Top 10... Trance Anthems of the 1990s

can't argue with the importance of these tracks, even if some I wouldn't consider purely trance, such as beachball or knights of the jaguar as you say.

I have to say I'd include PvD's For an Angel in there, and also, if you're going to include BT, Flaming June HAS to be the one!
 
Last edited by a moderator:
"But there's more to our list than mere superclubs and blistering 135BPM anthems. After all, Ibiza's relationship with this now often underappreciated style pre-dates the mainstream explosion, and created a less wham bam, more blissed out, melodious interpretation, soaking the beats in sunshine euphoria, as anyone who has ever closed their eyes on a terrace to any of the following will know only too well…"

Yep - the 'Euphoria' era didn't last long though before it was pushed aside by "Funky/Banging House" at the hands of Judge Jules and formulaic commercialisation of "dance music" which was especially apparent in the Trance genre (even today). Cream of yesteryear was a very different beast to what it is today and Euphoric/Balearic House anthems are some of the most enduring to this day.

Flaming June & For and Angel were definitely top Cream anthems of their day.

Solar Stone is trance. The rest of them aren't really or are crossover tracks - Oakey/PvD faves of days gone by though they may be ! Of the non-euphoric stuff, Xpander, Humate & Godspeed are all light progressive house tracks with more commercial appeal than some of their purer counterparts.

The influence in Godspeed is correctly termed Breakbeat if I'm not mistaken - a distinctive style breaking the 4 to the floor beat, a new alternative to the usual use of euphoric breakdowns which had become ubiquitous in both trance and progressive house releases. Or else breakbeat tracks were used to start/end sets.

This "phase" basically kicked off 1998ish. Hybrid - Wide Angle is one of the best examples of a 'progressive breakbeat' album out there. If you missed it check it out. It's pure genius and one set of vinyl I couldn't bring myself to part with. Played it over and over back in the day. On CD now :

http://www.ukrecordshop.com/item/hybrid-wider-angle.html

The pure breakbeat classic masterpiece from BT is "Fibonacci Sequence", which is a far cry from his epic prog house journeys of IMA and commercial vocal hits like "Dreaming". Here it is in all its glory :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pa0IJmSBW08

As the decade ended we moved on to Lawler & Pappa. Lawler's Nubreed Global Underground CDs marked the proper start of the "progressive/Tribal" era in 1999/2000 !!!! Loved it. Don't care what anyone says about "Tribal" or how the term later became another "no no" due to misuse and rubbish releases.. just check out the track listing on THIS :

http://www.discogs.com/Steve-Lawler-Global-Underground-Nubreed-003/release/75633

.. was about the time trance heads carried on along their own distinctive banging path ... and us progsters chucked our secret trance collections away to get all deep and dirty :lol:. Enter the '00s and the "great divide" ;) !!
 
135BPM? And the rest :lol:

Here are some of my favourites from those years... there are more (and I have them on vinyl, too!)

BT - Flaming June (Paul Van Dyk Remix) [1997]
Binary Finary - 1998 (Paul Van Dyk Remix) [1998]
Delirium - Silence (Tiesto's In Search of Sunrise Remix) [2000]
System F - Out Of the blue [1998]
Gouryella - Gouryella [1999]
Paul Van Dyk - For An Angel [1998]
 
Wouldn't that count as deep house?

Trance isn't really trance anymore. It's lost alot of the repetitiveness, and the BPM has dropped by about 10 per miniute
 
Ikoda said:
Trance isn't really trance anymore. It's lost alot of the repetitiveness, and the BPM has dropped by about 10 per miniute
Click to expand...

You could say that about much of the techno that gets played out these days too. There isn't a big demand for the harder/faster stuff anymore. People's tastes have diversified a lot over the years...

1999 -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glxIQhLZ1BI&feature=related

Some Detroit trance coming in at 12.40 :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top