The Cosmics have had a pretty good run of it in 2010 thusfar... No, in fact make that a mighty good run of it… A pair of IDMA nominations (for Best Remixers and Best Trance Track) and a Best Selling Trance Artist win at the Beatport Awards have sped Bossi & Nic on their way to another standout threesixfive. Throw in an assignment from Atlantic Records to remix James Horners’ ‘I See You’ (perhaps better known as the theme from that small, little-seen art-house movie Avatar) and you can conclusively say that its a year that's lived up to expectation! So to this S.O.T.T. Deluxe Edition then... what’s the rub there?

Well it probably goes without saying but Sign of the Times has gone double-disc in order to accommodate a major musical expansion pack. In addition to the 13 original tracks you’re now getting all the mixes of all the single smashes to date. ‘Not Enough Time’, ‘Sign Of The Times’, ‘F.A.V.’, ‘Flatline’, ‘Under Your Spell’ and the latest, ‘London Rain’ (which, with no small amount of irony, and despite it being August, is exactly what T.I. can see outside the window at this point in time!) now come fully loaded with reworks from Markus Schulz, Andy Duguid, Sied, van Riel, Wally Lopez, Kyau & Albert, Duderstadt, Myon & Shane 54 and others.

Additionally there are some newly-prepped reworks from Russian melodic maestro Arty, US house-turned-trance supremo George Acosta, as well as Cold Blue, Steve Brian… well the list goes on

Cool… It’s word that hangs quite comfortably around the necks of Messers Eloranta and Mansnerus. They come from a cool – cold even – country, produce cool music and now they’ve come with a inaugural album with an-as-cool-as-you-like title, and a cover that’s, well... ah, just see for yourself!

Since the Fins went in permanent team-up mode in 2005 the pair haven’t put a foot wrong. ‘Empire’ though isn’t about history-past... Floor firebrands like ‘Suru’, ‘Elektra’ & ‘Helsinki Scorchin’ are not to be found... wisely being saved, no doubt for a 'The Greatest Hits of…' outing.  What you do get is a fluff-free, tight-as-you-like, 11 strong run of tracks on which vocals are in profusion. Anton Sonin has already dazzled on recent single ‘Black is the New Yellow’, and the likes of Julie Thompson, Alyna and new-scene-darling Betsie Larkin all shine bright.

Once producers find a voice that’s a real ‘fit’ for their sound, it only folllows that they’re going to feature them time and time again. Such seems to be the case with Jan Burton. His first (and only) previous brush with Planet EDM was on Gabriel & Dresden’s 2006-er ‘Dangerous Power’. He’s now lending vocals to four (count ‘em!) 'Empire' tracks including current single ‘Mercy’ and slow-mo album kiss-off ‘Free Love’. Thus it’ll probably be his voice that in years to come you most closely associate with ‘Empire'. Super8 & Tab’s debut album is out on the 13th of this month through that bastion of trance quality, Anjunabeats.

00.db - the illustrious pairing of John 00 Fleming and The Digital Blonde (aka Ricky Smith) - have just released their third album together on John's own label J00F Recordings. An evolution of the pair's previous Heaven & Hell releases, Angels & Demons showcases a deep progressive sound strongly influenced by aspects of multi-angle trance, and not a little chillout.

Fleming himself describes Angels & Demons as "a serious, purer version of the trance genre" and one that "varies between a very deep and progressive 125 beats per minute up to a full-on pounding 145." The second disc is, in the tradition of the Heaven & Hell albums, 100% chillout. John describes it as a "movie-length emotional musical odyssey in which we set out to write one chilled track, not realising it would run for one hour! It really embodies us as producers and demonstrates another side to what we can do away from dance music." The producers aren't abandoning the club of course, far from it... The primary drive behind 'Angels' was, in Fleming's words, "to create an album where you could play a whole DJ set sourced from the its tracks": Angels & Demons meets this challenge quite brilliantly.

00.db break new ground in more familiar dance BPM range as well as chillout with their commitment to creation from the ground up: "Ricky and I create each and every sound ourselves, making our tracks unique" explains John. "We're from a generation of producers who create sounds from scratch. We don't use sample libraries or pre-set banks. The result is an album that's as fresh as it is across-the-board atmospheric... Perhaps though we'll leave the final 'word' on A&D to Sony. The entertainment giant have signed up tracks from the album for an upcoming iPad/Playstation space simulation game... You probably couldn't underline the word 'atmosphere' more if you tried! 'Angels & Demons' is out on DD, CD and limited edition J00F USB stick on August 31st.

It’s been two years since Leon Bolier’s debut album ‘Pictures’ captured hearts and captivated minds, and on August 31st his much-anticipated sequel ‘Phantasma’ came out on Spinnin’ Records. 

Shapeshifting and otherworldy, Phantasma earns its title. Spread over 150 minutes of compilation-worthy musical succession and zero minutes of filler, Phantasma’s two discs are Bolier’s canvas to paint the best of all worlds: atmospheric, sweeping synths (‘War of the Worlds,’ ‘2099’); judiciously applied and nectar-sweet vocals from the likes of Fisher, Marieke de Kruijff and Alana Aldea (‘By Your Side,’ ‘Irresistible’ & ‘Substitute,’ ‘The Sweetest Lie’); dark, cinematic explorations of the far galaxies of prog and trance (‘Creek,’ ‘The Attic,’ ‘Saturn’); and an array of dancefloor missiles that will shake foundations and free endorphins worldwide (‘Don’t Be Afraid,’ ‘Highland Walk,’ ‘Assembly Line,’ ‘Avalanche’ & more). 

Phantasma’s wide-spectrum diversity is its greatest strength: these are tracks designed to fill the full progression of an all-night live DJ set, from warm-up to peak hour to sunrise chill. But thanks to the level of details and quality of melodies on display throughout Phantasma, the album is a hypnotic soundscape that invites at-home headphone listening as readily as it does in-club play. 

Bolier has amassed a seriously impressive list of sound-partners for his sophomore long-player: Joint Operations (John O’Callaghan), W&W, Roger Shah, Marcus Schossow, Sied van Riel and Joop all join him for collaborations that push the album’s compositions into lesser charted trance territories.

Phantasma is the sonic embodiment of the classically trained Bolier’s contagious and often courageous, musical ethos: “trance with a twist.” 

July 2010 finds First State weighing 50% lighter than this time last year… but 1 album heavier. With Ralphie B. departing halfway through 2009, founder member Sander van Dien knew it was ‘do or die’ time for the act.

While there are prizes to be won later on in this feature, they’re not for guessing which path he chose! Trance International feels that the 3 year mark is a pretty good interlude between an artist’s long-players. It seems to say: ‘we’re not churning them out but at the same time we’re not experiencing writers block either!’ It has been just that time frame since the appearance of, er, ‘Time Frame’ – First State’s debut album.

Strong kick-off as that was, ‘Changing Lanes’, Sander’s sophomore LP will likely go down as a major leap forward - both in terms of across-the-board quality and sophistication. In and amongst the 12 strong rundown, idiosyncratic tracks sit comfortably side-by-side with more club thumping fare. Elliot Johns unusual, thrilling vocal turn on ‘Surrounds’ mixes with more traditional evocative, emotive fare like the Sarah Howells-sung ‘Brave’. Howells and Johns may very well have the makings of vocal muses for Van Dien as they both return respectively for the more melodic (and equally fine) ‘Reverie’ and pacier, tougher ‘Breathe On Me’. Earlier singles ‘Cape Point’ and ‘My Sanctuary’ are on board too, and as the album reaches its apex tracks like ‘Primate’ and current 12”-er ‘As You Were’ detonate floor-TNT.

Investigating musical inspirations is the theme behind Solarstone’s new artist album ‘Touchstone’. It’s a subject that often gives Trance International much pause for thought too. Virtually from our year dot we’re bombarded by music… Strangely, when you think about it, we’re quite likely being influenced by it before we even know what music is! Some music we like... some we don’t. Some of it we feel when we first hear it and then grow bored of through repetition. Others we start off hating and then curiously grow to like… love even. No two individual’s musical make-up are ever the same. You are likely to have friends who you share very close musical tastes with. You’ll share a love for virtually everything, but you’ll always find that one track that catches you by surprise: you love… they hate!

When Solarstone embarked on the production of ‘Touchstone’ he tuned his mind to his inspirations, recognising them and meticulously marking them down along the way. What’s come out of it - after two years of production - is another super-immersive, wide-screen album. There are tracks on there for Rain Stars Eternal fans, ones for the Seven Cities/Solarcoaster faithful, and others for a new fan generation in waiting – all which relate back to his inspirations… Big ones and small. 

The Touchstone experience begins at Off The Rails in Sheffield on the 25th of June and the album is out on the 28th. www.solarstonetouchstone.com

With the so-called ‘difficult second artist album’ squared away back in 2007, ‘Progression’ provided exactly that for Markus Schulz's career. Now he's about to consolidate that this summer with ‘Do You Dream?’

 

It’s little wonder that it took Markus a full two years to complete the album. Whilst other artists choose to release mini-albums (the suspicion being they’ve not got enough for ‘a fully’!) or the standard 10 – 11 tracks, ‘D.Y.D?’ is closer to an album and a half. With 16 padding-free tracks, you can’t fault Schulz in either the quality or value-for-money stakes! It also works extremely well in the cross-genre front too.

For those looking for arena and festival floor-fireworks, you’ll be rewarded by tracks like ’65.4hz’, former single ‘The New World’ and the title track (which now sports some excellent vocal accoutrements). Speaking of which Markus has brought together something of a dream-team of songstresses to give the album its vocal & lyrical flourishes. Jennifer Rene, Ana Criado and Susana are all doing great things on the female side, as is Miami-based newcomer Angelique Bergere.

Highlights for us… well there are a few... The almost indecent hooky-ness to the Sir Adrian vocalled ‘Away’ will send you away from clubs with it near-imprinted on you brain and the aforementioned ’65.4hz’ will loosen more than its share of floor tiles. Markus’ long talked-about redux of Cass & Slide’s ‘Perception’ also kills with Justine Suissa creating much added atmosphere with her vocals. If you'd like to get an preview of the album, Markus has done an excellent video one!

As most people now know last October Tiësto lifted off from planet trance to explore some other orbiting EDM suns. To provide that chapter of his career (one where for the first time ever a DJ became a rolling phenomenon) with a fitting full-stop, he’s releasing ‘Magikal Journey’. While some artists race to greatest hits ‘status’ with improbable speed (and yes - Vanilla Ice, Young MC & Shaquille O’Neal, we're talking about you here!), its taken Tiësto 10 long ones.

Given his unstinting nature to generate a high ratio of smash singles per album, the final pick for 'Magikal' was no doubt a tough one. Notably neither ‘Nyana’ nor ‘Dallas 4pm’ made the cut, and that alone should give you an idea of the tightly-packed quality on offer here. Drawn from ‘In My Memory’, ‘Just Be’ and ‘Elements of Life’, it does though include 17 locked-&-loaded, platinum-clad floor erupters. Disc 2 of the album houses the remixes… No doubt putting a smile on the face of those studio-hounds who hadn’t previously received a sought-after Tiësto remix call-up (and after last October probably thought they never would), Andrew Bennett, Spencer & Hill, Airbase, Sean Tyas, Myon & Shane 54 and Bart Claessen are just some of those who got busy on the recreations. Perhaps best of all Tiësto himself has turned up his sleeves and has done 3 brand new revamps; taking In The Dark, Just Be & In My Memory to new heights. In terms of the dictionary definition of ‘must-have’, for the legions of Tiësto fans, ‘Magikal Journey’ must qualify.

In the world of electronic dance music, DJ/producers have long been richly represented when it comes to polls, charts & all things award-like. That, we think we’re right in saying is somewhat less the case when it comes to the vocalists featured on their tracks! A slightly inequitable situation when you consider the contribution they actually make to the music we listen and dance to?

Perhaps Trance International should get off its collective backside and get a ballot rolling there. We’ve just put a collective ‘note to selves’ up on the office wall.

The impact JES’ would make in that list would undoubtedly be considerable. Other vocalists have sung on 10 times as many tracks as she has and still not managed to have the same meteor-like impact on the scene.

Said impact is no better demonstrated than on ‘Disconnect’ – her 2007 long-player which launched her as a solo artist. Now, with her follow-up, ‘High Glow’, she’s looking to consolidate. An impressive 16 strong tracker, the album is effectively a super-collider of music genres, old and new. JES (channelling both La Roux and Gaga, and giving them both a run for their money) sums ‘High Glow’ up as “Rocktronica”. The guitar-heavy ‘Awaken’, the refried electro of ‘See Through’ and ‘Closer’ - a Eurythmics touchstone if ever we’ve heard one - all do their part in defining ‘High Glow’s widescreen, multi-decade composite.

It has to be said though that across the breadth of the album, you can always that trance lick still sat there, pulsating away in the background.

Scaling the sheer rock face that is the trance label rankings is the hardest challenge facing the boss of any imprint. It’s a less-than-comfortable fact of EDM life that, in terms of all-round clout & standing, typically where a label starts, is where it stays. Over the course of the last two years Enhanced have successively and successfully been bucking that trend. The secret of their success? Well, loading your roster with new artists who have real, genuine studio-skills is an asset to be prized above most others. Temple One, Estiva, Solarity, Arty, Ferry Tayle – all unheard of names 18 months ago, each one now a genuine breakout threat for 2010. One could be considered lucky. Five? Well that’s just stellar A&Ring.

Which brings us to Digitally Enhanced Volume Three – a compilation quite simply packed out with theirs (and others) latest wares… Mixed by Will Holland - the man at the centre of it all – the third chapter again lays down the label’s melodic/euphoric ethic with absolute precision. Picking out particular high-points from Volume 3 caused a level of debate in the Trance International best described as ‘intense’. Arty’s ‘Gentle Touch’, Mike Sonar and The Flyers ‘Reveal’ & Ferry Tayle & Static Blue’s ‘Trapeze’ were all fierce contenders. What was finally ‘agreed’ upon though is that Estiva’s goose-bump factory ‘Dalmatia’ is our current front runner for tune of the year.

In terms of speed of success, Moonbeam’s progression from fledgling spinners & singles-only act to that of Top 100 DJs and now album artist might look like an ‘overnighter’. The truth however is somewhat different…

The brothers-in-arms pairing of Russians Pavel and Vitaly Khavleev spent a good deal of their formative career operating off the established trance radar. Recording for labels like Distraekt, Portugal’s Feed Me, Flow Records and the wonderfully named Traum Schallplatten (!) there was a fair degree of behind-the-scenes striving on the path to recognition.

In 2007 when ‘I Love Mornings’ was picked up on by Black Hole subsid Songbird though, it all started to click into place. Since then things have moved at a somewhere between ‘fast’ and ‘a blur’. Just 3 years on they’ve reached that crucial artist album option. In terms of its tone, well to the greater degree, let’s say that ‘Around The World’ is not an album to listen to whilst operating heavy machinery! The opportunities to get lost in its melodic concentration are near-limitless.

Opening track ‘Life Tree’, ‘The Lift and ‘Through a Frog’ (a title that had us Googling frantically for a clue to its origins!) are just some of its many fine drift-away moments. While the bias is at the tranquil, transcendental end, other bases are touched on. ‘Look Around’ & ‘Evelyn’ display an adult, Marco V-ish edge to the male vocals, while other numbers like ‘Song For A Girl’ and ‘Forever Sun’ hint at more experimental vistas.

As electronic dance music fans know all too well, it’s easy to stray into hero worship when talking all things ‘BT’. Forging a path as a progressive house prophet & headline DJ in his early years, he sidestepped the established career course and continued into film soundtracks, iPhone apps and much-applauded vocal turns on other producers work. Impressive words like ‘Technologist’ & ‘Composer’ are often used, and without any undue modesty.

When his albums are announced they’re treated with the kind of excitement reserved for the reformation of long disbanded rock greats and this month we’re again approaching the eye of that storm. Following his 2006 ‘This Binary Universe’ LP, BT’s sixth studio album opened its batting with the ‘The Rose of Jericho’ last year.

The Armin van Buuren-remixed floor-thriller ‘Every Other Way’ followed in January and this month we’ve got ‘Suddenly’ - a track that dropped by Ferry Corsten’s remix desk on the way to promotion. Nine other tracks go to make up ‘These Hopeful Machines’ – divided retro-fashion into side A & side B discs. An as-ever fine collection they are too...

We wouldn’t be doing justice to ‘Machines’ if we didn’t mention the effortless cool of its cover. Caught somewhere between the styles of Frida Kahlo and Vladimir Tretchikoff, it’ll look every inch as good in your collection as its sounds!

Hard as it is to conceive, but ‘Nightplay’ was almost the Filo & Peri album that never was! When it comes to its production, ‘troubled’ is probably the word that springs to mind.

18 months ago Filo & Peri returned to the NY-based studio to find it was all-but a pile of ashes – and the 95% complete original album gone with it. Whilst their studio was being rebuilt, there was another body-blow when Dom a nasty heath scare. One that required an operation that broke enough ground to end up in a number of medical journals.

Those challenges were surmounted though – and as Bo puts it: “motivated us to create another, even better album”. The result is ‘Nightplay’ and it made quite a splash when it touched down last month. Roughly split 50/50 between vocal and instrumental numbers, it boasts a wealth of singing talent on board, with Aruna, Fisher, Linnea Handberg and of course Eric Lumiere all contributing the vocal dynamics. There’s some cracking collabs on offer too with Filo & Peri linking up with fellow New Yorker Mike Saint-Jules and greenhorn talent Nick Stufano on tracks like ‘Far From Reach’ & ‘The Majestic’.

If you fancy a bit of ‘Nightplay’ action, you can pick it up through iTunes & Beatport now.

It’s been one of the comeback stories of 2009. Once thought lost, now very much found - Platipus Records is again feeding us with the left-of-the-trance-centre finest we’ve been so badly missing. Rounding off the year in probably the best way imaginable, Union Jack, the label’s 2nd core artist component (after Art of Trance), are back. Simon Berry and Paul Brogden are boxing tough with a pristine arsenal of new tracks on the ‘Pylon Pigs’ LP.

In preparation for the album we’ve already been served the astonishingly beautiful swelling strings of ‘Papillion’ – the alphabetical-chanting track that marshalled DJs from multiple EDM disciplines under its banner. That was followed by the refined, prowling acid of ‘Funnelweb’, an audio-gasm once heard, never to be forgotten. As they say though that is very much the tip of the iceberg.

Hidden behind the album’s designed-to-intrigue cover & title is an underground sprawl of hypnotizing, quixotic numbers that in ways small and large will expand your definition of trance.

For Jack-fans new and old the news only gets better. As with Art of Trance’s earlier fare, a Union Jack retrospective album is in the pipeline for early next year, which will feature their long-deleted much-hallowed first album ‘There Will Be No Armageddon’ alongside many a rare B side. Also just released through Beatport and iTunes is the the Pylon Pigs 'Club EP' containing DJ friendly mixes of 3 of the album tracks plus exclusive number 'Vocoder Allstars' and the Orkidea remix of 'Two Full Moons'.

Giuseppe Ottaviani, Italy’s foremost dance legionnaire touched down a couple of weeks back with his first solo album. True to his past form there’s a whole host of musical styles – both inside and outside of dance music’s borders jockeying for air-time on ‘GO!’. That’s something no more ably verified than with the propelling guitars and super-live sounding drums of the album’s intro tune ‘One Day’. The loose collaborative triangle of Ottaviani, O’Callaghan & Colontonio is also brought back into focus on ‘GO!’ The soaring euphoria of ‘Our Dimension’ has been already proved a much-hammered festival smash for (amongst others) VANDIT label boss Van Dyk, while the acid-charged Tom Colontonio collaboration is similarly beating a fast trail to the dancefloor.

Things have been as fast-paced on the gig front for Giuseppe recently. As most any paid-up member of the trance fraternity knows, Ottaviani was the driving force behind halcyon duo NU NRG. Cutting his teeth as a live act during that time has, of late, served him very well indeed. With the rush to ‘go live’ now sweeping through trance-land, the Giuseppe Ottaviani Live roadshow (where he plays exclusively his own gear) has put him very much ahead of the pack. Into 2010 you just watch the rush of DJs doing the same thing! ‘GO!’ is out now and available to buy from all good record sellers and download stores.

It was Ferry’s “favourite artist album of 2008”, sold an extremely sizeable pile of CDs and went down in the historical annals as Solarstone’s new ‘year one’. FFWD to 2009 and ‘Rain Stars Eternal’ (as is very much the done thing’ these days) is about to receive its remix companion piece.

There are a fitting number of alumni from Electronic Architecture (Solarstone’s recent compilation) onboard. After all what’s the point in discovering all that new talent unless you’re going to continue to support them! Solar Energy, Stan Void, Jox & Bot Cyprian have all been hard at it, remixing (respectively) ‘Part of Me’, ‘Spectrum’, ‘Filoselle Skies’ and the album’s title track.

Ferry’s been busy on the album too reworking our favourite tune, ‘Late Summer Fields’. To commemorate this happy event, Solarstone (ever an outside-the-box thinker) has cooked up something a bit ‘spesh’ to mark the occasion.

The First Ever SolarSurvey is something for trance-heads and Solar-fans to get their teeth stuck into during ‘a quiet moment at the office. It gives you the chance to give him your feedback on what he does “364 ½ days a year”!

We gave it a whirl (while the Trance International boss had his back turned) and were coloured happy to find that there was a free RSEMIX mp3 bundle to download at the end of it for our trouble!

‘By the book’ is not in Marcus Schössow’s lexicon. The man literally stands in a musical field of his own (and one very much of his own creation!). If you like a brain-teaser, just come up with the name of one producer that sounds like him, or, for that matter, one he sounds like. If you summon a reasonable contender, heh, you’re doing a lot better than the T.I. office! Given this endlessly open-ended remit, when the Swedish maestro’s debut album hit the Trance International desk last month, we really had no idea what to expect. ‘Outside the box’ is probably the only consummate musical designator for Schössow’s gear – hence it’s also the very apt title of the album.

In amongst the sound panorama are the seaside atmospherics of ‘When Life Turns Grey’ and the slo-mo beats and profoundly filmic strains of his Thomas Sagstad collab ‘Yellow Cabs’. Constantly shifting its gears, it continues through more lushly melodic numbers like, ‘The Opener’ & ‘A New Beginning’. While vocals aren’t a key to the album, when they do crop up, they do so with style! No more finely demonstrated than on the transcendental Emma Hewitt sung (and Andy Duguid collaborated) ‘Light’.

‘Outside the Box’ isn’t something you’ll absorb in one listen (not that we expected or wanted it to be). It is in fact an auditory chocolate box - a veritable range of the slow and the fast, the melodic and the uplifting, the feisty and the overtly floor-furious. If outside the box is in your lexicon, it may well prove to be the most rewarding listen you’ll have this year.

He has, bar none, the most recognizable sound in trance music, and - think about this for a second – in this well-stocked genre, that’s a big thing to be able to say. Is there one other producer, over and above M.I.K.E., who has kept us supplied with floor-bombs with the same regularity that he has? Bottom line: since ‘Strange World’, ‘The Legacy’ and ‘Universal Nation’, the man has never stopped, and never lost his edge. At the end of last year Mike finally reclaimed what arguably was his all along – the title-deeds to his single most influential creation… Push. With Mike, a producer in the most literal sense of the word (300 tracks and, oooh, about 75 remixes & counting), it wasn’t going to be long before we saw a Push album. Right in line with expectations, here it is. ‘Global Age’ is another stunning gathering-together of Mike’s specific brand of studio science.

Subtle, yet dynamically powerful synths & perfectly created arrangements, all primed for a TNT-like floor impact. Those on the ball will already have heard the nothing-short-of-brilliant, Sir Adrian-vocalled ‘This Place’ and ‘Into My Sound & Music’; both of which have that inimitable Push production behind them. If they whetted your appetite, waste not another minute and check the album’s full array on the Global Age mini-site. M.I.K.E. will be bringing back the Push sound to clubs the next 5 months, commencing with a launch party - day of release - at the Ministry of Sound on the 26th of June. From there he’ll be taking it to big clubs and even bigger festivals, including Tomorrowland in his native Belgium, dark & lovely (!) 1015 in San Fran, Gatecrasher in Leeds and a multitude more. Looking at it from one angle, it’s the return of a legend, who in a manner of speaking, never really went away! Don’t miss out. www.mike.be

OceanLab (Above & Beyond and Justine Suissa) are out with their ‘Sirens of the Sea Remixed’ album this month. Avoiding any and all nautical and/or oceanographically-orientated clichés at every cost, T.I. took a dive into it to see what trance treasure we could bring to the surface!

In general the protocol for any artist’s remix album is very much ‘assemble the very finest array of remix talent possible, stand back and await the floor-fireworks’. In that quarter ‘Sirens’ has its mojo working overtime. Disc 1 alone sports track remaps from Jaytech, Michael Cassette, Andy Duguid & Gareth Emery, re-charting ‘If I Could Fly’, ‘Come Home’, ‘On The Beach’ and ‘Lonely Girl’ respectively.Switching discs and Pt2 has an even greater spread in terms of both sound and appeal. Andrew Bayer, Myon & Shane 54, 16 Bit Lolitas, Sonorous and Duderstadt are all furiously pimping tracks right across the trance and prog range. In a final (and we think very cool) touch it concludes with a quartet of OceanLab’s earliest offerings as Ferry’s remix of ‘Clear Blue Water’, Armin’s turn on ‘Sky Falls Down’, Signum’s ‘Beautiful Together’ and A&B’s ‘Satellite’ all come under the laser.

‘Fast’… is about the best cover-all adjective to describe Richard Durand. Fast to emerge, fast to ascend and (in just 3 years) hellfire-fast to become a headlining DJ. Also fast, in the general EDM scheme, to reach debut album status, which is exactly what he’s done this month with the release of ‘Always the Sun’. Let’s start though with what the album… isn’t! First up it’s not a compendium of his 05 – 08 singles. Counting on you already having them, ‘Make Me Scream’, ‘Sweep & Repeat’ and the Skunk Anansie ‘collabo-remix’ ‘Weep’ are put to one side if favour of new material. Neither is it wholly slaved to Durand’s full-force, kinetic in-club sound, although the latter stages like ‘Silver Key’, ‘Chaos’ ‘The Trigger’ and the brilliantly-titled ‘Dr Gorgo’ definitely take it there.

What it is though a fully-rounded, devoutly trancey long-player that kicks off with the mesmeric White Isle postcard ‘Divine’ before segueing into crowd-fave ‘Papillion’, title track ‘Always the Sun’ and last month’s hyper-infectious ‘Into Something’. You’re probably getting the picture: from seaside atmospherics, to viscerally exciting club-pounders, ‘Always the Sun’ is brokering the full range. If it’s not packed in there with your swimmers, sun-block and club-guide come going-to-the-airport time, well you might be missing an important holiday component!

The last of the Celtic midnight studio oil has been burnt, the final tweaks & touches made and the album’s title duly noted as a 20/20 statement of intent…. ‘Never Fade Away’, the debut album from John O'Callaghan’s has well and truly arrived! As good a time as ever then to put Trance International’s inexplicably large collective ears to the CD and see what specifically takes our fancy! Featuring Sarah Howells on vocal duties, ‘Find Yourself’ will likely strike a ‘Big Sky’ sized-chord with O’Callaghan aficionados. It’s got all the restrained Gaelic nuances of his breakthrough track (the heavenly acoustic version of which incidentally ties up the album) while craftily never sounding like a reboot. The next single to be taken from the album, it’s already been packing the radio playlists of Armin, Judge Jules and Robbie Nelson.

Produced in tandem with Giuseppe Ottaviani and Aly & Fila respectively, ‘Liquid Fire’ & ‘Megalithic’ provide some of the album’s biggest and most uplifting collaborative moments. And if you find yourself searching for something a bit more transcendental & Balearic in outlook, the sun-kissed title track is lump-in-the-throat lovely! Topping things off is 'Don't Look Back' which was debuted on ASOT to a palpably forum reaction recently and wasted no time nabbing the Tune of the Week gong.

As Charles Dickens once wrote "it was the best of times, it was the worst of times". The worst? Well few need that one explaining at the moment. The best though as the last 12 months have rolled past producing the greatest bumper crop of quality artist albums since the dawn of trance! When Cosmic Gate decided on the title for their latest the world’s woes were but a faintly grey looking cloud on the horizon. Now ‘Sign of the Times’ is looking like the most perceptive album title of 2009!

The new one (their 4th and the follow-up to 2006’s ‘Earth Mover’) is packed with a fat-free 13-track collection of music showcasing Cosmic Gate’s irrepressibly cutting-edge sound. ‘Body of Conflict’ – which opened the batting in dazzling style last year – is included, as is their latest single ‘Not Enough Time’. One of CG’s most renowned and recognised studio assets is their ability to bring quality vocals to the productions. ‘Sign of the Times’ has an above-regulation amount of vocal talent with Denise Rivera, Emma Hewitt, Tiff Lacey, Tommy Clint and Aruna all boosting it further along.

Ralph Kyau and Steven Moebius Albert have spent the last 12 years channeling their considerable energies unstintingly in the direction of the dancefloor. In that time they’ve fostered their own homegrown talent factory (inc. Stoneface & Terminal, Mirco de Govia, Ronski Speed, Sonorous and Marc Marberg) and provided planet-trance with a one of the great all-time electronic dance labels.

Lest we forget too they’ve developed their own now highly-recognizable neo-trance sound and, as DJs, they’ve rocked a whole heck of a lot of dancefloors! This month Euphonic is 100 releases old (or young, depending on how you look at it). So to give the event just the right sense of ‘occasion’ they’re releasing a special album to mark it. ‘The Best of Kyau & Albert 2002 – 2009’, which is out today, draws together all those tracks that have marked their ascendance. ‘Kiksu’, ‘Walkdown’, ‘Velvet Morning’ ‘Are You Fine’, ‘Megashira’ and ‘Made of Sun’ are all included, and you also get the new single ‘Be There 4 U’ (a redux of the marvelous ‘Outside’) into the bargain.

You can get a hold of ‘The Best of Kyau & Albert 2002 – 2009’ now via that online titan iTunes or get the physical article straight from their the Euphonic webstite store

When DJ Shah told us back in January that he was releasing THREE albums in 2008, well forgive us if we didn’t start hearing the ‘Mission Impossible’ theme playing in our heads. After all, can you recall an EDM artist pulling off such a feat, all inside a calendar year (answers on an e-mail please!). The summer double-whammy of June’s ‘Songbook’ and the 2nd Sunlounger album ‘Sunny Tales’ just a month later, well... shut us up a bit! Come Autumn we were starting to wonder what the hold up with Pt.3 was! Now December is here and just in the nick so is ‘Magic Island – Music For Balearic People’. A proper nugget it is too - bursting at its melodic seams with unseassonal but extremely welcome white isle flavours and fresh trance talent. It also provides an exclusive, through-the-window peak at the label’s ’09 repetoire. We’ve got a copy of ‘Magic Island’ for the first lucky person out of the hat on the 1st of Jan (actually, let’s be safe and call it the 2nd!) who can tell us the name of one of Shah’s pseudonyms. Shoot us over an e-mail at competition@tranceinternational.com as soon as you dare!

October 20th sees Tiësto’s Black Hole Recordings label mark a major milestone in their history with its 50th CD release. Over the last 18 months’ Andy Duguid’s name has rocketed into the global clubbing consciousness through club hits like ’Hypocrisy’, ‘Don’t Belong’ and ‘Wasted’. The Scottish production sensation’s has spent 2008 priming his debut album, which is now locked, cocked and ready to drop! 'Believe' features 11 tightly-packed tracks that effortlessly span the range of fluid melodic trance, fierce electro & pounding house music. For the album Andy has collaborated with established producers including Mr. Sam & Solarstone, as well as premier-league vocalists like Leah & Julie Thompson. ‘To The Floor’, the first single from the album, (which features Funkerman singer I-Fan on vocals) drops on the 3rd of November and you can check the album preview on Andy’s YouTube channel here !

3 DJs, 2 stellar labels and now a mighty 6th compilation album, featuring all that’s right about trance & prog! You have to ask yourselves Trance Land, have you ever had it so good!? This month sees those trance-prog musketeers, Above & Beyond dispatch another faultlessly mixed, beautifully packaged trance missile straight into the heart of your CD collection. Drawn from the twin engines of Anjunabeats and Anjunadeep, number 6 is bursting at its 80 minute-a-disc seams with the latest ear-ticklers from Anjuna regulars like The Signalrunners, Joonas Hahmo, Oliver Smith, Boom Jinx, Super8 & Tab & Oceanlab. We’ve got a copy of Anjunabeats Volume 6, signed by Jono, Tony & Paavo to give away. To be in with a chance to win simply e-mail us at competition@tranceinternational.com (putting ‘Anjunabeats’ in the subject bar) and tell us the name of just one, single solitary release from either of their labels. Dead easy!