What defined BNE - Brand New Entertainment
Brand New Entertainment, better known as BNE, was an Israeli independent record company founded in 1990 by Avi Brand. It was never a Psytrance-only label: BNE worked across multiple genres, handled import and distribution, and functioned as a wider music company. Its importance to Psytrance comes from the major Israeli psychedelic artists and releases it helped bring to market during the genre’s international growth.
How BNE - Brand New Entertainment developed
By the 1990s BNE was already operating from Holon as a substantial Israeli distributor and record company, representing and importing a broad range of international labels. Alongside that general music business, it became deeply connected to the emerging Israeli trance scene.
Its catalogue and associated operations released or distributed music by artists who became central to Israeli Psytrance, including Space Cat and other major names. That position made BNE one of the bridges between the underground trance scene and a more established professional music-industry infrastructure.
People, organisation & management
Avi Brand founded and managed BNE. Contemporary trade material from the 1990s identifies the company as a distributor and importer with dedicated international, import and promotion staff, showing that BNE was a significantly broader operation than a small specialist Psytrance imprint.
Sound, roster & A&R direction
BNE itself was multi-genre. Psytrance and Goa Trance form only one part of its activity, although that part is historically important because of the company’s role in Israeli electronic music during the 1990s and 2000s.
Place in psytrance history
BNE helped professionalise the route between Israel’s rapidly expanding trance scene and the international music market. Its distribution infrastructure mattered at a time when physical CDs, imports and export networks were essential to the global spread of Psytrance.
Scene impact & cultural reach
The company represents the point where Israel’s underground trance culture increasingly intersected with an established domestic music business. That connection helped artists reach audiences beyond local parties and specialist import shops.
Key releases & catalogue moments
Space Cat’s Beam Me Up (1997) is among the notable Psytrance-related releases associated with BNE. The company’s broader importance also lies in distribution and catalogue support instead of only records carrying the BNE logo.
Artists connected to the label
Space Cat
Avi Algranati’s veteran Israeli project, bridging the early Goa scene with melodic, acid-rich Full-On Psytrance.