(Why) are there no new ideas in trance?

Daysleeper

Lost in Trancelation
Jul 13, 2020
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Is this really Trance? Is it really a revival? I think House claims this victory (just).
I have 0% of house feeling from the track, none House dj plays stuff like that. Lets try google.) 135 BPM is way too much..
Really?? It was my fav track of last year, but it sounds like the stuff terry lee brown (atleast the base of the track) was playing in the late/early 90s./00s Especially the rhythm of the bassline. Not so much the pads/melody/synth though. But I agree about the tempo and overall its very "trancified"
 
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TRANCEBLASTER

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Jul 21, 2020
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Is this really Trance? Is it really a revival? I think House claims this victory (just).
I have 0% of house feeling from the track, none House dj plays stuff like that. Lets try google.) 135 BPM is way too much..
Really?? It was my fav track of last year, but it sounds like the stuff terry lee brown (atleast the base of the track) was playing in the late/early 90s./00s Especially the rhythm of the bassline. Not so much the pads/melody/synth though. But I agree about the tempo and overall its very "trancified"
House should be influeced by jazz, disco, soul, funk and I don't hear it anywhere in the track, ofc there many "progressive" variations, but this track is not really progressive.

Most of this 'revival' stuff is made for small club venues.. straight music where everybody waits for a drop sounds horrible in clubs where the maximum capacity is around 50 - 150 people.. so I understand why they use housey basslines and rhythms, it is much more effective for a smaller floor.
 
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Hot Tuna

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Listen to Job Jobse's essential mix from last month. About 1/3 of the tracklist is recent bandcamp releases and the rest is early 90s European trance releases. Virtually impossible to tell which is which.
 

TRANCEBLASTER

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Listen to Job Jobse's essential mix from last month. About 1/3 of the tracklist is recent bandcamp releases and the rest is early 90s European trance releases. Virtually impossible to tell which is which
Very good example!
 

Manofearth

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Sep 24, 2020
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Maybe there are not enough labels around to give a home to new types of Trance?

I am not sure what the rejection rate is based on sounds not fitting the label's style, but I have a feeling it's a thing. If there are only a handful of semi or fully established known Trance labels then you are really limited in where you might land. In my experience there is only 6/7 Trance labels that may produce quality and could be turned too.

And the other problem is touched upon in the posts above. If you try something new you also may end up sounding too close to something else, like House, Prog, Prog-breaks, Techno or Psy. Most of the tracks in the revival thread do sound like House or Techno. Even the most flexible of Trance labels would have a hard time picking it up.
 

Jetflag

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Jul 17, 2020
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But as you mentioned, no one wants that, and no one can provide it.
Challenge accepted, I always wanted to do something with Peru to be honest.
See: music production thread for the first ideas ísh mixdown on that by the way. if you're curious. harsch criticism and "but it has no soul" comments genuinly appriciated 🙏 as long as you elaborate why :)
 
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dmgtz96

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But as you mentioned, no one wants that, and no one can provide it.
Challenge accepted, I always wanted to do something with Peru to be honest.
See: music production thread for the first ideas ísh mixdown on that by the way. if you're curious. harsch criticism and "but it has no soul" comments genuinly appriciated 🙏 as long as you elaborate why :)
That was awesome.
 
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Tep

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Jul 2, 2020
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True man. Maybe part of the problem is that it feels like the most unoriginal and generic styles are the ones that take up the most space in the scene. The more unoriginal you are the better you will succeed, it's hard to see. If we had only 2 styles of Trance remaining but they were quality I dont know if we would as much of an issue.

Good to see you pop your head into the forum again btw ;)
Well i check it every now and then, not sure why I bothered logging in this time and actually typing something :)
 

Tep

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I have 0% of house feeling from the track, none House dj plays stuff like that. Lets try google.) 135 BPM is way too much..
I sort of agree, but in essence I think different genres have really merged in every possible way, there is so much great house out there with melodical trance breaks. For example I really like Faithless recent releases, its not "God is a DJ" type of thing anymore, starts as typical house track, but ends up with cool chill trance vibe.
 

Juna

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Dec 11, 2020
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I really felt the width of ideas in psy-trance also shrunk. No serious and interesting psy-trance, just the same template and party psy which I do not mind totally, but at the same time we are missing key pieces of the whole puzzle. Why is it so with both Trance and Psy? Could it be that the people simply do not want it? Is our generation out of touch?
 

Hensmon

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Listen to Job Jobse's essential mix from last month. About 1/3 of the tracklist is recent bandcamp releases and the rest is early 90s European trance releases. Virtually impossible to tell which is which.

House should be influeced by jazz, disco, soul, funk and I don't hear it anywhere in the track, ofc there many "progressive" variations, but this track is not really progressive.

I listened to this mix today. It's so so good, and you are right the modern stuff does blend pretty effortlessly into some of the newer stuff. Purchased almost all the tracks in the mix I was missing.

But there is not too much straight Trance in the mix though, maybe 6/7 tracks and they are so easily identifiable as the older early 90's tracks i.e Speedy J, LDC - Plasma, Confession - I Found My Love, Dance 2 Trance (all four mixed together). The majority of the mix and especially the newer stuff is progressive house and progressive breaks styles, and they are all mixed alongside each other as such. Maybe the Adam Pitts track is the only new one that could be considered Trance (and its much faster than his usual stuff)

Even if the jazz, disco, soul influences aren't there it is still sharing more with prog house/breaks than Trance styles IMO. Dylan Forbes Djibril 9 and YAM - These Waves have a nice shared vibe (prog/breaks), for example. That awesome Tulip track is another great Trancey one but clear house/breaks arrangements. Just like when Prog-house broke away from the soul influence in the 90's, this new stuff swaps the slightly more progressive flows for groovier house/breaks angle. Different enough to not be the same but most clearly matching those sounds more than anything else. New ideas!
 
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dmgtz96

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I really felt the width of ideas in psy-trance also shrunk. No serious and interesting psy-trance, just the same template and party psy which I do not mind totally, but at the same time we are missing key pieces of the whole puzzle. Why is it so with both Trance and Psy? Could it be that the people simply do not want it? Is our generation out of touch?
Psytrance has been bad for nearly a decade already. The legendary Future Ducks of London is just testament to how bad the psy scene was back in mid-2013:


In a weird way, the ultra-commercial psytrance by Vini Vici was a breath of fresh air, but it just recycled the same ideas of bad quality psytrance except that it made psytrance more socially acceptable / fitting for mainstream European trance festivals (well removed from its trippy Indian/Israeli roots). So for the most part it's just boring.
 
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LostLegend

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I think one of the main problems is the restrictive nature of trance as a genre by default.
If you push too far in a certain direction, it ceases to be trance anymore (by a genre definition at least)

I'm actually working on a 3 track progressive trance EP, in which which I have tried to push each track in a different direction whilst keeping that trance vibe.
Funnily enough, the first track I completed (Into The Sky) was intended to be a big cinematic sounding progressive trance moment. I'm really happy with how it sounds, but ultimately it sounds like an AnjunaDeep melodic house track rather than some original, genre breaking tune 😄

And that's the point. Trance is so heavily borrowed from and the state of genre labelling is such a mess that as soon as you try to deviate, it ends up as something else - Melodic House, Melodic Breaks, Melodic Techno etc.

There's also the whole trance META; something that affects every genre. As soon as someone does something unique and becomes popular, the analytics catch it, the marketing and A&R push it and you'll be sick of it in a year.

The sledgehammer kick that has infected the 138 side of trance is just part of the issue. There's certainly a place for it within your set. DuMonde built a career out it in the early 2000's and it was great to spin one of their tunes to add a huge energy moment in your set, but when every track sounds like that it seriously tires your ears out.

Personally I do like reading these threads as a producer myself (albeit a bedroom one) as I do like pushing my music into different areas and they do give me inspiration. The EP I am working on is actually inspired by reading some of the 'negative' threads on here and trying to extract the essence of what people like to hear. But ultimately I am not the person to change the genre, I'm 40 next year and just want to vibe with some home made tunes :p, you'll need a new younger crowd to change the trance world! ✌️

****On a side note, if you are interested in that tune from my forthcoming EP, my good mate and DJ 'Bob' played out a demo version in his Progressions series here:
It's the last track and starts at around 1 hour 58 :cool:

 

Archon

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Haha I'm sorry but Bob has to be the greatest DJ name of all time. DJ Bob. Sounds like some fat American spinning tunes at a hot-dog eating contest.

Can't wait to hear what you got, don't think I'll spoil it for myself with the mix cuts.

And you do have a point.
 

LostLegend

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Haha I'm sorry but Bob has to be the greatest DJ name of all time. DJ Bob. Sounds like some fat American spinning tunes at a hot-dog eating contest.
:ROFLMAO:

He'll love that!
He's actually the most British person you could ever meet. Looks like a geography teacher, works as a medical scientist by day and spins deep progressive by night :p
 
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I wouldn't say there are no new ideas. We had new ideas and most have been failures. New ideas doesn't always mean a good thing, we should be careful what we wish for. Looking at the past 10 years here is how I see it....

Trouse & Trance 2.0 (2012-2016)
Labels: Anjunabeats, Enhanced
Tracks: Andrew Bayer - Nobody Told Me, Above & Beyond - Sticky Fingers, Andrew Rayel - Zeus etc
Thoughts: The genres no-one asked for, that could not get as removed from the roots of Trance if it tried harder. Sometimes original on the Anjuna side, but when you're compressing fart noises that aggressively you always run the risk of them becoming a solid.
Rating: 4/10

"Underground" Trance (2012-2018)
Labels: JOOF, LCD
Tracks: Airwave - Gaijin/Tigris Euphrates/Atlas Winds, Simon Templar - Wasteland pt 2, Digital Blonde - M, JOOF - Imperial Echoes of Devestation
Thoughts: It blended darker and serious tones of trance, psy and prog together into something not seen before. Unfortunately not enough artists tuned in to GTG and caught on. As time went on the style descended into various forms of monotonous and unremarkable prog and techno. RIP
Rating: 7.5/10

Commercial Trance (2015-Today)
Labels: Armada, Spinnin etc
Tracks: Dont make me search for it
Thoughts: Sometimes pure pop with heavy breakdown, sometimes blends with steroid or commercial psy. Through association it unfortunately remains part of the Trance scenes identity. Today this is what most people think Trance is I honestly believe.
Rating: 2/10

Commercial Psy-Trance (2016-Today?)
Labels: Fuck knows
Tracks: Anything by Vini Vici or Highlight Tribe
Thoughts: Shocking, classless genre, assembled in minutes from the most generic sample packs around, for a guaranteed blow your socks off experience tailored for the Gen-Z cosmonaught. Check Armins recent EDC set opening tracks, for what is an eye opener, both in the pure capitulation of the genre and the abundance of scantly dressed Californian asian women.
Rating: 4/10

Steroid/Modern Uplifting (2015-Today)
Labels: FSOE, Always Alive, PURE Trance Neon, Nocturnal Knights, Skullduggery, Armada, Subculture (EVERYONE)
Tracks: Photographer - Airport, Harmonic Rush - Were Ghosts

Thoughts: Kick helplines around the world at breaking point due to the rising levels of abuse. Kids pushing white-noise in backdoor sample packs. Almost every label penetrated, in the unhealthiest relationship Trance has had since Euro-dance. The harder it tries the more generic and louder it becomes. RIP my ears.
Rating: 3/10

Revival (2020 - Today)
Labels: Bandcamp and Soundcloud minnows
Tracks: Niles Cooper - In My Mind, Aguila - La Luz, Steve Marie - Trancier, Bliss Inc - Pangea, Energy Breakthrough (Adam Pits' Lightspeed Mix)
Thoughts: Trance stopped being cool, but due its undeniable allure, producers found a hack where they just take pieces of the genre and add it to their house and techno tracks, thus maintaining their edgey disposition whilst also summoning the unicorns from within. I'm just happy to have enjoyable music outside of Activa in all honesty.
Rating: Too early to tell (but I predict 7/10)

Did I miss anything :p
 

dmgtz96

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Accurate. I would reduce the rating of "underground" to 5. It's only slightly better than the other genres.
 

Magdelayna

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Someone earlier in this thread did make a very good point of why has the modern 'Steroid' style of Trance been so popular for so many years...normally you see a cycle come around again and another 'trend' comes in.