OK, yeah, yeah I know this is on the poppier side of what we do here.
But on the other hand…this tune still sounds cool, 11 years after it first appeared on the scene.
For a pop dance tune, Toca’s Miracle holds it’s own, and has plenty of depth and danceability. This is probably because it actually started out life as an instrumental — Fragma created Toca Me first, then it was bootlegged with the vocal we know on it today by yet another DJ. That version is the one that stuck, getting enough airplay in Ibiza and beyond to boost it to superstar status.
And I gotta say, the combo still works.
I dropped this in the middle of a trance set recently and it went OFF. Respect.
before he was professor x, he was charles…before he was magneto, he was….
…oh oops, wrong movie.
So back in the day, I used to DJ under a different name - the incredibly hard to read “fr33st4t3“.
yup, leet. read “freestate”, and yeah I actually did start using it before the mau5 took leet spelling into the mainstream.
I used this alias from when I started out playing deep house (!), and it took me from there to classic prog, breaks, trance, and back to prog again…
Perhaps a bit of nostalgia has hit me, as I’ve dug up a mix from that time that’s got some serious tunage…some of these tracks are old faves of mine.
A bit different than the sheen and hyped production of modern tracks, but they definitely pump.
See what you think for a ride with a different sound…we go through waves of prog, trance and even some boshed UP breaks tunes in here…
New release time! This one’s been a long long time coming - it’s been over a year and a half since it was signed to Trance All-Stars records, but it’s finally hit the virtual shelves at beatport, juno, itunes, etc.
As such, it’s got a bit of a different feel to it - more old school in a sense, which can definitely be a good thing! I got a comment to the promo comparing it to Chakra, which makes me happy as a geoduck.
Here’s what the promo blurb said:
In this latest package from San Francisco’s Derek Ryan, whose previous releases on Echelon Records, Noys Music, Cable, and Inspired Records have garnered massive support, we get two solid driving melodic tunes:
Dreaming Awake features the vocal talents of SF local songstress Belinda Yamate and spins a web of melodic textures and growling bass into a whirlwind of light and color for a triumphant finish with a big room boom.
Stealing Stars takes it a notch deeper and massive with evocative textural elements against an undulating groove that build to a starry lead paired with Japanese vocal samples (“Will you steal even the stars from our sky?”) themed around technology encroaching on the natural world, coming together in a huge nocturnal landscape.
Add to that a great remix of Dreaming Awake by Ireland’s Alex Fixed and it’s been getting some pretty solid support so far!
Hope you guys dig it — dunno if you notice, but that’s our own Belinda on vox!
Dreaming Awake (ft. Belinda Yamate):
Stealing Stars:
Dreaming Awake (ft. Belinda Yamate) - Alex Fixed Gatekeeper Remix:
Whew! So, two weeks back and I still can’t stop thinking about Miami. It was a heck of alotta content packed into a week, and a great deal of awesomeness was had.
The folks I went with and I were lucky enough to have been invited to a private party at legendary mix engineer Tom Lord-Alge’s house, where both BT and Alex MORPH were performing. First off — WTF? This is totally the sort of thing that happens at a private party out there…sounds like a joke almost but it was complete awesome reality.
We all know BT, but lemme introduce you to Alex MORPH if you don’t know him.
He’s actually one of the most consistent and solid remixers in the trance scene, a killer artist and DJ, and…has an inexplicable love of trucker hats. Yup, he’s basically never seen without them - and true to form he was wearing one out this day as well.
Since they were broadcasting the audio from the event on XM, some kind soul saved the stream into a file, and I’ve found it to share with y’all. It’s fun stuff - back and forth between progressive house and flowy trance. Perfect for watching the sun go down over the bay!
Enjoy the set here, and look farther below for the bonus video!
For extra WTF factor, he was joined by two gogos in white feather outfits that were rocking their stuff on stage — this was a pretty interesting juxtaposition with pounding progressive tracks played by a dude in redneck duds (see bonus video below!!).
BONUS! Here’s a short clip of what the scene was like:
Heya there fine Beatery folks!
I’m going nuts prepping for Miami, so this is gonna be a quick one, but I wanted to get this out there…
Above & Beyond are certainly a household name to anyone into dance music, especially in the Trance genre tho they have been known to do the odd prog house number as well. This trio from the UK has truly been one of the driving forces behind the evolution of the trance scene with their Anjunabeats label.
In addition, they’ve done some sick production together, and their tunes seem always destined to become iconic from the first beat onwards.
Paavo, Jono and Tony are back again with another single off their forthcoming album, and it’s massive.
Though I heard this for the first time on their radio show, the next time was in Ruby Skye, and it blew everyone away - something about the percussive snappy groove and the huuuuuge waves of the melodic synth (produced with some reverb tricks and LOTS of compression) make this a very powerful tune live.
Honestly I could take or leave the actual vocal of the track, but the production behind it is tops.
Check out Above & Beyond, Sun & Moon:
Wow, that’s some massive, ne?
There are also some great remixes of this track - my fave is Dennis Sheperd’s interpretation (check it when the bassline comes in at like 1:07):
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