1998 | www.bejbi.se – A webzine about electronic music

It’s hard to talk about trance classic and don’t mention this next track. It was one of those track that got re-released tons of times and is still getting new versions today. The track i’ve selected for this week’s article is Binary Finary – 1998 (Gouryella Remix). (buy on Itunes)

Goosebump moments:

00:41 when that fabulous Gouryella-bassline kicks in
01:09 when more of the melody comes in.
01:51 when the full melody kicks in.
02:47 when the lead comes into the breakdown.
03:01 when the strings come in.
03:27 when the lead goes up in tone.
04:24 when the full melody starts up again.

Australian born Matt Laws, Stuart Matheson started producing tracks in 1997. They were later joined by Sasha Vatoff who is their live-dj who tours the world.

The first version of 1998 actually came out in 1997 on a 2-track EP called 1998 / Zapya on UK label Aquarius

The track was later picked up by most major labels and remixed by many of the big names in the trance community.

In fact, 1998 was the first trance track that made it into the UK top 30. The 1998-version got as high as 24 whereas the 1999 version peaked at no 11.

The 1998-release got official remixes by Paul Van Dyk, Matt Darey & Dave Ralph, the 1999-release got remixed by Marc Et Claude, Kaycee & Gouryella and the 2000-release was remixed by Dumonde.

Of the lot, i’d have to say that I really love the original although it feels abit too fast for me. The first version I ever heard was the Paul Van Dyk-version which is more spot on what I liked at the time. It has those signature Paul Van Dyk drums and overall Paul Van Dyk-sound.

The version I fell in love with though was the Gouryella-version, but again, I’ve always been a big Ferry Corsten-fan and together with Tiesto, he made such beautiful tracks. That thumping baseline, that signature snaredrum, those melodies. It almost gives me a hardon just thinking about those tracks, too bad Gouryella isn’t around anymore.

I also like the Dumonde-remix as it has that harder Dumonde-edge to it.

On the Positiva-release of 1998/1999 (released in 2003), you can also find a Ronski Speed-remix of 1998 which was never release as a single.

Armada Digital later re-released it in 2010 with fresh remixes by Alex M.O.R.P.H., Tydi & Dennis Sheperd, Vadim Soloviev, Dabruck & Klein, Vegas Baby! and Kaimo K.

Since the release of 1998, there hasn’t been that many releases from Binary Finary. I guess that it was pretty hard to pick up producing after such success with the first single.

The 2001 release, Niterider is a pretty decent track. Feels more like goatrance than ordinary trance.

Together with Jose Amnesia, Binary Finary released Cloudbreak – Difference. A complex but still sweet track.

Binary Finary released their only album in 2006, called The Lost Tracks which contains 16 tracks that they’ve written since 1998, released on Armada Digital.

Lately, Binary Finary has been quite busy and released some 7 tracks since 2011. Most of them are collaborations with artists like Daniel Wanrooy, Rodrigo Deem, Matthew Nagle, Trent McDermott and Genix.

When you listen through the new material, you can easily hear that they have gone for a more modern style in trance. My guess is that most of the collaborations were made to find new inspirations on which way expand their music.

Next track to be released is Binary Finary & Vegas Baby! – Folded & Molded which you can hear a preview of here.

They have also been touring alot this year all over the world. I was supposed to see them perform this June but their gig got cancelled.

So to sum it up. Binary Finary has been around for quite some time. Although it’s been pretty quiet from them up to last year, they have still been busy producing and touring.

Their signature track, 1998 will forever be known as one of trance music first big hits and will hopefully live on forever as the record companies will keep on remixing the track for a fresh new audience.
Or atleast I hope so.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bffgi9nN5tE&w=680&h=491]

This weeks classic is one of the true classics in trance music. I’m talking about Push – Universal Nation. First released in 1998 and known as one of the biggest trance anthems and have been played by most major Djs and is still played every now and then. (Buy on Itunes)

Goosebump-moments:

0:28 when the bassdrum kicks in
1:09 when the drums fade and the main synth tweaks
2:19 when the bassdrum kicks in after the break
3:01 when the snares speed up and the Whooh comes in
5:48 when the drums stop
6:02 when everything starts to fades out
6:45 when the robotic voice comes in
7:11 when the Whooh comes in and is followed by a bassdrum and the sounds starts to fade up again
8:06 when the Whooh comes in and is followed by the main drumline

Belgian born Dirk Dierickx (now known as Mike Dierickx after changing his name in 2000) started his music career at the age of 11 when he first saw the potential of what he could do with samplers and keyboards but it wasnt until the age of 18 that he first got signed to the label USA Import Music after handing them his demo. Shortly after he released his first EP, Vision Act – A New Sign (together with Frank Van Den Driessche).

Over the years, Mike has been using 65 aliases, much depending on style and collaboration-partners. The most wellknown aliases are Push, M.I.K.E., Plastic Boy and Absolute.

Mike has been using the Push-name since 1994 when he released the first single, Acid Hysteria
came out on USA Import Music but it wasnt until the release of The Real Anthem (later known as Universal Nation) in 1998 on Bonzai Records that the big things started to happen.

Universal Nation did well in the charts and got really positive reviews. First released in France, Spain and Germany and in 1999 most other European countries followed (UK, Italy, Norway, Sweden, The Netherlands).

Due to the several individual releases, the song has three different titles: Universal Nation, Universal Nation ’99 and Universal Nation (The Real Anthem). The success of Universal Nation gave Push several awards, major chart-success and put focus on Belgian dancemusic.

Worth noticing is that the vocal/robotic-sample in the middle break, ”proceed with visual attack formation” is sampled from the 1984 film The Last Starfighter.

In 1999, Push released both Cosmonautica and Till We Meet Again, the latter is a tribute to Marino Stephano, a fellow Belgian that died on the way to the studio to record with Push. Too bad no one will ever know what could have come out of that collaboration. Till We Meet Again is one of my personal alltime-favourites.

The 2000 album, From Beyond is IMHO a legendary album. Containing such hits as Universal Nation, Strange World, Cosmonautica, Till We Meet Again, Tranzy State Of Mind and The Legacy on the same album is madness!

Electro Fever 9:35
Universal Nation 7:52
Strange World 7:12
Travelogue 8:28
Cosmonautica 7:05
Till We Meet Again… 8:33
Tranzy State Of Mind 6:55
The Legacy 8:45
Live On 8:17
Outro 0:47

The followup-single, Strange World became a huge chartsuccess and once again, Push topped the dancecharts in Europe. It even became the official theme to Trance Energy in 2001. The single differs from the album version which is abit more laid back.

The Legacy, released in 2001 became another huge success, both in the clubs and in the charts and was later followed by the single Tranzy State Of Mind in 2002.

2002 also saw the new-ish album, Strange World, which actually was a re-release of the first album, From Beyond but with some newer versions of the tracks and a few remixes.

Intro 0:27
Strange World (2000 Remake) 7:23
The Legacy (Club Mix) 5:03
Universal Nation (Tall Paul Remix) 5:03
Travelogue 6:02
Electro Fever 6:53
Cosmonautica (12″ Mix) 5:24
Till We Meet Again (Vocal Mix) 3:28
Tranzy State Of Mind (Club Mix) 6:15
Universal Nation (Ferry Corsten Remix) 2:58
The Legacy (Svenson & Gielen Remix) 4:11
Live On 6:11
Strange World (2000 Reprise) 3:14
Outro 0:50
Tranceformation (Push Trancendental Vocal Mix) / Push Vs. Globe 7:50

It was also the year that the single Push vs Globe – Tranceformation came out.

The 2003 release, Journey Of Life was another epic trance track which later was followed by Push’s third album, Electric Eclipse and the new singles Electric Eclipse and R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

Intro 1:11
R.E.S.P.E.C.T. 8:25
Imagine 6:08
Electric Eclipse (Original Mix) 7:57
Journey Of Life (Original Mix) 9:07
Trance-Parent 6:37
Blue Midnight 7:38
Universal Nation 2003 7:50
TRANCEFORMATION (vs. Globe) 6:36
Strange World (Tranquilo’s Chill Out Mix) 5:39
United We Stand 8:45

After this, there was a huge gap until 2008 when Push’s new EP, Universal Voice EP came out. In the gap, Pushed worked mostly on M.I.K.E.-productions which can be heard in the sound of the new releases.

What I really liked with the older releases was the dark but yet warm sound and the epic buildups while the new tracks lack most of that.

The 2009 Global Age album was Push’s fourth album and IMHO the least good of the albums. This saw a more progressive sound and IMHO the edge that got me hooked to Push had disappeared.

The last few years, all the effort has been put into M.I.K.E. And Plastic Boy. The sound of the new releases are pretty decent but when I want to hear really good music, I rather put on an old Push-track. The epic sound of old Push will never die, at least not in my mind!

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Etikettarkiv: 1998

Classic FTW: Binary Finary – 1999 (Gouryella Remix)

Classic For The Weekend: Push – Universal Nation