Recent content by TheTranceHistorian

Based on the current status, the top 4 picks are Matthias Matthew Hoffman, Detlief Hastik, Harald Blüchel, Matthias Paul, and Ralph Fritsch (with the last four tied).

I'm thinking of tracks that are artistically meaningful and genuinely enjoyable to listen to, yet never received a dedicated 12" vinyl release of their own. Instead, they only appeared on compilation vinyl/CD releases, or perhaps exclusively on an artist CD. Here are a few examples that come to...

I just tried Kofola which is basically the Czech Republic's own unique spin on Coca-Cola. It is orange-flavored, with a bunch of medical herbs mixed in. It's... interesting, but it tastes much more like a Unicum or Screwdriver (vodka-orange) than Coca Cola or Pepsi and I think I wouldn't mind...

I feel the same way about the track and about Cybertrance as well. Both are perfect examples of a solid 4/5 (or 80/100) kind of track in my eyes: they have a great core idea, and they execute that idea exceptionally well. Still, I don’t really find myself returning to them, because the overall...

What I mean is that the Dutch were the ones who managed to capitalize on trance’s success the most. Looking back, most people associate trance with the Netherlands, and many even (incorrectly) assume that the genre originated there. That’s what I meant by them “doing it better”.

That’s because, up until around 1995, trance was primarily an underground scene centred around Germany, with smaller scenes in Belgium and Italy (the latter developing its own dream/Mediterranean progressive sound). Most of the music produced within these scenes was rarely exported abroad, so...

The story of The Orange Theme dates all the way back to the early 1980s. As a schoolboy, Hoffmann saw Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, whose musical world — and particularly its opening theme — made a profound impression on him. The melody then remained dormant in his mind for more than ten...

Hey, maybe you didn't check that part of post, but I mentioned that my intention is to cover everything till 2007, hence I need to go through 180 thousand tracks. :D I just said that at launch, it will cover everything till 1995 and obviously it will keep getting updated with later tracks regularly.

Android, produced by fellow Italians Gianluca Cavicchi and Max Ricci, was picked up and reworked by several local DJs and producers in the same year of its release, resulting in the Space Remix and Positive Remix. But it was only Gigi D’Agostino’s interpretation that ultimately managed to...

Hymn was released on Mute Records in 1994 and would later serve as the opening track of Moby’s third studio album, Everything Is Wrong. Upon its release, the track received considerable critical acclaim. Billboard’s Larry Flick described it as “a brain-tugging effort that combines an insistent...

Before Ben Watkins became better known through his Juno Reactor project, he established Electrotete in 1991, releasing the Sonar 12-inch in France, on which I Love You first appeared. The track gained wider distribution and considerable success in 1992. According to some sources, however, after...

"You gain something from it [...] it’s a feeling of euphoria [...] rather than being trance music, it should be called euphoria." — Mark Reeder, founder of MFS, from the 1993 documentary Berliner Trance (who is also often credited with coining the term "trance" as a genre name in 1991)...

Be patient, official website is coming, I'm working on it daily.

If we go into 1992 when the well-known mix of The Age Of Love has been released, we suddenly find tons more trance tracks, and many great ones: 4Voice - Eternal Spirit Confession - I Found My Love (Club Mix) DJ Hooligan - Space Girl Electrotete - Love You (Remix) Elements Of Trance - A Taste...

For the sake of clarity: I never meant to suggest that Papua New Guinea had no influence on trance, because it most certainly did. It became a widely known track, and as such, it naturally reached a broad audience of producers and likely inspired many of them. What I was trying to emphasize...