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Ferry Corsten - "Lord of Trance" (Eye magazine)
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Source: http://www.eye.net/eye/issue/issue_...at/corsten.html
Lord of the trance - Dutch master Ferry Corsten keeps the faith
BY JOSHUA OSTROFF
The stock market calls it a "correction," while us musicologist types just dub it a straight-up backlash. Either way, it's what happens when a product becomes so popular the people resoundingly reject it. Perhaps the money geeks had the euphemism right all along.
When trance achieved its domination of club culture at millennium's end, it was just a matter of time before the genre -- which was getting increasingly Kraft-like with each successive, epic breakdown -- was declared dead as disco.
But then a funny thing happened... trance didn't die. Progressive house took over -- a subtler, less anthemic variation on the theme. Then trance itself began eliminating its own excesses, part of a slow rehabilitation from a word so dirty Max Graham's debut was redubbed Transport, despite being the fourth installment in the, ahem, Tranceport series.
"It's really the thing with the British media -- as soon as they have enough of something, they just ditch it, slag it off and move on to something else," says Dutch DJ/producer Ferry Corsten over the phone from his home base in Rotterdam. "A lot of record companies in England look at the media and as soon as they read that trance is dead, they don't want to think about it anymore. The funny thing is that you actually see the opposite now. I just read an article that posed the question 'Did progressive kill clubbing?' And a lot of English labels are signing trance records again. It's funny: the media can just say A or B and everyone follows."
Of course, Ferry is no dummy. He fully understands why trance -- especially the over-the-top variety favoured in his native land -- engendered such hatred in the first place. His 1999 Top 20 single "Out of the Blue" and mega-popular mixes for Ministry of Sound's Trance Nation compilations did much to propel both trance's rise and fall.
"People got tired of the breaks," he says succinctly. "At one point every trance record had the buildup and the breakdown for a minute and it went on again. If you're DJing a three-hour set with only those records, it's like standing still, moving on, standing still. Now the trance that comes out is a bit different -- it's a bit harder, a bit tougher. And it's a bit more energetic without so many breaks."
Instead of jumping on the progressive bandwagon, Corsten began building up his sets differently. He also altered his production, unveiling a slightly tougher sound with last year's Moonshine mix disc Global Trancemissions. He promises to go even further on his upcoming full-length.
"It might not be what people expect from me," he says. "It certainly has the energy I normally have in my sound and my set. But it's not melodramatic, trancey stuff, though it's still very uplifting."
But the real evidence of a potential trance comeback is the latest Best DJ list from DJ Mag. Corsten himself moved three spots, into the Top 20, while Tiësto, Corsten's partner in the trance outfit Gouryella, enjoyed an unprecedented leap from 24 to No. 6.
Inspired by a radio show featuring the latest club imports, Corsten entered the electronic music game back in '91. The 16-year-old prodigy started DJing and producing right off the bat, honing his skills on everything from jungle, acid and techno to ambient and, most successfully, hardcore gabba.
But it was finally trance -- at the time suffering its first backlash, er, correction, from its early-'90s heyday in Germany and off licking its wounds in India -- which won him over. It also brought him a much-envied series of successes, starting with "Don't Be Afraid," which was recorded under the name Moonman -- one of his many aliases (see sidebar) -- and broke him into the U.K. charts. He followed it up with Albion's "Air" -- a regular on Global Underground compilations -- and remixes for the likes of Moby, U2, Art of Trance and William Orbit. He beat out Puffy and Rodney Jerkins to take home Muzik magazine's Producer of the Year award in 2000.
So while he obviously enjoys DJing -- the highlight of a busy 2001 was a headlining set at Dance Valley, a 90,000-strong party in Amsterdam --Corsten is planning to focus even more energy on his productions, with his upcoming solo effort as well as another Gouryella single.
"It's really addictive," he says. "As soon as you have your first tune out there's no way back. At least not for me."
THE NAME GAME
Following in the footsteps of such multi-monikered musicians as Aphex Twin and Ol' Dirty Bastard (or, as I like to call him, Big Baby Jesus), Ferry Corsten has long held more aliases than a secret agent -- from System F, Moonman and Pulp Victim to Star Party, Vera Cocha and Albion.
"It was more of a legal thing," he explains. "Ever since the beginning I was very productive. I'd make, like, three tunes in a week, and to do that under one name with one label is not possible -- it's too much material to release under one name. But I also wanted to check out the market, see what kind of labels there were, how they worked, just to learn from it. Of course, you cannot go with the same name to another label and produce records at the same time."
But now that he's mostly recording on his own record label, Tsunami, Corsten's doing away with all the moniker madness -- his next record will boast the name his mama gave him.
"I have too many aliases, so at this point I was thinking it was better for me to connect everything -- like DJing, remixes and producing -- if I come out with something under my own name. I want to bring it all back to one thing... or maybe two things." JO |
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| TranceGeek |
| hmm, very interesting... looks like he was the one that helped trance stay alive... he's right tho, about trance evolving... right on ferry! see you on saturday!! lol |
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| itikia |
when i got into the scen, about a year and a half ago, i lived the end of epic/uplifting trance. it just got boring..
Trance is not dead, it has evolved into something harder and deeper. The epic upliftng stuff is mainstream now; i mean they play it on Z-103, and at gino havens such as Palazzos...
But it will always be this way, the minute enough people like a certain genre of music, the big boys of the music industry snag it, package it, and deliver it nicely to everyones front door <-- this is mainstream....
This is why Trance evolved! and why it will always evolve and change!
well i really do like where trance has gone, especially Marco V trance!!! |
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| hansolo |
Trance has changed for sure. Aside from a select few tunes that have come out over the past year, nothing can touch the classic favs, that lit up a crowd.
Playing those songs mized with harder trancey songs makes for one good set. Ferry did that the last time he was here and I hope he does it again, cause even with great tunes like kings of clubs, and whatever else you wanna fill in here_____ you know you balls/slash nipples for the females will be tingling when songs like Chakra - Love Shines Through, Veracocha - Carte Blanche, System F - Out of the blue, or art of trance madagascar come on. |
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| Jazz |
| Trance is not really "dead" in Toronto, especially when compared to London (UK). When I was there about a year ago, Trance was already long dead. If you dare say you like Trance in London, you'll be laughed at because they're all so heavily into the progressive scene. Trance gets absolutely no respect there. It's impossible to find good clubs in London that play Trance, except for the occassional special event/guest DJ. |
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| DJ MG |
| hmmm its looks like we are in for nice banging set from ferry this time. I cant wait to hear the set he will play. |
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| Fir3start3r |
| quote: | Originally posted by itikia
when i got into the scen, about a year and a half ago, i lived the end of epic/uplifting trance. it just got boring..
Trance is not dead, it has evolved into something harder and deeper. The epic upliftng stuff is mainstream now; i mean they play it on Z-103, and at gino havens such as Palazzos...
But it will always be this way, the minute enough people like a certain genre of music, the big boys of the music industry snag it, package it, and deliver it nicely to everyones front door <-- this is mainstream....
This is why Trance evolved! and why it will always evolve and change!
well i really do like where trance has gone, especially Marco V trance!!! |
Yup...that's exactly how I feel too. Nice rebut. :)
I've always like the harder stuff anyways...
Before the 'labeling' occured a few years back (mid 90s) it was a lot of Prodigy, etc etc because I liked more of the harder beat.
I'm glad it's swinging back that way... :D |
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| delstar |
| i agree...i think parts of the US and montreal and toronto are evolving more as trance areas...i see ourselves as being the euroepe from 95-99 when trance really cought on and evolved at a slower face where tracks were awesome but fairly the same style...i seriously got into trance in 99 and it feels like 10 years ago and its so strange to see the popularity of trance shift to our side of atlantic...if history repeats itself...we will all be prog. house junkies by 2005 :) |
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| Exxtreme |
| quote: | Originally posted by Jazz
Trance is not really "dead" in Toronto, especially when compared to London (UK). When I was there about a year ago, Trance was already long dead. If you dare say you like Trance in London, you'll be laughed at because they're all so heavily into the progressive scene. Trance gets absolutely no respect there. It's impossible to find good clubs in London that play Trance, except for the occassional special event/guest DJ. |
Agreed... but one thing... what the other says about what you like or not.. respect? :stongue: "i like what i like", so them |
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