Trance Stimuli Version 2.0
Various Artists Mixed by DJ Eddie Mix
Neurodisc
Let’s face it: trance music is just disco plus house plus short little synthesizer phrases that repeat and repeat and repeat and repeat until you’re hypnotized into a blind dervish frenzy. Trance is kind of the opposite of IDM – it attempts to bypass conscious thought altogether and get way down into that ass-shakin’ reptilian brain.
How successful is Miami-based DJ Eddie Mix, “the guide to what’s next in dance music culture,” at doing this? Well, pretty successful overall. He’s selected some real dope tracks that could pull a real Pied Piper thing on the dancefloor. John “00” Flemming’s “Free” is a great opener, and I think I hurt myself bouncing to “Ecuda” by Force 10. The tracks certainly flow together nicely, and if you have a house full of spacey dance freaks, Trance Stimuli Version 2.0 is going to kill.
But it’s not all sunshine here. It’s jarring when Pulsedriver’s “Cambodia” drops, because the cheesy anemic female vocals make the song sound for all the world like something from that Abba-dude musical Chess. It’s similar and not much better on tracks like Gigi Lav and Ben DJ’s “Forever Friends” or Night & Day’s “Let Me Go”–if we want a real “out there” experience, we don’t need no fakey singing interfering with our blissed-out head trip.
Overall: pretty great for dance parties. But as a listening experience: weighed down by cheese and not as trippy as some other trance comps out there.
