TranceAddict Forums (www.tranceaddict.com/forums)
- Music Discussion
-- J00F comments the current state of trance
Pages (8): « 1 2 [3] 4 5 6 7 8 »

This is going to be a longwinded response, bere with me�.

Wow, it�s amazing to see how an interview can cause so much attention. The downfall with interviews are that not everything I say gets put into writing, so the whole story doesn�t come across. The great thing with technology is that I can personally interact with the public, especially with a forum dedicated to Trance! I enjoy posting here because it makes me feel a little closer to people involved in the scene, but a second downfall I have to watch my grammar, spelling or people may analyze and misconceive anything I say�phew. So I�ll try and be careful how I speak!

Firstly to clear things up, I have nothing against; uplifting or melodic Trance or the people who play it, it�s quite the contrary. I love music in any shape or form and my car is filled with all styles of music, I sometimes perhaps come across as a purist but I�m not and only stand up for the music I love to play. I use various styles of music as a tool to build and drop my sets. So I need uplifting tracks for my crescendos and melodic tracks to give people a breather and deep, hard etc. It just a matter of finding these tracks in a unique form. After spending the past few years sifting through 7 � 8 pages of new Trance releases every week in Beatport to find the odd good none generic track can get really frustrating, hence my recent outbursts! If I wind back 10 years visiting my local record shop I�d be spoiled for choice with all sub categories of Trance music, so I had the tools for my set. I�d get frustrated in a good way because I had too much music and couldn�t fit them all into my set, but today we don�t have enough new music and have to make tracks last a few months. This also becomes more apparent when I play the occasional Classic set, I�m spoiled for choice when I sift through some fantastic tacks with huge Wow factor from the mid 90�s. It will be interesting to see what DJ�s will play in 10 years time at a classics night from mid 2000, with they have the same feeling?

Yes I�m a DJ that plays a more unique style of Trance, some say perhaps a more pure form (though that doesn�t make me better than the rest, don�t read this wrong!). Remember I was playing Trance when it was born way back in 1991, so I remember Trance music how it was intended and sometimes feel today�s Trance isn�t really Trance. Similar to today�s Electro, it�s nothing like the original form of Electro. So I want to remind people and producers that there is another form Trance music out there as it seems to be completely forgotten about and over looked.
I�m very close friends to many of the A-list Trance DJ�s out there (some critics forget this) and they too are finding it difficult hunting for good quality music, I m just the one that speaks out! We all feel the Trance scene has become stale and hasn�t moved forward from a format that has been around for many years.
Originally this style of music got named �Trance� because people on the dance floor got completely lost in the music, the tracks where produced to make this effect and structured in a completely different way ensuring they would be completely tranced out in their zone, hence the name tag Trance. Tracks where made for the dance floor and naturally played in clubs and pushed towards the specialist DJ�s because radio stations etc didn�t understand this type of music so got no air play. The track would do the hard work in the clubs until the dance floors reaction would pick one out to be a favourite (anthem) then a major label pick up on this and make a package of remixes that the public would understand. Robert Miles �Children� is a classic example of this.

Today�s tracks are made and marketed in the same way a Top 40 track is handled; they want as much exposure as possible for both the track and the artist even before it's released. Most want radio play so that it will instantly appeal to the masses. Then the most powerful marketing machines ensure that that track is everywhere to be seen ensuring the hype is built. This is why we think there is a massive increase in generic sounding Trance tracks, because people are now making music to actually be a hit and following other winning formats.
Again please don�t interpret this the wrong way, there is nothing wrong in any shape or form with generic sounding Trance, if you love making and dancing to it you should follow your heart and enjoy it. I�m just a guy who�s hugely passionate about, dare I say,
the more underground side of Trance (this is the only way I can describe it!). So what�s wrong with that? As the masses head for the usual style, I like to remind people there is other takes on Trance music.

Maybe I�m just too passionate about the scene I�m in? Trance music got me through some terrible times in my life especially when I was in hospital fighting cancer, so I owe so much this scene and it explains why I have been speaking out recently. It�s not until you experience something awful in your life that you takes steps to help or give advice to others. This is why I always share advice and tips in various magazine columns and my website.

Again I cover my arse, please don�t misconceive any of my above comments that I�m speaking against anyone�s music or any DJ�s, I have a huge amount of respect for all of them in whatever they do as we�re in the same Electronic Music family. If my words can help preserve the small part of Trance music that I see disappearing then I�ll be a happy man.

Phew was a tuff on to write trying not to upset anyone, which will be impossible on a forum!!

John

thank you...as an ex avid lover of trance i'm glad the producers and dj's are getting sick of the tripe being offered!

respect

John, you're always gonna piss someone off. But, for the most part, that was a well-written response. Thanks for clearing it up.

Just like you said...

quote:

Phew was a tuff on to write trying not to upset anyone, which will be impossible on a forum!!

quote:

joof has always been a psy dj he went abit more trancey for a while

Another one of those responses that assumes "psy" and "trance" are different things. They're not. Psy is one type of trance.

John, good post. I'm not as familiar with you as a DJ as other DJs I have in the past but i'm curious as to what you think of the older uplifting and melodic stuff? I.E. the stuff Armin or Tiesto or even Oakenfold played in the later 90s and early 00s. You know the stuff on Tiesto's "Magik" series or early Armin CDs before he got into the whole "ASOT" thing?

To me, those tracks on those CDs is what trance was to me. The biggest problem I have is that people who were into the sound prior to that seem to think it's so much better yet it's not what I, or other people got into, partially because we were too young (like 5, 6, 7 or 8) in the early 90s, and not that many people at that age are into EDM...too busy playing with friends outside, riding bikes..doing normal kid stuff.

When I got older, it was the stuff like Solar Stone's "Seven Cities", The Quest's "C Sharp", Salt Tank's "Dimension", Aria's "Dido (Armin van Buuren's Universal Religion Remix)", BT's "Flaming June", PvD's "For An Angel", Rapid Eye's "Circa Forever", Altitude's "Altitude", The Thrillseeker's "Synaethesia", Midway's "Monkey Forest", Vimana's "We Came", Ayla's "Ayla (Taucher Remix)", Delerium's "Silence (DJ Tiesto's In Search of Sunrise Remix)", Hydra's "Affinity", Insigma's "Open Our Eyes", and your work with Hemstock & Jenning's on "Arizona" was one of my faves. and the list goes on and on. To me these are what defined trance for me. I have heard the older stuff prior to this and like it as well, but I guess they weren't what got me personally into the sound. No matter how many times I hear psy music, I just can't get into it. The prog psy stuff is nice but it's still the uplifting, melodic trance that brings back the memories and that I can count on as being listenable and not just for dancing in a club or some large event. I wasn't old enough back in the day to be traveling around to big trance events or enter clubs to really experience the sound as it was meant.

quote:

Originally posted by John 00 Fleming

Well put , you've always been my fav Psy Dj by a mile. Any new JOOF releases planned for the summer? Are you planning to release more tracks with the Digital Blonde?

good read

im new to the trance scene
so...

whats not entrancing about the new stuff? (im not trying to protect it or anything... im just wondering"

wats so different about the old stuff (setting asaide how its marketed and the aim of the song)

structure? sounds?
i dont get it... sorry

quote:

Originally posted by theognis1002 im new to the trance scene so... whats not entrancing about the new stuff? (im not trying to protect it or anything... im just wondering" wats so different about the old stuff (setting asaide how its marketed and the aim of the song) structure? sounds? i dont get it... sorry

Mostly structure.

Today's trance tends to build-build-build-build and then BREAK. Then it rebuilds and BREAKS. This is not entrancing, this is a rollercoaster. Or, it contains very pop-ish elements (catchy vocals, verse-chorus styles, etc.) which make it more accessible to a ::cough:: mainstream audience.

Trance back in the day was more repetitious, building subtle melodies over subtle melodies and just kept moving and moving... it was more hypnotic and "trance-inducing".

I don't have "a problem" with either kind of trance, other than I don't really think that today's trance should be called that... but what can ya do? Times change.

trance today is meant to stand around and have your hands in the air...possibly accompanied by several hours of monotonous pogo dancing...really dancing to todays trance can be more awkward than masturbating with a cheese grater. It is a genre that has lost its balls.

quote:

Originally posted by all-nite-freak trance today is meant to stand around and have your hands in the air...possibly accompanied by several hours of monotonous pogo dancing...really dancing to todays trance can be more awkward than masturbating with a cheese grater. It is a genre that has lost its balls.

lol

its very true...show me one person actually dancing at a trance event...

jump jump jump jump *trance pistols* jump jump jump....lame

J00F expresses many things I agree with... it just doesn't help that the "article" (somewhere between an interview and a story) was written at a second-grade reading level. Plus: Koxbox, a relative unknown? I mean, who is writing this shit, and have they just gotten into EDM in the last two years?

"The future of music... isn't music..."

quote:

Originally posted by theognis1002 im new to the trance scene so... whats not entrancing about the new stuff? (im not trying to protect it or anything... im just wondering" wats so different about the old stuff (setting asaide how its marketed and the aim of the song) structure? sounds? i dont get it... sorry

download this set from the mediafire link. Trance can't be much better than that.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Another one of those responses that assumes "psy" and "trance" are different things. They're not. Psy is one type of trance.

stop being picky for god sake i know psy is still trance but of course their different why do u think its called psy-trance. Are tech-trance and trance the same thing aswell?

Technically, it's all referred to as "that techno stuff".

quote:

Originally posted by david.michael Technically, it's all referred to as "that techno stuff".

liebing wouldn't play the poop armin calls tech trance

I think this "music with your heart"-thing is caused by to many producer who have no real connection with the dance scene. They have never been there and experienced what music can be like when mixed with dancing.
Would "bedroom-producers" be the right word to use to describe these kind of producers?? I don't think it's entierly correct but never mind.

Like back in the days, producers had a more direct connection, djs who spun was in the middle of the club scene communicating with the crowd.
Maybe they knew how to make the right kind of music to move the mind.


You can ask yourself, what happened then?
Could it be internet and radio shows?
Internet radio shows, or internet djing, doesn't have the same principles of communication with the crowd, you can spin in whatever pace and you don't really have to care about building up the whole set in such a way that the listeners will reach a euphoric climax home in their chairs (in my oppinion like a good dj should).

Mixing this with the avability of freely downloadable music tools i believe many newcomming producers adapted this generic internet radio show-formula. Perhaps some djs aswell...


But i feel i haven't been around with the scene enough to back up this theory... It's just something i imagine could be the reason why some people won't "produce with the heart".

im glad john stopped by and defended his perspective.
the interview was a bit twisted.
with that said, why cant everyone just STFU and make/listen to edm.
who cares about mainstream, underground, and shit.
i like some of both, and i like my meat rare.
i'll eat that shit and dont stop me.

quote:

Originally posted by washout i'll eat shit

quote:

Originally posted by washout im glad john stopped by and defended his perspective. the interview was a bit twisted. with that said, why cant everyone just STFU and make/listen to edm. who cares about mainstream, underground, and shit. i like some of both, and i like my meat rare. i'll eat that shit and dont stop me.

+1

quote:

Originally posted by DJ Mikey Mike It's okay everyone, John is allowed to say these things because he only plays 'intelligent trance.' Oh yea, and a little bit of Psy!!1onetwobucklemyshoe

Point.

And ironically, this isn't the most intelligent of interviews.

Fair enough, what he's saying is true; trance is over-commercialised and it's become more and more formulaic over the last 7 or 8 years. But I thought his rambling about the top 40 was a bit childish, like an indie kid who abandons his favourite band as soon as they become popular and get some fans.

Also, I'm pretty sure j00f has gone through periods of playing sets weighted with riff-based melodic trance...certainly around the turn of the millennium. And he has released mix albums containing tracks like 'PPK - Resurection', so this all smacks of hypocrisy just a bit.

This interview is perhaps not quite as embarrassing as when Gareth Emery pulled the same stunt, but it's certainly up there. Respected DJs like this should let the music do the talking, instead of taking a moral highground, attacking a popular type of EDM in an attempt to make themselves look more intelligent than other DJs.

Everything he has said here has been said before anyway.
Come on John, it's 2007 now.

I remember J00F playing Carte Blanche at GKGG quite some time ago. A very intelligent and non-commercial piece of music that is.

I swiftly made an exit to the techno tent.

And I'm sure money and recognition weren't on his mind whatsoever when he was doing mix CDs for Godskitchen and Telstar...

I'm sure he probably "hated it" when those CDs were appearing in HMV, mind.

quote:

Originally posted by John 00 Fleming Yes I�m a DJ that plays a more unique style of Trance, some say perhaps a more pure form (though that doesn�t make me better than the rest, don�t read this wrong!). Remember I was playing Trance when it was born way back in 1991, so I remember Trance music how it was intended and sometimes feel today�s Trance isn�t really Trance. Similar to today�s Electro, it�s nothing like the original form of Electro. So I want to remind people and producers that there is another form Trance music out there as it seems to be completely forgotten about and over looked.

Another reason why older trance was typically more trance-inducing on dancers was the fact they weren't paying as much attention to the guy playing it. Folks would actually get lost in music (attain a TAZ, so to speak) rather than cheer on the DJ. Not saying this doesn't happen still, but it certainly becomes a secondary factor when tons of clubbers are willing to pay top dollar just to see Tiestin van Corstenfold play other people's music.

As a DJ yourself, John, I'm not sure if you've seen things from a different perspective, but couldn't it also be argued that trance lost its way when the guy playing it became more important than the actual music he was playing?

Powered by: vBulletin
Copyright © 2000-2021, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.