VOCAL TRANCE

Vocal trance is a subgenre of trance music, and contains highly melodic sessions, intro/outros which are similar to those of hard trance and tracks of usually about 6 to 8 minutes long. The sub-genre goes back to the early 1990s, when trance was still developing, and vocals have gone onto become a staple of trance. Although many early trance records used vocal samples mixed in with the beats(including Dance 2 Trance's "We Came in Peace," the first song to be referred to as "trance"), the earliest examples of the style appeared in 1992/93 One of, if not the first example of the sub-genre was Dance 2 Trance's "P.ower Of A.merican N.atives"[1], which came out in 1992. Another defining track was Jam & Spoon's "Right in the Night"[2], which was released in 1993.

A typical track consists of three elements. At the beginning of the track there is an intro of progressive beats, which lasts about 1-3 minutes. The melodic part (2-5min) starts incrementally, combining vocals, usually female, and melodic sound (for the most part high pitched and fast) with the bass pattern to give a great melody cycle. Finally when the outro is approaching, the melody fades out and we get the same rhythm as the intro, usually with some minor changes. Although later tracks have become much less formulaic.

Vocal trance is popular listening in Europe, notably Germany, Sweden, Netherlands, Belgium and Great Britain. The term "vocal trance" is closely related to uplifting trance, Uplifting house, Progressive trance and Progressive house.

Vocal Trance is part of Eurodance, as the term used by the Europeans. For the USA fans, the term Eurodance is more associated with eurohouse and other 90s commercial dance music styles.

Viacom UK (MTV UK, MTV Dance) tried in 2002 the term Euro-Trance, for various non UK trance music imports. A great deal of them, were Vocal Trance hits from Belgium (Ian Van Dahl, Lasgo, Sylver, Milk Inc) and Germany. Many UK fans separates those Vocal Trance hits and call them Euro-trance.

UPLIFTING TRANCE

Uplifting trance, is a term to describe 3 different music styles, all subgenre of trance music. The first use of the term, emerged in the wake of progressive trance in the late 1990s. Characterized by extended chord progression in all elements (lead synth, bass chords, treble chords), extended breakdowns, and relegation of arpeggiation to the background while bringing wash effects to the fore. The term used for a while to describe epic trance to UK's market, and that created for a short while a terminology mess.

During the 00s, the term used in Europe to describe some non UK-based commercial trance acts, like Brooklyn Bounce, Darude, Sandstorm, etc. Many UK fans call those acts "Uplifting House", but that leads to another mid/late 90s European house music style, so better avoid it. Also in the UK, the term used to market European imports of commercial hardtrance acts, when they had attitude on the music videos and any kind of vocals in a non vocal trance way.

The term also used (a third time!) during the early 00s (and keeps today), on the psy trance/goa trance scene.

There is a close relation between Uplifting Trance and Uplifting House. Faster BPM is trance, less is house.

TECH TRANCE

Tech Trance is a sub-genre within electronic music that draws upon the Techno and Trance genres as the name suggests. Tech Trance was pioneered by Oliver Lieb in the mid 90's. Other early Tech Trance producers are Humate, Chris Cowie and Marmion. Tech Trance later took a new turn in the early 2000 when producers such as Marco V and Randy Katana sprung out as the leading Dutch Tech Trance producers. This new Tech-Trance focused less on the Techno elements and more on a higher commercial value. This appealed to several Trance DJs such as Ferry Corsten, Tiesto, and Armin van Buuren, who each started incorporating Tech Trance into their sets.

Tech Trance incorporates traditional elements of Techno, with its repetitive nature and strong 4/4 beat, while deriving the melodic elements from Trance. Tech Trance compositions tend to have a tempo of around 135-150 Beats per minute. Tech Trance tends to utilize a more driving sound while commonly using distortion as an effect on the melodies. Commonly, the melody containing strings and pads will begin once the beat has completely stopped, playing by itself much like a Trance breakdown. This melody will suddenly stop, leaving the drums and a completely different synth to begin, whereas Trance songs would generally continue with the same melody. The synths are short, repetitive and contain less note changes than Trance, often having the same note played in an interesting sequence. For an example, see Sam Sharp's "Deep".

While breakdowns and builds within a song are important elements of many electronic genres, they are less prevalent in Tech Trance. As a result, more abrupt stops and starts are used to increase the effect of sudden changes within the music. Vocals are also quite rare within the Tech Trance genre, with only short phrases or single words normally incorporated. Tech Trance is currently quite an underground genre, but is growing in popularity due to its hard-edged nature and growing list of producers.

PROGRESSIVE TRANCE

Progressive in the context of modern dance music (occasionally progressive electronic dance music or prog) is a term that includes a collection of electronic dance music genres which draw upon the use of progressive performing techniques and includes the styles of progressive trance, progressive house, progressive techno and progressive breaks.

Most electronic dance music tracks released are produced with certain features that are favourable for DJs to beatmatch records together seamlessly. Unlike the song structures of genres like hard house or Hi-NRG, the peaks and troughs in a progressive dance track tend to be more subtle. Layering different sounds on top of each other and slowly bringing them in and out of the mix is a key idea behind the progressive movement.

Today, the term "progressive" typically refers to the structure of a track which occur incrementally, though there are other uses for the term: progressive trance usually refers to a type of trance music that features a less prominent lead melody and focuses more on atmosphere, and in the case of progressive house, the term "progressive" can also refer to the style's open mindedness to bring in new elements to the genre. These elements can be a variety of sounds, such as a guitar loop, computer generated noises, or other elements typical of other genres. Progressive electronic is also a term for a sub-genre in new age music and contains elements of progressive rock, classical music and ambient music and electronic music. It has been used to describe artists such as Vangelis and Jean Michel Jarre.

HARD TRANCE

Hard Trance originated in Germany in the early to mid-90's and is one of the earliest forms of trance. It was one of the most common forms of Trance throughout the decade, characterized by strong kicks, with a very dry and heavy sound. Now it is much more rare compared to other forms of Trance and House music, but still has a close fanbase in Japan, Germany, and other parts of Europe.

CYBER TRANCE

Cyber Trance is a subgenre of music derived from trance music.

Cyber Trance is related to and contains influences of Hard Trance, and Epic Trance. It is a relatively new form of trance music.

ACID TRANCE

Acid trance is a style of trance music that emerged in the late '80s early '90s focusing on utilising the acid sound. The trademark sound of "acid" is produced with a Roland TB-303 by playing a sequenced melody while altering the instrument's filter cutoff frequency, resonance, envelope modulation, and accent controls. This real-time tone adjustment was not part of the instrument's original intended operation. Acid trance is the best known form of trance music in Belgium. The form was first showcased at the popular Antwerp Rave 24 in Belgium, and has created four national number one singles in the country since.

A descendant of acid house, since the genre of trance had not yet been invented during the advent of acid house (or acidhouse).

The first volumes of Trancemaster compilations contains a few tracks in acid trance style, just as classic trance tracks. The difference is, while acid trance tracks focus more on the changing TB-303 lines, classic trance (e.g. Dance 2 Trance, Cosmic Baby, Age of Love & Jam & Spoon) tracks are more atmospheric, they use "softer" synth-lines, oftenly stings and other ambient music elements. The line between these two styles is quite blurred, they also emerged about the same time.

infected mushrooms!

Infected Mushroom (אינפקטד מאשרום) is an Israeli psychedelic trance duo which has attained significant popularity from the late 1990s to the present time (2007). Formed by Erez Eizen (also known as I.Zen) and Amit Duvdevani (also known as Duvdev) in the city of Haifa, located in the northern parts of Israel, the duo has garnered a large international fanbase. Infected Mushroom are known for their consistent sonic evolution exemplified by the subsequent albums The Gathering (1999), Classical Mushroom (2000), B.P. Empire (2001), Converting Vegetarians (2003), IM the Supervisor (2004), and Vicious Delicious (2007).

Members

Erez Eizen was born on September 8, 1980 and has early musical training; he learned to play the organ at age 4 and started studying piano in the Haifa Conservatory at the age of 8. At age 11 he started toying with computerized music, first using Impulse Tracker, later moving to more advanced musical composition software. By the age of 18, Erez had collaborated with DJ Jörg and other notable psytrance artists, and had released 3 albums and a multitude of tracks under different psytrance acts (including Shidapu and Shiva Shidapu).

Amit Duvdevani was born on November 7, 1974 and has a similar musical background. He played the piano for 9 years, starting at the age of 7, before taking a turn towards heavy metal and punk rock. Amit played keyboard and wrote most of the material for a local Haifa punk rock band known as Enzyme. Amit went to his first trance party in 1991, a week before being conscripted into the Israeli army (where he was first nicknamed Duvdev). He has more than once described this experience as life changing - from that time onwards all he could think of was trance music. After he finished his mandatory service, Amit spent a year in India (primarily in Goa), and finally decided to make music himself. He collaborated with a member of Shidapu on 4 tracks but never actually released them.

In 1998, Eizen and Duvdevani began playing together. At first they released a few tracks as Shidapu & Duvdev. These tracks were 'happier' and of the simpler side of trance. Later on, they formed the duo Infected Mushroom and started working on their first album. The name Infected Mushroom was chosen to commemorate a disbanded (1989 to 1993) punk rock band of the same name, which Amit had admired.

Guitarists Tom Cunningham and Erez Netz joined in 2004 - Tom plays with Infected Mushroom in the United States, while Erez Netz plays the rest of their gigs. Netz is a famous guitarist from Israel, and he opens their live shows with some electric guitar exhibition - playing with his mouth. As of 2007, Infected Mushroom has also brought in Brazilian percussionist Rogério Jardim to play drums and percussion during their shows.

Infected Mushroom's newest album - "Vicious Delicious" has sparked controversy among many fans who claim that the band "has progressively gotten lighter and more poppy"^{[citation needed]}.

whatz Trance...

Trance is a style of electronic music that developed in the 1990s. Trance music is generally characterized by a tempo of between 130 and 150 bpm, featuring repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and down throughout a track, it often features crescendos and/or breakdowns. Sometimes vocals are also utilized. The style is arguably derived from a combination of largely electronic music such as ambient music, techno, and house. 'Trance' received its name from the repetitious morphing beats, and the throbbing melodies which would presumably put the listener into a trance-like state. As this music is almost always played in nightclubs at popular vacation spots and in inner cities, trance can be understood as a form of club music.