if you compare 2010 onwards lightshows with 2000 lightshows... in 2000 basically you just had flash and RGB lights now lasers, 3d images , pyrotechnics , automations... now it's a proper show. For the period having that led panels probably was a feat.

quote:

Originally posted by Bierheld To be fair, These tracks came out at a time were even his most established fans were starting to scratch their heads. Remember he had a background in techno and rave music, and you could always hear that high energy fun-over-substance vibe come through in his productions. He was the self proclaimed anti-prog man, were guys like Armin really thought they were making deep and involving music. When In My Memory came out we were all a bit confused by the chipmunk-vocal inoffensive chill-out fest. But there were still some real bangers on that album. When Just Be came out we got traffic, and crap like Love Comes Again. We were used to some questionable performances but this was really it? Why was there nothing of Obsession-like calibre? I mean I was alright with Traffic at first because it was still kind of danceable, especially the Montana edits he liked to play in his live shows. But when hearing it played endlessly on the radio you had to start getting your doubts. I mean I see what they were trying to achieve here. He always had a thing for simplistic monotonous techno bangers. Just look at how long SO Project's Direct Dizko was part of his event playlist at the time. He just wasn't very good at making them I suppose.

This isn't really how I recall the Tiesto narrative. He may have started out playing gabba, but he made his name playing the kind of ultra-emotive unicorn stuff that his fans took terribly seriously. All his compilations were themed around fairies and goblins and Magik and the rest of it. It wasn't Global Underground, but it certainly wasn't fun party time music. In My Memory was a logical extension of that, inflected with the standard 2002-era requisites: saccharine grown-up trip-hop attempts and the odd progressive leaning. By contrast, I'd say loud stompy anthems like Traffic in particular signalled him really going towards mindless big clob fare.

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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/

Tiësto at the time was a man with a split personality. You couldn't really tell this unless you actually saw him play outside of his big album release tours, which were mainly for marketing his own material in the first hour and playing trance hits in the other hour.
It's like trance-MB said. He fused major trance hits and techno bangers. And in his own time he would make the softer stuff.
Many of his really old sets are no longer available, but you can still hear it in sets like these, amongst the fodder and classic spam:

Nothing underground about it sure, but it still shows the dancefloor is were his heart lies. And adding the likes of Thomas P. Heckmann, Thomas Schumacher and Speedy J to his shows says something about his interests.

Also there were interviews at the time before he made those albums, were he took the classic jabs at how boring a lot of the progressive music played at the time was, and how he wanted to change that and be known as a high energy no-nonsense DJ.

This vision of his obviously didn't last. But there ya go.

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Mixes: Alaé (Conceptional ambient dub)
AOTSE (Experimental)

Listens:
http://www.last.fm/user/bierheld

even if his older sets are a unicorn trance fest i still can't believe he became the crap he is now...

Traffic is fun for like 30 seconds, they're both terrible.

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201

Bloody hell. Oliver Lieb's remix of 643 with the Hide U acapella. Jaw is wobbling a little just sat here.

EDIT: Oliver Klein, I should say. Although isn't he mixing in Lieb's version at the end there?

___________________
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/

Last edited by SYSTEM-J on Jan-07-2013 at 20:21

This one? Didn't even know it existed.



Honestly all those versions sound near enough exactly the same.

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Mixes: Alaé (Conceptional ambient dub)
AOTSE (Experimental)

Listens:
http://www.last.fm/user/bierheld

I'm getting distracted by memories of 2002-era tech trance. Yes, he could certainly lay down some banging techno in his DJ sets, but my point is that his productions didn't really mimic that until he started making big-room stompers like Traffic.

___________________
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/

There were some collaborative productions which definitely touched upon the sound before IMM came out. He was producing pretty much everything then from ambient to stuff like this:




Really it was mostly IMM and later albums were things got overly cutesy. Your point is not lost on me but there are nuances.

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Mixes: Alaé (Conceptional ambient dub)
AOTSE (Experimental)

Listens:
http://www.last.fm/user/bierheld

That Bleckentrommel track is awesome.

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June 2018 mix

i think there is a montana edit that it's even harder, casually that's the version he played in his sets.This is just plain techno.

What about...



I've seen him playing this in a lot of sets, it wasn't an album filler it seems.

quote:

Originally posted by Light The Fuse for me those tunes were when he began to lose a bit of his lustre

absolutely; I remember when Traffic was first played on ASOT and I was like "well, I want to like this, but I really don't". After that I enjoyed his Nyana compilation, and then nada.

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Klangkarussell - Sternenkinder