Trance Wax - Trance Wax (Album) [Anjunabeats]

Artist(s)
Trance Wax
Release title
Trance Wax
Label name
Anjunabeats
Release type
Artist album

Elysium013

Member
Jul 13, 2020
206 Posts
116 Thanked
Prefer the other ones, but this latest one gets very good in the 2nd half. Fat sub bass there.
 

Elysium013

Member
Jul 13, 2020
206 Posts
116 Thanked
Album premiere was live here:
Coming tomorrow.

There are two 138 BPM tracks that sound very very good, one vocal, the other uplifting instrumental. Took you long, Anjuna. Amazing album all around, very well designed tracklist and mood too! Might be my album of the year!
 
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Exodom

Senior Member
Oct 17, 2020
560 Posts
293 Thanked
Listened once through, enjoyed the vibes, especially the faster ones
 

Hensmon

Admin
TranceFix Crew
Jun 27, 2020
3,109 Posts
2,606 Thanked
UK
Need more listens to this to make up my mind. A lot of the tracks feel very short, underdeveloped and ending abruptly. It's like they are tracks made for Spotify plays rather than musical experiences. That being said there is much I like in the general synths and atmospheres. Few more plays throughout this week...
 
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SecondNature

Member
Oct 27, 2020
148 Posts
107 Thanked
USA
Website
soundcloud.com
Need more listens to this to make up my mind. A lot of the tracks feel very short, underdeveloped and ending abruptly. It's like they are tracks made for Spotify plays rather than musical experiences. That being said there is much I like in the general synths and atmospheres. Few more plays throughout this week...
Gave the whole album a listen and I agree. The tracks do feel short and sound like just a bunch of radio edits, but that might be because the attention span of the audience today can get a little impatient. I love the atmosphere and old school feel, somewhat dark and feels like old Hooj Choons tracks. It sounds more like classic electronic music from the 90's (Underworld, Orbital, etc.) with a dash of trance here and there.

The vocals on "Rivers" with Moya Brenann sounds a little too much like her vocals from Chicane's "Saltwater" for me.

My favorite tracks were, in no particular order:

Beul Un Latha
Alone Again
Rayna
Calling For You
Beachbreak
Malu
Rivers
Northern Sky

Overall, it's a cool album, just not what I was expecting.
 
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Hensmon

Admin
TranceFix Crew
Jun 27, 2020
3,109 Posts
2,606 Thanked
UK
I'm not sure it's the producer/label considering attention span as a somewhat artistic choice i.e 'listeners love short tracks today' or that they want to generate as many plays as possible in order to boost ratings and revenue on streaming service websites, which have the pay per play model. I have a feeling it's the latter, but who knows maybe Trance Wax likes tracks like this.

Trance music suffers when it is cut short, the whole point is to do things slowly with tension and build. I know that most of the album is breaks/ progressive breaks, but even these feel way too short and as you say they are like radio edits. I guess Thrillseekers last album was similar, with many 3-4 minute tracks. Maybe the data does show that today people don't engage with albums well over 1 hour? Well then the question is do you feed into that behaviour or do you try and change things for the better. Either way it has made the album bit of a disappointment for me (slightly).
 

Electronlyman

Senior Member
Jul 14, 2020
468 Posts
281 Thanked
I'm not sure it's the producer/label considering attention span as a somewhat artistic choice i.e 'listeners love short tracks today' or that they want to generate as many plays as possible in order to boost ratings and revenue on streaming service websites, which have the pay per play model. I have a feeling it's the latter, but who knows maybe Trance Wax likes tracks like this.

Trance music suffers when it is cut short, the whole point is to do things slowly with tension and build. I know that most of the album is breaks/ progressive breaks, but even these feel way too short and as you say they are like radio edits. I guess Thrillseekers last album was similar, with many 3-4 minute tracks. Maybe the data does show that today people don't engage with albums well over 1 hour? Well then the question is do you feed into that behaviour or do you try and change things for the better. Either way it has made the album bit of a disappointment for me (slightly).
Which Thrillseekers album you mean? Seems I missed something: D
The Hydra album has mostly 8+ minute tracks.
 

SecondNature

Member
Oct 27, 2020
148 Posts
107 Thanked
USA
Website
soundcloud.com
I'm not sure it's the producer/label considering attention span as a somewhat artistic choice i.e 'listeners love short tracks today' or that they want to generate as many plays as possible in order to boost ratings and revenue on streaming service websites, which have the pay per play model. I have a feeling it's the latter, but who knows maybe Trance Wax likes tracks like this.

Trance music suffers when it is cut short, the whole point is to do things slowly with tension and build. I know that most of the album is breaks/ progressive breaks, but even these feel way too short and as you say they are like radio edits. I guess Thrillseekers last album was similar, with many 3-4 minute tracks. Maybe the data does show that today people don't engage with albums well over 1 hour? Well then the question is do you feed into that behaviour or do you try and change things for the better. Either way it has made the album bit of a disappointment for me (slightly).
I read Trance Wax's perspective from his DJ Mag interview from March of 2019. Here are some excerpts from his interview:


"Well as lovely as it is, I realised a lot of people don’t play trance because the records are eight minutes long, the breakdown is a minute-and-a-half and it’s 140bpm,” says McCartney, who started by experimenting with original trance records in his Ejeca sets, pitched down to the more appropriate speed. “Those types of dynamics don’t communicate so well with the crowd nowadays. Everyone wants a 30 second drop for Instagram, and people are too impatient for big breakdowns now too.”

“I find the breakbeat brings things down a level, it’s easier to slow things down that way,” says McCartney, who tends to describe Trance Wax as a breakbeat act rather than a trance act. It makes sense; the whole reason for this project is versatility. Trance Wax isn’t about nostalgia, or trance for trance’s sake. It’s about bringing certain aspects of it back into the mix because they work, they’re relevant and worth revisiting. It’s why the project began as an anonymous series — they’re DJ tools for Ejeca and other DJs to bring colour into their sets, regardless of genre."
 
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Peenuts

Resident Doctor
Jun 28, 2020
331 Posts
219 Thanked
I think this is a solid album - it is a fusion of several styles yet it flows quite naturally. It is fundamentally breaks but very melodic and condensed in its arrangement.

And i think it hits the sweet spot between being accessible for the mainstream crowd, whilst retaining enough musical substance for the more serious underground fans to relish. Ultimately what has to be compromised is the track length. There are some really promising ideas in there, and i could only imagine that they would be even better had they been fleshed out a bit more.

Looking forward to some of these tracks being released in an extended format!
 

Elysium013

Member
Jul 13, 2020
206 Posts
116 Thanked
I think Garry has confirmed somewhere there will be extended versions of some of the tracks so I'm looking forward to that too.
 
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