The year 2007 as a whole: what do you think?

[Viceroy]

I was wondering what you thought about the direction trance took as a whole in 2007. Personally, I think it was very positive. Quality seems to be improving overall, in my opinion, and there were a lot of crackers from all sectors of the trance world that came out.
Feel free to discuss your favourite tracks/artists/album in 2007, but also what you thought the trend was for trance overall.

[Stream]

I think the main improvement of 2007 was all the good online record stores popping up with easily accessible music!

[davehart]

I think Trance headed more into the tech and electro sound with the records that came out. It was a very good year for the genre as this years flood of artist albums due to come out will proove.

Jonas Steur's album was a favourite for me, loved every record of it.

Artists and labels are now very much embracing the digital world with most albums being digital only. Binary Finary's album has only come out in digital form. Some get a CD release but most are now digital first, CD maybe.

That way of releasing albums does take away something for me but does give you that extra in terms of the lack of restriction in editing the album for a CD, something which Airwave does not like about the CD album.

The whole dance scene is in good shape and Trance is as popular as ever with just more variation. Even though Tiesto said on a radio show this year "Trance is for the past", that may be for him but not for everyone as its here today and here to stay.

[Viceroy]

So what's Tiesto up to then, if he's moved away from trance?

[Hytex]

2007 was amazing! Lots of great tunes and new names! I would mention Sonic Division, Mat Zo, Paul Miller, Orange Project - new names which will rock in future I guess.
Also new productions by popular artists, they were really great. PvD's album - damn good thing!

[Radiosity]

Great year all round, certainly. Really loving the direction trance is heading at the moment with more dirty sounds and lots of layered buildups and so on (Mike Foyle's Firefly being a definite favourite of the layered buildup variety). And with some of the older acts still around but changing their styles and remaining fresh (4 strings comes to mind with Catch a Fall) I'm doubtful I'll be getting bored of trance any time soon

Overall I'm really excited for 2008 now, can't wait to see what comes out this year

Just a few of the acts that really stood out for me in 2007:

Mike Foyle - Firefly
4 Strings - Catch a Fall (and Mainline too)
Alex Kunnari - Lifter
Duderstadt feat Kirsty Hawkshaw - Beatitude (Marcus Schossow Mix)
Leon Bolier - Summernight Confessions (Sied Van Riel Mix)
Nenes & Pascal Feliz - Platinum
Persequor - Midnight Saviour (17k Mix)
Richard Durand feat Cassandra Fox - Hump Me In The Morning (awesome mashup! )
The Crossover - Quicksand (Joint Operations Centre Mix)
Sied van Riel - Sigh
Sassot - Suddenly (2nd Mix)
Ferry Corsten - Beautiful (probably one of my top 3 of the year)

Bah, way too many excellent releases to mention but these are definitely some of the best I heard through the year

[Thornael]

I agree it was a good year for trance, the sounds are evolving into a more dark, sinister and techier vibe. The musics are more dense and still maintain the mindblowing melodies. Here is my favourite trance of 2007:

A.T.P – Driftations (Marninx Dedicated Mix) & (Static Blue Mix) & (Kamil Polner & Lucas B Mix)
Abbott & Chambers – Never After (Original Mix)
Above & Beyond – Good For Me (Above & Beyond Club Mix)
Above & Beyond pres.Tranquility Base – Oceanic (Original Mix)
Adam Nickey – Never Gone (Above & Beyond Respray)
A-Force – Electronic Emotions (Original Mix)
Amex vs Saint Rush - Distant Worlds (Tragida Searching For New Worlds Mix) & (natlife remix)
Andy Prinz – Lost Inside The Senses (Trance Mix) & (Mellow Mix)
Bobina feat. Elles de Graaf – Lighthouse (Original Mix) & (Sean Tyas Dub)
Brendan Labonte - Finding a Way (Original Mix)
Cape Town - Metaphorique (Ferry Tayle Neverending Story Mix)
Chris Chambers & Static Blue - Dynamica (Signalrunners Remix)
Cold Blue & Del Mar - 11 Days
Darius – Eklipse (Silver DJ feat. Tragida Remix)
Dreas vs Mike Perry - Arctic Sweep (Original Mix)
Evbointh – One Wish (Original Mix) & (Daniel Kandi & Mark Andrez Remix)
Icone meets Static Blue – The Fall (Krivi Remix)
JPL – Mirakel (Original Mix)
Kamil Polner - C2 / Crystal Heaven
Kamil Polner & Michelle Richer - Equinox (Nitrous Oxide Remix)
Krivi – Sunrise In Boka (Original Mix)
Maor Levi – Reflect
Mark Arbor – Unspoken Words (Tragida Remix)
Markus Schulz Feat Carrie Skipper – Never Be The Same Again (Mike Shiver's Catching Sun Remix)
Natlife – Asia (Original Mix)
Nitrous Oxide - Morning Light/Orient Express
Purple Mood – One Night In Tokyo (Dj Shahs Savanah Remix) & (Above & Beyond Remix)
Rex Mundi – Perspective (Original)
Shifted Reality - Sunrise At The Beach (Original Mix)
Spirit & Dave - Afterglow (Tragida & Leuviah Remix)
Syna – Do You Feel (Original Mix)
Temple One – Forever Searching (Adam Nickey Remix) & (Original Mix)
Tragida – Dream Eyes (Original Mix) / My Pinky Lady (Original Mix)
Tragida vs Kaltflut - Blue Skies (Original Mix)
Underwater – Sleeping Under The Stars (Original Mix)

[Spherix]

I think it was a ok year! There were some very exciting releases and as davehart wrote it was alot of the more tech and electro sound!

[Viceroy]

I think a lot of the increase of electro is due to Ferry's shift away from his traditional uplifting stuff to electro. I know he didn't START the change, but he certainly made it more popular.