Why I Think The New Trance Nation Album Sucks. Part 8. The Finale
Over the past 7 articles I’ve been explaining why I think this album. The new Trance Nation album. Sucks. It’s basically been because I think they could and should have included some of the best from the last decade or so that the UK has for the most part missed out on. As my history lesson has shown, this album has not delivered anything different instead opting for the old format of delivering old/classic tracks.
The track listing for this album is as follows Disc: 1
- Insomnia (Monster Mix) — Faithless
2. Born Slippy (Nuxx) — Underworld
3. Sandstorm — Darude
4. Adagio for Strings — Tiësto
5. On the Beach — York
6. Children — Robert Miles
7. Drifting Away — Lange feat. Skye
8. You’re Not Alone — Olive
9. Xpander — Sasha
10. Silence — Delerium feat. Sarah McLachlan
11. Not Over Yet — Grace
12. Take Me Away (Into the Night) — 4 Strings
13. Bullet in the Gun — Planet Perfecto
14. Bellissima — DJ Quicksilver
15. Superstring — Cygnus X
16. Synaesthesia (Fly Away) — The Thrillseekers
17. 1998 (Paul Van Dyk Remix) — Binary Finary
18. Time to Burn — Storm
19. The Vision — Mario Più
20. The Age of Love — Age of Love
Disc: 2
1. 9 PM (Till I Come) — ATB
2. Cafe del Mar — Energy 52
3. Salt Water — Chicane
4. Castles in the Sky — Ian Van Dahl
5. Touch Me — Rui Da Silva feat. Cassandra
6. Toca Me — Fragma
7. Greece 2000 — Three Drives
8. Seven Days and One Week — B.B.E.
9. God Is a DJ — Faithless
10. Luvstruck — Southside Spinners
11. Encore une fois — Sash!
12. Heaven — DJ Sammy & Yanou feat. Do
13. Nightmare — Brainbug
14. Meet Her at the Love Parade — Da Hool
15. The Launch — DJ Jean
16. On the Move — Barthezz
17. Played-A-Live (The Bongo Song) — Safri Duo
18. Loneliness — Tomcraft
19. Kernkraft 400 — Zombie Nation
20. Set You Free — N-Trance
Disc: 3
1. The Theme — Jurgen Vries
2. Operation Blade (Bass in the Place) — Public Domain
3. ResuRection — PPK
4. Lizard (Gonna Get You) — Mauro Picotto
5. As the Rush Comes — Motorcycle
6. Beachball — Nalin & Kane
7. Something — Lasgo
8. Gouryella — Gouryella
9. Carte Blanche — Veracocha
10. Airwave — Rank 1
11. Out of the Blue — System F
12. Warrior — Warrior
13. Punk — Ferry Corsten
14. Communication — Armin van Buuren
15. Fire Wire — Cosmic Gate
16. El Nino — Agnelli & Nelson
17. Sun & Moon — Above & Beyond feat. Richard Bedford
18. Ayla — Ayla
19. I Feel Love — CRW
20. Madagascar — Art Of Trance
So it’s not new and as I’ve explained, it’s not innovative in any way. Which begs the question. What exactly would I include in a project like this? Well in this the finale I’m going to explain and show you what could have been on the album. Most of these tracks have come from Europe but there are some tracks that were available on UK albums which I’ll point out as we go.
Let’s start with the Sean Tyas remix of the classic Fly Away by Vincent de Moor Which at least holds true to the original version.
Another one that does that is the Alex MORPH remix of Verracocha and Carte Blanche.
One track that was on a U.K album more specifically the Trance Nation collection album and was produced as a tribute to those who lost their life in the love parade accident in Berlin. For those that don’t know. Here’s what happened. On July 24th 2010, more than 500 people were injured and 21 people were killed after panic broke out due to overcrowding in the tunnel entrance of the Loveparade festival grounds. A tragedy, not only for those involved, but for the entire dance scene. To help support the victims family members, persons injured and remember the spirit of the famed dance event, three world-famous DJ’s united. UK, The Netherlands and Germany are represented by Paul Oakenfold, Armin van Buuren and Paul van Dyk, coming togetherto make a trance anthem called ‘Remember Love’.
Then there’s the emergence of a fairly old artist but with a new style. Para X and Skytunes 2.0.
Lets get into the vocals. There’s plenty of tracks here that have a very dreamy vocal section in the middle of the track before some kind of tune afterwards and Trance Arts were really good at that. Here’s Cinematic.
All too often the idea of remixing an absolute classic is a very tricky subject. More often than not it goes wrong, very wrong. Looking at recent remixes of Ayla by Ayla for example and Comin on Strong by Signum, the latter of which has a good enough break down but is let down by being effectively turned into a trance house crossover when the beat eventually drops. So when Jorn Van Dynhoven remixed Shine by the Space Brothers there was a feeling of “oh he’d better get this right” or “he’s going to ruin it” but as it turns out he did get it right. This was a huge remix and proof that Jorn is one of the best in the business.
Then there’s a track featuring an old vocal favourite. Kirsty Hawkshaw has featured on many trance hits in the past and here many years on her voice returns with Nektarios and Dawn.
Sticking with vocals and another track from the Trance Nation collection album Above and Beyond are back with a remake of. On a Good Day.
Lets get a bit more dreamy now from the Trancemaster series, more specifically volume 6004. The Green Point and The Power of Love.
Staying dreamy and the second track from Para X, this one is called Sensations of Summer which appeared on Tunnel Trance Force but only a minute and a half of it.
Remember what I said about dreamy vocals? How about this effort from RAM their first appearance in this finale. This is literally a brand new track at the time this was put together. Here is Forever and a Day.
From one incredible vocal to one which I think is even more intense. Susanna and Only Summer Knows.
Back briefly to the start of the decade when Shogun were about trance and not EDM which they became known for they produced a couple of stunners. (Again totally my opinion) Here is a track simply titled Save Me.
Then there’s the simple sounding remixes that often work. Trancemaster 7003 featured the original mix of Tonight by Karanda which isn’t exactly a track that turns heads. But the Tom Fall remix on the other hand just works superbly.
Then there’s a non vocal dreamy number from Jason Van Wyk and September Rain.
September Rain was the second track of note from Jason Van Wyk as it capitalised on the little bit of success that the previous track had. Far From Me
Sticking with the dream theme. A very random (on paper at least) track by an artist that was simply known as Ingsha and a track called Niavara but remixed by an established name in the form of Manuel Le Saux.
Then there’s the equally dreamy quality of Alcatraz by Stonevalley which made an all to brief 2:10 appearance on Trance 100. Again it emphasised how much of a promotional shop window that album series really was.
Then there’s another track by Para X that was worthy of note. Their higher state and almost dream like style coming to the fore again with Break of Dawn.
Then we get to see the beauty of good remixing personified with the next track. Pulstate and Juventa and the track called Somnia was an OK track but nothing too special until Jorn Ven Deynhoven got hold of the track and turned it into an old style trance classic.
Trancemaster 7006 was the last Trancemaster album and was released in 2012. 20 years after the release of the ground breaking volume 1. The original trance compilation series had run it’s course. But it went out with a bang. The album to my and many others surprise contained this absolute gem. One last hurrah. Ram and RAMplify
Lets reintroduce some vocals into the equation and proof that Jorn Van Deynhoven has been one of the remixers of the decade (his produced stuff has been worth checking out too) Here’s his remix of Full Tilt and Letting Go.
Then there’s Adam Ellis and the vocals of Fenna Day and What Makes Your Heart Beat. A track where the arrangement of the vocals reminds me of Tiesto and Just be from 10 years before this track was released.
Lets come back to the UK albums for just one moment here because I don’t want you to think it was all bad on the UK front. Some albums did try to give us a good taste of what was out there. This track appeared in a non vocal form on the 2010 Dave Pearce Trance Anthems CD. An Album that did admittedly give us two CDs of classics before the usual Ministry of Sound trick of a token modern CD (Usual trick at that time). Here’s Angel 2010 by De Donatis & Ciacomix
Another remixed track from the past done right, Alex M.O.R.P.H has a way of doing things like this just right. Here’s his take on 1998 by Binary Finary
Can the girls out do the boys in terms of quality remixing work? Claudia Cazacu’s work tells us that the answer is a definite yes. I love this remake she did of Everywhere I Go by the Space Brothers. Breathing a new life into what was always an incredible track. Again this track did feature in the tunnel trance force series but only 1:30 of it and only the intro at that. Here’s the full vocal version.
What about a track from Claudia? Well this actually featured on Trance Awards Euphoria which again proves that the U.K based albums were capable of bringing over decent tracks when they felt like it. Here’s her track called Free Falling
The powerful vocals of Susana make a return with the added production of James Dymond and a track called The Love You Are Made Of.
Another similar type of tune but from a very unlikely source. A track from A State of Trance 2017 album. Bobby Neon and What You Said. (sorry about the distorting image by the way, just close your eyes while this is on).
But to prove that there’s still room for the Euro type trance that set the scene on the continent apart from the U.K there were tracks like Light-speed by Icone.
The Euro type sound has often been a bit more of a harder variety compared to the equivalent here in the U.K and that’s true with Motion by Zylone.
Another hard trance euro style riff that came from the Tunnel Trance Force stable and a track that they clearly liked given that this track features properly in the series at more than 4 minutes. 44 Desert Eagle and Catch a Flatline
Then there’s the standard Euro trance sound with the harder edge. Sunnics and Trip to Paradise
Then there’s another look at the joys of remixing. Tube Tonic with a hard take on Ian Van Dhal’s track Try. I’m not going to say this is as good as the Alphazone track but this is still a very good effort in the context of the Modern Era
This was the follow up a couple of years later. Same artist, Tube Tonic, same remixer, DJ Space Raven. The track called Call For Help
A hard sound from the face of the Tunnel Trance Force series DJ Dean and a track that while being extremely basic also works really well. Power System.
Every now and then Trancemaster gave us a mental banger of a track amongst all of it’s progressive bliss. Step forward Kuffdam & Plant with their track Maziko
Back to Tunnel Trance Force and a return of the remixing prowess of DJ Space Raven. Here is Michel Moriny and Departing To A
And here’s another track from the Tunnel Trance Force stable and again a track that only got about 2 minutes of CD time on the album but the full version is well worth a listen. NG Rezonance and Prometheus
And there you go. 40 tracks on this article which if you take the ones from last time as well gives us around 50 neglected by the U.K tracks. And that’s been the basis of this entire series. I reiterate the point that CD’s are dying out slowly in a world of digital downloads where people want to listen to things on the move. Not a new concept but the need o lugging around CD’s or tapes in a bag is not only old hat but annoying and inconvenient. A CD album needs to be fresh and capture the public if it wants to be relevant but this Trance Nation album wasn’t it. I’ve explained in the last 8 articles how this idea is nothing new and I’ve explained how the scene in the UK was by comparison a bit left behind by the mid 00’s.
The biggest tragedy for me is that for many who loved this type of music in its heyday in the late 1990’s are probably not even aware that these tracks even exist. It’s hard to blame any one entity for this but for me it’s the big players like Ministry of Sound who had a clear vision for where they wanted to go and to hell with anyone or thing that thought differently. After Euphoria and Gatecrasher albums started to be handled by Ministry of Sound they started to go down the classics route almost at the expense of anything else and albums released in the last 2 years. The new Euphoria album or the Lost in Trance album in addition to the Trance Nation album was a rehashed album of classics which the general public have become tired of by now. And it’s at the expense of things like what you’ve heard here.
Of course I say this as if money is no object and licensing is the easiest thing in the world but there’s little doubt in my mind that these issues combined with public trends mean that this is the way the industry has gone. Will it change? Yes it will because the tastes from one generation to the next is bound to. But in what direction? That’s up for debate.
We’ll finish this series with a chill out version of Children by Robert Miles. A reminder that you don’t need beats and drops to have a great electric experience. Thank you for reading and there will be more from me soon.