Various Outback Eclipse Festival 2002 Exotic Natives (Australia)

Two CDs to commemmerate this year's...hold on....er...last year's total solar eclipse in Oz and there's a nice international selection of tunes on both - one psy/prog, one chill. On the party cd tunes are from Phony Orphants, Fractal Glider, X-Dream, a ripping guitar stomper from Joti (Psychaos) Sidhu and a cracker of a morning tune from Antix & Merry Pranksta - wicked progression and production to die for...On the chill cd we have one of my favorite downtempo tunes of recent time from Mantrix, with fat beats and a post-apocalyptic violin, alongside tunes from Eat Static and others.

You know the drill: midway through the night, prty going in full swing, you slope off for a wee and a spliff (ideally not at the same time, but it's up to you ultimately) and then it happens --- that random, chaotic, wonderful conversation with a random person who, for some reason, you remember for months afterwards.

Fully recreating this spirit (but without putting your hand on the floor and getting something sticky on it), each week Psyreviews will throw its doors open to you lot to go on about something. No rules, no guidelines.

This week it's Geoff from Dublin, Ireland --- and it's cool.

I'm Geoff Fitzpatrick from Dublin Ireland. Psychedelic Celtic Druid obsessed with psytrance in all its forms since 1995.For many years I have felt like a psychedelic hermit here in Ireland in terms of psychedelic trance.

Ever since I picked up the Tip (yellow comp) and Mr. P's LSD live mix in 1995 I have never looked back. For many years I tried to encourage friends to see what I could in the music, somewhat nieve I suppose but always sincere attempts to convert Dublin to this new form of music that could change the world. Dublin is a techno town however and many times I was simply beating my head against a brick wall. I run a flyer company in Ireland promoting all the usual commercial club music you get in any city, Jeff Mills to Robbie Williams. This allowed me attempt to awaken Dublin to the wonders of psy-trance as myself and business partner (best friend) brought over Dragonfly, and Flying Rhino to play in Clubs in Dublin and Cork. By the time I left College my psychedelic hunger was at its peak and myself and Girlfriend/fiance went travelling for a year. We hit Goa, Thailand etc and my passion for this scene just grew and grew.

1999 saw us start Irelands first full on regular psychedelic trance club Druids Circle. It was probably the best time for all of us. A project of pure passion and love and the injection of energy after all the travel lent itself to something truly magical. From here we did a sell out 600 people gig with Cosmosis and brought James Monro over a few times. I felt really good doing these gigs but the more they grew the more I felt that something was missing. So we stopped doing them.

For me this music and scene is like a wonderful gift, it is all about the spirit of a party, the feeling it can envoke and how it can bring people together on a dancefloor, in an atmosphere of love and enable them to communicate in new ways, as they unfold themselves and realise everything that they are capable of becomming opening a gateway to the farther reaches of human nature.

At the big events we were running, this element was sadly lacking and all the usual monkeys were more concerned with how many E's they could neck than exploring the wonders on offer in this music. I swore that the only parties I would do from then on were free, outdoor, private parties for friends. Elitest I know, but It felt more genuine than going to huge efforts to present this music only to have it completely misunderstood.

I found new way's to feed my passion, I went to the Boom festival 2000, Voov 2001 & 2002 my favourite by far, Samothraki 2002. Where I was able to recharge so much that I could last a whole year happily before partying again.

However recently a new development has emerged in my wonderful city. Some lovely Spanish trance-heads have started running a weekly club www.moonemotions.com and I have opened Irelands first psychedelic trance record store called Druids Circle. This has allowed me get back into daily psytrance activity and makes your wonderful reviews all the more valuable.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed my rant - just wanted to let you know that the psy-vibe is small but beautiful on the emerald isle.