Blank & Jones - Breezin'

I'm not in the mood for much talk today, sorry...But I think it won't be necessary. Just listen & enjoy!

ATB - Autumn Leaves

Everybody knows ATB, so there's no point in introducing him. If you're older than 10 you surely heard his music.
I'm not the biggest ATB fan, although he had a strong influence on my musical taste in the 90s, when I was just discovering electronic dance music. Back then he was also involved in the Sequential One project (remember "Dreams" and "Angels" :D?), so he was pretty popular back then too, I think a lot of people owe him their introduction to electronic music. Anyway, he has some good tunes under his belt and all his albums are pretty good, considering they are mainly commercially-oriented. But while as a producer he may not excel, he is a very good DJ in my opinion. He's one of my favorites when it comes to track selection, often blending trance with a decent amount of progressive for really entertaining sets. His "ATB The DJ" series of mixalbums is quite strong too.

What I like most about ATB is that he's not afraid of downtempo. On every album he included respectable amounts of downtempo material and all I can say is that I hope he will continue to do so.
From 2004's "No Silence" (my favorite ATB album), I chose "Autumn Leaves" for today's feature, a vocal laid-back tune, reminiscent of Enigma at times. Cheesy stuff, but I like it!

Blank & Jones - Balearic Blue

This track is very special to me on a personal level, but even if it wasn't it would still be great. Hailing from Germany, Blank & Jones are a duo of electronic music producers who scored some pretty big trance hits at the end of the 90s/beginning of the 2000s. In 2003 they released their first chillout album, "Relax", which went on to gather many positive reviews and critiques. Two years later the duo released "Relax: Edition Two", another critically successful album, partly because it followed the same great recipe as the first one. The third installment of the "Relax" series however, failed to garner much praise, a change in style towards vocal tracks not appealing to everybody.
Currently the series is in its 4th volume, released last year. The producers took note of the objections related to the third volume and featured less vocal tunes this time. While not as successful as the first two volumes, Relax: Edition Four moved one step closer to the original Blank & Jones chilled sound, much to the joy of long-time fans such as myself.

From "Relax: Edition Two", we play "Balearic Blue", both Original and Sa Trincha mixes, two truely relaxing songs. Enjoy

Mark Otten - Tranquility

I'll start by saying that 2004 was for me the best year in music so far. I won't go into details, but trust me, if you had experienced electronic music back then, you would probably say the same thing. Now that I've made a preamble, let's get on with today's selections.

Mark Otten probably doesn't ring a bell to many of you, but he's a respected trance producer who has released a couple of absolute classics in the mid-2000s. One of them is this track: "Tranquility" (2004, on Armin van Buuren's flagship label, Armind). It's a very original track in both sound and approach, distinguishing itself from pretty much everything else. Instantly recognizable by any seasoned trance aficionado, "Tranquility" is perhaps Otten's best production to date and a landmark (though often overlooked) in progressive trance.
The charming thing about it is that it didn't spawn legions of imitators, as many other successful songs usually do. Instead, it somehow managed to keep its unique character and 6 years later I can say without a shadow of a doubt that there's nothing else quite like it. (well, maybe just Otten's follow-up to "Tranquility", "So Serene", which I will feature tomorrow).

Enjoy! I have selected 2 mixes for you: the Radio Edit of the original track and the Lightscape Lounge Mix. I strongly encourage you to listen to both of them!

Lightscape Lounge Mix:


Original mix:

John O'Callaghan feat. Lo-Fi Sugar - Never Fade Away

If you're into the trance scene, it's impossible never to have heard of John O'Callaghan. For the past years he has been very much in demand, both as a producer and as a DJ. 2009 saw the release of his debut artist album, entitled "Never Fade Away", featuring mostly vocal trance tracks.
The first single off the album was, as expected, "Never Fade Away", a collaboration of JOC with Lo-Fi Sugar (singer/songwriter from the US), which was released along with remixes from Giuseppe Ottaviani and Andy Duguid (both received well critically). But it's the album version that makes our interest today, a beatless vocal ballad that, while not extraordinary profound in lyrics, sounds very very good in my opinion.

Leama & Moor-Everything Matters / Coming Of Age

I'll start by saying that these tracks would make my all-time downtempo top 50 any given day. Produced by a legendary progressive trance duo, they take the best of the electronic feel of trance and layered melodic nature of progressive and transforms them into this. Flawless.
About Leama & Moor there is a lot to say, but I'll keep it short. Composed of Marty Smith (Leama) and Andy Moor, the duo are best known for the remixes they did during mid-2000s for artists like Avril Lavigne, Orbital, Paul Oakenfold, Brian Eno, Starkid, Above & Beyond and for many others. They also released their own album, "Common Ground" in 2006, featuring only original compositions. I strongly recommend you checking it out, as I do with anything these guys ever produced or remixed. Class act!

Buy the album from Beatport: LINK

Orion - Eternity (Acoustic Mix)

"Eternity" is one of the tracks that introduced me to the world of chilled electronica many moons ago. Released in 2000 (part of a 12" single containing several mixes), this track gained over the years a solid reputation within the trance community (partly due to the fact that Orion is an alias of none other than Darren Tate).
OK, enough talk, turn up the music!