On the last edition of our favorite Sangoma Records showcase the label’s very own New Yorker, DJ Izzy played his ‘Ironic’ set for radiOzora. Now, it is paired with an interview, what, as usual, you can read in audiopainted version.

– What were some of the key events that got you involved in psytrance? (How does your story begin…?)

– I’d have to to say my first festival experience I went to, Desiderata Festival in 2009, got me hooked on psytrance. My friend sold me on the idea that for the weekend “my tent would be my home and the people there would be my family.” The musical experience was just an added bonus to my experience.
But my link to the psytrance scene happened a couple months after that at PsYcHeGrOuND, which are events that happen monthly in New York City. This party helped me begin the journey of being officially part of the psytrance community in NYC. They also booked me for my first psytrance gig in 2010.

– How was your alterego born? What stands behind the name of your project?

– Well the name Izzy happened way before I started DJing. Although my first name is Jacob, my mom liked my middle name much more. So I went by Yisrael, my middle name, which was hard for a lot of my friends to pronounce. So that is what gave me the nickname or “alterego,” Izzy. So when I started to DJ it didn’t make sense for me to change it. I felt that Izzy was more than a perfect name for a DJ. It fit together like brown rice spaghetti and vegan meatless-balls.

– Musically speaking, have there been any unusual inspirations? (Who have your greatest teachers been?)

– Musically speaking, I’d have to give that credit to Daksinamurti, who gave me my first psytrance WAV files to play at some of my first gigs. Also, my friend Abhishek whom, I feel, has an astonishing ear for good psychedelic music. Although he doesn’t DJ I take a lot of advice and critique from him in terms of the journey flow in my DJ sets. My teachers, were Luis Campos and Sabastian Raditsa aka Borg. They taught me how to mix and allowed me to stand and watch them do their thing behind the decks at parties. They also taught me the trade and how to behave and treat my position as a DJ.
Your most ‘psychedelic’ or life-changing experience so far?
Hehe. That is a great question. And I’m sure some of my friends that are reading this are laughing as they read. To be honest, I couldn’t really tell you. Although I consider some of the obstacles in my life to be quite a spiritual journey, I never took a psychedelic drug in my life. I do not have anything personal against psychedelics. In fact, I’ve experienced some of the most wonderful things they’ve done to inspire many people that I am influenced by. The reasons I have not dabbled in psychedelics is quite personal. But most of my ‘psychedelic’ friends respect that and are quite inspired by my situation, as I am a psychedelic trance DJ. So initially, some would consider me to be psychedelic and some wouldn’t. That is up for everyone’s own personal observation once they get to know me.

– Have you experienced any noticeable changes in the scene since you became a part of it? What is your particular scene like compared to any others? (Specific characteristics or flavors of your country’s scene?)

– I can’t really speak for the scene in my whole country as I have yet to experience the scene outside of NYC and Massachusetts. But I’ve spent a lot of personal time with overseas artists that experienced the scene in almost every single country around the globe. I often hear from them that our scene is filled with so many unique personalities and filled with so much culture that they feel as if they are living in a movie. The New York scene specifically has people from so many different ethnicities coming together that, to even think about it, makes me quite emotional. At the end of the day, the music makes it so simple; we all may come from different cultural backgrounds but in so many ways we can identify. And it all starts with preference in music. The music brings the people together, and over time when people get to know each other, we identify ourselves more as human beings as opposed to separating ourselves through nationalities. New York is extremely culturally diverse, but neighborhoods are quite separated and the general populations like to keep to “their own.” The music breaks the barrier.
Another thing I’d like to mention that it seems that many bigger scenes tend to divide based on sub-genre preferences. For example in Germany there are darkpsy parties, progressive parties, fullon parties etc. In New York that doesn’t exist and I love it. We have Psytrance parties. A lot of them like to progress through the night — Start out with progressive go to fullon, then to dark, then to some morning depending on the duration of the party. Yes, there are some parties the lean more to specific styles, but the same people show up more or less. The psytrancers here are pretty committed whether they like a specific style more than others.
I was shocked when people asked me why I came all the way from USA to Boom festival in 2012 when they saw Burning Man as a better option. As much as I love festival culture and some of the ideologies of The Burn, I’m a trancer and I’m at Boom because of the PSYTRANCE ultimately. The festival vibes are just the cherry on top.

– Who do you think are the most cutting-edge newest sound makers in the scene? Who are your newest discoveries?

– First and foremost, Michael Cosinus. Over the last year and a half, Cosinus has mastered his production quality and is beginning to incorporate his own signature sound. Look out for his live set — guaranteed dancefloor blasters! Also I would keep an open ear for some of our local talent here in NYC; specifically, Psypien, a forest act, and Gordito, a psychedelic “prog-on” act.

– What are some of the greatest challenges you face? What are the rewards?


– I think some of the challenges I, or more so, some of the DJs and promoters in our scene face is competition of the more “trending” scenes in NYC. NYC, or even the USA in general, has a tendency to be over-commercialized and only places that have the proper support and specialized marketers tend to have the upper hand in attracting a larger audience to their events and trends.
“EDM” culture is pretty young here in the states. I mean when I started listening to electronic music in 2005, Tiesto or even the word Trance music wasn’t even heard of. In high school, When my friend Noam asked me I listened to trance music, I was like, “what? Techno?” I immediately started playing “I’m a Barbie girl, in a Barbie world” in my head — AHHH! Get it out of my head! I mean I liked punk music, reggae, hip hop, rock, not that girly music. Little did I expect, he introduced me to some beautiful music and super cool underground culture. I was always intrigued by the underground.
Some people think EDM is a bad thing. But to me, I see it as a way to introduce a more intellectual subculture to the ones that have been searching for it endlessly, just as I was. I’m going to quote Carl Cox on this one:

EDM’s an entry level to dance music, and I’m very happy about that. We fought so long for dance music to be respected there. EDM’s a sound America has latched on to, but once people start going left and right of that scene, they’re going to find their Art Departments, their Loco Dices and their Sven Väths – and that’s a really good place to be.

– If it wasn’t psytrance, what would it be? What is ‘just a perfect day’ in your version?

– I love this question! First and foremost, Ozric Tentacles. If you look at my “religious views” on Facebook it’ll actually say “Ozric Tentaclism” on there. I’m a diehard fan. I love to listen to old school hip hop, blues, jazz, death metal (not for the lyrics). I love psychedelic bass music as well. Tipper is a good example of that. In my opinion, I think Tipper makes some the most psychedelic music out there. Sometimes even a break from music helps. It’s almost like a cleansing for me. I’ll listen to some stand-up comedians in the car instead of listening to music. You can compare that experience to keeping yourself from eating all day because you’re going to your favorite all-you-can-eat buffet later in the evening.

– Which one of your releases/tracks are the most characteristic of your sounds or stand the closest to you for some reason?

– I’d have to say, Once Upon A Time’s music aka Kliment. I won’t say he is my favorite because I don’t necessarily have a favorite. But to me his music is the purest form of psytrance. Listening to his music reminds of how I got into psytrance in the first place; before I knew the difference between one style and another. I’m very keen on breaking people out of the spell of being committed to a specific form of psytrance. Sub-genres aren’t meant to separate us or even stay committed to (unless of course your preference is nothing other than your specific sound). Sub-genres are meant to give of an idea of what each specific producer’s sound is relevant to or falls in the category of. When someone breaks those boundaries, I fall in love with that purity.
When Daksinamurti asked me to join the DJ roster for Sangoma Records my first question was, “Do I have to stay committed to a certain style?” At the time people were signed to labels because their sound fit particularly into that specific label. He immediately said, “No. You can play whatever you want. We don’t have a particular sound for the label. Just good psychedelic music.” That started my journey for Sangoma and I was on board immediately. I play whatever I feel is necessary for the moment. As my mentor, Luis Campos, would tell me, “One set could rock a party if played at the right moment. But that same set could ruin party if it doesn’t fit for the time.” That is one of the most relevant concepts I find in the psytrance scene today. If you’re a DJ and not willing to play a supporting set to the flow of the party, don’t take the slot. I’ll play all the way from a more uplifting progressive set at 132 BPM with artists like Atmos, Ace Ventura, Zen Mechanics, and maybe even some zenonesque, all the way to the 150’s with stuff like Orestis, Arjuna, Archaic, etc. and everything in between. It all depends on my timeslot and the vibe of the party. We don’t have the luxury in New York to separate the scene between light and dark.

– What are you working on at present? Upcoming?

– First off, I’m working on getting my butt over to Europe and hopefully stopping at Ozora along the way…. I can’t wait to experience the center of our global scene.
So there are a couple of things I’m pretty involved in these days; party production and label work. In the party production aspect I’m helping behind the scenes with the PsYcHeGrOuND that has been around for over 13 years. There is a lot of work to be done there. Then there is The Radial Engine Tribe’s festival, Smoke On The Water III happening in June that I take part in helping get some stuff done with Chief Rob. Label-wise, Cosinus and I just released our second compilation, Ironic Cultures and mayyyybbbbeee we plan to do a third of the Ironic Saga. Daksinamurti and I have been discussing a making of a morning influenced compilation – something that captivates the pure essence of ‘old’ and timeless sounds of psytrance. We are still brainstorming.