds that to me are dated (popular trends like Dark Psy, or fast, acid based, noisy music doesn’t interest me). If a party doesn’t have a chill, I’m less likely to go, as the chill is often my favorite part of the event, where dancing is fluid and creative. Even if the may stage rocks, ppl always need a place to get away from the intensity. Many kids here get sucked into the repetitive and aggressive beats of a main room because they’re tripping. I feel that if you are over using chemical and substances, you might not be respecting your body (which is a part of the earth). Finally, the quality of an event is based on the intention and vibration of the promoters and djs, so know who you’re supporting, and chose wisely; a good time is then guaranteed!
If you were to visit Canada from West to East, chances are you’d want to see the following:
The Gulf Pacific Islands: lovely, warm and friendly, just off the west coast, and home to Interchill Records and Mariko Publishing. Vancouver: city of mountains and ocean,
Deliria productions, and the Friday night Organix club night. Sunshine Coast: home to a vibrant underground scene, and Native State Records. It’s worth noting that on the west coast, downtempo music often offers the most psychedelic gateways and environments, and is well supported. Nelson (B.C.): cool town, and gateway to the Shambhala Festival (Canada’s answer to Burning Man; Ott played last year, Adham Shaikh and Interchill djs are regulars). Calgary and Edmonton : close to the famous Rocky Mountains, and home base for Katalyst’s “Motion Notion” event, as well as Area709 productions. Yukon and Northern Territories: no trance activities, but amazing to visit in the summer. Saskatchewan: home to the flat prairies and the Connect festival (non-psy trance). Toronto: Canada’s answer to New York City, and home to our ambassadors to tech: Black Light Activists, the Shakti Collective and DJ Dam’s Deep Sea Fish. Ottawa: gateway to Gatineau and Algonquin park, and local events. Montreal: the best part of the country (my opinion): French, European, home to Nuclear Ramjet (their new album is “Mission to Sedna)), and Tech Safari’s “Eclipse” event (Canada’s only dedicated psy-trance festival, and not to be missed) and the underground “Space Gathering". East Coast (Halifax, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, P.E.I., etc.): home to fantastic seafood, friendly ppl, and the Evolve (multi-style) festival.
Local Scene Reports:
MONTREAL/QUEBEC REPORT by Eric of Tech Safari
 The Quebec (and especially the Montreal) scene is
more active then ever, with excellent events like “Amazone”, new years eve’s
“Soma” and the international psy-trance event extraordinaire: “Eclipse”. The
“Eclipse” summer festival (which takes place 4
hours north of the metropolis next to the Laurentien mountain ridge), is
the biggest psy-trance event in Canada, receiving around 3000 guests over
a 3 day period.
Tech Safari and Phonolite represent the principal organizations in Montreal.
Mofarlo productions are also putting on excellent events, and will be featuring Gus Till at “Space Gathering” in July. The local composers are “Nuclear Ramjet” (having just released their 3rd album “Mission to Sedna”), “Zen”, and the new talented artists “Azriel”, “Ekoplex”, “Weirding Ways” and “Symbolium”. As well, DJ Clown just formed “Jester Records”, and Nuclear Ramjet formed “Space Port Records” (both labels being distributed by “Statik”, an established distributor in Québec city.
Here is a list of some of many well known artists that have graced our
beautiful city:
* Deedrah
* Astrix
* Ticon
* Wizzy
* Noise
* Infected Mushroom
* GMS
* The Delta
* X-Dream
* Midimilz
* Son Kite
* Talamasca
* Broken toy
* Dino Psaras
* Joti Siduh
* Space Cat
* Nomad
* Sirius Isness
* Absolum
* CPU and many more…
Not to mention our active local DJ’s:
* DJ Neerav (Interchill)
* DJ Rickam ( Tech Safari,Neurobiotic)
* DJ Yann ( Tech Safari,Headroom)
* DJ Zen (Kagdila/Sunline)
* DJ Absolute (Kagdila)
* DJ Zaid k (Alien crew)
* DJ Br34th3 (Phonolite)
* DJ Horizon (Pukka music)
* And DJ Seb
Only one store caters to the Psy Trance scene for the music, clothing
and tickets: Psychonaut (154 Prince-Arthur located downtown Montréal).
Here is a forum (mostly in French) for more information and discussion about the scene: http://forum.psyfreaks.ca
HISTORY OF THE QUEBEC SCENE by Eric of Tech Safari
 The first Goa Trance event in Montreal was the legendary “Emergence” in
the spring of 1995 produced by Mobius, and presenting the fathers of the Goa
Trance movement in Montreal:
* DJ Neerav
* DJ Adityo
* DJ Field
As well as the very first guest: T.I.P. Bansi (GMS), who was just a teenager at the time, and several inches shorter than he is now!
The Goa Chill Nights paved way for the first Quebec province wide goa
trance movement by providing quality events and spawning other
organization like eXperience production and Alien project in
Trois-Rivieres, where the goa electronic scene launched between
1995 and 1997 with nights like:
* Gaia
* Transworld
* Alien Pow Wow
* Sunset
* eXvolution
* 3D
* Chameleon
* Infinity
Most nights brought together out 300 to 3500 people by
bringing international talent like:
* Goa Gill
* Guy Sebag
* Tony Puglia
* Bansi
* India Drop
* Andre from T.I.P.
And with the hard work of local DJ’s like:
* Jeff MK Ultra
* DJ Nivoc
* DJ Stormbass
1998 marked the debut of a new production named EOMF (formerly known as
Alien project and eXperience). This new production united DJ Rickam, DJ
Zab and DJ Yann (A.K.A. Dew at the time), and would eventually launch the psy trance event called eclipse. With a count of 2000 people, it was the first big
interior event of its kind. Featuring artists like Dino Psaras, Dj Dede and
many of Interchill’s, it would, some year later, be reborn into the
very first major outdoor Eclipse summer trance festival. A lot of
excellent nights also popped-up in 2000 with the Psychotrop nights
presented by Fluodelik and the arrival of Alien Crew in 2002 with their
Homeworld project. Up to 2002, the outdoor festival Natura was the only
major trance event with more than 1500 people, attracted by low ticket prices, purely local artists, and the chance to get out of the city and camp in a beautiful forest setting in private land (not too far from waterfalls). Eclipse picked up where Natura left off in 2003 with a more elaborate and international concept. That, in a nutshell, is the history of our local scene.
Quebec City Report by Azriel
Psytrance parties in Quebec city are well rooted with organizations like Old School or Freak patrol or Galactic Activist. Since their inception, these production companies have made sure that there’s always some psytrance djs in their line up. Recently, some psytrance djs and party lovers from Quebec city (“QC” for short) have united under the name of Neurovortex Crew, with the goal of bringing the pure spiritual psychedelic meaning to their events with djs and artists from
QC city and beyond. They've succeeded in their mission with the party Digitom, which gathered 200 freaks in a friendly atmosphere. And Neurvortex also released the Azriel Debuts single, a total psychedelic adventure. In conclusion, here are some djs and artists to follow in the QC psytrance dimension: Azriel, Shango, Spanusbogen, Kynoxe, Tamala and Ganesh.
OTTAWA REPORT by Psycronik, Data Decay And Ecto-Gammit
 The Ottawa scene is small and simple! Since our city came up with many bylaws in 2001/2002 to reduce the amount of parties happening, the trance scene was split in half (psytrance on one side and tech/trance/hard trance and trance core on the other) which resulted in a major drop in the attendance at parties, promoters quitting and only being able to do 9pm to 3am events (unless you were using an afterhour bar as a venue, and Ottawa has only one). More recently things have started to pick up again, especially with groups like F.A.K.(Freak Addiction Krew), Kreotik and 7th Harmonic throwing outdoor parties and monthly events, booking out of town talent every 2 months for a solid 2 years now.
Here the times are changing, with promoting crews like Teknoturtle.ca (CHUO 89.1 FM on the radio), F.A.K.,7th Harmonic, Kreotik and Synergy, keeping the Ottawa underground rave scene alive, bringing you the vibe and music that you just won't find at a market bar or a club, striving to build a bigger better scene. With a vast array of talented dj's and music lovers here in the city, we are only seeing improvement, and a scene heading in the right direction.
There are many psy trance dj's in Ottawa including: FAK (Psycronik, Data Decay, Ecto-Gammit, Point Dexter) Mark Psykick, Quantizer, Koda, Clone, Pat Brainwerx, Reptilian, Ron Havoc, Pillango, Buddha Belly and Freedom Engine to name a few. For other trance variations, dj's Emm, Rob Black, Joe Rowe, Bobby Timken, Twisted freq, Efm – 7, Chakra V, Vh3, S4, Plush and many more all rock the scene in Ottawa! If you wanna check out some Ottawa events go to www.xvi.com, all the information is on there!
TORONTO by Jeremy of BLA (“Black Light Activists”)
Although there were parties throughout the 90's Toronto's scene became
steady in 1999 when Toronto's longest lasting organizer BLA (aka Black Light
Activists) started to bring in international headliners on a regular basis.
During the last 7 years various groups have come and gone. Currently BLA and
the Shakti Collective are the only ones still making regular parties with
the main trance acts of the day. While the focus of the promoters is on
the progressive side of the spectrum, you can still hear the occasional full
on set here and there.
The artistic scene in Toronto is also becoming more active with producers
like Metalogic and Axiomata getting international releases as well as a lot
of smaller producers making headway. Cold Groove Records, run by dj Yeb, is
based in the downtown area of the city. Local painter Neil Gibson has been very busy decorating parties across North America as well as Europe.
While there are no real "trance shops", Shanti Baba, a local head shop on
Queen St, will be able to let you know of anything going on in the trance
scene.
Important links:
WEST COAST REVIEW by Naasko
Deliria (who also throw successful parties in Mexico) have been active in Vancouver and the West Coast since 1998, and organize about three major events per year. This summer they are bringing Andromeda/ Chromosome for July 29. [http://www.deliria.org/regenesis ]. Also in Vancouver, Chris Organix continues to run his Friday club nights. Also based in Vancouver is Nils, who dj's and is involved with major events in Van and on the sunshine coast (“Faeries and Fools”, “InVision Festival”, “Beats Without Borders”)
DJ's/artists
include: Akhentek - music production, dj, workshops and events - www.akhentek.com
RJ Solo - DJ and event
Ronin - DJ and events
Anahata - producer of chill and full on
psychedelic
links:
labels:
festivals:
-
Shambhala – Salmo BC - the Portal stage
-
Deliria: July 29, Andromeda / Chromosome, (www.deliria.org/regenesis)
-
Faeries and Fools / Beats Without Borders
- events: Organix every fri. night at club 23 west - Vancouver, BC
SHAMBHALA’S “PORTAL” to PSY TRANCE by Jen
Shambhala Music Festival
Salmo River Ranch
Salmo, British Columbia
August 10th-14th 2006
www.shambhalamusicfestival.com
 Tibetan legend holds Shambhala as the hidden sacred valley of enlightenment. Nestled in the British Columbia Mountains (near the new age town of Nelson), on a majestic six hundred acre working cattle ranch, Shambhala Music Festival carries on its own modern interpretation of the ancient tradition.
Shambhala Music Festival is an eclectic multi-media festival hosting 10,000 people on 6 stages, over 4-days. Going on its 8th year, it represents all genres of electronica showcasing world-renowned international and local talent.
The Portal stage represents trance and is devoted to the psychedelic, tribal and tech/progressive aspects of the festival. The youngest stage at the festival, going on is 4th year the Portal is a gathering point for trancers all over North America.
The Portal is a trance-nomadic collaborative of sound, visionary art, energy healing area, meta-informed workshops, and Activist Alley and the Seed, which is an ambient soundscape lounge. It has been created to inspire and activate minds, with performance art, traditional ceremony and installation art, a circus of the senses. This integral sacred space is crystallizing the vision of galactic and earth based wisdom.
“Dance creates transcendence, when in that state, when in the music; it is like meditation, the meditation of ancients and today as children of the tech evolution.”
Gypsy Slippers
ALBERTA SCENE by James Katalyst
Alberta´s psytrance scene is growing. There are 3 or 4 organizers in
Alberta (Calgary and Edmonton) making small indoor events happen every 2 or
3 months, sometimes with out-of town djs. Psy is also beginning to be added
to the mix at parties that would normally only feature other styles of
electronic music such as house, techno, breaks, or drum&bass.
“Area709” have a very strong web presence and as well throw events in Calgary, Alberta that are very heavily focussed on progressive psytrance, recently hosting Beat Bizzare and Ticon, amongst others. The largest party emphasizing psytrance in western canada is the annual Motion Notion festival, July 13-16, 2006 near Edmonton.
Alberta Links:
photos by motionnotion.com & wendy j
Facts
- Temperatures are warm from June-August, and extremely cold from Nov-April.
- English is spoken everywhere except Quebec, where it’s mostly French.
- Getting into Canada is not as hard as entering the U.S., but not as easy as for Canadians to get into Europe. You might need to prove you have money etc.
- The economy is ok, not so strong, but so down either. Prices, once you factor in the exchange rate, are not all that different from say Berlin.
- Finding a place to stay is easy online; there are many hostels but they cost min. $20 Can. a night. You can find loads of tourism info online.
- Sights: [Nature]: Niagra falls (over rated), Rocky Mountains (must see), Gaspe region of Quebec, Maritimes (Atlantic Coast), Algonguin Park (near Ottawa), Gulf Pacific islands / Sunshine Coast (West Coast). [Cities]: Montreal, Quebec City, Ottawa, Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver, Victoria. Warning: distances between some Cities can be quite far; check your map!
Links
Contacts
 Text
DJ Neerav
djneerav@yahoo.com
DJ (trance and ambient), A&R for Interchill Records
“Be the change you’d like to see…”
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