The Trance Dance Music Blog

TDM Throwbacks of the Week

We here at TDM usually pride ourselves in bringing you the newest latest and greatest bumping trance tracks, most of which are not even released yet when we first mention them.  It is not common for many of the tracks we rave about to come out on vinyl or mp3 release from beatport 2-3 months after.  Still, we don’t want people to think we hate on many favorite old school tracks.  In case you forgot, for the most part it’s many of these older tracks that got us into listening to trance and other EDM in the first place.  So as a tribute to past glories, here is a list of throwback tracks that have our highest approvals.  Unlike most of our reviews, we are going to go for quantity over long-winded explanations and pretty pictures.  The format will just be Artist – Title (remix if applicable), followed by a short blurb.  They range in age for throwbacks, from baby throwbacks that are only 2-3 years old (but no younger!) to the extremest throwbacks that still retain their fun factor.  Besides, no one likes listening to annoying old grandpa talking about his heyday, but everyone loves their hip trendy but middle-aged favorite uncle.  Enjoy!

• Tiff Lacey – The Truth (David West Progressive Mix), Absolutely beautiful guitar samples, some of West’s best work
• DJ Shah – Who Will Find Me, Besides his escapade with his first sunlounger compilation – white sand, this is the song that launched DJ Shah into stardom, landing on Armin’s ASOT on the beach CD.  Our fave Shah track still.
• Above & Beyond – Home, unlike most of A&B’s remixes of their own songs, the original still stands head and shoulders above the rest of the competition
• Probspot – Blueberry, yeah they were a one hit wonder, but absolute genius of a progressive trance track
• Andain – Beautiful Things (G&D’s Unplugged Remix), what is there to say about this song that hasn’t been said yet?  Beautiful track about suicide, arguably G&D’s top track that is neck-in-neck with…
• Motorcycle – As the Rush Comes (Sweeping Strings Remix), One of the most recognizable tracks by people who still go to trance parties, kind of like Beautiful Things… there isn’t much to say about one of the best tracks ever
• Andy Moor & Above & Beyond – Air for Life, we love andy moor.  And A&B.  And this track, what a great combo
• Exo pres. The Freak – Above the Clouds – A PVD favorite in his live sets, this song is one of our favorite tech-trance tracks
• Rank 1 – Airwave (Breathing), The vocal remix of this song ranks among one of the oldest, classical, and best tracks from pre 2000
• Cass & Slide – Perception (Vocal Mix), Probably one of our favorite vocal tracks here at TDM, it has a great combo of melody and beautiful vocals.  A true shame Cass & Slide do not make music anymore
• Armin van Buuren – Communication pt. 3, By far our favorite remix of Communication, it’s also the most upbeat, energetic, and danceable of all of them.  I’m sure it’s a huge surprise that we enjoy it so much
• Paul Oakenfold – Southern Sun (DJ Tiesto remix), Fun fact for those of you that were around when it first came out, the lyrics changed for the chorus to this song.  Tiesto showcases his superior remixing skills in this one
• BT – The Force of Gravity (Ferry Corsten’s Bootleg Remix), Ironic that the consensus best remix/version of this legendary track is a bootleg that will never be released on vinyl etc.
• BT – Flaming June, The classical track that vaulted BT’s career into the mainstream public eye, this joint project by BT & PVD is probably our favorite BT track here at TDM.  Really showcases BT’s producing genius in conjunction with PVD’s ear to catchy melodies
• BT – Godspeed, The follow-up to Flaming June, it exhibits a slightly different flavor without PVD, but still impresses us highly.  We can go off on a BT storm further, but we’ll stop ourselves here.
• Aven – All I Want (Ferry Corsten Remix), Regarded by many people as their favorite vocal trance song (although we find that the general people who think so skew towards the very new listeners), this list cannot be complete without it here.
• DJ Tiesto – Battleship Grey, What can we say?  Kirsty Hawkshaw is probably one of the few female vocalists that has it all.  She’s been around since the beginning, is attractive, and has a hot british accent.  Nuff said.
• DJ Tiesto – Sweet Misery, The one track from his Just Be album that shocked us by not getting more publicity and attention while being by far the best track.
• DJ Tiesto – Suburban Train, If you haven’t realized yet, the Tiesto train is being run on you.  Luckily, this train is much more pleasant than any other train that you could have run on you.  Epic song made during Tiesto’s prime
• DJ Tiesto – Magik Journey, Like Suburban Train, and on the same album, an another amazing song made by Tiesto when pretty much every one of his productions and remixes had the distinctive air flange + epic feel to it
• DJ Tiesto – Flight 643, Oh ho ho – if you told us that we would be putting down a song that literally one note as its melody repeated over and over in a list of the very highest throwbacks, I personally would have told you that you were crazy.  As it so happens, this hypothetical situation is one of the times that we are hypothetically wrong.  If that is not a tribute to an absolute production  genius, I don’t know what is
• Balearic Bill – Destination Sunshine (DJ Tiesto’s Power Remix), Ah, just when you thought the train had run its course, it continues in a different form!  Fun fact: This is the track Tiesto dropped when it hit 12:00 AM January 1, 2000 at Trance Energy 2000.  Not much more needs to be said other than to conclude with…
• Delerium – Silence (DJ Tiesto’s ISOS Remix), Probably THE most famous throwback track that everyone knows, it combines elements of Tiesto in his absolute producing prime, Sarah McLachlan’s haunting vocals, and a solid yet simplistic melody, Tiesto shows other artists what the definition of a true remix is that transforms a less known and lackluster Delerium track into the defining remix and track of the decade.  I still remember my favorite Armin set @ Tobacco warehouse in NYC pretty much was sealed when he decided to drop this as his final encore as everyone was leaving, throwing his headphones into the crowd as his way of saying there’s no more perfect ending than this.

There’s waaaaay too many other tracks that we love, but why give them all out at once?  Chew on these tracks for awhile, and get hungry waiting for the next installment!