Posted by Budgie at May 25, 2005 09:37 PM

The old ones are the best....

Is Trance music still Trance music whether it was made in 1992 or 1998 onwards?

This post is prompted by a thread over on The Pipe Discussion board about the origins of said style of music. (click the forum link at the bottom of the page...)

The Trance scene has been going for nearly 15 years now and I claimed that the genre's blueprints were more or less laid down around about '91 / '92 and that the general idea of the genre hasn't really progressed since then. Yes, in '98 it came back to the fore, but production values aside, was it really doing anything new?

I'm not looking down on the genre, I remember those heady days of '92 when I was getting off on it in The Arches and The Tunnel in Glasgow. It was when I returned to The Arches in '97 after a lengthy break that I was left cold by the stuff that was being played and since then I haven't really heard anything that has made me sit up and take notice. My only exposure to Trance now is via HoC's very own Sie and his productions.

But this post isn't to have a dig at the current trend, it's more of a fond nod to a long time ago and to the tracks that made my clubbing days enjoyable.

If you were to describe Trance, you would definitely mention breakdowns, heavy synths and atmosphere bordering on the euphoric. Well, back in '92 the songs below had all of this...

I should point out that both tracks are Jam & Spoon productions, the reason for this really was that I only intended to put "Stella" up to prove a point, but whilst digging around for it I suddenly remembered about their remix of the Age Of Love track and knew that it had to go up for a fresh airing.

Track : JAM & SPOON - "STELLA"

Yes, the story in the "Trance" thread on the forum is true. I did once climb the speaker stack in The Arches and start a whooping and a hollering like a Red Indian to this track. But hey, that's what drinking too much Sol and Purdey's does to a fella and I will always remember it as one of my favourite clubbing moments, what with my mates all beckoning for me to come down whilst trying not to piss themselves laughing. Happy days.

I'm not going to say too much about "Stella", or the following track, as the point is really to show that these tunes have had a huge influence on shaping the Trance sound. So let your ears be the judge.

I will say this, "Stella" is sounding bloody great for a dance record that has been kicking about for 13 years now...

Track : AGE OF LOVE - "THE AGE OF LOVE (JAM & SPOON MIX)"

As I said above, this track immediately sprung to mind whilst looking for "Stella". I hadn't heard it for a long time until tonight and, again for a record 13 years old, I can't believe how good it still sounds.

It's not as "airy" as "Stella" and is a lot darker and harder, but again the blueprints of Trance can be heard.

The beauty of this track, aside from it actually sounding a bit like a sped up Belgian New Beat track, is the incredibly long build up to the main business of the tune. When this was played out the anticipation in the crowd for it all to kick off was palpable.

Go Visit : The History Of Trance @ Jahsonic

Go Buy : Jam & Spoon - Tripomatic Fairytales 2001

Feel free to leave a comment about these tracks in The Pipe section of the forum

Ta,
Budgie.