There's been so much good music this year, I don't even know where to start. I can't even listen to it all. The last time I could say that must have been 2001. And it just keeps pouring in.

Here's how I see it: In 2006, the walls between techno, progressive, and house were torn down. Trance was even revived from German roots, and tossed into the blender. The sound of this year was both minimal and lyrical, simple yet deep. Take Âme or Gabriel Ananda. It was both honest and accessible, glitchy yet groovy. Think Booka Shade or Trentemøller. Open floodgates have turned the scene into one glorious, indistinguishable mess, where old genre rules no longer apply. We've lowered ourselves to labels with two hyphens, or just shrugging in favor of "good shit". What's a genre whore like me to do? Listen, I guess.

Many people predicted that 2006 would be a year of change in dance music, and they were right. Things were already moving in the summer of 2005, but I didn't expect it to unfold as brilliantly has it has. For once, I don't have a clue what things will look like a year from now.

What's your take on the year?

Last edited by Cobalt on Dec-18-2006 at 07:43

I certainly think 2006 has been a better year for trance than 2004/2005.

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My Mixes

I think it was a great year as well . I am not into minimal and tech-house , but as far as trance / progressive and some house , it was very fruitful , with so many quality releases .

Keep An eye on the following people next year ( IMO )

Aurosonic - Quality progressive , missing you is an example of their many quality releases this year

Kamil Polner - Uplifting trance at its best !

Dirty South - I love their sound , electro / party house !

DJ shah - Good producer .

Alex Monakhov - Very Melodic progressive trance , defines the coldharbour sound in my opinion. feel lonely is one of my favorite tracks of the year !

Blake Jarell - Very Talented producer , love his work , and his sets are also very interesting , the flow is very smooth and well structured !

Richard Durand - I love his tribal / tech sound , its fresh and very in your face .

Cosmic Gate - Duo of the year without a doubt ! Their come back was massive , i expect big things from these 2 ~ !

Above & Beyond - If they have just produced cant sleep and didnt do anything else this year , that would be enough for me !

Bart Claeseen - I like the techy treatment he does to his style .

To Name a few .....

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Actively Muslim >>> Jerusalem , Palestine !

Good topic.

I would say 2006 was a year of change and full of good music. I also think it was a year of some kind of weird ressurection. I don´t know if it´s just history repeating itself but it seems like trance was born again and in places you would had never expected it to.

Some tech-house, the so-called minimal or even techno tunes sound like trance long ago. Simple yet effective, epic, but not cheesy. On the other hand, epic trance seems to be lost in poor productions of the big jocks (remember Love You More, Dance 4 Life, Pirates...), ASOT still offers easily forgetable trance-by-numbers and there is quite a big number of pointless remakes and 2006 updates (you know who´s the man). Almost seems like some eurodance spirit is flying here around.

There was a lot of awesome music this year, though. This Binary Universe will always be remembered as a milestone, like it or not. And I would say the same about Drowning In A Sea Of Love by Fake. Hybrid´s album was fantastic and Trentemöller´s The Last Resort was so well produced and full of different emotions.

I liked 2006 very much and am looking forward to see what´s going to happen next year.

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"All revolutions are the sheerest fantasies until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities."

quote:

Originally posted by qussay Aurosonic - Quality progressive , missing you is an example of their many quality releases this year

I agree on this. Their stuff was one of the few trance productions I actually enjoyed this year.

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"All revolutions are the sheerest fantasies until they happen; then they become historical inevitabilities."

Y'all forgot to mention the dubstep/grime explosion this year. Burial with his excellent album, Digital Mystikz doing their thing and even getting Mr. Villalobos to play their stuff.

This year has left me disillusioned. The whole EDM "scene" seems very distant to me now. I only went to one trance party the entire year and even then I was just sitting there wondering what the hell was going on - I couldn't recognize any of the tunes and they all just sounded dull and samey. I somehow felt so old and out of place (feeling old at the age of 23... sheesh).

As a result, I've mostly been listening to old school rock (Led Zeppelin, Beatles) and some newer (Muse) but not really any EDM. Hell, I've had to resort to playing house in my sets even though I don't particularily like it just because there just hasn't been any decent trance or breaks for me to play. Luckily some proggy breaks stuff has started to emerge again, the nu-skool thing really got old fast.

I just don't know where I am musically any more.

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Latest releases:
Endless Cycles [Capital Heaven]
The Charlatan [Morphosis]

quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery I just don't know where I am musically any more.

There's nothing wrong with that

This year, for me, was just like last year and the year before that. Loads of garbage to wade through, a few diamonds in the rough along the way, and the continued decline in quality of trance still seems to inch further and further down, not unlike an old man getting into a hot bath.

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last minute disco dot net

quote:

Originally posted by RJT There's nothing wrong with that

Can't really agree with that. It's quite depressing.

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Latest releases:
Endless Cycles [Capital Heaven]
The Charlatan [Morphosis]

2006 for me was the transition year from listening to predominantly Trance to House in my daily musical spectrum and even more specifically the transition from Electro house earlier in the year to a more progressive sound now at the end. It was also the year where I went from spinning strictly vinyl and sucking to spinning mostly CDs and sucking just a little less. I've even delved ever deeper into the rest of the EDM world, exploring the likes of DnB, breaks, techno, trip hop, ambient and uncategorizable(?) music.

As far as the scene as a whole, trance has gotten worse and less creative, thus losing my interest. I don't know enough about the last few years as far house and various other genres are concerned, but I'm not really displeased some of the material that's coming out as of late. Of course there's 10 shit tunes for every single great one but that never has nor ever will change.

quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Mystery Can't really agree with that. It's quite depressing.

Perhaps I misunderstand, but I guess in my mind it's better to not have a clear picture of what you want to get out of music, and rather just find what you like along the way.

I know there's loads of rubbish out there right now - especially in the realm of EDM - but is there really no music being created anymore that you can get at all excited about?

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last minute disco dot net

Trance this year has been 95% junk.

Progpsy and psy were utterly on fire this year though. So much good stuff its impossible to keep up.

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