Midweek Music: Otic, Dylan Reese, EDEN, Scott Bond & Kaskade!

Take It Easy

This sleeper hit from Otic is exactly what your pre-holiday jitters need. This low-key drum & bass is great to travel or prep to. Whether you’re heading out on the town or over to the parental situation. It’s unassuming and definitely not aggressive. Not a whole lot more to say except, let it smooth you out.

Dylan Reese blindsided me with this one. It’s a strong offering, not what I expected, especially given the look and production. Everything clicks together, with Dylan providing good flow and making the right choices about where to go hard, where to tune and where to push the melodic breaks back in. He’s got a tune coming out on Dec. 1st, so here’s to hoping he keeps the hit streak going.

EDEN can do nothing wrong. How many artists do you know that cover Billie Jean without embarrassing themselves? This Future Pop tune does a couple of things correctly. First, EDEN doesn’t try to outsing MJ, which is the dumb thing most artists try. EDEN wins on production here, and secondly, it feels a bit differently melancholy, as opposed to the pop anthem the original will always be. Splendid work, can’t wait to hear about live gigs.

I’ve written about Scott Bond before, but this most recent 138 trance anthem is welcomed during this week of family & traveling great distances. It’s got the energy you don’t hear very often anymore, with the 138 space being crowded by the bro-y end of electro & progressive. This racing build breaks into exactly the pumping, driving trance drop us hard house enthusiasts can’t get enough of.

Kaskade decided to take a walk through some legit house done by Thomas Sagstad ft. Wildo. This Burned remix has the signature positivity Kaskade brings to all of his work, taking great parts of the original and shuffling them around, adding a healthy dollop of anthem. The tune feels sun-drenched, which is definitely needed this Thanksgiving weekend for us Northern Hemisphere residents. Hope it gives you a minor urge to dance around in your chair during Thanksgiving feast. Or afterwards to help work off them calories! See y’all next week!

Midnight Music: Danny Stubbs ft. Issa – Voices In The Dark (Remix By Scott Bond)

Danny Stubbs ft. Issa - Voices In The Dark

I had to break up the Drum & Bass streak when I found this in my inbox. Scott Bond continues his hotstreak, pushing out a hard remix of Voices In The Dark, off of the REBOOTED label. This is my kind of trance, with Armin agreeing, dropping it on ASOT690.

The remix pack is delightful, with some quality work being done by Magnus. This smoother re-working of Danny Stubb’s fantastic original work got some love the next week on ASOT. This dreamier, softer, but still intense remix has a gorgeous build around 1:40, and it’s those types of chords I really think need to come back into trance. It’s a sound that flirts with psy, and will keep everyone on their feet.

The package, with the original & 4 remixes drops on Jan 19th, so rock it when it shows up on Beatport eh? It’s going to be a big one in trance sets for 2015, so don’t sleep on it. Especially these two remixes.

Ten Questions With Terry Gotham: Scott Bond

(I think I squealed a little too loudly about how much I loved Scott Bond’s tracks & remixes because I’m super honored to present my interview with the Trance General, Scott Bond.)

1. What motivated you to start a new label called RΞBOOTΞD? Any specific experiences or feelings? Or just one too many big room tracks?
RΞBOOTΞD is about a return to the true, authentic nature of Trance music. I coined the name RΞBOOTΞD as I believe that it can best be defined as the act of starting over and rediscovery with the ultimate goal to surpass all perceived benchmarks or expectations. To me, authentic Trance music is very often mistaken for edm, house, big room, electro etc. and I want people to understand and appreciate that a distinction does clearly exist. Our releases will be positioned at the forefront of dance music culture and set clear, defined targets of where Trance, as a genre is at now and where it wants to be
Starting up a record label was a central part of the plan, it’s a brand for a track, a remix, an album, an event and a record label – but also a direction that we can all choose to follow. We demand consistently high standards by showcasing original artist material and content with a priority on total quality above quantity. So, in other words, we don’t want to release 1000’s of sub-standard tracks and ideally look to sign whatever packs and erupts the dance-floor with only one prerequisite, it has to be proper Trance music!

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Scott Bond’s REBOOTED Label Needs Your Attention. Classic Trance Perfection!

This is the type of sound I’ve been waiting for. This new REBOOTED record label is kind of everything I want in a trance label. Scott Bond has collected some great talent for this & the remixes on this release are exquisite. I hope you listen to each one.

The original mix hits all of the right classic UK trance sounds in under a minute. It reminds that there’s a place for this type of synth-led chord line that I’ve been listening to since I was in high school. This combined with Jan Johnston’s perfect vocal work results in one of these old school tunes that I would flip my shit if I heard played out live. The track is long, the builds are exactly what they need to be and there isn’t a stupid EDM “drop” for miles. Obsidian Radio is a name to watch out for, I know that much for sure.

The Allen & Envy remix is a pulsing, potent force that shimmers as it drives along. This is the harder end of trance, this 138bpm remix does the original justice while pushing the energy even higher. The vocal pull down is exactly what dancers need about three minutes in, giving a respite while glimmering in its build-up. This is one of the sounds that I think needs to be heard from coast-to-coast here in the USA, and with tracks like this, I know it’s going to happen.

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