Happy hardtrance isn't a real genre, the way happy hardcore is, but if it were, this track by Pulsedriver and Rocco would probably exemplify it. I actually quite like the uplifting, happy hard dance songs, partly because relatively speaking there's so few of them, which means that they have an easier time standing out.
That said, I'm not a huge fan of any hardcore; happy or otherwise (some early Scooter work excepted; although even then the best tracks by Scooter were Wave I hard trance), and tend to prefer the more trancey side of the EDM shop, with some hardstyle and hard house mixed in. The hardstyle in particular is early, and the hard house is rare. Not that there isn't some nü-style out there that I like quite a bit (because there is) but the earliest stuff is not only usually my favorite, but it also fits in better with the hardtrance sets. Some hard house fits in well too, but much of it is too... I dunno, too R&B tinged or something for my taste. I just don't like as much of it, and what I do like is fewer and farther between. And even then, I don't want them popping up nearly as often. I like the dark hoover sound well enough, although not as much as I like the 303 acid sound, but the "organ pedals" basslines and the "whoop, yeah!" vibe is just cheesy to me, even though it's "hard." (Regular house has no appeal to me whatsoever, and I don't know if I can think of a single song of that style in my collection except for some really old early 90s stuff like Plaza's "Yo-Yo." House-like remixes of my favorite New Wave or synthpop bands like the Pet Shop Boys and Depeche Mode in the late 80s and early 90s mostly ruined the style for me forever.)
Anyway, here it is. There are two additional mixes, but they're really just shorter versions of these two. The rave mix is my favorite because it's a little bouncier, but they're both quite good.
1 comment:
I have to take part of that back. Plaza's "Yo-Yo" is kind of a hybrid of New Beat, which I've always liked, what I've heard of it anyway, and Euro House. I did briefly flirt with some Euro House, like Ace of Base, the Real McCoy, Technotronic, and guys like that. Although I don't really love any of that, I still have some in my collection.
And some really old "pure" house like "Pump Up the Volume" by M.A.R.R.S., or tech house like Felix da Housecat's "Silver Screen Shower Scene" are still in my collection.
It might be fair to say that early Euro House is the kind that I particularly don't like.
I should point out that one of my sons is pretty into Deep house, and my daughter really likes tropical house. I don't love anything that they listen to in those styles, but I don't hate it. That same son is also pretty into acid techno and even acidcore, so we have more overlap there. I wish he was more into hardtrance and hardstyle like I am, but I suppose the acid overlap is probably close enough. It's nice to have SOMEONE in the family that I can actually talk music to.
Post a Comment