Trance Nation

This week saw the release of the 2015 instalment of Ministry of Sound’s ‘Trance Nation’. Previous releases have featured UK acts Above & Beyond, Lange and Andy Moor and Europe’s Ferry Corsten, Cosmic Gate and Rank 1. Most recently, the series reached further afield still, with Egyptians Aly & Fila’s 2014 version. Now in 2015 Ministry welcome Simon Patterson to, in the words of MIXMAG, “the Super-Bowl of trance mix-comps”. 

Achieving both underground kudos and mainstream acclaim, Patterson is a DJ and producer who has earned his place on the global trance scene with an unbroken 17-strong run of Beatport Chart #1s. ‘Trance Nation Mixed By Simon Patterson’ features 36 tracks personally chosen and mixed by Simon, including seven global exclusives. Expect music from Armin van Buuren, Markus Schulz, Paul Oakenfold, Astrix, Sean Tyas and others, as well as the cream of the crop from trance’s Class of 2015.

Simon’s remix of ‘Fire In The House’ from indie-rockers Hard-Fi, his forthcoming MoS cut ‘Drop The Bass’ and five other tracks and reworks are also included. Label support includes Perfecto Fluoro, Enhanced, Armada, Black Hole Recordings and VANDIT.

Simon Patterson: “What I’d like people to experience from this album is the kind of journey you would get when I play an extended six or seven hour set at my ‘Open Up’ tour nights. As it begins, you get a little bit of tone through, which then expands and expands into a mass of sound, when the lid is finally cracked wide. This album is an insight into my broad electronic musical tastes and is a progressive build in the traditional (and very real) sense of the word.”
 
Disc 1 immediately puts that into sharp perspective with the electro-lining brio of Tyler Michaud’s ‘Life In The Breakdown Lane’ and the hard-yet-grooving ‘Future Past’ from Kyfu. Matt Heanes lends a Jimmy Somerville-like quality to Alistair Albrecht’s ‘Once More’ and there’s an equally distinctive vocal touch from Hard Fi’s Richard Archer on Simon’s kinetic remix-reformation of ‘Fire In The House’. He traverses between uplifting apparatus like Arjonas’ ‘Symbols’ & Alex Di Stefano’s ‘I’ve Got The Power’ and the seraphim vocals of Tiff Lacey (and remix punch of Markus Schulz) on Oakenfold’s ‘Hypnotized’. The first mix achieves full and final roof-removal with Patterson’s serrated rework of Armin van Buuren’s ‘Ping Pong’.

At the outset of the second disc Simon pulls on his ‘Psymon’ mask, taking the mix’s thread way out East, with the Goa-inflected turbulence of Gaudium’s ‘Wrong Theory’, Sonic Element’s ‘Evolve’, Astrix’s ‘Sapana’ and others. Patterson’s own ‘Drop The Bass’ and peak-time exclusive cuts from Eddie Bitar vs. Fady & Mina, Harmonic Rush and XGenic & Proyal keep it running on the red line. Reaching the crescendo, he drops male, female and vocoded vocalism with ‘The One’, ‘Time Stood Still’ and ‘Whites Of Her Eyes’.
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