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I think it has!

Here me out!

It has come to my attention that I am less tolerant of loud synths and extra high noise from trance tunes, mainly uplifting. I was just chatting up to Raneem about this and it seems that I have lost 80% tolerance to anything at the 140 BPM par. I really think it's because the artists are not creative anymore in that very subgenre. Only the mainstream ones are doing a good job along with their labels. Everything just sounds the same.

I mean look at Daniel Kandi, Paul Miller, Sean Tyas, and the rest of the lot. Everything sounds identical. There's one sampled clap that is in almost every uplifting trance track of 2008 that used to sound nice. However, after everyone whored it out in their music, it doesn't really sound amusing anymore.

Uplifting trance has gotten way too repetitive to me for some reason.
After trying to find a good explanation to my "I-can't-tolerate-uplifting-trance" syndrome, I think it goes down to the fact that I'm more into groove. Which, let's face it, most trance tracks do not have. It's all about the emotion, which I LOVE! But where are these emotions now? There's no creativity whatsoever with this year's uplifting trance producers.

Question: So what does Crow like to listen to now?

Let's just get this out of the way so that people wouldn't criticize me for not being a Trance music enthusiast anymore!

I honestly love almost any form of EDM right now as long as it has the groove. The reason I suddenly burst out the whole "I'm Lovin' Techno" thread was because I found in Techno just a LITTLE BIT of groove. Does that mean I'm shifting majorly to Techno?

Nope.

I love Deep/Tech house too! I've built a good taste towards these 2 sub-genres of House music along with a bit of Techno here 'n there. I also find Dubstep weirdly good. Though I haven't really gotten into it.

Question: But what about Trance?

Honestly? I don't know where exactly I stand with this beautiful genre of EDM. All I know is that I still love it and will always spin it. Let's just say I have become more picky about what I want in a Trance track. May it be prog, tech, or uplifting.

I was looking - or rather listening - back to an old set that I mixed in late 2007, and as far as I remember, it was pretty uplifting and energetic. Though for some reason, it's nothing like what I would listen to or spin nowadays. Specifically this year.

I mean look at the new/rising faces this year and compare them to the uplifting trance artists:

8 wonders aka Arnej. S <-- Talk about a great comeback!
Sied van Riel
Leon Bolier <-- Great album this year!
J.O.C.
Gareth Emery

Those are only 4 of many other new/rising talents. Get my drift?

And no this isn't a topic that is headlining "Trance is dead"
So please, save everyone the argument of that boring topic and let's focus on what I'm trying to say here.

Thing is, if we look around and listen to what many artists have to say through their music, most of them are broadcasting the same message but in a different form.

On the other hand, you got top peeps like Above & Beyond, Ferry Corsten, Armin van Buuren, DJ Shah, and many more, that are putting so much effort into being unique and different. Let's take Shah as a unique and solid example; he's been hammering us with his music nonstop since he showed up on Armin's radar. And what I truly love about his music, is that he uses the SAME SOUNDS, yet for some reason, you're never really bored of it. I also love how his track titles fit the mood and atmosphere created in his tracks. This is proof that he surely works so hard to bring out the emotions in his mind, body, and soul, onto those single layered discs that we used in our cars, clubs, and whatnot.

And I really think that what I typed up there is a major influence to the kind of music we are all into. May it be Psy, Hard, House, Uplifting... Whatever. We all constantly seek originality, emotions, and groove in the music we listen. If the artists we love fail to give us what we want, then they are suddenly the scum of the Earth to us, and we start looking for other genres/sub-genres of music.

All in all, discovering new sounds and going for something new/fresh is never a bad thing unless you're listening to music that involves screaming.

I guess 2008 impacted me a lot and how I started perceiving "good music".

Bottom line is: I currently play at a much lower BPM. Probably less than 135 BPM. Wouldn't mind anything above as long as it is good. I'll stick to Deep/Tech house along with Techno and continue to enjoy Trance music in all its forms.

Let's see what 2009 promises for us....






What's YOUR story?

I think it all depends on what you want from Trance, if it's something missing or you can't find it anymore you shift to other genres that offer what you're looking for.

The best part about EDM is exploring different genres i still don't get why some people view it as a betrayal when you admit loving House or Techno, I tried both and couldn't stand either honestly but i respect why some people are addicted to them, I found Psy to be my second favorite after Trance, maybe because i found the right artists, thanks to Gen and his reviews on psy releases!
Again it depends on what you're looking for and what is closest to you or your taste and what you can relate to.
Overall 08 was dominated by up-lifting releases, and by the look of 09's start we're about to witness a similar year, hopefully that won't mean Trance fell into a loop.
One last comment about DJ Shah he truly is an amazing producer not just for his remarkable releases, you can sense from his productions that he respects your "ears" and doesn't BS you with crappy amateur stuff, thats what's so impressive about him, i can say the same about Sied van Riel.

Too much is as good as too little.

If you're going to dedicate your style to primarily one sound (or even a handful) you'll get bored. Nobody can listen to acid-blaring 145+ psy all day. I can't, and I'm the psy junkie among you all. There's so much that you can enjoy of a certain style and then it gets too predicable. It gets stale. It's even worse with the more popular genres of EDM that are more mainstream than the rest.

I've abandoned tech/uplifting years ago and I never looked back at those days with any remorse. I remember them because that's how it all started with EDM for me, but I never miss them (except a few earth-moving classics).
If you listen to a CD over and over again, you'll get bored. You'll start to listen to the flaws, you'll be able to pick up certain mistakes or certain tunes that you may have liked in the first listen, but you're not anymore.
Just like tunes can ''grow in us'', it can also ''drop out'' if you listen to it too much.

I guess what I'm trying to say, and as the saying goes, you won't miss something or appreciate until you live a while without it. If you (not you Crow, just generally) widen your tastes and try different stuff just for the sake of it, for the curiosity of it, you might find something in it that will appeal to you. You're loyalty will remain with that one style maybe, but you'll get to shake things up a bit and keep your ears freshened up to new sounds.

Now, I won't comment on how uplifting or tech is nowadays because I haven't listened to any in AGES so I'll zip past through that and say that if you read my posts from just two years ago, it would have been all about psy psy psy. I was intolerant to anything else. Because of that, I missed out on so many releases, not only in EDM, but in music generally, because I was heads-down on one genre.
Now? I can't even begin to list what I listen to!

Good music is good music. It shouldn't be defined in a genre or a bpm range. Almost all tunes have the groove you're looking for Crow, but when you get so much of that groove, it won't have you starry eyed surprise anymore when you listen to it. But if you distance yourself from it (not intentionally! But by simply trying different things like you're doing with Techno) you'll get to appreciate it when you listen to it again and miss it when you don't.

Sure I'm all for hard, edgy, dark progressive and prog-psy as well as savaging full-on psy beats but I'm also about Tech & Deep House, Sasha, Digweed, Nick Warren, GU, Renaissance, Dousk... so on and so forth.
It's good to try different things. It gets you to appreciate what you normally love and give you a taste of what you may have not known about.

Why else do DJs' sounds evolve? Change with the times? Regardless if for the better or for the worse, they are also always looking for fresh innovative sounds. Whether in their own productions or from other producers, and if that changes the direction in which they normally play their music or what defines their style towards something better and more fresh than anything stale they may have got stuck in - then fine. So be it.

Look at Sasha and Digweed now then listen to their Renaissance Master Series from 1994. Better yet, listen to Involver then listen to GU Ibiza or San Francisco. Transitions V3 or V4 vs GU LA or Hong Kong. Even Warren's Paris, Shanghai, or Lima as opposed to Brazil or Budapest.

Change is normal. It's probably not always good (depending on who's changed - Max Graham, Oakey, PvD, M.I.K.E. are examples of a change gone wrong), but it's normal and sometimes could turn out great!

Listen to what you like (except Electro - please stay away from Electro!).

I REALLY don't wanna discuss this again and again.
Whatever I say won't change anything, So I'll keep it to myself.
I will say 2 sentences with no arguments at all based on my experience and knowledge.

From a DJ perspective, Trance is much more energetic than any House/Techno subgenre.
From a Producer perspective, Trance is a much harder and much more complicated genre to produce than House or Techno. In other words, Trance never bores the hell out of my ass, but House does big time !


FULL STOP.

I won't reply again to this topic, But I will definitely enjoy reading the replies, and then cackle

I'm still into Trance, more then ever actually. Be it Tech, Uplifting, Progressive.
I tried to listen to Techno as well, it wasn't that bad.
Thanks to Ram12 .. and Kay hehe.