Is hard trance dead?

[o-traxx]

This question has been floating around since Flutlicht stopped producing, and more recently has had a more resonance than before...
I sincerely hope I'm talking shite here, but i cant help notice the lack of tunes coming out with anything worth 8 quid on them. Only a few producers have managed to come out with anything worth of ear.

Has anyone got anything to say on this matter, I know it can be depressing talking about a failing genre... maybe there will be a bus scenario and hundreds of whoppers will come out this year....

[Si the Sigh]

It's not dead, but it is starting to smell funny...

[MARK ANXIOUS]

it's not dead, but i just can't help but feel it's not touching the younger generation quite like it used to. blame that on the change in the music industry, the loss of distributors or whatever, but there really is only a handful of releases in hard trance each month that are pushing boundaries and making the music exciting. there has to be more, and there quite simply isnt.

hardstyle is riding the old hard trance wave at the moment, creating that same interest labels like overdose, fog area used to have. it's because the music is pushing forward, there's always enough releases to fill a complete new record box each month and it keep record buyers happy, which in turn keep the producers happy and it's a nice little cycle that keeps on moving.

i was thinking the other day just how much hard trance needs to be brought up to date. what people are now looking for in peak time saturday night club music has changed completely from 5 years ago. if you ask me, the sounds are much more important than ever, drums are less so, and things are sharper, punchier and clearer. sure you've got some good new tech-trance material that seems to be doing something new, but alot of it's dreamy, almost progressive and doesnt work everywhere. as for that peak-time ravey crossover material that can be played anywhere that appreciates hard music and get a reaction, well hardstyle is now doing that (although less innovatively than the really good old hard trance used to imho!!!).

anyway, no it's not dead, just evolving. those are my thoughts. looking forward to reading some others ;)

[area51]

i can see wot u are saying i work in area51 records and thier is not that much good hardtrance comeing out at all but i think and hope that some of the younger people will come frow and make more diffrent hardtrance
heres hopeing paul area51

[DJCraig Ryan]

Yea i cant help but notice all the stuff i am downloading, listening in the car and on my ipod, and even mixing is all the older stuff from 2000 - 2004. I love trance and like mark said there is some tasty tech trance out there, and even club trance. But hard trance has always been my fav and the hard trance nowadays is not a patch on the older stuff from S.H.O.K.K, Flutlicht, Kramer & Thomas P, Jam X, Marc La Cruz etc etc.

Im always listening the classics and hardly anything new these days and therefore sometimes you feel that you aint going nowhere!!!!

[otraxx]

Most of the stuff that comes out these days has no 'theme' or defining 'aspects', they need more originality. Yet in the same breath some producers overproduce and lose the simple, dry, feeling that hard trance should essentially have.
Also, with the Electro House scene taking over from Euphoric Trance in Ibiza, it has had an effect on what gets issued on big labels, which in tandem, has an effect on the smaller obscure labels, leaving them to deal with the fall-out.

But I believe trance in general will have its day again.....
Psytrance seems to be doing alright, so it cant be all that bad.

[djneice]

all the good people who made tunes have retired i reckon, its all the old stuff which is good or worth money

[AcidTrash]

all hard dance is dead.

[Aratron]

all hard dance is dead.

RIP

[MARK ANXIOUS]

all hard dance is dead.

have you actually been outside bradford recently? :lol:

if you don't know, hard dance events actually pull in a hell of ALOT of ppl throughout the uk. much, much more than techno. it's incredibly popular. however, i would not call hard trance hard dance entirely. it's a slightly different scene imo.

back to the topic (which was made a while ago now), i think it's got even worse for hard trance. hard dance has taken over and within that scene, and so many others, hardstyle is king as regards 138 bpm off bass music goes.

i speak regualrly to alot of artists who were major influences in hard trance and they're all gutted it's happened the way it has but have finally come to the realisation that they have to make hardstyle or do something else (get a proper job in most cases)

BUT i think all is not lost - and this is the beauty of music. everything comes round in cycles, and you're noticing alot of older artists really trying to push the hardstyle sound out of the box. i think this will create a new hard trance that will really have that edge, like it used to.

well, here's hoping anyway!!!

[nuttyt]

hardtrance is still a good genre and you do hear a lot of this Nu Style bringing in the old hardtrancy uplifting type riffs.
We've got a classic hardtrance track from our label with a new remix coming up in a few months Karlzee - Double Penetrator 2008 remixes with remixes from Nick The Kid and more.

But I have to admit im more into my hardstyle now since 2005 ive been into it and i still love hardtrance but hasnt got the drive it used to have imo.

[age of trance]

hardstyle is good - theres no point denying that but trance is amazing and always will be.

big up Mark for telling it how it is. :-)

bedroom dj's now have the technology to make music with cheap and easy to use music software.

if you wana make hear some great trance - then make some!!!

i know im guna give it a shot.

[AcidTrash]

have you actually been outside bradford recently? :lol:

I moved to Scotland. Does that count.

if you don't know, hard dance events actually pull in a hell of ALOT of ppl throughout the uk.

Not nearly as much as a few years ago. The whole scene has utterly stagnated with the old guard becoming more entrenched in their places and nothing much new on the horizon.

[Paul Nisbet]

For me personally, I stopped playing as much or any hard trance as the techy side of the current trance scene is just as tough as any of the hard trance out there. Peetu-S, Bryan Kearney, John O'callaghen in his Joint ops alias, MEKK, Abel Ramos, Dave Schiemann all make absolutely wild tech trance. The percussion is interesting, its carries a ton more energy (imo) because of this.

The offbeat german gear just doesnt do it for me these days, the breaks tend to be too long and unless the offbeat bassline is something that still gets yer rocks off, they generally tend to follow the same recipe.

Kamui on the other hand, they are ripping the place up imo. I think some of there recent stuff is fairly similar, but it packs some punch in a club and I cant get enough it. They have a nasty bottom end, good quirk percussion and finally... I just find them exciting.

They rock my world!!!!

[Louk]

well as you all know I love my techy hard trance but I know thats not doing it for a lot of you (**** you all though because I am going to still play it hahahahha)

but on the hard trance side of things there are still some awesome tracks

such examples include

luca antolini vs bobby v - in the name of God [s trax]
uberdruck 33
that atmosphere uk records no 1
the projector - rave machine
andrea montorsi - anthem
even those remixes of fast transmission on tunnel were quite nifty i thought!

for uk sounding stuff sully is worth a mention too

theres a collective from germany called shinobi/db shreddaz/dancefloor rockaz who are doing some mental things,

so i wouldnt say hard trance is dead at all

Louk

[magneze]

It's not dead for me. I haven't bought any for a while cos nothing has jumped out. Found a nice tune on Discover Dark (Gate 42 - Violet) which I'll get.

Thing is ... what's killing these sub-genres is just that - the sub genre itself! Sure not every type of dance music will work with every other - but we need to mix it up more. That's the way to go. :bash:

[Bacchus]

Well, here's my $0.02 on the matter.

I got SO bored of the hardstyle and hard trance that was coming out post 2005 - that I pretty much gave up on buying new tunes.

The way I looked at it, and as mentioned earlier in the thread - nothing was a sound i've heard before. Things were getting old and stale. I figured, I've got enough of a collection already that I really don't need to keep "on top" of what's coming out. My current collection was big enough that I could play a 3 year old tracks, and most people around here wouldn't have heard the tune before. This got boring though - and I began looking outside 4 to the floor. I thought to myself - there's tonnes of crossover between jungle and hardcore...or even breaks and house @ 125 bpm. Why no do it @ 135-145? Quite a lot of hard trance tunes have deadly breakbeat breakdowns - so this gave me a chance to extend my listening and buying habbits.

Until this spring, I hadn't bought hard trance and hardstyle in 1.5 years. Thankfully, i've fallen back in love with finding new hard trance - even if it's just as hard to come by as it was 1.5 years ago ...maybe even harder. My recent project with the guys formally known as aponaut, under the name AcidXs (http://www.acid-xs.com) has given me more of an interest into what's coming out - and what people are liking.

However, things are still limited here....because over hear in Toronto - Hard Dance/Hard Trance/Hard Techno IS dead.

Events are few and far between. The ones that do book 80-90% Hardcore (UK/Happy/Freeform). Trance DJs don't have an outlet to play their music. It's limited to the all ages rave scene. 19+ scene is dominated by electro, and the recent hipster/mashup scene. Clubs don't play this music - period. If ever there is a 19+ event of this type, it's in a small lounge-like bar that has a capacity of 1-150.

As for now, i'm just holding on to this thread of hope that eventually things will pick up again. Maybe I can turn these hardcore kids on to trance...(i'm playing an event tonight with mostly hardcore in the main room)...but if I can't, i'm going to have to hope productions take me out of this town.


is it dead? Over here - **** yes.

elsewhere? I'm not there, but it looks like it's getting there.


That being said, i'm surprised to see that Hardstyle is still going strong worldwide. When i stopped buying hardstyle during the summer of 2006 - I thought it wouldn't be long till it's death. Things were boring and un-inovative then - i'm surprised things have been kept alive. I've just recently put in an order for Hardstyle to play @ WEMF. Listenign through the tunes i notice that not much have changed. I figured with my collection of classics, ordering 10 of the floor fillers and anthems from 2007/2008 would be enough to keep the hardstyle heads happy.

[nuttyt]

hey bacchus f**k yes that is the sorta hardtrance we need back

[Eddowion]

In a word NO
Great music never dies, the kids always find something they consider is better than their parents listened to. ie rock & roll is dead ------- long live rock & roll.
My kids are listening to hardcore, electro house , funky house and hiphop. they still stop and cock their ears when they hear the trance from my logitechs.
Last week my mobile rang while I was at work, the ringtone is Kaycee - Escape, and this old lady heard it, in the poshest elderly voice she said "Oh what a lovely tune" I didn't have the heart to enlighten her.
Dead No. maybe unloved by the latest generation but not dead

[DJCraig Ryan]

Hard Trance will never die with me.....its apart off me now!!!