Zetan Spore

Zetan Spore

Zetan Spore is a psychedelic trance group from Cornwall, United Kingdom. It forms in West Cornwall in 1995, with Ian Hasdell as the original creator of the project. Hasdell starts out by arranging samples on a second-hand Amiga 1200, shaping a style of psychedelic dance music influenced by psychedelic rock, early dance acts such as Eat Static and Astralasia, and the emergence of psytrance in the first half of the 1990s.

Formation and line-up

After the first album, Alien Frequencies, appears in 1996, Hasdell adds more equipment and brings in his twin brother Mark. Mark plays guitar and didgeridoo, and the two develop the act’s live and studio identity as a partnership.

Recordings

Zetan Spore releases Visitation in 1997, then signs to Aardvark Records. On that label it releases The Pillars of Creation in 1998, Subspace Distortions in 1999, Outher Space Hopper Safari in 2001, Transwarp Audio Head Drive in 2002, Burn Up in 2004, Escape Velocity in 2005 and Flux in 2007. The group is also set to issue another album later in 2009.

Live work

The group gives its first gig in 1997 and remains strongly focused on live performance. Its set-up is kept almost entirely hardware-based for concerts, and it plays hundreds of shows over the following years. Notable appearances include the Euphoria Festival in Singapore, where it plays to a crowd of 25,000, as well as headline sets for Antiworld and Synergy Project and top slots at Sunrise, Waveform and Eastern Haze. Its wider touring includes many festival, club and venue appearances.

Style

Zetan Spore’s music is described as driving and euphoric psytrance, with large psychedelic passages, tribal breaks led by didgeridoo, and guitar lines that add further depth and force to the sound. The act is known for energetic and uplifting live performances.