"...With Y2K aesthetics back in vogue, and post-pandemic clubbers jonesing for a hit of euphoria, the much-maligned genre is making a comeback. " (2023.02.14)

This article jumps around a lot and nails a few small things but is all over the place otherwise. As I would expect from a piece about Trance

Discuss.


https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/trance-is-back-and-its-no-joke/

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"In a world of illusion you only see what you feel"

I've seen variations of this thinkpiece the last couple of years and to be honest, I've also sort of written one six years ago albeit in Swedish.

My opinion in 2023: I don't fucking care if "it's back" or not. Trance has always been here but in umpteenth different names, variations and themes.

Whether it's the Kompakt style of neo-trance, or just sampling melodies from trance anthems and using them in either Ejeca/Trance Wax-style of track or in SoundCloud-type of club music, or fucking the likes of Tale Of Us making "Melodic Techno" that just like trance or whatever Armada/etc etc has been pushing over the years.

The trends of dance music are cyclical and it's gone 20 years so now it's back in the consciousness. It was bound to happen.

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"I believe that's referred to as intelligent drum & bass, which obviously means there's a genre of stupid drum & bass out there" (John Peel)

I think the funniest thing is that all the middle aged trance fans still clinging onto people like PVD have no idea it's back.

The article itself is a bit of a missed opportunity to showcase some of the good stuff being made, but then that's no surprise.

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Mixes:
> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24

Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/

Also, something that's only briefly hinted at in this article is something I'm noticing about Gen Z which is being reflected in the emerging generation of Gen Z clubbers, producers and DJs: there doesn't seem to be any preoccuption with "good taste" in these kids. The idea of music being uncool or cheesy just doesn't exist to them. They like what they like and they don't appear to care if it's cool. Don't get me wrong, that can result in some very tedious dancefloor experiences, but it's also quite refreshing. And one of the reasons trance is becoming so popular again is because Gen Z kids just don't care about the tarnished reputation it's suffered for 20+ years.

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Mixes:
> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24

Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Don't get me wrong, that can result in some very tedious dancefloor experiences, but it's also quite refreshing. And one of the reasons trance is becoming so popular again is because Gen Z kids just don't care about the tarnished reputation it's suffered for 20+ years.

Yes that is one part I agree with. This article on Pitchfork was a better writeup over Trance's trajectory to that point:

2018: In Defense of Trance

"The melodramatic style of dance music was born alongside the European Union’s utopian vision. But how does it fit into the Continent’s current wave of political and social upheaval?"
(^No coincidence that this last sentence from 5 years ago is as fitting today... :|)

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"In a world of illusion you only see what you feel"

O, so that's why Daniel Skyver posted this on his FB page.

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Longest (classic) Trance playlist on YouTube (5000 tracks released up to and including 1997), click here

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Also, something that's only briefly hinted at in this article is something I'm noticing about Gen Z which is being reflected in the emerging generation of Gen Z clubbers, producers and DJs: there doesn't seem to be any preoccuption with "good taste" in these kids. The idea of music being uncool or cheesy just doesn't exist to them. They like what they like and they don't appear to care if it's cool. Don't get me wrong, that can result in some very tedious dancefloor experiences, but it's also quite refreshing. And one of the reasons trance is becoming so popular again is because Gen Z kids just don't care about the tarnished reputation it's suffered for 20+ years.

Exactly, these kids never had the influence of older people constantly telling them that the trance that they were listening to was considered low brow and trash compared to the 1993 type trance. And I agree, that's a good thing.

When I wrote my article in 2016 it was after seeing multiple instances of seeing older musicjournalists that hated trance, eurodance, hardstyle & hardcore having to come to fact the young soundcloud producers were actually influenced by trance, hardstyle, eurodance and hardcore. And the fact these producers and dj's liked that music and didn't fucking care that this music wasn't considered cool.

Example, a swedish music journalist used to have a podcast where she would interview hot dj's, artist and acts that she liked. They would play recent tracks and also tracks that the guests liked at the moment and then talk about it. She had swedish hip-hop producer Yung Gud on an episode. One of the tracks he played was Orkidea's classic "Unity" which Yung Gud loved.

And this journalist was obviously appalled by the track but she couldn't say: "that is trash, why the fuck would you listen to this bullshit" so she said a whole load of neutral nothing.

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facebook | blog | scrobbler | setarchive | 20160316
"I believe that's referred to as intelligent drum & bass, which obviously means there's a genre of stupid drum & bass out there" (John Peel)

I think good Trance is a recent phenomenon, however. Before Adam Pits and the like came onto the scene (which was only recently) most of the stuff that can really be categorized as Trance was cheesy and uninspired for many years.

But yeah. Trance/Prog is really back and I'm enjoying it. Particularly when I'm playing League of Legends.

Is it just me, or do these "Trance is good, actually, and kinda' coming back" articles always coincide with whenever James Holden is about to release another album?

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Everyone has an opinion. Mine just happens to be a little more informed than most.
Electronic Music Critic: Near-Daily Ruminations Of Music I Own, In Alphabetical Order!

I've been thinking for a while about the slow creep back into wider clubbing consciousness that trance has undergone. There was an interview with techno DJ Sunil Sharpe a couple of years back where he expressed it very well:

quote:

I think in general in electronic music, we've scoured the past—almost every nook and cranny has been navigated now. To the point now where eurodance and a lot of things that people would have thought were quite naff if they had have come up in conversation a few years back—nothing is off the table now. I think that's good on the one hand because it's helping a new generation to discover the music that we got into in the '90s that was cheesy, that was very mainstream, but it was our entry into all of this. People might complain about trance coming back, but I wasn't complaining when it was happening back then. I love trance. I think some of the best trance is up there with some of the best techno. For me there is nothing to pick between them. I think for a while people were playing trance in a kind of ironic way. But we're at a point now where it's been played a bit more and people are realising that the crowds are actually really enjoying it.

https://ra.co/features/3507

I think that initial trend of dropping trance ironically is best expressed in that clip of Space Dimension Controller dropping the Taucher mix of Ayla at the Boiler Room over in Belfast back in 2015 and the crowd going absolutely mental:



That definitely felt like a tipping point where DJs - especially techno DJs - felt they could play old trance classics in their sets and the reaction would be as good - or even better - as the reaction to any modern tune. It didn't take long before you couldn't survive a single Nina Kraviz set without hearing Meet Her At The Love Parade. Main stage techno reflected this shift by steadily becoming more and more trancey, albeit often in a still moronic BOOM-BOOM-BOOM business techno way.

Simultaneously, you had Bicep spearheading the resurgence of early '90s "sunrise" breaksy tunes and the lo-fi house movement bringing back analogue '90s sounds. It's funny how the tipping point for out-and-out trance as made by the likes of Adam Pits was 2020 when lockdown was in full swing. 90% of the producers making that "trance revival" sound now were basically making lo-fi retro house up to 2019, and then in 2020 the tempo accelerated and the euphoria was upped. I don't quite know what it was about lockdown that triggered it - maybe DJs and producers just weren't so worried about the approval of dancefloor crowds, or maybe it was just coincidence. Either way, we've not looked back since then.

What's so much fun about going out now to see a DJ like Adam Pits or Guy Contact is watching crowds of 20 year old clubbers absolutely vibe to 25-30 year old tunes us grizzled TranceAddicts have loved since before some of these kids were born. The music never stopped being good, it just took a long time for the winds of taste and coolness to blow back in a direction that opened everyone's ears to it.

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Mixes:
> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24

Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/

quote:

Originally posted by Swamper "...With Y2K aesthetics back in vogue, and post-pandemic clubbers jonesing for a hit of euphoria, the much-maligned genre is making a comeback. " (2023.02.14) This article jumps around a lot and nails a few small things but is all over the place otherwise. As I would expect from a piece about Trance Discuss. https://pitchfork.com/thepitch/tran...nd-its-no-joke/

Why do I have the feeling that mnml-lover Phillip Sherburne was seething the whole time while writing that article?

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9-9-99 Never Forget

Quarantine Music Festival 2020

All My Mixes!

Can you guys recommend mix examples of current trance being played. The only mix that I have that is in the similar vein discussed here is the Job Jobse essential mix from last year