LOS ANGELES, CA – Psytrance music is a massive movement in the dance community, with hundreds of gatherings dedicated to the genre worldwide. While the genre is bigger in countries like Brazil, Australia and Germany than it is in the United States, there are many smaller psytrance gatherings to be found state side. These events are produced by various regional psytrance collectives that produce psytrance music and events. One such collective is PsyTribe and each year they put on an event called Spring Frequency in Southern California.
Even though the type of psytrance megafests found internationally don’t tend to pop up in the USA, there are many in the community who prefer to keep it that way. Spring Frequency and Psytribe provided just that—an underground, grassroots, community-driven experience untouched by the fetters of rampant capitalism that plague so many electronic music events today. The event had no corporate sponsors, no commercial vendors, and no sell-out musicians. It was refreshing to find myself immersed in 24 hours of uninterrupted, unadulterated psytrance.
The event was nestled in a remote, pristine valley in the Santa Susana Mountains, thirty minutes outside of LA. Getting down the mountain in my 21-foot RV was a little terrifying, but I ended up making it safely. The event kicked off at 5 PM on Saturday, opening with some chilled-out house music, as is to be expected at any gathering in Southern Cali. I started to wonder where the psytrance was, but I was not disappointed when the next DJ started to spin those signature triplet basslines I’ve come to love.
The music may have started before sunset, but the real party didn’t begin until past midnight and went on full strength into the blazing sunshine of the next day. If you expect to get any sleep at night during a psytrance event, you may be disappointed. In fact, it’s the norm at many psytrance events for people to really start partying at 2 AM and go until late afternoon the next day.
The music was at least 90% psytrance, but there was still a healthy amount of variation within that genre. I enjoyed classic Goa Trance from artists like Koxbox and Acid Black, but was also pleased by the more spacey, minimalist sounds that Rising Dust played on Sunday afternoon. I was elated to discover Trance Psyberia, who opened for Rising Dust with some hard-hitting, sped-up and bass-boosted psytrance. Khromata blew me away as well, who played a more trancey and melodic set with deep rolling bass lines.
The stage area was nestled on a small brick plateau under a grove of oaks, with matching psychedelic art installations hanging from the branches. The stage itself was a psychedelic wooden structure similar to the stage at Desert Hearts but smaller. Two absolutely massive walls of painted speakers adorned the stage on each side. Attendees (including myself) could regularly be seen sticking their heads in the speaker cavities to get their dose of bass or adorning the speakers with garden gnomes and furbies.
The event also featured a couple of chill-out nooks, a renegade stage, a few merch vendors, and a taco truck. I loved that the gathering was probably the most intimate outdoor electronic music event I’ve ever been to. The vibes were immaculate; very few phones were out, people were dancing with their eyes closed and smiles on their faces.
Overall, the event was in an absolutely gorgeous setting, the community was entirely welcoming, and the music was both refreshing and awe-inspring. Going to the event has me excited for what Psytribe will brew up next, and I am anticipating their other events in Souther California in the years to come.
