What is Trance? This is just one of the questions that the second compilation in Safe Trip’s »Planet Love« series answers in a most interesting manner. The twelve-track disc doesn’t so much make a clear statement, but explores the origins of a music genre that for a few years now has been celebrating its most successful phase since the nineties. Most of it doesn’t sound as colourful and fast as the contemporary Trance that consorts like DJ Heartstring or KI/KI propagate. Tracks like Alien Signal’s »Deep Sky Lights« or Dance 2 Trance’s »We Came In Peace (Desert Mix)« have MDMA written deep into their DNA, but at a moderate pace they’re more reminiscent of the sun coming up and exhausted but happy ravers. Peace and a remarkable, other-worldly calm seem to be the message, in which full-blown commercialisation does not yet resonate. There are, of course, also some set numbers that sound more like Trance masterpieces like Sasha’s »Airdrawn Dagger« with house beats and synth dabs. In addition to Innertale’s banger-like »Odyssey«, which despite all its driving force still comes up with a melodic, shimmering break, there is also a full-bodied Ambient piece like Lazer Worshipper’s »Free Flight« as the opener on this compilation. This is followed by Sven Väth’s breakbeat saviour »L’Esperanza« in a single edit, with the UK represented alongside America, Germany and other European countries. A strongly curated compilation that explains a genre of electronic dance music in its own unique manner.
Priori
This But More
NAFF