Exploration of Space [Extended Remix] by Cosmic Gate

Curiously, while the further from my discovery of Scot Project I get in time, the less enchanted I am with his work (speaking very broadly; he's still got loads of good stuff too) the same is not true for Cosmic Gate.  Cosmic Gate, according to pretty much everyone in the scene, has long since "sold out" but the first two albums—maybe the first three if you push it—and associated singles, are all excellent, and when they come back around in rotation on my listening, I like them better than even I remember, mostly.

"Exploration of Space" is one of the early hits of Cosmic Gate; I daresay that without the science fictiony themes, it doesn't sound like proper Cosmic Gate even.  This is a great song.

Somebody [Hangover Help Mix] by Arome

I'm sometimes critical of Scot Project, although I should be fairer and admit that it's not because he doesn't have a ton of good work.  Rather, because I found him so early, I've found that I like some other artists work better, and that I think his reputation is over-rated.  He's had some work that is mediocre and some that I don't even like at all—I think I'd have to say that I like Kai Winter (of Kan Cold, Derb and Hennes & Cold fame) better, for instance.  But that's not really very fair to Project, who did some great stuff, especially with the Arome name.  This isn't his best work under that label, but it's still a good one, and certainly good enough to make the cut onto my list.

Secret Dream [Hard Mix] by Luca Antolini

Luca Antolini DJ is one of my favorite artists in the hardtrance scene.  One of things I really appreciate about him is that he was associated with the Saifam Grupo gang, but unlike most of the rest of that crew (Technoboy and Tuneboy, especially) he never abandoned hardtrance for hardstyle, really—if he did anything hardstyle, it was more dabbling, whereas hardtrance always seemed to be his real love.  And he was really good at it.  Some of his songs, and some of his remixes of Saifam songs, like those by Pacific Link or Atlantic Wave (kind of an oceanic theme going on there) are among my favorites in the genre.

This one that came up on the randomizer isn't one of my favorite of his songs, but it's certainly good enough.  I like it quite a bit.  But "Heat" and "Contatto" and "Planetary Collapse" are his best work.  And the S.H.O.K.K. remix of "We Belong" is just incredible.

Luca Antolini seems to have done a bunch of work with Steve Hill too, which is kinda cool, because their styles complement each other in terms of making the music even more intense and harder, but without degenerating into self-parody like some of the hardcore subgenres have done, or even hardstyle often enough.  That's one of the joys of hardtrance as opposed to some of the other hard dance styles; it's still almost always melodic and has some musical merit to it besides just percussion and stuff.  Sure, trance can be formulaic and by the numbers, but even then, it's usually better than some of the alternatives that don't use a tried and true successful formula.

The Future [Luca Antolini DJ Mix] by Technoboy

The SAIFAM group is so famous for their hardstyle, particularly Technoboy and his most frequently used partner, Tuneboy, that it's sometimes easy to forget that they also did a lot of hardtrance.  Often, Technoboy used one of his other aliases for hardtrance, like DJ Gius.  Then again, this is a really early track, predating even "Raver's Rules" and of course, it's remixed by Luca Antolini, who was always more of a hardtrance guy who didn't get nearly as much into hardstyle (personally, I always felt like when he did it was commercialized selling out anyway.  Maybe I'm wrong, and it's not like that output is bad, I just get this vibe like he doesn't like hardstyle as much as hardtrance and would rather make the latter.)

Curiously, as hardstyle came and went, hardtrance endured.  The hardtrance scene, more underground than it used to be, no doubt, seems to be thriving and new material from new artists is coming out regularly.  Hardstyle, on the other hand, seems to be more or less moribund.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I like a lot of hardstyle tracks, especially some of the early ones that had a hardtrance vibe to them still, of course.  But I like hardtrance a lot better.

Harder [Club Mix] by Pedro del Mar

In spite of his stage name, Pedro del Mar isn't Spanish.  Discogs claims that he's German, but given his last name, I doubt that that's true in any real sense, either, only a paperwork or legal sense.  He also doesn't really look very German (and his brother, Roger Shah looks even less so), so I'm guessing that he's actually a Paki or Afghan or Iranian or something.  Both are DJs, although I don't think hardtrance is really their main thing; I think they do more progressive and balearic trance

Regardless, this is a really nifty song.  One of my favorites in the hardtrance genre, honestly.  It's maybe not quite as hard or intense as some in the genre, but it's more melodic.  You would think that that would mean that I'd be trending more towards classic trance, or other derived trance forms other than hardtrance, but actually the exaggerated kicks and super intense bass lines are one of my favorite parts of hardtrance.  The melodic nature of trance itself is the other part, which is why I prefer hardtrance to hardstyle, or hardcore or hard house or hardtechno or other acts under the more general the harddance rubric.  Not that I don't like a lot of stuff there too, but hardtrance is easily my favorite of the harddance styles.

Legends [Green Court Remix] by Dave 202 and Phil Green

Dave 202, another Swiss DJ who uses the time-honored tradition of a first name and a number (borrowed from Richard 23 of Front 242, no doubt) and Phil Green, who says he's Swiss, but who has a Slavic real name, team up here to give us "Legends", an amazing piece of uplifting hard trance, which German duo Green Court remixed into an amazing anthem.

The Hijackers remix is probably more well known, and the Green Court only appeared on the German release, but I like it quite a bit still.

Afraid of Us by Russenmafia

Russenmafia is a group I've talked about before, but I've actually only very recently (after I'd already been pretty heavily invested in investigating this genre) really gotten into some of their alternate names and work.  This isn't necessarily one of their best songs; I'd say "Dakrapo" and "Corruption" are probably the best under that name, "Too Cold" by Icebreaker (which as far as I know, only comes as an "Aquaplex Mix" but Aquaplex is another project of some of the group members of Russenmafia anyway) are definitely their best work.  But it's a good sample of what their kind of music sounds like anyway.

Isn't It All a Little Strange [Flutlicht Remix] by S.H.O.K.K.

I've let this blog linger, sadly, but I finally remembered to post again, and what did I get by random result?  One of my absolute favorites of the 1,100+ tracks in my collection!

S.H.O.K.K. and Flutlicht are actually related groups, both are duos, and both include one of the same guys, Marco Guardia, a Swiss DJ/Musician who also went by the stage name of Reverb.

He's retired now, and the Flutlicht name seems to have gone with him.  His Flutlicht partner was Daniel Heinzer (DJ Natron) who only ever released under the Flutlicht name, although he also did a lot of remixes at one point (although they were often collaborations; i.e., remixes of Flutlicht songs or S.H.O.K.K. songs.)  Guardia's partner in S.H.O.K.K. was Claudio Pettanice, who also used the stage names DJ Emergency and DJ Giotto, and who still works with the S.H.O.K.K. name, although his new partner is Nicolas Perrottey (DJ Space Raven.)

Anyway, both Flutlicht and S.H.O.K.K. have some great songs, but probably both of them are even better known for some of their absolutely insane remixes than for their own songs anyway.  Massive remixes like that of fellow Swiss artist Dave Joy's "First Impression" or DJ Spoke's "Ignition" (also Swiss), Marc Dawn's "Expander", Alex Bartlett's "Amnesia", etc.  The list goes on and on.  The S.H.O.K.K. and Flutlicht output is some of my absolute favorite stuff in the genre.