ACE TRACKS: September 2015

Well, what do you know? It’s October 2015, which means I’ve been back at this blog for three whole years now. I honestly never thought it’d come to this. While I was pretty determined to listen through my entire music collection in alphabetical order, I felt writing about my progress would be nothing but a short-termed lark. That I’d hit another burn-out wall, or see this as a futile endeavor if no one was reading, or get distracted with something more important. This format though - the self-imposed word count and sense of absolute writing freedom - has kept burn-out at bay, somehow attracted its fair share of steady readers, and never interfered with real world obligations. Geez though, I hope I don’t get big off this. Last thing I need in my life is becoming Internet Famous. Here, have a play of ACE TRACKS from September 2015 to keep the controversy at bay.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Tom Middleton - The Sound Of The Cosmos
Dieselboy - A Soldier’s Story
DJ Moe Sticky - RnB State Of Mind 32 & 33 Various - Saint-Germain-Des-Pres Café III
Tau Ceti - Somnium

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 7%
Most “WTF?” Track: Coldcut - Sound Mirrors (just what is going on with that instrumentation anyway?)

With so much ambient in this playlist, especially from AstroPilot, I’ve gone with a different sort of arrangement. No, not a variation of an alphabetical run-through. Rather, I’ve lumped all the beatless material at the beginning, and worked a gradual increase in tempo through to the end. It goes into some downtempo and deep house stuff, gets a bit more heavy with funk and disco punk, then finishes out with hard trance and acid. So, um, like a traditional set, I guess. Weird that I’ve never done it this way before, but then most of these playlists are quite the mish-mash of genres.

ACE TRACKS: March 2013

Man, how did September fly by like this? Normally I get one of these backtrack Playlists out by mid-month, yet here’s end-month rearing its head, and I’m way behind on this. I blame Spotify. No, not because another one of their updates buggered things up again, but the fact it’s running decently now, and it’s given me an opportunity to obsess over minutia in my collection. That got me itchin’ to re-organize my CDs once more, which needed some work anyway. I prefer keeping things together by music type, but I’ve gathered so many releases from particular labels now (Ultimae, Waveform, Moonshine, Fabric …um, In Trance We Trust), that it’s only right to stack them as a family too. And what of different eras of a particular genre? House alone has gone through numerous stages of development, so shouldn’t they be organized as such too? Then there’s the matter of artists and comp- ah, forget it. No wonder so many go the Big Cardboard Box In A Storage Locker route. Meanwhile, here’s some music from The Cloud that I reviewed back in March 2013.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Samim - Flow
Zenith - Flowers Of Intelligence
Khooman - Is A Flexible Liquid
Carol C - First Impressions
Nobuo Uematsu - Final Fantasy VII: Original Soundtrack
The Dust Brothers - Fight Club
Various - Family Tree
Überzone - Faith In The Future

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 3%
Percentage Of Roc k: 5%
Most “WTF?” Track: The Fight Club tracks I guess, though that’s intentionally so on the Dust Brothers’ part.

Wait, I can’t put my CDs in storage. Just look at all those albums that Spotify doesn’t have! Good ones too, like Flowers Of Intelligence, Faith In The Future, Fight Club, and the OST of Final Fantasy VII! I guess Samim’s Flow was supposed to rest in that pedigree too, but as all records of his existence disappeared a year after having that summer hit, I don’t blame Spotify for not knowing of its existence. And if my digital backups suddenly go *poof* in a moment of external harddrive failure, how will I satisfy a whim in hearing Carol C’s delicious atmospheric jungle mix again? Back in the towers you all go!

As for the music that did make it, this was the month I reviewed all the Fahrenheit Projects from Ultimae, so expect a huge chunk of that. There’s also Vitalic’s Flashmob right at the very end, and scatterings of electroclash, metal, rap, and not much else. Yeah, sorry, the unavailability factor seriously nerfed the diversity of another playlist.

ACE TRACKS: August 2015

So this is late, partly because of slack, but also because Spotify went and did another one of their app-crippling updates that made making Playlists a bitch for a while. Yes, even one as short as this one for August 2015, of what few releases I did get through last month. At least it was more than my previous August effort of two years past, a feat I was determined to beat, dang nab’it! The good news is that finally - finally - Spotify’s Local Files issues seem to have finally been fixed, and the app took in a good, heaving gulp of all the music I’ve gathered since that featured went kaputnik. And holy cow, I’ve now amassed over two months worth of music on CD, played non-stop, back-to-back. Now that’s what I’d call a road trip!



Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Slumberland (Episode 2: Awake & Dreaming)
Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 2% (I wouldn’t really call most Beach Boys/Brian Wilson music rock, at least of what’s here)
Most “WTF?” Track: Brian Wilson - Ms. O’Leary’s Cow (I know the bovine was responsible for much destruction, but dear me…!)

This one came together remarkably well - or perhaps all too predictably since we’re dealing with a smaller sample size of music and genres than most months. Good times are aplenty if you vibe on the dubby downbeat and calm ambient, plus a couple pleasant techno and trance numbers thrown in for good measure. Not much else to say about this one, so onwards and upwards to another 1,000 hours of music in plastic form. Maybe I’ll hit that mark before the end of the year! Erm, not the way current finances are going, I wager. Damn vacation bills.

ACE TRACKS: April 2013

It was bound to happen at some point. Like, after eight years of attending, there had to be a down year among them – law of averages and all that, right? This isn’t to say I had a bad time this year, oh no! However, I can’t honestly say I had a great time either, compounding stresses keeping me from ever quite ‘letting go’ as I typically am wont to do at Shambhala. I had a forty-hour stretch of non-sleep, and believe me it wasn’t chemically induced insomnia. Definitely has given me pause on how to proceed with next year, provided I can get rid of the debt these two summer trips have accrued upon me. Live and learn. Meanwhile, here’s a bunch of cool music that I reviewed way back in APRIL 2013!



Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Frosty
Various - Freebass Breakz & Sub Funk Beats
Various - fabric 61: Visionquest
Various - FabricLive 50: D-Bridge & Instra:mental Present Autonomic
Various - fabric 47: Jay Haze
Various - fabric 36: Ricardo Villalobos
Various - FabricLive 32: Tayo
Tony Anderson Sound Orchestra - Focus On Hollywood

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 12%
Most “WTF?” Track: Yes - The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus) (soo trippy)

Yes, I feel your anguish at not getting to hear those chintzy synth-pop covers of famous movie and TV themes. Maybe not so much at the lack of cuts from my first Fabric Project (on a budget) though. Shame, as the music from Tayo’s mix definitely needs more lovin’. Aside from that, this was another month of totally random music (trance, ambient dub, tech-house, acid jazz, jungle), so I went with another alphabetical arrangement. This time, however, I’ve gone in reverse! Thrill at hearing songs with titles starting with “W” and “T” early in a playlist!

ACE TRACKS: July 2015

So Neil Young’s pulled his music from online streaming services. At least, until he feels the audio quality meets the high demand standards he deems worthy of his music. Aww, c’mon, mang, I pay for Spotify Premium, I gets the best possible quality from them. Why you gonna’ deny me the music in your discography that I really don’t have much interest in buying? Now I’ll never hear Landing On Water or Fork In The Road. And what of those who look forward to your songs in these monthly Playlists? No, no, I can sense all of your disappointment, Mr. Young’s music now as out of digital reach as Beatles albums. Dark times indeed, but here’s the ACE TRACKS of July 2015 regardless.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Sequential - Sequential
Tobias. - A Series Of Shocks
The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band
Chris Duckenfield - Sheffield Mix Sessions
Aldrin - Singapore Tribal
Dogon - The Sirius Expeditions
Various - Slumberland

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 5%
Percentage Of Rock: 16%
Most “WTF?” Track: Any of the Eminem raps will turn your head if you’re a prude.

Review-wise, this was my most productive July yet. Not sure where I got the extra motivation to plow through it all – maybe those two weeks off in June did me more good than expected. Or perhaps I was simply anxious to hear all these disparate albums, compilations, and mixes, some of which were quite new to my ears (oh hi one-hit wonder grunge bands!). Others were CDs I’d long had thoughts about and were eager to share. This did leave for a rather eclectic collection of tunes though, so I went with another alphabetical arrangement, sans the inclusion of Depeche Mode’s CD1 Singles and Paul van Dyk’s CD2 Seven Ways at the end.

Incidentally, Spotify has sorted out their Local Files issue, so a complete tracklist including all the missing album songs is available, bringing the total runtime of this playlist a whopping 8.5 hours. Drawback of cranking out consistent reviews, I guess: all those ACE TRACK selections. Maybe I ought to start reviewing crummier albums?

ACE TRACKS: May 2013

So, enjoying all these ‘S’ albums? It’s been nearly two months since I started with this letter, and I’m not even finished the first half of them, at least another two weeks’ worth to go before hitting a midway point. And If you think that’s hefty, you should see the alphabetical backlog that’s accumulated in that time! Holy cow, I may need a cutoff with that, lest I never find a way back to my ‘S’ albums. This was all so much easier two years ago. Remember how swiftly ‘F’ and ‘G’ flew by? I do, because I just made a playlist for ACE TRACKS: May 2013, when I was reviewing those CDs.


Full track list here.


MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Global Underground Departures
Various - Global Underground 31: Dubfire - Taipei
Jim ‘Shaft’ Ryan - Miss Moneypenny’s Glamorous Grooves
2 Unlimited - Get Ready
Del Tha Funkee Homosapien - Funk Man (The Stimulus Package)
AK1200 - Fully Automatic

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 50%
Percentage Of Rock: 6%
Most “WTF?” Track: Nine Inch Nails - At The Heart Of It All (why does this sound like some random Aphex Twin cut?)

The hip-hop percentage is misleading, as I’ve included the entirety of Gang Starr’s Full Clip double-disc ‘best of’ at the end, which is indeed about half of the total songs in this playlist. Also, I’m not sure I can even qualify the selected rock songs as rock at all. The three Police entries find Sting pushing the limits of what a rock song could be in a New Wave world, and the NIN cuts (re: remixes) are definitely out of leftfield here. This was also another rather short Playlist sans Gang Starr, that May eaten up by plenty more double-disc entries (two NIN albums, a GU, plus another 2CD DJ mix). I’m surprised this came together as capably as it did, what with moody ambient music, tech-doff house, and psy trance all mixing things up. Well, the opening portion anyway.

ACE TRACKS: June 2015

Epic road trip was epic. Didn’t listen to too much new material while driving about Western America though, as the man behind the wheel, my father, typically doesn’t care much for that techno stuff. And even the sort he doesn’t mind is often far too chill for long stretches of driving across empty desert roads in Nevada and California. I tried one of my favorite CDs though, Tiga’s American Gigolo - he barely tolerated while it played, eventually quipping right after it played, “That was painful.” *sigh* So it goes with the generation gap, but I sure had no problem enjoying the Yes, Billy Idol, and Beatles albums we brought. I wonder if he might have liked some of the Aphex Twin found in ACE TRACKS: JUNE 2015?


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - The Secret Life Of Trance: Episode 2
ADNY - Selections: 1997-2000

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 7%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Not even Richard D. James is that weird in this playlist.

This month was pretty much a Selected Ambient Works and Sci-Files showcase, what with a two-week gap and all. Funny enough, I still managed more content than June of two years past – guess it helps focusing on a string of singles rather than several multi-disc releases. While I’ve no doubt folks wouldn’t mind hearing some of these classics again, I mixed things up a bit with another alphabetical arrangement. Hear all your favorites, but in a different order now!

ACE TRACKS: June 2013

Oh hey, it’s another throwback ACE TRACKS playlist that coincides with the month it’s being made in. Probably the final time that’ll happen too, though maybe the possibility exists things will line up again in October, if I slack off on these enough. Since it took almost no time putting this one together (you’ll see why), I could have posted it earlier this month, but I felt it best doing this now, just before leaving for a two week holiday. Where else would I announce such a thing, eh?


Full track list here.

Missing Albums:
Various - Global Underground: Paul Oakenfold - Live In Oslo
Various - Global Underground 003: Sasha - San Francisco
Various - Global Underground 014: John Digweed - Hong Kong
Various - Global Underground 29: Sharam - Dubai
Del Tha Funkee Homosapien - Golden Era
Various - Goa Trance – Psychedelic Flashbacks
Various - Goa Trance – Psychedelic Flashbacks 2
Various - Goa Spirit 3

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 31%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: ICP. Always ICP.

Well, this was one seriously nerfed playlist. June of two years past was already a lean month for reviews to start with, what with so many double, triple, and quadruple CD releases. Then there’s the lack of old Global Underground material on Spotify, so many classics of the progressive era now lost to a generation of online streamers. Why must you make us seek alternative methods of hearing your CDs, defunct labels of the past? Then you got way obscure psy-trance, though much of which is best left forgotten anyway. Surprised Del’s Golden Age wasn’t available on the Spots tho’ – guess he likes keeping his shit proper underground that way.

So that leaves with very little left, less than two hours worth of music. Almost wasn’t worth making a playlist for, but whenever else will you get to hear Canadian conscious hip-hop, ancient goa trance, and Oliver Lieb all in the same short span of time?

ACE TRACKS: May 2015

This past weekend, I did something I hadn’t done since the earliest days of this blog’s revival: go to a used CD shop. Problem is they just don’t exist anymore, at least in any Vancouver neighborhoods I can easily get to. Used to be a stroll down the main strip of city central offered half a dozen such joints, but now they’ve all been taken over by joint supply shops (seriously, marijuana store fronts are multiplying like hemp rabbits here!). Peruse one I did though, and boy do I miss the casual flipping through unsorted stacks of discs, 99% of which don’t interest me in the slightest (a whole section of Christmas albums, seriously?). Every so often though, an album catches your eye, one that never even crossed your mind getting – buying exactly what you want is what Amazon’s for, after all. But here sits, looking for a new home, and with a money burning a hole in your pocket, you don’t spring for a new pair of pants, but a little extra music to play while wearing slacks. That truly blog-worthy paragraph out of the way, here’s the ACE TRACKS for the month of May. (I’ll stop rhyming now).


Full track list here.

Missing Albums:
Sandoz - Chant To Jah
Kraftwelt - Retroish
Escape - The Futurescape
Various - Die Welt Ist Klang: A Tribute To Pete Namlook
The Beatles - Abbey Road
The Beatles - Rubber Soul
RZA as Bobby Digital - In Stereo

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 10%
Most “WTF?” Track: Dire Straits - Sultans Of Swing (…just because)

The Pete Namlook tribute box set isn’t on Spotify. *whew* Thank God for that, as I didn’t want to go through the effort of putting all those tracks in this playlist. Besides, if you gotta’ hear those tunes, they’re all available in full within each CD’s review via their Bandcamp link. Might be a pain skipping all the way to CD8’s clutch of Ace Tracks though.

The drawback of not having a week’s worth of music here is it makes for a rather short Playlist. Heck, even if Spotify did have it, there’s still another half-dozen albums missing. On the other hand, we get ourselves a nice, easy, breezy collection of progressive house and groovy trance that remains in total denial of what it is – tech-house and techno, sure. Throw in a few laid-back dubby jazz numbers, spots of high-octane acid, and your requisite outliers, and this playlist turned out better than expected. Oh, and yes, I did include the opening three tracks off Interchill’s Sanctuary in their sequence off that compilation, though not right at the very beginning – I’m not that predictable.

ACE TRACKS: July 2013

*SIGH*…. So much for my hockey hopefuls. Why do I continue routing for teams that never quite make it? Maybe I just dislike the successful teams because they’re always beating the teams I like. In that case, go Tampa Bay Lightening, I guess. I’ve no quarrel with you, even supported them during their first Cup win (because LOL Calgary Flames), it’d be cool to see Steve Stamkos win a Cup early in his career, and all those goals Tyler Johnson’s scoring would be such a waste if he doesn’t win Conn Smythe. Doesn’t make me any more interesting in the NHL Playoffs though – heck, the NBA Playoffs are looking more intriguing about now. The remaining teams are all title starved, the last any of them having won a Ring two decades ago, another four decades ago (to say nothing of the zilch victories of Atlanta and Cleveland). Some long-suffering fanbase is gonna’ be celebrating and flipping cars long into the night this June! What? Oh, right, here’s ACE TRACKS: July 2013. Knew I was ignoring something.


Full Track List Here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Mind Distortion System - He Claims To Be Not Human

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 26%
Percentage Of Rock: 28% (though a chunk of it is technically Neil Young folksy stuff)
Most “WTF?” Track: Ice Cube - You Can’t Fade Me (seriously, those lyrics)

Another weird month, this one. It started with a couple Greatest Hits CDs, got seriously grimy with Ice Cube and Grooverider jungle, chilled for a bit with Swayzak, Kruder, and Dorfmeister, a little UK mainstream with Fatboy Slim and Gorillaz, banged it out with hard desert trance, Neil Young came in with an acoustic guitar, and ended with some mishmashed stuff at the end. Clearly the only way to treat such an erratic collection of tunes is another alphabetical playlist. Except for AmeriKKKa’s Most Wanted and Steve Miller Band’s Greatest Hits, which are lumped at the end as full albums. A bizarre, unworkable contrast, you say? Heh, welcome to what it’s like listening to all this music as I have for the last couple years.

ACE TRACKS: April 2015

Oh hey, look at that, “R” is all wrapped up now. Yep, in a bizarre turn of events, the alphabetical back-half of the letter had barely a week’s worth of albums for review, unlike the near 1.5 months of the front half. I honestly have no idea how this came to be. Maybe if I had more CDs in my collection from rock bands, where they sing about rocking and rolling in titular singles, but nay, most things are rave with this techno boy. Anyhow, I felt it best to finish the letter off before posting the playlist for ACE TRACKS: April 2015.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
µ-Ziq - Royal Astronomy
Seraphim Rytm - Aeterna
Various - Rising High Trance Injection

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Most of the Aphex Twin stuff, but only if you’re not used to his zaniness.

Whoa, that’s my second straight Playlist with nary a rock or hip-hop cut found. The August 2013 one is understandable, what with such a short collection of albums to cull from – I had plenty more to draw from for April 2015. On the other hand, a sizeable chunk was devoted to Altar Records compilations, not to mention a plethora of other alphabetical backlog.

Speaking of alphabetical, I tried something different for this Playlist, arranging tracks in alphabetical order. With so much psy dub, psy chill, and dark ambient (hi, Sabled Sun!), I figured doing so would randomize the sequence a little, engaging the listener with the unexpected rather than steady familiarity and flow. Will AstroPilot align with Amon Tobin? Might Moss Garden meld with Model 500? Could Cosmic Replicant conflict with Chronos? Find out within, plus Faithless too!

ACE TRACKS: August 2013

Huh. Spotify’s gone a little screwy after downloading one of their updates. Despite registering ~14,400 songs, my Local Files no longer show. Meh, serves me right for figuring a newer version of a Desktop app would somehow be better. There’ve been a few minor features that disappeared lately, though nothing as inconveniencing as this. I suppose it doesn’t make too much difference since most y’all couldn’t hear the missing tracks anyway. For a short Playlist such as AUGUST 2013’s, however, even having those songs in a track list would help some. Guess I’ll add them in whenever Spotify sorts their shit out.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - High Karate
DJ John Kelley - High Desert Soundsystem
DJ John Kelley - High Desert Soundsystem 2 Various - Dirty Vegas: Homelands 2002 Preview
Various - Helsinki Mix Sessions: Jori Hulkkonen
William Orbit - Hello Waveforms
Various - Heroes! Rewind!!

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 0%
Most “WTF?” Track: Daft Punk - Alive (how’d the end come so soon!?)

Vacation time already resulted in a lean month for reviews, but with half the albums covered not even available on Spotify makes for one very, very short Playlist. Remarkably, almost everything that made it is house music, and a rather specific sort at that. It’s like Frankie Knuckles, Daft Punk, and Hercules & Love Affair are kindred spirits in alphabetical coincidences. Even the tougher tech-trance from L.S.G., Trancesetters, and Jan Driver don’t sound out of place.

What obviously will though is that Hits Unlimited CD from 2 Unlimited. It seems Spotify finally has a version of the group’s greatest hits package available, so I’ve lumped it all at the end of the Playlist like the fanboy I am. There were also current remixes on it too, from the likes of Steve Aoki, Big Dawg, and Joachim Garraud. Naturally, I jettisoned them to the bin. Why make you suffer more than necessary?

ACE TRACKS: September 2013

Oh dear. Hockey Playoffs are about to start, and unlike these past two years, this one actually looks to be more fun for yours truly (so many teams I'm routing for!). It shouldn't impact my writing output that much, but if Vancouver, Winnipeg, Washington, Ottawa or Montreal make lengthy runs, I suspect many a drunken revelry shall be had upon victorious nights. But I'm sure you folks from across the seas and regions devoid of hockey rinks care not for this, so here's an ACE TRACKS playlist for the month of September 2013. *whew* Only one more year's worth of this backtracking to go...


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Faithless - If Lovin’ You Is Wrong
Carbon Based Lifeforms - Hydroponic Garden
Miguel Migs - Get Salted, Volume 1

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 27%
Percentage Of Rock: 2%
Most “WTF?” Track: Nothing in particular, but ICE MC’s definitely way out of place in this Playlist.

So much hip-hop in this month, yet only one instance of Wu-Tang Clan. Guess they felt naming an album with some variant of ‘ill’ was a played out cliché in rap slang – or allowed Nas ownage of the term forever after. Also, hope you’re a fan of ‘90s Juno Reactor. If not, I back-loaded most of the tunes anyway, so they wouldn’t dominate too much of the early sections of the runtime?

Overall, this one turned out pretty well, which I’d never thought possible with early BT, angry Ice Cube, spacey Petar Dundov, and bouncy Banco de Gaia all making appearances. Remarkable how well some tunes can flow together with just a couple suitable linkers between them. Or maybe my taste in music skews in specific ways no matter what genre or scene I pluck my tracks from.

ACE TRACKS: March 2015

Hey, it’s April 1st, which means I have to do a prank or some shit like that. Okay, let’s see…. Um.. ah, I got it. I promise to review ALL the Armin van Buuren albums! Hahaha! Oh, that’s rich. What, too obvious? Okay, how about this one. I’ll not review all the AvB albums! Ah, hahaaha, hoho hee! That’s not a prank either? Well, what do you want, a close-up sneak peak to Ishkur’s Guide To Electronic Music 3.0? How about a fresh playlist of ACE TRACKS from the past month instead?


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
The Beatles - Revolver
Bandulu - Redemption
Various - In Trance We Trust 006: DJ Cor Fijneman

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 11%
Percentage Of Rock: 12% (note: not all the included rock bands perform actual rock here)
Most “WTF?” Track: I honestly can’t think of one with this bundle. Maybe some of the ‘cracker trance towards the end. Like, how could I ever enjoy such corn! If we’re going that route though, any Bryan Adams?

Quiz: what do Bandulu and The Beatles have in common? They’re both British! Oh, and neither are officially on Spotify, though you can find plenty of cover bands doing Beatles classics. No such luck with Bandulu, sadly.

This one came together remarkably well, which was nice considering the last few playlists were messier than I’d have liked. Even the dalliances into rock don’t sound forced (yes, even Bryan Adams). Also, as with ACE TRACKS: December 2013, I’ve lumped all the In Trance We Trust material at the end, so if you need your eurotrance fix, you’ve a jolly good lot of it at the end. Also, it seemed appropriate kicking that segment off with Faithless’ Insomnia, since they were partially responsible for clubby anthems of that sort gaining popularity.

ACE TRACKS: October 2013

That’s it, then. I’m done with In Trance We Trust. I don’t care if they keep releasing mix CDs, it’s over for me, finished. 020 surprised me in how much I enjoyed the results, so why risk ruining that positive afterglow of a series that did right in the end. They corrected their missteps, found the groove they always hinted was possible, and now it’s time to close that chapter, move onto other things. Eh? Anjunabeats? No…. no! Never! Here, how about some ACE TRACKS that I reviewed way back in October of 2013? There be In Search Of Sunrises here.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Jean Michel Jarre - Jarremix
Various - Influence 1.1: A Hardtrance Experience
Sounds From The Ground - High Rising
Sounds From The Ground - Brightwhitelight

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 16%
Percentage Of Rock: 4%
Most “WTF?” Track: Brian Sanhaji - Cortosis (why did I like this track again?)

Still no Waveform Records on Spotify, thus still a significant chunk of missing music by Sounds From The Ground. ‘Tis odd that Influence 1.1 isn’t available though, as many Hypnotic Records compilations are floating throughout the streaming service. Maybe Cleopatra wasn’t satisfied with the sound quality? Oh, and no ‘Italo Classics’ either, obviously – besides, I could never do those tunes justice as Zyron did for his mixes.

This month was quite a diverse one, which usually results in a fun, eclectic playlist, but I dunno. Between all the Waveform dub, In Search Of Sunrise trance, eastcoast hip-hop, and funky-house house, things never quite clicked the way I hoped it would. Maybe I’m just being needlessly self-critical this time out. I do find it funny how, in the time since going through that particular stretch of albums starting with “I”, I’ve added twenty-two more releases within that block. Mind, two-thirds of that are In Trance We Trust mixes, but still.

ACE TRACKS: November 2013

Woo hoo, I’m but a few days away from an honest-to-God real vacation, my first in nearly a decade! Like, absolutely no commitments I’m obligated towards in my time off work. No classes still to attend, no relatives to visit out of town, no festivals to volunteer for – just pure freedom from any and all responsibilities. And I’ll probably grow mind-numbingly bored within 36 hours. Or spend all that time making Spotify Playlists. Until then, here’s ACE TRACKS: November 2013.



Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Felix da Housecat - Kittenz And Thee Glitz
The KLF - Justified & Ancient

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 18%
Percentage Of Rock: 6%
Most “WTF?” Track: either track from Squarepusher (you just don’t expect it from Jenkinson)

Man, these truncated months are so much easier to put together. I should get super bummed out and stressed by Real World things more often, so I don’t end up reviewing so much unwieldy music. I barely even listened to most of these tracks before slotting them, so easily they slid into their positions within the Playlist by sight alone. Why yes that Cheb I Sabbah world music tune would work great in contrast with Juno Reactor’s Navras. Obviously Tosca and Delerium were meant to go together. Clearly that Public Enemy binge I enjoyed is best served in two mini-segments. And the whole thing runs a nice, easy-breezy three hours. Only the final few tunes are cumbersome, but who ever listens to these things to the very end, amirite?

Surprising that Felix’ classic album isn’t on Spotify. Not surprising all those burned CDs I started reviewing aren’t though, but most of the tracks used on those were found, so it’s all good. Eh, Kid A? Ah heh, sorry, I never did find out which songs off that album CokeMachineGlow and Tiny Mix Tapes approved as being ace.

ACE TRACKS: February 2015

Oh man, did I just wake up from the most epic of naps after work. You go down, thinking “One hour should suffice.” Then you wake up three or four hours later, and realize your evening is shot, so you shuffle over and sleep a little longer. Then it’s midnight, and you realize you have to work at six in the morning, so you shuffle over and sleep a little longer. Then you wake up at two in the morning, and you realize you can sleep a little longer, so you shuffle over and sleep a little longer. Then your alarm goes off, and you realize you’ve slept for EVER, and you shuffle over and OH WAIT, I GOTTA’ GET THIS PLAYLIST UPLOADED THIS MORNING! Here we go then, ACE TRACKS of February 2015.


Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Various - Radikal Techno
Various - Radikal Techno: Too Radikal

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 12%
Most “WTF?” Track: Neil Young & Crazy Horse - T-Bone (how is this song still going!?)

I should mention that, technically Rave-Trance 2001 isn’t on Spotify, but one of the CDs it was ripped from, This Is Dream Trance Anthems Vol. 2, is available. So if you want to know how that one sounds like, yay for you! But yeah, no surprise those old Quality compilations aren’t about, and of course I’d go and give ACE TRACK status to hard-to-find remixes.

Multi-disc compilations and general distractions didn’t leave me as much time for music listening and reviewing this past February, giving us a shorter Playlist than usual. There’s some Ultimae (and Altar!), there’s some trance, there’s some downtempo-dub, and there’s a couple outlier oddities. A few new musics, a few old musics, and a lot of in between. Nothing too off the beaten path where my general tastes are concerned, then.

ACE TRACKS: December 2013

Sure’s been a while since I last did one of my backtrack playlists. Heh, so much for my ‘one every week’ semi-promise, but I was kinda’ stuck on how to proceed with this one. That, plus new musics have been rather distracting as of late. I’m not even sure how many folks are interested in ACE TRACKS from 2013, but then it’s not like I often keep contemporary with my music coverage anyway. Thus, here’s the best music I reviewed in December of nigh fourteen months past.



Full Track List Here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Vector Lovers - Late Shift / Babette
Various - Red Jerry: Late Night Drive Mix
Various - In Trance We Trust 008 - Ton T.B.
Various - In Trance We Trust 012: Johan Gielen

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 0%
Percentage Of Rock: 9%
Most “WTF?” Track: Robert Mitchum - From A Logical Point Of View (that Fatboy, sure knows how to find ‘em)

Yep, this was the month where I spent going through a ton of In Trance We Trust mixes. I didn’t want this playlist overrun by trance though, as it’d gum up the flow of other tracks. So, I’ve lumped them all at the end, and in sequential order at that – if you just have to hear all those epic, euphoric, anthems, skip past the super-long ambient version of Banco de Gaia’s Kincajou for your fix.

This leaves a relatively short first-half of the usual genre hopping, running at a tidy three hours with change. Considering the lack of options that month provided, it plays comfortably smooth. Plus, anything with Model 500, Trentemoller, and Moby in it can’t hurt, right?

ACE TRACKS: January 2015

What a bizarre month. There’s been a few in the past where one or two styles of music dominated a playlist, but never in the way this one turned out. Hope you like a lot of hip-hop. Wait, you do? Well, cool, but I hope you enjoy a bunch of psy-trance mixed in with that. Wait, you do? Who are you, some kind of weirdo? Oh, wait, that’s just my reflection in the monitor. Looks like a bit of yolk dripping off my nose at that. Well, here’s the ACE TRACKS of January 2015 in any event:



Full Track List Here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
John ‘00’ Fleming - Psy-Trance Euphoria 2
Various - Psychedelic Goa Trance
Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia - Psychick Rhythms Vol. 1
Various - Psychotrance 2001: D:Fuse
Various - Cosmic Funk
Various - Dub Selector
Amon Tobin - Piranha Breaks

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 25%
Percentage Of Rock : 10%
Most “WTF?” Track: The Statler Brothers - Flowers On The Wall (for its glorious ‘movie moment’, though it’s certainly an odd one here too)

You know who makes for surprisingly good bed fellows? Early Burial and early Nine Inch Nails! Or maybe in a playlist fighting for space in the crowds of Wu-Tang Clan and French psychedelia, they found common ground, comfort in their outsider status. But yeah, with a few extra inclusions of lengthy Neil Young rock and borderline EBM, this is a weird assortment of tunes. Whatever happened to the regular ol’ house and techno, eh? This playlist should be a hoot if you’re daring to wander outside those comfort zones.

ACE TRACKS: January 2014

Whoa, wait a minute here! How can there already by an ACE TRACKS playlist for January when we’re barely a week into the month? The answer, to the surprise of no one, is that this is the January playlist from last year. Ah, I remember that time so fondly, spending nearly two days straight of finally giving this blog actual sound clips and links via Amazon. Boy, if only I had a different audio service available to me at the time that would have made that process so much easier. If only…



Full track list here.

MISSING ALBUMS:
Doc Scott - Lost In Drum N’ Bass
The Orb - Live 93
DJ Aaron Carter - Lit Up

Percentage Of Hip-Hop: 26%
Percentage of Rock: 4%
Most “WTF?” Track: Archie Bleyer - Hernando’s Hideaway (get your tango on, mate)

This was quite an eclectic month, as far as musical genres are concerned. Beyond the highly recognizable electronic names like Leftfield, Ladytron, Infected Mushroom, and FSOL, there’s obscure acid techno, reggae, world music, and grimey UK bass. Also, live albums, so expect to hear more cheering crowds than a KLF record. Surprisingly, the end result isn’t as convoluted or forced as other 'kitchen sink' playlists I’ve done. I won’t deny a couple clunky transitions, though (sorry, Rae’).

The total runtime is about 10 hours here, but that’s because I gave three whole albums Ace Track status that month: Asura’s Life², Bob Marely’s Legend, and GZA’s Liquid Swords. Instead of clumsily worming these LPs’ individual tracks throughout, I’ve lumped each one at the very end of the playlist. It makes better sense having albums that are great straight through represented as such anyway.