Trance Tuesday #1 - But What Is Trance???

“

"Trance is the most sublime, divine, advanced music genre known to man, representing a quantum leap in artistic creativity analogous to the development of the frontal lobe in the human brain.“ So say the marketing materials for Pulsar Recordings, an underground trance label from Serbia. It might be rather a wild exaggeration, but it certainly gives an insight into the fervour with which trance fans love their music – and also what they like about it. With deep ties to science-fiction artwork, spiritualism and astronomy communities trance is an electronic genre that started out as being dedicated to huge, unearthly soundscapes and evoking a sense of breathtaking scale. Nowadays, it has branched and evolved into one of the most diverse genres of music around, with a plethora of speeds, styles and sounds to enthral as many listeners as possible. The “introduction” playlist above is intended to show as great a variety of tracks as possible, and as with all music, the only way to gain a full appreciation is to listen carefully (or, perhaps, Listen Good?). Before I go into explaining the track choices, I should clarify that this is by no means an exhaustive list of possible “configurations” - there are simply too many branches and too many in-betweeny tracks to give the full spectrum in a practically listenable playlist. I've done my best though!

Starting the playlist is Above & Beyond's “Counting Down The Days.” It's one of the four vocal tracks featured here, along with “Sun & Moon,” “Shivers” and “Tell Me Anything.” Vocal trance tends towards tugging the heartstrings with love-song lyrics, and “Counting Down” is no exception. A breakup song n the true pop sense, it's a mellow, human-scaled track which makes it a perfect trance track for listeners who are unfamiliar with the genre and not yet acclimatised to the roaring basslines and tearing synths that are mostly associated with the main body of the genre. The “Tell Me Anything” remix is a perfect example of the harder edge of trance – still a love song with poppy lyrics, but accompanied by fast, pounding beats and the soaring, spacey highs that made trance famous. “Shivers,” meanwhile, is another breakup song, but rather than the calmer and more comforting sound of “Counting Down,” we have a raw and powerful song that lets out pain in a flood of catharsis. In sound you'll hear that it's a lot darker, reflecting the bleak outlook the vocals convey. Both Armin van Buuren (producer) and Susana (vocalist) are legends in the trance world as well, so if you enjoy the track you can be assured there will be many more quality tracks to listen to! The last vocal track we're left with is “Sun & Moon.” This is my personal favourite track of all time, so bear in mind that all comments will be affected by that! You might notice that this is the second track on the list by Above & Beyond – the reason for this is that they're one of few groups to have successfully covered most of the spectrum of trance throughout their career, making them an ideal starting point for trance discovery. “Sun & Moon” differs from “Counting Down” by adopting a club-style sound in line with dance music, making for some huge uplifting breaks between the verses. It's a great tune for parties, being upbeat and bright without the hype getting too much for more sensitive listeners.

Also early on, we have the chilled, so-called progressive trance tracks. “Lantau” and “Twilight Tonight” both make their synth choices the centre of attention, aiming to showcase the artist's talents for quality production. With the emphasis moved away from rhythm and drive, progressive trance is a much more relaxing sub-genre, and maintains a strong philosophical connection to the “space trance” ideal. The emotions induced here are also much less specified – while vocal trance tends to push towards sadness and hard trance (as you'll see later) aims to inspire awe, progressive is far more open-ended, and the lack of lyrics allows you to fill in your own blanks, giving rise to tracks that are a different experience for each listener.

Next, we come to the uplifting and hard trance. Uplifting Trance, as the name may suggest, attempts to induce a sense of wonder and euphoria in the listener, and is common club and festival music designed to let you dance the night away. Hard Trance is a fairly nebulous term, but in general it's a branch of uplifting that goes, well, harder! It's faster, darker and heavier, with the focus decidedly on the bass. It's also fantastic motivation for exercise, with the breakdowns giving a natural change of the pace and the full frontal bass ensuring you can't lose track of the pace. “Tell Me Anything” crops up again here, as the vocals unquestionably have a hard-trance backing. Otherwise, “Airport” and “Stay” are dancefloor destroyers and little else, while “Origami” and the “Little Dreamer” remix attempt to give and impression of a journey, an exploration of soul and space (I looked for a less pretentious way to phrase that, and would like to apologise for failing to find one!). In summary (and connecting to the roots), imagine trance as a trip to space. Hard trance is the rocket that flies you up, all explosive energy and relentless drive. Uplifting trance is the sighs you see up there – serene planets, blooming nebulae and shining stars. Progressive trance is when you reminisce about the events years later. All of them are great experiences, but they are dramatically different in feeling and scope. Add vocals to any of the above and you have the grounded, human-scale life that wraps around your metaphorical space odyssey.

The eagle-eyed (or eared?) amongst you will notice there's one track I still haven't mentioned, and if you've listened far enough you'll notice it's rather... unusual, to say the least. “Quasar” is an example of psychedelic trance, a genre spawned from Indian spiritualism and frequently referred to as Goa trance in honour of it's home city. Goa and hard trance are roughly contemporary, and reflect two very different cultures seeking the same effect from music. In modern times, psytrance is associated intimately with hallucinogenic drugs and hippie forest festivals, and the many samples that a layered onto the music reflect this strongly. To stretch my earlier analogy, if conventional trance is a trip to space by rocket, psytrance is a trip to space by overloading your brain on LSD and seeing it all in your living room. Of course, this is a rather reductionist view – psytrance is a very deep genre that, while arguably lacking some variety in style, caters to many different audiences. There is still plenty of psy available that reflects the Hindu spirituality that influenced Goa trance so heavily, and there is plenty that is produced for love of the genre's formula. However, in mainstream psytrance, dominated as it is now by European producers, the main themes continue to be some balance of space and drugs – you have been warned!

I hope you've enjoyed this little trip into a wonderful and diverse genre! If you have any feedback, feel free to comment here or on Facebook page, and don't forget to subscribe to the YouTube channel for all the new playlists!