O-Wells
Ebecs

Following the success of the first Planet Love compilation, Safe Trip has delved even deeper into the roots and formative years of trance music. The result is a vivid snapshot of heady, trance-inducing music released between 1990 and ’95.Like its predecessor, Planet Love 2 does not deliver a straightforward chronological run-down of influential ‘proto-trance’ cuts and key early anthems. Instead, it casts its’ net far wider for inspiration, joining the dots between trance-inducing tracks in a disparate mixture of interconnected styles.Before trance became rigidly defined in the late 1990s, the term was more loosely used as a descriptor, with the tag variously being attached to tracks that combined elements of techno, ambient, breakbeat, deep house, electronica, progressive house, acid, tribal and new beat. What unified these disparate musical strands was an emphasis on groove, melody, atmosphere and – more often than not – psychedelic intent.You’ll find all this and more amongst the 12 colourful and emotive tracks from around the world that make up Planet Love 2. The hard-to-pigeonhole, early ‘90s New York rave scene is represented by the immersive ambient of Lazer Worshippers’ ‘Free Flight’, Revelation’s trippy gem ‘First Power (Domination Dub)’ and the delay-laden drums, held-note new wave chords and psychedelic electronics of ‘Time Warp’ by Moodswings.The UK’s rarely discussed role in the development of early trance – often via tracks that touched on ambient techno and progressive house – is represented by the Obsession Project’s prototype melodic trance obscurity ‘Untitled Part 3’, the Arc’s fast-then-slow rework of The Moody Boyz ‘The Pygmy Song (Nocturnal Version)’ and ‘X O Surf’ from The Deep, a breakbeat-driven workout that defies easy categorization.Naturally, the popularity of early trance in Europe is reflected in the track listing, too. Check the formative progressive trance of French producer Innertales’ ‘Odysee’, two tracks from Italy (T.E.W’s ‘Doubt Int’ and Alien Signal’s melodic ‘Deep Sky Delights’), and a trio of often overlooked cuts by German artists (early Svan Vath number ‘L’Esperanza’, the Jam El Mar co-produced ‘We Come in Piece (Desert Mix)’ by Dance 2 Trance, and ‘A Source’, the opening track from Tobias Beldermann’s first EP as Redeye.Offering a deeper and more diverse definition of early trance than volume one and packed to the rafters with sought-after and overlooked gems, Planet Love 2 is a fitting follow-up to Safe Trip’s first collection of formative trance treats.

After two years stuck in the virtual world our lil’ ninja is ready to jump back in the real world to deliver the 5th volume of the label’s Ninja tool series. From 1991 to 2022, over 30 years of electronic music are covered through 5 tracks.

People & Places present their inaugural EP from Anthens’ Anatolian Weapons. Throughout the 4 tracks, we are immersed in a sonic exploration of trancey-inspired techno cuts.

“There was something extra-political, extra-social, almost extra-human about it; it smacked of tidal waves, of natural forces . . . These emotions are my instruments.”— Richard Wright, The Color Curtain: A Report on the Bandung Conference (1956)The Observatory is one of those last few bands that can change and become your life. Stuck in Singapore, the wilful outlier of Southeast Asia, this ever-shifting group stubbornly evolves past its roots, most recently in an more improvisational, instrumental, and noise-adjacent territories in an EP with collaborator Haino Keiji.In DEMON STATE, Dharma and Cheryl Ong plus Yuen Chee Wai continue The Observatory’s bold partnerships, this time with electronic musician Koichi Shimizu (IMPRINT). Together, they finally reach this long-gestating, total (yet I’m sure temporary), and rhythm-focused, electronic reinvention of The Obs—while briefly nodding to their past. The road is long; DEMON STATE is one pit stop in glorious hell.Partly stemming from a casual, improv studio session with Koichi in early 2020, the eight tracks on DEMON STATE—their first release on the Midnight Shift label—were formed from a gradual accumulation of sonic layers; they were foraged, recycled, and pieced together remotely also from solo bedroom recordings, a historical sample, nonhuman beats and effects, as well as journals and junk.A vinyl and digital release, DEMON STATE features the cover-art illustration of Enka Komariah (Senyawa, Raja Kirik). As they describe it, the “sense of wretchedness in this, the waste of capitalism, the evils of racial discrimination, the ever-spiralling mess, the awakenism of control” are confronted, head on in the band’s pattern, to disturb, comfort, confuse, worship, dance, rest, and resist.Ultimately, the singular form of DEMON STATE refers to our personal, individual, and ineffable states of demonic possession. DEMON STATE embraces us in the independent space of The Obs, where we can be alone together. It offers its listener some type of solace, if not an exorcism. For when the devil has been in us for this long, who’s to say who’s possessing who, who’s whispering sibilant sounds in our ears, who’s wearing the mask, who’s not yet dead and who’s still alive? Who’s still fighting for a just world?

Stroom pull out two early Belgian Trance burners from '93. Tracks by FURYON & ANYMUS respectively. This is the the good shit. Mine's a Mitsubsihi.

Acclaimed Trance producers Alpha Tracks and Oprofessionell team up as Kineta once again to present their first EP in a new trilogy of releases titled ‘Proto’. Written during relentless production sessions spanning a week in a secluded Mediterranean coastal town, the pair gathered an expansive constellation of music that is now ready to surface. ‘Proto’ effortlessly captures the creative symbiosis shared between the two producers while undertaking a journey through the realms of modern psychedelic dance music.