Beat Buzz Records: 2003
I wanted some trance damn it, but my God was the selection in this particular store ever dismal. I could find my Turbo CDs and maybe a nifty techno album or two, but where was the trance, man? Where was the trance? On compilations with a Balearic beach, or a sunrise, or a sunrise on a Balearic beach, promising the latest and bestest in Ibizan superclub anthems, all tracks that, if I hadn’t already gotten, sure didn’t want, even in a different order.
It was then I realized whatever I’d enjoyed of the genre was truly, definitely gone, with no hope of return or salvation. The only thing left was to accept it full-stop, taking it as good as the cheese could give it. I scanned the shelves for the most overblown, chintzy, gaudy, ridiculous, nonsensical piece of cover art I could find, and hoo boy did I find a doozy! Just… what the Hell is going on here? Happy hardcore would be embarrassed by how cartoony this looks, and don’t get me started on the abomination that’s a double-gendered, two-headed plesiosaur. Too cruel to exist, yet too bizarre to erase from my memory.
And the trance. Oh dear God, the trance. Already you’re thinking we’re in for some rough vocal tripe, but maybe Trance V.oice 2 would present itself like those Trance Divas discs, a mix of the poppy euro fluff with more ‘credible’ examples of the sub-genre. Aw HELL n’aw! If I wanted something like that, I’d have gone with any dozen of generic trance CDs. I wanted the worst of the worst with this sucker, and Trance V.oice 2 fucking delivers!
The first track is DJ Sammy’s Heaven; welp, no sense pussy-footing this excrement. The next two have M.I.K.E.’s stamp on them, a Push remix of Zippora’s See The Sun, plus the collaboration Please Save Me with Sunscreen. If you like the Push sound, you’ll probably enjoy these, but as we’re dealing with radio edits, both tracks are utterly useless as examples of well-crafted trance (no time for subtlety). Fourth track is a lame hard dance cover of Supertramp’s The Logical Song from Solid Solution. Dear lord, just end this already.
No dice, Trance V.oice 2 carrying on with awful supersaws, flaccid pop, and wretched radio edits. As always, the closer vocal trance gets to euro dance, as with Futurz’ Let Your Night Shine Through and Sylver’s The Smile Has Left Your Eyes, the better it gets, but we’re at a pathetically low baseline here, my friends. All hope is gone once Trance V.oice 2 basically gives up on being a trance compilation after dropping a cover of BKS’ I’m In Love With You near the end. And the next track, Velvet Girl’s Promise U Heaven, why that doesn’t even have vocals at all! Zero out of Ten Jan Johnston Heads.
Seriously though, it’s the only decent track on here; once again Lolo provides some class on an awful CD. Respect.
Thursday, July 21, 2016
Wednesday, July 20, 2016
Various - Trance Trippin'
DMC Records: 1997
Far be it for Hypnotic to have a monopoly on wacky trance art that screams ‘90s, here’s Trance Trippin’ from DMC Records! No, not the prestigious DMC that holds annual DJ competitions - this DMC was a short-lived print out of Los Angeles that apparently peddled a fair bit of deep house before taking a chance on trance (it was growing popular by ’97). Also, don’t go confusing this with that early-‘90s Trance Trippin’ from ZYX Records, for cover notwithstanding this one is surprisingly decent. There’s a solid gathering of names on here, with everything mixed by that smoothest of jocks, DJ ProTools.
I also can’t tell whether Trance Trippin’ is bold or daft in its attempt at linking fluffy vocal trance with smashing goa and acid. Consider: DJ Dado’s Revenge and Qattara’s Come With Me are a couple of the opening tracks, while the set’s final volley features the ‘buttrock’ of S.U.N. Project’s At The Edge Of Time and deep tweakin’ 303 action of The Pump Panel’s Ego Acid. I don’t think even Oakenfold would have tried bridging the two wildly disparate sub-genres of trance, always keeping his goa indulgences well separated from any club friendly material. This CD done does it though, using a varied assortment of trance to get there, twenty-two tracks in total.
You get an early Ferry Corsten acid production with Pulp Victim’s I’m Losing Control, something that sounds like Brooklyn Bounce from Acidphase’s We Are Back, a little chemical breaks business with Solarstone’s The Calling (Inner Peace Mix), plus unabashed Sash! anthemage with 2 Lips’ Je T’Aime. A little further along, and DJ Scot Project’s Y (How Deep Is Your Love) offers the man’s cheeky ultra-build action, then the goa hits in with a Digital Blonde’s rub of Sandman’s Coimbra followed by Electric Universe’s Stardiver. Once the pummeling acid build of X-Cabs’ Neuro hits, you’ve likely long forgotten that Trance Trippin’ opened with Anomaly (Calling Your Name)!
Eh? These tracks all sound too disparate for a smooth flowing set? Well sure – it is a CD from 1997 after all, and ProTools can only do so much for you without some outside-the-box ingenuity. Trance Trippin’ doesn’t have that though, most tracks cutting in and out after three minutes of showtime, some transitions horribly clashing in key before quickly move on. Still, admirable effort for an obscure label jumping on a bandwagon. How did I get this anyway?
Funny story that! Forced to leave Vancouver and move back to the hinterlands, I knew once there I’d be without cool underground electronic music for a long time – my final purchase from the Lower Mainland had to count. Clearly Trance Trippin's cover art caught my attention, and seeing Atlantic Ocean’s The Cycle Of Life intrigued me, but I wasn’t sure about the rest. Then my sister, hardly a fan of this stuff, took a listen, enjoyed the first few tracks, and insisted I get this. T’was the only time she influenced a purchase of mine.
Far be it for Hypnotic to have a monopoly on wacky trance art that screams ‘90s, here’s Trance Trippin’ from DMC Records! No, not the prestigious DMC that holds annual DJ competitions - this DMC was a short-lived print out of Los Angeles that apparently peddled a fair bit of deep house before taking a chance on trance (it was growing popular by ’97). Also, don’t go confusing this with that early-‘90s Trance Trippin’ from ZYX Records, for cover notwithstanding this one is surprisingly decent. There’s a solid gathering of names on here, with everything mixed by that smoothest of jocks, DJ ProTools.
I also can’t tell whether Trance Trippin’ is bold or daft in its attempt at linking fluffy vocal trance with smashing goa and acid. Consider: DJ Dado’s Revenge and Qattara’s Come With Me are a couple of the opening tracks, while the set’s final volley features the ‘buttrock’ of S.U.N. Project’s At The Edge Of Time and deep tweakin’ 303 action of The Pump Panel’s Ego Acid. I don’t think even Oakenfold would have tried bridging the two wildly disparate sub-genres of trance, always keeping his goa indulgences well separated from any club friendly material. This CD done does it though, using a varied assortment of trance to get there, twenty-two tracks in total.
You get an early Ferry Corsten acid production with Pulp Victim’s I’m Losing Control, something that sounds like Brooklyn Bounce from Acidphase’s We Are Back, a little chemical breaks business with Solarstone’s The Calling (Inner Peace Mix), plus unabashed Sash! anthemage with 2 Lips’ Je T’Aime. A little further along, and DJ Scot Project’s Y (How Deep Is Your Love) offers the man’s cheeky ultra-build action, then the goa hits in with a Digital Blonde’s rub of Sandman’s Coimbra followed by Electric Universe’s Stardiver. Once the pummeling acid build of X-Cabs’ Neuro hits, you’ve likely long forgotten that Trance Trippin’ opened with Anomaly (Calling Your Name)!
Eh? These tracks all sound too disparate for a smooth flowing set? Well sure – it is a CD from 1997 after all, and ProTools can only do so much for you without some outside-the-box ingenuity. Trance Trippin’ doesn’t have that though, most tracks cutting in and out after three minutes of showtime, some transitions horribly clashing in key before quickly move on. Still, admirable effort for an obscure label jumping on a bandwagon. How did I get this anyway?
Funny story that! Forced to leave Vancouver and move back to the hinterlands, I knew once there I’d be without cool underground electronic music for a long time – my final purchase from the Lower Mainland had to count. Clearly Trance Trippin's cover art caught my attention, and seeing Atlantic Ocean’s The Cycle Of Life intrigued me, but I wasn’t sure about the rest. Then my sister, hardly a fan of this stuff, took a listen, enjoyed the first few tracks, and insisted I get this. T’was the only time she influenced a purchase of mine.
Monday, July 18, 2016
Various - Trance Traxx 2
Ouragan: 1995
The first trance compilation I owned, this one. Yeah, those Music Research showcases converted me, but for a year prior my allegiance to the trance camps wavered between the euro-dance armies. I definitely knew there was this neat genre out there, having also recently purchased albums from Dance 2 Trance and Jam & Spoon. Come to think of it, seeing a J&S cut on this CD was also an initial lure, the name ‘Jam El Mar’ quickly burning into my brain as someone to keep tabs on for dance tunes that tickled my earholes (B.G. Prince Of Rap hits helped bridge that gap). Super ‘90s CGI art didn’t hurt either.
As a proper foray to the world of trance, this was a decent introduction. The Jam & Spoon track on here is their twelve-minute classic anthem Follow Me, almost a microcosm of the various attributes the genre offered in its early years. It’s got the spacey, hypnotic start, the clap-along building middle, the big PLUR-gooey breakdown, and the blistering hard, acid race to the finish. Jam’s vintage sawwave synth pitch-bends are undoubtedly dated, but surely have achieved retro charm by now. Other ‘back-in-the-day’ highlights include Vernon’s chord-heavy Wonderer, Emmanual Top’s “black polished chrome” acid trip Turkish Bazar, and Atlantic Ocean’s spritely, bouncy Waterfall.
Wait, that last one’s house, isn’t it? You bet. In fact, the early portions of Trance Traxx 2 features a Crossover Part, highlighting tunes that kinda’-sorta’ fit the trance ethos, if not being the genre itself. This includes The Ethics’ La Luna (“beat of the drum, bang; beat of the drum, bang-bang!”), Nox Alba’s Mambo White (so Balearic!), and The O.T. Quartet’s Hold That Sucker Down (Builds Like A Skyscraper Mix). Yeah, this glorious slice of early Rollo at his Rolloiest could be considered trance, but folks were still calling this sound ‘anthem house’, or ‘progressive house’. Hey, whichever floats your boat.
The reason for such a section on this CD is Trance Traxx 2 offers itself as something of a minor-concept mix, with distinct parts fitting for a traditional journey set. There’s an Overture intro, which includes Suburban Knight’s The Art Of Stalking - yes, a Detroit techno guy opens a trance compilation! The middle path, titled The Awakening Part, goes through the various trance tunes Atoll Music was looking to peddle, while the final sprint christens itself as The Speed Part (it’s definitely that). Finally, a brief Ambient Outro featuring Moby’s Myopia, and a call-back to the intro to end off. Holy cow, even modern trance CDs don’t go that far with their concepts. Trance Traxx 2 must be mint, right?
Yeah, no. I’ve spotlighted all the good tunes, but the other half of this CD’s filled with generic toss-off and unremarkable no-namers (Klima? Speed Limit? Shape Shifter? DJ Eric?? Mobydic!?). And that ‘mix’ I mentioned? Barely existent, some tracks completely ending before the next begins. Trance Traxx 2 had so much potential, but is instead relegated to the bin of forgotten ‘90s CDs.
The first trance compilation I owned, this one. Yeah, those Music Research showcases converted me, but for a year prior my allegiance to the trance camps wavered between the euro-dance armies. I definitely knew there was this neat genre out there, having also recently purchased albums from Dance 2 Trance and Jam & Spoon. Come to think of it, seeing a J&S cut on this CD was also an initial lure, the name ‘Jam El Mar’ quickly burning into my brain as someone to keep tabs on for dance tunes that tickled my earholes (B.G. Prince Of Rap hits helped bridge that gap). Super ‘90s CGI art didn’t hurt either.
As a proper foray to the world of trance, this was a decent introduction. The Jam & Spoon track on here is their twelve-minute classic anthem Follow Me, almost a microcosm of the various attributes the genre offered in its early years. It’s got the spacey, hypnotic start, the clap-along building middle, the big PLUR-gooey breakdown, and the blistering hard, acid race to the finish. Jam’s vintage sawwave synth pitch-bends are undoubtedly dated, but surely have achieved retro charm by now. Other ‘back-in-the-day’ highlights include Vernon’s chord-heavy Wonderer, Emmanual Top’s “black polished chrome” acid trip Turkish Bazar, and Atlantic Ocean’s spritely, bouncy Waterfall.
Wait, that last one’s house, isn’t it? You bet. In fact, the early portions of Trance Traxx 2 features a Crossover Part, highlighting tunes that kinda’-sorta’ fit the trance ethos, if not being the genre itself. This includes The Ethics’ La Luna (“beat of the drum, bang; beat of the drum, bang-bang!”), Nox Alba’s Mambo White (so Balearic!), and The O.T. Quartet’s Hold That Sucker Down (Builds Like A Skyscraper Mix). Yeah, this glorious slice of early Rollo at his Rolloiest could be considered trance, but folks were still calling this sound ‘anthem house’, or ‘progressive house’. Hey, whichever floats your boat.
The reason for such a section on this CD is Trance Traxx 2 offers itself as something of a minor-concept mix, with distinct parts fitting for a traditional journey set. There’s an Overture intro, which includes Suburban Knight’s The Art Of Stalking - yes, a Detroit techno guy opens a trance compilation! The middle path, titled The Awakening Part, goes through the various trance tunes Atoll Music was looking to peddle, while the final sprint christens itself as The Speed Part (it’s definitely that). Finally, a brief Ambient Outro featuring Moby’s Myopia, and a call-back to the intro to end off. Holy cow, even modern trance CDs don’t go that far with their concepts. Trance Traxx 2 must be mint, right?
Yeah, no. I’ve spotlighted all the good tunes, but the other half of this CD’s filled with generic toss-off and unremarkable no-namers (Klima? Speed Limit? Shape Shifter? DJ Eric?? Mobydic!?). And that ‘mix’ I mentioned? Barely existent, some tracks completely ending before the next begins. Trance Traxx 2 had so much potential, but is instead relegated to the bin of forgotten ‘90s CDs.
Labels:
1995,
DJ Mix,
hard trance,
Ouragan,
progressive house,
techno,
trance
Saturday, July 16, 2016
Various - Trance To Planet X: Influence 3.3 (2016 Update)
Hypnotic: 1996
(Click here to read a bunch of words, words, and oh my God why are there so many words!?)
So this CD. Can I talk in one-fifth the words used compared to my first Trance To Planet X review? Holy cow, I used up two-hundred words just detailing the first track alone. Two-hundred, with two zeroes after the two! I don’t think I could talk up Phasis’ (Norman Feller!) Visitations to such a degree now even if I tried. Okay, if I was forced at gun point by some insane old-school TranceCritic fan, who felt we betrayed our original ethos in abandoning such tediously drawn-out reviews after a while, then I probably could. I wouldn’t enjoy it though, nosiree. Also, does such a person exist in this reality? I know it seems everything has at least some micro-insane fandom attached to it now, but surely not of Early TranceCritic writings. Surely… not…
I mentioned Trance To Planet X was the last of the Hypnotic’s Influence Records showcases, a shame because there was still a few more tracks in that library worth tapping for a fourth CD. Yes, despite the fact Omnicron’s The Bushmen was used twice between this compilation and the previous Influence 2.2. C’mon, Hypnotic, why no love for Komatsu’s Input Transformer? On the other hand, if I’m to judge Hypnotic’s catalog numbers correctly, it seems their partnership with Music Research and all their sub-labels was about at an end following Trance To Planet X. I spot no further cover art fronting the label’s iconic seal, and about the only further significant release of any Music Research material is the 3CD extravaganza/back-catalog dump of Musik Non Stop. A couple ‘albums’ of Komakino and Sunbeam material later, and that’s all she wrote for Hypnotic’s association with Talla 2XLC’s print. That Outloud Records partnership, on the other hand…
For anyone fearful of wading through two-hundred plus words per track in that old review, but would still enjoy a quick summation of what’s on Trance To Planet X, here we go. This is harder trance as only the Germans could do back in the mid-‘90s, with a whole lot of acid throughout. Sometimes an epic, spritely hook comes in, such as in Wave Shaping Age’s bleepy World In Trouble, Cyberjam’s funky Alphaflight and Morten’s spacey Hypnotizing. Other tracks forego anything resembling a hook, simply assaulting you with pummeling pulsing acid (Dermatologist’s Jupiter (Omm To The Stars)), chunky muddy bosh (Analog Communications’ Wave Generator) or ear-blistering noise (Artificial Flavor’s Deep Noizer). Audio Science shows you can have clever programming with your hyper-fast acid action in the eleven-minute long Sunstroke, while Judge S.’ Brainstorm is a fun bit of space-pulp gabber. Such an epic hook in that one!
Hey, that’s so much better to read, so let me end this all on another wonderful anecdote. Okay, more a factoid than anything. I let it known that Trance Europe 2.0 was a ‘trance-formative’ (*such groan*) compilation for yours truly, but I also bought this one alongside it. For some reason though, this one didn’t sink in quite so completely. Needed more Komakino, is what!
(Click here to read a bunch of words, words, and oh my God why are there so many words!?)
So this CD. Can I talk in one-fifth the words used compared to my first Trance To Planet X review? Holy cow, I used up two-hundred words just detailing the first track alone. Two-hundred, with two zeroes after the two! I don’t think I could talk up Phasis’ (Norman Feller!) Visitations to such a degree now even if I tried. Okay, if I was forced at gun point by some insane old-school TranceCritic fan, who felt we betrayed our original ethos in abandoning such tediously drawn-out reviews after a while, then I probably could. I wouldn’t enjoy it though, nosiree. Also, does such a person exist in this reality? I know it seems everything has at least some micro-insane fandom attached to it now, but surely not of Early TranceCritic writings. Surely… not…
I mentioned Trance To Planet X was the last of the Hypnotic’s Influence Records showcases, a shame because there was still a few more tracks in that library worth tapping for a fourth CD. Yes, despite the fact Omnicron’s The Bushmen was used twice between this compilation and the previous Influence 2.2. C’mon, Hypnotic, why no love for Komatsu’s Input Transformer? On the other hand, if I’m to judge Hypnotic’s catalog numbers correctly, it seems their partnership with Music Research and all their sub-labels was about at an end following Trance To Planet X. I spot no further cover art fronting the label’s iconic seal, and about the only further significant release of any Music Research material is the 3CD extravaganza/back-catalog dump of Musik Non Stop. A couple ‘albums’ of Komakino and Sunbeam material later, and that’s all she wrote for Hypnotic’s association with Talla 2XLC’s print. That Outloud Records partnership, on the other hand…
For anyone fearful of wading through two-hundred plus words per track in that old review, but would still enjoy a quick summation of what’s on Trance To Planet X, here we go. This is harder trance as only the Germans could do back in the mid-‘90s, with a whole lot of acid throughout. Sometimes an epic, spritely hook comes in, such as in Wave Shaping Age’s bleepy World In Trouble, Cyberjam’s funky Alphaflight and Morten’s spacey Hypnotizing. Other tracks forego anything resembling a hook, simply assaulting you with pummeling pulsing acid (Dermatologist’s Jupiter (Omm To The Stars)), chunky muddy bosh (Analog Communications’ Wave Generator) or ear-blistering noise (Artificial Flavor’s Deep Noizer). Audio Science shows you can have clever programming with your hyper-fast acid action in the eleven-minute long Sunstroke, while Judge S.’ Brainstorm is a fun bit of space-pulp gabber. Such an epic hook in that one!
Hey, that’s so much better to read, so let me end this all on another wonderful anecdote. Okay, more a factoid than anything. I let it known that Trance Europe 2.0 was a ‘trance-formative’ (*such groan*) compilation for yours truly, but I also bought this one alongside it. For some reason though, this one didn’t sink in quite so completely. Needed more Komakino, is what!
Friday, July 15, 2016
Various - Trance Sessions
Shadow Records: 2002
This CD doesn’t make sense. Not one small bit of sense. Barely a smidge of sanity is associated with it. How does Shadow Records, a label that built its reputation on trip-hop, jazzdance, and leftfield techno, throw its hat into the big ol’ trance-tastic PLUR-poodle? Trance Sessions isn’t some coy, smirking title, where trance is but a concept for exploring the hypnotic potential of deep spliff jams. Nay, this is full-blown, hands-in-the-air, gurn-off-your-face trance, with the gated pads and the acid lines and the supersaws and the off-beat basslines and the trite vo- no, wait, there are no vocals here. Okay, point to you, Shadow Records.
That still doesn’t explain why a label that broke DJ Krush and Ninja Tune to an American audience palled about with the trance scene. Heck, wasn’t their parent label, Instinct, still in operation anyway? They’d released some trancey material back in the early ‘90s, so why not again if they’re so intent on putting out a little trance? No, wait, Instinct was dabbling in indie rock at the time – that’d be an utterly bizarre clash of scenes right there. And while big-time trance money was being made by the British superclubs and globetrotting DJs, it wasn’t that popular in the States; plus the scene was in the midst of a recession as 2001 drew to a close. Ultimately, my best conjecture is, in accordance with Shadow’s other [Style] Sessions series of compilations, the label felt it only appropriate in giving the popular clubbing music a chance. They even went all-in with the concept, getting a continuous mix from Shawn Francis, and even inserting a tiny glowstick into the spine of the clear jewel case. Because if you’re gonna’ cheese out, you may as well own it full-stop, right?
Actually, Trance Sessions gets off on a surprisingly solid start. Things kick off with Afterhours from Alphazone. No, not the supersaw hard trance mongers everyone loved in the mid-‘00s; this one’s a solo project from a Brian Castro. His track’s also rather old-school, with floating Balearic vibes, gated choir pads, and the like. Two more remarkably old-school tracks for the time follow, from a chap by the name of Bluescreen (one Anthony Voitek… more on him at a later date). Explore has a minimalist MFS vibe going for it, while Razor gets all agro with a muted acid hook. Fourth cut Avalanche from Sentinel gets (then) current with a progressive trance tune that would have fit snuggly in an early Global Underground mix. Trance Sessions is shaping up as a nifty under-the-radar collection of trance.
Then it goes completely off the rails. Boshy tracks playing one after the other, hard crossfade slam negating any sense of flow, and tunes that just aren’t that good or memorable. Jan Dexter’s Believe sounds especially cheap compared to the stronger opening salvo. Cannot deny Masters Of Balance’s Long Way Home gets some Sash! charm going for it, but it’s not enough to rescue an abysmal back-end to Trance Sessions. Shame.
This CD doesn’t make sense. Not one small bit of sense. Barely a smidge of sanity is associated with it. How does Shadow Records, a label that built its reputation on trip-hop, jazzdance, and leftfield techno, throw its hat into the big ol’ trance-tastic PLUR-poodle? Trance Sessions isn’t some coy, smirking title, where trance is but a concept for exploring the hypnotic potential of deep spliff jams. Nay, this is full-blown, hands-in-the-air, gurn-off-your-face trance, with the gated pads and the acid lines and the supersaws and the off-beat basslines and the trite vo- no, wait, there are no vocals here. Okay, point to you, Shadow Records.
That still doesn’t explain why a label that broke DJ Krush and Ninja Tune to an American audience palled about with the trance scene. Heck, wasn’t their parent label, Instinct, still in operation anyway? They’d released some trancey material back in the early ‘90s, so why not again if they’re so intent on putting out a little trance? No, wait, Instinct was dabbling in indie rock at the time – that’d be an utterly bizarre clash of scenes right there. And while big-time trance money was being made by the British superclubs and globetrotting DJs, it wasn’t that popular in the States; plus the scene was in the midst of a recession as 2001 drew to a close. Ultimately, my best conjecture is, in accordance with Shadow’s other [Style] Sessions series of compilations, the label felt it only appropriate in giving the popular clubbing music a chance. They even went all-in with the concept, getting a continuous mix from Shawn Francis, and even inserting a tiny glowstick into the spine of the clear jewel case. Because if you’re gonna’ cheese out, you may as well own it full-stop, right?
Actually, Trance Sessions gets off on a surprisingly solid start. Things kick off with Afterhours from Alphazone. No, not the supersaw hard trance mongers everyone loved in the mid-‘00s; this one’s a solo project from a Brian Castro. His track’s also rather old-school, with floating Balearic vibes, gated choir pads, and the like. Two more remarkably old-school tracks for the time follow, from a chap by the name of Bluescreen (one Anthony Voitek… more on him at a later date). Explore has a minimalist MFS vibe going for it, while Razor gets all agro with a muted acid hook. Fourth cut Avalanche from Sentinel gets (then) current with a progressive trance tune that would have fit snuggly in an early Global Underground mix. Trance Sessions is shaping up as a nifty under-the-radar collection of trance.
Then it goes completely off the rails. Boshy tracks playing one after the other, hard crossfade slam negating any sense of flow, and tunes that just aren’t that good or memorable. Jan Dexter’s Believe sounds especially cheap compared to the stronger opening salvo. Cannot deny Masters Of Balance’s Long Way Home gets some Sash! charm going for it, but it’s not enough to rescue an abysmal back-end to Trance Sessions. Shame.
Thursday, July 14, 2016
Various - Trance Psyberdelic
Moonshine Music: 1997
Early Moonshine wasn’t much known for their trance output. Even their Psychotrance series leaned closer to the domain of techno than anything Germany was pumping out with abandon. That didn’t prevent the label from an occasional dip into the scene though, for when you brand yourself as an outlet that offers any and all genres under the raving sun, you’d best deliver even the most obscure ‘hard-hop’ and ‘trypno’. Right, I’ve no idea whether Moonshine deliberately branded themselves as such, though given the diversity of their early releases, they may as well have. It’s all part and parcel of that carefree California scene, where anything goes so long as the vibes stay alive.
As the Moontribe parties of the ‘90s were undoubtedly filled with raving crusties, you bet they had their share of acid and psy trance indulgences. One of Moonshine’s earliest compilation mini-series, Concept In Dance, dealt with the genre, and they kept dabbling with a CD or two in the following years. By 1997, psy trance was having something of a commercial and critical surge (thanks, Juno Reactor!), such that you’d find all manner of fractal cover art and Goa imagery plastered about the ‘electronica’ section of your major music shop. Naturally Moonshine was there to cash in, with DJ Brian premiering his Hardesertrance series, while also providing a Stateside release of Made On Earth from seminal psy print Blue Room Released. Oh, and this CD I’m supposed to be reviewing right now, that one too.
Trance Psyberdelic stands as an oddity in the Moonshine archives, a collection of psy that goes as deep into the dark DMT hole as any compilation of the time. There is a DMT hole, right? I don’t know, I’ve never done the stuff. Heard it’s one ca-ray-zee trip tho’!
Anyway, the cover art has a charming-tacky mid-‘90s CGI thing that seems more like a Hypnotic release, but there’s nothing cheesy about Trance Psyberdelic, presenting us with the ‘serious’ side of the scene. The music within comes from the likes of Prana, Slinky Wizard, Tristan, and Syb Unity Nettwerk, featuring tons of sci-fi lasers, hard-to-the-floor heady beats, acid-drenched acid, and nary a melody that’ll stay in your noggin after the CD finishes. Except Koxbox’ Stratosfearless, holy cow, for ten minutes they do such amazing, diverse things with an incredibly simple hook! Pete Martin, who also compiled the CD, crops up twice, first as U.X. with one-time Juno Reactor and Killing Joke member Kris Kylven (he’s also that Syb guy). Martin’s other, more familiar project of Slide, also appears. Yes, as in ‘Cass & Slide’. What, you didn’t know one of prog’s biggest darlings started out in the psy camps? Don’t worry, easy mistake, that.
Eh? Oh yeah, I did say Trance Psyberdelic doesn’t stick in the brain much after. It’s a fussy sort of psy, sounding fine as it plays, but lacking the soaring thrills this genre often has. Except that Koxbox cut, that’s fun!
Early Moonshine wasn’t much known for their trance output. Even their Psychotrance series leaned closer to the domain of techno than anything Germany was pumping out with abandon. That didn’t prevent the label from an occasional dip into the scene though, for when you brand yourself as an outlet that offers any and all genres under the raving sun, you’d best deliver even the most obscure ‘hard-hop’ and ‘trypno’. Right, I’ve no idea whether Moonshine deliberately branded themselves as such, though given the diversity of their early releases, they may as well have. It’s all part and parcel of that carefree California scene, where anything goes so long as the vibes stay alive.
As the Moontribe parties of the ‘90s were undoubtedly filled with raving crusties, you bet they had their share of acid and psy trance indulgences. One of Moonshine’s earliest compilation mini-series, Concept In Dance, dealt with the genre, and they kept dabbling with a CD or two in the following years. By 1997, psy trance was having something of a commercial and critical surge (thanks, Juno Reactor!), such that you’d find all manner of fractal cover art and Goa imagery plastered about the ‘electronica’ section of your major music shop. Naturally Moonshine was there to cash in, with DJ Brian premiering his Hardesertrance series, while also providing a Stateside release of Made On Earth from seminal psy print Blue Room Released. Oh, and this CD I’m supposed to be reviewing right now, that one too.
Trance Psyberdelic stands as an oddity in the Moonshine archives, a collection of psy that goes as deep into the dark DMT hole as any compilation of the time. There is a DMT hole, right? I don’t know, I’ve never done the stuff. Heard it’s one ca-ray-zee trip tho’!
Anyway, the cover art has a charming-tacky mid-‘90s CGI thing that seems more like a Hypnotic release, but there’s nothing cheesy about Trance Psyberdelic, presenting us with the ‘serious’ side of the scene. The music within comes from the likes of Prana, Slinky Wizard, Tristan, and Syb Unity Nettwerk, featuring tons of sci-fi lasers, hard-to-the-floor heady beats, acid-drenched acid, and nary a melody that’ll stay in your noggin after the CD finishes. Except Koxbox’ Stratosfearless, holy cow, for ten minutes they do such amazing, diverse things with an incredibly simple hook! Pete Martin, who also compiled the CD, crops up twice, first as U.X. with one-time Juno Reactor and Killing Joke member Kris Kylven (he’s also that Syb guy). Martin’s other, more familiar project of Slide, also appears. Yes, as in ‘Cass & Slide’. What, you didn’t know one of prog’s biggest darlings started out in the psy camps? Don’t worry, easy mistake, that.
Eh? Oh yeah, I did say Trance Psyberdelic doesn’t stick in the brain much after. It’s a fussy sort of psy, sounding fine as it plays, but lacking the soaring thrills this genre often has. Except that Koxbox cut, that’s fun!
Tuesday, July 12, 2016
Various - Trance On Earth: European Electronic Dreams
Hypnotic: 1995
Cleopatra Records set itself as a purveyor of most things industrial and goth, raiding the lands of Europa in search of distribution deals for American shores. Among these labels was Zoth Ommog, one of the seminal prints of Germany’s EBM scene, which is all kinds of bizarre when you consider trance tastemaker Talla 2XLC founded the print as an early part of his larger Music Research empire. He kept the ravey stuff on different sub-labels though, which Cleopatra must have had equal access to thanks to the Zoth Ommog deal, hence their early stabs at the ‘trance compilation’ market. I assume it worked out reasonably well for them (Hell, I bought two!), enough to establish this spin-off print Hypnotic, where they could distribute all that ecstasy-driven club music without alienating their harder, morose followers of the cybernetic revolution. Or whatever it was the gothic EBM crowds identified themselves as in the early ‘90s.
I’m almost certain this is information I’ve discussed in previous reviews, but I bring it up again to put Trance On Earth: European Electronic Dreams into perspective, this little CD among the first in launching Hypnotic. Most of the earliest Hypnotic releases were album re-issues for the likes of Ynos (Komakino), Synaesthesia (Frontline Assembly/Delerium), and Norman (Terry Lee Brown, Jr.), but with so many acts on Suck Me Plasma only doing the EP deed, the label instead brought them over via a tsunami of trance and ambient compilations. If you think what I have in my collection is a bit much, check out the entire Hypnotic catalog from 1996 alone.
As one of the first Hypnotic trance compilations, Trance On Earth is also either one of the best, or one of the most redundant, depending on how many other Hypnotic CDs you have. The Suck Me Plasma pickings were plumb for these initial discs though, many big hits of German hard trance finding their way here. Sunbeam’s two breakout singles make the cut, and though I’ve got a whole LP of early Sunbeam, I’ve no problem hearing Outside World or High Adventure again. Komakino’s ultra-uplifting Feel The Melodee (Technoclub Mix) is also on here, as is another of those seminal ‘galloping choir pad’ trance anthems in Aqualite’s Outback. Really, Trance On Earth is primarily made up of such tunes, including D-Lay’s The Dreamer, plus one-offers Infusion Impulse’s Paralyser and Lesamis’ No More Worry, though only D-Lay’s tune holds its own against the aforementioned classics.
Filling out the hind-sighted ‘redundant’ portions of Trance On Earth are Semisphere’s acid-drenched Raveaktiv, Cenobyte’s sinister Destination, and D-Lay’s ultra PLUR-gooey Don’t Stop The Motion, all which appeared in some fashion on the latter 3CD Hypnotic release Musik Non Stop. The remaining stand-alone is closer Tuna from Norman, sounding more stripped back, minimalist, and groovy compared to all the hard trance on here. It’s almost as though Mr. Feller’s coming up with a fresh new genre, combining house and techno, a ‘garage-tek’ thing, if you will. Nah, that’ll never catch on.
Cleopatra Records set itself as a purveyor of most things industrial and goth, raiding the lands of Europa in search of distribution deals for American shores. Among these labels was Zoth Ommog, one of the seminal prints of Germany’s EBM scene, which is all kinds of bizarre when you consider trance tastemaker Talla 2XLC founded the print as an early part of his larger Music Research empire. He kept the ravey stuff on different sub-labels though, which Cleopatra must have had equal access to thanks to the Zoth Ommog deal, hence their early stabs at the ‘trance compilation’ market. I assume it worked out reasonably well for them (Hell, I bought two!), enough to establish this spin-off print Hypnotic, where they could distribute all that ecstasy-driven club music without alienating their harder, morose followers of the cybernetic revolution. Or whatever it was the gothic EBM crowds identified themselves as in the early ‘90s.
I’m almost certain this is information I’ve discussed in previous reviews, but I bring it up again to put Trance On Earth: European Electronic Dreams into perspective, this little CD among the first in launching Hypnotic. Most of the earliest Hypnotic releases were album re-issues for the likes of Ynos (Komakino), Synaesthesia (Frontline Assembly/Delerium), and Norman (Terry Lee Brown, Jr.), but with so many acts on Suck Me Plasma only doing the EP deed, the label instead brought them over via a tsunami of trance and ambient compilations. If you think what I have in my collection is a bit much, check out the entire Hypnotic catalog from 1996 alone.
As one of the first Hypnotic trance compilations, Trance On Earth is also either one of the best, or one of the most redundant, depending on how many other Hypnotic CDs you have. The Suck Me Plasma pickings were plumb for these initial discs though, many big hits of German hard trance finding their way here. Sunbeam’s two breakout singles make the cut, and though I’ve got a whole LP of early Sunbeam, I’ve no problem hearing Outside World or High Adventure again. Komakino’s ultra-uplifting Feel The Melodee (Technoclub Mix) is also on here, as is another of those seminal ‘galloping choir pad’ trance anthems in Aqualite’s Outback. Really, Trance On Earth is primarily made up of such tunes, including D-Lay’s The Dreamer, plus one-offers Infusion Impulse’s Paralyser and Lesamis’ No More Worry, though only D-Lay’s tune holds its own against the aforementioned classics.
Filling out the hind-sighted ‘redundant’ portions of Trance On Earth are Semisphere’s acid-drenched Raveaktiv, Cenobyte’s sinister Destination, and D-Lay’s ultra PLUR-gooey Don’t Stop The Motion, all which appeared in some fashion on the latter 3CD Hypnotic release Musik Non Stop. The remaining stand-alone is closer Tuna from Norman, sounding more stripped back, minimalist, and groovy compared to all the hard trance on here. It’s almost as though Mr. Feller’s coming up with a fresh new genre, combining house and techno, a ‘garage-tek’ thing, if you will. Nah, that’ll never catch on.
Monday, July 11, 2016
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.
(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.
Sunday, July 10, 2016
EDM Weekly World News, December 2013
Little behind in my TRANCE! journey, so here's another classic bit of gossipy news reporting, filled with commentary, thinkpieces, and debates on the state of the scene. Only the most detailed analysis with this rag, by g'ar.
Seriously, are we still on this shit?
Seriously, are we still on this shit?
Friday, July 8, 2016
Ambelion - Trance Experience
JRC/Offshoot Records: 2006/2016
When Psychonavigation Records promises electronic music on a retro bent, I’d never have believed that’d include honest-to-God ‘90s trance. Who even makes this stuff anymore? None of the so-called vanguards of the genre, that’s for sure. This isn’t one of those ‘neo-trance’ things either, where a techno producer makes techno with looping, hypnotic arps and minor-key pads. Ambelion’s crafted a collection of tracks with sounds straight from the vaults of Paul van Dyk, from the exhibits of Eye-Q, from the museum of MFS, and nothing form the ditches of Dutchiness. This album is such a throwback, I think my spinal column snapped.
From the opening track Cyber Sky, if your old-school nostalgia triggers aren’t flashing from hearing that off-beat bassline and vintage Lieb klaxon call, you may as well skip out on Trance Experience altogether. No, wait, come back here damn it; you’re gonna’ get yourself some knowledge, son. Second track Your Flower is more of a techno cut with Balearic soundscapes, but such was enough to get the trance tag on any number of compilations back in the day, so it’s all good. Third cut Space Work comes straight from the lab of Ima-era BT, while fourth jam Effects Of Stars gets in on that uptempo van Dyk business. Boy, am I breezing through these tracks so fast. I know my detailing of music’s grown concise over the years, but this is as though each cut is super short or something. Oh indeed they are, seldom breaking even the five minute mark! What kind of trance lasts only four minutes?
Radio edits for one, but these don’t come off like that. Rather, each tune gets right to the action, doesn’t dawdle with DJ friendly intros or outros, and only uses breakdowns as a lull, forgoing the use of build-ups altogether. Wow, this really is retro trance! Unfortunately, this also leads to a very bite-sized experience of an album, running barely forty minutes long. Once it becomes apparent these tracks aren’t gonna’ develop much beyond their base components, the nostalgia wears thin and I feel the need to reach for a lengthy Spicelab excursion for a proper meal. The feel is definitely there, but ultimately Trance Experience is but an appetizer of the genre.
Still, gotta’ give some credit to Ambelion for having a stab at something like this, and especially Psychonavigation Records for even giving a throwback trance album a chance. What else has this Aleksandr Kovalenko done? *does the Discogs Digging Dance – it’s highly effective* Oh, wow, Ambelion’s made quite a few albums these past fifteen years, of all sorts of genres across at least a half-dozen labels. House, ambient, acid techno, including an ongoing series called Retro View. Seems this excursion into trance was just a one-off lark for Ambelion though, a lone entry on the Ukrainian print JRC… from 2006. Wait, Trance Experience is a ten year old album of twenty year old trance? Of all the obscure reissues Psychonavigation’s done, this one beats all.
When Psychonavigation Records promises electronic music on a retro bent, I’d never have believed that’d include honest-to-God ‘90s trance. Who even makes this stuff anymore? None of the so-called vanguards of the genre, that’s for sure. This isn’t one of those ‘neo-trance’ things either, where a techno producer makes techno with looping, hypnotic arps and minor-key pads. Ambelion’s crafted a collection of tracks with sounds straight from the vaults of Paul van Dyk, from the exhibits of Eye-Q, from the museum of MFS, and nothing form the ditches of Dutchiness. This album is such a throwback, I think my spinal column snapped.
From the opening track Cyber Sky, if your old-school nostalgia triggers aren’t flashing from hearing that off-beat bassline and vintage Lieb klaxon call, you may as well skip out on Trance Experience altogether. No, wait, come back here damn it; you’re gonna’ get yourself some knowledge, son. Second track Your Flower is more of a techno cut with Balearic soundscapes, but such was enough to get the trance tag on any number of compilations back in the day, so it’s all good. Third cut Space Work comes straight from the lab of Ima-era BT, while fourth jam Effects Of Stars gets in on that uptempo van Dyk business. Boy, am I breezing through these tracks so fast. I know my detailing of music’s grown concise over the years, but this is as though each cut is super short or something. Oh indeed they are, seldom breaking even the five minute mark! What kind of trance lasts only four minutes?
Radio edits for one, but these don’t come off like that. Rather, each tune gets right to the action, doesn’t dawdle with DJ friendly intros or outros, and only uses breakdowns as a lull, forgoing the use of build-ups altogether. Wow, this really is retro trance! Unfortunately, this also leads to a very bite-sized experience of an album, running barely forty minutes long. Once it becomes apparent these tracks aren’t gonna’ develop much beyond their base components, the nostalgia wears thin and I feel the need to reach for a lengthy Spicelab excursion for a proper meal. The feel is definitely there, but ultimately Trance Experience is but an appetizer of the genre.
Still, gotta’ give some credit to Ambelion for having a stab at something like this, and especially Psychonavigation Records for even giving a throwback trance album a chance. What else has this Aleksandr Kovalenko done? *does the Discogs Digging Dance – it’s highly effective* Oh, wow, Ambelion’s made quite a few albums these past fifteen years, of all sorts of genres across at least a half-dozen labels. House, ambient, acid techno, including an ongoing series called Retro View. Seems this excursion into trance was just a one-off lark for Ambelion though, a lone entry on the Ukrainian print JRC… from 2006. Wait, Trance Experience is a ten year old album of twenty year old trance? Of all the obscure reissues Psychonavigation’s done, this one beats all.
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Original TranceCritic review
Origo Sound
Orkidea
Orla Wren
Ornament
Ostgut Ton
Ott
Ottsonic Music
Ouragan
Out Of The Box
OutKast
Outmosphere Records
Outpost Records
Overdream
Owl
P-Ben
Pale Glow
Paleowolf
Pan Sonic
Pantera
Pantha Du Prince
Paolo Mojo
Parental Advisory
Parlaphone
Part-Sub-Merged
Pascal F.E.O.S.
Past Inside The Present
Patreon
Patrick Dream
Paul Moelands
Paul Oakenfold
Paul van Dyk
Pendulum
Pentatonik
Perfect Stranger
Perfecto
Perturbator
Pet Shop Boys
Petar Dundov
Pete Namlook
Pete Tong
Peter Andersson
Peter Benisch
Peter Broderick
Peter Gabriel
Peter Tosh
Phantogram
Phonothek
Photek
Phutureprimitive
Phynn
PIAS Recordings
Pinch
Pink Floyd
Pioneer
Pitch Black
PJ Harvey
Plaid
Planet Dog
Planet Earth Recordings
Planet Mu
Planetary Assault Systems
Planetary Consciousness
Plastic City
Plastikman
Platinum
Platipus
Pleq
Plump DJs
Plunderphonic
Plus 8 Records
PM Dawn
Poker Flat Recordings
Polar Seas Recordings
Pole Folder
politics
Polydor
Polytel
pop
Popular Records
Porya Hatami
positivesource
post-dubstep
post-punk
power electronics
Prince
Prince Paul
Prins Thomas
Priority Records
Private Mountain
Procs
Profondita
prog
prog metal
prog psy
prog rock
prog-psy
progress house
Progression
progressive breaks
progressive house
progressive rock
progressive trance
Prolifica
Proper Records
Prototype Recordings
protoU
Pryda
psy chill
psy dub
Psy Spy Records
psy trance
psy-chill
psy-dub
psychedelia
Psychick Warriors Ov Gaia
Psychomanteum
Psychonavigation
Psychonavigation Records
Psycoholic
Psykosonik
Psysolation
Public Enemy
Pulse-8 Records
punk
punk rock
Pureuphoria Records
Purl
Purple Soil
Push
PWL International
Q-Burns Abstract Message
Quadrophonia
Quality
Quango
Quantic
Quantum
Quinlan Road
R & S Records
R'n'B
R&B
Ra
Rabbit In The Moon
Radio Slave
Radioactive
Radioactive Man
Radiohead
Rae
Raekwon
ragga
Rainbow Vector
raison d'etre
Raja Ram
Ralf Hildenbeutel
Ralph Lawson
RAM Records
Randal Collier-Ford
Random Review
Rank 1
rant
Rapoon
RareNoise Records
Ras Command
Rascalz
Raster-Noton
Ratatat
Raum Records
rave
RCA
React
Rebecca & Nathan
Recycle Or Die
Red Fog
Red Jerry
Redman
Refracted
reggae
ReKaB
REKIDS
remixes
Renaissance
Renaissance Man
Rephlex
Reprise Records
Republic Records
Res
Resist Music
Restless Records
RetroSynther
Reverse Alignment
Reverse Pulse
Rhino Records
Rhys Fulber
Ricardo Villalobos
Richard Durand
Richard Stonefield
Riley Reinhold
Ringo Sheena
Rising High Records
RnB
Roadrunner Records
Robert Hood
Robert Miles
Robert Oleysyck
Robert Rich
Roc Raida
rock
rock opera
rockabilly
rocktronica
Roger Sanchez
ROIR
Rollo
Roman Ridder
Rough Trade
Rub-N-Tug
Ruben Garcia
Rudy Adrian
Ruffhouse Records
Rumour Records
Running Back
Ruptured World
Ruthless Records
RX-101
Rykodisc
RZA
S.E.T.I.
Saafi Brothers
Sabled Sun
Sacred Seeds
SadGirl
Saitoh Tomohiro
Sakanaction
Salt Tank
Salted Music
Salvation Music
Samim
Samora
sampling
Samurai Red Seal
Sanctuary Records
Sander van Doorn
Sandoz
Sandwell District
SantAAgostino
Saphileaum
Sarah McLachlan
Sash
Sasha
Saul Stokes
Scandinavian Records
Scann-Tec
sci-fi
Science
Scooter
Scott Grooves
Scott Hardkiss
Scott Stubbs
Scuba
Seán Quinn
Seaworthy
Segue
Sense
Sentimony Records
Sequential
Seraphim Rytm
Setrise
Seven Davis Jr.
Sghor
sgnl_fltr
Shackleton
Shaded Explorations
Shaded Explorer
Shadow Records
Sharam
Shawn Francis
shoegaze
Shpongle
Shuta Yasukochi
Si Matthews
Side Effects
SideOneDummy Records
Sidereal
Signature Records
SiJ
Silent Season
Silent Universe
Silentes
Silentes Minimal Editions
Silicone Soul
silly gimmicks
Silver Age
Simian Mobile Disco
Simon Berry
Simon Heath
Simon Posford
Simon Scott
Simple Records
Sinden
Sine Silex
single
Single Gun Theory
Sire Records Company
Six Degrees
Sixeleven Records
Sixtoo
ska
Skanfrom
Skare
Skin To Skin
Skua Atlantic
Slaapwel Records
Slam
Sleep Research Facility
Slinky Music
Slowcraft Records
Sly and Robbie
Smalltown Supersound
SME Visual Works Inc.
SMTG Limited
Snap
Sneijder
Snoop Dogg
Snowy Tension Pole
soft rock
Soiree Records International
Solar Fields
Solaris Recordings
Solarstone
Soleilmoon Recordings
Solieb
Solieb Digital
Solipsism
Soliquid
Solstice Music Europe
Solvent
Soma Quality Recordings
Songbird
Sony Music Entertainment
SOS
soul
Soul Temple Entertainment
soul:r
Souls Of Mischief
Sound Of Ceres
Sound Synthesis
Soundgarden
Sounds From The Ground
soundtrack
southern rap
southern rock
space ambient
Space Dimension Controller
space disco
Space Manoeuvres
space music
space synth
Spacetime Continuum
Spaghetti Recordings
Spank Rock
Special D
Specta Ciera
speed garage
Speedy J
SPG Music
Sphäre Sechs
Spicelab
Spielerei
Spinefarm Records
Spiritech
spoken word
Sport
Spotify Suggestions
Spotted Peccary
Spring Hill
SPX Digital
Spy vs Spice
Squarepusher
Squaresoft
Stacey Pullen
Stanton Warriors
Star Trek
Stardust
Statrax
Stay Up Forever
Stealth Sonic Recordings
Stephanie B
Stephen Kroos
Stereo Raptor
Stereolab
Steve Angello
Steve Brand
Steve Lawler
Steve Miller Band
Steve Porter
Steven Rutter
Stijn van Cauter
Stimulus Timbre
Stone Temple Pilots
Stonebridge
Stormloop
Stray Gators
Street Fighter
Stuart McLean
Studio K7
Stylophonic
Sub Focus
Subharmonic
Sublime
Sublime Porte Netlabel
Subotika
Substance
Subtle Shift
Suction Records
Suduaya
Suicide Squeeze
SUN Project
Sun Station
Sunbeam
Sunday Best Recordings
Sunscreem
Suntrip Records
Supercar
Superstition
surf rock
Susumu Yokota
Sven van Hees
Sven Väth
SVLBRD
Swayzak
Sweet Trip
swing
Switch
Swollen Members
Sykonee Survey
Sylk 130
Symmetry
Synaptic Voyager
Sync24
Synergy
Synkro
synth pop
synth-pop
synthwave
System 7
Taboo
Tactic Records
Take Me To The Hospital
Tall Paul
Tammy Wynette
Tangerine Dream
Tau Ceti
Taylor
Taylor Deupree
Tayo
tech house
Tech Itch Digital
Tech Itch Recordings
tech-house
tech-step
tech-trance
Technical Itch
techno
technobass
Technoboy
Tectonic
Telefon Tel Aviv
Telstar
Terminal Antwerp
Terra Ferma
Terror Cell
Terry Lee Brown Jr
Tetsu Inoue
Textere Oris
The 13th Sign
The Angling Loser
The B-52's
The Beach Boys
The Beatles
The Black Dog
The Boats
The Brian Jonestown Massacre
The Bug
The Chemical Brothers
The Circular Ruins
The Clash
The Council
The Cranberries
The Crystal Method
The Digital Blonde
The Dust Brothers
The Field
The Frozen Vaults
The Gentle People
The Glimmers
The Green Kingdom
The Grey Area
The Grid
The Hacker
The Herbaliser
The Human League
The Irresistible Force
The KLF
The Micronauts
The Misted Muppet
The Movement
The Music Cartel
The Null Corporation
The Oak Ridge Boys
The Offspring
The Orb
The Police
The Prodigy
The Real McCoy
The Roots
The Sabres Of Paradise
The Shamen
The Sharp Boys
The Sonic Voyagers
The Squires
The Stills-Young Band
The Stray Gators
The Tea Party
The Tragically Hip
The Velvet Underground
The Wailers
The White Stripes
The Winterhouse
themes
Thievery Corporation
Third Contact
Third World
Tholen
Thrive Records
Tiefschwarz
Tierro Cosmico
Tiësto
Tiga
Tiger & Woods
Tijuana Panthers
Timbaland
Time Life Music
Time Warp
Timecode
Timestalker
Tineidae
Tipper
Tobias
Tocadisco
Todd Terje
Toki Fuko
Tom Middleton
Tom Tom Club
Tomas Jirku
Tomita
Tommy '86
Tommy Boy
Ton T.B.
Tone Depth
Tony Anderson Sound Orchestra
Too Pure
Tool
tools
Topaz
Tosca
Toto
Touch
Touched
Tourette Records
Toxik Synther
Tracing Xircles
Traffic Entertainment Group
trance
Trancelucent
Tranquillo Records
Trans'Pact
Transcend
Transformers
Transient Records
trap
Trax Records
Trend
Trentemøller
Tresor
tribal
Tricky
Triloka Records
trip-hop
Triquetra
Trishula Records
Tristan
Troum
Troy Pierce
TRS Records
Tru Thoughts
Tsuba Records
Tsubasa Records
Tuff Gong
Tunnel Records
Turbo Recordings
turntablism
TUU
TVT Records
Twisted Records
Type O Negative
Týr
U-God
U-Recken
U2
U4IC DJs
Ãœberzone
Ugasanie
UK acid house
UK Garage
UK Hard House
Ultimae Records
Ultra Records
Umbra
Underworld
Union Jack
United Dairies
United DJs Of America
United Recordings
Universal Motown
Universal Music
Universal Records
Universal Republic Records
UNKLE
Unknown Tone Records
Unusual Cosmic Process
UOVI
Upstream Records
Urban Icon Records
Urban Meditation
Utada Hikaru
V2
Vagrant Records
Valanx
Valiska
Valley Of The Sun
Vangelis
Vap
VAST
Vector Lovers
Venetian Snares
Venonza Records
Vermont
Vernon
Versatile Records
Verus Records
Verve Records
VGM
Vibrant Music
Vice Records
Victor Calderone
Victor Entertainment
Vidna Obmana
Viking metal
Vince DiCola
Vinyl Cafe Productions
Virgin
Virtual Vault
Virus Recordings
Visionquest
Visions
Vitalic
vocal trance
Vortex
Voxxov Records
Voyage
Wagram Music
Waki
Wanderwelle
Warmth
Warner Bros. Records
Warp Records
Warren G
Water Music Dance
Wave Recordings
Wave Records
Waveform
Waveform Records
Wax Trax Records
Way Out West
WC
WEA
Wednesday Campanella
Weekend Players
Weekly Mini-Review
Werk Discs
Werkstatt Recordings
WestBam
Westside Connection
White Cloud
White Swan Records
Wichita
Wiggle
Will Saul
William Orbit
Willie Nelson
Wintersun
world beat
world music
writing reflections
Wrong Records
Wu-Tang Clan
Wurrm
Wyatt Keusch
Xerxes The Dark
XL Recordings
XTT Recordings
Yahgan
Yamaoka
Yello
Yes
Ylid
Youth
Youtube
YoYo Records
Yul Records
zakè
Zenith
ZerO One
Zoharum
Zomby
Zoo Entertainment
ZTT
Zyron
ZYX Music
µ-Ziq