Various - In Trance We Trust Xtra Nordic Edition: DJ John Storm

In Trance We Trust: 2001

I've picked up In Trance We Trust CDs for a myriad of reasons: spiffy TranceCritic review, a string of gimmick reviews, a sense of OCD-induced completism. Oddly, and perhaps a bit sadly, I've seldom gotten one because it intrigued me. Y'know, that twinge of curiosity one feels glancing upon cover art, a list of names on the back you're unfamiliar with and wish to explore further. There was a little with some editions (shout out to In Trance We Trust 006, yo'!), but I'm eighteen CDs deep now and it remains a rare occurrence.

Not so with Xtra Nordic Edition. For a label that's always been well-regarded for its classy photos, this one struck out like few others (Ringworld?). I've made my love of frigid Arctic scenery quite known on this blog, so naturally a huge hunk of ice floating in the darkest waters gets my senses tingling. Will this be filled with frosty-cool trance music, some deep chill cuts you just wouldn't hear anywhere else but the Nordic regions of Europe? The Scandinavians were already making quite the rep' with their cosmic disco tunes, could we get something of similar ilk from DJ John Storm?

Haha, no, nothing of the sort. Rather, the early days of Black Hole Recordings – and specifically In Trance We Trust – had a kinda'-sorta' partnership going with the Planetary Consciousness label. Never mind the print was based out of Berlin, they seemed to have a tap on Nordic trance jocks, some of which helmed the early run of In Trance We Trust CDs. It wasn't long before Black Hole would stick with in-house talent, but those initial ties still lingered for a time, and with the Black Hole empire in rapid ascent by the year 2001, what harm in exporting the brand into lands where they already had a beachhead?

As for the actual mix... well, I like about half of it. I've no idea what kind of jock Oddgeir “John Storm” Kristensen is, because this is his only entry within Lord Discogs, though apparently went on to form a Norwegian rap group called Side Brok. In any case, I sense two sets out of Mr. Storm: the one where he has to play a bunch of the Dutchiest Dutch trance that ever Dutched out of Black Hole, and the set where he just bangs things out with some propah' tough tech-trance. The latter mostly comes care of names like Impact and Project 247, with tunes that fit that supposed In Trance We Trust manifesto of showcasing the harder side of the genre.

The other prominent tunes has Geert Huinink as a producer, five out of the twelve. Yeah, that Geert Huinink, so expect those kinds of breakdowns, with those orchestral swells. What's amusing though, is in final track Protuberance from Dawnseekers, as the breakdown reaches its Geertiest moment, Oddgeir cuts the track off and ends the set, denying the listener the expectant gratuitous build-up. Expert trolling there, my friends!

Phynn - C U Smile (Original TC Review)

Black Hole Recordings: 2007

(2022 Update:
I know I seem to say this often about trance artists from the '00s, but seriously, what happened to Phynn? He seemed to do everything an up-and-comer of the Dutch eurotrance scene was supposed to do to have a lengthy career. Have a couple break-out singles playlisted by the Very Important trance DJs of the day, get his name out into other ventures such as DJing, get some snarky blog reviews written up leading to a debut album (okay, maybe not that one), and then... Profit, I guess?

Honestly, having listened to said debut and only album, Metamorphosis, I'm not surprised Phynn's future prospects sputtered. The first half, which includes C U Smile, is quite the blatant jump on Sander Van Doorn's brand of acid-fart bosh (the back-half is more traditional euro-trance fare, but only marginally better). Who knows if it was Mr. Jager's intent, or Black Hole Recordings forcing him to go in a new direction the scene was desperately hitching their wagon on, but regardless, it proved a musical dead-end for all involved as the new decade took hold. Phynn eventually left Black Hole, started his own short-lived digital print Lunary Records featuring music with a tougher, deeper techno edge, but all other social media and Discoggian info on him dries up by 2016.)

IN BRIEF: Marco V lite.

These past couple years have seen quite a few trance producers fleeing their past to embrace the chunkier nu-electro sound. Ferry Corsten, Marco V, Cosmic Gate, just to name a few. However, their transition isn’t terribly surprising, as these folks had done all they felt they needed to in that old sound. They’d prefer to move forward rather than stay in the past (even if moving forward doesn’t always translate to producing better). What does come as a surprise though, is seeing some of the names of the new generation of trance already doing the same.

Finne Jager - aka: Phynn - was early-on expected to be part of this fresh breed; his productions and DJ mixes seemed to indicate he’d be perfectly fine to carry on the Dutch trance mantle. Heck, just a year ago he was tapped to take on the long running In Trance We Trust series, a release filled to the rim with epic anthems. Surprisingly, his first single in nearly two years (not including two download-only tracks from last year, but then it's still up in the air whether those count as true singles [2022 Edit: oh, 2007 Sykonee, you silly git]) finds the young man instead leaving that sound behind and joining the ranks of producers making march-a-long tech. Is this a case of bandwagon jumping? Or perhaps Finne’s already bored with epic Dutch trance and is also looking to try something different. Fair play if the latter is so, but his offering isn’t much to get excited about.

C U Smile does everything we’ve come to expect from tracks like these, with very little innovation to distinguish from the pack. As mentioned, the rhythms are standard march-a-long in nature, causing the track to plod for large chunks at a time. The main hook is very simple, but does benefit from playing in a slightly different time signature, thus helping turn your head somewhat. Beyond that, this is a bland, forgettable techno; his club version is the better offering by a significant margin. There’s more energy and doesn’t completely rely on the main hook to sell it, with additional hooks doing a nice job between the peaks. Mind, it’s still an overly simple track, but at least doesn’t plod like the original does.

DJ Preach brings chunkier rhythms with his remix, letting his techno influences overtake the track with workable results. Aside from the additional sounds though, there isn’t much difference between his and Phynn’s club mix. Well, aside from an extended breakdown where Preach stretches the riff out somewhat, but it’s nothing more than a novel trick that adds little.

Ultimately, considering how much potential he showed in the past, C U Smile is something of a disappointment from Phynn. The track is functional but functional is very, very common in the world of dance music, and Mr. Jager hasn’t produced anything here that demands to be snatched up. It’ll work in your sets but you could find any number of tracks that do the same.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2007. © All rights reserved

Spicelab - Spy Vs. Spice

Spy Vs. Spice: 1996

And that's all the Spicelab albums gotten. Yes, as strange as it may seem, Oliver Lieb only ever released three LPs under this alias. You'd think there'd be more, what with it being his break-out project and all, one that helped define German trance in its infancy. It was something of a contentious one though, seldom getting much shine abroad, much less promotional push from Harthouse. Spicelab tracks were just a little too weird, a little too sci-fi pulpy, a little too unwieldy for DJ rinse-outs, especially so those lengthy album cuts. When L.S.G. became his most popular (and likely lucrative) project, it pretty much took all of Lieb's attention. So long, Spicelab, then.

As for why it's taken me so long to finally get Spy Vs. Spice, there's a couple reasons. One, it's not a very common CD. Ol' Oliver had to basically self-release the album, setting up his own short-lived Spy vs. Spice print to do so. Two, and it hurts to say this, but I kinda' already did hear much of this album many moons ago, and I wasn't especially keen on it. Oh, of course Spicelab was among my initial AudioGalaxy inquiries, don't act surprised. With so many out-of-context tracks failing to grab me, I let it slip to the recesses of my memory membranes. Maybe I'd give it another chance down the road if I ever found it on the cheap.

So I found a copy on the cheap, and perhaps with age and experience, I'd finally dig on what Lieb was doing with Spy Vs. Spice. Opener Spice Like Us bodes well, doing that vintage Spicelab thing of moody, atmospheric lead-in, settling us into the future-shock realm this alias doth often dwell. The rhythm's more on a tech-house tip (when such a thing was still being hashed out on Plastic City), just in a Spicelab-ey sort of way. Spice Peak and Glue Gun though, I dunno'. They sound like they could be great, leftfield electro and techno, but all the abrasive sounds on display just refuse to coalesce into something enjoyable.

Fortunately, the good ship Spicelab rights itself with the titular cut, a no-nonsense slice of pummelling techno where even the weird sounds make sense. Following that is Feathers, the closest thing to an obligatory progressive trance single this album has to offer. Even here though, the hook stubbornly refuses to play nice, playing out in quite the unconventional fashion. Or maybe I've just been spoiled by the Humate and TLBj remixes.

Bad Rabbit gets back to the earlier weirdness, but at least feels like it has some momentum behind it, while the final run of tracks close out with more traditional Spicelab trance vibes. Despite the difficult start, Spy Vs. Spice finishes strong enough to warrant a full listen. I can't really say it's a lost classic in the Oliver Lieb canon though, especially with L.S.G.'s Volume 2 being released that same year. Even the Spicelab 'influenced' cuts on that album are better.

L.S.G. - The Black Album (2021 Update)

Superstition: 1998

(Click here to read my original TranceCritic review)

Not much I can really add to that old review. Heck, I probably exhausted every possible simile in describing what The Black Album sounds like. Won't deny, I literally wanted to start this Update with a few more fun ones, but nothing came to mind. Nada. Zilch. How does one top “cyborg jembe drummers” or “Unicron having a tummy ache”? Or this fun little nugget: “This isn’t the kind of stuff you’d hear from guys like Marco V or Sander van Doorn; Lieb’s material eats their tracks as a midnight snack and takes a second helping without asking.” Oh yeah, that was around the time I was getting annoyed at folks calling those chaps 'true tech-trance warriors', or some bollocks. Some of their stuff was good, sure, but compared to what Lieb was doing half a decade prior? C'mon, man.

I remain flabbergasted that not only did Lieb take L.S.G. down such a primal techno road, but that it also holds up strong-style over two decades on. It's been quite a few years since I last listened to this album, so some of it had slipped from my memory. Hoo boy, once it got going though, with the relentless onslaught of aggressive rhythms and minimalist industrial sounds, all the feral feelings came rushing back. It's like, it unleashes the reptile part of my brain, long deep in slumber, stirred awake by the sounds of nuclear reactors going off.

Steadily it emerges from the depth of the spinal chord, making it onto the dry lands of the mammalian limbic portions of my cranium, crushing such things like emotions and values under talons and foot. Nothing stops it, only growing stronger and more determined in its path of destruction as The Black Album carries on, finally confronting the neocortex, the last line of logic and rational defence. The primate portion of the brain, if you will, an 800-pound gorilla of humanity taking on the unstoppable path of reptilian devastation. Who wins in this ultimate showdown of the psyche? I dunno. I think, by the end of The Black Album, everything's been abducted by aliens or something.

I still don't know what prompted ol' Oliver to go so hard into techno's domain. There was something of a movement burbling in the periphery of European clubland of techno bangers dominating the 4am timeslots, but it'd be a few years before the likes of Adam Beyer and Chris Liebing would truly dominate. And even then, they initially came at things from the Detroit angle, but I do find it interesting that Chris and Oliver both hailed from Frankfurt. Maybe there's just something in the water there, that makes their producers need to get their pure techno groove on, no matter what your main lane of music making may be.

So yeah, if you have never checked out The Black Album for whatever reason, I'm giving you a reason now. You want that epic confrontation in your brain. You need it!

Various - In Trance We Trust 010 - Collector's Edition 1

In Trance We Trust: 2004

I might as well complete the collection, right? Like, I'm only missing a handful of these compilations now. It'll be nice to say that I've a complete set of at least one long-running, on-going series should I show off all my CDs to someone. They'll say, “Boy, that's a lot of CDs, any complete collections?” And I'll say, “Yeah, one.” And they'll ask, “Is it Fabric? Balance? DJ-Kicks?” And I'll say, “No, nothing so prestigious.” And they'll say, “Ah, something more trancey then: Distance To Goa.” And I'll say, “No, not that either.” To which they'll ask, “Well, which one?” From which I'll reply, “In Trance We Trust.” After they'll inquiry, “But.. you dislike Dutch eurotrance. Why that series?” Forthwith I'll respond, “Because it was there.”

The tenth volume of In Trance We Trust's showcase mix series is unlike any other volume in its two-decade history, in that it's a 'best of' double-disc extravaganza! Look, it was the mid-'00s, when two CDs worth of music could still be considered a hefty amount to take in. The Black Hole Recordings off-shoot had been in operation for six years by the time it hit number 010, so I'm sure they felt the time was right for a little summation on their catalogue. Good thing too, considering the first creeps of trend-chasing decline would rear its head in the follow-up volume two years later (thanks, 'electro' house!). Say what you will about this early era of eurotrance, it at least knew what it was and made no apologies for it.

Like, I know I'm gonna' be in for breakdowns – oh lordy, are there ever breakdowns – but I don't hate these so much. I think I've just trained my brain to tune the naff bits out, and enjoy the elements that I do enjoy. The pumping rhythms, the spacey pads, the plucky riffs, the energetic leads, and, yes, even the occasional overwrought supersaw anthem, if tastefully done. Things still feel like in a state of flux in this period of eurotrance, the subtler, classy tunes still rubbing shoulders with outright cheese. And heck, even the cheese sometimes hits on those guilty pleasure endorphins the best of eurodance nails every time. Plus, the production isn't all unbearably bricked, which is nice. Ooh, I can hear the air between the beats!

As this is a 'collector's edition', there's no big spotlight on a guest DJ handling the mix, but Cor Fijneman does handle the CD2 set. CD1, meanwhile, isn't even mixed at all, making this the only disc in In Trance We Trust history to offer full, uncut tracks. I'm assuming these are the tunes that didn't fit in Cor's set, but still deserved highlighting of the label's history.

So lots of familiar names throughout, but one glaring omission stands out to my eyes: Fictivision's Ringworld. That's, like, my favouritest track from this label ever! No, I'm not just saying that because of the single's super-unique cover-art. It's a good trance tune, I swear!

L.S.G. - The Best Of L.S.G. (The Singles Reworked)

Superstition: 2004

I can't recall if folks thought it at the time, but it did seem the L.S.G. era of Oliver Lieb's career was over. You usually don't do a 'Best Of' collection if you figure there's still more in the tank for a project. By the year 2004, however, the signs were aplenty that times were a'changein'. Chief among them, L.S.G. was soon to be homeless, the label Superstition unable to adapt with the ever-shifting trends in clubland. They tried getting in on that digital download thing with a run of L.S.G. singles re-issues, but it wasn't enough. Thus a finished album following The Hive went unreleased, and Lieb moved onto other things. Say, that minimal techno thing is catching on, how about that? Ah well, at least Superstition lived long enough to let Lieb do a 'remix album' of all the tunes that helped make the label one of trance's taste-makers of the '90s.

And honestly, I don't think an L.S.G. 'best of' could have worked as anything other than a 'reworking' of all his singles. The easy, lazy thing to do would be to just slap them all on a disc, maybe force a continuous mix out of it, and call it a day, but ol' Oliver had taken the project through many different paths over the decade of its existence. How could one's muse be satisfied with how the original works sounded after gaining so much experience in the studio since? I'm sure ideas and re-imaginings had been sloshing in his brain for a while (especially during the Into Deep sessions, if the final result is any indication), forming sonic links and chains among his various tracks. True, there's always been signature markers that let you know you're dealing with a Lieb production (the gated synths, the impeccable drum programming, those claps), but why not sum it all up in one uber-album retrospective?

Folly for me, I didn't 'get it' when I first threw on The Singles Reworked. Maybe I was more enamoured by the second disc holding all those non-album L.S.G. tunes, in my clutches for the first time and all (Hearts! Transmutation! Blueprint! Fragile (Gravity Fools The Magician Remix By Vapourspace)...?). Or maybe I was just so unfamiliar with all the reworked tunes that I couldn't appreciate the changes. Aside from My Time Is Yours, The Train Of Thought and Netherworld, none had appeared on an L.S.G. album. For a while, I thought it all cool and neat sounding, but cribbing just a bit too much from Into Deep's aesthetic to stand out as its own unique thing. As I said, folly for me.

But yes, time and repeated plays has provided enough perspective such that I hear The Singles Reworked as more than just a 'best of' remix record. It truly is an album unto itself, just with familiar melodies in a different context from their original conception. Think of it like an 'unplugged' session, except still very much plugged in.

Various - Bedrock: Jimmy Van M

Pioneer: 2001

It was a few years after their releases that I gathered the subsequent entries of the Bedrock series, though not for a lack of interest. Jimmy Van M? Chris Fortier? Holy cow, those are, like, my two favouritist prog DJs that hardly anyone knows about! Absolutely I want to hear new mixes from them, especially with that bullet-proof Bedrock brand behind them, but why can't I find these CDs on the store shelves? Digweed's set was all over the place, so why not these?

Oh, Ultra Records was no longer distributing Bedrock Records material, that's why. Instead, Pioneer picked up the rights, which is bizarre because this label started out as a LaserDisc distributor, and was mostly known for Japanese releases and imports at this stage of its lifespan (so many anime soundtracks ...just so many). Its story grows more convoluted after, but I'm here to review two-decade old prog mixes, not recap tumultuous label histories. Just bizarre that it would pick up Bedrock distribution though.

Anyhow, difficulty in attaining these mixes became a moot point when I took my first dips into the Amazon, and upon firing up that Jimmy Van M mix, it was like heavenly mana falling into my ears, the sort of prog that did me no wrong. Okay, that wasn't my initial impression, as it didn't quite win me over so instantly as his Trance Nation: America outing. But man, once this one clicked after a couple plays, it became my favourite of the Bedrock series (uh, spoiler for Chris Fortier's entry?).

CD 1 is all dark prog. Oooh, that oh-so tasty deep, dubby, chugging sound that had such a brief but glorious run in the early '00s. Moshic is here! Floppy Sounds is here! Creamer & K are here! Bill Hamel is here (with Andy Moor!). Steve Porter is here (with the rub on Trancentral Station's Mothership). And... Minimalistix' Struggle For Pleasure (Filterheadz Remix) is here? Ah, it's the last track of this disc, a nice little melodic number to end the CD on after all that sweaty, primal business that preceded it. About the only criticism I might throw to this disc is it's only ten tracks long, but eh, prog, amirite?

CD 2 also is but ten tracks long, and two of those are different versions of Solid Sessions' Janiero played together for a fifteen-minute outing (yes, Jimmy was a disciple of Sasha & Digweed, why do you ask?). What always confounds me about this set is how, despite a rather Balearic opening to the disc, Mr. Van M somehow steers things towards Nuclear Ramjet's Deep Blue by track nine, a tune that treads as close to the realms of psy-trance as prog DJs ever dared to go. Such a dope tune too (that breakbeat breakdown!).

Listening to these sets reminds me how unfortunate it was that Jimmy made so few commercial mixes. I've heard them all now. What, he also did a collaborative one with Oliver Lieb in 2012? Uh...

Richard Durand - Always The Sun (Original TC Review)

Magik Muzik: 2009

(2019 Update:
Well. I certainly had a lot to say about this, huh. Never thought I'd ever listen to this again, but for some daft reason I kept the MP3 album, maybe for future reference. Then I embarked on my listening project, listened to this again, figuring it'd be the final time I'd subject myself to it. And now I've listened it again, for the sake of completism within this blog's archives. I've only myself to blame.

But enough about my sad-sack, what's ol' Durand been up to since? Quite a bit actually, that blatant 'I R Nu-Tiësto!" marketing taking the next logical step when he was handed the In Search Of Sunrise DJ mix series after Mr. Verwest completely and fully abandoned trance for lucrative Vegas money. Naturally, the series saw diminishing returns with every volume, to such a point they started pairing him with other guest jocks (and BT). And now, he's no longer involved either, the latest edition featuring McProg's superstars of old in Marcus Schulz, Andy Moor, and Gabriel & Dresden. Durand also kept releasing albums, his latest coming out this past year, where he's apparently aged twenty since this one. Helps when you're not airbrushed into the Uncanny Valley.)


IN BRIEF: Gads…

The name Richard Durand (Richard van Schooneveld’s current alias) made quite the impression when it first broke out in the trance scene, although it wasn’t for a good reason. Rather, he’d briefly stolen the title of Needless Remixer Of Classics from Sean Tyas, though folks quickly realized that, aside from Toca’s Miracle, he was mostly just doing old Tiësto singles (he has made dubious remixes for classics by The Prodigy and Underworld since, however). The initial hate subsided, but there was this lingering feeling that something was still askew regarding this Durand fella’. For instance, why him? Who was he, exactly? Where did he come from? And, considering how much Mr. Verwest seemed to be giving him the thumbs-up, why were so many of his remixes and follow-up singles garnering incredibly divisive opinions? (the usual from “mesmerizing” to “torturous”, though typically “pointless” being the consensus)

To be honest, Durand’s ascent is remarkable when you consider what he was doing when the Big T saw something in him. Before then, he was carving out a niche sharing compilations with the likes of Scooter, Lasgo, and Klubbheads as G-Spott, releasing a stream of dodgy euro-dance with gratuitous supersaws. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, it’s because very little of his material ever left the realms of Dutch, with tracks appearing on equally dodgy releases going by names like 100% Eurotrance Vol. 4, Get Uppa And Dance 3, and Damn! 9. Then again, even the biggest titans of dance music had very humbling beginnings (Doot Doot, anyone?), so we shouldn’t hold Richard’s past against him. Or should we?

Let’s turn our attention to the release at hand, Mr. van Schooneveld’s debut ‘Richard Durand’ album Always The Sun. A change of artist names to something closer to one’s real name is a sure sign that ol’ Richard wants to be regarded as a Serious Producer now, with a muse that stretches well beyond his G-Spott legacy; smart career idea, to say the least. To back that up, he’s introduced more tech-trance attributes to his tracks, giving his productions a much tougher edge. Unfortunately, he’s also carried a lot of his generic cheese-dance baggage with him, such that it permeates much of his debut album. This wouldn’t be a horrible thing if he went into this tongue-in-cheek the way other over-the-top hard-trance acts like DuMonde often did, but he doesn’t - after all, this is the new, Serious Producer Richard Durand, not that silly G-Spott guy who was seen playing a synthesizer to CGI popcans in the video for N-R-G. (trust me, YouTube that shit!). I mean, just look at the intensity of that face in the cover!

He hopelessly fails. At damned near everything.

I know what you’re thinking: “Oh, Sykonee, how can he really fail? I mean, so long as I can dance to it, right? Um… right?” That’s just it. I never thought I’d say this about standard 4/4 dance music, but Durand has actually managed to make tracks that are nigh on impossible to dance to. I’m not even talking about the usual overlong breakdown-build nonsense Dutch trance abuses - the song-writing itself lacks any sense of flow. When the rhythms, basslines, and synth-hooks are all in play, they sound horribly disjointed, creating this weird, herky-jerky momentum that saps the energy right out of your legs; it’s the sonic equivalent of walking on a railroad track. In fact, that’s exactly what it was like, as I couldn’t even get a decent walking groove going when I was listening to stuff like Papillon, Ancient Garden… hell, everything in the album's first half. I’m sure Durand’s defenders will point out that I’m not listening to his music in the proper context, that I should be hearing it blasting out of towers of speakers at clubs. Yet walking and dancing aren’t that dissimilar - both require a sense of rhythmic motion, and Durand’s music totally, utterly, fucking wrecks it when you try to move with. Then again, many of Durand’s fanbase considers dancing to be jumping in one spot with a fist in the air.

So yes, Durand has actually failed to make dance music that is danceable on a dance album. It gets worse though. For instance, are you still pining for more Anthem knock-offs? That track may be two years old now, but Durand seems intent at his piece of the melodramatic male-singer eurodance pie, and offers up two generic cuts: the titular track, and No Way Home. I actually didn’t mind vocalist Simon Binkenborn when I heard him on Leon Bolier’s album, but there he was featured on a track that was quite content to be light-weight eurodance fluff. On Durand’s album, however, it seems he’s been instructed to belt out his lyrics with all the overwrought raw emotion he can possibly muster - this is, after all, a Very Serious album. Predictably, the results are ridiculously over-the-top sap. Ah well, at least there weren’t any naff acoustic guitars this ti- wait, what’s this at the end of the album? A… melodramatic acoustic version of No Way Home? FFFFFUUUUUUU...

Although I could endlessly berate the first half of Always The Sun (like the hopelessly amateur sounding Divine, which desperately wants to be a profound opener; or the equally desperate Next Big Anthem Into Something), perhaps it’s about time I turn my attention to the second half. Here is where Durand’s corny super-trance takes full control, starting with a generic femme vocal trancer in City Never Sleeps and followed by Mouseville, an ultra supersaw epic trancer that sounds like a left-over System-F tune Corsten was embarrassed to release. The good news is Durand seems to have finally figured out how to get everything in his tracks working together, so you can actually dance to these. The bad news is he’s forgotten how to adequately mix his tracks together (did I mention this is a continuous mix album? Oops…). So, instead of fucked-up flow within his tunes, it’s now fucked-up flow between the tunes. Gah, can’t he do anything right?

As for the remainder tracks, they’re mostly serviceable tech-trance numbers, but much of their hinted potential awesome is too often squandered. The Trigger, for example, features the first instance on this album of a genuinely unique and nifty hook, a bleepy little thing that gets devilishly twisted as a buzzing sawwave spits and spurts in the background; it never takes off in any significant way, even when the two breakdown-builds suggest the track is ready to erupt. Instead, the standard beats are brought back in, and The Trigger gradually comes to an unremarkable end. As does the whole bloody album.

Call me flabbergasted. I cannot for the life of me figure out how this album saw a green-light at Tiësto’s label. Sure, we’ve handed out bad scores to them before, but it was for things like dull pop pandering or misguided experimentation. Durand’s album is none of this. It’s a euro-cornball hard-trance album trying to pass itself off as a Serious And Earnest collection of rough’n’ready tech-trance (watch the video for Always The Sun if you still don’t believe me), thus diluting the ‘stoopid-fun’ of the former while easily getting outclassed by the likes of Oliver Lieb, Marco V - hell, even Bolier - in the latter. Still, although Always The Sun has all the musical merit of a Special D. album, this probably won’t stop Durand’s career from continuing its rise - Tiësto’s mighty PR machine will see to that. The only thing that still eludes me is why Mr. Verwest would have given a cheesy Dutch hard-trance producer an opportunity like this in the first place. Perhaps Tiësto figures Durand’s success will give him the chance to resurrect Da Joker.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2009. © All rights reserved.

L.S.G. - Double Vision

Bonzai Progressive: 2017

Crazy to think it took fifteen years for Oliver Lieb to release a full-length album, and a double-LP at that. Yes, including The Unreleased Album, now officially released on his Solieb Digital print, but first made way back in 2002. Also, there was Inside Voices under his own name with Psychonavigation Records, but since that label hideously collapsed, the album's status is currently in limbo. Double Vision though, there is no doubt. Two CDs full of proper new tunes, released on a print in no danger of disappearing, and under an old reliable alias fans have been hoping a return to for ages. Take all my money, Mr. Lieb!

Still, it requests the question, where does L.S.G. fit in modern clime's? The heart-pumping trance that the moniker built its rep' on hasn't been in vogue for an age, and ol' Oliver hasn't shown any signs of returning to that style. He's well moved on from the minimal techno of Solieb – it was only fashionable for a short while anyway – but his few recent, scattered singles seem uncertain where his lane now is. Melodic techno? Spacey tech-house? Whatever thing Norman Feller's managed to sustain a career on? And is there even a need to keep making club singles anyway? L.S.G. had been trending towards the chill-out camps ever since Into Deep, but would there even be interest in another ambient outing after the lukewarm response to Inside Voices? So many options, so many ideas – ah, just double-album the return, filling all the creative needs!

And as CD1 opens with the grand space ambience of Seven Worlds, melting into a slow-burner with groovy rhythms, sci-fi sounds, and epic synth builds of Escape The Galaxy, all I can think is, “Damn, have I missed L.S.G.!” Oliver's always had a unique touch with rhythm and melody, instantly recognizable and never dull (if a little predictable though, one must admit), and long time fans should feel right at home here, tracks like Vapor and Passion reflecting glories past – even the rhythms take what Lieb learned from his Solieb days, putting it to far greater use. And if you do need some evolution along with his vintage sounds, how about a little psychedelic big-beat bedlam in Tipsy Flower and Perfect Blue? That ought to trigger your Future Sound Of London receptors. Also, Suborbital reminds me of an old, obscure Steve Porter prog cut (Innerpulse), which I have to assume is just a coincidence.

Even though it's the obligatory 'chill' disc, CD1 contains some serious body movin' beats. That can only mean CD2 is gonna' tear things out, right? Eh, it's definitely more upbeat, though still hovering a dozen BPMs lower than Lieb's classic stuff. I also don't find this disc quite as interesting as the first, contemporary 'peak time' tech-trance with vintage Lieb flourishes. It has its moments, but after awhile, I start itching for a little Black Album business. Now that's some mainroom techno that'll scare the kids away!

Corderoy & U4IC DJ's - 3 Spirit (Original TC Review)

SPX Digital: 2009

(2018 Update:
Did I rush this one out back in the day? My saved file doesn't have an IN BRIEF, nor the usual copywrite tag assigned to all TranceCritic reviews. I suppose I could use the WayBackMachine to find out, but eh, who really cares at this point what my Brief Byline was. Probably something generic, like so much trance was that year. Not this tune though, it stood out enough for me to scope a few more singles from SPX Digital after. Didn't hurt they were sending them to me as free promos either.

As producers, Dan Apps and Phil Collins (no, not that one) pretty much fall from the face of Lord Discog's records after this, but Corderoy's kept himself busy. He launched his own label called CDRY, has collaborated with a couple prominent names in this scene (Mike Koglin, Judge Jules), and released a steady clip of singles on various, respected prints like High Contrast, Enhanced, Perfecto... wait, didn't I just say he has his own label? Come to think of it, there's no mention of it in Discogs either, beyond his bio blurb. Guess it didn't turn out.)


Corderoy then. Ever heard of him? Probably so, (and it was Corduroy that J’ had previously covered, in case you’re wondering) as the brothers had a minor hit way back in 2003 with their single Sweetest Dreams. Like so many producers that breakout with a hit, however, they never managed to repeat that success, releasing singles in the time being without much fanfare. Along the way, the brother named Dale crossed paths with a duo by the name U4IC DJs. Comprised of Dan Apps and Phil Collins (to my knowledge, no relation to Phil Collins), the new-formed trio have decided now is a great time to start up a net label called SPX Digital. Which brings us to their second digital single titled 3 Spirit. Goodness, but is this ever a dry intro.

That’s kind of the problem here, though. The very names ‘Corderoy’ and ‘U4IC DJs’ come across as rather dry; they certainly aren’t names that leap out at you when on a tracklist. Heck, we even had a recent Corderoy tune cross TranceCritic’s path a year and a half ago, and I’m sure no one noticed it (J’ certainly didn’t, at least not enough to single it out). And to be honest, this trio’s brand of trance isn’t exactly the kind to grab your attention either, as it’s so easily lost in the glut of yearly releases. If you’re familiar with the energetic brand of uplifting trance that tends to bubble just under the surface of the playlists of your typical Tiestin van Schulzenyonds, then you’ll be familiar with 3 Spirit’s tone.

Fortunately, this track does have a few things working in its favor, such that it just might make more of an impact should it be placed in a trance set properly (re: not mashed in with a string of similarly-structured tunes). The beats are suitably driving; the lead hook is a subtle bleepy thing with just enough off-beat quirk to lodge in your head; the uplifting strings that keep reaching for the lasers at the climax are just classy enough to not have your eyes roll into your head; and, most important, the breakdown is kept rather short, with an actual beat used in the following build so you’re not left standing around waiting for the action to return for long. About the only proper complaint to be had with 3 Spirit is how over-produced the climax sounds, with unnecessary side-chaining gumming things up; it isn’t to the cartoonish extremes Carl B’s been known to go, mind, but is there nonetheless.

The remixes are a well-rounded bunch, with their own series of plusses and minuses. Friend of U4IC and long-time associate of John Flemming, Steve Birch cranks the energy of 3 Spirit up a notch, letting the bleepy hook rather than the uplifting strings dictate the direction of his remix; there’s even less time for breakdowns here, which is good, but Birch really abuses the attack and delay washes, drowning much of the track in gratuitous effects. Ben Gold, meanwhile, cuts out the crap with his ’Raw’ remix, offering a banger of a tech-track; featuring a killer lead synth that simply kicks you in the kunt and the bleepy lead in support, there’s actually nothing wrong with this remix. Finally, Beta Blokka opts for a housier route, establishing a blissy atmospheric mood with subtle pads. This was actually looking to be my favorite remix out of the bunch, but is sadly undone by their choice of bassline, a kind of silly, muted, speed-garage farty thing that clashes horribly with the benign nature of the pads. I can dig on the attempt to give the track some ‘deep bass’ menace, but not when it uses corny out-of-sync ‘wobbles’.

Overall, this is a decent trance single. While I can’t see it getting Corderoy to be remembered for more than a breakout single, much less lighting the scene on fire, competent DJs of the genre should get some worthy mileage out of 3 Spirit.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic, 2009. © All rights reserved.

L.S.G. - Volume Two (2017 Update)

Superstition: 1996

(Click here to read my original TranceCritic review.)


I may have overstated Netherworld's importance. I'm sure there were other records around the time that did a better job defining the progressive trance template than this one. Do any of them kick as much ass as Oliver Lieb's mini-opus though? I think not. What were some of its competitors in the year 1996? X-Cabs' Neuro? De Niro's Mind Of Man? Transa's Prophase? Bangers for sure, but comparatively simple and straight-forward when stacked against all the stuff happening in Netherworld. Who else had the balls to include an electro bridge in the middle of an anthem? Yeah, it's a feature that goes overlooked since most remixers jettison it in their rubs, no matter what direction they take it - it's all about the vocal sample and those gated pads, man. What I wouldn't give to hear a late '90s electro hero take this tune down their gnarly paths though. Anthony Rother, maybe? Dopplereffekt? Boris Divider? Boris...? Boris...?

Speaking of unexpected remixers... Holy cow, did you know Banco de Gaia did a remix for Volume Two? I sure as Hell didn't! Not in all the years I've followed both Toby Marks and Oliver Lieb (two decades strong) did I hear of this. Yeah, I knew Lieb offered a rub on the Kincajou single, but I had no clue the remix favor was returned. Yet there it is, included on a supplemental record full of remixes and Vinyl Cuts care of L.S.G.'s original home of Superstition. Ah, hm, I think I see the problem there. Netherworld was the only real EP to emerge from Volume 2, and that was handled by Hooj Choons - I'd almost argue Netherworld was specifically custom-made for that print, so out of sync it was with the rest of Lieb's L.S.G. works around the time. Any other remixes of Volume Two tunes would undoubtedly get way overshadowed in this marketing scenario, so Jules Verne must thank his lucky stars Hooj picked up his rub as well. Hey, more Netherworlds, amirite?

As for Banco though, he took on the industrial-breaks of Get Out for his rub, and it's... okay, I guess. Right, so there's another reason I never heard of this before: no one really gave a toss about it. Lieb's go with Kincajou was already a stretch, and while ol' Toby brings some tribalistic drumplay in his take with techno, it's no surprise he seldom ever tried his hand at it (think Gnomes Mix of Kuos).

Another surprising remixer in that original vinyl collection is Terry Lee Brown, Jr.; aka: Norman Feller; aka: another classic German trance producer that shared some songcraft attributes with Lieb. Obviously they ventured on drastically different paths from this point, but it's cool seeing the two on the same record nonetheless. Mr. Feller even does something different with his rub, a typical Terry tech-house cut he was producing at the time, but with snippets of various tracks from Volume 2 thrown in. He called it Terry's Patchwork Of V. 2. Cute.

Various - UK Space Techno, Vol. II

Millennium Records: 1996

Cheeky Millennium Records, marketing their sixty-percent goa trance compilation as ‘space techno’. They also had the balls to promote it as an ongoing series right out the gate, giving us a Vol. I no matter how successful the first one sold. It probably did reasonably enough, lasting all the way to a Vol. V in 1998. I somehow doubt even piss-poor sales would have prevented this Vol. II from hitting the CD shelves though, coming out the same year as Vol. I - Millennium was super-go on this no matter what! Oddly, I never saw the third or fourth editions over here in Canadaland, and I wasn’t invested enough in this series for a single disc’s worth of UK Space Techno to buy the fifth. Guess no one else was getting hype to that tag anymore either. If it sounds like acid and tastes like acid, just call it trance!

Hell, there’s no way to hide just how trance some of these tracks are, goa or otherwise. As with Vol. I opening with the classic Neuro from X-Cabs, Vol. II opts for a big, recognizable anthem from another hot, new act, this time care of Transa. No, it’s not Enervate, but the single that came before that one, Prophase. What do you mean you’ve never heard it? I know Enervate overshadowed nearly everything Transa ever did, but Prophase (plus b-side Transphase, included on CD2 here) were totally early progressive trance hits. Okay, should have been. Speaking of X-Cabs, there’s another pair of tracks from the famed Chris Cowie project on here (Avalon and Adena), both blistering cuts in that vintage Cowie stylee. Man, was that guy ever on fire in the mid-‘90s.

Goa trance obviously gets its tunes in, Cosmosis, Zart, Endora, Power Source, Mosti, and Ectomorph doing the business. Some crackin’ tunes from Cosmosis, Silicon Drum, Zart, and Power Source, but little else to recommend there. Hard acid has its obligatory tracks thrown in too, Dr. Octopus (alias of D.A.V.E. The Drummer) being the best of the lot. A young Lab 4 appear, though their Transformation is pitched down significantly for some daft reason – what, too hard for a ‘space techno’ CD? Spacer IV shows up again with yet another way out of place progressive house track, Jetson almost a precursor to the genre’s evolution into ‘prog’. And even regular ol’ Detroit techno gets a couple tunes thrown in, care of Darren Price’s Blueprints and Skeleton Crew’s Skeleton Coast. Actually, I’m not sure what to call Skeleton Coast, and nor does Lord Discogs, because it sure as Hell ain’t tech-house.

Overall a more memorable assortment of tune in the UK Space Techno franchise, even if the concept is straying further from whatever Millennium Records figured ‘space techno’ could be. Like, those two try-hard progressive trance anthems in V’s Anjuna (The Incredible Journey Mix) and The Bubble’s Squeek!. Good God, no! What’s so spacey about a lame breakdown with saxophone solo ripped from the ‘80s?

Various - A Trip In Trance 4: Mixed By Rank 1 (2016 Update)

Hi-Bias Records: 2005

(Click here to read my original TranceCritic review.)

So this CD. What, you thought we were done with trance? Hah, not in the slightest, a fair percentage still left in the tail end of the ‘T’s. Come to think of it, there’s a heavy amount of Updates coming up too. Man, what was it with those early TranceCritic days that had me reviewing so many ‘T’ albums? What indeed...

I’m surprised how much A Trip In Trance 4 has held up. I only ever bought the damn thing as a lark, a promo sticker promising “the true sound of Trance” providing an easy angle to get my rant on. And while I naturally knew Rank 1 and recognized a few names by scene osmosis, a good portion of the track list was still unknown to me; my expectations were brutal-low. I wasn’t expecting something on par with that dreadful Trance V.oice 2 compilation, but I couldn’t comprehend something much better, what with Hi-Bias Records behind the CD. Who even is this label anyway?

Only one of the longest running house music prints in Canada, 2005 Sykonee you git. True, they mostly stuck to the vinyl industry, and very few of their records ever went on to be hits featured on the premier compilations of the ‘90s, but I do recall seeing a few releases of theirs back when: Club Hi-Bias – Climax, Rhythm Formula… um… Well, whatever the case, fortunes favored Hi-Bias in the ‘00s, the print expanding their franchise into several A Trip Into… compilations, including six volumes of A Trip In Trance, each with a sexay lady on the front in progressively near state of nudity. Seriously, the final one is a backshot of the model in her panties, but ooh, still classy B+W stylee!

It was a fun diversion again hearing charming cheese like Alt + F4, Ernesto vs. Bastian’s Dark Side Of The Moon, and Benjamin Bates’ Whole (plus that kick-ass True Fiction from Jan Gustafsson!), but I got more of a kick in digging into the various names on here and where their careers went. For instance, you’ve got way early efforts from Sander van Doorn, John O’Callaghan, and Leon Bolier, some still operating under aliases. Doorn did use quite a few different guises around this time, ‘Sandler’ only good for two records. Damn though, does Theme Song ever remind you how he was projected as one of trance’s future stars. Well, they got the ‘future star’ part right. Bolier almost had just as big a breakout, though Pulsar as Precursor isn’t as good as Theme Song.

On the flipside, its weird seeing several other acts on here amount to little after this. Releases from Jan Gustafsson, Rachael Starr, Hemstock & Jennings, and Jesselyn dry up shortly after. Others took some time finding their footing, such as Airbase, or re-emerged as solo artists. For instance, Joonas Hahmo (of Alt+F4), and that Rank 1 member that technically didn’t mix this CD. I hear he’s been making good bank ghost-writing Armin tunes.

Various - Trance Mission: Leon Bolier & Mike Shiver (Original TC Review)

Cloud 9: 2008

(2016 Update:
Hey look, it's me returning to that 'rip-on-trance' shtick our little website had gained a reputation for. Not that I desired a return to that, but this came out in an off-month, and me being a sucker for any sort of title that brought up old-school flashbacks, figured this might be worth a listen-over. Sure beat giving the boys at Armada another chance, though I can't say this was much better. Listening to this again, it really throws a spotlight on how directionless the trance scene had become by the late '00s, trying and adapting any trendy new sound to stay relevant; heck, I even mentioned as such in this review, though I neglecting bringing up the short-lived '8th note' micro-genre. And Bolier's mix remains the more interesting of the two, the tunes at least trying to come up with an original style, despite some of it full of fail.

I touched on Leon's career trajectory in my update of his debut album Pictures, but what of Mike Shiver? How has he held up? He jumped on that 'trouse' bandwagon along with the rest of them, including producing a track called Trouse. Look, his mix here was already filled with quickly dated trendwhoring tunes, so of course he'd keep doing the deed in the new decade. Guy's got a label to run, radio shows to promote; can't be left behind when there's bank to be made on the festival circuit.)


IN BRIEF: Now I remember...

When we were compiling our annual Worst Of TC list back in January, I was surprised by the outcome. Not the tracks themselves, as they all deserved their place in our Hall of Shame, but whereas my writing compatriots J’ and Will had a slew of dodgy epic trance in their choices, I offered none. At first I figured it had more to do with the odds, as I did review quite a range of music, exposed to material far worse than teeth-rotting trance (especially so in the ‘electro fart’ camps), but when I looked back on what I had covered, I was surprised to find mostly positive reviews of the genre. So then I thought perhaps epic melodic trance as a whole had gotten better, despite the odd sour tomato that makes its way to the top (Anthem, anyone?). Or could it be me? Had I maybe grown beyond gut distaste of this particular scene? Maybe I had achieved that mythical ‘post-jaded’ mindset.

After listening to this new double disc of trance titled Trance Mission, the real answer was given: I was just lucky. But more on that in a bit; first, some background one what exactly it is we have here.

So what we have here is the debut commercial DJ mixes of a pair of producers long time fans of melodic trance should be familiar with: Leon Bolier and Mike Shiver. I suppose the best way to describe their status in the trance echelon is ‘third tier’: both are certainly recognizable names, but neither have produced anything most would instantly be able to recall; also, in just about any popularity poll, they are typically mired in the middle of the pack. Fine if you’re content to remain at such a point in your career, but perhaps they’ve been chomping at the bit to take their careers to the next level, and doing a DJ mix for growing dance music distributor Cloud 9 certainly is a step in the right direction. Let’s find out how their first efforts are then.

Mr. Bolier gets dibs on the first disc, and takes off in fine fashion with Moonbeam’s catchy I Love Mornings. A couple pleasant trancey numbers later, and his mix takes a turn for the poppy. Very poppy. In fact... Heck, y’know friends? This is eurodance! Granted, Lange has always had an ear for that side of dance music, but just listen to what Schössow does in his remix of Beatitude (the peak after Kirsty Hawkshaw’s naff bit of singing). That bouncy hook is straight out of the big book of mid-90s euro; all that’s missing is a white ragga MC. Heh, it’d be quite interesting to see what Bolier would do with this sound if he decided to resurrect it somehow.

Instead, we are quickly courted off to the realms of decent-but-unremarkable progressive trance for a very long stretch. There’s little here I’d call awful (Jennifer Rene’s over-emoting on Invincible aside) but not much that gets the blood stirring either. Trouble is Bolier’s track sequence is quite dry, with too many unnecessary breakdowns lined up one after the other (the one in Extensions is particularly useless, not to mention Wardt’s use of glitchy percussion isn’t nearly as clever as it tries to be; nice moody tone though), with tracks that are timid in ratcheting the energy up after such downtime. About the only two that make standing impressions are Breakfast’s cascading white-noise synths in Dancing In The Moonlight, and Bolier’s own collaboration with Sied van Riel in Malibeer, an effective hard stomper (shame about the track resetting all that built-up energy at the end though).

On the other hand, perhaps this was intentional on Bolier’s part. After all, the track that lifts his set out of this middling funk is his own Ocean Drive Boulevard, an epic anthem that delivers on all fronts. And by following it up with a dark grumbler in Prominent and the energetic First Light from Bart Claessen, you have a final sequence of tracks that literally gallops with gusto towards the finish. It definitely paints his own music in a positive light, but still is a shame he didn’t dive into this material sooner, as Bolier exhibits some fine DJing sense here.

Ultimately, Leon’s a quality DJ when he bangs it out (or indulges in eurodance) but is hobbled by all the mediocre prog trance he seems insistent to play. How does Mike Shiver compare then?

Frankly, not at all, as his CD is quite different. Shiver’s delivered a set that highlights all that has gone wrong with trance this decade: the grotesque breakdowns, the insipid vocals, the melodic tripe, and, more recently, the cringe-worthy attempts at jumping on the ‘electro’ bandwagon.

For instance, what on earth is Sami Saari doing here? His lead hook is so terribly hokey, I can’t help but burst out in laughter at how much of an attitude try-hard it is. Even nu-skool breaks never came up with anything that corny; it’s like the shirtless barstar that wanders into a rave, hooped up on ecstasy and with powder on his nose, hootin’ and hollarin’ over how “phukin phat that shit is” while he tries to hump your girlfriend (and complains about the lack of PLUR when you tell him to fuck off). And Nic Chagall once again shows us how to utterly kill the momentum in a set with a remix of Cause You Know, where his limp rhythms actually have less playing time than all the nonsense he indulges in during his wank breakdowns and builds.

There’s plenty more I could rag on here, but let’s deal with the few positives instead: great bassline in Mat Zo’s remix of Music Is For Rich People; lovely remix of Helsinki Scorchin’ by Michael Cassette (an alias of two guys, for the record); solid beats in Marksun & Brian’s Saterday. These are some great moments, and I feel rather embarrassed for them to be surrounded by so much turgid fairy trance.

How there’s still a market for this Anjuna-like stuff is beyond me. The early lame ‘electro’ excursions aside, little on Shiver's disc sounds like it couldn’t have been produced during the last five years, and this sound’s always been ‘heard one, heard all’; it’s depressingly scared to shake the gravy train. Even the most over-sentimental femme-pop isn’t this sappy (the ultra-produced uplifting synths really lay it on thick). At least Bolier’s disc was mostly self-aware during its cheesier moments; here it’s far too po-faced to be any fun.

As for Mike Shiver: The DJ, there really isn’t much to be said. His set’s perfunctory and lacking in surprises (Saterday being a clear exception); he’s essentially an Anjuna promo-bot, as nothing here stands out from all the other Anjuna/Armada/etc. DJs, although the ‘electro’ at the beginning suggests he’s perhaps recently dipped into the blow as well (and come away none the better for it).

So yes, I was indeed lucky in the year of 2007. Producers like Stephen J. Kroos and DJs like Menno de Jong had me believing the epic melodic side of trance was showing potential redemption in the wider world of club culture, and so long as guys like them continue to push ahead in their own way, it does. With tracks like Prominent and Saterday, Trance Mission itself offers glimpses of such too. However, Bolier and especially Shiver have also shown the genre still has a long way to go before all credibility is restored.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2008. © All rights reserved.

Stephen J. Kroos - Tecktonick (Original TC Review)

Anjunabeats: 2007

(2016 Update:
See 2007 Sykonee. See 2007 Sykonee make ridiculous generalization about trance producers making breaks. Point at 2007 Sykonee. Laugh. Laugh at 2007 Sykonee. Ha ha ha. What a nob. I don't even recall what his problem was, a rant that comes totally out of nowhere. Laugh especially hard at the fact I actually like Oxygenation now. Maybe it's that new-found appreciation for McProg's more charming attributes, but Kroos does good in bringing the grumbly low-end/twinkly high-end style to the realms of broken beats. The nu-skool leaning Elecktronick can be left well behind though.

Kroos wasn't long for the world of trance, moving onto tech-house and prog shortly after this album, releasing several singles on Anjunadeep in the process. Eventually he left Anjuna', finding a new home on Spring Tube where he continues releasing music to this day. While keeping with the tech, he's also incorporated deep house and chilled IDM into his repertoire. So a fairly well-rounded career since dropping his debut, even if significantly diminished in scene presence since.)


IN BRIEF: Bringing the past to the present.

Expectations are a dangerous thing when it comes to music. While they may be different for everyone, if an artist doesn’t reach a previous peak (much less surpass it), their subsequent releases are often met with disappointment. And this tends to hold true not just with producers, but everything from DJs, compilation series, labels, and even whole genres.

This can work other ways too. The obvious is when your expectations are so low, to hear something that is surprisingly decent can skew an objective impression. More common is coming across a release that breaks the norm of what you are used to, and impressions are no less susceptible.

The ultra-melodic trance label Anjunabeats hasn’t been known for its diversity but they seem to be showing signs of moving beyond the clichés of late. Among the artists doing so for them is Stephen J. Kroos. The Dutchman’s been producing since the late 90s, having small success when his singles found homes on compilations like Mega Trance 1.0, Ibiza Club Trance, and The House Sound Of Dance Tuning Disco (?). A few years back, Anjunabeats took Kroos on, and turned heads by providing a sound much of the epic trance brigade were unfamiliar with.

Let’s make something clear though. Despite claims to the contrary, Kroos’ music isn't revolutionary. In fact, he’s merely doing the same thing as newer producers like Paul Moelands, Sander van Doorn, and the Discovery squad are: taking trance back to its roots. A time before the Corsten clones, the overblown breakdowns, the schmaltzy lyrics, and everything else that sent the genre into Punchline Land. I can see how kids who figure trance begins and ends with Armin van Buuren’s radio show would find Kroos’ material quite different from the norm. However, folks with Pre-Dutch Explosion knowledge will find his style familiar (I’ll spare you the synth-sample trainspotting).

And this is A-OK. Although often regarded as tech-trance these days, this is more-or-less how the genre sounded when it was showing great promise as savvy party music. It builds on layers, letting the rhythms drive and the melodies subtly tickle at your mind. It was effective in the mid-90s, and it remains effective to this day. If stuff like deep house and Detroit techno are able to get away with recycling winning formulas, why not trance of this nature too?

Anyhow, let’s get to the particulars of Kroos’ album Tecktonik.

After a bit of ambient noodling opens things up (of which several others crop up throughout as interludes between tracks), Stephen wastes no time in letting his audience know this isn’t a typical Anjunabeats release. 4 Your Taperecorder is a techy banger that has only one thought in mind: working the dancefloor. Fortunately, it works fine on the homefront as well, with catchy hooks and vocal samples keeping your attention. Follow-up Sadistick is something far more familiar with the Anjuna faithful. A standard prog-house excursion, Kroos does the style justice with suitable dark grooves and moody atmosphere. Less effective is Tony McGuinness’ lyrics: unnecessary fluff. Why is the Above & Beyond man even here? As one of the label heads, did he insist on having at least one vocal number on this album. Thankfully, it’s a one-off, and we’re right back into Kroos’ winning style soon after.

And nothing over-fancy here, folks. Just simple energetic trance. The rhythms pump, the melodies work, and the breakdowns never dawdle. Hell, Innerstatistick barely has any downtime at all, with a not-a-breakdown-at-all moment lasting less than thirty seconds; and merely used to introduce one of those oh-so vintage ominous sci-fi samples no less! Kroos’ offerings tug at nostalgic strings while keeping his sound firmly in the present. I’d say I’m about ready to be converted to the Cult Of Kroos.

But then he decides to take a stab at breaks. Oh dear...

My friends, there are many constants in the cosmos, one of which is trance producers seldom make good breaks. With most of their attention paid on atmosphere and melodies, they forget the one ingredient that makes breaks good: da funk. Kroos is no exception to the rule, with his offerings blander than white bread. Oxygenate isn’t that bad when he lets the effects direct the flow of the song, but Elecktronick is far too dependent on rhythm to carry it, and the track suffers as a result. And sadly, Tecktonick ends on a limp note. Frankly, the final ambient doodle Sphecktralizm would have been a great closer had Kroos explored the psy dub possibilities an extended version of it hints at. Instead, Formalistick is the main show, but doesn’t have much going for it as such. It’s a fine track to be used in DJ sets but remains musically limited, with a lead hook that ends far too soon; just as you’re warmed up to it, we’re already heading into our perfunctory rhythmic lead-out.

This by no means makes for a weak album though. While the second half of Tecktonick doesn’t quite match the first, there’s still enough here to warrant your attention. The ‘let-trance-do-what-it-do-best’ mentality to many of these cuts shows the ol’ girl still has some life after all, and Kroos’ production suggests a promising future for his career. Well, such that he won't have to worry about being on compilations with names like Veronica’s Mega Music Dance Experience again.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2007. © All rights reserved

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.

John O'Callaghan - Something To Live For (Original TC Review)

Discover: 2007

(2015 Update:
This was something of a flashpoint review for yours truly, where my bitter resentment of gratuitous Dutch trance and all its associated marketing and such started to wane, allowing my tentative steps back into covering the world of eurotrance. Good thing too, since that was kinda' the point of a website called TranceCritic anyway; plus, I don't know how much more dark, twisted psy trance our readers could take anyway. You can still see some of my cynicism come through, especially when I get to DJ Governor's remix of Exactly, but I was definitely more forgiving of O'Callaghan's sappier moments on this album. What's funny is I've rather softened on the remix, while I don't much care for the original Exactly anymore.

That's generally the case with much of Something To Live For though. A few moments do continue tickling the nostalgia endorphins, but the production comes off more amateur and sloppy now, especially with the all-pervasive Discover Kick. Man, a lot of trance guys were going hard with their kicks around that time. All said though, I still like this one far better than the tepid tunes off O'Callaghan's second LP, Never Fade Away. Assembler chews up Big Sky and spits it into the gutter drain, yo'.)


IN BRIEF: Quite nostalgic, I have to admit.

Trance seems to be migratory. A favored sound will spring up somewhere in Europe and that region’s style will dominate for a while. Eventually, a new region will repeat the process, usurping the previous one as the leading tastemaker, and so it goes. For a long time though, the Dutch dominated trance when they outshined (and out-market) the British, the former leaders. But as the Dutch empire begins to crumble around them, other regions have started to scramble for the coveted prize as trance’s tastemaker. At first it appeared the Germans were poised to retake their thrown after years of playing second fiddle to other nations, but their victory parade may need to be put on hold for a moment. For an unlikely upstart beckons from the northwest: the Irish! ...kind of.

Okay, really it’s just Discover Records, and half their roster is made up of Englishmen anyway. But their associates form the Isle Of Guinness Ale were responsible for a hefty chunk of the big trance singles of 2006, and you can be assured they’ll use that momentum to carry them through this year. The reason for their success is simple - or rather simplicity. They aren’t interested in grand theatrics or overwrought compositions. Discover’s trance is only out to supercharge the party with simple hooks, driving rhythms, and ‘no bullshit’ attitude. Oh, and that kick! It punches hard, and overpowers everything in its path. They’ve certainly gotten plenty of mileage out of it.

Leading the charge of Irish producers is John O’Callaghan, who through various aliases, collaborations, and remixes has built up a sizable back-catalogue these past few years. Time for a full-length album then, eh?

Opting to provide as much old and new material in this release as he can, John offers two discs: the pretentiously titled Concept CD, and a Club CD containing extended, alternate, and additional tracks, mainly for DJ usage. Since Concept is the main show though, let’s dig into that first.

Straight up, there is very little concept going on here. O’Cally has simply taken his tracks and made a makeshift DJ mix out of them. And he even doesn’t do much in that department either, only using quick cross-fades for his transitions. And in an act that will probably annoy his fans, the tracks aren’t given much breathing room, usually left in the dust in under five minutes. Yeah, basic ideas going on here. If you want a trance album with some actual concept behind it, try some L.S.G.

However, where Something To Live For succeeds is in track arrangement. Aside from the first few songs, the flow on this album is quite good. Sure, the transitions are often herky-jerky, but most of the tracks go well one after the other. Stretches of John’s techier bangers are every so often broken up with a welcome slice of epic trance, allowing their melodies to shine brilliantly. And for all you young DJs out there, this is a GOOD THING! Don’t let an epic moment be wasted by drowning it with redundancy in your mixes, kids. Space those peak tracks out.

Of course, plenty of O’Cally’s previous gems are included here: The Chamber, Vendetta, Elevator Dance-Off, and, naturally, Exactly. As for the new stuff, most of it seems made to complement this disc’s flow rather than stand out on its own; they don’t get much of a chance making an impression with these short running times. Fortunately, most of the better offerings can be found on the Club disc. How are they, you ask? Space & Time spaceily chugs and bangs, Sunday 1am tranceily drives and bangs, and Assembler grimily really fucking bangs. Er... yeah. They do bang a lot, these tracks. All of them, for that matter, and if you want more to your rhythms than pumping energy, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

This is John’s style though: simple bangin’ tech-trance. As mentioned, the kick pounds, and he’d be foolish to try and out-match it. Instead, he makes ample use of working around it with effective rhythms and supplies subtle trancey hooks or throbbing riffs to complement them; the few times any melody takes the lead is usually in a collaboration. And none of this is terribly innovative either. In fact, aside from the better production values (re: shit be louder, son!), a great deal of the material on Something To Live For sounds like it could have been produced in 1998, right down to the same synths. You’d be forgiven for thinking this was some kind of throwback album, right down to the cheesy cover.

But you know what? Even though I’ve often been critical of others for not moving with the times, it’s actually okay here. If you’re going to tap a former year of trance for your inspiration, you could do far worse than 1998. Trance in those days was doing just fine: hooks were catchy, rhythms had power, and breakdowns were far from the ridiculous lengths they would become. John seems to be fully aware of how important keeping some semblance of momentum in your tracks is during a lull. This is probably how trance would be sounding had that whole Dutch wave never occurred (incidentally, not that different from Paul van Dyk’s older style, so I guess the Germans are still poised to take over after all).

If you need proof of how much better this simpler form of trance is over the bloated forms that would come later, look no further than the big hit on here, Exactly. The original produced by O’Cally and Bryan Kearny is a classic epic tune, with a simple catchy melody introduced without dawdling on the way to get to it, and neither milking the moment with grotesque theatrics. And on the Club disc, we have DJ Governor’s remix, and it’s a bloated beast indeed. Like so much Dutch trance, there are tons of extraneous whooshes and washes all over the place, very little of which serves much purpose. Eventually the full-stop breakdown starts, and it lasts a long time before we’re back into the action - I lost count after the three minute mark. During the breakdown, Governor introduces an additional wanky guitar bit that is horrid. His remix is only salvaged once Exactly’s main hook is finally - finally - brought in during the build, and even then all the fluff dilutes its effectiveness. This is a pompous piece of trance bombast that anyone with a clue will see right through. *whew*

So, with all this in mind, should you get John O’Callaghan’s debut album? Simply put, he doesn’t overreach his bounds, and serves up his bangin’ trance as is; it’s a fun disc to throw on if you prefer the simpler techier side of trance. So long as you don’t think too much about The Big Picture and let the beats to do their job, Something To Live For will serve you fine.

Written by Sykonee for TranceCritic.com, 2007. © All rights reserved

Paul van Dyk - Seven Ways

MFS/Mute: 1996/1998

I could never understand the praise heaped on Paul van Dyk's second LP. “Really?” my brain puzzled as I listened to the album proper. “This is considered one of trance's all-time greatest efforts?” It’s decent enough, if rather simple for 1996, but my gold standard for the era is, was, and always will be whatever Oliver Lieb was kicking out at the time. And Seven Ways is no Rendezvous In Outer Space.

I can’t even give it the pass I normally allow cheesier hard German trance of those years, the production much too slick and polished for that. There are charming moments for sure, like the old-school vibes of I Like It, the unabashed bliss-out of Forbidden Fruit, the snarling acid work of Beautiful Place, the floating space-trance of I Can’t Feel It, and Words tickling all my vintage German trance pleasure centres. The whole album is mostly continuously mixed, a nice flow maintained between energetic bangers and melodic groovers. Paul and his helping hands in the studio (MFS head Mark Reeder, Wolfgang Ragwitz, Johnny Klimek) put together a decent enough product here – nothing sounds cheap or lame but I dunno’. For something considered one of the best albums of ‘90s trance, I figured Seven Ways would be more definitive of the genre. Then again, van Dyk’s style has been copied and expanded upon so much over the years, his second LP can’t help but come off sounding rather ordinary in comparison. Such has long been his handicap anyway.

Eh? The second disc? Oh, how good could that be? It’s just remixes and B-sides for collectors, ain’it? Yeah, that killer BT mix of Forbidden Fruit lurks among the ten tracks, but do I really need to hear three alternate versions of Words? Oh fine, I’ll spring for the double-discer set – it’s about the same price as the single CD version anyway.

And... oh. Oh! Oh my...! CD2 is awesome! Production that’s beefier. Ample wicked acid. Arrangements working the progressive trance template to perfection. Right out the gate, you get Seven Ways (Star Wars), a mix that sounds so much fuller than the CD1 version of the titular cut. Why the Hell didn’t Paul use this one there? Following that is Today (Trance-Ambient Mix), a lovely bit of Balearic business, and after that Words (For Love), jettisoning the older-leaning sounds of the original in favour of something far more cutting edge for the time. Even the hard, bangin’ Curbed Headcase Mix of Words doesn’t sound out of place. Then there’s two killer versions of Beautiful Place, an additional tech-trance stormer of Forbidden Fruit, and even a bit of that pseudo-genre epic house going on with eleven minute Sundae 6 A.M..

I get it now. CD1 of Seven Ways was van Dyk of old, closing a chapter of his career. CD2 of Seven Ways is the van Dyk everyone loves and pines for a return to. Though futile at this late stage, let me throw my voice in with that choir.

Various - The Secret Life Of Trance: Episode 2

Imperial Dancefloor: 2000

Awww, yeah. Now we're talkin'. A compilation of Rising High trance, one of the O.G. labels of that scene, with a bonus DJ mix CD from the Godfather of trance, Oliver Lieb. I spy Cygnus X's Superstrings in that mix - not the Rank 1 remix or Corsten remix (or whatever), but the original, old-school version. You bet the boys behind this revitalized Secret Life Of Trance series were about to lay some serious knowledge on all them 'crackers of the year 2000. Nothing could possibly go wrong with this.

The first track on here is Lost 22 from Starecase. Hey, I've seen that name on a few DJ mixes before (Bill Hamel, Timo Maas, and some dude by the name of Tijs). I'm also fairly certain I've heard the Max Graham Remix of Lost 22, but the original version is what we get here. It’s a charming little prog-trance number, the sort you’d hear in plenty of set openers of the time. It also sounds very much of 2000, which I wasn’t expecting from a Rising High compilation. Guess Casper Pound had to placate the masses’ expectations for a trance CD regardless, but at least Lost 22’s classy enough.

Following that is nu-skool breaks from XPD’s Titty Twister. Wait, what the Hell? What on earth is a breakbeat track doing on a trance CD? These aren’t even ‘trancey breaks’ like Hybrid or something, but full-blown nu-skool, including those buzzy basslines everyone enjoyed mocking. This is the sort of stuff Adam Freeland was playing, and has no place on a trance collection, even if Mr. Pound is one of the producers. Would the breaks scene accept an ATB cut in a Krafty Kuts mix? Hell no!

Following that is... oh God. Moonrunners’ Fathom is a such a lame pinch of the Balearic trance fad, including a synth rhythm that sounds like a watered-down version of Tekara’s Breathe In You. The whole track’s insipid bilge, with an overlong breakdown playing out Zamfir’s The Lonely Shepherd on Spanish guitar – dudes, you don’t diss the Zamf’s panflutes like that! The rest of CD1 amounts to little else of note. Chris Cowey (as F2) turns in an agreeable bit of techno on Dominca, Silvio Ecomo’s Standinghas a solid tribal pulse, and Lieb goes deep with Light It Up as Phools Inc. Beyond that, generally a balls disc, sadly.

With such weak music to work with, ol’ Oliver would have to transcend even Sasha’s skills on the decks to salvage the CD2 mix. He does what he can, but even at best Mr. L.S.G. has only been a functional jock. He spices things up with a few of his own productions, almost all under obscure one-off aliases like Mindspace and Multiplicity. The mix even turns enjoyable once he’s finished playing out the obligatory CD1 material, finishing out with an old-school vibe I thought Rising High would deliver. Unfortunately, it’s not enough for another play of Secret Life Of Trance: Episode 2 anytime soon.

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.