My partner and I arrived at the Old Casino venue Sunday night with a group of friends from Newtown - one of whom had travelled the world in search of the ultimate Goa trance party, he’d been everywhere and brought a little of it with him, putting us in lofty company.  We were immediately impressed with the venue, fully carpeted and layered with hundreds of funky freaky people, dancing on the stage, on the stairs, basically everywhere. Astounding murals of wild colour adorned the walls - reminding me of the Epicentre at Byron - enchanting images of beings in ecstacy.  The second room was smaller, in here you could pick up some chai tea or sample some herbal remedies (Californian poppy my fave), whilst watching the ribbon twirlers - great!  They had some awesome mobile’s hanging from above, we really felt babes at play.  

Ears  

When we arrived the music was going off - it stayed that way the whole evening.  It is hard to think of a standout track, though I loved the one with the mad guitar cutting up the beats.  The choons meandered from metallic groove to banging acid tek to full on goa trance, whipping the air into a brooding miasma and the crowd into a frenzy.  Some technical difficulties were experienced with the sound, but they afforded a break to sit down and chill out.  As the night wound on the bpm’s slid up to an aerobic 160 - 170, harder but still as warped, nothing like your regular hard trance - delayed 16th’s synths over the off beat bassline - and the percussion, here strong and creative, not sappy and derivative.  All of the DJ’s were professional, not a trick dropped - tough, mixing trance takes greater concentration than house because the sounds are more compelling,  diverting your attention from the beats.  

Mouth  

Haha ha ha - what a blast.  How many parties do you go to where you can take off your shoes, and wander around comfortably not self-consciously.  The critical house fan may snigger at the thought, but these are the people who never dream at night of the unity and freedom of the ‘hippie’ ideal.  This music really is about unity, not cocaine and narcissism.  We had a great time at the party, especially our tourist friend - lurching around in the back of the minivan on the way home he exclaimed ‘...it only started 8 hours ago’, what now?  The 1000+ in attendance showed that a big crowd can be pulled for a trance rave in Sydney, so now I guess it’s up to the promoters.   

29/1/98