'Vice' reporter explores the strange world of psytrance

Clive Martin, a staff writer for Vice, recently ventured into a forest in the United Kingdom in hopes of understanding the electronic dance music known as a psytrance.

Psytrance, short for psychedelic trance, is a subgenre of electronic music that has remained mostly underground. While trance music and house music have both found their way into clubs and onto the radio, psytrance has never enjoyed a similar mass appeal.

"Most dance music is designed to sound better on drugs, but psytrance just sounds like drugs," Martin remarked.

The ceaseless throbbing of the music wasn't particularly enjoyable for him, but Martin described the theatrical nature of the psytrance party as a "breath of fresh air." Not only was the forest elaborately decorated, but the attendees were as well. Jugglers mingled with dancers and poi spinners.

"Aesthetically, there is no other scene that quite compares to psytrance," he said.

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube, below: