Back in stock: Trance

Review: It's relatively rare to find a record whose reworks have made a more significant impact on club culture than its original mix, but The Age of Love's eponymous debut single is definitely one of them. This purple vinyl reissue bundles the rework that made the track famous - Jam & Spoon's wondrous, mid-90s 'Watch Out For Stella' mix, which remains one of the most magical trance tracks of all time - with the 1990 original, a Belgian new beat oddity that nevertheless contains all of the key ingredients (plus some extra-dreamy pads and a bizarre rap vocal). We're also treated to a more recent update from heavy techno stars Charlotte De Witte and Enrico Sanguiliano that wraps the tracks trancey lead lines and raw TB-303 acid lines around a stomping, big room-ready beat.

Review: We could hardly believe it when last year we spotted that Cafe Del Mar has turned 30 years old already. It became an instant Ibiza classic as soon as it landed back in 1992 and has remained that way ever since. Now we get an equally vital part of trance music history - the one and only Paul Van Dyk - serving up his own new XOYO remix. It's a subtle tweak that brings more texture to the timeless original while emo techno pair Tale of Us blast in some white noise and bass rumbles to up the ante further for main room deployment.

Review: ***B-STOCK: Record sleeve damaged, product in working order***


It's all about the early 90s vibes on this 12" from Fauvre as four underground anthems from the era are revisited. Forty Wings Dynamo's 'Inversion' has a dubby, dreamy progressive house feel, its epic outlook and echoing percussion inevitably bringing Leftfield's first handful of 12"s to mind, before 'Raveolution' (Acid mix) brings a more jungle techno feel with sliced up breaks skittering around the four-to-the-floor kicks. Pedro Bertho's 'TOITOI' starts side two, nodding to Jaydee's 'Plastic Dreams' with its soulful keys creating magic over a simple, banging techno framework before COEO's 'Vertigo' gets to work with its proto-breakbeat beats and one utterly orgasmic breakdown. Well worth a step back in time.

Review: For all the Paul Oakenfold material we tend to burn through, it was only a matter of time before we reached Bunkka. Oakenfold's debut album, it was first released on the little-known Maverick label, but Oakenfold lived up to his patron's name, commenting at the time that - "I hope (my fans) realise that in any forms of music you need to push the boundaries." It's for that reason that Bunkka isn't just a straight-up trance record, instead working in more fashionable elements from styles that were also popular at the time, from big beat to trip-hop, perhaps helping prototype "psybient". Among its many collabs, even writer Hunter S. Thompson is credited on the track 'Nixon's Spirit', reflecting the full pull of Oakenfold's esoteric influences.

Review: Samuel Barber's 'Adagio For Strings' is a piece of music adored by the uplifting trance crowd and it's had its fair share of new versions over the years. One of the definitive though is surely Tiesto's version from his 2005 album Just Be, which now gets a pressing on Vinyl Classics in its original form and with an additional remix from Fred Baker. If you ever dreamed of owning this impeccable slice of trance history on wax, now is your chance to throw it on the platters and get those hands in the air like there's a crowd of thousands in front of you.

Review: Berlin collective Steyoyoke marks its 11th Anniversary with a ten-track release that features all new music from its fine roster of talent. Everything from ethereal techno to trance-tinged bangers is on offer here, starting with Soul Button's 'Qabila', a celestial and cinematic trip on widescreen and melodic grooves. Clawz Sg's 'Astir' is lit up with carefully sequenced synths over dramatic chord sweeps and elsewhere Monarke's 'Rewinding' explores a rueful but optimistic melodic techno landscape. This is music that is unafraid to wear its heart on its sleeve.