Anyone who is into the history of electronic music will say the word “Goa” with an enormous amount of respect, reverence and excitement.  For some, it was when “trance” really took off, some believing it was the inspiration for Psytrance.  So I like the idea of Goa.

A central figure of the “Goa” movement was Tsuyoshi  Suzuki; depending on how you read it he either found it there and started bringing it to the rest of the world, or alternately, played an influence on the scene.  The man himself is pretty modest when it comes to discussing his achievements, so we delved a little more into his other activities.

First up, Tsuyoshi has a strong connection with Australian crowds, who just love and adore him –  ”Australian crowds go off, really makes you feel appreciated…”  on his track selections for his up coming gig, Tsuyoshi says “Always depends on the atmosphere of the dancefloor….so we’ll see what is happening but in Melbourne it will be a full on Psytrance set “

“Earthcore is almost the biggest dance music festival in the world now…..i also love the idea of the train party”.  Tsuyoshi also has a link with expat Aussie Jet More, who more often than not is based in Tokyo.  “He did one track with JOUJOUKA called BOXROCKER. It’s a housey rockin’ track! I love it. He is one of my best friends! We used to hang out a lot in Tokyo….Nick Taylor is another favourite Aussie DJ”

Tsuyoshi plays, produces, writes rock and runs labels.  “JOUJOUKA is my elektro rock band. The new album has just come out in Japan and we did live set with Coburn in Tokyo last month. It as unbelievably a great success for us! 1,500 people were rocking! “

“I also have an elektro DJ name called NUMANOID with my elektro label MADSKIPPERS. The NUMANOID CD and the new JOUJOUKA album will come out in Germany before summer time. Hopefully will hit Australian territory in that time too.”

“Also, I’m producing DJ TSUYOSHI’s solo album now which will be Psytrance style and hopefully it will be coming out by the end of this year.”

Having been at the forefront of Psytrance, Tsuyoshi has mixed feelings “The Psytrance scene is like the heavy metal rock scene. Not much has changed in terms of the style of the parties, but the music has changed a lot, but not always in a good way… unfortunately.”  On the future of Psytrance  ”For Psytrance, it would be good to have more nice melodies, but not cheesey stuff, and also experimental stuff in it as well. Like the ‘90s stuff would be great!”

”....there are so many good labels….G.S.R. from Germany is quite good.”  Definitely worth checking out.

For me, the proof of the pudding has been seeing Tsuyoshi at Earthcore, Brown Alley and last Evil Thursday (the night before good Friday) at POW.  His sets rock – bouncing, driving music that will not have you sitting down for 2 hours solid.  Everything from remixes of “Seek and destroy” to Tsuyoshi’s own tracks.    This year with Space Tribe, it’s a bonus Psy spectacular.

For me its an essential gig to see, one I know will be a favourite for many people to come.  Check out the reviews and pics from other events Tsuyoshi has played at, and do yourself a favour and make the trek down to POW on Evil Thursday when Tsuyoshi plays a Psy double with Space tribe.