[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gcebbgooOM&w=680&h=491]

This weeks classic comes from a group that has been in the scene for a quite some time. Its an alltime tranceclassic that pioneered the wave of the Dutch trancesound. I’m talking about
Rank 1 – Airwave (Rank 1 vs Dutch Force Remix) (buy on Itunes)

Benno De Goeij and Piet Bervoets started working together back in 1996 as the duo Pedro & Benno but it wasn’t until 1998 they took the name Rank 1. They also released some tracks under the names Precious People, Gualagara, A.I.D.A., Simplistic Mind, Two Disciples and R.O.O.S.

The name Rank 1 name came from the idea of ”what if we get ranked no 1 in the charts”
Their big breakthough as Rank 1 came in 1999 after the release of the single Airwave which even got high rankings in a few charts all over the globe, for instance #10 on the UK Singles chart and #25 in the US Billboard Hot Dance Club Play. The single became a huge hit and was played by most major djs around the world at the time.

It was also remade in 2000 as a mashup with Donna Williams’s track True Love Never Dies which IMHO is the best mashup never released!

Rank 1 re-released Airwave in 2003 with vocals by Aino Laos, but now under the name Breathing

Lyrics:

breathing
feel it on my skin
your breathing
falling to your arms again
spread my wings and fly
hold my head up high
feels like summer wind
when you’re breathing,
breathing

spread my wings and fly
hold my head up high
feels like summer wind
when you’re breathing
oh when you’re breathing
breathing

Meanwhile working as Rank 1, Benno De Goeij was also busy with some other projects, like for instance the project Kamaya Painters with Tiesto. Kamaya Painters released 3 track in total:

1998 Endless Wave / Northern Spirit / Outstream
1999 Far From Over / Cryptomnesia / Soft Light
2000 Wasteland / Summerbreeze

Since the release of Airwave, several huge hits has been released.

In 2001, they released Such Is Life with singer Shanokee which also came with a pretty decent Marco V remix. The same year also saw the release of Awakening which came with remixes from Cosmic Gate and a really beautiful Ferry Corsten remix which I still listen to quite often.

Their album, Symsonic came out in 2002 with all the major releases so far. It even came out with a DVD.

1 Symsonic
2 Cosmomatic
3 Airwave (Album Cut)
4 Conspiracy
5 T.T.C.
6 Awakening (Radio Edit)
7 Down From The Deep
8 Equilibrium
9 Such Is Life (Sunday Afternoon Rework)
10 Passage To The Unknown
11 Still In My Mind
12 Airwave (Sunset Mix)
13 Such Is Life (Album Cut)
14 Citrus Juicer
15 Live At Trance Energy 16.02.2002
16 Airwave (Video)
17 Such Is Life (Video)
18 Such Is Life (Live At Sensation)(Video)
19Awakening (Video)

In 2003 they released a new vocal track called It’s Up To You with vocalist Shanokee. It was a remake of the album title track, Symsonic but now with vocals and a bit faster tempo.

The 2004 release of Beats At Rank-1.Com became the official Trance Energy theme 2005. The same year also saw the release of the singles Opus 17 / Top Gear .

In 2007 they teamed up with Armin Van Buuren for the single This World Is Watching Me with vocalist Kush. Since then, Benno has been a co-producing most of Armin Van Buuren’s productions. On Armin’s 2008 album, Imagine, most songs were written by Benno except for Imagine, Fine Without You and Intricacy.

2007 also saw the release of Life Less Ordinary which was a collaboration between Alex M.O.R.P.H. & Rank1. They also collaborated with Jochen Miller on 2 projects, the 2008 release And Then… and the 2010 release The Great Escape. Since 2008, Benno has been involved with most Jochen Miller-releases as co-producer.

2009 was a big year as 2 of Rank 1’s track became the official anthems. First out was L.E.D There Be Light which was the official Trance Energy theme and later Symfo, which became the official Sunrise Festival theme. I remember seeing Rank 1 playing L.E.D. at Trance Energy that year, major goosebump-moment!

Feel free to download JP Bates beautiful mashup of Rank 1 – L.E.D. And Roger Shah’s Back To You which you can download for free here.

2010 saw the release of 100, which was a collaboration between Nic Chagall, Wippenberg & Rank 1. The title is named after being the 100th track released on the dutch label, High Contrast Recordings.

My guess is that we will see more great things from Benno & Piet in the future, they have so much more to give the trance audience. Or as the title of the Airwave-mashup said ”True Love Never Dies”

Related tracks:

Rank 1 vs Donna Williams – True Love Never Dies
Rank 1 – Such Is Life
Kamaya Painters – Endless Wave
System F – Cry (Rank 1 Remix)
Cygnus X – Superstring (Rank 1 Remix)
Rank 1 – Awakening (Ferry Corsten Remix)
Armin Van Buuren vs Rank 1 – This World Is Watching Me
Rank 1 – L.E.D. There Be Light
Rank 1 – Symfo