Sonntag, 6. Aug 2006, 18:58
I figured I could write this, my personal trance top 10
Bottom to top, I'll give an opinion on each entry
10. Fictivision vs C-Quence - Symbols (Original mix)
This is the song that started it for me about 3 years ago. I was listening to the radio, and during this song I noticed how my thoughts were drifting to the sound of the music. That's when I first became aware of the music that is trance and how the sound gets to me. A long journey started after identifying this one (I even asked the radio host personally for the title which I didn't catch back then). Nowadays I've grown a bit tired of it, and it sounds a bit outdated compared to my biggest favorites, but it still has a special place for me.
9. Rank 1 - Awakening
This song just starts up, grabbing you right away with it's throbbing base and starts speeding faster & harder towards the breakup. A very good example of a great Trance buildup. I don't care that it is considered super cheesy Dutch trance /Supersaw trance, the way the Rank 1 guys have this one fly towards the fantastic booming strings after the break is a thrill to hear every time.
8. Karen Overton - Your Loving Arms
One of the best female vocals I have ever heard, with such goddamn sweet lyrics. Even though it's quite simple, it rides on Karen's beautiful, relaxed vocals, getting support from a perfectly tuned bassline and the occasional saxophone sounds.
7. David West - Carrier
This song is a brilliant example of how good breaks can sound in trance music. The melody doesn't reach such heights as the use of breakbeats or the quality of the buildups, but it's just a great song by the genious that brought me Hello Strings (see Number 1).
6. Jody Wisternoff - Cold Drink, Hot Girl
What a friggin fantastic title, was what I thought the first time I read it while hearing the song. Just makes the song even better, setting the tone for being one of my ultimate summer tunes. On top of the simple yet genious melody, there's those fantastic violins. Never gets boring this one, and is of course most enjoyable on a hot summer day.
5. Cygnus X - Superstring (Rank 1 remix)
Needs no introduction I presume. The ultimate classic if you ask me, every single time I hear it, it's as beautiful as ever. It wasn't the track that started it for me, but it's one of the first ones that really spoke to my imagination. And that's why I like trance music so much, speaks to my mind, I can envision whole worlds listening to it.
4. Re:Locate - Rogue
THE 2006 trance tune for me. If I had to choose one trance song to dance to, it'd be this one. Starts rather banging until that simple melody with great arpeggio's builds in. Has this Marco V feel to it, reminding me of Automanual, but it's just A LOT better.
3. Perasma - Swing 2 Harmony (Deserves An Effort Polyphony Vocal Mix)
Nope, not the Gabriel and Dresden remix, but the one by Edu Jimenez. Even though I like the beginning of the Gabriel and Dresden remix more, this one just comes out better as a whole. Love those mysterious lyrics, that great melody and the way the song just peaks and builds up in this remix, with those epic strings floating over it.
2. Hydroid - Blue Tubes (Ava Mea remix)
Galen Behr is a very gifted guy. He's exactly my age, but what he produces just blows my mind away. I'm pretty sure I have not heard a single thing he worked on that I did not REALLY like. He has turned this track by Hydroid (who I think sounds a bit too cheesy on most of his tracks) into a thing of pure beauty. Again, such a wonderfull title that really speaks to the imagination. I just love how this track sounds so unique. It's so relaxed, with the strings hovering around it, the strange oscillating sounds that you hear in the beginning, and that out-of this-world melody. Who needs drugs? I just close my eyes and listen to trance like this!
1. Synergy - Hello Strings (XDR Rework)
Anybody who knows me and my musical tastes will have heard me talk about this track. Absolute, pure, 100% Musical Perfection. The first time I heard Armin Van Buuren (god, I owe so much to him) play it (the original version) on DI.FM I was dazzled by it. I chose the XDR rework because it's an extended version of the original, clocking in at 11.06 instead of 5.54.
From start to finish it takes me on a journey. Never ever will I skip this song or any of it's remixes during a shuffle. I have no words to describe how perfect this song is, the best buildup ever, goddamn amazing vocal samples, and VIOLINS, oh the violins! Synthetic violins on sturdy bassline, backed up by vibrating strings and eventually an amazing breakbeat and tumbling synths. It just goes so damn deep, this song, never lets you go for the whole ride. And there has of yet been no song that I consider superior to Hello Strings.
This song embodies what Trance is about for me, music that takes you away, that induces emotions, that goes straight to my brain and works onto my imagination. For sure this will get played at my funeral…
Trance music. The genre I choose above all, because it is the most intelligent, most refined and most powerfull form of sound. All the rest is mere fun & play compared to this. My sincerest respect and thanks to all the artists out there that can make machines & silicon chips speak to my soul.
I urge anyone reading this to try the songs I have listed here, who knows what you'll think of it ;)