The toast of this year’s Trance Awards, Paul van Dyk’s managed to round off all together stellar showing in the ‘09 poll (Best DJ and Best Producer) with his fresh-out-the-box single, ‘Home’. Snagging the Best Single trophy was no doubt a coup, but that goes double for a track which three months ago hadn’t yet left PVD’s studio hard-drive. In hitting the No.1 spot it also managed to beat ‘For Angel 2009’ (the Most Beloved Trancer Of All-Time™) ‘into 2nd place. Let’s just say the track may very well have defined a year in trance.

Back in time to 2003, Paul teamed up with the multinational grouping of VEGA4 for ‘Time of Our Lives’. A forward-looker in several respects it was one of the tracks that opened the eyes of trance producers around the world to what could be achieved with a (previously-frowned upon) male vocal.

‘Time’ became a much-loved & respected addition to the PVD canon and one that came quickly to the tracklisting of Van Dyk’s summer retrospective extravaganza ‘Volume’. Despite the demise of VEGA4 it seems to have been on Van Dyk’s mind for a while to have the Northern Irish tones working their charms again. Frontman Johnny McDaid presented him with the vocals for ‘Home’ and the Best Single of 2009 was the result.

Aside from the regulation PVD Club, Original and Radio flavours, ‘Home’ comes correct with some spankers in the remix dept. Cosmic Gate, Wippenberg & Kaskade have been in hard toil working up some brilliant across-the-board trance interpretations and the deal’s been sealed with additional reworks from Static Revenger and Bruce Gainsford. If you’ve not already done so, you can get ‘Home’ via iTunes here and check out the official video on YouTube

He’s been away, and now he’s back, back, back! Descending out of the clouds, Johan Gielen put in a call last month to give us the 411 on his return to trance’s front lines. It’s his first new Airscape material since ‘Sosei’, waaay back in 2004, which had our pre-listen anticipation levels running plenty high. Suffice to say the man who brought us the bass-bin-baiting ‘Pacific Melody’ and the epic synthology of ‘L’Esperanza’ has teamed up with 'Josh Millstone' for the comeback of this legendary project. The result: the mighty vocal floor-rocket ‘My Love’!

The track also acts as the advanced guard for the new album, which is released in May. Featuring re-toolings of all our favourite Airscape classics, it also boasts a shell-shock of new material, with Johan collaborating with 5 other producers. Happy, happy days, and there’s yet more good news to come! ‘My Love’ also marks the return of Jes Brieden to guest vocaling duties. Her solo album is also out in May so that makes two summer-trumpeting audio-delights to look forward to!

Before we get ahead of ourselves though ‘My Love’ is out today, March 16th on Johan’s on Tunes For You label, with recalibrations from Josh Millstone, Niklas Harding, Tom Cloud and 4 (!) reworks from Daniel Wanrooy & Mark Green.

www.johangielen.com
www.blackholerecordings.com/

As Frédéric De Backer he was the driving force behind Y-Traxx’s ‘Mystery Land’, one of 1999’s most memorable Balearic trance hits. In partnership with a cavalcade of other production luminaries he’s been delivering hits under the Fred Baker name since 2003. And on some of the most revered trance and dance labels in the world - VANDIT, Magik Musik, A State of Trance and ITWT to boot! And now he’s back, bright and early in 2009, with an absolute scorcher on the fighting-fit Tetsuo label.

With its ear-snagging sounds and speaker-grazing effects, and coming under Fred’s new ‘Presents Enterprise’ tag, ‘Requiem’ has been doing a fine job of sending dancefloors into spontaneous combustion over the last month! Coming with some kick-ass remixes from Tetsuo commander-in-chief, Talla 2XLC and newcomers Petibonum, covering a couple of other important sub-styles, its ‘aint a release to miss out on this month!

You can get a hold of ‘Requiem’ and its blazing bonus track ‘Coloured Planet’ from all the regular suppliers including Beatport, TrackItDown & DJ Download now by clicking the respective linkage!

What every one of the thousands of trance and progressive producers inhabiting this wonderful spinning blob of blue and green is looking for is their big-break track. That one that plants them on the electronic dance music map, once and for all. Well here at Trance International we’ve always got our radars-up for the next one to stick its head above the parapet and Neal Scarborough’s debut ‘Panama’, for Fraction records is starting to do just that. How do we divine these things? Well a healthy dose of DJ support is always a good sign of course (in this case PVD, John O'Callaghan, Ferry Corsten, Simon Patterson, Sean Tyas & The Thrillseekers – all in full support). A nomination for an award always rings the bell too, in this case ‘Best Track’ at the IDMAs. The jungle drums are always a fine indicator too – twice in one morning it was volunteered as ‘a hot one’ while T.I. was doing its rounds on the phone to its network of spinners last week.

Probably a good time to refresh our memories on Mr Scarborough’s past material then? Well, good notes on his previous releases, which include ‘Madagascar’ on Soundpiercing, ‘Stung on the River’ thru Discover and ‘Caldari’ on Conspiracy and some cracking remixes coming via Vandit, Captivating and Infrasonic. All worth checking out, just in case they passed you by!

In the meantime ‘Panama’, with a speaker-frying hard-wired remix from Paul Webster is out today and is available exclusively through Beatport

Free stuff. We love it! Especially around this time of year. So in news to gladen the hearts of near enough every trance fan around the world, you can get The Thrillseekers brand new molten-hot floor-captivator absolutely free! Thrillseeker-in-Chief Steve Helstrip is giving away his latest ‘City of Angels’ as a free download by way of a thank you to all clubbers who came out to see him spin in 2008.

All you need to do to take him up on this jolly fine offer is swing by the Thrillseekers website www.thethrillseekers.co.uk any time before the 31st of January 2009 and download the Steve’s elegy to the titular clubbing metropolis 100% libre! Well worth picking up too are the Club, Arnej and Genix mixes, which are available through Beatport, TrackItDown and direct through The Thrillseekers website.

There... a story about free things, in Jan without one mention of the credit-crunch or ‘financial crisis’. Ooh bollocks!

In the intensely competitive world of trance labels, its no small feat that High-Light Records has proved to be one of 2008’s breakout stories. This year has seen them unleash a wealth of hot new production talent, including Frank Robusch’s hugely received ‘Tapestry’ and KRIVI’s ‘Reliving Those Years’. Tying the year up of very fine form, Nicosia’s Michael Angelo Ft Danny has just dropped the vocal bomb, ‘Test Drive’! Already drumming up support from Armin on ASOT & Above & Beyond on TATW, as well as a Jon O’Bir, DJ Shah, Aly & Fila and Dave Pearce, the track comes with remixes from DJ Shultz, Elad Efrati, Joseph and Guerrero Remix, Blue & Black & Poland’s king of melodica, Nitrous Oxide. The track will be out on Christmas day, but you can get your ears around it right now by a speedy trip to the Highlight website!