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I have chosen personal favorites... not necessarily historically renowned classics or what I respectfully regard to be the pillars that hold up the sky that is EDM (fear not, Chicken Little). These ch00ns have special meaning to me because of events they played in influencing my life.
For example, when I saw the video for Orbital's "Lush 3-1" come on the telly, I was hypnotized the the juxtaposition between the visuals of what appeared to be a simple market fair and the repetitive but melodic electronic sounds coming out of the speaker. Similarly, I was once in a Tower Records joint and when I put the headphones on, Prodge's "Smack My Bitch Up" was playing, and I was like... WOW!!! It really had a kick to it and I watched the video many times on repeat because I couldn't figure what it was supposed to mean. I still can't. The moments of the past may be lost but I can recreate what I felt + thought in some way by listening to the music again. It's so temporal . . . but once the song ends, I can hit play again.
'N Sync's "Pop" is on there for obvious reasons and I feel further fusions between impeccable technoey production and "traditional" songwriting are necessary. Come to think of it, most of my selections are juxtapositions in one way or another. I guess that's what I come away with after listening to EDM, be it trance or another thread in the soundstream. Most of my artists are very nice human beings too. I wish Aphex would not be so off-putting but that is part of his "image" (something I have never fully understood, yet) and I can't expect Kraftwerk to come up to the crowd and give them high-fives and Care Bear hugs. Maybe super robot hugs. As for Liam Howlett, I think he's softened down after his marriage. Maybe 
This is a proudly biased selection and this looks like a very fun thing to do, so I wanted to participate.
So, here we go, in descending point order... this is my list, FINAL:
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
BT - P A R I S
The Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up
James Holden - A Break In The Clouds
Orbital - Lush 3-1
'N Sync - Pop
Hybrid - Finished Symphony
Aphex Twin - Girl/Boy Song
Moby - Shining
Kraftwerk - The Model
Yellow Magic Orchestra - Rydeen
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
And now for some blurboids explaining further why I have selected what I have selected.
BT - P A R I S
This came to me during a very vulnerable time in my life, shortly before my Dad died. It's a track very much about the nature of transportation and travel, and going places. We can go physical places, but we can also travel around in our mind, scanning our memories past and our current thoughts present in hopes of making some sense of the future. This is a very unusually structured ch00n, and Brian W. Transeau was helped out by Jody Wisternoff of WOW fame in the making of this. There are neat little samples and a great melody and lush bass, and the acoustic guitar and ending echoey piano adds to what is apparently an insurmountable framework for me -- so far!
The Prodigy - Smack My Bitch Up
The production of this is seriously ace. I don't know how to exactly describe it, and perhaps that's best left to a technical maven. I do know that the first hard beat comes on after the initial two-note riff at an odd choice of bar count, and the rest of the track is seriously exciting, more excited than a stallion who's hot to trot with his mare. There's the juxtaposition (that's the word I look for!) between these hard-hitting, ultra-compressed drums of new, and the almost surreal vocals in an Middle Eastern setting. Very awesome, and used to great effect in Charlie's Angels. One of my favorite pieces of fight music, which reversed what earlier perceptions some must have had about the possible misogyny of the Ultramagnetic MCs sample. *does the Creepy Thin Man cane dance*
James Holden - A Break In The Clouds
I once wanted trance that sounded like windmills and rabbits and rolling green hills. It didn't really come along until this fruition of Mr. Holden's ideas. Somehow, he took what we conventionally know as trance as pyramid, and built up single after single on top of it. From the earlier "Horizons" to his latest Britney Spears mixes, it is clear to me his vision is not limited by the technosnobs nor by any conformist pressure which would stifle his positive creativity. This reinforces my philosophy of "I like what I listen to what I like". This track is one of the few standouts I've earmarked to take a gr00vy minimal techno beat and fuse that with the more harmonically-sound melodies of what we know as trance... and beyond. We're starting to see children of this archetype already, and by the time this sound becomes more commonplace, JH will have moved onto something else.
Orbital - Lush 3-1
Intangible but very real memories come tumbling into my mind when I think of this. I like many of their singles and respect the Hartnoll brothers's life work, but of all of their distinguished compositions, I go with this one because it is simple and simply good. The plaintive melody is obliquely Glassian in its pitch-bent, whistly approach, and the beat shuffles and rolls on while the gated saw-ish (I think they are) stabs carry the production forward. Shows you can do a lot with a little. I used to watch the video many times on MTV's AMP. Lush. Says it all.
'N Sync - Pop
I don't really listen a lot to this band like I do Britney or Avril, but in this, there was a meeting of minds that really defied expectations and really got the crowd parted as to what they stood and believed in. But WHAT?!? It's "only" music. Well, this one baited the technosnobs out, who were quick to prejudge 'N Sync's interest in EDM. A shame they could not be more "progressive", as JC Chasez, for example, went on to work with not only BT but Basement Jaxx. I really cheered when this hit #1 on MTV's TRL, because it showed that esoteric techniques DO have a place in pop music production, and this was no doubt furthered by the likes of William Orbit and Madonna, Guy Sigsworth, Timbaland's aesthetics, &c.. A great single of our times... and to think of how it went against the odds! Fine with me, the kids ate it up and the wikka-wikka scratch of "BT" energized me.
Hybrid - Finished Symphony
I had previously come from another chinstroking place -- the cold, icy realm of classical music snobs. They dismissed electronic music for the most part except for perhaps the avant-garde "academic" experiments, but it is fortunate that Hybrid (including the Truman Show? I like that pun) managed to head to the former USSR and recruit a skilled orchestra to help them perform this masterwork and turn it from "Unfinished" to "Finished". The melody swoops and swells and has much emotional impact... for me, that's saying a lot. I played along with this on the piano, and I look forward to more orchestral-electronic fusions to come despite the conflicts between classical and techno snobs, be it from Hybrid, myself (as I have personal interests in this area), or anyone else. A rare bird flies high, flies beyond the sky.
Aphex Twin - Girl/Boy Song
Again, a great melody and the warm strings add a lot to the coldly chopped and sloshy beats. It's kind of like bitch-slapping a stuffed animal: you never get a vocal result out of it and it's cruel all the same... but contrasted with the pizzicato strings and chimes, I listened to this many times wondering why it sounded fast and slow at the SAME TIME. Yes, that really blew my mind. I really enjoy the numerous twists and turns the track takes.
Moby - Shining
One of his unsung works (a b-side), I like this pre-Play piece so much because it is his take on trance and house and whatever you wanna call it, but it sounds wonderful. Shimmering piano arpeggios, flutes that almost cry, and a feeling that makes you want to dance or climb Mount Olympus to get a taste of the electronicambrosia. I don't know why he doesn't have more pieces like this, but I enjoy it more than any single he's ever put out. Moby is a popular target to bash, in part because of his electoral views (I don't relate much to politics), in part because he's so unique and exploits the obvious ideas that so many miss. I prize that uniqueness, because without it, I wouldn't have personal favorites.
Kraftwerk - The Model
Stark and straightforward with what we'd today call "lo-fi drums" but with a melody that is all too hummable, this is the genius of Kraftwerk. Mind you, I subscribe not to proto-Techno dogma and I don't worship everything they make -- after all, I like their greatest hits remixed album "The Mix" more than the originals for the most part, but I do recognize them as a giant whose shoulders we are all standing on today as we make new developments. Along with the music, Kraftwerk was (is? Since they are still around...) full of intriguing ideologies and philosophical ideas about the importance of technology in our everyday lives. This note on celebrities furthers that even... well, further!
Yellow Magic Orchestra - Rydeen
YMO never got the acclaim here that they did in Nippon, but like Kraftwerk, they provided a huge fertilizing ground for new ideas to germinate from and they have influenced J-Pop to this day. This song has such a killer melody, and if it reminds you of video game music, you're right -- it inspired a lot of the 8-bit and even 16-bit tunes to come! This was early virtuosity on synthesizers, a premonition of the kind of soundscapes that would dominate Flash animations years later. I don't know why it's called "Rydeen" though. Anyone know? Everytime I listen to this, I know there's hope for melody yet... there is an irrational fear of melody sometimes, particularly in "progressive" and "techno" styles and while a catchy tune isn't always needed -- people do remember such things. I know I do. Therefore, why ALL of my selections and many of the selections I expect to see on the Top 100 have beautiful melodies, working in the nestled warmth of lush harmonies, and meshed with the exoskeletal construct of a solid bass and beat.
(If I had an #11, it would either be Robert Miles's "Children" or Deep Forest's "Marta's Song" or Ferry Corsten's "Out of the Blue".)
I do hope one result of this poll will be getting fellow TranceAddicts interested in each other's ch00ns which they have not heard before.
Props to ya SYSTEM-J for initiating this!!! 
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Hi, my name's Torley. I'm here at TA to learn, share, and have fun!
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