Tag Archives: Armin van Buuren

Midweek Music: SG Lewis, Armin Van Buuren, Ferry Corsten, Farzam & Joman

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Another week, another set of reasons to get up and dance. There’s a big range here, but each track definitely gives you a unique vibe and reason to groove. Without further ado, grab your volume control and dive in with me!

SG Lewis tugs at the heartstrings with this one. This future garage triumph takes the recently released Magnets, off Caracal by Disclosure ft. Lorde, adds its own delicious spin and some powerfully relaxed vibes. It’s takes a lot to fuck with Disclosure if your name isn’t Flume, but this is executed well. The break at 1:50 is unexpected but totally welcome. Drift away on this one.
There are things I never thought I’d say when I started writing, and “Here is the new Armin Van Buuren & Cosmic Gate collab” is certainly not one of them. This kind of stab at a classic trance vibe, Armin-ified is packed with shimmering nostalgia. The punch and ethereal feel is a throw back to trance that we listened to a decade ago. While it’s definitely more of a festival banger than anything from that era, that’s really only because we’ve actually got festivals outside of Amsterdam now. A huge tune I expect to hear in sets for months, blast this. Annoy coworkers & significant others with it, this one is worth it folks.
Continuing the classic trance vibe, Ferry Corsten released his remix of Ayla’s Ayla from 1999 on Soundcloud. Ninety fucking nine! The world was entirely different back then. Anyone who knows Ferry can tell just how long ago this collab with Vincent de Moor took place. The two break structure, the restrained production, the deep Northern Europe feel, it’s all there. If people want to know what dance music sounded like a generation ago that filled stadiums, you play them this.

Switching gears entirely, coming back into the future to a track released two days ago by a producer from Germany with Arabic vocals. This kind of melodic dubstep is really easy to screw up, but FARZAM does spectacular work on this tune. He seems to be a producer of cinematic, trance-y, stepp-y tracks and a gifted one at that. It’s a wonderful effort and I really want to hear more like what’s happening at 2:14. It’s a gorgeous sound that the world needs to hear. Enjoy it & thank him for making it.
Last but certainly not least, I’ve gotta give it up for Joman. Ever since he made the greatest dubstep remix that has ever been and ever will be made in the history of dubstep remixes, I’ve kept a close eye on this guy, occasionally being a somewhat creepy cheerleader. But, he continues to hit his stride and pushing the edge of his skills. This new tune is no exception. It’s a wobbly electro feeling tune with a hard driving progressive edge. This is usually a genre and a toolset I can’t take seriously, but like TheFatRat and Madeon, he’s using the shimmering chords and the vocals appropriately, while backing them up with a well derived punchy beat. The dubby breakdown at 2:30 reminds everyone that Joman can produce with the best of them and deserves your attention. I’m gonna keep repping this dude, and not just because he’s a Master of Karate & Friendship.Beneath a Neon Sky is a certified banger that is going to get picked up.

Midnight Music: Photographer – Airport Shivers (Armin van Buuren Mashup) [Stupendous Trance]

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Just in case the January gray has been getting to you, Armin van Buuren drops a potent mashup of two driving, powerful trance tracks for your listening pleasure. I’m not sure when this was done, but it’s definitely a standout reason why Photographer has been showing up in mix after mix. The trance really needs no explanation or introduction. The anthem vox nestles right into the 138 hard trance vibe and doesn’t let up. If you can’t get enough of this punchy, energetic trance feel, but want some more scintillating trance chords with your lady vocals, get at his most recent remix, taking a Dash Berlin tune and giving it some more of that delightful euphoric, driving beat that us trance heads can’t live without. Don’t worry, you got this. Rest up, the week’s coming for you.

Midnight Music: Shogun – Skyfire [Trance]

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For Throwback Thursday, we’re not going very far. If you listened to dance music in 2011, this track was in your head whether you liked it or not. I, loved it. This massive anthem was the perfect way to give your crowd a scintillating breather during a set, while building back into a trance drop of startling proportions. It was played everywhere, and I recently remembered the drop during one of Shogun‘s crazy sets that year, after it had been played by Armin & dozens of other DJs. That moment of “man, that is a crazy good progression” & frisson inducing chords, that was shared by thousands across the world.

Website: www.shogun-music.com
Facebook: facebook.com/DJShogunmusic
Twitter: @shogunmusic
YouTube: youtube.com/djshogunmusic

A Brief History Of Trance (2014 Edition)

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(This is a repost/expansion of a post I did last year at EDMTunes. Give them some love & help me thank them for giving me the opportunity to yell in long form on the internet about music people don’t listen to anymore)

As fans of Armin Van Buuren, Paul Van Dyk, Tiesto, Ferry Corsten and others can tell you, Trance has been around, but it’s been a while since it’s been at the forefront of the dance music consciousness. But how long has it been around for, and how did it get here? I’d like to take you on a brief trip, from Trance’s humble beginnings, through its boom around the millenium & all the way up to New Years 2014.

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Midnight Music: Svenson & Gielen – Twisted (Jorn van Deynhoven Remake) [Trance]

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Svenson & Gielen - Twisted (Jorn van Deynhoven Remake)

Twisted by Svenson & Gielen was one of THE Trance anthems of the 2001. Yes, people were listening to Trance in 2001. Jorn van Deynhoven pushed out this tremendous remake that made its way onto ASOT 688 last week. The track is a piece of trance history, given a significant boost on the low end for the new era. If you want to know what big room sounded like before Martin Garrix was in kindergarten, this is it. There’s a good 4 minutes reminding everyone what the classic trance vibe felt like, but with the Armin-developed huge bass sound that anthem/festival trance heads have come to expect. If you don’t know who Jorn Van Deynhoven is, get this musc into your face. It’s some of the best trance out there, and his career is exploding. Get with this before you can’t afford tickets to his shows.

Midnight Music: Armin Van Buuren – Ping Pong Education (Revolvr Bootleg) [The Best Ping Pong Remix. Period.]

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For Throwback Thursday, you’ve got a familiar tune with a radical twist on it. If you’re an oldster like myself, you’ll probably recognize the Pink Floyd before the Armin Van Buuren. If you’re under 25, you’re probably wondering who the hell is yelling over your anthem trance. This is what party music used to sound like kids, except with guitars instead of decks & fistfuls of acid instead of fistfuls of molly. Revolvr pushes out a massive bootleg of Armin Van Buuren’s Ping Pong, adding a fantastic layer of counter-culture and a serious rock aspect to the tune. I frankly prefer this remix to Armin’s original, and I’ll be jamming out to this for a while I wager. #tbt

Midnight Music: John Lennon – Imagine (Scott Bond & Charlie Walker REBOOTED Remix, AvB Edit) [Classic Trance]

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(Update: It has been confirmed that this bootleg has been produced by Scott Bond & Charlie Walker with Armin making an edit of the track. Scott Bond & Charlie Walker have some amazing work here in the REBOOTED remix. You’re going to see some more of Scott Bond’s tracks here in the coming weeks. If you don’t know who Scott Bond is, just read about the nightclub he used to rock called Gatecrasher!)

If you’re a regular ASOT listener, you know that it’s the best place to find new tracks first, especially in trance & progressive. ASOT 678 was no exception. This remix of Imagine is one of the most euphoric tracks I’ve heard in years. This is the kind of stuff that festival kids eat up, but it’s still got enough legit trance elements that even the old people will sit up and pay attention. Listen to it before it gets taken down it just might. Interestingly, there is a track off of Imagine by the name of “Imagine” as well, which has a crazy good progressive build, clocking in at almost 10min. This is what trance was meant to be, and because I’m such a nice guy, it’s linked below. That’s right, a trance twofer! Enjoy the long weekend! Show the DJ & label some love on Fbook!

https://www.facebook.com/MusicRebooted
https://www.facebook.com/scottbonddj

Midnight Music: Andrew Rayel’s Minimix Showcasing Find Your Harmony [The Future Of Trance]

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It’s Monday night. Congratulations, you made it. It’s all downhill to Friday from here. To help recharge you, I give you this sick minimix the great new hope of Trance, Andrew Rayel, put together to get you excited for his new album. That’s right, the guy who you’ve been hearing on ASOT podcasts and seeing at Trance shows hadn’t put out an album until now. This guy is responsible for so many of my favorite Trance tracks over the last couple of years. The minimix gives me hope for Trance. The vibe is unmistakably hopeful and full of the shimmering positivity that I demand from my Trance. It’s mixed in a tantalizing way, which means I’m totally hitting this album hard. Each track looks to be fun and if you’ve listened to Trance podcasts over the last few months you’ve already heard a few of these. Preorder the thing on iTunes and swim around the puddle of serotonin this album is eventually gonna bring out. (h/t to EDMTunes for the minimix tip off)

Armin Van Buuren + Frozen’s “Let It Go” = Get Your Kids Dancing.

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Just in case you had forgotten that “Let It Go” song from Frozen, Armin dropped this a little over a week ago. While I’m certainly not the first to post this, I want to emphasize, there is a trance remix of a female led Disney movie. I think every part of that sentence illustrates how far Western culture has progressed in the last 20 years when it comes to being more inclusive of non-heteronormative narratives. Also, it’s catchy as hell. (via  EDMTunes)

 

Armin Van Buuren Partners With Heineken To Get You To Dance More & Drink Slow.

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While I can’t speak to the research methodology or rigor of the double-blind population, Heineken has given me a reason to pay attention to them for a moment or two. I saw this #DMDS hashtag pop up yesterday when Armada dropped Armin Van Buuren’s latest video (below). The Armin Van Buuren tune is solid, as always, and we’ll probably hear it a lot in the coming weeks as it filters through the trance podcast universe. What got my attention though, was the continued emphasis on #DMDS.

Apparently, people listening to non-shit music drink more slowly. This was proven by having some random DJ spin one evening at an unnamed Miami club, then have AvB spin the next night. Drink purchases dropped by 40%. This definitely goes into the  “needs a crapload of further research” bin, but it is true that dancing people drink less. If Heineken wants to get behind this kind of PSA-style promotion, with dance music being at the forefront of the campaign, getting people to cut it up instead of drink it down, sure, what the hell, I’m in. #DMDS