The year 2008 threw up a wonderful plethora of some great electronic music albums
and I, as a trance and ambient lover, didn't miss out on the pleasure of listening to quite a lot of what the genres had to offer last year. Excepting a few disappointments, most of these albums provided me countless hours of joy. Highlights of the year for me weren't only progressive psytrance, chillout or progressive trance albums, but also some excellent, high quality lush techno, dub techno and dance-pop/pop-ambient releases. And on this note, I must add that since 2007, I'm finding myself increasingly drawn…

My selections from 2007 - trance and progressive:

After spending a lot of time and effort sorting out the best from the rest, I finally came up with the following tracks as my favourite tunes of 2007 in trance/progressive:

50. M Waering & Expanded - Remember This [JOOF]: This is a beautiful prog-trancer from the Swedish team. Deep layers of melody amidst some sparkling percussions and synth pads elevate it to something out of the ordinary.

49. Jav D feat. Mat Zo - Silver Lining [AVA Recordings]: A beautiful, melodious prog-trancer by the Anglo-American production…

As a trance lover, I find it fascinating to observe what a great year for trance music 2006 has been. This is exemplified by the enormous difficulty I faced when choosing my own favourite 20 trance tracks of 2006. At random, I could pick out at least 100 tracks which I enjoyed very much (and still do). So, narrowing down the list to just 20 proved to be a huge ordeal, and I had to leave out a lot of good tracks which I love very much. But still, after some prolonged soul-searching, I came up with my final list…

A STATE OF TRANCE CLASSICS
Label: Cloud 9

Release Date: 08-12-2006
Store Date: 08-18-2006

Armin van Buuren has selected 36 classic trance tunes to appear on this fabulous set - all extended mixes, unmixed. This, almost 6 hours of music captures the crème de la crème of trance from 1996 to 2004, and thus provides an ideal trip to memory lane.

Tracklist:

CD 1

01. Silence (Tiësto's In Search of Sunrise Mix) 11:35
02. Seven Days and One Week 08:29
03. Out of the Blue 06:41
04. Communication Part One 09:37
05. As the Rush Comes (Sweeping Strings Mix) 10:40…

The following 7 tracks were the biggest trance hits in the first half of 2006 (as inferred from plays in ASOTs, TATWs, and many other gigs of top DJs):

01. Arisen (Original Mix)

02. White Sand (Original Mix)

03. 5 (Original Mix)

04. North Pole (Original Mix)

05. Second Turn (Original Mix)

06. Rogue (Original Mix)

07. Divine (Original Mix) .

Armind is a subdivision of Armada Music of The Netherlands, specialising in trance, downtempo/chillout and house music. Some of their recent releases include Control Freak (trance), Arctic Quest - Renaissance/Femme Fatale (trance), and David Navo & Julio Navas pres.…

This is a half-yearly update of the hottest tracks of 2006 so far in trance and other related genres.

01. Kiksu (Original Mix)

02. Transmigration (Original Mix)

03. The Way we are

04. Feelings (Leon Bolier Remix)

05. Edge of Space (Whiteroom Remix)

06. Renaissance (Original Mix)

07. Orange

08. White Sand (Original Mix)

09. Above (Original Mix)

10. Shipwrecked (Mike Foyle vs. John O'Callaghan Club Mix)

11. Distant Planet (Menno de Jong Interpretation)

12. No Way Back (Original Mix)

13. Your Loving Arms (Club Mix)

14. Harmonic (Original Mix)

15. Dream Makers (Shog's 2 Faces Remix)

16. Allegoria

17.…

The following tracks were played in ASOT 253:

1) Transatlantic Flight (MHC Dub): From 2006 Columbia Records - To be released on 17th July 2006 by Sony BMG - house track. 2nd Smashing single from Norwegian electro-pop act Lorraine. Links: http://www.lorrainemusic.co.uk/?makeframe&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lorrainemusic.co.uk%2Fnews%2Findex.php and www.lorrainemusic.co.uk/news. A lighter melodic house number to begin with.

2) Bounty Island (DJ Shah's San Antonio Harbour mix): Featured in ASOT 252 - Nice, mellow track.

3) Secretly (Dub Mix): Tune of the Week for ASOT 252 - Featured in TATW with Above & Beyond #117 - vocal trance. One of my favourites…

Today I'd like to share with you three artists whose music deserves much wider recognition than they are now. Their music are very different from each other but shares the common element of originality and beauty. For those looking for some original and different kind of music, I request such people to give these artists a listen and send your feedbacks here.

1) Metricks - an electronic musician from Portugal, he's making music since 1993. Primarily of ambient/IDM kind, his music also incorporates breakbeat, strange tunes, divergent beat strokes and vocal distortions to create an original sound. He's also collaborated…

Here's the line-up:
1st hour - ASOT 250 Intro & Ableton mix
2nd hour - Jonas Steur
3rd hour - M.I.K.E.
4th hour - John Askew
5th hour - Armin van Buuren
7th hour - Rank 1
8th (last) hour - Menno de Jong.
I missed the 1st hr., but managed to catch Jonas, Mike, John and a little bit of AVB (it was 4am, had to sleep). So, missed Rank and Menno :-(

Armin Van Buuren Pres. A State Of Trance Episode 250 XXXX LIVE From Club ASTA In The Hague (Netherland)
Here's the playlist (so far):

1st Hour:…

There are so many good artists in new age, chillout, ambient, lounge, electronica, world music and fusion categories whose music I like that it's virtually impossible to name all of them at one point. Some artists are quite famous, while some not so. Here are some of my favourites:

1)Schiller - German duo Schiller's music combines dance with chill-out leading to an emotional dreamy kind of feel to it. Favourite albums are Zeitgeist (1999) and Weltreise (Voyage) (2001). Favourite tracks include Die Wirklichkeit, Das Glockenspiel, Die Nacht… Du Bist Nicht Allein, and many others.

2) Secret Garden - Irish…