Disappointing year for me, I can't exactly put my finger on why... maybe the weak showing of my 2 core genres, trance and prog... even though I can say I have diversified a bit in the type of EDM I listen to, mostly out of necessitation.

-Everything is blending into one another... minimal/house/electro/prog/tech house all using the same sounds and lacking the "depth"/atmosphere that prog used to have. No genre is safe from those farty analog basslines, not even Trance!
-Tempos slowed down all across the board, 128bpm seems the average now.
-I just couldn't get into Sasha's sets at all (with the exception of his "Thank You" mix from a show in Romania), which is a shame since I've always considered him one of my all-time favorites.
-Diggers, after the too-quirky Transitions 2, put forth a great Transitions 3 and I'm loving what he's doing with the radio show.
-Tiesto had a pretty good year, though I didn't care much for some of his poppier tracks.
-Not too much grabbed me this year on the trance side of things, Lemon and Einar K - Autumn Radicals, Delerium - Angelicus, Breakfast - The Horizon, but too much generic vocal songs. Was listening to a lot of trance from prior years.
-Not much in the way of progressive came out this year, for a period of time I found myself going back and listening to nothing but mix albums and sets from 2003-2004 when melodic prog/breaks was the order of the day.
-Too much in the way of overhyped, boring minimal. Ribcage being the quintessential example.
-Good year for deep house and melodic techno - Joris Voorn, Timewriter, Dennis DeSantis, Ame, Funk D'Void/Francois Dubois. Will probably end up being the next "big" thing that the bandwagon jumpers migrate onto as the minimal ship starts to sink.
-Listened to quite a bit of electro and poppy/commercial house this summer, I haven't really been into this sound since 2000 or so.
-Started warming up to Dubstep and Grime, Burial being the obvious highlight. The atmosphere and complexity of progressive, with the syncopation and vocal cut-up style of 2-step is a match made in heaven for me.
-"Bassline House"... 10 year old Speed Garage coming back in a new guise. If this means a 2-step revival is in order, I'm all for it!
-Towards the end of the year, the melody in prog seems to be coming back... people are starting to get fed up with the minimal sound.
-Eelke Kleijn and 16-Bit Lolitas did big things this year for me, and I can't get enough of the Pryda sound.

For some reason, I think 2008 is gonna be a good year, with melody being more important, tempos diversifying, and hopefully some dormant genres (banging techno, 2-step, melodic prog) will be revived.

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Originally posted by Stanza As for trance - it is continuing its downward spiral into a cheesy mould of utter shit. Armin, Ferry, Tiesto and all those idiots continue to produce boring, uninspiring and predicitable tunes with little or no thought put into their work whatsoever. Also, most tunes seem to have taken on the tech sounding bassline trend which sounds absolutely awefull. The biggest offenders of this category is probably Nic Chargall and Richard Durand. I hate Durand so much that he is an abomination. I can't beleive they call this shit trance. This year I wasonly interested in sets done by will Holland, John Askew and Matt Hardwick. They are just about the only Dj's that still spin listenable uplifting and melodic trance. Production wise I think Airwave has done some good work with his latest Lolo album 'One plus One Equal Three' as well as Miika Kuisma's 'Sententia although a bit tomm any chill out tracks for my liking but overall not a bad artist album.

I'd expand on a few other DJ's in that category (uplifting/melodic part) but generally speaking you hit the nail on the head.

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Originally posted by ChemEnhanced any party from 2003 and back I only remember bits and pieces...i've combined those memories into one awesome party

2007 was a rebirth for me in terms of EDM. This year I started off with seeing Paul Van Dyk in central park over the summer... amazing show. Met some great people. I think 2008 has some great times in store for it.

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Originally posted by Mr Game+Watch -Eelke Kleijn and 16-Bit Lolitas did big things this year for me, and I can't get enough of the Pryda sound.

for me the 16 Bit Lolitas were way more impressive in 2006 - Destiny, their Bodywarmer CDs, their remix of Spacedubs - On The Edge, remix of Party People, Dance & Fiction, Gamma Radio, etc... but this year i kind of lost interest in them. i did like Neptune and Non Verbal Language and their remix of Love & Solace, but beyond that... meh.

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