To my ears, I hear little difference between this and a sub-genre of "trance" music, called "progressive trance". I've had the unfortunate experience of hearing progressive trance several times while searching the internet for progressive rock streams. Why anyone that wants to listen to psychedelic synthesized music that tends to "flow" would want that played along with a monotonous rhythm track is beyond me. I can see the attraction of each element - synthesizer, sound effects, progression of melodies and a dance track - but mixing them together is a clash that fits no state-of-mind that I'd even want to experience.
Progressive trance has much more of what you are looking for in EDM. Vocals, progressions, and other techniques are applied.
Psychedelic, Goa, and even Gabber and Hardstyle trance(s) are redundant, over driven, monotonous tracks meant to be mixed at a high rate of transition speed during massives or raves by DJ's. By mixing between songs all night long, the audience receives hours and hours of music to keep them up dancing.
To listen to individual tracks of the aforementioned all the way through each time will burn someone out faster than most music, excluding your example of progressive trance, where in most cases the producer tends to tell more of a story with the music, and can be listened to and appreciated individually.
I believe a lot of modern techo/trance can (mostly) trace itself back to artists like Klaus Schulze and Eno/Cluster. They heavily refined the electronic-industrial music created by the German experimental artists like Kluster, Can and Faust.
Sucking up all that inspiration were post-psych guys like Tim Blake (Gong)
Hm, im not exactly sure, as thats not my usual bag of music I listen to, but I'd have to say new wave / post rock / experimental rock. It also sounds like they use a lot of influence from the "shoegaze" era, and furthermore, reminds me of the String Cheese Incident
I'm diggin this thread, lets keep it goin :P At least until the obligatory "Electronic music is not real music" flame is brought up.
you must be somewhere over in Europe then! Which I am envious of. More of my favorite prog trance artists would be Gabriel and Dresden, Armin Van Buren, Paul Okenfold, etc., but to someone across the pond, these artists are probably mainstream!
Only until recently has EDM tried to stay out of or pop radio stations, excluding Daft Punk and maybe 2 or 3 others that have broken through the airwaves here in the states. However, now when I turn on the radio, EDM is mixed in with all sorts of pop music, from Brittany Spears to that Pittbull fella (yuck) and a wide range of rappers.
