Recommend Trance Music

I am always looking to expand my musical interest and I was reading on the Wikipedia about Trance Music.

Can someone recommend me a few artists? I’ll admit I’m into more of, what was termed in my day, as mainstream pop. Basically anything before 1990. but basically I am OK with any one who can actually sing and carry a tune.

Fortunately I live in Chicago with a huge collection of CDs so I’ll probably find some of your recommends there.

So anyone have any ideas that might be worth listening to, for a newbie to experience trance music?

Darude [Sandstorm. This one is perhaps the most well known ““Trance”” pieces.]

BT [Next to anything by BT is good but, among the best:: Flaming June, Godspeed, Simply Being Loved]

Tiesto [I perfer Leathal Industry here]

Paul Oakenfold [His cover of Planet Rock is GREAT.]

Ferry Corsten [Brain Box* in particular]

PPK [Ok, Just Resurection, but it’s still a good piece]

Jekll & Hyde [Freefall*]

Rah [Pole Position*]

Zombie Nation [Kernkraft 400* , It’s real fun to listen to this one, and then listen to Brain box again. Brain Box obviously took a page or two from Kernkraft.]

  • In my Top 25 played list on my Ipod.

Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman and Second Toughest In The Infants can’t be beat.
Hallucinogen also rocks. Trances. Whatever.

Not sure if he qualifies as trance or trip-hop or whatever, but William Orbit’s Strange Cargo series is wonderful. I play Water on a Vine Leaffor friends to dial them in to Orbit and they typically love it. (That’s a link to a YouTube clip of the song - but you really gotta listen to it big and loud and on something surroundy to really get a feel for the music - it starts out very quiet…)

Thanks I found a couple of suggestions at the Chicago Library and put them on hold

Mix/compilation CDs:
Tiësto - In Search of Sunrise series (3 is one of the best)
Armin van Buuren - Boundaries of Imagination or his In Search of Sunrise series
Sasah & Digweed - Northern Exposure
Paul Oakenfold - Another World
Above & Beyond - Anjunabeats series
Thrillseekers - Nightmusic series

Artist CDs:
Ferry Corsten - Twice in a Blue Moon
Tiësto - In My Memory
Armin van Buuren - Imagination

Songs:
Tiësto:
Suburban Train
Forever Today
Just Be
Silence - Delerium (Tiësto’s remix)

Armin van Buuren:
Shivers
Communication
Burned With Desire
The Sound of Goodbye

Ferry Corsten:
Beautiful
Made of Love
Sublime
Rock Your Body, Rock
Adagio for Strings - William Orbit (Ferry remix)

Solarstone:
Seven Cities
Like a Waterfall
Late Summer Fields (with Alucard)

Above & Beyond:
Alone Tonight
Good For Me
No One On Earth

Rank 1 - Airwave
Ilo - Rapture
Gouryella (Tiësto + Ferry Corsten) - Gouryella
Motorcycle - As the Rush Comes
Andain - Beautiful Things
C-Sharp - The Quest
Sunlounger - White Sand
Departure - Without You Near
Dogzilla - Without You
Coca & Villa - La Noche -
The Doppler Effect - Beauty Hides in the Deep
The Thrillseekers - Synaesthesia
The Thrillseekers Feat Aruna - Waiting Here For You
DJ Shah Featuring Adrina Thorpe - Who Will Find Me

“Ra Is A Busy God” (there’s also a vocal version)
“Hex On IV”
“Like Kryptonite To Superman”“Skimming the Hovergear”
“die Atmosphare in der Stadt”
“Myrr (the smoking car)”
(all are YouTube links, but they’re audio-only)

If you like any of them, mp3s can be downloaded here. Just scroll down a little.

Club Trance - Sasha (Airdrawndagger is one of the best albums)
Psy-Trance - Hallucinogen, Infected Mushroom, Sun Project
Goa Trance - Astral Projection, Jaia
Industrial-Metalish Trance - Dark Soho, Xenomorph

For the darkest most evil war of the machines Skynet wants your soul music ever created you want Psytekk Necton, Spirallianz, Midi Milliz

Of course Hallucinogen and Shpongle are the Mack Daddy of Trance, the best shit you’ll find. Younger Brother is another side project of Simon Posford who is the engine behind all these acts.

Cool Sun Project track. Nice use of Guitar.

For the mainstream pop meets trance, definitely Delerium - Silence and my favorite Infected Mushroom - Cities of the Future.

Paul Van Dyk - For An Angel and We Are Alive

Are VNV Nation considered trance? I’m a fan of theirs, and I normally shy away from the genre overall.

And if you mix it with another well known song, “Children” by Robert Miles, you get “Children of The Sandstorm” by Darude vs Robert Miles. I think I like the mix better than “Sandstorm” or “Children.”

I find myself not really grasping the nuances between Trance, House, and Eurodance. And I’m not alone because if you look a lot of the songs and artists in this thread up on Wiki, they’re listed under more than one of the subgenres too. Sandstorm, for example, is listed as both Trance and Eurodance. Paul Oakenfold’s “Faster Kill Pussycat” isn’t even listed as trance…

No, VNV Nation is considered to be EBM which is sort of like trance infused electro-industrial. It’s closer to techno than to Trance though.

Trance has a steady 4/4 beat. Trance is BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM at around 140-155 BPM.

House has a 4/4 beat but every off beat is softer giving it the BOOMboomBOOMboom sound. House has a wider BPM range.

Eurodance is usually poppy and more closely related to House than Trance. It often has lyrics. Think ‘Mr. Vain’.

Here’s a great track for a trance Neophyte: Astral Projection - Aurora Borealis

While that one is certainly good, here is the one I was looking for that I think is a really good intro.

Astral Projection - Another World

mswas - Ah sorry about the EBM confusion. I’d been told that EBM is an interchangeable term with ‘electronic music’ but after a quick google I stand corrected.

Yes most house is slower than trance, and since house originated with disco and funk there is usually a clear influence from that area – heavy bass for instance, whereas in my experience trance focuses more on synth lines and has an ‘expansive sound’. House is usually also more sample based.

Eurodance is somewhere in between, yes. I don’t really think I can give a more in depth description of it than you have done. It’s pop music with a dance beat, really, and can include synthesizers and so on.

I find a lot of it blends together so there are few hard lines between genres. And there are all kinds of other genres not mentioned like Ambient, Big Beat, Drum & Base, Electro House, and so on.

Since the OP is interested in artists who can “carry a tune”, I might suggest Vocal Trance / EuroDance (characterized by a steady dance beat, trance-like keyboard effects and etheral female vocals) artists like:
4 Strings - Take Me Away
Andain - Beautiful Things
ATB - 9pm (Till I Come)
Ian Van Dahl - Castles in the Sky, Reason, Try, Will I?
Lasgo - Alone, Something
Fragma - Toca’s Miracle
Milk Inc - Forever
Paul Oakenfold - Southern Sun
DJ Sammy - Sunlight
Dee Dee - Forever
Kate Ryan - Scream for More

Some other specific non-vocal songs I like:

Deadmau5 - Arguru
Energy 52 - Cafe Del Mar
Maor Leri - Reflect
Strange World - Push
william orbit - Barber’s Adigio for Strings

Pretty much anything by Simon Posford is gold.

Yeah. Don’t get too hung up on the labels.

Vocal Trance:
Oceanlab - Satellite
Oceanlab - Sirens of the Sea
Sunlounger Feat. Zara - Lost
Ridgewalkers Feat. El - Find
Ferry Corsten Feat. Simon LeBon - Fire
Imogen Heap - Hide & Seek (Tiësto’s In Search Of Sunrise Remix)
Allure Feat. Julie Thompson- Somewhere Inside
Kyau & Albert - Always A Fool
Matt Darey Featuring Marcella Woods - Temptation
Ernesto vs Bastian - Dark Side of the Moon
Whiteroom - Someday
Niyaz - Dilruba (Junkie XL Remix)
Cass - Little Bird
Lange - Sincere For You (The Thrillseekers Remix)
Sarah McLachlan - Fear (Hybrid’s Super Collider Mix)
Interstate - I Found U
Rui Da Silva - Touch Me
Junkiie XL - Youthful

I can’t believe that I forgot Toca’s Miracle.

But yes, this list is good, and I recognize a lot of the tracks. I got started in Trance with a few compilation discs, and many of those you list are in the collection.

Yeah, I’ll throw in an honorable mention for Celtic Cross and Binah also for Simon Posford. There is only one track released under the name Binah, and it’s one of my favorite downtempo trance tracks ever.

Look for the A State of Trance Classics compilations (full versions, unmixed):
Volume 1
Volume 2
Volume 3

12 discs of classic tracks.