Saturday 31st of March was not only Easter Saturday for many but also the date that the 8hrs radio show Trance Anthology was back with main difference that was streamed in the EDM stream of 1mix radio rather than in the trance stream. Also the show was earlier this time in the air from 18.00 till 02.00 and was solely compiled and mixed by Dimitri Kechagias. The previous Trance Anthology radio shows included mainly brilliant guest mixes but for this months edition, the decision was to go back in the very early days of trance and even trance house and rave and choose wide variety of artists and music and awake memories by selecting not the obvious classics but rather to come up with fantastic tracks that are less known but worth to get again exposure because quality trance music matures as the good wine, that means that after years the early trance tracks sound even better and retain their magic spell like the good old wine.
For more than a week Dimitri went back to his music collection and mainly his CD singles, albums and compilations and after hours of listening he has manage to choose the tracks that could fit what he has thought as being a radio show with certain flow and atmosphere. After careful considering all his options he took the decision to focus in the early days of trance and limit the scope of the radio show despite his fears that maybe were not enough tracks to play and compile the final running order of the show. There were many thoughts on what type of mixing or running order he could follow to tell his story. He believe that the best option to organise the tracks was by starting with the lower BPM tracks like ambient and deep progressive and then moving by increasing the BPM to reach 138 BPM at the end of the show. Of course what is interesting is that many of the tracks from that period reach 140 to 150-160 BPM and those unfortunately there was not enough time to include them. Hopefully in the next month's episode those tracks will be selected as well. The next challenge that Dimitri had to consider was what style of mixing is possible and he came up with the idea of sequencing the tracks by allowing to play the full duration of the tracks rather than selecting certain part of it. He tried to blend them as much as possible but the majority of the early years trance tracks have certain experimental avant garde direction to them rather than being the type of trance tracks that we know nowadays with certain arrangement that make them DJ friendly.
Above all Dimitri states that:" I had the option to choose the easy pathway with well known trance classics and play the bet safely and easy for the ear. My belief though is that the audience should be educated positively and learn to get exposed to tracks that may don't know or remain uncollected from the well known DJs in their occasional trance classics sets. I started with cool ambient and early break trance tracks and then I continued with deep melodic melancholic dreamy and tripping out tracks including some darker techy ones and some more acid trance housey too. If you follow the whole show you will definitely get a picture and understand how the trance sound of today has been modified and mutated to various subgenres and substyles cause definitely like any form of music, trance is not one thing, it is rather many things and the term trance incorporates wide diversity and variety of sounds. I tried in this radio show to reflect the dynamism, experimentation, optimism, darkness, happiness, moodiness of trance through the years with labels like EyeQ, Harthouse, Frankfurt Beat, Superstition and many more and with artists like Sven Vath, Paul van Dyk, Jam & Spoon, Oliver Lieb, Pascal Feos with Resistance D and many more great artists that some of them were one hit wonders rather than developing a sustainable career as electronic music artists. I can not hide or deny that many of the tracks in the show had massive and profound impact in my feelings and mood so while I was recording the show and listening them again when was streamed I felt captivated and truly enchanted from them and I could not resist to surrender to them and absorb each and every track very deep and feel hypnotised, motivated, rejuvenated and feel that fire for trance start burning again inside me and make me feel that this music for certain reason is something more than just entertainment or amusement. By going back to the roots of the genre, we can appreciate it even more and I highly recommend the younger trance producers to pass some hours by listening to these Early Years tracks cause their music ability will be increased and their ideas and influences will be multiplied. From the obscure weird tracks to the more well known and those that had mainstream and chart success Trance Anthology vol.5 is a small tribute to all the artists and record labels who manage within a competitive environment to follow their own unique pathway and come up with eternal tracks. Thanks to them for their hard work and I'm so fortunate to have been exposed to their brilliant compositions.Here you can find the full show to listen at your own convenience.
[Full Tracklisting coming soon]
Many thanks to Paul @1mix radio for supporting and allowing this radio show to happen.
Many thanks to www.discogs.com for their incredible database where I could find each and every track played in my radio show in order to have a strong background and knowledge to them.
Many thanks to all the listeners who decided to listen this radio show and support our initiative to go back and bring those precious classics back.