Tranzy state of mind
Summer of 1995, on a trip to Eilat with my classmates. While on the bus I suddenly hear a wonderful banging rhythm. It's highly monotoneous, but somehow it completely enchants me.
This is it. This is the beginning of my neverending thirst for electronic music. It began with "Firedance" by "Odyssee of Noises" and with "Ola Pachanga" by El Sonido – and continued to a strange double-CD hard trance compilation.
At first, "TranceSylvania 3" sounded very weird, but it hypnotized me altogether. Some of these almost-robotic melodies, sounds old-fashioned to nowadays electronica fans: Moby – Hymn (European Edit), Alien Factory – Destiny, Sunbeam – Outside World, Pyrate – Bycance and others.
I began buying trance CDs like crazy, hoping to find that same wave which sent such violent pleasure in my body. After Hard Trance came Goa Trance, with its chill-out-like Indian influences.
One of the first Israeli trance groups – Astral Projection (former SFX) – created mainly Goa Trance, of which the best known was Dancing Galaxy. In their former incarnation, SFX, they created mainly psytrance tracks like Allah Acbar, Butterfly Trip, We Are Controlling Transmission, etc.
Than came a few Goa compilations of "Platipus Records", with Art of Trance – Orange, Union Jack – Red Herring and others. My Platipus "era" was quite unique, but when Goa started to sound too relaxed for my hard-style flavor, I moved on to Psychedelic Trance (Psytrance).
One of the most influential CDs of that genre, was "Trance Side of the Moon 3" – with Man With No Name – Floor-Essence (Dayglo Mix), Cenith X – Feel (Legend B Remix) and Triponas – Veg.
Somewhere between 1997 and 1999, I slowly began to notice the emergence of a new electronic genre in Israel – House. It was far more melodic compared to Trance, and had a slower beat rate (130 BPM on avarage, compared to 145 BPM in Trance).
My first House CD was an Israeli compilation – "House of Agnosia 3" – which today sounds very "trancy" to me. My second House compilation was also Made In Israel – "Party Time 7". So it became to be that my roots in House music were first seeded with Fridge – Paradise, Nebullar B – Liquid, Beam vs. Cyrus & The Joker – Launch In Progress and more.
The new millennium approached quickly, and since 2000/2001 I began going to clubs. At first I somehow got to those playing Dance music, but since 2002 I upgraded to more "hardcore" hangouts, which played House and a bit of Trance. During that period I downloaded lots of tracks via the DJ Offer Nissim forum.
A few years later, yet another electronic genre began to occupy space. It was called Electro, and I hated it from day one. Electro is characterized by monotoneous synthesizer-like melodies, very resembling the music of the 80s.
In that sense, Electro is retro music, but adapted to the 90s and 2000s. Although I didn't find anything good about it at first, eventually it grew on me. I learned to love it no less than House – and sometimes even more.
Today, when there are so many good music websites, I've stopped downloading music and started listening online. Excellent websites like Last.fm, Deezer.com, iMeem.com, we7.com, grooveshark.com and (of course) YouTube, allow me to get acquainted with more music than I`ve ever known.
Last.fm is unique among all those, because it allows one to discover new music, according to artist/band names. Using it, I probably heard hundreds of tracks, and I continue to find new music every now and than. Unfortunately, Last.fm is no longer free and requires a user-fee.
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