Not long ago the news came of the possibility of the iconic Ministry of Sound club in London (elephant & castle) a place where i really had my first proper clubbing/raving experience at the age of 17 8) The Gallery every Friday night has a great mix of well known names alongside some newer underground guys. All in all a great Trance experience (the only one i can find in London) If this was to shutdown there really would be no place in London for Trance music and would say Gatecrasher in Birmingham would be the only other place left in England.
This possibility coupled with todays news about Judge Jules being replaced by 2 dubstep names on the legendary slot on bbc radio 1 on friday nights from 11pm to 1am is a disaster. Whether you like Jules as a dj or not is not significant, his show puts trance out to a wide audience, which is how i first came to love trance. Whilst it is slightly on the more mainstream sound of trance it is an introduction to the genre, this is very significant.
So it appears that trance is being removed from the wider audience, in Britain atleast. There is still a lot of high quality tracks being produced out there which keeps the scene alive (thank god). The good thing is that trance will never be ruined by the mainstream (something which i believe to have happened with house through people like Guetta and Swedish House Mafia) But there is hardly an underground trance scene in England (someone please tell me if there is as i have yet to find anything)
I wonder what the position of Trance is in Europe, Australia and especially in the USA where the EDM scene seems to be taking of.
FOREVER TRANCE
What an excuse for a good old drivel on session ...
... no doubt plenty of disagreement will ensue if anyone can be bothered to read but wtf....
Trance died out in UK many moons ago - if it ever hit its shores to begin with. Holland is the home of
Trance (as opposed to
trance) - hard-hitting stuff with high BPMs, limited sophistication and fuelled by a mix of amphetamines and E. That scene still exists but like Goa/Psy-trance is a micro-scene of its own and very Euro-centric.
The trance of Oakenfold, Above & Beyond, etc. is commercial (mainstream) trance - always has been. And some would argue it has already been ruined by production being overty geared at selling tunes and getting hands in the air. Big name DJs putting out lower BPM more accessible stuff with catchy riffs and euphoric breakdowns have kept hold of crowds for an astonishing period of time already. When this first took hold, progressive house DJs considered the trance stuff the relative equivalent of SHM/Guetta today, but as the whole dance music scene was smaller the relative commercial success was less obvious globally.
Judge Jules has always majored on funky house (big brash banging tunes which appeal to a younger crowd who want a lot of noise and in-your-face stuff) but has played a bit more trancey stuff now and then especially in his latter years. The younger crowd, especially the moody disaffected teenager set, is more into D&B/Dubstep these days - and the old funky house crowd now have pop music which fits the bill (Guetta/SHM). So JJ is pretty much redundant. As he is already a lawyer, a change of career shouldn't be too big a step for him. Question is will he practice or go "in House" ?
The Guetta/SHM EDM-pop contingent have USA licked as far as the scene over there is concerned. Sasha & Digweed are gods in the US EDM scene today - though far less relevant in Europe than they were a few years back. Their influence (and that of a number of other DJs along the way like Jimmy van M & co) has helped to grow an ever-increasing and faithful US scene - with the Miami Music Conference and a number of festivals at its epi-centre. You'll notice, however, that most of the more serious American EDM DJs wind up in Europe ! It's still the beating heart of EDM with Berlin and London having the best scenes in the world.
As far as UK is concerned, like anything it's demand-led. Gatecrasher and the like have had their day imo. They've had many more years in the frame than the progressive house scene and the popular sound of today is no longer either trance or prog. Outside of 'pop' it's Visionquest/Crosstown/Hot Creations. This is the new 'pop' of the underground today - and will become the mainstream very soon, as dominant as Gatecrasher & Cream were in their days. My prediction is that the production will turn more accessible and "commercial" - i.e. mainstream (you can already hear it in Maceo Plex's sound) and in turn sales will increase and events will sell out.
Does trance still have a place ? Yes, probably for a while yet. It's been more popular than Prog (it's more "accessible" so this is usually the case) but like prog house it must surely be getting boring by now with endless releases of more of the same dull as dishwater reworks.. the Crosstown style of today will likely take over for a while - but I doubt that will remain dominant for nearly as long; boredom will conquer fashion sooner ! The 'trance' sound had a good innings so it's probably time to get ready to burn your 'classic mixes' to CD and store them up for those reunion parties of tomorrow. Dubstep/D&B may or may not continue to be the "entry-point" for a load of youngsters and they in turn may or may not carry on supporting it as they mature. More likely the scene will evolve into something more interesting than it is right now - and the music will change.
As for deep house & tech-house today .. well, a lot of its support comes from former prog-house, house and 'soft-techno' heads who've adapted as they age.... question is where will the young trance crowd will hang their hats when their scene shrinks ?
If you crave the 4-to-the-floor and are not yet ready to wallow in deep house of a night out, my recommendation is to check out techno in all its guises. Many more years to go on that front - and mercifully not to the tastes of most of the dubstep mahoooseevvvv !! Oh - and Bedrock are coming back to London, so maybe a prog revival is on its way. Otherwise prepare to invest in some clogs, grab a tulip and ask directions to the nearest rave.
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