So you wanna see what this trance stuff is?
Not to bash darktremor's article on this at all, it's brilliant. But I think it can be done much better. I'm doing this from the "mainstream perspective" (that is, you listen to mainstream radio, heard a whisper about trance, and wanna see what this stuff is all about.) My list will attempt to do that. Here's a few tips before I proceed:
As darktremor said: Do NOT go on your favourite Internet downloading program, type the name of an electronic music genre, and download everything you see. You will wind up with the dreadful shit your midlde-aged next-door neighbor going through a midlife crisis created and subsequently hate EDM and all who listen to it without even hearing what we're all about.
As darktremor said: Do NOT confuse your EDM genres. This can lead to drastic consequnces.
And a personal tip from me: If someone in your school or work listens to trance or house, ask them about it! If they give you some of the songs I'm about to give ya, they know their stuff. Good for them. If they don't, they may have different tastes than me. But regardless, ask them about it, as they might be able to give you a clearer definition of it than I (which is not very clear to begin with.)
Sooooo, let's do this thingy! The tracks you want when you're getting your feet wet are:
"Born Slippy"- Underworld
"Insomnia"- Faithless
"Somnambulist"- BT
"Silence"- Delerium (Tiesto Remix)
"Liberation"- Matt Darey
"Castles In The Sky"- Ian van Dahl
"Honey"- Billie Ray Martin (Chicane Clb Mix)
"I Want You"- Kyra vs Velez (George Acosta Remix)
Try those. I included them for very specific reasons: 1) They're not extensively hard on the ears and 2) At this point in your EDM life, you're probably still very cautious about songs without lyrics. All those are lyrical tunes (and very good ones, at that.) After you think you're ready to move on-ah! But how do you know you're ready to move on? Well, usually when you think you're ready, pick a song that follow and download it. If it's a little abrasive to the ears, you're not quite ready. If it sounds good, keep going. The next wave of tunes you should get have easily loved melodies and more complex vocal tunes. At this point, you should be trying to obtain:
"Endless Wave"- Kamaya Painters
"Children"- Robert Miles
"Perception"- Cass & Slide (New Vocal Mix)
"Ghosts"- Tenth Planet
"The Reachers Of Civilization"- York
"Cloudwalking"- Pulser
"Carte Blanche"- Veracocha
"Seven Days And One Week"- BBE
"Flaming June"- BT
"Love Simulation"- Humate (Paul van Dyk Lovemix)
"Das Glockenspeil"- Schiller (Humate Mix)
"For An Angel"- Paul van Dyk
"Everything Goes"- Ferry Corsten
"Seven Cities"- Solarstone
"Ayla"- Ayla (Taucher Remix)
The rules for moving on are the same as above. Here, we're gonna get into some more subtle and complex melodies, and only the cream-of-the-crop vocal tunes will be worthy of inclusion.
"Suburban Train"- DJ Tiesto
"Xpander"- Sasha
"Netherworld"- LSG
"Cream"- Blank & Jones
"1998"- Binary Finary (Gouryella Remix)
"Greece 2000"- Three Drives
"Out Of Body Experience"- Rabbit In The Moon
"Strange World"- Push
"Gamemaster"- Lost Tribe
"Troya"- Oddysee Of Noises
"Cafe del Mar"- Energy 52 (Three N One Remix)
And moving on again. These tracks sometimes lose melody, going instead for repitition (which is not neccessarily a bad thing.) You'l find a good amount of classic trance and psytrance in here, but you still haven't graduated yet.
"We Came In Peace"- Dance 2 Trance
"Age Of Love"- Age Of Love
"Access"- DJ Misjah & DJ Tim
"Papua New Guinea"- Future Sound Of London
"Voyage"- Yahel
"Last Train To Lhasa"- Banco de Gaia
"Heliopolis"- Banco de Gaia
And now the final step. Once you can appreciate these tracks, you're a trance listener.
"Teleport"- Man With No Name
"Mahadeva"- Astral Projection
"Paraglide"- Paragliders
"Sly-Ed"- Man With No Name
"Dreams"- Quench
"Oasis"- Paragliders
"Aurora Borealis"- Astral Projection
And if you want some mixes to help you along as opposed to downloading individual tracks, these are personal favourites of mine:
In Search Of Sunrise 1, 2, and 3
Tranceport
Anjunabeats Volume 3
Nyana
Magik 3,4,and 5
I've also heard great things about Northern Exposure, though I've never been able to get it myself.
And there you have it! Hopefully your journey on the path of Trancehood is successful.
Nice list! I like your step-by-step layout even if there are some songs i believe are in the wrong step (I'm thinking Cream should be in the one above, being in my opinion more accessible to an outsider).
Do you download any of your songs/albums/mixes or do you buy them all? If you download them what program do you use? Although limewire/ bear share may be good for some of the higher ones on this list (more popular ones with the mainstream) and tiesto's albums are readily available, soulseek is definately the program for rarer and older songs/albums/mixes. You WILL definately find Northern Exposure there, i managed to get all 3 from there and rarer albums/songs than them also. Hope that helps, if you don't know the tracklisting for Northern Exposure, http://www.discogs.com/release/36165, that should make you realise how good NE is. Like darktremor says, it sounds even better than the individual songs when they are mixed like this, one huge perfect track.
I actually have my buddy J T Vu download almost every song I own, but I occaionally buy mixes of my own. He uses a combination of Limewire and Soulseek.
Yes, I agree this is much better than my article on getting into trance. I never thought of approaching the subject this way (plus, my list is horribly out-of-date, and I've never thought of approaching it).
Just one tip though: perhaps add a "neo-trance and minimal" section at the end. You could also add a couple "bridge" tracks that contain some of the more difficult elements of the next list, but aren't as difficult as the list to come. I'd consider Suburban Train as the first bridge simply because I know many new to trance who love Suburban Train. It's often the perfect bridge between vocal and non-vocal trance.
Anyways, really brilliant article, I really like this a lot. Fantastic work.
Both very good ideas! I'll certainly consider the bridge idea.
As for the minimal idea, though, I'll be frank- I'm pretty much terrified to get into that stuff. Should I just download off your list?
Yeah, but download the stuff that I've labelled "great for trance people!" and the more difficult stuff will eventually follow. Don't let the "minimal" title turn you off, it's not minimal at all. The only reason its called minimal is because everyone calls it minimal, and no one has bothered to change the name of the scene that produces it (which was the same scene that created minimal techno in the 90s). That, and the beats are sometimes tiny, so more complex rhythms can be created under the melodies.
Some tracks to start with, that you're almost guaranteed to like:
The Field - Sun & Ice
Kaito - Hundred Million Lightyears
The MFA - The Difference It Makes
Aril Brikha - Silver
Alex Smoke - Chica Wappa
Chateau Flight - Baroque
The Rice Twins - For Penny and Alexis
Jurgen Paape - Mit Dir
Justus Kohncke - So Weit We Noch Nie
Michael Mayer - Amanda (this is getting a little bit more difficult here)
Even my epic trance obsessed girlfriend likes some of those tracks. They're a really good starting point.
This is probably the only genre on earth whose popularity is widely limited by the genre name alone, seeing as I could see some of these tracks hitting the top 40 dance charts.
Excellent. I will make a point to look into these. Much thanks!
Northern Exposure is more difficult than the other mixes you've posted, but it's more rewarding in the long run. It's more ambient, and has a stronger flow to it (in other words, Sasha is much better at putting tracks together than someone like Tiesto - the end of one track and the beginning of another is just about unfathomable at some points in the mix - it's almost like one big song, but the energy levels go together too - Sasha made a technically advanced mix that has that artistic "journey" feel to it. Plus all of the tracks are classics). Definitely get a hold of it, I consider it to be the best mix CD of all time. I suggest finding a way to work it into the list somewhere, as it's essentially perfect.
Excellant list, however you have in your "hardest to appreciate section" 4 goa trance songs and 3 Classic Trance songs, all of these (Except SLy Ed) i own and have shown to non trance listeners and can be appreciated, whereas a lot of more Ambient-ish stuff, or a lot of songs on NE1 a lot of Non Trance listeners will not like/appreciate. I think the reason for this is that Goa And Classic Trance is still very melodic and in a very basic way therefore, it can be appreciated by many. Ambient is much more texture based so therefore needs more listening and adressing? Well, that's how i look at it anyway. Awesome list nonetheless :D
sorry edit to that last post meant minimal/minimal trance not ambient.
You could be right, dude...but as I said, I'm afraid of minimal. The songs I do want my buddy J T Vu is in the process of getting for me. However, this may take a while.
i got into trance and EDM by listening to a lot of new order remixes (felix the housecat`s here to stay remix is really good), listening to trance and house on internet radio, then reading simon reynolds` generation ecstasy to get a feel for the history of the genre. but i never felt like certain songs were too deep or minimal for me- i just didnt like everything i heard.i think that you can be a fan of trance or dance music and just not like certain things... it doesnt really mean youre not a fan of trance if you dont like the deeper stuff on this list, although if you dont like papa new guinea you are sort of an idiot