Artist Name: Sean Tyas
Country of Origin: America, New York City
Aliases: 64 Bit, Angyla, Sonar Systems, TT, Tyas & Lawrence
DJ Mag 2008 Ranking: 54
Official Website(s): http://www.myspace.com/seantyas, http://www.seantyasmusic.com/

Interesting facts:

Sean Tyas exploded from relative obscurity into a worldwide trance name in early to mid 2006 with his first single Lift signed by John Askew on his label Discover, which historically has an amazing track record of great uplifting tracks.  His tracks were being played by Armin van Buuren, Tiesto, Ferry, and every big name DJ in the blink of an eye.

As a double whammy for Tyas, at the same time his first single Lift came out, it was also announced that he won Sander van Doorn’s remix competition for Punk’d, beating out 250 other remixers to take the grand prize.

Sean is an NYC/philly regional local, even though he now lives in Switzerland with his wife Mirella.

Artist Analysis

Productions: As we had mentioned before, putting aside our cheering for a local DJ (I still remember our local philly DJ’s giving me a copy of Lift before it had been signed to Discover), Sean Tyas simply has amazing talent when it comes to producing.  He’s mastered the art of uplifting trance; especially with insane buildups and payoffs.  Although it’s a common theme that many of his songs sound similar (with the same background beats, acid gates), throughout all his tracks he retains a pulsing and driving life of its own that makes every track and remix gleam with its uniqueness.
Score – 9/10

Remixing Ability: Sean Tyas is definitely among the top elite producers in terms of remixing ability.  I mean if you didn’t catch the interesting fact above, he beat out 250 other contests in a remix contest for SvD’s Punkd.  Listen to his remix of Mike Foyle’s Shipwrecked, turning a classic and typical Mike Foyle chilled track with its usual haunting piano chords into a song that will tear up the dancefloor and mind of anyone who loves uplifting trance music.  Like all of his remixes, he leaves the distinctive portion of the song in there, so no one will ever make a mistake in knowing what the song is.  The scary part is he does it so well it feels almost impossible that a song that was so many BPM slower and in energy as well suddenly turns into a different track that has the essence of the original at its heart.  Listen to his remix of Vincent de Moor’s Fly Away, his remix of Airwave, Lost in Love, Punk’d, Diary of Jane, Divine, etc to see more of what we mean.  Absolutely amazing.
Score: 10/10

DJ ability: This is a conflicted category for us, because the sets he has put together earlier on in his career basically ended up sounding like one long uplifting trance track.  Make no mistake about it though, when this is done in a club where he is the headline DJ, it makes for one of the most fun and amazing nights possible where the entire club is just dancing the entire night.  Over time, his set mixing and track selection have got much better and varied, so I feel we can safely give him a decent score in this category now.  If you have the chance to see him live, don’t walk just RUN to go see him.  In terms of his recorded sets and radio shows, about average ability for mixing and track selection.
Score – 6/10

Conclusion: Like another masterful production artist we reviewed, Orjan Nilsen, Sean Tyas is masterful in producing and especially remixing tracks.  His recorded set DJ ability is about the only flaw in his game right now that is preventing us from giving him a perfect score on the overall scale.  As was the case with Orjan though, we will judge him purely on his ability to contribute to the experience of the Trance Dance Music that we all know and love.  He makes absolutely electrifying trance songs and trance remixes.  So in keeping with this blog’s theme, we feel that his contributions in casual listening with his productions and remixes are second to none, and if you have any doubts about how his sets sound live, then check him out for yourself and stop being a deprived human.

Bottom-Line Trance Dance Music Score – 9.5/10

Passive Progressive ft. Rachele Warner – Hide Away (7 Skies & Static Blue remix)

The first release from the new label S107, a sublabel of Armada, this track is definitive of what the S107 is aiming for; quality vocal progressive trance.  It showcases the talent of newcomer Rachele Warner, whose voice sounds similar to Smith & Pledger vocalists Carrie Skipper and Melinda Gareh for the classic bangers Forever and Connected respectively.  The original mix is somewhat lackluster, but 7 Skies & Static Blue pick up the slack in their remix for a very catchy synthesis of melody and vocals.

Overall Score: 8/10

Oceanlab – On A Good Day (Daniel Kandi Remix)

Oceanlab’s debut album last summer made some noise with tracks that were released years prior like Sirens of the Sea and their smash hit album debut song Miracle.  Listening to the album, there were a few good tracks on there, but nothing too sensational in and of itself.  It seems like as is the case with many Above & Beyond songs, once mediocre songs find ways to revitalize themselves through remixes either by their own crew or another producer.  From Breaking Ties to On a Good Day to the still unreleased remix of Lonely Girl by Gareth Emery, these once average tracks have found ways to make themselves noteworthy club tracks, and Daniel Kandi’s remix of On a Good Day may be the best out of all of them.  Played by more artists during the festivities in ASOT 400 than any other track, Daniel Kandi shows why he’s one of the premiere movers and shakers in the trance world today.  Get this track today.

Overall Score: 9/10

Re:Locate & Mark Sigma – Piranha (Heatbeat Remix)

Heatbeat may be a relatively new and still unknown name to many people, but he is an Argentinian producer who has a very distinct style of electro sounds & tech-trance.  From his first big hit Nebula to Paradise Garage (which was in ASOT 2008), to his new track Vergatron, they are all club killers that absolutely rock the house.  His most recent remix of Piranha by Mark Sigma aka M6 is dynamate and easily trumps the original.  If you’re a DJ playing live, throw some heatbeat tracks and remixes in your set and see how much people go crazy when the buildup crashes down and the payoff hits in the track.

Overall Score: 8.5/10

Will Holland feat. Yana Kay – Tears In The Rain (Orjan Nilsen remix)

It’s no secret that we are a bit partial to Orjan here at TDM, but if he were to stop creating monster tracks, then we would just as quickly disown our partiality.  Will Holland’s Tears in the Rain has been around for some time, but with Orjan’s expert remixing, this track once again has new life.  The original great vocals mix amazingly with Orjan’s distinct style for a track that is awesome to groove to.  Definitely check this one out.

Overall Score: 9/10

Claudia Cazacu feat. Audrey Gallagher – Free Fallin

This is probably the most by the book definition of uplifting trance you can get.  Even so, how much does this track destroy the club when dropped in the middle of a set?  What is there to say, it’s very John O’Callaghan-esque, features the vocals of Audrey Gallagher, and has a life of its own.  Armin has been known to tailor his set style to the individual tastes of the region he’s playing in, but it speaks volumes when this track was consistently a staple of every set for a good month and a half or more.

Overall Score: 9/10

Roger Shah & Chris Jones presents Open Minded – To The Sky (Club Mix)

Although DJ Shah and Chris Jones’ first track together Going Wrong on Armin’s Imagination album didn’t capture our attention as much here on TDM, this track certainly has.  Making its debut on ASOT 400 like so many other new tracks, Roger Shah has arguably topped Going Wrong with Chris Jones with a more visceral and less balaeric track.  Definitely a good combination, and worthy to be checked out.

Overall Score: 8.5/10

Ashley Wallbridge & Andy Moor featuring Meighan Nealon – Faces

Meighan Nealon has been doing vocals for Ashley Wallbridge (Ashley is actually a guy) for pretty much all of his tracks.  With their powers combined (in a Captain Planet sort of way), there is really not much to expect except an absolutely massive track.  What is there to be said about Andy Moor that hasn’t already been said?  He is an absolute master and genius of producing and produces more extremely high quality tracks in one year than most big artists will ever create in their lifetime.  The flow and style of the track most definitely favors Moor’s unique pitch and blend.  A masterful haunting piece of work, there is absolutely no reason why you shouldn’t go out and pick up this track right now.  Well, other than the fact that it’s not released yet on vinyl.

Overall Score: 9.5/10

TyDi feat. Audrey Gallagher – You Walk Away

To round up our roundup, is our favorite track of the moment from the #1 Australian up and coming DJ TyDi.  His album just released and also debuting on ASOT 400 is his track with Audrey Gallagher.  The track is the total package in the sense of pretty much every category we care about here at TDM.  Haunting vocals not seen from Audrey since she lent her voice to Agnelli & Nelson’s Holding onto Nothing, beautiful breakbeats, variance of different sounds, amazing buildup, great payoff.  Seriously, just get this track and don’t look back.

Overall Score: 10/10

Artist Name: Ørjan Nilsen
Country of Origin: Norway
Birthday: June 14, 1982
Aliases: DJ Governor, Orion, Orjan, O & R
DJ Mag 2008 Ranking: n/a
Official Website(s): http://www.myspace.com/orjannilsen, http://www.orjannilsen.com/

Interesting facts:
Orjan began producing as DJ Governor but has now retired the name in favor of using his real name
Orjan Nilsen’s most popular single La Guitarra was made in response to losing his older brother to cancer in December 2007.

Artist Analysis

Productions: Orjan Nilsen is one of the hottest producers in the trance game today.  Bar none, he has been cranking out amazing remixes after massive tunes on a scale that has him in the front-running for 2008 Producer of the Year.  It is very rare when you come across an artist in which pretty much every production you hear from him grabs your attention and has that intangible effect of making you be like “Goddamn this is a fucking hot track.”
Score – 10/10

DJ ability: Probably the reason why he was not even in the top 150 DJ’s in DJ Mag’s top 100, Orjan does not spend as much time on tour and mixing together killer sets.  In our opinion here at Trance Dance Music, a major weakness in the overall repertoire of a DJ, as we cannot properly dissect his mixing and technical capabilities, track selection, energy, and vibe while spinning.
Score – 2/10

Conclusion: While Orjan has few to none rivals of equal in producing, his underdeveloped DJ ability prevent us from giving him a perfect score that reflects his producing talents.  At the end of the day though, in keeping with this blog’s theme, we feel that his contribution to making absolute club killer tracks earned him a bottom-line score that is worthy of Trance Dance Music’s stamp of approval.  If you have any reservations or counter-arguments, next time you’re in the club with your favorite DJ who happens to drop one of his tracks, see how alive the club comes when the rough sounds cut through and jolt the entire crowd into frenzy.

Bottom-Line Trance Dance Music Score – 8/10

Trance Dance Music’s Favorite Tracks

Clicking on any of the below links will open them in a window to allow you to sample the cream of this artist’s crop

Orjan Nilsen – Be As One (La Guitarra)

Ilya Soloviev & Paul Miller – Lover Summer (Orjan Nilsen Remix)

Orjan Nilsen – Vivida

Orjan Nilsen – Silver State

Orjan Nilsen pres O & R – Beat Design

Orjan Nilsen pres O & R – Rain

Don’t like Amazon?  Download any above songs with a simple click right here