Etikettarkiv: 2012

Classic FTW: Angelic – It’s My Turn

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

This weeks track was from the beginning a remix for another group and later re-released from the remixers as their own track. I’m talking about Angelic – It’s My Turn. (Buy the 2009 version on Itunes)

Lyrics:

Why start to worry
About the hands of fate
When right before your eyes
It becomes to late

I’ve learnt to ignore them
When they bring me down
I’m warned that vicious people
Fool around

It’s my turn
It’s my turn

It’s my turn
It’s my turn (It’s my turn)

Goosebump-points:

0:02 when the vocals start
0:30 when the chorus starts
1:48 when the main vocals start again
2:18 when the chorus cames in again

Angelic is Julius O’Riordan (better known as Judge Jules), Amanda O’Riordan (Judge Jules’s wife) and Darren Tate. This article will focus on Darren Tate though.

English born Darren Tates musical background started out as a classically trained musician. His first release came with the Angelic project in 2000 and has since then worked under a few different aliases.

Angelic’s It’s My Turn was released in June of 2000 with vocals by Amanda and became a huge hit and peaked at no 11 in the UK Singles Charts and stayed on the chart for 10 weeks.
Its My Turn was built on Angelic’s remix for Sunscreem’s track called Change which was released in early 2000. It’s My Turn was re-released in 2009 with fresh remixes.

The single was followed in 2001 with 2 new tracks, Can’t Keep Me Silent and Stay With Me, both dis well in the UK Singles charts

After the 3 tracks, the group split up and they all went their separate ways.

While in Angelic, Darren released a 3 releases under the name Orion. Eternity and New World EP was both released in 2000 wile See Me Here came the year after. The project re-emerged in 2011 with the album Electronic Witchcraft with 10 all new tracks.

After Orion, Darren released one track as Citizen Caned called The Journey. If you listen closely, you can almost hear whats up next.

In 2002, Darren worked under the name Jurgen Vries and the first track, The Theme became a major hit all and peaked at no 13 in the UK charts and was played by all major Djs all over the world. The track has also influented many artists over the year, for instance a new track by Filo & Peri called Sub Zero. Cosmic Gate also released an own version of The Theme in 2011.

The second track from Jurgen Vries was The Opera Song (Brave New World) with singer Charlotte Church. When the track first was released, the singing was only credited to CMC when it first was released as Charlotte’s record label wouldn’t wanna be connected to the track if it flopped as it was a big change from her classical singing to pop. There were alot of speculations who sung on the track under the mysterious guise and many people guesses on Kylie Minogue or Christina Aguilera. The Opera Song peaked at no 3 in the UK singles charts in 2003.

After The Opera Song, Darren released the track Destination under the new project name DT8 with singer Roxanne Wilde. The track peaked at no 23 in the UK Singles Chart

The third single from Jurgen Vries, Wilderness came out in 2003 and featured Shena on vocals, It did fairly well and peaked at no 20 in the UK Charts.

The last single from Jurgen Vries was Take My Hand with Andrea Britton on vocals. The track was a cover of Dido’s track with the same name. Peaked at no 23 in the UK Charts.

From 2003, Darren put all his focus on his DT8-project, later named just DT8 Project.
The secnd single from DT8 was The Sun Is Shining (Down On Me) and featured singer Rob Li. The track was another chart-success and peaked at no 17 in the UK Singles Charts in 2004.

Winter, with singer Andrea Britton was released in march of 2005 also became another chart-success and peaked at no 35 in the UK Singles Chart.

African singer Mory Kante was featured on the single Narama released in 2006.

One of my favourite DT8-tracks came out the year after. Hold Me Till The End with singer Alexta. Her moaning vocals makes the track magical. The album Perfect World was released the same year and features another stunning track by Alexta, Tomorrow Never Comes but it wasn’t released as a single.
The album also got voted the most inspiring and original electronica album of the year.

The last single, The Power Of One was released the same year.

While releasing under aliases, Darren has also released quite a bunch under his own name.

Darren Tate vs Marcella Woods – Lifted came out in 2001 and was followed by the epic track Darren Tate vs Jono Grant (of Above & Beyond-fame) – Let The Light Shine In (with singer Shirley Randall). Let The Light Shine In was first released as a double-feature with Darren Tate vs Mike Koglin – Now Is The Time in 2002 and later re-released as an own single.

2003 saw the EP’s Gracelands Episode 1 & Prayer For A God (Gracelands Episode 2) and later the same year another collaboration with Jono Grant called Nocturnal Creatures.
The single-release of Darren Tate vs Mike Koglin – Now Is The Time was also released the same year.

The next collaboration came with Blue Amazon vs Darren Tate – The Other Love. The original version by Blue Amazon is an old favourite of mine and the remix only makes the track better.

The 2005 EP, Horizons 01 was followed in 2006 by the first feature album Horizons 01 which contained all the singles so far.
.
The EP Elephant (Are You Ready) / Pulse came the same year and was followed by the EP Echoes / Chori Chori the year after.

The EP Horizons 02 came out in 2008 and was followed in 2009 by the second artist album with the same name. The EP When The Morning Comes / Reverse The Silence came out the same year.

The Midnight EP came out in 2010 along with Tokyo / Vespers.
2011 saw the release of The Eternal along with the Horizons 03 EP.

In 2011, Darren started on 2 new projects, one with Boy George and Marc Vedo called Funkysober, another one with Harry Diamond called Tate & Diamond.
Funkysober has to date released one single, Sunshine Into My Life (with singer Sharlene Hector)
Tate & Diamond has released 2 singles so far, Turn It Back and Electrified (with singer Nicolai)

If Darren follows the same pattern as before, we should se the new artist album Horizons 03 sometime this year.

As many of these articles, I’d have to say that the best material from Darren Tate came out from 2000-2006. Darren is a brilliant producer and I love the sound that he had in the past. Can’t say that i’ve listened much to his latest material but I guess I have to give it a chance. After all, he’s achieved over 10 top 40 tracks and sold over 10.000.000 units in total. That stands for quality in my book.

Classic FTW: York – Farewell To The Moon (En Motion Remix)

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Bxz-8g5ePg&w=680&h=376]

This weeks article is focused on two brothers from Germany. They have both been involved in various projects over the years but the project and the track i’m thinking of is York – Farewell to the Moon (En Motion Remix). (Buy on Itunes)

York is German brothers Jörg and Torsten Stenzel. Both have been active in the music scene since the early 90’s.

Torsten Stenzel started playing the piano at the age of 5 and later turned to church organs where he recieved his organist diploma at the age of 15 when graduating from the prostentant church in Frankfurt. Meanwhile Jörg focused on stringed instruments.

Torstens first step into dancemusic came with the 1990 release Recall IV – Contrast, though he’s not credited as a writer on the track because his partner at the time forgot to mention him because of his lack of knowledge of the music industry.. Only ”mixed by Torsten Stenzel” appeared on the credits.

After becoming A&R for the record label Crash Records, he released N.U.K.E. – Nana with partner Zied Jouini. The track went straight to No1 in Italy and No3 in Benelux.

His collaboration with DJ Taucher came in 1993 with the single, Happiness but it wasn’t until the release of the second single, Atlantis that the real rise to fame came.
Later in 1993 he formed his first own underground label, Liquid Records just to be able to release whatever he choose to. It was also at this time he started collaborating with Oliver Lieb with the project, Paragliders.

Except from Oliver Lieb, he also worked with Booka Shade, DJ Tatana, Dj Taucher, Talla 2XLC and DJ Sakin.

In 1995 Torsten bought the rights to Planet Love Records to focus on developing a trancier sound together with Dj Taucher. Their first release on the label, Fantasy was licensed to Sony Dance Pool and later became a top 50-single in the german charts.

Toghether with Dj Taucher, Torsten had remixed over 52 different artists and was named ’worldwide third best remixers’ in 1997 by Raveline magazine. An example was their remix of Faithless – God Is A DJ, a huge success which topped the charts worldwide.

The project York was born in 1997 with their first single, The Awakening released on Talla2XLC’s label, Suck Me Plasma. The single reached no 11 in the UK chart. What did the track special was that it was the first trance track ever to be released with an electric guitar as a lead instrument. The single sold over 250.000 copies The guitar, played by Jörg has been a key instrument in all York-releases.

The second release, York featuring Jamila – Jastamba was another guitar-driven track. Though not as successful, it established the York sound. The same year, Torsten collaborated with Sakin Bozkurt a.k.a. DJ Sakin for the project DJ Sakin & Friends. Their first release, Protect Your Mind was a clubversion of a James Horner-track off the Braveheart-soundtrack. The track became an instant success and was played by every major DJ all over the globe. Protect Your Mind hit the No1 spot on the German dancechart and also No3-position on the German music sales chart. It sold Gold, Silver & Platinum in most european countries. The track sold over 700.000 copies worldwide.

The second single from DJ Sakin & Friends, Nomansland did pretty well but not near the success of Protect Your Mind. It landed on No10 in the German charts and No16 in the UK charts.
The track was a rework of the track Vladimir Cosma – David’s Song.
They had a hard time struggling with the success of Protect Your Mind to find so they trashed the project after the album Walk On Fire was released. The Album itself did pretty well in the charts.

The really big breakthough for York came in 1999 with the release of On The Beach, which is a remake of Chris Reas old anthem with the same name. The first vinyl was On The Beach and on the B-side was the track The Reachers Of Civilisation but later the same year there was a real release with alot of remixes. The mix that made the video-edit was the CRW remix (by italian Mauro Picotto amongt others). The single reached no 4 in the UK charts and became a worldwide hit. Chris Rea was amazed that this version had outsold his 1986 original that he pushed for the single and later performed with York at the British Top Of The Pops-show.

At this time, Torsten had moved to Ibiza and established his studio there.

The followup to On The Beach was the 2000 single Fields Of Love together with André Tanneberger a.k.a. ATB who also sings on the track. The track became another huge hit worldwide.

The same year also saw the single Farewell To The Moon (with vocalist Pat Appleton). Farewell To The Moon became another big hit and its also my favourite from York, especially the En Motion-remix by Steve Helstrip which gives me that summery feeling and a driving beat that just makes you wanna dance. The single also features remixes by Watergate and ATB.

2001 saw Yorks first album, Experience and later the single-release of The Reachers Of Civilization. First released as a B-side to On The Beach but now with an awesome remix-pack from Rank 1 and Push. The same year also saw the release of the single Silence which contains a sample from Héroes del Silencios single Entre Dos Tierras. Silence was re-released 2002 with vocals by Alaska and renamed Yesterday (Silence).

In 2004, York released I Need You and later the same year, a collaboration with Roger Shah under the name DJ Shah Meets York – Sunset Road / Dead Drummer. When Roger Shah later released his Sunlounger-singles, White Sand & Aguas Blancas Jörg was featured on Guitar. He was also featured on most of the Sunlounger 2007 album, Another Day On The Terrace

The year after saw the new album, Peace and the single York feat Angelina – Iceflowers
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In 2006 York released their last single, Mercury Rising and later York took a break.

Jörg worked on some productions with Roger Shah and Torsten worked on various projects which included Finnish rock singer Tarja Turunen (from the group Nightwish), Jennifer Paige, All Saints, Nelly Furtado & Joss Stone together with production partner Rick Nowels.

2010 saw the return of York. The first single, DreamMan featuring York – Moonrise On The Beach released on Laurent Veronnez’s label, Green Martian.

In 2011, York moved to Armin Van Buuren’s Armada Music Label and released York feat. Brandon Jones – Wanna Be Known and in 2012, the release Touched By God saw the light of day. Later in 2012 will see the release of the new album, Islanders

I still think the typical York-sound sounds fresh even today. As long as Jörg plays his typical guitar, you can still hear the distinct York-sound which once made them famous. The future looks bright for them and hopefully they’ll keep their sound for many more years.

Classic FTW: Delerium feat Jaël – After All (Svenson & Gielen Remix)

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lckszwixLc&w=680&h=491]

This weekends classic comes from a very odd background. Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber, 2 guys from an Canadian EBM-band Front Line Assembly formed a side-project in 1987 to jump on the popular spritual Enigma-wave with angelic voices and munk-chanting but ended up as the trance-remixers favourite band. The track i’m talking about is Delerium feat. Jael – After All (Svenson & Gielen Remix). (Buy on Itunes)

Lyrics:

She knows the voices in her mind
They tell her
To leave

She’s tired of smiling madly
Until silence becomes very silently
A noise in her mind

After all she has nothing inside
No good to give
No meaning to live
The mist engulfed tonight
Every single star

After all they shared
How could he simply say no
After all they shared
He turned away from her to go
She said she wouldn’t cry
That was really just a lie

She knows the noises in her mind
Nothing’s left but
Screaming silence

After all she feels numbness inside
The feeling’s gone
She’s upside down
The pictures behind her closed eyes
This time you went too far

After all they shared
How could he simply say no
After all they shared
He turned away from her to go
She said she wouldn’t cry
That was really just a lie

After all they shared
How could he simply say no
After all they shared
He turned away from her to go
She said she wouldn’t cry
That was really just a lie

After all she has nothing inside
No good to give
No meaning to live
The mist engulfed tonight
Every single star

After all they shared
How could he simply say no
After all they shared
He turned away from her to go
She said she wouldn’t cry
That was really just a lie

After all they shared
How could he simply say no (simply say no)
After all they shared
He turned away from her to go
She said she wouldn’t cry
That was really just a lie

After all they shared
How could he simply say no (simply say no)
After all they shared
He turned away from her to go
She said she wouldn’t cry
That was really just a lie

After all they shared
How could he simply say no (how could he simply say no)
After all they shared (after all)
He turned away from her to go (he just turned away)
She said she wouldn’t cry
That was really just a lie

Goosebump points:

0:58 when the bassline kicks in
1:27 when the vocals start
1:54 when the vocals change
2:37 when the breakdown starts
2:51 when the chorus starts
3:38 when the chorus comes again and the music builds
5:49 at the second breakdown when the chorus kicks in and the buildup thereafter

Delerium was formed in 1987 by Bill Leeb and Rhys Fulber, and their first release was the 1988 album, Faces, Forms And Illusions. After this, they released a bunch of albums and singles.

The group has always been a duo but the lineup has changed over the years although Bill Leeb has always been the key character. After the release of the album Karma, Rhys Fulber quit the group and Chris Peterson came in. With the album Chimera, Fulber came back and stayed for the rest of the albums.

The big breakthrough came with the 1997 album, Karma which featured the single Silence (with singer Sarah Mclachlan). The single was released in 1998 and later peaked at no1 in the irish chart the year after. The cool thing is that it was the Airscape-remix which recieved the radio airplay.

The single was re-released in 2000 with remixes by Tiësto, Fade and Airscape and did even better in the charts worlwide. Tiesto’s In Search Of Sunrise-remix became one of trance biggest anthems and is still played by most trance-djs worldwide. It is one of those track that most people sing along with when they hear it played in a club. The single has since being re-released in 2004 (with remixes by Above & Beyond), 2006 (with remixes by Filterheadz) and in 2008 (with remixes by Niels van Gogh and Thomas Gold).

Worth noticing is that the Filterheadz-remix is often mislabeled as Trentmoller 2006 remix, which doesn’t excist.

The huge success of Silence ended in most delerium-singles after this being remixed for the dancefloors.

The next single, Heaven’s Earth (with singer Kristy Thirsk), released in 1999 also did well in the charts and was late remixed by Matt Darey in 2000.

2000 also saw the release of the album, Poem.

The followup-single was the 2001 single, Innocente (with singer Leigh Nash from the band Sixpence Non The Richer) which also did well in the charts and peaked at no 3 in the US Dancechart. The remix-package was delivered by Tiesto, Lost Witness, Deep Dish and Mr. Sam.
The official single and video-release was the Lost Witness edit

The year after saw the single Underwater (with singer Rani). Again, the single did well in the charts and peaked at no 9 on the US Dancechart. Underwater came with a remix-package from Rank 1 & Above & Beyond. The official single and video-release is the Above & Beyond edit.

After All (with singer Jaël) came out in 2003 was the first single from the new album, Chimera. The new album focused more on pop-music than the former album. The track also came with a remix-package from Svenson & Gielen and Satoshi Tomiie. The track didn’t do that well in the charts, but did peak at no 9 in the US Dancechart. The official single and video-release was released in 2 versions, one as album version and one as the Svensson & Gielen edit.

The second success from the Chimera-album came with Truly (with singer Nerina Pallot), again did pretty well in the charts and peaked at no 2 in the US Dancechart. The remix-package came with remixes from Infusion and Signum.

The 2007 single Angelicus (with singer Isabel Bayrakdarian) peaked at no1 on the US Dancechart and came with a remix-pack by Andy Moor and Redanka.
It was followed by Lost & Found (with singer Jaël) which peaked at no 4 on the US Dancechart. The remix-package came with a beautiful Blank & Jones-remix). Both tracks were featured on the 2006 album, Nuages du Monde.

The last single from Delerium, Dust In Gravity (with singer Kreesha Turner) was released in 2009 and again peaked at no1 in the US Dancechart. The remix-package was this time delivered by Sultan & Ned Shepard, Nervo and Niels van Gogh vs. Dave Ramone.

IMHO, Deleriums career peaked between 2000-2003, atleast dance-wise. The cool thing with their tracks is that there is always a version that fits your mood. If you’re tired of dancemusic, then put on the albums for some nice ambient chillout. The music and the style of Deleriums original material is timeless and hopefully people will remember them as well as the dancemixes. If not, they will always be remebered for Silence. Because that’s a true classic!

Classic for the weekend: Solarstone – Seven Cities (Atlantis Mix)

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1j_aOZk-v4&w=680&h=376]

This weeks classic is one of the first real trancetracks that I loved. The atmosphere, the guitarr-riff and the african chant gives me shivers just thinking about it. I’m talking about Solarstone – Seven Cities (Solarstone’s Atlantis Remix). (buy on Itunes)

I remember hearing it on some radioshow back in the days and immediately fell for it. That guitarrsound (or whatever to call it) sets the mood together with the atmospheric strings. Sooo epic!

Goosebump-points:

0:00 when the chant starts
1:38 when the background-string starts
2:36 when the first breakdown starts
2:50 when the guitarr starts to play
4:16 when the drums kick in
4:30 when the chant comes back
4:58 when the drum stops and another breakdown starts
5:41 when the drums starts again

Solarstone started out as a trio with Richard Mowatt, Sam Tierny and Andy Bury back in 1994 but their major break came first with the classic anthem Seven Cities in 1999 on Hooj Choons (owned by Red Jerry). The track became an instant classic and has been re-releases a few times over the years with the latest in 2009. Sam Tierny quit Solarstone in 1997, just before their big breakthrough though.

The first release contained the Atlantis Mix and the V-one Remix (by Airwave). The 2000 release contained a stompin’ Michael Woods Remix but the most famous remix by Armin Van Buuren came first in 2002.

The chant in the track comes from the track Tintinnabulum by Adiemus. If you listen to Seven Cities in swedish, it sounds like ”hej, vi packar bajs” which roughly translates to ”hey, we’re stuffing poop”. Rumour has it that the guitarr-riff is picked from an Australian 80´s band called Kids In The Kitchen and their song Change In Mood.

Seven Cities was a major chart-success all over europe and made it to the top 40 in several countries.

A cool fact is that the V-One Remix is said to be the last track Paul Oakenfold ever played during his residency at Cream. Talk about going out with a bang!

Since the release of Seven Cities we’ve seen loads of gems from Solarstone.

Seven Cities was followed up with the single Speak in Sympathy (with vocals from Elizabeth Fields) in 2001.

2002 was the year of the epic EP Solarcoaster / Green Light.

The spoken lyrics in Solarcoaster is by Patricia Arquette and sampled from the Quentin Tarrantino-movie True Romance from 1993.

Lyrics:

I look back and I’m amazed
That my thoughts were so clear and true;
That three words went through my mind endlessly,
Repeating themselves like a broken record…
You’re so cool
You’re so cool
You’re So cool

Solarcoaster became a huuge hit and was released as an own single the year later with remixes from
Greg Murray, Steve Murano and Midway.

I love the original but the Midway remix lifts the track to a completely new level, especially with the spoken lyrics exactly before the big breakdown. It gives me chills just thinking about it.

Solarcoaster was followed by 3 singles together with Scott Bond.
3rd Earth, Naked Angel and Red Line Highway, all released in 2004 and as Scott Bond vs. Solarstone.

In 2005, Richard Mowatt started his own sublabel, Solaris Recordings, a sister to the legendary record label Lost Language and from now on all his releases came out on this label.

The first track on the new label was Eastern Sea in 2005. and came with remixes by First State, Martin Roth and M.O.R.P.H. vs Scirocco Mix just to name a few. The track did fairly well on the dancefloors.

Solarstone – AnthologyOne, the first studio album came out in 2006 and was a Greatest Hits-album and contained all the classics so far. This was also the year that Andy Bury droped off so now it was only Richard Mowatt left.

The same year the single Like A Waterfall was released and featured Jes on vocals. I just love Solarstone’s Deeper Sunrise Version, it’s a pity that it isnt available on Youtube though.

2007 saw the re-release of 1997 single ,The Calling (with Kimberley Marsh on vocals) with new mixes by Orkidea and Jonas Steur. Both remixes are really good but I prefer the Orkidea Piano Mix.

The single, Late Summer Fields (together with Alucard) came out the same year. A cool fact is that the vocals are actually sung by Richard Mowatt himself. The track was re-released in 2009 with an additional remix by Ferry Corsten.

The followup-single was Rain Stars Eternal which came with an epic Agnelli & Nelson remix. The same year saw the release of Solarstones second album with the same title. The album also featured the singles 4ever, Spectrum and Part Of Me (with vocals by Elizabeth Fields).
The Album was followed by the remix album, clevery called Rsemix with great remixes by Probspot, Ferry Corsten and Forerunners just to name a few.

2010 saw the release of the third album, Touchstone and the single with the same name. The single is abit back to basic with major guitarr-riffs like back in the old days. Listen to the Aly & Fila remix, it’s gonna be a huge classic in a couple of years.

The same year also saw the collaboration between Solarstone and Orkidea with the track Slowmotion, and also the single Electric Love (with singer Bill McGruddy).

The singles were followed in 2012 by a new remix-album simply called Touchstone Remixed with remixes by Vadim Zhukov, Tucandeo and Dennis Sheperd just to name a few.

Solarstone has also found the time to remix some classics back in the days. How about these?

Energy 52 – ”Café Del Mar” (Solarstone Remix)
Matt Darey – ”From Russia With Love” (Solarstone’s Red City Mix, Solarstone’s Deep Blue Mix)
Chakra – Home (Solarstone Remix)
Ferry Corsten – Gabriella’s Sky (Solarstone Remix)
Space Manoeuvres – ”Stage One” (Solarstone Remix)
Ferry Corsten (also known as Moonman) – ”Galaxia” (Solarstone Remix)
Planet Perfecto – ”Bullet in the Gun 2000” (Solarstone Remix)
Cygnus X – The Orange Theme (Solarstone Remix)
Paul Oakenfold – ”Southern Sun” (Solarstone’s Afterhours Remix)
Conjure One – ”Center of the Sun” (Solarstone’s Chilled Out Remix)
Filo and Peri pres. Whirlpool – ”Under the Sun” (Solarstone Remix)
Sarah McLachlan – ”World on Fire” (Solarstone’s Afterhours Remix)

Richard was also a part of Young Parisians (together with Andy Bury) who did the 2005 anthem Jump The Next Train.

My feeling is that Solarstone will be around for another decade. As long as he keeps that special touch on the tracks, the success of his old and new tracks will live on forever.

Classic For The Weekend: Push – Universal Nation

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[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!

Classic for the weekend: Andain – Summer Calling (Airwave Remix)

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgyUZwIEoH0&w=680&h=376]

This weekends classic is from 2002 and this article is about the remix. I´m talking about Andain – Summer Calling (Airwave Remix). (Buy on Itunes)

What I really like is the hypnotic beat over the smooth Andain vocals together with the goosebumping buildup after the breakdown.

Lyrics:
And when it hurts for me
I never felt so empty
Memory has its way
Falling
Falling

Those summer mornings
You kissed me out of my next dream
Then without warning
It goes away

And then it goes
And then it goes
And then it…goes

Search to find you somewhere
As winds began to sway
Got in my car and just
Driving
Driving

Those summer mornings
I danced inside your warm embrace
You hear me calling
And now you’re gone

Goosebump points:
00:57 when the vocals start
02.38 when the main synth comes into the background
03:36 when the breakdown starts
03:56 when she starts wailing
04:18 when the main synth kicks in after the break. ORGAZM ALERT!!
04:47 when the kickdrum starts up again

A famous man have many names. That quote fits perfectly on the next featured artists.
Belgian born Laurent Christian Georges Véronnez is one of trance an progressive’s busiest producers, with over 35 different aliases he has produced some 500 different tracks in various music styles.

His musical career started at the age of 7 as he started playing around with synths but it wasn’t until the age of 18 when he sent some demos to the infamous Bonzai-label that his music career really started taking shape. At Bonzai, he quickly grew to one of their biggest artists.

Laurent’s main influences back then was everything electronic, from early Kraftwerk to Future Sound Of London and producers like Jean Michel Jarre, Orbital, Oliver Lieb and Brian Transeau just to name a few.

The first big success came after teaming up with DJ Fire (real name Jurgen Leyers) back in 1998 as Fire & Ice. Since then, many aliases has been used. L-vee, V-one, Airwave, Meridian, Green Martian, Lolo and Body-Shock just to name a few.

The most common alias used is the Airwave-alias, but he also did some collaborations in projects like Planisphere (togheter with Georges Petkidis, Fire & Ice (with Jurgen Leyers) and Cape Town (with Ludovic Meyer)

Laurent consider his style of music as ”pure electronic dance music with a sniff of electronica and trance and progressive sounds”

Laurent’s first release as Airwave came in 1998 with the single I Want To Believe, which was follorwed by the single Above The Sky in 1999.
In 2000, Airwave released 3 singles: Escape From Nowhere, Innerspace and Alone In The Dark. Alone In The Dark was the first track I heard from Airwave and IMHO one of his best ever. It was also with the same track that Airwave became huge in the UK.

The followup single, Save Me came out in 2001 and in 2002, Airwave released his first album, Believe.

In 2002, Airwave also teamed up with Armin Van Buuren and released Airwave vs. Rising Star – Sunspot. The same year also saw the release of Another Dimension as well as a re-release of Above The Sky as an EP with Alone In The Dark and Innerspace as additional tracks.

In 2003, when the the owner of Bonzai, Lightning Records went bankrupt, Laurent teamed up with Yves De Ruyter, Fly (owner of Bonzai) and Marnik (A&R from Lightning Records) to create the label Banshee Worx. The same year, the single When Things Go Wrong was released.

The second Airwave-album, I Want To Believe came out in 2004 and was a 2CD-piece where the 1st CD was the 2002 album Believe and the 2nd CD contained new material.
2004 also saw the re-release of the track Ladyblue, first featured on the 2002 album, Believe, but now redone for 2004 with an epic 12 min mix by Markus Schulz. Also released the same year was the EP Boredom, which also featured the track Last Flight To Gaia.

The singles, Progressive Agressive, People Just Dont Care and The Promise I Made (with Jon O’Bir), all came out in 2006 together with Airwaves third album, Trilogique which was a 3CD album.

The fourth album, Touareg came out in 2008 and was contained both new material aswell as fresher versions of older tracks.

In 2009, Airwave teamed up with old friend Ludovic Meyer (from the Cape Town-collaboration) for the epic track Batignolles Blues. Most people know Ludovic Meyer under the nickname Ferry Tayle. Ferry Tayle & Stephan R Neverending Story Remix of the single is a smooth uplifting remix and a favourite of mine.

I had the opportunity to see Airwave and Ferry Tayle perform as Cape Town last year and it was amazing. Airwave plays like a god on his keytar!

2010 saw the release of Airwave Presents Lolo – Myla’s Theme and 2011 the release of single Hello World. Hello World is also the first track released on the sub label L*C*D* Recordings

Airwave released the singles Atlas Winds / Chiricahua in 2012 but they had to be withdrawn due to Atlas Winds used a sample that Airwave bought years earlier that contained holy words from the Quran and it’s forbidden to use any words from the holy book, especially holy songs. I know that Airwave is working on replacing the vocals and hopefully we´ll see a re-release of the track later this year.

I will have the privilege to see Airwave perform a liveset this summer at Luminosity Beach Festival in Holland. According to the lineup, the next DJ in line is Ferry Tayle (together with Manuel Le Saux). I can only hope that Airwave will perform a few track as Cape Town. That would be a memory worth remembering!

Classic for the weekend: Paul Van Dyk – For An Angel

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[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6xb3F9qcdw&w=680&h=491]

The next track is made by one of trance biggest DJ’s. Paul van Dyk (or Matthias Paul which is is real name). First released on his first album, 45RPM, back in 1994 and remixed plenty of times since with latest remixes coming out in 2009. The track i’m thinking of is For An Angel (PvD E-Werk Club Mix) from 1998.

A fun fact is that it was actually my hardrocker-friend that tipped me about this track after hearing it on the local radio. He later bought the CD-maxi.

Goosebump-points:

0:55 when the druma kick in
1:37 when the breakdown comes and the main synth starts
2:33 when the piano starts
4:51 when the breakdown comes
5.33 when the piano starts again

Paul grew up in east Berlin in the early 70’s and his musical intrest came from listening to the pirate western radioprograms broadcasted over the berlin wall, stations like RIAS and SFB. He and his friends occasionally came over some smuggled mixtapes that people visiting the eastern block bring with them.

Paul and his mom got a permit to leave eastern Berlin to live with his aunt in Hamburg just before the berlin wall fell and later in 1990 he moved back to Berlin. His first DJ-gig was at the legendary Berlin club Tresor in 1991 but it wasnt until he teamed up with Kid Paul at the Turbine club that he was discovered. Pauls mixing techniques made producer/DJ Cosmic Baby open his eyes for the young talent. Paul and Cosmic Baby later released 2 singles under the name Visions Of Shiva, Perfect Day in 1992 and How Much Can You Take? In 1993.

1994 was a big year for Paul. It was the year that his first album, 45 RPM came out on the label MFS and also the singles/EPs The Green Valley E.P. , Pumpin’ / Pump This Party , 45 Remixes Per Minute and 45 RPM -The Special Spanish EP Version. The latter cointained the first version of For An Angel, with vocals by Ute Lampka-Konrad.

Meanwhile Paul released his own tracks, he also did some remixed. Most memorable of the older remixes are his version of Humate – Love Stimulation entitled Lovemix

With the release of his second studio album Seven Ways, label owner Mark Reeder launched Pauls career in England by licensing the album to Deviant Records. The album later became no1 album of 1996 according to the readers of DJ Magazine.

In 1997, Paul met up with american producer BT (real name Brian Transeau) and together they produced hits like Flaming June & Forbidden Fruit. And 1999 they released Namistai. The same year Paul released version of the epic classic Age Of Love – Age Of Love. This was also the year I personally discovered Paul van Dyk.

With the re-release of the album 45 RPM in the UK and the US, Paul decided to remix his old 1994 track, For An Angel and gave it the name ”E-Werk Club Mix” after a classic club in Cologne, Germany. Paul also got a resident at the world-famous Gatecrasher club in Sheffield, UK where he early stated that he was anti drugs so people did own t-shirts with the tag ”No E, Pure PvD”.

In the middle of 1998, Paul decided to leave his old record label and start his own to control everything that was going on. The new label was named Vandit Records.

The same year his remix of Binary Finarys instant classic 1998 was released which also topped the german dance charts.

The album Out There and Back, released in 2000 contained a bunch of hits like We Are Alive with swedish singer Jennifer Brown, Avenue and Tell me why (The Riddle) with english singer St Etienne. Worth noticing is that many of the track on the album were sung by his wife Natascha van Dyk.

After releasing his mix-album, Politics Of Dancing in 2001, Paul went on a worldwide tour and also saw the release of the live DVD, Global 2 years later.

In 2003 he also released his fourth studio album, Reflections which were inspired by a trip to India. The album contaned the hit Nothing But You and he later was nominated for a grammy-award. Also worth noticing is that many of the tracks from the album later was used in tv-commercials for Motorola, HBO & Land Rover just to name a few.

After releasing his second mix-album, Politics of Dancing 2 in 2005, he dedicated the track The Other Side with singer Wayne Jackson to the victims of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand.

The album, In Between, released in 2007, contained hits like White Lies (with singer Jessica Sutta), New York City, a collab with Starkillers, Austin Leeds and singer Ashley Tomberlin and also Let Go with singer Rea Garvey

Worth noticing is that many of his tracks has also been used in video games like:

1999: Wipeout 3
2003: FIFA Football 2004
2004: Need For Speed: Underground 2
2008: Mirror’s Edge
2009: Grand Slam Tennis
2011: Test Drive Unlimited 2

Also, Paul has also worked on some movie-soundtracks:

2003: Zurdo (which he won an Mexican Oscar)
2004: One Perfect Day
2005: The Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants
2005: Into The Blue
2008: The Dark Knight

2012 will see the release of his 6th studio album, Evolution, and a also a tour with the new album.
Planned gigs so far: Tallinn / Estonia, Stockholm / Sweden, Bologna / Italy, Graz / Austria and Brisbane / Australia.

After listening to the new single, Verano, I hear a fresh sound which probably will end up in a really big year for Paul!

– Niklas

www.bejbi.se – A webzine about electronic music

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Etikettarkiv: 2012

Classic FTW: Angelic – It’s My Turn

Classic FTW: York – Farewell To The Moon (En Motion Remix)

Classic FTW: Delerium feat Jaël – After All (Svenson & Gielen Remix)

Classic for the weekend: Solarstone – Seven Cities (Atlantis Mix)

Classic For The Weekend: Push – Universal Nation

Classic for the weekend: Andain – Summer Calling (Airwave Remix)

Classic for the weekend: Paul Van Dyk – For An Angel