Spent a bunch of cash at Cabela's, but mostly just on clothes and some backpacking gear. I don't normally advocate for getting too much backpacking gear at Cabela's, because they sell relatively little that's optimized for it, being more for hunting, fishing and outfitter or car camping. But every once in a while, they've got something worth getting—my Sea to Summit inflatable pillow that I picked up was pricey, but very important to have if you want to sleep well in the backcountry. And it's a lot smaller than what I've been using.
Besides, I had gift cards. I also got some really nice leather slippers with rabbit fur lining on the inside. Very comfy. And we picked up a bunch of beef jerky of various kinds (not at Cabela's, although they do have some, but rather from a store about a block away). Apparently January is World Carnivore Month, so it's very apropos. And, I ate out at Mongolian BBQ, and tracked down a bunch of music from the old 2000 and 2001 Qlimax set lists. Although Qlimax is often seen as a hardstyle scene, these early set lists are mostly hard trance, with loads of acid and only a bit of early hardstyle. Honestly, this early hardstyle is hard to tell from hard trance; the two were almost the same when they first started.
Besides, in general, I think electronic music is "over-split" in terms of labels. But if you want to explore some of the labels, here's a good site: http://techno.org/electronic-
It is the opinionated work of one guy, but hey, it's something. I happen to agree with him on a lot of stuff, other than I'm much more tolerant of even formulaic trance than he is, and I have absolutely no interest whatsoever in electronic music that's overtly "black" or hip-hoppy. For him to (essentially) suggest that that's the origin of EDM is... well, I see what he's saying, but it's an overstatement of the case, by a lot. That's a bit like saying that modern firearms were invented by the Chinese.
In any case, I'm finding all kinds of "new favorite songs" from that scene, and by "new" of course, I mean "over 15 years old, but I hadn't heard them 'til now. I found a lot of great stuff in the Lady Dana, DJ Pavo, Kai Tracid and Gary D. setlists. I expected to like the Mauro Picotto setlist more than I did; I didn't find a lot there that inspired me to look it up. He spun a lot of Schranz, which I just think is kind of boring. In any case, you can find some pretty good YouTube videos of the entire sets, recorded live at the event, from the sound of it (because there's an annoying MC who keeps talking over the music when you least want him to). I recommend listening to them. I had a fair bit of the tracks already—especially some of the acid trance stuff, which I had discovered quite some time ago by now (and no less than three of those five played, for instance, "Acid Nightmare")—but here's a small selection of my absolute favorite tracks uncovered during this exploration which I didn't already know or have.
- DJ Darkzone - The Human Form [Vocal Club Mix]
- Blutonium Boy vs DJ Neo - Hardstyle Nation [DJ Neo Progressive Mix]—curiously the Blutonium Boy remix seems to be more highly regarded, but maybe it's because this version sounds more like hard trance than hardstyle. I like the semi-supersaw soaring synthline in the middle of this one a lot.
- DJ Combo - Rock It To The Beat [Gary D. Hardline Mix]
- Tankis & Savietto - Octopus [Lost in Case Remix]
- R.B.A. - No Alternative [Brooklyn Bounce Remix]
- Thomas Trouble - Insane Asylum [SMP Club Mix]
- Hennes & Cold - The Sound of Rock
And, for the heckuvit; some of my favorite hard trance and acid trance that I already had.
- Titchy Bitch and the Fallen Angel - Retribution [Hennes & Cold remix]—I'd actually love to find the original mix, but I can't.
- Ohne Ende Geil - Endless Horny
- Kai Tracid - Destiny's Path [Warmduscher Remix]
- Kai Tracid - Tiefenrausch [ASYS Remix]
- Derb - Derb (Derbus)
- ASYS - Acid Nightmare—to be fair, I can't pick a favorite version of this, and there are a lot of them out there. The 140 Squadron remix has a hard trance sound to it, while the much more recent Wavetraxx remix treats the original very respectfully while still adding substantially to it as well. And Pila's 2006 Update also manages to do something quite interesting while not making it unrecognizable.
1 comment:
I'll point out that while I've been aware of Hennes & Cold for some time, I haven't really explored their catalog much until now. It looks like they are generally credited with creating the VERY FIRST reverse bass track on "First Step" in 1999. Amazing! And yet, they're still not considered hardstyle, but hard trance. But it was a massively important step in the evolution of hardstyle out of hard trance—while also showing that the dividing line between hard trance and a lot of the early hardstyle is impossible to actually determine exactly.
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