Well, Jon put together some of his best for 1993 so I figured it was
about time for mine too.. This will be an admittedly more dance-
oriented and harder list, but I've included some housy stuff too.. I
have also forgotten a lot about the early 1993 releases since dance
music moves and changes so quickly, but that's just natural.. I've tried
to narrow it down as much as possible, but there are just some things I
can't leave out.. I'm sure I'm forgetting enough as it is..
In no particular order:
SONIC INFUSION - Unfuture (Eye-Q)
Pascal Feos with some driving, relatively minimal hardtrance.. Just
one of those that gets and your head and won't leave..
LEFTFIELD/LYDON - Open Up (Hard Hands)
Lydon's cheeze vocals aside the Dervish Overdrive mix is a monster..
Leftfield know exactly how to produce a song that just comes alive on a
big system..
VERNON - Vernon's Wonderland (Eye-Q)
Okay, so I've been praising this track all year long.. I don't think
you need to hear anymore about it..
ZEONY LEE EXPERIENCE - Love Energy (Deep Distraxion)
Baby Ford with a nice acidic intro and the now cliched piano breakdown..
As a DJ easily one of my most successful and memorable tracks..
ENERGY 52 - Cafe Del Mar (Eye-Q)
Uplifting trance from Kid Paul and Cosmic Baby..
MUKKAA - Buruchacca (Limbo)
Another of my easily most successful tracks of the year.. After playing
this out at least a hundred people asked me what it was..
B-ZET - Walk Now (Harthouse)
One of the most up and coming names, Stevie Bezet, with the most mind-
warping hardtrance of the year.. It goes on & on & on & on..
HOBO - Freedom (23rd Precinct)
Straightforward trance from Limbo's slightly more commercial 23rd
Precinct label.. Nothing all that innovative but gar-ron-teed to put the
dance floor in a frenzy..
CYBORDELICS - Adventure of Dama (Harthouse)
Even at 155 bpm or so this one has an almost laid back feel.. But don't
let it fool you..
MINDWARP - Mindwarp (Stress)
DJ John Debo with some freakish trance that includes hip-hoppy beats and
thunderous guitar samples.. Mindwarp is a good description..
LAURENT GARNIER - Wake Up (FNAC)
One of the breakthrough songs for the now huge fnac label from France..
This one shows real staying power and still gets played a lot..
LUNATIC ASYLUM - A.L.S.O. (FNAC)
Wow. Fnac hits it bigtime with this intense hardtrance to end it all..
ALASKA - Lost in Alaska (Baseroom)
Garnier again with a different side.. Slower more tweaky acid that just
kind of bounds along..
SOUL ODDYSEY - Rapture (Space)
Uplifting trance from the US that I think every DJ in the world used to
use to follow Acperience..
HUMATE - Love Stimulation (MFS)
Paul Van Dyk's wonderful Lovemix was one of the two biggest hits here in
Florida this year.. (Vernon's Wonderland was the other, FYI)
VAN BASTEN - Lizard King (Brute)
The B-Side mix blows the front away with the funkier bassline and those
breakbeaty drums..
SLAM - Positive Education (Soma)
One of 93's biggest remixers, Slam, brings some futuristic house that
pleased the house DJs while staying true to the underground..
COSMIC BABY - Heaven's Tears (Top Secret)
Listen to those 12" mixes.. When that Kid Paul mix keeps shifting
higher and higher it just pulverizes the mind.. Hearing Cosmic Baby
perform this live made me think the world was ending..
UNDERWORLD - Rez (Junior Boys Own)
Underworld and Darren Emerson never cease to amaze.. Their new 'Spikee'
is good, but Rez was their genius for 1993..
JAM & SPOON - Follow Me (Sony)
Okay, so this one is fairly new.. When it starts off at 135 bpm, goes
into about a 3 minute ambient break and kicks it up to about 159 bpm, it
just goes thru the roof.. For those that don't yet have it....find &
devour..
ROBERT ARMANI - Circus Bells [Hardfloor Remix] (DJAX)
Its that Hardfloor sound, but with an almost housy twist..
NORMAN - Drift Away (Suck Me Plasma)
Norman was big this year and most DJs seemed to pick up on his 'Big
Deal' but Drift Away is the one for me.. Very simplistic but, well,
you know..
MCKOY - Fight (white label)
Probably the hardest to find on this list, I've only ever seen it as a
white label.. Soft, uplifting trance that rivals Humate..
BEDROCK - For What You Dream Of (Stress)
Housy trance with diva-ish vocals but somewhat dark music.. Amazingly,
the kick sounds on this one rival Norman's.. This one is still going
strong..
Labels to watch for 1994:
FNAC, Eye-Q, Harthouse, Superstition, Stress, Planet 4, Soma, Save
the Vinyl, MFS, Logic (Cosmic Baby's label now), Influence, Fax.
So that's it for now.. I'm sure I'm forgetting some and I also
purposefully left out some that I have gotten within the past few
weeks (Scan X, Brainchild, Virtual Symmetry, Renegade Legion) to
see how they stand the test of time..