What has 2020 been like for you, musically?

Archon

Gagi
TranceFix Crew
Jun 27, 2020
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I want to hear from everyone here. From casual to passionate listeners, amateur to pro producers, DJs, labels...

What has 2020 been like for you, musically?

Have you discovered a new genre, have your preferences shifted, have you been more or less creative and productive...? Write on...

A more casual, off-topic thread for this is here: 2020, In Review
 
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Archon

Gagi
TranceFix Crew
Jun 27, 2020
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Personally, I haven't discovered any new genres, but I've definitely (re-)discovered lots of artists, fell in love with their work etc.

My biggest story of the year is hip-hop, a genre I have been listening to for more than 10 years (but less so now than back then). It started last year with Mos Def...

But this year, it all started with Lil Dicky. I knew about him from the previous year(s), but it was this year in which I really discovered his works, and started to enjoy them. It's equal parts humour, and finding some of myself in his serious works. His music is so weirdly unique to him, but also really accessible, a breath of fresh air in the modern hip-hop scene. His TV series is also very very good. Just digging his personality, it's so different to any other rapper.

After that, it was Mac Miller. I discovered him only recently, knowing nothing of him before. Listened to a couple of his albums, and was positively surprised. The Divine Feminine is a fine album, something I haven't heard before. The entire album is pure love and passion, which is just so nice to listen to. Top-notch stuff.

And just this December, just this past week, I've decided to check out Common's works again. Before, I've listened to a couple of his early albums, and thought they were ok but haven't grabbed me. But this time, I just checked out some random stuff, from '94 till today, and really enjoyed a lot of them. Definitely gonna keep exploring his discography. Love his more jazzy/soul stuff, with easier beats more focused on the real instruments and sampling. Heard a couple of Kanye's beats and appearances there, he's probably next on the list.

These three have reignited the love I always had for rap.

As far as trance goes, I still haven't lost my love for it, even though it sometimes took a back seat. Due to this new forum, I've been discovering more trance and related stuff this year, and definitely enjoyed a lot of releases. The list of the releases I liked is really long, although only a couple of 'em are still with me even now. Again this year, every year since 2014, the classics were the best tracks I've discovered, and this year I've explored trance's early history, the first 10 years more than anything else, along with some prog from the turn of the century.

That said, I still think it wasn't a bad year for trance, overall. A couple of comebacks, a couple of fresh faces and good albums, lots of good releases...

The trance track that blew me away was Last Train To Lhasa by Banco de Gaia. I think I've discovered it this year, on the old forum, and was just blown away by it since I haven't heard anything like it.

As far as other genres go, I'm still where I was a year ago. I still explore some other stuff, but trance and related stuff, along with hip-hop just make too much of the stuff I listen to.
 

dmgtz96

Elite Member
Jul 13, 2020
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It's been very... Korean. Not just kpop (which is how I got started), but also kindie, kr&b, and soundtracks for TV series.
Some of my best finds have been Clazziquai, an electronic/acid jazz project from the 2000s, IU for 2010s pop, and Leebada for late 2010s r&b.

Trance-wise, I haven't kept up much with the 2020 scene, though I did enjoy Trance Wax's album and have liked a few recent releases. Most importantly, transitioning to the new forum meant rediscovering a lot of classics to post them in that section, haha, and finding new ones.

My biggest story of the year is hip-hop, a genre I have been listening to for more than 10 years (but less so now than back then). It started last year with Mos Def...
Have you tried listening to the harder/popular American hip hop from 2018? I'm thinking about Travis Scott's Astro World, Childish Gambino's This is America. You might also enjoy XXXTentacion, especially if you like Mac Miller.
A lot of great rap was released during that year. Replicating that success will be hard to beat, imo.
 
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Juna

Senior Member
Dec 11, 2020
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A very nice Trance year for me, even though I did not uncover many many new tracks from the genre I found myself with the trance fire all year and going through the old Trance archives to discover the new artists. Isnt it great when you get that energy from a genre? The classic forum here gave me so many new ones. Every day I search through this and get a new amazing track. My new classic of the year = Signum - The Timelord. Thanks whoever posted that bomb, how I miss this I dont know.

Goa and all psy genres were still big part of my year too, but I only got 1 party in January and due to corona no more. But this meant I had more money than usual, not burning on festival, drink, girls, drugs so instead I buy more music than ever. Some old Psy vinyls and lots on beatport. I start to look for into House music too, next year I will expand my knowledge.
 

Recharge

Elite Member
Sep 26, 2020
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Now I wouldn't say 2020 had a significant impact, but then again I can't be sure. I was checking my beatport rewind and some things caught off guard. My spotify and soundcloud were way to inaccurate since I barely use spotify and even on soundcloud I go mostly for mixes/podcast. On beatport is where I buy 99% of my music so they have the most accurate stats in my case.

Now this year I made a very hard turn towards progressive house (and trance on the edge) and psy trance to some degree. I love progressive and uplifting trance so I wanted to broaden my horizon sort of speak.

It was no surprise my top 3 genres in beatport were:
Trance
Psy trance
Progressive house

But definitely was surprise that psy was in second place, I guess a lot of the songs were marked as trance and not progressive house

Now for my top artist no surprise , I bought their albums which probably tipped the scale in their favour:

Craig Connelly?utm_source=promo&utm_medium=bp_email&utm_content=artist1&utm_campaign=20201222_best_sellers_2020_beatport_rewind_store_hype
Indecent Noise?utm_source=promo&utm_medium=bp_email&utm_content=artist2&utm_campaign=20201222_best_sellers_2020_beatport_rewind_store_hype
Nicholson?utm_source=promo&utm_medium=bp_email&utm_content=artist3&utm_campaign=20201222_best_sellers_2020_beatport_rewind_store_hype

Now top labels definitely caught me off guard

YOUR TOP LABELS​
Black Hole Recordings?utm_source=promo&utm_medium=bp_email&utm_content=label1&utm_campaign=20201222_best_sellers_2020_beatport_rewind_store_hype
FSOE?utm_source=promo&utm_medium=bp_email&utm_content=label2&utm_campaign=20201222_best_sellers_2020_beatport_rewind_store_hype
FSOE
Anjunabeats?utm_source=promo&utm_medium=bp_email&utm_content=label3&utm_campaign=20201222_best_sellers_2020_beatport_rewind_store_hype

I though I was getting away from uplifting, but I guess I was wrong. Anjuna made a lot of sense, but my top 2 labels absolutely caught me off guard.

From the smaller labels:
HYPE: YOUR TOP LABELS​
Interplay Records?utm_source=promo&utm_medium=bp_email&utm_content=hype_Label1&utm_campaign=20201222_best_sellers_2020_beatport_rewind_store_hype
Suanda Music?utm_source=promo&utm_medium=bp_email&utm_content=hype_Label2&utm_campaign=20201222_best_sellers_2020_beatport_rewind_store_hype
Suanda Progressive?utm_source=promo&utm_medium=bp_email&utm_content=hype_Label3&utm_campaign=20201222_best_sellers_2020_beatport_rewind_store_hype

All albums I bought:

Craig Connelly ‎– A Sharper Edge
Indecent Noise - Everything Is Connected
Nicholson - Reverent
Solarstone - Island
Steve Brian - 1986
Trance Wax- Trance Wax
Will Atkinson - Last King Of Scotland
Gabriel & Dresden - Remedy

Now I am not an album guy, normally I go for songs but I was very impressed by these albums. I can definitely see a trend gong towards progressive. Gabriel & Dresden - Remedy is my favourite album, I bought it In January and I was certain its going to be my favourite one for this year

I was slowly getting into producing too so I was definitely going for that old school dream dance/trance sound in a few songs including my first ones. I've managed to produce a few dream dance songs, a psy trance track, I was working on 140bpm track but I left it for a future project/song. I am also working on 128bpm song. In between I made a few breaks and house songs.

In conclusion I think I actually got bored by uplifting trance at the end of last year, so the dive into progressive house was logical. I still don't know about psy, if I listen it for an hour and I feel like a truck run over my brain, but on the other part I enjoy it to some degree.

Because of lockdowns for the last 2 months I did a very deep dive in classic trance from 1996+. I am pretty sure that a going back to the roots will have significant impact in my next years taste/choice. I would say that was the most that Covid impacted me these year.

How about you how did your taste evolved this year and how much impacted by Covid?
 

Uplifted

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Jul 21, 2020
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My tastes didn't change too much, I got more into the trance from 2003 to 2007 (the sound of which is in my 'signature' mix).

My trance tastes evolved slowly from the Tiesto's "Elements Of Life" in 2007 to Cosmic Gate's "Sign Of The Times" 2009 album, then after I realized Cosmic Gate have gone commercial I've started being an Aly & Fila/FSOE fan and getting more into uplifting trance and classics. 2010 to 2013 was a period where I also loved the so-called "proglifting" trance - Beat Service, Shogun style (till , but in the end I was always returning to uplifting trance.

During the last few years there's so much identical and uninteresting tracks that tech trance is the almost the only kind of trance which gives me 'the boost'.

Especially from 2014, such artists as Sam Jones, Shugz, Unbeat, Icedream, Will Rees, Sneijder (and his label), Billy Gillies, and most of all Renegade System during this year - what a talent.

But mostly I'm just listening to classics till 2007 like I've said in the beginning. Then goes tech trance>uplifting>hard>progressive>psy.
 

Hensmon

Admin
TranceFix Crew
Jun 27, 2020
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UK
I listened to way more Lo-fi, Chill-hop and Trip-Hop this year than ever before. I love it honeslty. It just works perfectly in so many environments, work, big groups, dinner time, reading.... It's easy and just has good vibes, or sleepy vibes when you need it. It doesn't ask anything too much emotionally or your attention and sometimes thats just what you need.

Had a good buzz this year keeping up with the Trance and Progressive scene. B.I.G - Carpe Diem is my favourite newly discovered classic, thanks to @arif69 suggestion. Loved hearing all the 2020 Trance-House-Techno crossovers which fill me with some optimism about music. Bliss Inc - Hack The Planet EP was my favourite in this regards. Felt a positive change in music in general, but we will see. Still always have my Trance classics in the playlists too of course.

Chris Cornell and Red Hot Chili Peppers were my most played Rock albums and tracks. Soul To Squeeze, My Friends, Like A Stone, Like Suicide, Fell on Black Days...these tracks all really got me through some of the harder times. Jordan Raeki - Origins was my top non-electronic album of the year (Neosoul/Downtempo)

p.s. @Recharge I merged the two threads as they were similar, hope you dont mind.
 
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Recharge

Elite Member
Sep 26, 2020
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p.s. @Recharge I merged the two threads as they were similar, hope you dont mind.
No worries mate. I am really curious to see whats going on this year. Was a horrible year, but at least its finally over. On to the next one... famous last words... :)

Also I discovered/rediscovered so many classics thanks to lockdown and tighter budgets for new songs. Hard to pick one I've gone through 1996-1998 and so many good songs. Maybe Dolphin's Mind - Believe In You (The Whistle Song) after all trance is supposed to be feel good music...

Edit: I miss those 'crappy' videos, those were the times...

Edit 2: Forgot to mention that I also bought the Alter Ego Anniversary USB with tons of music, but haven't explored it properly just yet. I am slowly getting through it...

 
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