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Mystery Around Blank & Jones?

Hello Tranceaddicts friends!

Maybe some of you have the answer for me..

I have been asking this question for years and years but nobody has an answer for me... why did Blank & Jones suddenly stop producing Trance music and why does it seem like they do not want anything to do with it anymore. When people ask them questions about there trance career they fully ignore them. It's very noticeable.

I find that very mysterious. They where one of the Trance pioneers at the beginning of the millenium but suddenely it looks like they don't want to have nothing to do with Trance music anymore. The other strange thing I find is that we have never seen any new remixes of there tracks.. It looks like they have copyrighted and forbidden all other artists/DJ's to remix there old tracks..

The last couple of years they are producing Ambient music but still under the name of Blank & Jones and the same production team (Ren� Runge a.k.a Jaspa Jones, Piet Blank & Andy Kaufhold). Think of albums such as Milchbar, RELAX, Chilltronica and So80's.. some tracks aren't that bad but more likely to chill on when your on the beach or at a lounge room lol. I guess the thing is they just got old and went a more laidback way but for me this hasn't to be a reason to ignore your old (trance) fans by not answering them or at least show your face at a trance related event or something, a genre that made you who you are now! They really vanished from everything related to trance music. No invites to trance classic events (you aren't telling me they where never invited!), radioshows or anything. The only radioshow that still invites them is Sunshine Live but also there they play the slow ambient stuff..


Such a shame! They really had an own sound.. Such great trance producers one of the best ever if you asked me! Only a few artists come nearby the sound of these guys.. trance nowadays isn't produced like this anymore..

Well they may have consciously chosen to change direction for any number of reasons, ranging from personal taste to cater to their audience to simply commercial reasons or whatever. Or a combination.

What would they have been pioneering at the turn of the millennium? You might say they had their own typical sound from '98 - early noughties, if I remember correctly, but production-wise from a "trance" perspective they always lagged behind plenty others at the time. And alongside Piet Blank's DJing at events and Einslive Radio and the like it may in part have been remixes that led to some of their non-chart success, such as PvD's remix of "Cream". Perhaps Steve Thrillseekers Helstrip and Jam & Spoon's remixes of "Beyond Time"? The latter were some of the first tracks I came across when I began to familiarise myself with trance music back in 2000. They were different times.

Not sure what you mean by "copyrighting" and forbidding others to remix their tracks. Whether or not to have tracks remixed may be up to the record labels in question. Is new remixes what you're on about? No thanks, I'd say. And since they seem to have effectively left the trance scene there may be no incentive to re-release anything.

It would make no sense whatsoever for any DJ to show their face in a scene they're no part of, and haven't contributed to in any way production-wise for ages. Do they ignore questions about the matter in interviews? Or just when people facebook them annoying questions?

There's some (German) interviews easily googleable in which they seem to comment on some of their decisions re digital DJ'ing, making a living out of what they're doing at present.

You're obviously free to enjoy whatever you want, but there really are horizons to be broadened if you consider B&J to rank among the best in trance.

Well, they've been making Chillout albums since at least 2003, so it's not like they really made a drastic change - they just began focusing much more on that sound, either for personal or commercial reasons.

I never considered them to be very good, to be honest, and I wouldn't say they had too many bona fide 'classics,' so it's not overly surprising that they haven't had new remixes of their old work.

Really, I think you're reading far too much into this.

Thanks for the summary

quote:

Originally posted by Midlothian Well they may have consciously chosen to change direction for any number of reasons, ranging from personal taste to cater to their audience to simply commercial reasons or whatever. Or a combination. What would they have been pioneering at the turn of the millennium? You might say they had their own typical sound from '98 - early noughties, if I remember correctly, but production-wise from a "trance" perspective they always lagged behind plenty others at the time. And alongside Piet Blank's DJing at events and Einslive Radio and the like it may in part have been remixes that led to some of their non-chart success, such as PvD's remix of "Cream". Perhaps Steve Thrillseekers Helstrip and Jam & Spoon's remixes of "Beyond Time"? The latter were some of the first tracks I came across when I began to familiarise myself with trance music back in 2000. They were different times. Not sure what you mean by "copyrighting" and forbidding others to remix their tracks. Whether or not to have tracks remixed may be up to the record labels in question. Is new remixes what you're on about? No thanks, I'd say. And since they seem to have effectively left the trance scene there may be no incentive to re-release anything. It would make no sense whatsoever for any DJ to show their face in a scene they're no part of, and haven't contributed to in any way production-wise for ages. Do they ignore questions about the matter in interviews? Or just when people facebook them annoying questions? There's some (German) interviews easily googleable in which they seem to comment on some of their decisions re digital DJ'ing, making a living out of what they're doing at present. You're obviously free to enjoy whatever you want, but there really are horizons to be broadened if you consider B&J to rank among the best in trance.

I said they where one of the best in that time, don't misunderstand me, maybe I brought the message a bit incorrect. You don't have to have liked there sound, I personal did! I think I just miss the late 90's and early millenium trance sound in general than! For example next to B&J you had Green Court. They also had that typical sound that you don't hear anymore.

Offcourse today the day there are enough beautiful and quality productions, don't get me wrong but lot's of trance also has a mixture of EDM and pop music and that's a development I don't like at all. You have much more subcategories in trance today than you had in the past.

About the remixing yes in all those years I seartanly would have expected that some artist would remix one of there tracks into the sound of trance today, that's what I meant.. but if that is a good idea, that's the 2nd question and I have to agree with you with no thanks! Most classic tracks have to stay classic and will never get any better!

I guess they just went with the flow.. trance was way more commercial those days and when that went over they made that turn I guess. All about the money??

I'm not informed that well about these guys, that's why I had to start this topic, just to answer my questions. Thanks for that!

I never knew the Germans called them Bimmel & Bommel
I think they just went for the money at the time, if you can read German: https://www.tranceforum.info/forum/...jones/?pageNo=1

quote:

Originally posted by Trance-M I never knew the Germans called them Bimmel & Bommel I think they just went for the money at the time, if you can read German: https://www.tranceforum.info/forum/...jones/?pageNo=1

Thx lemme read!

tbh, if you don't come back to this video every once in a while then you have no soul.




I have this "exclusive" radio set by them from 2000, it's unicorn jizz goodness, are people here interested in me uploading it?

quote:

Originally posted by Viber tbh, if you don't come back to this video every once in a while then you have no soul. I have this "exclusive" radio set by them from 2000, it's unicorn jizz goodness, are people here interested in me uploading it?

Was going to post this and and actually technically it's quite advanced; They do this 3d effect on the drum roll on one of the breaks where the amount of compression is X and the wet dry is the Y.

This was a massive track even though not one of my favorites as such. They had tons of huge hits and to say they didn't have many bona fide classics is just nonsense.

This is also probably in my top 5 of all time:




I will say some of the chill tracks they wrote were amazing and sold really well. I'd even hazard a guess that they make WAY more money of the chill stuff then they ever did off Trance, but that more speaks to the state of trance vs Chillout music.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN I will say some of the chill tracks they wrote were amazing and sold really well. .

this is really a beautiful track

quote:

Originally posted by Viber tbh, if you don't come back to this video every once in a while then you have no soul. I have this "exclusive" radio set by them from 2000, it's unicorn jizz goodness, are people here interested in me uploading it?

Thx Viber & yes please!

Cream!!

What do you think of tracks such as, The Nightfly, Beyond Time, DJ Culture, Desire, After Love, Watching The Waves, Summer Sun, Nightclubbing (Wippenberg Remix).. if you can't appreciate those you definitely have no soul indeed

This one was a huge favorite of mine back then. Hard to believe 18 years have passed :/

quote:

Originally posted by Lownoise Thx Viber & yes please!

Here you go buddy, i didn't think i'll ever upload it, but it's gonna be a loooong time until i see another die-hard Blank and Jones fan so this is as good of time as any i guess.



Sorry for the exaggerated bass response, i recorded it when i was 12

quote:

Originally posted by Viber Here you go buddy, i didn't think i'll ever upload it, but it's gonna be a loooong time until i see another die-hard Blank and Jones fan so this is as good of time as any i guess. Sorry for the exaggerated bass response, i recorded it when i was 12

Cheers m8! Muchos appriciated!

Absolutely hate Cream. Worst tune ever made in that era, below sandstorm even.

If liking that guff is the requirement for having a soul, then I'll gladly be without one.

The chillout stuff is all right, though.

quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery If liking that guff is the requirement for having a soul, then I'll gladly be without one.

It's more about silly nostalgia and i was kidding of course.

quote:

Originally posted by the-sixth Absolutely hate Cream. Worst tune ever made in that era, below sandstorm even.

wow...

quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery If liking that guff is the requirement for having a soul, then I'll gladly be without one. The chillout stuff is all right, though.

There's no accounting for taste. Cream indeed isn't there best track imo.

Cream was never my favourite either, but it was a big track.

Their chillout stuff did really well though. If you go on to any of the popular streaming services such as pandora and spotify looking for chillout, B&J chill tunes are splattered throughout. Given that physical and download sales are much stronger in those categories, not to mention licensing, I imagine they made a fortune off those.

I'd also like to state that I am not - nor have I ever been - around them.

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN Cream was never my favourite either, but it was a big track. Their chillout stuff did really well though. If you go on to any of the popular streaming services such as pandora and spotify looking for chillout, B&J chill tunes are splattered throughout. Given that physical and download sales are much stronger in those categories, not to mention licensing, I imagine they made a fortune off those.

WHAT?? there's money to be made in chillout?

I always thought Ambient and Chillout don't generate much revenue.

As always it'll depend on what exactly you consider to be "ambient" and "chillout", but while I'm sure dark ambient off Cryo Chamber isn't going to pay for that Merc, the bazillion "chillout" albums and VAs I'm sure have generated heaps of money for certain artists and labels alike. Do we still use the term "lounge" music?
Have you seen news reports - not too long ago I think - about ridiculous numbers of plays for apparently shitloads of "fake" tracks on "ambient" and "chillout" and pianomusic playlists on Spotify? I'm not entirely sure how all that is supposed to have worked, but I think generally speaking people are into that kinda music..

edit: as far as I'm concerned the titles for some of b&j's chillout albums could hardly be more typical .. "Relax (volume xx)", "Relax Jazzed"..

quote:

Originally posted by Viber WHAT?? there's money to be made in chillout? I always thought Ambient and Chillout don't generate much revenue.

Yeah, if you manage to make a good chillout track, you can make a fortune.

One of my tutors back in school was Wubble-U (had a top 10 hit in the UK) and tech house outfit Get Fucked who were also pretty successful.

One time he was working on shared studio facility and he was messing about with a chillout track in 3/3 time. Some guy who rented another studio he barely knew stopped by to say hello and asked him what he was working on.

That track was Crazy Ivan and the random guy signed it to a compilation called Cafe Del Mar.

He said that one chillout track made him more money that everything he'd done the 20 years in the industry prior put together.

He then basically switched to making chillout/lounge music for money and dance for hobby.

"Chill out" of the milquetoast Buddha Bar / Cafe Del Mar variety will end up on CDs and playlists that you hear on a loop in a million spas, hotel receptions and cocktail bars worldwide. Some of the artists in that genre are remarkably prolific as well. They can put out five albums every year.

That said, even in the respectable ambient world, there's potentially more money to be made from physical releases than the majority of club fodder. You only have to look at the Discogs frenzy over every limited print run on labels like Silent Season.

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