Cosmic Shaman

Last month witnessed the return of a multi-faceted psychedelic shaman to India. Space Tribe aka Olli Wisdom came back to the country after a gap of 12 years to showcase his sound in Pune and New Delhi. Space Tribe is among the first generation trance producers in the league of Goa Gil, Astral Projection and Raja Ram. The Englishman has been writing music and performing on stage for over 19 years and his significant contribution in popularising psytrance is widely recognised.

But Olli Wisdom’s career in music began in an entirely different place. In the late Seventies, Wisdown played as the the frontman of punk band The Unwanted, before he got together with guitarist John Klein to form glam/goth band Specimen, widely considered to be the pioneers of the Gothic movemenet in the early Eighties. Wisdom also ran the Batcave in Soho, London, the birthplace of English goth subculture. But even while he jump-started his career as a vocalist for the band, he was deeply influenced by the magnificent night long raves he saw on a visit to Thailand. After the band brke up in 1986, he spent two years as a DJ in Koh Phangan in Thailand before moving on to Goa. He set up a studio in Anjuna where he joined forces with Simon Posford (Shpongle) to create the first Space Tribe tracks. What started as a single goa trance (then known as ”˜techno’) album in 1995 slowly evolved into intense, innovative, full-on, uplifting, psychedelic tales, spread over 25 albums released on a multitude of labels. “The intent of these diverse, mind expanding sounds is take the listener to a higher level of consciousness, says Wisdom. “I can’t pigeonhole my creativity into any one single genre.“

Space Tribe Music was launched in 2004 as a vehicle to facilitate complete control and freedom over the brand name, but today the label also hosts the combined project of German psytrance producers Electric Universe and Space Tribe, called ESP. Wisdom also launched Space Tribe clothing, the first brand to pecialise in fractal fluoro garments and cyber-rave wear, which today spans five continents. The psytrance artist also recently got involved in a project to revive Specimen, which saw the band unite for a concert that celebrated 25 years of the Batcave but he remains mum on any further plans with the band. His current plans include the release of a debut album of a new project called Alien Jesus ”“ a collaboration that amalgamates the musical prowess of GMS and energy of Space Tribe. When asked to define the lifestyle of Space Tribe, Olli innocently states ”I can’t think of a more appropriate word than psychedelic”.