Coldharbour Sessions 2004
Back in the pre-millenium days, there was a genre of electronic music called "trance" that at its best was creative, lively, complex, multi-layered, and yes, entrancing. DJ's and producers including Sasha/Digweed, Jerry Bonham, Nick Warren, Paul van Dyk, and (sometimes, at least) Paul Oakenfold crafted brilliantly energetic and uplifting mixes from this music, which slowly but surely built an enthusiastic audience of clubbers, partiers, and headphone freaks in Europe and around the world.
However, as so often is the case in the entertainment business, success brought an overt watering-down of the music. Something called "Euro-trance" or "Dutch trance" almost overnight became the flavor of the month in electronic dance music, and there quickly emerged a horrifying proliferation of dull, samey, paint-by-numbers trance tracks and mixes that essentially ruined the genre almost completely. While "trance" numbers climbed the top 40 dance charts, people who craved something truly creative and original were forced to evolve their tastes toward progressive house, which tended increasingly toward darker-sounding textures and sounds.
Now, even as "progressive" dance music has tended to wither over the past several years, there are signs that higher-energy trance may be experiencing something of a creative comeback. This two-cd mix by Markus Schulz is certainly evidence of this. The music is fresh, uptempo (130+ bpm), complex, rich, and best of all, 100% cheese-free. For those who had despaired that what has become known as "trance" had totally devolved into Limburger, I can only recommend this set. It'll bring a smile to your face and maybe even tears to your eyes.
Genre : Trance, Electronic, Dance, Eurodance, Progressive.
Quality : FLAC
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