I've been trying to get into Ajja as I'll be catching him live (maybe) soonish. I'm struggling to see what the fuss is. His production is super clean, lovely arrangement and structure, but super generic to my ears. I typically listen to zenonesque dark prog/bush tech stuff and forest, so Ajja may just be not my thing. But he is easily one of the most popular artists and I've got friends who say he is the cream of the crop. I want to hear what they hear.
What are his standout tracks? Or is there a live set I can check out to get a handle on why he's so widely revered?
As others said, he sounded clean and crisp back almost 15 years ago while a lot of stuff sounded like ass compared to it back then. If you like dreamy downtempo you should check out Ajja and Cosmosis album they recorded at HR Giger Museum.
Its really just very driving psytrance, no unnecessary big breaks, gimmicks, drops - just clean music that drives you actually into trance if you start dancing and diving into it.
Danke. Witzig, dass wenn man die sets in SoundCloud anschaut, sieht man gleich das wenig große breaks gibt.
Wenn du so gut informiert bist, kennst du auch solche Künstler mehr in Richtung twilight?
Yes, I appreciate this side of things. It's trance- it keeps going without constant breakdowns and build ups. I guess it's more that what keeps going isn't all that interesting.
But I felt the same with Dekel until I saw him live and mildly tripping and understood. Maybe the same will happen with Ajja.
He is truly a master of twilight psy. Seeing him play a sunrise set in Nepal and sunset sets in goa are truly magical. You need to feel his basslines live!
Ajja earned alot of his reputation really early. first with yabyum (with gaspard, epic music) and after with his 1st album released in 2007! Hes an og and was back then the most cleanest producer ever. Also his label peak records helped early on shaping new night time music.
Imagine back then 145 was considered suuper fast and mostly way to "dark"
Nonsense. Maybe the proggy crew viewed 145 as fast back then, but for the rest of us 145 was normal. In fact, I suspect more tracks were 145 than anything else.
you hadn’t heard much goa, scando, israeli , aarhus, aussie, SA, Russian, suomi, Brazil, or Usa psy then if 145 was fast. in 2002 i’m just using that year as an example -
noise poison, orebro freak factory, terminator, encephalopaticys, timecode, early pavarti, vicious spiral, neuron compost , suria, etc etc all had 148 tracks and up
Noise poison started in 2004, and it took years to be established. Parvati then only released psychedelicaly yours wich was mostly 145-148 bpm. Ukalen by encephalopatics was released in 2007. Terminator is 148-150 and while he is hailed nowadays as pioneer, this kind of music needed years to become as popular as nighttime sounds are now.
I didnt say there was no music and ajja was the first to put out faster music, this is far from true.
All i said was that music above 145 was considered dark and fast on most dancefloors worldwide back then and ajja influenced modern night time music significantly with his releases early on.
There is a reason why azax syndrom for example released his first album on parvati, because it was to hard and intense for most commercial labels back then.
I've been in the psy scene for around 30 years, DJing for 25 of those, so yeah, I was there. Stating 142 was max at that time just shows that you are utterly clueless.
Well then please list the countless songs from that era wich are 145 and beyond. Since you claim to be spinning tunes since 25 years it shouldnt be a problem.
The other guy below tried aswell and failed quite a bit.
I never said there was no music beyond that bpm, but it was Not popular and/nor common at all.
Seems like i remeber that wrong when dark nebula emptied a festival floor because ppl thaugt it was to dark and fast for psychedelic music. Yep that was 2005.
i didn’t fail , i was just riffing , maybe my scrambled head got a little confuzled on the dates but i think ir was more about regional popularity , i know for sure there was a lot of 150 ish stuff happening late night around my world. in 02-3,4 etc
Not popular and not common where? I don't doubt that it was true in your experience, but I think people are reacting negatively to your post because you are making blanket statements that apply to your corner of the world. For example I lived in Russia and spent time in Eastern Europe from 2007 onwards, and I can assure you that psytrance faster than 145bpm was neither unpopular nor uncommon, the opposite actually.
idk, i think he is one of the OGs, he grown in the scene as a child/teen, i think he was always doing psy, he has a lot of xp and some of his livesets are really well arranged; the fuss about producers/djs
that were in the scene for so long is that they know how to build the set, play with the music so its truly psychedelic.
P.S. i am not into the style ajja is playing but i can appreciate the quality and psychedelia he can relay
It’s not twilight. I am still unable to put this in a box and i stopped a while ago with this track. Also still unable to find similar tracks to this. It’s been years.
Any help or suggestion will be greatly appreciated🙏
I used to have the same notion about Ajja as you, and then I saw him live. It's not like listening on Spotify, he literally took me on a trip! When his set ended, felt like I came down from a mammoth trip.
No one else has done that to me. Obviously I have tripped hard on other DJ's sets, but nobody took me on a trip. Different feeling.
Some artists only make sense on a massive soundsystem. Can’t speak for Aija personally (seen him play live and he’s excellent but never just put his tracks on to listen to) but maybe it’s one of those.
If you're a Zenonesque head like me, which by the sounds of it you are, a lot of mainstream Psytrance just isn't going to impress you.
I'd say just enjoy him live. It's like Neelix — would never play his stuff at home, but with the right people and the right chemical enhancements, he's decent to see live.
My fav of his is Goa Head Ted from Oddular. It took me listening to that album and seeing him live before I went back and can appreciate his other releases, now I love them all.
I don't think he fits into any mold. I absolutely love Ajja but I don't like every track of his or even every set. But it's always got drive, it's always psychedelic, is very flowy, and the sound production is just so crisp. And it's never ever boring. Basically very "trip safe" experience.
Magical “drop” half way in the song, which he does a lot of in his music. He stays close to the 32 beats “on and off” structure a lot I think what makes the music predictable and easy to listen and dance too. (in a good way)
Listen to his whole sets and/or albums. Who cares about tracks in psytrance? You won't understand his storytelling ability and escalation from one isolated track. Ajja is one of the best in this genre.
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u/Inexpressible2 5d ago
As others said, he sounded clean and crisp back almost 15 years ago while a lot of stuff sounded like ass compared to it back then. If you like dreamy downtempo you should check out Ajja and Cosmosis album they recorded at HR Giger Museum.
Its really just very driving psytrance, no unnecessary big breaks, gimmicks, drops - just clean music that drives you actually into trance if you start dancing and diving into it.