The Key

Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia has always been one of my favorite electronic acts. Exit 23 was a blast. People always associated them with the Temple Ov Psychick Youth whose symbols, spelling and beliefs they shared. The connection is indisputable. although at some point they seemingly felt trapped by this and after some internal turmoil and member departures they buried the double cross and re-invented themselves as PWOG.

I think it's best to see them as a crossover act, a trance band gone weird. As some musicians with a different mindset concerning ways of communicating through art. Their low profile, no-ego, sometimes introvert sometimes fun approach to life and the holy and the ritualistic was an immense relief for me compared to the dark blood dripping death electronics of the '80s or the space cake mysticism of Goa trance of the time.

Most of their tracks are dronish loop-based landscapes, sounding like improvisations (although very well structured to be such, in my opinion) borrowing from the industrial school. Their dance tracks range from deep and jazzy house songs to trancey epics to mono-minimal clicky dub, 1995 style. They lived and moved in relative obscurity, you won't find many interviews or photos. They covered a huge range of emotions, they influenced a lot of people nowdays well-known and they disappeared in silence.

This 2CD collection is a compilation of rarities (all but two are unreleased mixes) but it's also a good introduction to the clubbier side of PWOG. It was released at 2002 on Terminal Antwerp, a sublabel of the mighty KK Records which hosted most of the PWOG releases and was accompanied by a 12'' with a Michael Mayer remix to 'A Kind Of Prayer' (you can hear it on 'Friends' mixed by Triple R [Kompakt CD 21] ). That temporarily draw some fresh attention to the name of PWOG, as the 'Maenad' remix by Alter Ego would do later and the Plastikman and Drum Club remixes had done in the '90s.

Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia - 2002, The Key, 2CD
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3








Here's also a PWOG remix of the 'Lush' track by Orbital.
Orbital - Lush 3-4 (Warriors Drift remix)

I admit it, I hate to see labels and bands like these only in reference articles or in oldschool DJs' playlists, when all the new European 'minimal' techno sound was more or less envisioned and developed by them. Although I can't rip vinyl yet, I'll upload some more stuff like this soon.