12 months have one pretty fast. It feels like yesterday when I was in the middle of nowhere spending my military service. But because I am music addict, even there I spent some of my time listening to some music. Military service caused certain overlooking for new tracks and albums but then again, I tried to find as much new music as possible in the last 6 months of 2008. But now it is almost the end of the year and time for annual toplists. So here we go.

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ALBUMS

10. Trifonic - Emergence



It was hard to choose album for the 10th spot. The albums after this were much easier to select when all of those caused certain WOW!-effect. But there was only 9 of those and one was missing and I had to choose album from very wide range of good albums. Anyway I finally decided to choose Emergence. Just because it is probably the most interesting album of those candidates. Emergence is interesting downtempo-album which uses the same technology with This Binary Universe and even though the album isn't exactly at the same level, this american duo have made respectable debut.

Best track: Parks On Fire

9. Whirloop - Watch The Skies And Keep Looking



Pretty good follow-up for Whirloop's 2006-album A Fascination For Clouds. The first release saw some unexpected sound issues with too loud low-sounds but I guess those are fixed by now. If you will ignore that, you will hear fabulous album from this swedish producer. This is how trance should sound like. Driving basslines added into sounds from both progtrance and psytrance sounds pretty good and interesting. This album maybe fails to be as interesting as A Fascination For Clouds but is still worthy of checking.

Best track: Hosanna (Whirloop Remix)

8. C-Jay - Magnanimity



It feels great when occasionally you will find some new artist album you haven't heard before and which turns out to be full of great stuff. This is exactly what happened with C-Jay. Okay I had heard couple of his tracks before and that was why I eventually decided to check this album. And I'm happy that I did it. C-Jay's album is full of great progressive house with certain trancier touch. If you have overlooked this one and you like progressive house, then go and check this album.

Best track: Commencement

7. Lutzenkirchen - Pandora Electronica



When talking about interesting albums, this one is pretty high on the list too. I had heard Lützenkirchen couple of times before this album came but my knowledge was pretty limited. But still I decided to check what Pandora Electronica offers. And it offered great stuff. The album is full of banging techno with influences from electro. Even though the album doesn't have much highlights, it doesn't fail at any place either making Pandora Electronica a pleasant experience.

Best track: Casa Cadabra

6. Kino Oko - Alphabetically Divided Highway



This album continues the series of interesting albums. I still remember when friend of mine asked if I had heard this album I had to say no. Then I checked some information about this album and noticed that it was released by Tribal Vision. Label with Vibrasphere and Tegma for an example. Then I decided to check what Kino Oko has to offer. And that was something... interesting. You can't put single label for the style Kino Oko has. It is something between progressive house, progressive house, psytrance, IDM, electro and the list goes on. You could even say that the soundworld in this album is almost as wide as Shpongle has. And that is something you don't hear every day. Kino Oko truly have widen the horizon with album without anything being completely obvious.

Best track: Mother Mature

5. Jaytech - Everything Is OK



I know Anjunabeats is a label which is hated by many. Yes they do release a lot of uninspiring uplifting and progtrance but then again they will release a lot of good stuff too. Including that one really good album per year. 2006 it was Tri-State, last year it was Tecktonick. This year it is Jaytech's debut-album released in ajunadeep-sublabel. Australian producer James Cayzer has created album which is in between proghouse and progtrance and which relies highly on strong basslines and pretty good supporting melodies. And when the soundquality is in crystal clear anjunabeats-level, nothing is especially wrong here. Instead, everything is ok.

Best track: Pepe's Garden

4. Nicholas Bennison - Tension of Opposites



This guy is one of those who proves that trance doesn't have to be clearly uplifting, full-on psy, progpsy or progressive trance. Instead you can make trance sound darker with something of your own. Tension Of Opposites is an album which is full of Bennison's trademark sounds which almost no-one else uses. And when those sounds are added into wide range of genres including dark trance, progressive trance, psytrance and even breakbeat, the mixture is rather interesting. The biggest flaw in the album is the fact it doesn't exactly have the clear red line and it bounces from subgenre to another. Still the tracks are interesting enough to make this album one of the best 2008 had to offer.

Best track: Life Back

3. Jori Hulkkonen - Errare Machinale Est



Finally Jori Hulkkonen had it right. Even though earlier albums like When No One Is Watching, We Are Invisible... and Different had some good parts, Jori never made really good album before this one. But now this finnish heavyweight created album full of stuff what he really can do. This album is fabulous mixture of synthpop and downtempo. It is unfortunate that this album got real release only in Finland. But I assure you, even the digital copy is worthy of every cent.

Best track: Gentlemen Prefer Laser

2. Wizzy Noise - Renaissance



It is strange really. I have listened Wizzy Noise-tracks for years now. But I always thought that almost every track they make sounds almost the same than the previous making Wizzy Noise rather predictable act. Maybe I should have expected better already when couple of tracks in the last album were bit different and at least with their remix for Knights Of Cydonia. Because this album is one of the biggest positive surprises of this year. Even though this album is clearly full-on psy we know, this album also introduces some great proggish influences. You don't believe how well that works before hearing this album. The tracks usually begins with something predictable and almost boring stuff but before the end you will notice that the track just kept on growing to the awesome climax. And when this continues for the whole album, the result is excellent. There, I will reward this album with "psy-album of the year" award.

Best track: Sea Song

1. Orkidea - Metaverse



Even the modern trancescene has some unique artists. Tapio Hakanen a.k.a. Orkidea is one of those. For sure the biggest finnish DJ and the biggest tranceproducer has achieved his status with hard work, awesome mixes and with superb productions. His debut album Taika was close to perfection and that gave Metaverse big expectations. And it answered almost completely for those expectations. Even though certain tracks aren't quite in the level of the glory of Taika, some tracks certainly are. And the best tracks of this album makes this album, which wanders between progressive trance and uplifting trance, makes this album the best artist album of the year.

Best track: Requiem

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Honorable mentions
Albums which didn't quite make it to the top 10.
00.db - Heaven & Hell (was the 3rd disc of psytrance euphoria. Real release saws the light in 2009 so that's why this isn't in my top list)
Ferry Corsten - Twice In The Blue Moon
Hibernation - Some Things Never Change
Human Blue - Base Basket Buffet
Josh Gabriel - Eight
Juno Reactor - Gods & Monsters
Morphonix - Off The Grid
Perfect Stranger - Free Cloud

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Compilation of the year

Hybrid - SoundSystem 01



There wasn't much challenge for the top spot of this list. Soundsystem 01 was so much above everything else that you could see Invol2ver, Fabric-series and Balance-series only with binoculars and others are completely invisible. Even second, the clubbier proghouse disc was almost at the level of Metaverse with tracks like Quivver's Surin. But that isn't even all. It's the first disc what really matters here. It is wonderful mixture of relaxing progressive breaks and downtempo and I can tell you, it's the only time I got chills in my spine while listening to new music this year. In brief, if you will buy only one album this year, buy this one.

Best track: Take your pick

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Tracks

1. Orkidea - Requiem
2. Ticon - 1987
3. Nicholas Bennison - Life Back
4. Jori Hulkkonen - Customs Person (feat. Jerry Valuri)
5. M83 - Couleurs (Sasha Invol2ver Remix)
6. Jaytech - Pepe's Garden
7. 00.db - Worlds Of Space
8. Atlantis Ita - See You in the Next Life (Beetseekers Remix)
9. Wizzy Noise - Sea Song
10. 00.db - Ark
11. Orkidea - Better Day
12. Christopher Lawrence - Gotham
13. Lowland vs. Orkidea - Masochrist
14. Tenthu - Phenomenon
15. Cristal Snow - Scarred
16. Nicholas Bennison - spirit Chamber
17. Jaytech - Pyramid
18. Leftfield - Song of Life (Tim Davison Mix)
19. Way Out West - Spaceman
20. Juno Reactor - Immaculate Crucifixion
21. Ferry Corsten - Made Of Love
22. Solar Stone - Part Of Me
23. Gareth Emery - This is That
24. Ernesto vs. Bastian - Thrill
25. Apocalyptica - Grace (Proteus Remix)
26. Lutzenkirchen - Casa Cadabra
27. Quivver - Surin
28. Vibrasphere - Autumn Lights (Oliver Prime Remix)
29. Junkie XL - Stratosphere
30. Super8 & DJ Tab - Elektra
31. Josh Gabriel - Viscocity
32. Human Blue - Lone Ranger
33. Vadim Zhukov - Talking to a God
34. Trifonic - Parks On Fire
35. Jori Hulkkonen - Gentlemen Prefer Laser
36. Denis Sheperd - Run Away
37. Kino Oko - Mother Mature
38. Nufrequency - Go That Deep (Redanka’s 93 Dub Mix)
39. Telefon Tel Aviv - You Are The Worst Thing In The World (Sasha Invol2ver Remix)
40. Damien Strong - Time2Fly
41. Menno De Jong & Re:Locate - Solid State (Gareth Emery Remix)
42. Michael Cassette - Cyan Child
43. Ticon - Less Is More
44. Joonas Hahmo - Cocktail Bar
45. Perfect Stranger - W
46. Robert Vadney - Second Sky
47. Rafa Rubio - Astonished
48. Airwave - Haka For Peace
49. Hibernation - Are You Sure?
50. DJ Tatana - Spring Breeze (Martin Roth SummerStyle Remix)

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Top DJ's
1. Orkidea
2. John '00' Fleming
3. Orion
4. Nicholas Bennison
5. Luke Fair
6. Oliver Prime
7. Christopher Lawrence
8. Miika Kuisma
9. Hybrid
10. Homegrove