What makes a good artist 'prog/trance' album

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Posted by Akira_Kayosa on Jun-28-2012 11:21:

What makes a good artist 'prog/trance' album

Thoughts?

What albums stand out for you over the years, with a good mix of styles/quality/approach etc?

Posted by Richard Butler on Jun-28-2012 12:16:

Personally I just never listen to albumns now, to me they seem like something from the past as people don't seem to take time to patiently sup down an albumn.

If you watch young kids they channel hop constantly in the car etc, they have a short attention span, something film makers reaslised a while ago.

Posted by pointPi on Jun-28-2012 12:43:

SYSTEM-J made a great post about this subject a while ago, but I can't exactly recall when and where.

For now, here is how I imagine a good artist 'prog/trance' album:

Treat the album as one huge song, rather than a collection of songs.
Try to break free from the club music conventions when you're making an album.
Use this album to convey something novel, genuine and interesting. Otherwise it has no point in existing.
Slamming your face onto the album's cover will make you look like a twat. You're not James Brown or Stevie Wonder.
Approach the structure of your album the same you would with a movie, novel or video game.

Hope that helps for now.

Posted by rdevito on Jun-28-2012 14:04:

quote:
Originally posted by pointPi

[*]Treat the album as one huge song, rather than a collection of songs.

Solar Fields' new album is a perfect example, imo

Posted by TGS on Jun-28-2012 14:47:

I think the classic example of prog/trance is going to be Shpongle's "Tales of the Inexpressible" but even moreso "Nothing Lasts But Nothing is Lost." The latter is one large track that spends a good bit of time in alternate time signatures and with various cool proggy modulations, but is very much an electronic album at heart.

I'm also a fan of Shulman's "In Search of a Meaningful Moment." I think the way you combine the two is by finding 'dat pocket.' The thing about trance is its continuity and fluidity, while prog is experimental and tries changing up time signatures/key signatures/adds new musical styles. I think if you can introduce these things with a lot of fluidity and aren't too abrupt in anything, that's how you pull of both.

Here's something I worked on with a friend. I feel the part at around 4:00 has got a lot of elements of both trance and prog once the drums kick in. Its in 7 etc and changes keys during this section, but when my partner got ahold of it towards the end (we never finished the song) I feel like he knocked out a lot of that fluidity when he got rid of the 4/4 groove feel on the drums. Cain't hold no groove if you ain't got no pocket