TranceFix Radio #10 - TF Best Of 2022 Mix II: Underground | Deep Trance | Nu-Trance - Redrot



Our second 2022 End of Year mix is brought to you by Redrot aka DJ Sammy K, who once again delivers a phenomenal and diverse mix of sounds, this time showcasing the best nu-trance and underground styles from the year, as voted on by our users here.

There’s been a ‘revival’ in the electronic music scene. Producers are returning to old school sounds and influences to create their own modern interpretation of serious hypnotic and energetic dance music. Sounds that take influences form across the spectrum of House, Progressive, Techno, Breaks, Psychedelic and Trance music, with no hesitation to merge these together, with results that are really striking a chord with the many of us who felt a dissociation with the modern Trance scene in the last decade. You’ll hear all of this unfold in the 3 hour journey Redrot has put together for us! Thanks again for doing such a great job and capturing the spirit of this years underground Trance scene.

Mix III: Ambient | Downtempo, will be coming in next!

Tracklist
01. nthng - Looking Outside
02. SEO JOHN - Dreams Collide
03. Clint -Alpine Breaks (Alex Kassian Remix)
04. Dylan Forbes - Ride Da Flange
05. Solar Suite - Still Life
06. Mahkina - Flashback
07. Repulsive Force - Ants (Omformer Remix)
08. CYBERNET! - Druid
09. Rambal Cochet - Thrash to Treasure
10. Sakura Tsuruta - Helix
11. Dylan Forbes - Searching
12. Omformer - Transmedium Travel
13. Maruwa - Midnight Caller
14. Bliss Inc. - Get Some
15. Gabriola - One to Zen
16. Squidge - Hammock
17. Skyblaster - Death In Peace (Narciss Remix)
18. Lawrence Lee - Half Life
19. Maara - Going All The Way Up
20. Solar Alliance - Quest For Kiba
21. L-3P - Acknaw
22. Sleep D ft. Ivy Barkakati & Furious Frank - Border Control (Ahora Si)
23. Juicy Romance - Juicy Bitch (Marlon Hoffstadt aka DJ Daddy Trance Remix)
24. Miju - Metatron (Bliss Inc. Remix)
25. Drua - Larp
26. Willem & CYBERNET! - Exit Phase
27. Byron Yeates - Sweat Ur Prayers
28. DJ MARIA. - Acid Sunrise (Alan Backdrop Remix)
29. DJ MARIA. - Acid Sunrise (Mikkel Rev Remix)
30. CYBERNET! - Sun Dancer
31. Repulsive Force - Dreams of Unity (Ascensionist High Hopes Mix)
32. CAIVA - Take Me Higher
33. Kineta - Extensions
34. Maara - Highrollerz
35. Oprofessionell - Will U (Repulsive Force Dreamix)
36. Hex Editor - Utena (Omformer Remix)
37. Omformer - Interstellar Infection
38. Björk - Jóga (Sunju Hargun's Eternal Injection Mix)

https://soundcloud.com/tfrecordings%2Ftrancefix-radio-10-tf-best-of-2022-mix-ii-underground-deep-trance-nu-trance-redrot
 

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sszecret

Senior Member
Jul 19, 2020
264 Posts
212 Thanked
Only recognize Omformer from the tracklist, but I did enjoy the hell out of this mix. Great selection and transitions @Redrot .

Now about that box set...
 
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Redrot

Senior Member
Jan 11, 2022
404 Posts
414 Thanked
Northern California
A pleasure again to handle mixing duties for you all!

Last mix I focused much more on the house-y and techno-ey side of things, which seemed to have mixed results. For this one, I wanted to focus more on the "definitively trance" releases from the underground, tunes with more melodic development or goa influences - you'll hear that, especially in the last 2 hours. I also tried not to get too married to one specific subscene (i.e. UTE collective or the Adam Pits style peeps), rather flowing between them to showcase all the scenes have to offer and to get as many of your selections in the TL (and a few that weren't chosen but that I couldn't allow a yearmix to not have).

Hope you enjoy and find a few new tunes to add to your collections! As always, happy to hear your thoughts too.
 

Hensmon

Admin
TranceFix Crew
Jun 27, 2020
3,109 Posts
2,606 Thanked
UK
Amazing work once again. Went snowboarding yesterday and listened to it while on the slopes and it was so good. Discovered some new ones too. NIce one.
 
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Redrot

Senior Member
Jan 11, 2022
404 Posts
414 Thanked
Northern California
I suppose it depends on what you're looking for in trance, and what you value in it. It's certainly a step in a different direction than the trance scene's seen in many, many years.

Bear in mind that as far as I know, almost all of these producers came out of the woodwork either not knowing about the way the traditional trance scene developed, or just didn't really care, which makes most of these tunes outsider art, in a sense. For some of these producers, they either came from a house/techno background (Roza Terenzi, Spray from Brame & Hamo come to mind as having a decently large backcatalog) and for many others, they're pretty much new to production, period (Rigson who just recently joined said this was his 3rd year of production, and Maara, one of my personal faves, had her first EP release in 2021 and it is a bit rough) so some of it will be a bit rougher around the edges. Though a number of these DJs have already had Boiler Room sets so they've been more established as DJs for a while.

On the other hand though, many of these producers are a lot more willing to build everything up organically, using more actual synthesizers, drum machines, etc., especially the UTE collective. So much of the modern trance scene has relied on the same few sample packs (DPTE etc) for years now, and while using sample packs isn't bad IMO, it does tend to lead to a homogeneous sound. One thing that I've felt deep down for a while that I hadn't really actualized until the last few years is how in the past x years, even the "purer" trance has started relying more and more on sounding like machines fucking (i.e. futuristic), which isn't inherently bad (I listen to a bit of glitch) but when it's something the genre has to lean on, especially in a melody-based genre, there might be something wrong.

It's a different approach to the genre that's more in line with underground scenes coming from house and techno, which always felt more organic (the scenes, not necessarily the music) to me. I'm not going to die on the hill that this is the best trance there is, I could never work out or rage to this like I can a good Everlight, Greg Downey, or Big Bill set :p but it's the most refreshed and original I've felt about anything even remotely trancey in years.
 
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No Return

Member
Mar 9, 2022
126 Posts
79 Thanked
Very true words spoken above me. You don't have to say that this new music is better or worse, as long as it remains authentic and creative then everything is where it should be. I am still getting familiar with these artists in your mix but what I heard does excite me more than anything else the regular scene is doing, apart from a handful of other producers like Enigma State, Coredata' Narel and Activa.

Very much excites to try this mix from your Redrot. I will let you know what I think
 

erickUO

Senior Member
Jul 13, 2020
916 Posts
999 Thanked
Great journey from you as usual. Loving the 1st and 3rd hour.
Transitions are super nice, love how you introduce each track in the mix.
 
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Dreamless

Member
Dec 7, 2022
64 Posts
39 Thanked
You did really great work with this. Finally Trance I can follow again, you showed what it has on offer
 
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Enlusion

Senior Member
Jul 3, 2020
441 Posts
523 Thanked
Age
30
Belgrade, Serbia
Website
facebook.com
Finally listened to this mix in full. First of all, I'm really surprised that all these tracks have just been released, never heard of any before.

It's a nicely done set, transitions are old-school and smooth.

Grabbed this track from Bandcamp right away:
DJ MARIA. - Acid Sunrise (Alan Backdrop Remix)

Thank you :)
 

Daysleeper

Lost in Trancelation
Jul 13, 2020
2,495 Posts
1,713 Thanked
Sweden
Okkkk, I'm closing in on 2 hours, and let me share my thoughts.

First off, thanks for compiling and mixing this for us. I appreciate the effort of finding all these tracks that share a common vibe/sound/aesthetic and mixing them together with such competency.

My thoughts: 3 hours is just too long,too much, for me personally.For casual/home listening atleast, If yor're not on drugs in a rave somewhere, i guess, and ive never been a druggy or raver. For that purpose it would certainly work.

Now on to the actual music. For me its like about 60/40%(maybe 70/20 ratio) mixed thoughs, in that 60% of the mix is stuff I could appreciate and really dig while the rest 40% was less enjoyable. I loved the atmospheric intro track and the little breakbeat/groovy almost rock/jazz/fusion-influenced drums of the first/second track. After 30-40 min I actually thought this was pretty similar to Armins (you might not like the comparision) more proggy mixing moments in the early 2000s before the more "modern" less proggy/techy sound arrived in arounf 2004. Like really headnodding groovy and atmospheric, dreamy, def had some eye-closed moments here and there. But alot of the tracks does sound similar and they drag a bit too much too often in the mix, it gets stuck in a rut of repetitiv hypnotic grooves that just gets tedious, atleast for me personally. And many of the tracks arent distinct enough. Alot of one/two note hypnotic basslines and minimal developement. Thats why I think this would have been better shortened to max 2 hours. The energy levels feels a bit inconsistent also. Sometime the mix would really pic up momentum, then for 2-3 tracks iwould get back to this more tedious prog-techy repetitiveness.
 
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Redrot

Senior Member
Jan 11, 2022
404 Posts
414 Thanked
Northern California
Appreciate the detailed thoughts @Daysleeper! It's really the only way to grow at this. And I'm definitely okay with being compared with early Armin, ahah.

I'd say the last hour (especially the last 30 mins) is indeed a bit samey (didn't really think so until the drive yesterday, might also coincide with being stuck in traffic then), the kind of thing I'd love to experience at a renegade or warehouse rave at 4 AM but it doesn't translate quite as well to at-home or car listening. To me, they're as much sped-up hypnotic techno as they are trance, and I definitely go back on forth with loving hypnotech and feeling like it's kind of samey, minus a few brilliant producers who always amaze (like some of the Hypnus records crew). It depends on the tune, though - like the earlier Omformer tunes before the 2h mark, the L-3P/Ness tune, and both remixes of the DJ Maria tune (especially the Mikkel Rev remix, probs my favorite melodic tune in the mix) are a bit more memorable to me, while a few others kind of meander without developing as much as I'd hope, like the Solar Alliance tune and the Hex Editor remix.

But I went that route anyways because 1. there were a lot of tunes on the top 100 of that style - this was supposed to be a mix comprised of at least *some* user choices, after all, and 2. I wanted to touch on pretty much all the scenes that I follow at least a bit (also why Juicy Bitch is in there, despite being a pretty drastic tone shift, but I always chuckle when I hear it and give 0 fucks if anyone doesn't like it, it HAD to be in a yearmix).

In my opinion, some of my best long mixes that have stood the test of time and really feel like journeys to me and not like I'm slowly increasing the bpm and playing whatever's there and in key are those that are done with 0 prep and just going for it, rather than planning each tune out. I think the flow still ended up decently natural on this (though I get that some people may not appreciate the shift to harder stuff in the 2nd hour) but I wouldn't say it's my best work in that regard. Honestly I think the warehouse set I played earlier this year is my favorite nutrance recording despite the mixing being shoddy. There's something about planning a mix out rather than improvising live in the moment that makes things feel a bit too calculated.
 

Redrot

Senior Member
Jan 11, 2022
404 Posts
414 Thanked
Northern California
Finally listened to this mix in full. First of all, I'm really surprised that all these tracks have just been released, never heard of any before.
Thank you! One of my hopes was to bring a bit more exposure to these artists. I feel like Forescape of all labels could have some potential to sign some of these folks, I'd think Alan Backdrop in particular could be a good fit if he's up for it, he does a solid job of straddling the line of trance, darker progressive, and techno.
 

TwinSilo

Senior Member
Feb 24, 2021
349 Posts
183 Thanked
USA
Finally listened, totally awesome journey and selection. No doubt I will be doing that again.
 
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Archon

Gagi
TranceFix Crew
Jun 27, 2020
3,913 Posts
2,809 Thanked
Just managed to find time to play it and only about halfway through, absolutely love the energy here!
 

Archon

Gagi
TranceFix Crew
Jun 27, 2020
3,913 Posts
2,809 Thanked
Just finishing up. Never lets off, as expected a fantastic job by @Redrot! Phenomenal mix.

And this is just a spectacular way to find out 2022 has been actually amazing for trance...and I've missed it completely. It might not have been amazing in the most obvious of ways, and certainly has room for improvement, but this sub-scene is creating some amazing stuff absolutely worthy of attention. Keeping the hope and the enthusiasm alive, at least for me.
 
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