Recommend me some trance?

I have been waiting to do this for a while, and now that I have 30 years of listening to dance music under my belt, I wanted to put together a mix of my absolute favourite tracks from each year.

But I also wanted to have the mix flow chronologically, which made for some tricky transitions at times.

Some interesting data to nerd out on:

Trance makes up 83.33% of my favourites, with 1 track (3.33%) each of other genres going to Breakbeat, Drum & Bass, Dubstep, House and Synthpop (all of them being one the trancier side of things).

53.33% have properly sung vocals, with the only vocalist to feature multiple times being Emma Hewitt.
Only 1 vocalist is male.

Will Atkinson is the most frequent producer, popping up 3 times and 3 years in succession.
The only other producers to appear multiple times are Andy Duguid, BT, and Ralphie B, twice each.

I hope some of you enjoy going on my personal musical journey :)

hearthis.at

kr00t0n - 3 Decades

by kr00t0n on hearthis.at | Trance
hearthis.at hearthis.at

Libra Presents Taylor - Anomaly - Calling Your Name [1995]
Ken Doh - Nakasaki [1996]
Rodd-Y-Ler - Lifesigns [1997]
Binary Finary - 1998 (Paul van Dyk) [1998]
Hybrid - Finished Symphony [1999]
Coast 2 Coast - Home [2000]
Ralphie B - Massive [2001]
Green Court - Silent Heart (Flutlicht) [2002]
Adam Sheridan - Lektrik [2003]
Tranquility Base - Surrender [2004]
Lost Witness - Home (Mike Shiver) [2005]
Primer - Everlast (Ben Gold) [2006]
Albert Vorne - Formentera What (Gareth Emery) [2007]
The Thrillseekers - The Last Time [2008]
Armin van Buuren - Unforgivable (First State Smooth) [2009]
Lange - Live Forever (Mat Zo) [2010]
Andy Duguid - Strings [2011]
Velvetine - The Great Divide (Seven Lions) [2012]
Andy Duguid - Skin & Bones [2013]
Aly & Fila - For All Time (Avenue One) [2014]
Andrew Bayer – Celestial [2015]
Stoneface & Terminal - Lost [2016]
Dogzilla - Without You (Will Atkinson) [2017]
Will Atkinson - Seventh Heaven [2018]
JES - Imagination (Will Atkinson) [2019]
BT - No Warning Lights [2020]
Magdalena Bay - Chaeri [2021]
Activa & Slipstream - Cassini [2022]
Caroline Polachek - Fly To You [2023]
Aeon Shift - Another World [2024]
 
dave28 said:
72 million views but I just dont find anything particularly special about it
Click to expand...

I find a lot of trance these days feels by the numbers, well produced and textbook perfect but lacks the soul and expression of classic trance - you just can't lose yourself in it like a good trance track of the 90s.
 
Last edited:
Been listening to a lot of older mixes recently. Though one thing that I would like is to listen to some high tier mixing. After listening to various D&B genres for years I've found the trance and hardcore DJs just don't come close to the good D&B DJs and really feel like there could be some more creativity in this space. Though hopefully there is, and I've just not found it. Any recommendations?
 
The_Arbiter said:
Been listening to a lot of older mixes recently. Though one thing that I would like is to listen to some high tier mixing. After listening to various D&B genres for years I've found the trance and hardcore DJs just don't come close to the good D&B DJs and really feel like there could be some more creativity in this space. Though hopefully there is, and I've just not found it. Any recommendations?
Click to expand...

I think that tends to be more the style of trance. A "good" trance mix tends to be well blended and merged into the next, typically with vocal overlays fading from one to another without ever losing the beat, apart from during breakdowns of course.

Garage/DnB/Dubstep/HipHop offers more ability to chop/cut/break with scratching and effects added in which can be more technical. Tracks are more diverse. The result tends to be mixes which grab you with more impact when they're high level, which gives the impression of being better perhaps because they are more interesting.
Even though trance and house are both 4/4, house DJ sets tend to be more creative and energetic (see James Hype).

I listen to a fair bit of trance mostly via ASOT channel, but none of the DJs are particularly well known to me as ones I'd rate on a technical level. It's more they play stuff I like.
 
Rroff said:
I find a lot of trance these days feels by the numbers, well produced and textbook perfect but lacks the soul and expression of classic trance - you just can't lose yourself in it like a good trance track of the 90s.
Click to expand...
Listened to a fair bit of trance back in the day, but missed the electric guitar work so ended up back with prog rock or light metal.

However... still fire up some of the old Euphoria CD's from time to time and I've also developed a taste for Synthwave which, while not exactly trance, is good electronica and the bonus is that bands like Dance With The Dead, Pertubator or Kalax will suddenly throw in a curved ball with an electric guitar or saxophone sequence.
 
jaybee said:
I think that tends to be more the style of trance. A "good" trance mix tends to be well blended and merged into the next, typically with vocal overlays fading from one to another without ever losing the beat, apart from during breakdowns of course.

Garage/DnB/Dubstep/HipHop offers more ability to chop/cut/break with scratching and effects added in which can be more technical. Tracks are more diverse. The result tends to be mixes which grab you with more impact when they're high level, which gives the impression of being better perhaps because they are more interesting.
Even though trance and house are both 4/4, house DJ sets tend to be more creative and energetic (see James Hype).

I listen to a fair bit of trance mostly via ASOT channel, but none of the DJs are particularly well known to me as ones I'd rate on a technical level. It's more they play stuff I like.
Click to expand...
Yeah, due to trance being so melody lead, you have more issues with creative mixing and the like. Hard house djs used to be able to be way more tricksy in their mixing for that same reason.

J00f puts a lot of effort into crafting journeys, but is more underground in vibe than epic/uplifting trance.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom