Merry Christmas

Anjunabeats Volume 10 - Official Launch Party New York

On Saturday 16 February, we celebrate the upcoming release of Anjunabeats Volume 10 compilation with a show at Roseland Ballroom, New York.

We can't wait to return after the amazing time we had playing at Electric Zoo on the Main Stage and hosting our own Group Therapy Arena. We will once again be bringing some of your favourite Anjunabeats artists to join us in New York, so keep an eye on our Facebook & twitter for announcements.

New York has always been a great place for us to play and Roseland holds some brilliant memories for us so we can't wait to return. With this party being our 'Anjunabeats Volume 10' launch, we've got lots of unreleased material from our label family which we're looking forward to playing. The compilation itself will feature 30 unreleased tracks from artists like Above & Beyond, Arty, Andrew Bayer, Jaytech, Norin & Rad and Kyau & Albert.

Trance.FM Yearmixes 2012 Line-up Exposed !

How can a year of brilliant Trance.FM be better ended than with its end of the year festival; the Trance.FM Yearmixes 2012. Also this year, its founder André Berger and the TFM DJs are proud to present to you 3 days of epic madness.

Starting the 28th of December at 9 pm CET and reaching all the way to 9 am on the 31st of December, no less than 61 DJs will be presenting to you their very best tunes in their one hour specials.

Don't miss this epic event, of course only on www.trance.fm!

Nexus 2: Trance Lead Expansion

Nexus 2: Trance Lead Expansion

Trance Leads follows in the footsteps of the wildly popular HandsUp Leads expansion. Dedicated to delivering 100% pure lead sounds for Progressive and Melodic Trance, you can be sure to find the main hook for your track here! Wide saw and square leads, fine plucked sounds, chords and lead bass lines; it’s all here!

ASOT600 Mumbai Line-up Exposed !

Little by little, the puzzle pieces for the massive A State of Trance 600 world tour fall into place. On Saturday March 16th, The Expedition will land in Mumbai – India. And it won’t be just Armin who’ll be visiting the incredible Bombay Harbor, the stunning Elephanta Caves or the Gateway of India. Tonight on ASOT, Armin revealed the line-up for ASOT600 in Mumbai.

Next to Armin van Buuren, the people of Mumbai will get to enjoy the sounds of Egyptian duo Aly & Fila, Canada’s Arnej, Dutch duo Rank 1 and American DJ Shogun! All nationalities unite, making sure to turn the world into a dance floor!

Be there! Get your tickets for ASOT600 in Mumbai right Here!
 

Line-up ASOT600 Mumbai:

Aly & Fila
Armin van Buuren
Arnej
Rank 1
Shogun

Paul Oakenfold – DJ Box – Best Of 2012

With more than 30 years of experience in the music business and DJ industry, Paul Oakenfold is a living legend. The label-owner of the unrivalled Perfecto label now presents his ‘Best of 2012’ selection. After serving his favourite tunes each month with the successful DJ Box series, the ‘Best of’ edition presents tunes by the likes of Cold Blue, Antillas, Matt Nash, John O’Callaghan, Tom Fall & Ben Nicky and of course Paul Oakenfold himself! A must-have!

Tracks:

1. Antillas feat. Fiora - Damaged (Breaks Mix) (02:51)
2. Richard Beynon & Yanik Coen - Metronome (Original Mix) (07:03)
3. Matt Nash - Close Your Eyes (Original Mix) (05:17)
4. Cold Blue - Coconut (Original Mix) (07:07)
5. Poncho feat. Paul Oakenfold & Maxi Trusso - Please Me (Paul Oakenfold Remix) (06:20)
6. Will Atkinson presents Darkboy - Darker Shades Of Black (Blazer Remix) (05:43)
7. Tom Fall & Ben Nicky - Hammer (Original Mix) (06:06)
8. Solarstone feat. Alex Karweit - Breakaway (Solarstone's Phuture Mix) (09:12)
9. Paul Oakenfold - Full Moon Party (Thomas Datt Remix) (08:11)
10. John O'Callaghan feat. Audrey Gallagher - Big Sky (Ben Gold Festival Remix) (06:54)
11. Paul Oakenfold - Come Together (Original Mix) (07:57)

Darren Tate: Production Tips

Dance music is based on repetition — and if you are repeating something, you've got to make sure it's something that's not just likeable. You want to have something that gives you goosebumps, that raises the hairs on the back of your neck. The most important and significant parts, for me, are the chord structure and the melodic elements. It's got to be something that people get straight away, something that has that right feeling from the word go. Sometimes you get an element of that, but the melody can be overly complicated. If you're doing dance music, it's got to be quite straightforward. So take your mix and play it to people. They're not necessarily the best judges, but a good uplifting piece of music will generally get a good reaction from a lot of people on first listen.

Arrangement is all about anticipation. You can listen to a record you've never heard before, and still instinctively feel when certain things are going to happen, because the music gives you clues. So getting that right is the key. In the club context you're doing it in terms of a seven or eight-minute 12-inch mix, and from a radio mentality point of view it's within a three-and-a-half-minute framework. I usually start by thinking about the 12-inch arrangement: if it doesn't work as a 12-inch, it just doesn't work.

It's about the different elements you can put in. You start off slow with simple elements, and you build up. If you want more emphasis going from one section into another, you might drop just the bass in a fill, or the kick and the bass, and when it kicks back in again, there's a little bit more emphasis. Snare rolls are famous for obvious build-ups, as is taking a piece of white noise and filtering it to create a 'whoosh', or using sound effects. You can create your own or use libraries. You can filter sounds. For example, I've got a big, warm Moog pad here, and I'll open the filter to suggest there's something coming up, or when there's a verse playing and I just want it more thumping it might be filtered down. And then there's obviously the natural rhythmic things that a drummer would play, like a crash on the first beat of the bar.

When you've got those things in the right order, it's just a case of how long you extend the track out for before it feels right to bring in a breakdown, or how long it feels right to have a breakdown for, or how long a build-up is right for. That is purely based on listening to the record and thinking what feels right. It's very hard to have a rule of thumb.

In trance records you usually get one breakdown or two. The classic 'hands in the air' moment in trance is usually the breakdown, and then it builds and builds and builds. House music is more consistent, it's about playing with the constituent parts and bringing them in and out. It still drops basses and kicks, but it's not so much about big anthemic drops and huge builds, it's more subtle. It's very much about chopping up certain elements. So not only might you have a four-bar phrase, but you'd take the first two bars and repeat that, and screw with the mix of that, and then create a build by using filters and using additional drums and then kicking in again.

Fresh stuff and fresh sounds help you write melodies and create ideas. Go down to a music shop, play around on all the keyboards and listen to all the new stuff, and you'll find yourself inspired to do something.

The most important thing is to have a degree of originality. I get inundated with records that are basically the same thing. We need to be making the most of technology to get the most effective results, and the great thing about it is that you can experiment with it and create sounds and noises and effects that set your record apart, that give it something fresh and new. On top of having your melodies right and your arrangement and production, you've got to come up with something fresh too.

I'll start playing around with different sounds, but in the context of an idea I have in my head. The normal rule is, I've got the melody or I've got the chords, I've got an idea. I would either have found the sound first, in line with those chords, or I'll have the chords and I'll think to myself 'Right, I need an angle here.' For example, my current record is 'The Sun Is Shining Down On Me'. I had the idea of doing a trance record with a soulful male vocal. The regular thing is white female vocals, but I don't like doing the regular thing, I like to do something a bit different. And I later reinvented the record by bringing in instrumentalists, live bass and everything else, and turned it into a house record. But I had the idea to do that in the first place, and it worked.

If I'm doing a trance record or a Trance track, I'll have a template set up in Logic. I'll have a set of basic MIDI drum patterns which gets me into the flow of things. They're the basic building blocks. It'll be your standard 909-ish kick, your standard closed hats, the same kind of kit that everyone is using. If it's house, I've got a slightly different set of samples that I like — different snares, more realistic samples, more heavily compressed sounds to give it a bit more bite and edge. That's when I'll start doing the chords and things and get into the flow of it with the idea in mind.

Then I start building up the arrangement. What I tend to do is work on a four- or eight-bar section originally, rather than just go 'Oh, I like that,' and lay it out for eight minutes. I'll just layer down the chords and the sounds, and then start finding the right sounds and putting together elements of track that I like. I keep building the track up and tweaking the different elements. I get a little section up and running and sounding good, and then I'll probably start putting the arrangement together at that stage.

The point about being a cutting-edge dance producer is not just producing something, it's producing it really, really well. It's making everything sound fantastic. I can mix down a dance track and make it sound like a pop track and it will sound crap in a club. It will sound very nice and pleasant, but it won't sound thumping and banging, and the sounds won't jump out at me, and it won't be doing enough — but with that kind of record, you need it to do that. Whereas if I produce a pop-house track, it's much more of a toned-down sound, there's not such an emphasis on blasting certain frequencies and creating noise at certain levels. It's about creating an effective radio record, which is not so extreme musically.

Another key thing is knowing when it doesn't work. I start umpteen tracks where people go 'That's really good, I really like that' — and I'll still scrap them. For me, they're still not good enough, because all those elements aren't quite right.

What you must do is listen to your gut instinct. In the old days I never used to be able to mix properly, because I had no acoustic treatment, and it was like monitoring in a cave. I used to do the arrangements at home and then hire other studios to mix. And what I found was that I was hiring these studios and listening to the engineers, and they were going 'Right, you want that, and you shouldn't be doing that...' and I'd take my track away and think 'How come this sounds even worse than when I was doing it in my stinking setup at home?' I started realising that when I was in these studios, my gut instinct wasn't necessarily agreeing with what the engineer was saying, and I started saying 'No, this is how this track has got to sound.' And that made all the difference. As you listen to it in a correct acoustically treated environment, you start to develop that ear that lets you recognise when something sounds great or doesn't. When I started hearing things in a proper environment was when I realised I could do this myself.

I don't want to hear any rubbish going on in the room, I just want to hear what's coming out of the speakers. I did all the treatment in here myself, and originally there weren't enough panels on the wall, and I kept putting more and more on. I like the sound quite dead. But because it's slightly coffin-shaped it's quite good, because you get the sub-bass sitting at the back like in a normal studio, and you can get quite a realistic impression of the bass response. If I really want to hear the lowest frequencies I've got my Quested 3208s. I don't need the sub, they're so heavy as they are. You can sit at the back and listen and it'll sound fine on the NS10s, because they only register so low, but you listen to the 3208s and suddenly you'll hear this huge frequency that you wouldn't have heard. You won't have realised how boomy it is until you hear it on a monitor that has that bandwidth.

What you have to do is get your sounds right in the first place, and then take it from there. I remember going to Turnkey years ago and saying 'I can't get my mixes to sound like this,' and they said 'Oh, what you want is a Finalizer.' That's quite possibly the worst piece of advice I could have been given. I know a lot of engineers who'll go 'I've got to record with this kind of mic,' or 'I've got to get that,' but it's not much bloody good doing that if you then set it 2dB too quiet in your mix, or you use the wrong effect. I've heard recordings made on really good microphones and they do sound lovely, and there is probably a slight tonality difference, but there's bugger all you can hear in a dance record. There's too much stuff going on. There's more important things to get right. Say, for example, I have a pad, I'm thinking about how heavy the bass that I've chosen is, how the EQ of that works with my pad, and how that fits into the whole scheme with the drums in there as well.

If you want a challenge as an engineer, nothing's harder to mix than a trance record. The whole way trance works is that the big noises sound anthemic because they have ridiculously long reverbs, or long delays, or a combination of both. You need to use a lot of reverb, and if you're using a lot of reverb on a lot of sounds it clutters up the mix. In one instance I used a reverb which was 30 seconds long. As time went on the reverb times got shorter, but for trance it's still six or seven seconds on lead sounds. But you get a very nice balance if you combine that with some very dry elements, because you get the difference between sounds like the drums being up front, and the sound of something that's massive behind, and the overall effect is very big. The reverb is cluttery, but the reverb belongs to the frequency of the instrument that's playing it. So the kick drum ain't producing reverb (unless you're a certain kind of producer, in which case it can, but that's a whole different ball game).

There are certain synths that are infamous for trance sounds — the Roland JP8000 and JP8080, obviously the Access Virus, and I like the Novation Nova. Some of these sounds have been used to death, and combined with certain effects, they make what is now considered a standard in trance production. But you can still do something with them. If you combine the Roland with something that's heavy and wet, and then put that against a nice plug-in soft synth that's very dry, maybe with a delay, each sound still has a lot of separation, even if they are in the same frequency range.

Sometimes I'll do something totally bizarre and use orchestral instruments in a dance track, like a 'cello or a French horn. If I blatantly put it in, people will think 'What the hell are you doing?', but quietly in the track it works a treat. As long as their dynamic and their frequency range works in combination with the other sounds that are present, and they don't clutter the mix up too much, it's great.

You can do a lot of work on a kick drum. Sometimes I've taken a kick drum off a record, but what I then do is put it in an audio editor and find another element of a kick drum that I like, like the attack, and line it up, and on the audio channel I'll crossfade between them to create my definitive-sounding kick. And then if it needs more sub-bass, I'll add the lowest frequency from a heavier kick. On top of that I might layer a really thin snare to give it a bit more bite. And then on top of that, I might have the Pultec EQ emulator running. I'll listen to a kick drum and think, bearing in mind where club speakers have their pronounced point — generally around 60Hz to 100Hz — I know that for this particular mix that I'm working on, I really want it thumping at around 100Hz, that's the really chunky part of the sound, whereas the really low part just creates an unwanted 'mmmph' that isn't necessary, so I may roll off the really low sub frequencies. On top of that I might then compress it to make it a little bit tougher.

What a lot of people do in trance to create snare sounds is to get white noise and compress it really heavily, even using the Logic compressor, so it cuts in with a heavy attack and then cuts out. It makes a blisteringly sharp clap noise, and that works really well. You can put that in stereo and put a nice reverb on that.

With hi-hats it's about making them sound tight, with a sharp attack. I've got an SPL Transient Designer which I don't use much any more, but in the past I remember using it to bring in the attack, it just trims start points so you can make things sound really clipped. I think with this kind of stuff, drums should sound very tight and really stick out in the mix. I tend to use short reverbs on hi-hats, generally, but I tend to use quite a long reverb on crashes and things, I like it lingering. If it's in a breakdown and I just want the crash floating off into the distance I'll use automation to switch on the delay or turn up the send level.

All club systems are mono, pretty much, so just make sure you don't do anything stupid and put your mix out of phase. I sometimes like my drums to sound very mono if I've got a lot of other stereo stuff going on, but sometimes it's nice when they sound really wide when you've got less going on. Some people I know use two hi-hats and pan them left and right, some put it centre in the mix. Both work, it depends what effect you want.

Compression is an integral part of sounds, and an integral part of components of sounds. Often I'll compress the reverbs on the drums on every beat, so that you feel it pumping. You'll hear the reverb come in and out, and that's a really nice effect. It makes the kick itself sound more defined — rather than the reverb washing over the kick that comes on every beat of the bar, the kick comes through and then you get a kind of 'oomph'. I don't use the kick drum itself as the side-chain trigger — I create a MIDI pattern so that I can control how that compressor fires against the drums. That way I can make it compress on every kick beat, but I can also make the track compress without the kick drum running. Often I'll use it on other instruments too, and it creates that great bouncy, pumping feel.

Engineers are taught to use EQ to cut, but the most natural thing is to boost. I mix as I go along, and I'll leave lots of headroom on the desk, I'll keep my levels low in Logic so I've got room to play in terms of automation, and I'll tend to boost things when I need to boost them. I tend to boost more high frequencies — 1kHz upwards tends to be my boost territory. If I have unwanted sibilance or nasty noise at the top, I'll roll off some of the highest frequencies. Usually all my drum sounds have been treated individually with filters or EQs.

They say that in America mastering engineers master to the bass, whereas if I do a dance mastering session here it's all about bringing the kick out. The bass is a good thing to duck sometimes, if you've got a running line — it gives you a little bit more impact when the kick fires — but then again, sometimes it's really nice just under it. It depends on what you're working on. I've done some R&B as well, and the emphasis is different. The kick's there, but the bass is really important.

Basses are a bit annoying if they cover a lot of notes, because you'll often get certain notes that just physically sound louder than others. What I do if I have a real overload on a certain note, a real 'bludge' of sub-bass just at that certain frequency, is automate the level or automate an EQ, and just on those notes I'll lose that. A compressor won't always pick it up, it's something you usually need to do with an EQ.

Vocals are a world unto themselves in terms of production. Bringing up and balancing vocal levels is really important in dance music, where you need the vocals sitting up there in the mix. You don't want to just lose things. If you're working with the vocals from the beginning, sometimes you end up doing an instrumental track and you have to fit a vocal on. That can be quite hard, but obviously there's lots of methods of doing it. It depends on the style of the vocal, and whether it's a lower male voice or a slightly higher female one. 

Higher can be easier to place, but it completely depends on how much is going on in the track. If you've got very little going on, for a house record, it's quite straightforward, especially for empty-ish funky house records because there's tons of space. I'll tend to compress vocals quite heavily for dance records, I'll tend to EQ them quite brutally, I'll effect them as required and do all sorts of crazy stuff to them.

The final discipline is knowing when to cut something to make a track work better. I think that's one of the hardest things people have to learn — sometimes, less is more.

I'll always find things wrong with a mix if I take it away thinking it's perfect. I tend to mix vocals last, and then once that's done I still end up going over my mix again. I have this little method that I work by, where if I've finished a complete MIDI arrangement but haven't done the final mix, I'll come in and really get that mix sounding as tight as humanly possible, exactly where I want it to be, and then I'll take it away and listen to it. I can guarantee I'll still think 'That needs sorting out, and that needs sorting out...'

What I do sometimes in house music is that I won't just bounce down the whole mix when I'm done, I'll bounce down the drum part and then I'll bounce down say the strings and the bass, and do maybe three or four bounces, and then I'll start pissing around with the stems themselves, adding effects and stuff to each bit, be it filtering or flanging or whatever. In one instance, when I did Angelic's 'It's My Turn', I put the whole record through my DJM600 mixer, which has got a wicked flanger in it, and I just used it before the record kicked in after the breakdown.

To me, if it sounds great in my studio, and I'm happy with it there, it sounds great in a club. I was writing club music and dance music before I went clubbing.

Original Source

VIPZONE SAMPLES - Sale - Save Up To 77%‏

SALE IN DECEMBER
UP TO 77% OFF ON SELECTED SAMPLE PACKS

 Please check our selected sample packs, you will find midis, wav-files, sf2 multisamples and vocals for genres like Hardstyle, Jumpstyle, Electro, House, Hands Up...

 The best collection of sample packs, sample libraries and wave files.

Dance Midi Chord progressions, patterns and basslines.

Inside you can find 50 dance style midi chord patterns in 50 popular progressions + 50 additional rhythmic bassline arpeggios for each chord.

This pack will allow you for learning basics of dance chords and bassline construction, while being very helpful as a great collection of patterns even for more experienced users! You can assign your own instruments to those midi files and play inside of your music sequencer.

 Wave + Midi for Chords, Leads & Melodies.

This pack contains ready, looped melodies in WAV format for genres like dance and trance. Each track is recorded in three different tempos (138,140,143 BPM), so you don't have to time stretch it anymore. All tracks are high quality - 44.000 Hz 16 BIT and you can easily mix it with beat and bass to get the perfect club dance song.

Armin van Buuren - A State Of Trance Episode 592 The Top 20 Of 2012 (20 December 2012)

20. Markus Schulz feat. Ana Diaz - Nothing Without Me (Original Mix) [Coldharbour Recordings]
19. Simon O'Shine - Your Distant World (Original Mix) [Trance All-Stars]
18. Aligator feat. Daniel Kandi & Julie Rugaard - The Perfect Match (Club Mix) [disco:wax]
17. Tenishia - Where Do We Begin (Andrew Rayel Remix) [S107]
16. W&W - Moscow (Original Mix) [Mainstage]
15. Armin van Buuren - We Are Here To Make Some Noise (Original Mix) [Armind]
14. Jorn van Deynhoven - Headliner [A State Of Trance]
13. Solarstone & Clare Stagg - The Spell (Solarstone Pure Mix) [Black Hole]
12. Ferry Corsten vs. Armin van Buuren - Brute (Armin's Illegal Drum Edit) [Flashover]
11. Paul van Dyk feat. Plumb - I Don't Deserve You (Giuseppe Ottaviani Remix) [Vandit]
10. Andrew Rayel - 550 Senta (Aether Mix) [A State Of Trance]
9. W&W - Invasion [A State Of Trance]
8. Aly & Fila meet Roger Shah feat. Adrina Thorpe - Perfect Love [Future Sound Of Egypt]
7. Andrew Rayel - Aeon Of Revenge [A State Of Trance]
6. Armin van Buuren feat. Ana Criado - Suddenly Summer (Original Mix) [Armind]
5. Andrew Rayel feat. Jano - How Do I Know (Club Mix) [Armind]
4. Armin van Buuren pres. Gaia - J'ai Envie De Toi (Original Mix) [Armind]
3. Omnia & IRA - The Fusion (Original Mix) [Coldharbour Recordings]
2. Armin van Buuren feat. Ana Criado - I'll Listen (Original Mix) [Armind]
1. Gareth Emery feat. Christina Novelli - Concrete Angel (Original Mix) [Garuda] [TUNE OF THE YEAR 2012]

Markus Schulz - Global DJ Broadcast World Tour Best of 2012 (20 December 2012)

Tracklist
 
01. Markus Schulz - Our Moment (Scream Tour Intro)
02. Markus Schulz & Ferry Corsten - Loops & Tings
03. Markus Schulz & Wellenrausch - Silence To The Call (Scream Tour Edit)
04. Omnia & IRA - The Fusion (Markus Schulz Los Angeles '12 Reconstruction)
05. Markus Schulz feat. Jaren - Carry On
06. Erick Strong vs. Dart Rayne - Shamballa
07. Ercola feat. Annie - Follow Me (Acapella)
08. Markus Schulz with Elevation & KhoMha - Triotonic
09. Fisherman & Hawkins - Apache
10. Elevation vs. Grube & Hovsepian - City Of Angels
11. Markus Schulz feat. Ken Spector - Scream
12. Markus Schulz & Elevation - Finish Line
13. Markus Schulz & Andy Moor - Daydream (Remix)
14. W&W - Moscow (Original Mix)
15. Marcel Woods & W&W - Trigger
16. MKB - Katana (Markus Schulz Big Room Reconstruction)
17. Markus Schulz feat. Justine Suissa - Perception (Rafaël Frost Remix)
18. Skytech - What's Wrong (Skytech Stadium Mix)
19. Markus Schulz - Soul Seeking
20. Khomha - Vapor
21. Khomha - The Dark Knight
22. Markus Schulz - Digital Madness
23. Wellenrausch - Million Miles To Run (Phynn Remix)
24. Markus Schulz feat. Seri - Love Rain Down (4 Strings Remix)
25. Beat Service - Fortuna
26. Markus Schulz & Jochen Miller - Rotunda
27. Markus Schulz feat. Ana Diaz - Nothing Without Me (Original Mix)
28. Rank 1 - Breathing (Markus Schulz Coldharbour Remix)
29. Markus Schulz - The New World

Richard Durand versus The World

14 months, 15 productions, bridging all 5 continents, powered by 1 imagination-capturing concept and 1 what-dreams-are-made-of contest - ‘Versus The World’ has been a bona fide production odyssey. The project has seen internationally renowned musician Richard Durand produce his way to the ends of the earth, working with regional EDM like-minds including Paul Oakenfold, Bobina, tyDi, Heatbeat and Protoculture. 

Off the back of its boundary breaking regional ‘Richard Durand Versus The World’ contests, he’s uncovered a new producer class, pulling off one sensational pro-am co-production after another. Now the whole globe-spanning travelogue is brought together to create the finished article. This is ‘Versus The World’… The Album!

Preparing to orbit the Earth at the speed of sound, ‘Versus The World’ embarks on its journey with a salvo of Durand’s solo material. Personifying Richard’s characteristic tech-ish appeal, ‘Chopstick’ and ‘Sequence’ deliver adrenaline shot beats and hard-fired percussion loops, packing them against those tense, stormy Durand riffs. On ‘Stand Again’ Leah’s vocal cadence generates the uplift, while Richard’s production travels the track into distorted atomic big-room-boom territory. Packing a peak-time punch, ‘Trancefusion’ (which served as the anthem for the Prague-based event of the same name) unleashes a euphoric trance fireball onto the floor!

Where would a superhero be without his trusty sidekick? At each of its continent-hopping stop-offs, Richard sought out and found a new production talent to introduce to the world. Through the 5 widely publicized regional contests, greenhorn studio jockeys accepted the challenge and were given their first chance to shine. Fighting the good fight alongside Richard are the likes of Huge Euge with the synth strafing euphorica of ‘Signs’, the melodic vistas of ‘Vega’ (in tandem with The Progressive Brothers) and the rapacious, club-shaking ‘Free Fall’ co-produced with Stefan Vijoen.

“This year has been about finding tomorrow’s EDM heroes today” says Richard. “Through both this album’s regional contests and the ‘mix a disc for In Search of Sunrise: 10’, I think we’ve introduced some real talent. I hope these prove to be their first steps on the journey to EDM greatness! Time will tell!”

What’s the only thing better than one superhero…? That’d be two superheroes together! Before departing on his Versus The World mission, Richard assembled a league of fellow EDM avengers, to help exact dance justice on club floors! ‘R.D.V.T.W.’s mercury continues to skyrocket through heat-seeking tracks like ‘Loose Unit’ and the wickedly infective ‘Crashed’ (produced respectively alongside Australia’s own tyDi and all-out legend Paul Oakenfold). Elsewhere ‘Pleasure’ and ‘Devils Inside’ (with recent DJ Mag poll debutantes Protoculture and Heatbeat) and ‘Last Train To Moscow’ with Bobina ensure its temperature remains nothing short of volcanic!

“As I fly around the planet I meet a lot of other DJ/producers and we very often end up discussing production collaborations. ‘Richard Durand Versus The World’ is where the talking stopped and the music began! It was among the most satisfying aspects of this album to be able to work with some of my personal favourites in their studios, dotted around the world. The results are tracks that travel in musical directions that otherwise I might have not. For a producer that’s a very rewarding thing to realise.”

‘Richard Durand Versus The World’ is among one of the boldest, most imaginative artist long-players ever sent into the EDM realm. A visionary concept that simply refuses to be just another collection of artist’s tracks, it goes on general release November 5.

Tracklist:

1. In Control (Intro) (1:25)
2. Take Your Time (featuring Denis Sender) (4:55)
3. Crashed (with Paul Oakenfold) (5:20)
4. Stand Again (featuring Leah) (4:55)
5. Free Fall (featuring Stefan Viljoen) (4:40)
6. Loose Unit (with tyDi) (5:02)
7. Pleasure (with Protoculture) (5:31)
8. Zoom (5:06)
9. Sequence (3:56)
10. Last Train To Moscow (with Bobina) (6:22)
11. Devils Inside (with Heatbeat) (5:22)
12. Trancefusion (5:49)
13. Veda (featuring Progressive Brothers) (4:36)
14. Chopstick (5:56)
15. Signs (featuring Huge Euge) (4:25)

Original Source

John O’Callaghan – Subculture 2013 Pre-order NOW !!

Right there, at the edge of uplifting trance, deep-hitting bass and quality tech-trance, lies the realm of Subculture Recordings. The record label of John O’Callaghan, launched in 2010, has built a steady reputation, home to some of the industry’s most promising producer talents and celebrated names. Highlighting its story of success with the annual chapter of his beloved ‘Subculture’ compilation, John O’Callaghan now proudly presents ‘Subculture 2013’!

Favoured for its continuous flow of outstanding and quality releases, starting the Subculture label has turned out to be one of the best decisions in John O’Callaghan’s impressive career. The Irishman, winner of three ‘Best DJ’ and two ‘Best Producer’ trophies by the Irish Dance Music Awards as well as #55 on the critically acclaimed DJ Mag Top 100, looks back on a successful 2012. Next to remixing the likes of Armin van Buuren, Gareth Emery, Emma Hewitt and Solarstone, John stood out with originals ‘Boban’, ‘Mess of a Machine’ and Heatbeat collab ‘Las Lilas’. He welcomes 2013, with an insatiable appetite for fresh music, as he takes you on a journey into the sound of tomorrow, with ‘Subculture 2013’!

Mixed and selected by John O’Callaghan, ‘Subculture 2013’ is there for the dedicated following of the label, as well as those into the significant, forward-thinking sound. Next to providing a sneak peek into 2013, it also reflects upon the Subculture highlights of 2012. ‘Subculture 2013’ kick starts another promising year for trance music.

Tracks:

1. Rex Mundi - Bella Monaco (Radio Edit) (03:22)
2. MaRLo - Lightning (Radio Edit) (02:45)
3. Full Tilt feat. Katrina Noorbergen - Letting Go (Jorn van Deynhoven Radio Edit) (03:35)
4. Solarstone with Aly & Fila - Fireisland (Aly & Fila Uplifting Mix) (07:59)
5. Emma Hewitt - Foolish Boy (John O'Callaghan Album Edit) (04:15)
6. Luke Terry - No Control (James Dymond Radio Edit) (03:28)
7. Jase Thirlwall - Gobstopper (Indecent Noise Remix) (07:49)
8. John O'Callaghan - Boban (Radio Edit) (03:31)
9. Mark Leanings vs Space Rockerz & Tania Zygar - Whatever Happened to Puzzle Piece (John O'Callaghan Mashup Edit) (04:49)
10. Solarstone with Giuseppe Ottaviani - Falcons (John O'Callaghan Remix) (08:23)
11. Alex M.O.R.P.H. with Hannah - When I Close My Eyes (Aly & Fila Radio Edit) (04:37)
12. Sneijder - Jackknife (Original Mix) (08:03)
13. Paul van Dyk feat. Plumb - I Don't Deserve You (John O'Callaghan Remix Edit) (03:18)
14. Photographer - Airport (Radio Edit) (04:42)
15. John O'Callaghan - Subculture 2013 (Full Continuous DJ Mix, Pt. 1) (76:19)
16. Solarstone - Pure (MaRLo Remix) (05:35)
17. Orjan Nilsen & John O'Callaghan - Crispy Duck (Radio Edit) (03:07)
18. Protoculture - Perpetual Motion (Radio Edit) (03:56)
19. Armin van Buuren feat. Ana Criado - I'll Listen (John O'Callaghan Dark Mix Edit) (03:42)
20. Giuseppe Ottaviani - Earthbeat (Radio Edit) (03:54)
21. John O'Callaghan - Earth2Self (Radio Edit) (02:51)
22. Aeris feat. Jess Morgan - What Do You Feel? (Re:Locate vs Robert Nickson Radio Edit) (03:010)
23. Chris Metcalfe - Power Trip (Radio Edit) (03:56)
24. Bryan Kearney - Get The Edge (Radio Edit) (04:17)
25. The Thrillseekers feat. Stine Grove - Everything (John O'Callaghan Remix) (07:35)
26. Aly & Fila vs John O'Callaghan - Vapourize (Radio Edit) (04:41)
27. Akira Kayosa & Hugh Tolland - Muriwai (Radio Edit) (03:40)
28. John O'Callaghan & Kathryn Gallagher - Mess Of A Machine (Bryan Kearney Radio Edit) (03:12)
29. Jorn van Deynhoven - Headliner (Radio Edit) (03:27)
30. Gareth Emery feat. Christina Novelli - Concrete Angel (John O'Callaghan Remix Edit) (04:51)
31. John O'Callaghan - Subculture 2013 (Full Continuous DJ Mix, Pt. 2) (76:00)

Pre-Order

Armada Shop Christmas Sale !

Made up your mind? Figured out which albums are still missing in your collection? Still looking for that perfect shirt to wear when clubbing? Now’s your chance to get it all, with a 20% discount!

Tomorrow, December 21^st, the special Christmas sale kicks off in the Armada Shop! Albums by Markus Schulz, Armin van Buuren, Dash Berlin, and everyone else, all for a 20% discount! Shirts, caps, tanktops, glasses, keychains of Armada Music, Armin van Buuren, A State of Trance and much, much more. Compilations, new and classic, as well as giftboxes and special edition albums, everything is available for a 20% discount!

Don’t miss this! Order your missing must-haves on www.ArmadaShop.com tomorrow!

Waves Audio: Year End Blowout !

Bissen Brings The 'Global Trance' Series to The USA

GLOBAL TRANCE USA

 

 

The third in the 'Global' series this time drops down in the USA with 'Global Trance USA'. Long time Discover artist and America's own Bissen takes on mixing duties, compiling this astounding new 17 track compilation showcasing the best of US talent.

The complete album clocks in at 77 minutes long across 17 fantastic tracks with most appearing exclusively here for the first time.

Bissen has collected and mixed tracks from some of America's largest names and some exciting newcomers to create an unmissable sample of Trance in the United States.

'Global Trance USA' is out now on Discover Records.

Album Tracklisting

• Blugazer - Underneath the Sky (Bissen Album Edit)
  
• CBM - Recoil (Bissen Album Edit)
  
• Thomas Datt - Narani (USA Edit)
  
• Thomas Colontonio - Take Me (Bissen Album Edit)
  
• Andr3x - Believers (Album Edit)
  
• Monoverse - Altera (Bissen Album Edit)
  
• Jonathan vanAtom - Sunstruck (Album Edit)
  
• Chris Hampshire and Bissen - The Dungeon (Album Edit)
  
• Bissen - Clockwise (Album Edit)
  
• Bissen - Don't Walk Away (feat. Tiff Lacey) (Album Edit)
  
• Victor Dinaire and Bissen - Rendezvous (Original Mix)
  
• Des McMahon - Ice Cold (Darren Porter's Subzero Remix - Bissen Edit)
  
• Christopher Lawrence - OK To Go (Original Mix)
  
• Channel Surfer - Life: The Sequel (Michael Lee Remix - Album Edit)
  
• Jimmy Chou - Broken Empire (Album Edit)
  
• Origin - Limbo (Peter Plaznik Remix - USA Edit)
  
• Bissen - Riptide (Album Edit)
  
• Various Artists - Global Trance USA (Mixed by Bissen)

GLOBAL TRANCE USA SAMPLER, VOL. 2

 

This sampler package brings together three incredible, exclusive recordings taken from the album showcasing the best of upcoming US talent.

Blugazer's 'Underneath the Sky' kicks off the package with a blissed out groove and euphoric vocal samplings. Followed by Andr3x's 'Belivers', a tech-heavy exploration of the underground. The sampler rounds off with Monoverse's 'Altera', a slice of euphoric trance - a feast for your ears.

The full length album, 'Global Trance USA' is out now on Discover Records.

Sampler Vol. 2 Tracklisting

• Blugazer - Underneath the Sky (Original Mix)
  
• Andr3x - Believers (Original Mix)
  
• Monoverse - Altera (Original Mix)

GLOBAL TRANCE USA SAMPLER

 

Having been drafted in to compile and mix the latest in the Global Trance series - USA, Bissen delivers a double-header single featuring two brand new recordings that will also feature on the album which are available to buy now.

Sampler Tracklisting

• Bissen - Clockwise (Original Mix)
  
• Bissen - Riptide (Original Mix)

 

Original Source

Understanding Trance Music

What Trance is

 

There is no easy way to categorize trance. The genre of music we call “trance” has very few rules or patterns that must to be followed in order for it to be considered trance. This being said, trance is arguably the area of electronic dance music that has more branches and sub-genres than any other. However, in the eyes of a producer, this is a great thing. Instead of being limited by a strict pattern of conduct, the possibilities in this type of music are almost endless. This article will give the producer a greater understanding of what trance is.

Setting trance apart from other forms of EDM (Electronic Dance Music)

As we will see in most of this article, the boundaries of trance vary from person to person. So, what makes trance different from house music or techno will also vary. However, we can establish some simple guidelines to help us distinguish trance from other types of EDM. I find that three areas separate trance: the atmosphere, its use of repetition, the particular use of synthesizers, and the associated “scene” surrounding trance.

First, and probably the most nebulous way of describing trance is by the overall atmosphere established by the music. Trance is supposed to be hypnotic at times, with the repetition and atmosphere putting the listener into a meditative-like state. Unlike other music styles, it is many times the subtle changes to repeated elements along with a “windy” distant atmosphere that make trance both unique and give it this “deep” sound filled with feeling and even “simple complexity.”
Next would be the use of synthesizers in trance. It has several synthesizer sounds that are almost completely unique to its genre. One of these sounds is the supersaw. This waveform was made famous by such classic trance synthesizers as the Roland JP-8000/8080, the Novation Supernova, and the Korg MS2000. The electronic aspect of trance tends to make it more synthesizer-heavy than the (sample-heavy) comparable house genre while not sounding as dry or strictly computerized as techno.

The last area of trance that sets it apart from other forms of electronic dance music would be its associated, although somewhat stereotypical, “scene.” No other area of EDM finds itself so tied to a party movement as trance is to a rave. The history and evolution of both are intertwined, and without the rave scene, we would most likely not have trance in the form that it is today. Many artists have tried to distance themselves from the negative connotations. Many generations of trance artists and listeners alike have those negative relations with the rave scene, but a debt of gratitude must be paid to the early ravers and club kids that brought early trance to the level of popularity it has today.

The History of Trance

 

Trance has its initial roots in the late seventies from the onset of the first synthesizers and the disco to house movement. It did not really exist in a form we would begin to recognize as trance until the end of the 1980’s. As techno and then industrial music reigned supreme, the end of the decade saw the rise of trance as artists first began to experiment with layering and repeating elements. Much like industrial music at this time, early trance music was taken more as a form of post-modern art than as music to dance to. It was not until trance moved to Europe where the trance scene began to explode and later fully developed into the music we know today.

As Trance crossed the Atlantic, it fused its techno/industrial roots with elements of chicago house and first began to sound like the somewhat anthem-driven dance music. Two German DJs, Dag Lerner and Rolf Ellmer are said to have coined the term “Trance” as well as to establish the ground rules for the genre in their 1991 combined project “Dance2Trance.” (There is debate, however, that the term “Trance” actually arose from “Tantra” music of the mid-80’s [an offshoot of hip-hop at the time in LA]).

It wasn’t until the mid 1990’s that trance really began to gain popularity as the rave movement reached its “time of becoming.” Not to skirt around the issue, we must mention that trance found a perfect fit in the drug-fueled electronic music fests. As its popularity rose, so did the amount of Trance sub-genres. Deep trance, dark trance, psy-trance, and the progressive trance we know today are among the few that have their roots during this time period.

It is also important to briefly look at another path in the development of trance found in the depths of India: goa. This subset of trance, still found in numerous nightclubs today, has its roots in the late 1970’s during the waning moments of the hippie movement. As techno filtered into the goa region of India and fused with the existing music, “dance trance” music evolved. Used in yoga meditations, the New Age movement of the area and parties of the time, goa flourished. It contains many of the same elements as the trance scene found in a continental away. Today, goa is synonymous with the trance that developed in South Central Asia, and is still popular in many areas of the world.

The current major styles of Trance

  Although there are many, let’s outline some basic definitions of the popular sub-genres of trance.

 

Progressive

 

In this form of trance, many anthem qualities of earlier trance have been stripped away, but to say that progressive trance totally removes the notion of a melody goes a bit far. Many times there will be no memorable melodic line. Instead the emphasis is put on gently evolving sounds and layered parts leading to a very strong and musical sense of atmosphere.

Modern Goa or Psy (Psychedelic) Trance

 

Psy or goa is probably the area of trance most closely associated with the drug culture. Although hard to define, it is filled with rich analog sounds and psychedelic-patterned tone colors. If hippies listened to trance, this would be what they listened to. Many argue that this is the oldest original form of trance. If any differences are most noticeable, they would be that goa seems to have a more cultural and middle-eastern feel to it, while Psy holds a stronger fusion of nostalgic and energetic sound sets.

Dark or Deep Trance

 

Dark trance has a sadder, more melancholy feel to it. It tends to borrow from earlier techno elements and contains heavier, darker pads and strings. It’s often themed as “evil-Trance” but does not always have to sound that way. Some will argue that it should seem a bit scary to be classified as Dark trance.

Breaks

 

Breaks is simply a form of Trance that gets away from the standard “four on the floor” drum pattern. Instead of having a kick drum sound on every quarter note of a bar, it is often broken up into a funkier or even Pop/Hip-Hop style percussion patterns and styles. Other elements of the percussion are often mixed differently from standard Trance. Many standard Trance pieces are mixed into Breaks form and vice-versa by adding new percussion only.

Melodic/Uplifting Trance

 

Probably the most common form of trance and most often the route taken by a budding producer. This is what your Alphazone’s and Airbase’s just love to output. It will consist of a thick atmosphere, bass (commercial trance will almost always have an off-beat bass), and a phat lead playing a great melody (this is where that new $2,000 piece of hardware will REALLY come in handy). Generally it will have a percussion and bass combo in the intro and will slowly bring in a sub melody that will lead into the primary melody. The primary melody is generally brought in during a breakdown where the percussion and bass are turned off and some melodic pads are playing.

Of course, as stated earlier, trance really has no rules or set patterns so feel free to experiment to your hearts desire. Combining genres is very often the best way to get “your sound.” So now that you know all the glorious sub-genres that make up trance, and where Trance came from, go out there and produce!

Source

SoundCloud: Tips For Music & Audio Creators

Post music & audio

Maybe it’s music & audio that you’ve already created or captured. Maybe you’ll use the REC button on our mobile app to try something new. Or maybe you’ll try one of our favorite third-party creation apps. Whichever you choose, it’s effortless. 

Use the REC button on your mobile device
Explore our third-party apps

Meet Armin on NYE in New York

Don’t know what to do for New Year’s Eve? Tired of going to the same party each year? Then listen up, cause you could be living it up with Armin van Buuren in The Big Apple this time! KLM makes toasting to the new year a whole lot better…

The city that never sleeps. The metropolis of skyscrapers, dreams, Central Park and of course the incredible nightlife. Looking for an inspiring place to celebrate NYE 2012/2013? Well, what about New York?! KLM, Royal Dutch airlines, offer you the chance to win a 5 day trip to New York, along with a meet and greet with Armin!

Not only do you get free air tickets for you and a friend, you also win a 4 nights hotel stay at Dream Downtown, a dinner at Marble Lane and 2 VIP tickets to Armin’s New Year’s Eve show at PIER 36! And that’s now even all…KLM’s also got a Nikon 2 digital camera, official Armin merchandise pack and of course a Meet & Greet with Armin himself! A unique prize package, from December 29th-January 2nd!

Are you above or 21 years of age? Want to win this perfect NYE trip? Then enter the KLM sweepstake right here!  Be sure to enter before December 9th, cause that’s when the sweepstake ends!

Enter the sweepstake:
http://ifly.to/Armin_NYC_on_NYE_ms

SoundLift's Kickstarter Bundle

SoundLift is retiring from trance. As his farewell, he's produced an EP entitled "Last Goodbye". It received great support from the world's five-time number-one dj Armin van Buuren, from the global trance family, and from music fans around the world: the song Revenge (Original 2012 Mix) won the Future Favorite vote award for A State of Trance #582 and Alexandria (Original Mix) won Future Favorite for the next episode, possibly an unprecedented feat: before this SoundLift EP, in the show's 11-year history few, if any, artists had ever won FF back to back.

SoundLift would love to have a CD for this last trance release of his, and for his downright spectacular and wonderful 2-CD compilation Myths & Legends. But in general it is unaffordable for an uplifting trance label to produce CDs: there are high fixed costs, there are no performances, and, because most fans illegally download the music, there are not enough sales. For SoundLift's album Yerevan, within three days of the album's launch, about 42 internet sites were illegally offering it for free, and within months the number of such sites increased to thousands. CD sales were so low that they rendered virtually impossible the goal of having more CDs for albums.

This is where Kickstarter comes to the rescue: If enough people commit to buying the CD via Kickstarter in order to pay off the cost of creating the CDs, the project becomes affordable to all. Even then, we are offering the EP/compilation combo at $19, which is below cost ($29.45 if there are 100 orders), so as to increase their accessibility. We at Abora hope that those who can afford it will donate extra money in order to cover those who can afford to pay only $19 or $25.

SoundLift - Last Goodbye EP CD Tracklist:

• 1. Savage Islands (Original Mix) [4:13]
• 2. Tears (feat. Shelley Harland) (Original Mix) [8:10]
• 3. The Mountain (Original Mix) [9:22]
• 4. Alexandria (Original Mix) [7:05]
• 5. Revenge (Original 2012 Mix) [8:44]
• 6. Last Goodbye (Original Mix) [9:06] 

Myths & Legends CD Tracklist (2-Disc Set):

• 1.01. Sérgio Pereira - Phoenix
• 1.02. D&Z - Lovely
• 1.03. Monkey Top Saloon - 5th Avenue
• 1.04. SoundLift - The Mountain
• 1.05. Bryan EL - Solarian (Original 2012 Mix)
• 1.06. Nery - Inesquecivel
• 1.07. Ozo Effy - The Great Journey
• 1.08. Laker & Mihailov - Rainy Day 
• 1.09. Gary Afterlife - Waiting For The Sunrise (Mike Foyle Remix)
• 1.10. Kelly Andrew - Across The Sea (Orchestral Mix)
• 2.01. Gregory Esayan - Only Travel
• 2.02. Vax - Let There Be Light (Up & Forward Remix)
• 2.03. Spark7 - In My Mind
• 2.04. Pizz@dox - Nemesis
• 2.05. Dreamy & Ikerya Project - Life Of Emotions
• 2.06. SoundLift - Last Goodbye
• 2.07. Subimpact - Someone Like You
• 2.08. Aiera - Dunes
• 2.09. Miroslav Vrlik feat. Martin Jurenka - Discovery
• 2.10. Farhad Mahdavi - Parthia

SoundLift - Yerevan CD Tracklist:

• 01. Yerevan [3.32]
• 02. Give You My Love (feat. Adrina Thorpe) [9:25]
• 03. Take My Guitar [7:01]
• 04. Windmill [8:49]
• 05. Horizonte [9:09]
• 06. Nakhti [9:44]
• 07. Land of Nowhere [9:20]
• 08. Oriente [7:58]
• 09. One Day [10:14]
• 10. Acapulco [4:00]

To make these CDs as meaningful and cherished to fans as possible, we have tentatively decided to make the EP a 6-panel digipak, and the compilation a 2-CD 6-panel wallet with an 8- or 12-page booklet. The following images, courtesy of Mixonic, convey an idea of what the EP and compilation final product that fans will receive will look like this
 

Digital Society 6th Birthday, Leeds UK [Official Trailer]

TICKETS NOW ON SALE HERE
Video by Bram Knapen // Audio by Alan Morris & Sequentia [Enhanced]

Digital Society 6th Birthday @ O2 Academy Leeds

Digital Society Leeds celebrates six years at the forefront of the UK Trance scene with one of the biggest lineups in DS history and headlining the 6th Birthday spectacular is global superstar and Trance icon MARKUS SCHULZ. Being responsible for some of the finest Trance & Progressive releases in recent years, the highly acclaimed radioshow 'Global DJ Broadcast', the legendary Coldharbour Recordings and recent release of the superb 'Scream' album - alongside an almost unrivalled global touring schedule covering the world's biggest festivals and clubs - Markus Schulz is considered one of the definitive acts in todays world dance music scene.

End Of Year Countdown 2012: Line-up Exposed !

The World's Biggest Online trance event! This year AfterHours.fm will hit back with 300+ World's best known DJs, who will deliver amazing 1- or 2-hour sets to finish off the year of 2012. This year's EOYC only expect things to be Better, Bigger, Stronger.

 AH.FM Owner
"From myself Dan and rest of the AH.FM Crew I would like to thank you all for supporting Afterhours, either its by being a monthly supporter, being here on forums during shows, tuning in, discussing tracks and music, or just by telling your best friend that AH.FM is what it is its all team work that we appreciate very much. So thank you again!!"

Full Line-up Here 

Trance Podium Awards 2012

The end of 2012 is approaching fast! And because of that we all know it's time for the 5th annual TrancePodium Awards! And we need your help again!


Like last year, there is a public voting part and a members only voting part!
And as in previous years, we separated the Awards in 2 parts. The first part are the TP Awards for members and topics of this site only. That part is a members only voting. The 2nd part are the Global TP Awards, with awards for DJ's and everything else outside TP that involves EDM in general and Trance in particular of course. That part is open for public voting!
Rules

• If you want to vote for ALL TP Awards, all you have to do is be a member of this site and you can vote anonymously by clicking here.

• If you're not a member of this site, register now! It's for free!

• If you don't want to become a member, you can only vote for the Global Awards by clicking here.


• Click on 1 of the 2 links above or 1 of the 2 buttons below and enter your top 3 in each category. The number 1 gets 3 points, the number 2 gets 2 points and the number 3 gets 1 point.


• You don't have to enter all three votes of the category, and you can skip categories you don't want to vote in. Of course we want to get as many votes as possible.


• As for the Community Awards, votes for yourself, your own tracks, mixes, albums or radio shows won’t count. Voting for your own topic is allowed.


• Voting closes on the 23rd of December 2012 at 23:59 GMT and the results will be announced between Christmas and New Year.

So take a few minutes of your time and start voting!
The more votes, the more accurate the TP Awards will be! We're counting on you!
 
The categories are:
Community Awards 2012 (members only)

Best TP member * (who you think added the most to the site this year)
Favourite TP member * (who you personally like the most)
Best Staff-member *
Best Newcomer * (best member who has registered in 2011)
Best DJ/producer *
Best Track *
Best Studiomix *
Best discussion topic
Funniest topic

* No voting for yourself.
Global Awards 2012 (public voting)

Best DJ
Best Producer
Best Newcomer
Best Vocalist(e)
Best Track (original versions and mixes only, made by the original producer at the 1st release)
Best Remix
Best Mashup
Best Artist Album
Best Mix Album
Best Radioshow/Podcast/Cloudcast
Best Liveset
Best Studiomix (f.e. an episode of a radioshow, podcast or guestmix, but not live recordings)
Best Event (an event is on 1actual location at 1 moment, f.e. ASOT 550 is a concept, but ASOT 550 Den Bosch is an event)
Best Radiostation
Best Label
So, go ahead and vote now for your favorites!

Vote

How Trance Music Has Matured in Modern Pop

Trance music once provided the very definition of cheese, but producers use it intelligently now to play with the idea of scale.

Everyone who reads, writes or talks about music much comes to dislike particular words. The gulf between the glorious variety of music and the relative laziness of common language means words such as "soulful" or "ethereal" or "raw" become sketchy markers for huge clouds of effects and feelings. My personal bugbear is "cheesy" – that catch-all for any music that's a little too direct in its desire to please. It's such an idle, dismissive word. But like most words, sometimes it seems to fit exactly.

Take trance music, for instance. Like every dance genre, there are 100 varieties of trance, whose devotees wage sullen war against anyone who gets the details wrong. But for the casual listener, "trance" means the kind of dance record that got into the Top 40 in the late 90s: Fragma's Toca's Miracle, Chicane's Don't Give Up, ATB's 9am (Till I Come). I remember listening to the radio then and thinking first that this stuff was the very definition of cheese, and then wondering where pop would go from here. What kind of music would trance inspire?

Well, now we know. Trance, as Simon Reynolds and others have pointed out, infests modern pop. Its signature sounds – the huge, airy keyboard lines and uplifting chord progressions – are the backbone for a host of recent hits (Think Rihanna's Only Girl in the World, for an obvious example). Trance got little critical respect in its heyday and the pop that borrows from it faces many of the same criticisms: that it's homogenous, unimaginative, its perpetual euphoria is quickly exhausting.

But what happens when musicians start using that euphoria in more interesting ways? The greatest quality of trance was always the scale of it – it was most popular in dance's superclub era, its DJs were also globetrotters, and its riffs were the sonic equivalent of laser lightshows: spectacular but weightless. The music worked to turn any space into an aircraft hangar. So producers using trance now are playing with that idea of scale: often just for its own sake but sometimes more intelligently.

Lady Gaga's album Born This Way, for example, is stuffed with trancey sounds. Gaga's songs are often about self-empowerment, which the euphoric enormity of trance seems an excellent fit for. But empowerment in Gagaland isn't a glib process with a happy ending – it's something messy and unfinishable. So the album is also filled up with any other kind of swagger she can think of: classic rock moves, rolling ballads, a sax break from the late Clarence Clemons. The trance riffs don't get the soundfield to themselves – they have to fight to cut through, work for their uplifting payoff.

The most exciting use of trance I've heard, though, is 22-year-old hip-hop producer AraabMUZIK, who samples the music extensively. In a hip-hop context, trance makes a surprising amount of sense – on the Diplomats' Salute, which AraabMUZIK produced, the echoey vastness of the keyboard riffs makes it feel as if the MCs are filling and dominating a colossal space. But it's his instrumental cuts that really catch the imagination. Last month he released Electronic Dream, an album of trance-derived beats and one of the year's freshest and most beguiling records.

Electronic Dream zeroes in on the vocals in pop trance, sampling tracks such as Jam & Spoon's Right in the Night and cutting in rushing, skittery beats. AraabMUZIK has a reputation for virtuosic real-time sampling and groove-making, in which he often burns out or breaks his equipment. But on Electronic Dream that energy is held back. Occasionally, as on Underground Stream, AraabMUZIK drops in a thrillingly sudden breakdown, but mostly the mood is a strange combination of intimacy and scale. It's as if the heaving club spaces implied by trance have been emptied out, their euphoria a happy memory not a bludgeoning presence.

Is Electronic Dream "cheesy"? Its source material might all have been called that – but AraabMUZIK finds surprising angles on trance without ever trying to subvert it. His affinity for the music is one of the things that makes his album such a pleasure – as well as a welcome reminder that even the most disrespected sound of the past can still be sparked into life.

Tom Ewing
Source