Trance cheese

[Sykonee]

A trance disc. That was all I wanted. Unmixed. Single disced. There used to be tons of these around half a decade ago. Now, its bloody rare to find a trance album unmixed. Even producers have their tracks mixed on their albums.

But most importantly, I wanted a trance disc in the old style. Not neccessarily an old album; just in the old style. If finding unmixed trance is difficult, then finding trance in the style of early Harthouse is damned near impossible! Everything released is in that newer style that, while fine, hasn't changed much since I first picked up discs of it four years ago. Why should I buy music that sounds almost identical to what I bought half a decade ago?

Since I couldn't find what I wanted, I decided to just give in completely and go with the exact opposite. I scoured the shelves searching for the absolute cheesiest, un-mixed trance album I could find on that A&B store shelf. Lo and behold, I found exactly what I had in mind.

On the cover was some weird, pink, 'toony creature with a double-head. The album was called Trance V.oice 2. It looked like something no one under the age of 12 would want to be caught dead with. Perfect!

Without even sampling it, I slapped down my cash for it and took off, putting the disc into my portable player and prepared for the worst.

As I listened to it, everything about it absolutely screamed everything I've found watering down the modern sounds of trance. The grotesque breakdowns and builds, the insipid female vocals (often covers of other songs no less), the cheesy synths; it was all here.

Yet, somehow, I found a silly smile forming on my face. Why? Quite simply for the same reason I enjoyed Eurodance fare like 2 Unlimited and Haddaway way back in the early 90s; this is cheese and this album knows it.

Oh, sure the tracks sound great and sometimes can create an interesting atmosphere when taken in certain context. However, the tracks on this album seem to realize that it will never appear in a Sasha set so, instead of attempting to promote its own self-importance by giving us a theme of other-worldly delights, it relies on the the cheese factor to entertain us.

The album's not even 50 minutes long yet they've got 12 tracks on here. All of them are quite short, deciding to get right to the meat of their songs instead of delaying us with drum loops and mutiple breakdowns. The breakdowns come quickly, the builds get to do their thing almost immediately, and then the song quite quickly ends.

Quite honestly, these feel more like songs than the 9 minute tracks that use the exact same pattern only stretched out.

Whether the producers of the individual tracks were this aware of the cheese factor here is unknown. However, the guys that compiled this album sure were and, judging from their cover artwork, decided to take the cheeziest route possible.

Not to be outdone, however, the 11th track seems to forego the whole album's concept and ends up giving me a song exactly in the style I was originally looking for. Promise U Heaven (as it's called) honestly sounds like something Vath or Lieb may have produced a decade ago. What a bonus!

This album is a real gem. I wouldn't want to subject anyone to it for more than its 50 minute running time but it does help to remember how good cheese can be when it remains self aware.

[ppcock]

holy heell can you send me this compilation?

I used to have it and then deleted it..

[Sean]

Hehe, I'm not a fan of cheesey trance but it's for strictly musical reasons and not because I'm a wanna-be elitist. Cheese that doesn't take itself seriously is fine and enjoyable, Future Breeze at IMF was like that. The music was pure cheesey bollocks but the guy was a clown and he knew it so that made it okay =P

[mikefasssy]

Yea, cheese is a phase most people go through, sadly lots get stuck there. Ho ho.

Best sig ever sean.