Search - Art of Trance :: Tales of the Unexpected

An absolute MUST BUY for either the trance or progressive ho

Doctor Trance | MA, United States | 10/25/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you enjoy both progressive house and trance, this will be one of your best purchases of the year. If you only like one or the other, you still should not hesitate to purchase this, as disc 1 is my 2nd best progressive house mix of this year, and disc 2 is my pick for 5th best trance mix '05 (see my listmanias).



All of a sudden, the theme this year seems to be trance DJ's attempting to mix in some progressive house and new sounds into their CD releases. I am curious to know why this is suddenly occuring. Could it be that the labels do not feel they sell well enough when they stick to one genre? I find it hard to believe that so many trance DJ's suddenly stood up in the last few months and wanted to incorporate new progressive house into their mixes.



Tiesto's mix was my least favorite at these new attempts with In Search of Sunrise 4, as he attempted to throw different trance styles along with progressive house onto the same CD, in the same mix. He did this on both discs, and both discs suffered. He also did not use a very good selection of tracks from either genre. Last year, Tall Paul's Live in Bulgaria was a hard house and trance blend, all on the same disc, which actually worked. Armin Van Buuren's State of Trance 2005 was all trance on disc 1, and techno and trance on disc 2, with disc 2 coming up short, but you still had a superb trance mix on disc 1.



Ferry Corsten's Creamfield's incorporates electro house and trance on disc 1 (trance only on the last few tracks) and then all melodic trance on disc 2. That mix and Tales of the Unexpected are the two best examples of mixes incorporating both dance styles this year. Tales of the Unexpected features some dark, progressive house on disc 1, and progressive and melodic trance on disc 2. This mix is a clear winner in both genres. For those who prefer deeper progressive stuff over electro house, you will most likely prefer this to Ferry's.



On this very unexpected Art of Trance release (which was actually out a few months ago in Europe) Disc 1 starts off with 3 nice progressive tracks, before getting into some female vocal tracks with tracks 4 & 5. Track 5 is an incredible Chab remix of the new Rokysopp tune, Only This Moment. I love this track, which is actually features male and female vocals. I haven't heard the original version, which is on Rokysopp's new album, but this dark progressive remix is stunning.



The entire disc is very strong, with some killer, and I mean KILLER tracks here, including Extraweit's stunning, dark instrumental Soopertrack, Max Graham's melodic Does She Know Yet, the hot vocal track I'll Kill You by Terry Grant, and the heavy percussion track This World by Slam featuring Tyrone Power. The only 2 tracks I don't like on this disc are the 2 by Chab! Funny, because one of the best on this disc is his Rokysopp remix!



Disc 2 starts off on your typical trance journey, with an incredible new track by Re:Locate. I don't think they have ever had a bad track yet. A solid blend of trance continues, and we hit a very popular track at nuimber 3, Piiska by AR52, it's a haunting new sound that's been getting tons of spins by DJ's lately. Orana Project's Blue Storm and F Concept's Open Your Mind are the standouts, with the latter being a storming vocal trancer with none other than Tiff Lacey on the mic. She has been a very busy girl lately, with new tracks for ATB and Lost Witness.



Things go techno at the end of disc 2, with the last 3 tracks, and the one I really don't like is Left Right Switch, which doesn't fit the theme of this CD mix at all, even though the last two tracks are very electro sounding (but good).



Overall, an excellent progressive blend with only 2 or 3 bad tracks throughout the 26 featured here. A very sound investment for trance and progressive house lovers, especially if you enjoy both."