Old School Trance

[Nick P]

Is it just me, or were the good old days of trance where it was at?

Sure, the sounds are cliche now, and the synths may sound pretty lame, but I can't get over how much I love the sound of trance from '95-'99 or so. Its just such fun stuff, and it brings back all sorts of good memories. By comparison modern trance lacks the same spirit of fun and euphoria, and while it follows the same formula as the oldschool stuff, its lacking.

Tracks like Cygnus X - Superstring (Rank 1 Mix), Signum - Coming on Strong, Cequenza - Cequenza, Binary Finary - 1999 (Gouryella Remix). They're all a bit cheese, and pretty lame, but man, they make me feel good.

Anyone else feel similarly?

[RayvinAzn]

I think every Prog-listener does boss I'm with you 100% though.

[Spherix]

with you all the way
the trancescene at the moment feels kinda stuck...

[Aquascape]

The tracks were more special a few years ago, when trance was relatively new and there are some classic tracks that will never be topped. There are however still some really decent artists producing some cracking tracks right now, there's just more dirt to sift through to find them these days.

[Watts]

And plus you're all getting older. I'm not saying you love it less, just that back then it would naturally be more memorable.

To be honest, the genre has changed so much its hard to compare the different 'ages' of trance.

[Anonymous]

I love Binary Finary

[davehart]

There is far to much boring prog going around at the moment. There needs to be more focus on the big buildup epic breakdown trance we used to love.

[RayvinAzn]

[DjBiz]

Loved the 99-00 Platipus Stuff...I think that sound was good for trance...

[Viceroy]

[Cooler]

[Nick P]

Few more tracks to remember..

Atlantis - Fiji
Der Dritte Raum - Hale Bopp (Jackdaws Mix)
Jan Johnston - Flesh (Paul Oakenfold Mix)
Mauro Picotto - Lizard
Art of Trance - Madagascar (Ferry Corsten Remix)

[GrimReaper]

I wouldn't really call the trance of -98-2000 old skool yet.. it's good alright but far from the greatness of the real old skool trancers of the early/mid 90s, especially on the German Eye-Q and Harthouse labels. Even PvD was good in mid 90s with his great remixes of Humate - Love Stimulation (1993) and Tranceparents - Child Two (1994) nad of course own productions back then.

[victory2120]

Just a word from down under. The trance scene in OZ seamed to hit its peek around 1998 to 2001 and its all sorta been down hill from there. So I tend to think any good tracks from that time is old school.
To mention a few Café Del Mar, Binary Finary And we can not go past Out Of the Blue. As far as I am concerned these tracks are the shit and nothing they have been coming up with these days even comes close, which I think is kinda sad but I guess you gota move with the times.

[Nick P]

Sadly, I think thats really the way it is everywhere.

[Cooler]

The main reason(s) why trance got so popular, was because of two major things:

#1 Trance was something new, the EDM scene was on it's way up, and trance was the best party music out there, also drugs were involved in almost every event/arramgement.
#2 Trance was simple, very, very simple stuff, kind of like the pop music selling thousands of records today. That's why so many loved it.

So here's also one of the reasons why trance isn't that popular IMO. I have at least three friends only "loving" the old classics from 98'-00'. To make trance as big as it was back in the days, I think one has to take some of the best techniques from the 90's and mix them with the creativity lots of producers have these days. Just to make an example: In Norway trance was seen on as the most popular music among teenagers in 2000-2001. It was said it was because people loved the simplicity in the tracks and the music also worked very well on the dance floor. Then in 2002, everything was gone, the club scene, the parties, the good sales, trance was suddenly nothing. And this was something happening all over Europe....kind of strange, but it just happened.

[Viceroy]

I can't agree with Cooler. Trance is still extremely popular, but it has changed and many people, including myself, think it has changed for the worse.
I also don't buy into the arguement that trance was popular because of its simpilicity. In a typical track, there are a lot of different things going on, unlike the music of other genres which typically has a drum, a couple of guitars and a vocal basically playing the track exactly the same, just on different instruments.
One more thing to ponder, is that producers today seem to have less creativity. Granted, there are still some creative producers; but many of the most popular are not as creative as those who created the classics from the "old days". In the last couple years, there have been no songs that became instant classics like Carte Blanche, 1999, ect.

[RayvinAzn]

[Cooler]

[andrea]

I think that Nick P is right, and im with him and i have the same feeling about Trance in general. Trance has changed a lot through the years. In the last trance tunes, i dont find the pure feeling of trance music and feeling of euphoria like in the years of 1993 - 1999.. Imo, i feel them all with the same bliss, maybe same structure,one after the other.. For example: ASOT is doing a great work,the tracks are good and have a better sound quality than before,but if u take 7 out of 10 of the tracks in an ASOT show,those 7 will have almost the same instruments or the bassline.. but on the other hand,i dont say that those people producing those tracks,are not talanted or something, i can say that they are doing a good and quality job..

another thing to agree with, is what Viceroy said: <..producers today seem to have less creativity. Granted, there are still some creative producers; but many of the most popular are not as creative as those who created the classics from the "old days". In the last couple years, there have been no songs that became instant classics like Carte Blanche, 1999, ect.> "less creativity"maybe true like i said before, that most of the tunes today seem almost the same.. Tracks made today by producers that have been to the scene for years, are of course much more different than the new producers productions...Much more "mature sound of trance" or something like that(dunno how exactly call it..). If u listen to an old track for ex. a 1997 track, and a new production of 2004 you will understand. But anyway, there are some good tracks coming out these days..but few,very few. In my opinion, something new has to come out and make a big bang in the trance scene, something that must stay Classic.

[andrea]

and also....due to the massive promotion of trance the last 2 years, the demand of new tunes every week has increased dramaticaly and also the fact that the computers have become stronger, enabled many wanna be producers to actually enter the scene by using only virtual intruments,cubase and reason and maybe a few hardware stuff...
therefore, we see so many releases per week and having so many relases per week, increases the chances of listening to similar melodies,similar sounds,similar structures and of course some junk

[Viceroy]

Something else I'd like to add is that the quality of much of today's production is much better than anything pre-1998, for the most part. It just sound better. So technically production is better, but creatively it is worse.

[fuser]

[fuser]

there is no logical correlation between sound quality and creativity. I don't find any factors that one inhibits the other... so I don't get it how producers managed to compromise creativity for better quality tracks.

Wouldn't be better if a creative producer of the 99' trance scene use the high-tech equipment of 2004? Why is it hard in other words to get both sound quality and creativity??? High sound quality does not restrict the creativity of any track imo and neither vice-versa!

[Viceroy]

[fuser]

[Feidias]

okay i have to add something mine too in this discussion : i think the main reason of losing creativity today is that the feeling that lead ppl to produce trance at first place is now gone, no one produces trance just because feels that way but because of the popularity and this is what SHUTS off trance ! the pop feeling entered for good in the trance scene or anyway SOME PPL left it enter the scene or even put it in the scene due to popularity again:)

today there is no trance there is jut pop/trance and its like a cancer which spreads all over the place

[fuser]

it all makes me think that is ASOT has a lot to do with it.....there's something that forces me to feel like this cancer has mainly originated from ASOT and generally Armada......anybody has the same feeling?


--> Viceroy, still waiting for that rephrasing

[andrea]

got the same feeling with fuser and feidias actually, the massive promotion i mentioned before, is brought from ASOT, and its obvious from the way it affects the today's scene. Less creativity is brought from the fact that computers became stronger (what i said before) and brought more new producers(who maybe have no good knowledge of trance like the old producers, but have the knowledge of the computers better...)..and here is where popularity comes, with trance becoming "big" to the ears of people today (through technology in a way)...so the pure feeling of producing trance is lost through the years, and becomes "mechanical".. so here we have the lack of the pure feeling of euphoria in the trance sound, which is now only in the old tracks.

[Spherix]

When the subject is up I just feel that I have to do a quote from an interview with Solar Stone when they got a question on how they thought that the trance scene would develop...