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Wish it was 1999 again!


Number2Fan

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I think as well it was also the technology situation - think about it, not much access to the Internet, no mp3s, no broadband, no Sky box, no digital radio, no iPlayer or Listen Again, no iPod...

On a dark winter night, all we had was the radio, and a blank cassette tape... and a magical wonder at what new bit of Trance would be appearing next week :)

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It wasn't like that for me. I was playing music from all over the place, friends and DJ's. In fact I was a big Seb Fontaine and Tony de vit fan prior all that. There were some wicked tunes before 98 aswell, but suddenly the tunes started actually making you feel emotional from the inside. Giving you butterflies in your stomach, and various other feelings and moods!!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Interesting debate about Trance back THEN and the scene now...

http://www.trance.nu/v4/forum/viewtopic.php?t=127666

I agree particularly with this quote from Jon Boy:

In all honesty I think a lot of it is down to people idealising the sentimentalising the past- I really like listening to 1999 trance because it takes me back to then, and the first year trance was properly launched, how it was really big etc.

it would never have the same effect again because 1999 was a one off, an explosion.

I don't think 1999 trance is better than post 2000, I just think they are different, but both good, and give you different things.

i must say that albums like Gatecrasher Red, Wet, Disco-tech still sound awesome and have not dated in my opinion. The whole albums are gold- not many compilations around like that now.

We live in a better age now as trance is so much more accessible- you can download hundreds of sets every week and find a bigger variety rather than just buying 12" and cds from your local record shop.

1999 was a beautiful year for it, but there's no point slagging off trance after then, as they aren't really comparable as we live in a different age. i for one like that trance is less popular and more underground now, with a more hard core crowd.

And I think Airwave (+ all aliases), M.I.K.E., Tiesto, Signum, Armin, Ferry Corsten etc have continued to excel over the last 7 years and plenty of excellent newbies have also - Niklas Harding, Paul Moelands, Robert Nickson, Andy Moor, etc etc have all added more consistent talent to the trance scene.

We live in a good age for trance, enjoy it!

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I definately agree that the past is sometimes romantized, I think the internet age has opened things up but while that's a massive positive for me as a DJ it also makes the days of exclusives & white labels a thing of the past & those days were excellent.

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I long to wander into a random bar and see an amateur resident DJ do a "1999-themed" night. Somehow I doubt it will happen. But if the year was so popular, why does no-one play it now? Why aren't there 1999 bars opening up everywhere? I want to start a chain :D

People are too afraid to play Trance these days! <_<

Edited by Quadrant
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PaSSion do a lot of classics nights with this aim in mind, from what I hear they are really successful. I'm not into the idea of classics nights though, a classic track works so much better when it comes out of nowhere, mixed into a set containing modern tracks.

If you got to a 1999 themed night then you can probably guess half the tracks that will be played & even if something less obvious comes on it's never going to be as effective as it would be if dropped into a set full of contemporary tunes.

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Good point actually, I agree with you there.

I guess what I'm getting at is, I just want to re-live it all and experience it again for one night only :)

Edited by Quadrant
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You see this argument all the time, but in my opinion music hasn't got worse, its got better, just that there's more of it, and as a consequence more diluted.

Its a decade later, rock music was better in the 60's and 70's, but as an obvious rule, things move on!

If you didn't miss an era, enjoy what you experienced! If you missed the boat then by all means listen back and enjoy that, but don't whatever you do get stuck in the past!

There's so much going on today that is so much better than 10 years ago, you just have to look hard enough and accept that its 2009. I'm more interested in what 2019 will bring than 1999 ever did!

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You see this argument all the time, but in my opinion music hasn't got worse, its got better, just that there's more of it, and as a consequence more diluted.

I agree with this. Diluted is a good word, because everything is so accessible these days... too accessible, possibly.

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  • 4 weeks later...

I suppose it's a bit like television in that respect, when I was a child we had 3 channels, that went off at night, and came on at about 8.30 am, after the testcard tunage. Then in 1982 we got breakfast television. Now we have millions more channels, on for 24hrs a day, yet probably still only a few really good addictive programs worth tuning in to.

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Trance back in the day was much better produced than it is now - there was so much thought put into them. We'll never get tunes like Faithless - Salva Mea, Gouryella - Gouryella, Lost Witness - Happiness Happening, etc again now - they weren't just tunes - they were works of art. Tunes took weeks to produce, whereas these days, tunes are put together in a couple of hours.

Sure, there are still some cracking tunes around - My favourite "proper" Trance over the past few years was O'Callaghan & Kearney - Exactly. Thats a superb tune - but despite how good it is, i'd still never put it in the same league as Happiness Happening and Gouryella. I wouldn't put any production over the last few years as being in the same league to be honest.

HOWEVER, what I love about the current Trance scene is all the diversity. There's the deep, dark Proggy side similar to Markus Schulz's stlye, then there's the raw, deep, Tech-Trance sound of Marcel Woods, the lighter Tech-Trance sound of Richard Durand, the Electro-Trance sound like Ferry Corsten was playing a couple of years ago, the uplifting sound like Above & Beyond, the pacier, more full-on melodic stuff from the likes of John O'Callaghan and Sean Tyas - and then the full-on boshy Trance of Simon Patterson and Bryan Kearney. Trance has never been so diverse and there's something for everyone now.

Back around 1999, you'd go out clubbing and Jules would come on playing GD - Choral Reef, then Paul van Dyk would come on and play GD - Choral Reef, and then after that, Guy Ornadel would come on and also play GD - Choral Reef. All of the DJ's were playing similar tunes.

Trance is so open minded now.

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GD - Choral Reef, then Paul van Dyk would come on and play GD - Choral Reef, and then after that, Guy Ornadel would come on and also play GD - Choral Reef.

That tune, amongst others though, was so awesome, you would have had to play it if you heard it, no matter who else was playing it! There's only a few that seem to pack that kind of calibre now.

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It is a absolutely awesome tune though isn't it. :)

I did once see all those Dj's in one go, but they didn't play Choral reef, they all played Joyenergizer? But then again, it wasn't 1999 when I saw them.

I'm pretty sure I remember Judgemental Sniping me at buying that tune from someone, back in the day!!!

=3v0pTqrvIZU

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in relation to the tunes not being as good, i think its more or less been said. Today, people can make tunes on their laptop in their bedroom with Reason. It does everything you can do with hardware (samplers, drum machines synths etc) and more. 10-15 years ago, you had to learn how to use hardware and fully explore it, now people get Reason and bang out a tune in a day or two.

I've also mentioned before, that more and more labels are now willing to put dross out on the online stores in the hope it will do well, if not, well it hasn't cost them anything to get artwork, pressings, mail outs etc done, so theres not as much of a gamble if a tune is crap and doesnt do well. I've also said before that the grass roots of dance music has always been local record shops, white labels and promos. It was these very things which determined which tunes would "go all the way" and ensure the quality remained. Nowadays, there are no promos, no bootlegs, no white labels. I mean, i couldnt be the only person who, in 1999 whilst at college, would log onto the internet and check Juno for the latest releases so i didnt miss them. Now we all get access to the same tunes. It's no coincidence that since the death of vinyl, the quality of tunes just haven't been as good.

I personally think the pinnacle was the last third of 1998 going into 1999. All the big tunes that killed 1999 were around on small labels in 1998.

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