Trance!
Yeah, I know. Trance has a bad name and deservedly so, as it turned to shit around 95, became
really bad around 98 and spent the next two decades as a byword for the worst, most formulaic, most commercial, dead end style of dance music, devoid of all merit. Or as psytrance, all pseudo-hippies and trustafarians dancing to an unchanging, never ending beat where even the biggest fans can't tell one tune from the next.
But 92 was the year trance became a thing. When it was new and exciting. Before there was a formula to be formulaic.
There's plenty of proto-trance in the years before. One of the biggest labels that developed the sound at the beginning of the 90s was Boy Records. They released two albums in 92 that were basically a full stop on that proto-trance sound, as much late 80s new-beat as trance. Time Modem's
Transforming Tune is good, but I really love New Scene's
Waves.
Often claimed as the first pure trance Tune Jam & Spoon did their massive remix of
Age of Love in 92. Cosmic Baby released the
Stellar Supreme album, which set the template for the euro-trance sound. Sven VΓ€th released Barbarella's
The Art Of Dance.
In the UK the free party scene was in full swing and trance was one of the big sounds for some crusty soundsystems. Eat Static released their first tape
Prepare Your Spirit, while Astralasia released The
Politics Of Ecstasy. In Liverpool Timeshard released
Hypoborean Dome Temples Of Apollo, one foot in the space rock scene and the other in the trancey ambient techno scene.
On the compilation front the
Trancemaster series launched, with the first two in the ongoing series released in 92. The series charts the trance sound well, in that the first 6 comps, from 92 to 94 are great, the ones from 95 of variable quality and after that are all terrible all the time.
Logic Trance came out, which is just a fucking fantastic comp.
Tranceworld - Underwater Sunlight is another great 92 trance comp, varied, interesting, everything trance isn't noted for 30 years later.
I fucking love trance music from 92.