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-- Armin Van Buuren - Sail
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Armin Van Buuren - Sail

What do you think of it? Imo that track is massively underrated.
It has been exposed to the mass so many tend to dismiss it.

That melody is trance in its purest form. A great trippy, melodic, deep, warm, dynamic piece of pure trance music at 136 bpm.

Produced in 2006. A period where the loudness war was starting to make victims, yet for some reason, that track was absolved from such fate.

Only now when I started being more careful to loudness, dynamics, warmth etc. I realize how amazing and special that track is.

I've only heard Carl B's remix, but I think for a newer piece, it's definitely among the good ones.

It's just typical of his productions around that same period of time: a generic, by the numbers version of the same euphoric bangers he was playing on ASOT and featuring on his ASOT compilations.

Most Armin productions in general sound like the kind of perfunctory thing someone of his status (and, at that time, greatly increasing popularity) is just expected to do every few months. Make a track, get it done, get back to business.

nah its pretty crap. i agree with the above comment. and he didn't get it done better than shivers imo.

and both of them are not anywhere near melody trance in its 'purest form' - just some nice easy chord progressions extrapolated to the sound of the time.

I was a massive Armin fan back then but I've always thought this track was terrible. Hi made it to open his very first Armin Only concert and in my opinion he was just trying to copy Tiesto's Adagio for Strings, which he opened the first TIC with.

Mind you, it's a lot better than what he is up to these days

Actually not bad until the two minute mark when the melody comes in that is, as Jon notes, a blatant attempt to copy the sound/vibe of 'Adagio for Strings.' Except he adds those shitty seagull sounds over the breakdown to make it fishy or exotic or appeal to blue collar listeners or some bullshit. Fucking minute and a half breakdown, too. SO EMOTIVE. So boring. Completely unnecessary second breakdown, too, with more shitty seagull sounds, and some unpleasant distortion. Not a good song.

I've never even heard this one, actually. That I know of, anyway.

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Originally posted by Lews Actually not bad until the two minute mark when the melody comes in that is, as Jon notes, a blatant attempt to copy the sound/vibe of 'Adagio for Strings.'

Indeed, that made me dislike it.

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Originally posted by Robotrance there are only two decent avb tracks: - Virgo - Pound (feat Mike)

Armin's done plenty of decent work, just not in the last decade or so.

Just had a listen to the original mix...very generic. Another track I might download for an occasional listen but end up skipping whenever it comes on...

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Originally posted by Robotrance there are only two decent avb tracks: - Virgo - Pound (feat Mike)

He's got a decent body of work imo but most of anything he's made in the last 10 years has been trash and despite his claim to love trance he's done more to harm it than anyone else.
Tiesto and Corsten have both quit trance and are now having to play small clubs again, but Armin's got longevity with his fans...so he could revitalize the whole thing now if he wanted to, but the thing is, he doesn't. People piss on guys like Tiesto for leaving, but I have more respect for guys like him who say "I'm just not into trance anymore" instead of guys like Armin who quite literally record themselves rhythmically farting, speed it up a bit, hire some sappy pop vocalist to come sing about summertime or lost love or some bullshit and then sell it off as a PROPA MASSIVE TRANCE CHOON!!!!

At least he lets some guys make decent uplifting remixes of a shitty original:
Armin van Buuren feat. Aruna - Won't Let You Go (Ian Standerwick Remix)


Ian Standerwick made some banging remixes by the way.

Armin has said on multiple occassions that he doesn't like the music he plays, but the crowds do. He admits he's a sellout. Can't hate on that.

quote:

Originally posted by Lews Actually not bad until the two minute mark when the melody comes in that is, as Jon notes, a blatant attempt to copy the sound/vibe of 'Adagio for Strings.' Except he adds those shitty seagull sounds over the breakdown to make it fishy or exotic or appeal to blue collar listeners or some bullshit. Fucking minute and a half breakdown, too. SO EMOTIVE. So boring. Completely unnecessary second breakdown, too, with more shitty seagull sounds, and some unpleasant distortion. Not a good song.

Funny you say that cause I think tracks like that, along with Serenity, contributed greatly for the change of direction of Trance Energy, Sensation and other main festivals. People were bored to death. They just wanted something to dance to.
Not that I care so much what they want but I kinda understand them.

However, regarding it being a copy I disagree. Adagio came out in 2004. Two years is quite long time span. Armin is usually quicker to detect trends and deliver. I like to believe 2006 were the last moments where he was still genuine about the whole thing.

And 'Shivers' actually is the one that seems cheesy to me. Maybe the vocals trick me to consider it more cheesy than what it really is.
"Sail" on the other hand is soft and pure. It stands out imo. That breakdown is really a moment.

quote:

Originally posted by TranceElevation However, regarding it being a copy I disagree.

I actually had to take a listen and one of the chord changes is straight out of Adagio - it actually caught me off guard when it didn't go that way after all.

I'm also getting very strong flashbacks of Martin Roth's version of The Orange Theme, which (surprisingly enough) also came out in 2004.

quote:

Originally posted by Robotrance there are only two decent avb tracks: - Virgo - Pound (feat Mike)

Blue Fear, Intruder(feat M.I.K.E.), and Dust.wav(Instrumental)?

Anyone remember this one?

^ I'd add to those titles also 'Lost Soul Society', but need to admit that I've listened to this one years ago, so I'm not sure if it withstand the test of time

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Originally posted by trancedanne Anyone remember this one?

No, but that's because I didn't want to remember it.

I'll just leave this here.

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Originally posted by Syntonic Blue Fear, Intruder(feat M.I.K.E.), and Dust.wav(Instrumental)?

Take dust.wav out of that equation, it really is quite dire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCGUf1uaZbk

I've heard how a lot of trance fans back in 2002 were pushing Armin to be the dj of the year because he was simply that good that year. he went from #27 to #5 on DJ Mag's top 100 in 2002, which says something. this was obviously before he became a pop icon and was producing solid trance. it ended up going to tiesto eventually since his stock had risen tremendously since he blew up in 2000.

quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery I'll just leave this here.

ah yes, now this is what you can actually call a good uplifting trance track without making it an oxymoron.

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Originally posted by DJ Sarah H Take dust.wav out of that equation, it really is quite dire.

I like it mostly for it's time, as 2003 is among the weaker years of Trance music imo with and it felt like a no nonsene track. It's all about the 'Dub Mix'

also, there's a huge difference between ASOT circa 2001 episodes and the 2003 ones. In 2001 he used to play tribal, progressive, techy, deep, breaks, ambient, psy, anthem, and all that shit. In 2003 he used to play more anthem trance based.

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Originally posted by Syntonic I like it mostly for it's time, as 2003 is among the weaker years of Trance music imo with and it felt like a no nonsene. It's all about the 'Dub Mix'

There was a lot of really great trance in 2003

James Holden - A Break in The Clouds
Holden & Thompson - Nothing ('93 Returning Mix)
Andain - Beautiful Things
Tiesto and Junkie XL - Obsdession
POS - Remember (Summer Sun)
Delerium - After All
Solarstone Vs Scott Bond - 3rd Earth
Mauro Picotto - Back to Cali
Oakenfold - Southern Sun
Firewall - Sincere
Tiesto - Traffic
Envio - Touched By The Sun
Mesh - Purple Haze
Matti Laamanen - Flakes
Sasha - Wavey Gravey
Poloroid - So Damn Beautiful
Sarah McLachlan - Fallen (G&D Anti Gravity Mix)

need I go on?

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