2000's - what a decade for tunage

[Moonman]

So, we're nearly through the decade. It's been good hasn't it? We've seen some big changes, vinyl moving onto CDJ's and now laptops. If you'd have said that would have happened 10 years ago, you'd have got laughed at. We've seen the rise and fall of the superstar DJ and things generally, just going back to being grass roots DIY again. The music has certainly changed too. Tunes are made almost entirely differently too. Now pretty much anyone can make a tune if they persist with it a little bit. We now buy records over the internet (long gone are record shops - which i sorely miss, so does dance music).

I didn't think i'd be still into this dance music stuff, but i am. I thought i'd be married with kids by now, but i'm not. I still eagerly check the online dance specialists every other day for new tracks. I can't shake my love of dance music off. We've had the obligatory lovers tiff, but i've always come back. I just can't resist the house metronome. Because of dance music, i've met some great people who are still friends, who i would have otherwise not met. I have had some great nights DJing in Peterborough and Cambridge too, which i hope will continue.

I broke my Ibiza cherry in 2000, had some of the most amazing nights and experiences at Gatecrasher, Cream, Passion, Ministry. Memories from this decade which will stick with me, i just wish i took more photos! Then of course, there the music, central to everything....

We've had some crackers havent we? Zombie Nation "Kernkraft 400" from 2000 (officially), i got the white label back end of 1999, and dared to play it at one of my first gigs before it broke. Cue puzzled faces everywhere. A personal favourite of mine, Toca's Miracle. Had many a good night out to this and many memories attached to this track. The delight at Sonique getting to number 1, as did Chicane and Bryan Adams - WOW! Dance music was hoooooge.

2001 and 2002 it kinda went tribal-ly, too much so for me. I felt generally, the tone of music was a little darker. These years did spawn some good uns though; Motivation "Para Mi", PPK "ResuRection", Kosheen "Hide U", Iio "Rapture", Riva "Stringer", Together "So Much Love To Give" X-Press 2 "Lazy". Who can forget the rise and rise of the likes of Flip N Fill and the cartoony AATW sound? Danny Rampling left radio 1!

2003-2004, i remember the rise of a more funky, electro sounding house. Room 5 "Make Luv", Shapeshifters "Lola's Theme", Eric Prydz "Call On Me", Junior Jack "Stupid Disco", Benni Benassi "Satisfaction", Tim Deluxe "Just Wont Do", Boogie Pimps "Somebody To Love" etc etc. I remember listening to Fergie ("with this weeks special guest Phil Kieran" - who went on to be the special guest pretty much every other week!) on radio 1 a lot around this time.

2005-2006; Electro house really started to come through. This for me was a weak time for dance. IT felt like it didnt know where it wanted to go. This was when i really started playing out a lot. It was also when i made the switch to CDJs.

2007-2008; Minimal techno, i quite like it, but couldn't listen to it all night, and you have to be in the right frame of mind to listen to it. Electro house seems to be still hanging in there too. Mashups tend to be the big thing of the moment. Micky Slims "Jump" being a standout track.

2009; The funky sound seems to be coming back, which is all good by me. It's been srely missed. Annie Mac replacing Pete Tong! What!?! NOOOooo!

i'll stop now, this post is getting to be massive. But add you memories, thoguhts and favourite tunes from this decade here...

[Briggsy]

I'll keep it quite short and put my highs and lows of the last decade down:

Highs

1. Trance becoming more diverse as a genre. Although I prefer the tunes, and the quality of the production from the 90's, Trance all started to sound too similar towards the late 90's. People say that Trance is too generic now - but I disagree. Its more diverse than its ever been - Prog-Trance, Uplifting Trance, Electro Trance, Tech-Trance, Hard Trance, Melodic Trance - and even within those sub-genres, there's a lot of difference between producers - such as Sander van Doorn's slower stuff, compared to the BXR style Tech-Trance.

2. Getting to hear Judge Jules at his peak on Radio 1 - some of those live club/festival sets from 1999-2003 were superb! The Creamfields set from 2002/2003 (I think) where Jules played Syntone - Can't Believe It, Dark Monks - Insane, Dave Joy - First Impression, etc stands out as being probably my favourite Jules set of all time.

3. The MP3 era - The fact that you can play tunes minutes after they've just been produced, or played in a club a few hours after it was made is remarkable. You can buy 50 tunes for around £75 - whereas in the vinyl days, that was about 9 records.

4. Internet radio - We'd have never heard some of those DJ's far from far flung places such as Aly & Fila and Christopher Lawrence years ago - but thanks to internet radio, they can be heard anywhere in the world within minutes.

5. The dance scene is still going strong, despite the critics saying it was dying back in 2001 - and its still looking good for years to come.

6. The Pioneer CDJ-1000. Who'd have thought DJ's would be scratching with CD's on a CD deck a few years ago! This one single invention from Pioneer has changed the whole dance music world.

Lows

1. The "old" Trance sound dying. Tunes like Lost Witness - Red Sun Rising, Gouryella - Gouryella, Energy 52 - Cafe Del Mar, Faithless - Insomnia, etc will never be beaten. There's some good tunes around now, but not in the same class as those.

2. The MP3 era - although its in my 'highs' aswell, I miss the days of record shopping and owning a record where there's only 50 copies in the whole world.

3. Illegal downloading - Gone are the days where every DJ had a bit of exclusivety because they'd picked up a mega rare white label. Now, even things that should only be available to a select few leak onto the internet, and then they're being played all over the place by every Tom, d*** & Harry within days That tune that was intended for just 5 DJs is suddenly available to thousands of people - and then its no longer exclusive

4. Radio 1 killing the dance schedule. It all went downhill after Jules quit his Friday show, Danny Rampling leaving and the live club sets being scrapped.

5. Clubland being ruined by greedy DJ fee's and demands - Many club nights can't afford some DJ's now because DJ's have priced themselves out of gigs by demanding thousands just to play for 90 minutes. Those that can afford the likes of Tiesto, PvD, etc are charging £30+. Gone are the days where you could see two A-listers and a couple of support DJ's for a tenner.

6. The death of weekly/bi-weekely clubbing. Bring back the fortnightly Godskitchens and Gatecrashers please

7. The demise of some super clubs - Turnmills, The Cross, The Republic (Gatecrasher One), etc

[Tremor]

The 2000's certainly has been an amazing decade for dance music especially on my personal journey through dance and DJing because it was pretty much the turn of 2000 when I bought my first set of turntables. Prior to this I had been using a twin CD deck (Numark CDN 24) for cheesy chart music gigs I used to do with a mate at my youth club. I was always into dance music in the 90's as well but I really discovered Jules and Trance music around 98/99 and started buying pretty much every track that got released on CD single so I could mix them on the old twin CD deck. It wasn't long before I worked out that there was a whole world more underground music out there on vinyl and I would have to get some decks in order to start getting less commercial tunes and promos etc.

At the turn of the millenium I was still only 15 and was really getting into my trance music. The problem was I was too young to go clubbing - how I wish I was able to go to some of those live gigs I used to listen to on Radio 1. 2000 was a massive year for me musically. I dont even know where I got the money from but I spent any I had on new records. I'd go to London and go record shopping about once a month and get around 7-10 new tunes each time. I also used to order some from Global Groove or HTFR every now and then. This was a year when for every batch of tunes I bought there was a list I had written somewhere of about twice as many again which I wanted to get next. Everything I bought I had heard already and was desperate to get my hands on. There was just so much good stuff out there. In my first ever record shopping trip I still remember buying on import: Fridge - Angel, Rank 1 - Airwave, CRW - I Feel Love, Singles & Angles - Submerge, Dejure - Sanctuary, Starfighter - Apache and a few others. I am still to this day adding to my collection from that year via discogs market place, trying to fill some of the gaps in those wantslists from all that time ago.

2001/2002 the music changed a bit and I found the more bouncy hard dance style tunes Jules played lots of in 2000 were not so much in abundance. Seb Fontaine Joined Radio 1 giving rise to the more progressive side of trance which I dabbled with slightly just to keep a fresh bag of tunes going but it didn't do it for me as much as the usual Julesy style. Jules himself went quite techy at the end of 2000 and into 2001 playing lots of BXR and Picotto style stuff which I was definitely into. My collection that year was mainly a mixture of techier stuff and whatever uplifting trance still came out. There were still some great records though: Above & Beyond's remix of What It Feels Like for a Girl, PPK - Resurrection, Push - The Legacy, Tiesto - Suburban Train, Angelic - Stay With Me etc etc. 2002 had less stand out tunes for me although during that year I started going to Slammin Vinyl events with a couple of mates and got really into UK hardcore for a while so I also started DJing that style and didn't give trance my full attention.

2003 was a big one for me as I went to Ibiza for the first time and saw Jules for the first time there. He didn't disappoint and I remember being totally refreshed by the trance scene out there which I thought was starting to die out at one point. He played tunes like 4 Strings - Let It Rain, Poloroid - So Damn Beautiful, Michael Woods - Solex, Ferry Corsten - Rock Your Body Rock, Azure - Sunset, Plummet - Damaged, all tunes which I then went home and bought and was fully back into trance.

2004/2005 I went to Uni and suddenly had no money to buy records making it difficult to keep up with new tunes. I also didn't have decks at uni in my first year for lack of space meaning I tended to just dig out older stuff for a mix when I was back home. That christmas I got my first CDJ-800 though and then things began to change. I realised music would be much cheaper to get on CD and so I began downloading and discovering DJ download stores etc. I also met Bjorn at Uni that year (who some on here will know) and we were able to share new music and ideas. It wasn't long before I was wanting a 2nd CDJ as my set was rapidly becoming all CD.

2006 I got my second CDJ and made the switch completely as far as new music was concerned. I really had a good year for tunes as I was able to get so many for the same budget I would have had for a handful of vinyls. I was spoilt for choice again for the same time since probably 2000. I also went to global gathering and went to a number of other nights with uni mates including Gatecrasher and God's Kitchen events. This was an excellent year for trance music in my opinion and best of all I got to rave it up to all the tunes I was loving at the time. I loved the early Fabio Stein productions Jules supported heavily that year and also Marcel Woods really came on the scene big time. My tune of the year was Team SR - Leaving London - what a tune that was.

The last 3 years seem to have gone really quickly to be honest. I finished Uni in 2007 and after leaving I've not really been clubbing too often as I mainly went with uni mates and the midlands scene was pretty good when I was up in Derby. I moved back to High Wycombe and round here there just isn't a trance scene at all. I stuck with the music though and I think 2007 was another good year, building on from 2006. 2008 for me was a bit of a low point tune wise and lots of tunes were sounding rather bland to me. I found myself struggling to think of stuff to put in my end of year mix which I pretty much always record each year.

This year I think has been much better. I have also been clubbing a bit more mainly because I went to Ibiza again and then Creamfields. I think there's been a big improvement in the quality of tunes around this year and have plenty of ideas for my end of year mix this time.

Hmm this has got rather long but I think that pretty much covers everything I want to say

[JasonB]

Too much to read

[Number2Fan]

f****** hell, I saw Moonmans last night and thought, ooh I'll read that in the morning but look now there's an even bigger one......prrrft then I'll have to reply, lololol, I'll come back to this post when I've found Bernards watch!

Though this bit stood out for me so far...

7. The demise of some super clubs - Turnmills, The Cross, The Republic (Gatecrasher One), etc

All things I am glad I was a part of att!

[Tremor]

I got rather carried away last night - don't blame ya for not reading

[Number2Fan]

I wanna read it, but I need more time.