Smoke on the Water 3 - Festival Guide '16
To follow up the 2016 North American PsyFestival Guide, in which we map out all psychedelic trance focused festivals in Canada, United States, & Central American Countries, Fractaltribe is getting in touch with many of these festivals. We are highlighting each festivals aspects which gives the readers better insight into each events' unique histories, cultures, intentions, and styles.
In this Episode, We got in touch with Rob, head of the Radial Engine Tribe, and got the lowdown on the past and present of the Radial Engine history. Their festival, Smoke on the Water 3, returns to Echo Lake this year in Upstate New York after a 2 year absence! A pristine wooded campground with trails and heavier psytrance all weekend. Featuring acts such as Daksinamurti, Cosinus, Pavel Svimba, Melle Vitale, Luuli, Facehead, Kabayun, and many other highly niche acts that never come around other than for a Radial Engine party.
History of Radial Engine Tribe.
The introduction:
Hello, I am Rob, the creator The Radial Engine Tribe. The way i found this cool sound and underground scene was really quite by accident. I had been touring with the Grateful Dead for 10 years and then Jerry died. I was kinda lost at this point, but still loved traveling and Jam bands. I had discovered the Disco Biscuits, an awesome Jam Band from Pennsylvania and one fateful night after a 4 hour jam by, I was blown away. I had run out of beer and said to these cool kids I was hangin' with that I had to resupply. They told me not to take too long because there was an awesome DJ coming up next. I was dumbstruck. DJ??? I'm thinking a wedding DJ, lol. So I resupplied and went back down to the stage. Boom!!! Found my friends and just then Simon Posford goes on for a Hallucinogen set. Holy wow! I was completely blown away by this sound that I had never heard before in my life. I danced the night away with some really cool folks and was just awestruck over the whole thing. I HAD DISCOVERED PSYTRANCE! So the next night I saw Eat Static, a UK duo and was completely blown away once again. Wow, I had actually found what I was looking for. A totally amazing scene I never knew about. I decided when I got home, I'm going to learn how to DJ and make some cool parties.
The Beginnings:
Little did I know, you can't really find Psytrance at your local record stores. I found lots of Trance, some of which was good, but not the psychedelic variety. Eventually online I found (now defunct) Saiko Sounds from Hong Kong. You could listen to about a half a track and they had some nice write ups on the actually producer and lots of history on them. I made my 1st order of about 10 CD's and they came in 3 days! Wow! I had never imagined this was such a flourishing scene, just NOT in the USA. So I bought a sound system, a mixer and CDJ's and down the PsyRoad I went. My 1st party was in the beginning of November 2006 at my Aunt's farm. About 10 people showed and we had a blast, until I realized I had blown 2 brand new active JBL 15's subs. Not knowing about brown power, I just figured that the generator has plugs, so just plug it in and let it rip. Big learning experience, lol. I eventually found some local EDM people, who helped me figure stuff out, they were Drum and Bass, House and Techno DJ's, but not Psytrance. So I did some mixed parties and eventually started finding people who were into Psytrance. My parties improved greatly. I found, I really preferred 90% Psytrance and just a bit of other stuff. I did a big series of parties at my Aunt Nancy's Farm in Upstate NY I called "Back Field to the Future" because we used her beautiful back field and my future was Psytrance. We did a few all night blasters and then the cops started showing up, bummer. So I found another Farm in Fonda NY where we continued the series and added Spring into the Future.
The Present:
Originally it was just me, but after 10 years it has become a collective of over 20 beautiful friends from all over the world. That's one of the unique qualities about Psytrance, you meet unique souls from all corners of the earth. I was starting to get a reputation for a making a cool renegade style Psytrance party and people from all over the Northeast started showing up. And not just Americans, but some very cool Russians, Brazilians, Asians and Indians, also from some other nice countries. Wow, now I had true friends from all over the world.. True Psytrancer's, no matter where they come from are some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life. I have so many beautiful lifelong friends now that I would have never had, had I never discovered this totally cool unique sound. The Vibe we create together is Priceless. Psytrance definitely is not a money maker, I've lost 10's of thousands over the last 10 years, but it's worth it to me to create something so special and truly make people happy. I write it off as a hobby. I'm not a rich man, but it truly fulfills my life.
So here we are in 2016. For the past few years I have been creating a thing called The Radial Engine Tribe. I saw that there were groups and Tribes making some really cool parties like The FractalTribe in Massachusetts, who really put their Heart and Soul into it. My goal, to make our parties bigger and better, eventually breaking even and to always top the last one. I have assembled a very special group of people and that's what we do, make cool sounds, spread happiness and dance the days and nights away. We are doing our 3rd true festival June 3rd, 4th and 5th at a beautiful venue called Echo Lake. A place that I saw my 2nd Psytrance festival in the USA other than Gaian Mind in PA, which was really inspiring too. This year we feature 40 Psytrance DJ/Artist, one really good Techno DJ, An All Girl Rock Band from Toronto, Live Painters, Artist, Beautiful Sacred Alters at the stages and even a Faerie Sanctuary, a Mystical and Magical place at a truly Sacred venue. I hope to see many old friends and make some great new ones too this year. See you on the Dance Floor! The Radial Engine Tribe Lives forever! Peace, Love and Psytrance, Rob