TRANCESONIC.FM event anthem update (Part 2)

Anthems going slow, whether you like it or not.

Many DJs and producers say the best years of trance are over. It’s up to you whether you agree with that or not, if you didn’t, you wouldn’t probably be reading this right now. The thing is, though, that over the past 2, 3 or 4 years trance has gone quite remarkably slower. There has been a number of artists whose productions border on trance and progressive or trance and house, many have also significantly reduced the tempo of their newer tracks (f.e. Orjan Nilsen, Cor Fijneman or even Tiesto, although he’s stopped being a good example in any kind of serious discussion about trance music). Epic trance has been basicly over for a while now, it’s become virtually impossible to find anything in good-old-trance style.

Trance Energy 2007
Joop – "The Future"



This is no place to start a debate on the decay of trance (although you’re welcome to express your opinions on that if you like!), but this introduction has a point. Experts and artists agree on that we are in for an era of techno and minimal rather thatn pure trance. It comes actually as no surprise since such sounds have been introduced into trance for years. Techy tracks from Richard Durand and Sander van Doorn have ruled the dancefloors in their time, but some producers have apparently got lost in the urge to get hard and raw. This actually applies very much to Sander van Doorn himself, the best example of it being this year’s Trance Energy anthem, “Renegade”.

Trance Energy 2010
Sander van Doorn – "Renegade"



This may purely be a matter of taste, but it’s quite certain that after hearing this for the first time you would be looking around trying to find the answer to the question: what the hell went wrong? It’s quite hard to imagine the crowd explode into oblivious dance after hearing it on the dancefloor in Jaarbeurs. But maybe that’s not the point any more. One sure thing is that Sander’s name creates a lot of income on Beatport. One way or the other it’s another cherry on top of his pie and this is the anthem you will have to live with until next year’s edition. It was last year’s Rank 1 hit "L.E.D. There Be Light" that turned down the tempo a lot, but it’s very surprising that Sander van Doorn, responsible for some everlasting choons and quite many seriously mediocre tracks, has provided something this colourless, probably his worst track so far. Not the best example of current trends whatsoever, both him and ID&T can and should do better.

Sensation White 2005
Armin van Buuren – "Serenity"



The other most famous gig with an annual anthem is Sensation White. Or rather used to be, since the tradition of presenting the anthem was dropped after 2007 along with the part of the name “White” as the event went more into house music. As we established last week, Sensation themes were different from those from Trance Energy, there was a lot more epic atmosphere in the tracks, which suited the event. Many of the tracks were actually based on some classical motifs including such composers as Polish Frederic Chopin (2005’s "Serenity"), German Carl Orff (2004’s "The Anthem") and even Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (2003’s "The Anthem"). Many of these anthems have naturally become remarkable trance classics. Here’s the list of the official Sensation themes including franchise parities in Germany, Belgium and Poland:

...to be continued.

Sensation White 2003
Rank1 – "The Anthem"