The story behind Mad Tribe
Mad Tribe was created by Olli Wisdom of Space Tribe and Max Peterson of Mad Maxx. The two met through the San Francisco psychedelic scene and began producing together in 2005, building the project around an intentionally over-the-top mixture of high-energy trance, science-fiction humour and vivid psychedelic imagery.
The collaboration matured into the 2015 TIP Records album Spaced Out, followed by a run of EPs, singles, remixes and vinyl releases. Tracks frequently paired full-power basslines with comic samples, exaggerated alien themes and the kind of maximal production both artists used in their solo work. Mad Tribe also collaborated with artists including Raja Ram, Avalon and Alpha Portal.
The project's original partnership ended with Olli Wisdom's death in 2021. Max Peterson has continued to preserve and circulate the Mad Tribe catalogue, including later archival and remastered releases, but the act should not be described as an unchanged current duo. Its main creative period remains the collaboration between Wisdom and Peterson from 2005 until Wisdom's death.
Origins of Mad Tribe
Max Peterson and Olli Wisdom connected through the San Francisco trance scene and began making music together in 2005.
Early career
The pair developed a dedicated shared project rather than occasional joint billing, combining their established Mad Maxx and Space Tribe approaches.
How the career developed
Spaced Out appeared in 2015, followed by further singles and catalogue releases; a 2023 release marked the last track the pair produced together in the studio.
Mad Tribe sound
Mad Tribe is maximal, humorous full-on psytrance: pounding bass, frantic effects, sci-fi samples, bright psychedelic leads and a deliberately cartoonish sense of spectacle.
Place in psytrance history
Mad Tribe joined two veteran Psytrance identities in a sustained collaboration and became a distinct part of both artists’ later careers , not an ad-hoc side billing.
Connections and influence
Connects the Space Tribe and Mad Maxx lineages through a dedicated shared catalogue.
Mad Tribe today
Historical collaboration of Olli Wisdom (Space Tribe) and Max Peterson (Mad Maxx); the original duo ended with Wisdom’s death in 2021.
Selected releases in the archive
Related projects and collaborations
Artists with overlapping styles
1200 Micrograms
Ibiza-based psytrance supergroup linking Raja Ram and TIP Records with the GMS production axis.
Alien Project
Israeli producer Ari Linker’s long-running psychedelic-trance project, active since the 1990s and closely tied to the international full-on movement of the early 2000s.
GMS
Growling Mad Scientists, the Amsterdam-born project of Riktam and the late Bansi, now continued by Riktam as a solo act and central to the rise of modern Full-On Psytrance.
Laughing Buddha
Jeremy 'Jez' Van Kampen’s UK Psytrance project, with roots in the early Cosmosis era and a long solo career spanning TIP, Flying Rhino, Dragonfly and NANO Records.
Logic Bomb
Swedish Psytrance project rooted in the same forest-party network as Hux Flux, known for precise programming, tightly controlled psychedelia and a complex lineup history.
Mekkanikka
Swiss producer Nicolas Oesch’s veteran psytrance project, linking the early Spirit Zone era with later full-on and international festival networks.