What defined YoYo Records
YoYo Records was a specialist imprint of BNE/Brand New Entertainment created to carry Israeli electronic music—especially trance—into international markets. During the late 1990s and 2000s it became one of the better-known commercial outlets for the rapidly expanding Israeli psytrance scene.
Its significance comes from the artists it helped place in front of overseas audiences. YoYo releases and compilations featured projects that would become central to Israeli psychedelic trance, including Infected Mushroom, Oforia, Space Cat, Cosma, Atomic Pulse, Fatali and others.
How YoYo Records developed
The imprint was active by the late 1990s and became strongly associated with psychedelic trance around the turn of the millennium. Infected Mushroom’s The Gathering was released through the BNE/YoYo network in 1999, while subsequent albums, singles and compilations documented the explosive growth of Israeli trance through the 2000s.
YoYo remained active into 2008. Contemporary BNE announcements from that year still describe it as the “mother label” for new Israeli psytrance projects. Its operating history ended with the wider collapse/closure of BNE’s original business around the end of 2008.
People, organisation & management
YoYo is a BNE sublabel , not an independent company with a separate founder. BNE provided the business and distribution structure, while YoYo supplied a focused identity for Israeli electronic and trance releases intended for the international market.
Sound, roster & A&R direction
Psytrance became the defining sound, but the releases span the changing Israeli scene from late-1990s psychedelic and progressive approaches into the brighter, more compressed full-on sound of the 2000s. Its compilation programming often placed those styles side by side.
Place in psytrance history
YoYo was an important export channel during the period when Israeli psytrance moved from a strong domestic scene into a globally dominant production centre. Several artists associated with the imprint went on to define the international sound of the genre.
Scene impact & cultural reach
The label shows how specialist psytrance could be integrated into a broader national music company without losing a clear scene identity. It connected Israeli commercial distribution infrastructure with an international underground dance market.
Key releases & catalogue moments
Infected Mushroom’s The Gathering in 1999, the U.F.S. compilation series, releases by Cosma and Space Cat, the 2005 Un:Balanced compilation and 2007–2008 Silent Hill material mark major points in the catalogue.
Artists connected to the label
Cosma
Avihen Livne’s short-lived but highly influential Israeli psychedelic-trance project, remembered for unusually emotional and progressive production before his death in 2003.
Infected Mushroom
Israeli duo Erez Eisen and Amit Duvdevani, formed in the late 1990s and known for carrying Psytrance into a much broader electronic and live-band context.
Oforia
Ofer Dikovsky’s long-running Israeli psytrance project, linking the 1990s Goa era with later Full-On and modern psychedelic production.
Space Cat
Avi Algranati’s veteran Israeli project, bridging the early Goa scene with melodic, acid-rich Full-On Psytrance.