EnigmaState
Senior Member
- Jan 17, 2021
- 347 Posts
- 568 Thanked
It's on the list to finalise. Been really busy of late with a couple remixes and an original that been signed with Pure Trance.
Julian Del Agranda
Elite Member
- Jul 3, 2020
- 1,889 Posts
- 2,294 Thanked
How does it feel to carry the entire future of trance on your shoulders?
EnigmaState
Senior Member
- Jan 17, 2021
- 347 Posts
- 568 Thanked
I don't quite see it like that ha.
There's much more established producers out there than myself. I think the Enigma State project is one that is a niche project producing with the old tech and old methods and its primary purpose is to bring back some of the nostalgia we all know and love. The future of Trance isn't that I don't believe. There's room for change in Trance and I think over the last year or so we have slowly started to see that happen but it's got a long way to go.
Mostly though, I just tend to focus on what I'm doing and still treat it as a hobby that I do outside of the day job and family life.
I think you are misdiagnosing it mate, and humbly underselling yourself. It's not because of nostalgia that people like your music, its because it's musically really good. Just a bonus that it's also in a style people enjoy or miss (classic). You're offering fundamentals that Trance music has been lacking, first being quality sound design and the second being flow/tension across proper Trance like journeys.
Cannot overstate the sound design part enough. It's the lost art/seemingly impossible task for producers to get right today. It's not nostalgia that drives the the appeal, it's sounds that are rich, balanced, raw, breathable. It's a delight for the ears. Trance music in particular feels like it should be grounded in human/spiritual/emotive/relatable experience, so when the sound design is robotic, sterile, homogenized, suffocating then it feels disconnected from that essence and I think its why a lot of us fail to resonate with it.
Cannot overstate the sound design part enough. It's the lost art/seemingly impossible task for producers to get right today. It's not nostalgia that drives the the appeal, it's sounds that are rich, balanced, raw, breathable. It's a delight for the ears. Trance music in particular feels like it should be grounded in human/spiritual/emotive/relatable experience, so when the sound design is robotic, sterile, homogenized, suffocating then it feels disconnected from that essence and I think its why a lot of us fail to resonate with it.
Progrez
Elite Member
- Jun 17, 2022
- 2,575 Posts
- 1,285 Thanked
Not only that but something that stands out from the rest, sounds or tracks which are iconic. Not some fool who just changes the keys and copies the template what's the current trendy sound and copies them . Everyone sounds like everyone else and everyone is copying each other that's not learning IMO that's just trying to find a quick and shortcut to make a track gain airplay and they are not putting any thought into the track to add some real soul. I want to hear more like the ones that Kimito Lopez and a lot of old trance tracks on how they used to sound. It's a lost art.
I also miss the innocent sounding tracks too ones with playful melodies and sounds. I mean have a listen Solid Globe - North Pole.
Exodom
Senior Member
- Oct 17, 2020
- 616 Posts
- 341 Thanked
I have never felt nostalgic listening to your Enigma State tracks. Nostalgia is a really obvious feeling to experience too. I didn’t get into Trance properly until 2010, and it was mainly Anjunabeats releases, but I am feeling the same as everyone else that your productions are some of the best, if not the best.
Of course now I have spent 10 plus years lisnteing to the genre and consuming 90s music like yours, but despite this your music doesn’t sound predictable or boring to me, yet the modern uplfiters from the most celebrated in the scene often do. It’s a different class.
Of course now I have spent 10 plus years lisnteing to the genre and consuming 90s music like yours, but despite this your music doesn’t sound predictable or boring to me, yet the modern uplfiters from the most celebrated in the scene often do. It’s a different class.
Magdelayna
Elite Member
I agree with this - its that 'balance' youre getting right,like Ferry back in the day - when the kick,bass,clap and riffs were all flowing and makes for a much more enjoable listen - rather than modern productions,which are wayyy too harsh in certain areas. Some are painful to the ears.
Within moments of hearing In My Fantasy my ears lit up. It could have been any style, new or old, but my ears immediately were engaged.
Old trance is celebrated not because it’s old but because it had something modern Trance lacks. If you bring that back in any form people will be happy. The producers tapped into it and your just doing the same in a style you like.
Old trance is celebrated not because it’s old but because it had something modern Trance lacks. If you bring that back in any form people will be happy. The producers tapped into it and your just doing the same in a style you like.
can confirm, trance listener from 2011 with no cultural ties to the genre.
tracks like In My Fantasy and Enigmatic are legit. you can tell they were made with passion for the craft (that is producing trance), and not for clout or to have a shot at getting played on ASOT or the latest trendy trance festival. this is proper art
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This is true, but to a very specific and minority portion I think. I'd say the majority of producers are making music because they want to make good music, as opposed to chasing fame. There's so little fame in Trance anyway, even if you make it onto ASOT.
The problem is much deeper. Something happens psychologically or technically that disconnects producers from the essence of what makes good trance, and good music, starting with the sound design I mentioned and then there is the difficult task of creating a flow, which I think is the over arching term that encompasses the arrangements ability to have tension, build and of course be interesting (nuance). Its possible also that the sound design step might actually be key to enable or 'activate' the feeling of flow in some significant psychological way too for the listener..
I could see that, actually, but then everyone ends up producing the same thing as everyone else, with the same production techniques. I guess they genuinely convince themselves what they're making is good, even if it isn't?
unitedtrancedivision
Member
If we ever finish our current 8 month interview together you might find out
unitedtrancedivision
Member
Haha oh boy cant wait!If we ever finish our current 8 month interview together you might find out
EnigmaState
Senior Member
- Jan 17, 2021
- 347 Posts
- 568 Thanked
Not finialised yet, it's on the list.
Production process was different to my other stuff as I used the Atari.
Such a well made tune. Genuinely up there with some of the best tunes from the golden era. Can't really see how I could fit this into a modern set though so one for listening to only i think.