Twilight Psy
Psy · 2004 · 145 to 150 BPM · also known as Twilight, South African Psy
Twilight psy is the South African school of hard psychedelic trance, sitting between full-on and dark psy at 145 to 150 beats per minute: massive basslines, mean leads and a sense of end-of-night humor. The name refers to its time slot, the dawn and dusk hours of Cape Town's festivals. It is a tight, close-knit scene that has become a major export, from the Vortex festival to European lineups. It keeps full-on's readable drops and structure but trades its heroic melody for weight and aggression, aimed at a crowd that is tired but still wants to dance hard.
3 reference tracks
- Rinkadink: Rabbit From Darkside (2004)
- Broken Toy: One Toy Soldier (2005)
- Xerox and Illumination: Gravity (2005)
At a glance
- Tempo: 145 to 150 BPM
- First appeared: around 2004
- Machines: Native Instruments Absynth, Xfer Serum, Ableton Live
- The sound: Basses full-on durcies, Leads acides agressifs, FX métalliques, Kicks appuyés
- Labels: Nexus Media, Timecode, Nano
- Key artists: Azax Syndrom, Shift, Rabdom L, Phyx
Producing Twilight Psy
Twilight psy sits between full-on and darkpsy at 145 to 150 BPM on a straight, unswung grid, distinguished from full-on by sheer weight, a bass that gallops less and hits harder, and leads aiming for aggression rather than heroic melody, while staying more readable than darkpsy with clear drops and breaks. Build a kick longer and more compressed than darkpsy's, around 55 Hz with a marked click, layered with a heavy, distorted snare on 2 and 4, saturated open hats on the offbeats, and metallic percussion in varied sixteenths, closing each section with short, brutal snare rolls. The bass hardens full-on's kick-plus-three-sixteenths motif with a heavily filtered, distorted sawtooth, each note shorter and meaner, rooted on F sharp or G with a clean separate sub. Aggressive resonant acid leads and metallic FX from comb-filtered impacts complete a hard, precise sound.
The full production course, in French: tempo, drums, bass, sounds, arrangement, mix, plugins and machines, and a step by step start.
Frequently asked
What is Twilight Psy?
Twilight psy is the South African school of hard psychedelic trance, sitting between full-on and dark psy at 145 to 150 beats per minute: massive basslines, mean leads and a sense of end-of-night humor. The name refers to its time slot, the dawn and dusk hours of Cape Town's festivals. It is a…
What tempo is Twilight Psy played at?
Between 145 and 150 BPM.
Who are the key Twilight Psy artists?
Azax Syndrom, Shift, Rabdom L, Phyx.
In the same family
- Goa Trance
- Psychedelic Trance
- Full-On
- Nitzhonot
- Morning Full-On
- Dark Psy
- Forest Psy
- Hi-Tech Psy
- Psycore
- Zenonesque
- Psy-Prog
- Psytech
Listen to Twilight Psy in the atlas · Cette page en français
