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:
2002 The Rush - "The Anthem 2002"
2003 Rank 1 - "The Anthem 2003"
2004 The Rush - "The Anthem 2004"
2005 First & André - "Widescreen" (Belgium)
2005 Armin van Buuren feat. Jan Vayne - "Serenity" (Holland)
2005 Samuel Kindermann - "Die Hymne White 2005" (Germany)
2006 Fred Baker - "Forever Friends" (Belgium)
2006 Sander Kleinenberg - "This is Sensation" (Holland)
2006 Moguai - "I want, I need, I love" (Germany)
2006 Nitrous Oxide pres. Redmoon - "Cumulus" (Poland)
2007 Ferry Corsten - "Loud Electronic Sensation" (Belgium)
Trance Energy set the trends quite a long time ago.
It’s no surprise that nowadays a good trance or other EDM event can’t do without an anthem. The point of it is to commemorate each year’s edition and give the clubbers some extra warm-up before the party. An anthem is usually released a couple of weeks or months before the event and works as an additional incentive for those who still hestitate whether to attend or not. And when the anthem is eventually dropped during the event, you can only imagine how bonkers the crowd goes.
Sensation White 2002 Rush - "The Anthem"
This is nothing new. In fact this kind of special tunes have been released for ten years now. As the biggest events undoubtedly take place in Holland, the country has also been the origin of most of the evergreen trance anthems, but this cool fashion has been recently adopted in other countries. Poland has emerged as the second-best place to be for both DJs and trance maniacs, so many intereisting examples come from there as well. The new year is under way and there are many trance events in the calendar to take place soon, so let’s take a look on what’s to come and what happened over the years.
Two of the most famous and biggest trance events in the world are Trance Energy and Sensation, formerly Sensation White. Both of them are indoor Dutch masterpieces of a party. Trance Energy is focused on the pure quality of music, whereas Sensation is a true spectacle of sound, stage and light which together form an audiovisual out-of-this-world-experience. This difference can be spotted in the anthems itself, Sensation has brought many epic themes, while TE anthems are raw, old-school powerplays. This two events have the longest history of such special tracks, which goes back well to the early years of 21st century.
Trance Energy 2002 (October edition) Svenson & Gielen - "Answer The Question"
There are both fame and huge pressure in store for those artists, who have been chosen to deliver the anthem. The tracks are either especially composed for the occasion or precisely chosen from a number of candidates, but one way or the other they instantly become one of the most important tunes of the year, as the expectations toward of an anthem has grown over the years. Each year the debate is on, especially about whether the current Trance Energy anthem lives up to expectations. This year’s edition is scheduled on April 3rd, and ID&T have chosen Sander van Doorn to be the lucky man. Here’s the list of previous anthems:
2009 Rank 1 - "L.E.D. There Be Light"
2008 Ernesto vs. Bastian - "Thrill"
2007 Joop - "The Future"
2006 Marcel Woods - "Advanced"
2005 Rank 1 - "Beats At Rank-1 Dotcom"
2004 Svenson - "Sunlight Theory"
2003 Cygnus X - "Positron"
2002 Svenson & Gielen - "Answer The Question" (October edition)
2002 Svenson & Gielen - "We Know What We Did" (February edition)
2001 Svenson & Gielen - "Twisted" (October edition)
2001 Push - "Strange World" (February edition)
2000 Svenson & Gielen - "The Beauty of Silence"
Trance Energy 2008 Ernesto vs. Bastian – "Thrill"
There were many voices criticising 2008 and 2009 themes when they were announced, claiming they lacked the power and punch present in the previous ones. As the time went by, though, both “Thrill” and “L.E.D. There Be Light” became successful, hitting top of the charts in their respective years. However, the critics may have had a point there, as it’s not hard to notice that the tunes tend to get slower and represent slightly different style. The tempo and energy from such thumpers as "Advanced" , "Beats At Rank-1 Dotcom" or even "The Future" are a bit... missing. If you agree with that, you’ll probably wonder what the new anthem is on about...
Ehren Stowers is back in quick succession with the devastating double header, Desire & Terminus! Whipping up release forty this time on Inov8 Recordings,
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