Nitzhonot (Hebrew: × ×¦×—×•× ×•×ª, "victories") is a crossover between Goa trance and uplifting trance, emerged during the mid-late 1990s in Israel.
Nitzhonot seems to blend hard pulsating basses, sometimes referred to as "laserkicks", with the Eastern melodies typical for Indian Goa Trance from 1996 and 1997. The tracks are usually in a range of 145-155 BPM.
At its time Nitzhonot reached a mainstream success in Israel. The most notable artist from this genre is Eyal Barkan, who released his album 'Good Morning Israel' in 1998. It became the first trance record that achieved gold status in its home country, selling more than 20,000 copies (bootleg versions accounted for 80,000). Other artists would stand up in the same year, including Kobi Kastoriano & Eyal Ben Or as Iceman and Avi Shwartz aka Holymen, well known for his Comic Strip track, a famous summer hit in 1998. These young producers were able to conquer the big cities with their hard hitting trance. In the end, the scene would dry out due to an overkill of low-budget and amateurish music. Typhoon Records, by far the biggest Nitzhonot label back in the late nineties, released over forty CDs in less than two years and faded away in 2000.
Before most artists in Israel changed their direction to Full On, artists in Greece captured the flow of this music. At the beginning of a new millennium Nitzhonot, now renamed as Uplifting, would stand up again, raising in popularity. However, both terms are not exactly synonyms. Uplifting stands further from Goa trance than Nitzhonot, as the oriental melodies fall away completely.
A typical Uplifting track contains heroic and epic melodies with European trance influences. Notable artists include Cyan, Cherouvim, Darma, Star Children, Qsys, Mendark, Dementia. Mike Verros was another significant name in the scene, as he actually introduced this style of music in Greece. .
