Organic Family has made quite a name for itself in the Psytrance Community over the past years. They have been involved in the creation of the Crash Stage at Harvest Festival and have made multiple contributions towards other events and festivals across Canada. This time they made an event of their own to show the city of Toronto what a true quality psytrance event looks like – MAD MOON – with the presentation of a Darkpsy master Kokobloko/Darkshire/Makumba with the support of the local heroes Ankhanamun, Atheria, Lorax, Playdifferent and even a last minute addition to replace Banjankri who couldn’t make it, Lizard.
MAD MOON – January 23 2016. Photo by Carlos Rey.
This was without a doubt an event that was needed in our Psyfamily community. I had never witnessed an indoor psytrance event so well put together in a Toronto venue. My jaw dropped as soon as I walked through the door and saw an arch of cubes at the entrance of the Remix Lounge – they had psychedelic projections all over them and I couldn’t figure out if they were coming from the inside or outside of the cube… and that was just the beginning of it.
Before we could proceed into the club, security told us that coat check was mandatory and this angered many as they were not expecting to have to pay an extra fee. After getting past coat check and security, I finally walked through the cubes and I was stunned. I stood frozen for five minutes in awe at the sight of the UV reactive decorations that were spread everywhere, and when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere. There wasn’t one spot on the ceiling or wall that didn’t have some sort of uv reactive string art or see-through cloths that would project as 3D if you wore fractal glasses. There was also a table where everyone could draw or write whatever they desired. The end project would be one design created by everyone who contributed. On the opposite of the room, there was UV body painting and face painting by Cornelia Rose. She painted a beautiful design of an owl on my back:
All I can say is that I was never bored, and the deco artist Shoom did a great job on making sure that everyone was visually stimulated at all times. I saw a lot of old faces from the Toronto Psyfamily that I hadn’t seen in a very long time as well as a lot of new faces that were very welcoming and friendly. Everyone had great style to their wardrobe, they would stand out yet still blend in at the same time.
I was surprised to find myself enjoying the music as I am not usually a fan of the darkpsy style. Darkpsy consists of fast paced tempos of 150-200BPM and have very dark and creepy sounds. Sometimes these sounds can also be mechanical and metallic giving it a hi-tech feel.
MAD MOON – January 23 2016. Photo by Carlos Rey.
The club had around 50 people already in attendance when I had arrived and the first DJ to hit the decks was Ankhanamun. She performed a very groovy set of dark progressive psytrance which contained a lot of eerie sounds but calming beats. Her set was consistent throughout and warmed everyone up for some for intense progressive from Lorax.
Lorax took the crowd to a more energetic state of mind when he performed his set. The club was quickly filling up and running to the dancefloor to enjoy the groovy darkpsy beats that he provided. Everyone was ecstatic by the end of it and there were no signs of anyone stopping anytime soon. Lorax dropped his last track and left the decks nice and warm for the next local hero Atheria.
Atheria’s style of Darkpsy is a unique style called forest psy which contains fast paced running basses at 150 BPM paired with natural sounds of the woods, psychedelic growls and atmospheric landscapes. Atheria drove the crowd insane with his amazing mixing skills and track selection that had everyone prepared for the main attraction, Kokobloko/Darkshire/Makumba.
Mario Sounoglou is the mastermind behind the three projects that were performing that night, and he started off with his forest psy project Darkshire/Makumba. It was a perfect transition as the tripadelic sounds complemented the vibe that was set by Atheria just a few minutes before. Mario performed as Darkshire/Makumba for about an hour and a half, gaining intensity and warming up the crowd for the faster yet more melodic project, Kokobloko. I personally enjoyed the Kokobloko project more as it had a lot of melodic sounds and psychedelic soundscapes that I would normally hear in fullon psytrance. Mario brought the speed up to a bombing 175BPM during the last hour and a half and ended his live set with one particular track that caught my attention right away. It seemed so familiar to me but I couldn’t quite figure out why I recognized it. When I asked Mario what the track name was, he told me it was a track he had made with the russian artist Crazy Astronaut called Contemporary Psychedelics. When he mentioned who the featured artist was, I immediately understood why I found it familiar, Crazy Astronaut is one of my favourite artists.
After an amazing three hours of psychedelic mind-bending tunes and bass-filled beats, it was time to bring things down a bit with some psychedelic forest trance provided by none other than Playdifferent. Robbie Foti is the project behind Playdifferent who has been surprising everyone in the psychedelic community with his outstanding mixes every time he hits the stage. Robbie did just that as he performed a few productions of his own along with the tracks he selected during his set. He put on a show that I won’t forget for a long time; his style was very eerie and animalistic and consisted of a lot of “playful” beats and breaks. It was a trippy experience that had everyone hopping all over the dancefloor. His set stretched until 5AM, but Robbie put on a terrific performance and ended his set in a way that kept the vibe going for the crowd to pull through for the last hour (and the last minute) artist Lizard.
Lizard played a set that started based off the high energy that was provided by Playdifferent and quickly switched it up to a more groovy and simple psychedelic sound, consisting of progressive beats but intense synthesizers. He kept the crowd on its feet till the very end and ended the night in a bang.
The music stopped at 6:05AM, The DJs and Organic Family said their goodbyes to the crowd and wished then well. They left us all with the note to keep an eye out for any events to come in the future as they will have many more.
It was truly an astonishing night that I won’t forget for as long as I live. The care and attention that was put into this event is incomparable to the previous psy events that I have attended here in Toronto. You can tell that there’s was a lot of time, thought and effort put into the setup of the event. Organic Family did their best to show everyone what a true psychedelic experience should be and they accomplished it with flying colours!
Collective artwork @ MAD MOON – January 23 2016
LINKS:
Kokobloko/Darkshire/Makumba
Website
Facebook
Kokobloko Soundcloud
Darkshire Soundcloud
Atheria
Soundcloud
Ankhanamun
Soundcloud
Playdifferent
Soundcloud
Phillip Pereira – EDM TOR
