John De La Mora shares his thoughts, emotions, ideas and planning behind each week's episode of the TRANCE NATION RADIO SHOW & PODCAST.

September 10, 2009 Chicago, USA

Hello, friends around the world.

I am trying, I am trying. To write more often, that is.

I wanted to speak this week about interviews. I have been conducting interviews lately with some of the biggest names in trance as they come to play in Chicago. In recent weeks I have interviewed: Kyau & Albert, John O'Callaghan, Topher Jones, and Ferry Corsten.

These interviews are for the Trance Nation Radio Show and will appear in upcoming episodes. The first of these interviews, with John O'Callghan will appear in Trance Nation Episode 118.

Additional upcoming interviews include: Sander van Doorn, Sasha, John Digweed, and hopefully - Armin van Buuren & Tiesto. I will do all I can to get exclusive Trance Nation interviews for you, our loyal listeners.

Peace. Love. Unity. Respect.

John

March 30, 2009 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

Wow. How time flies! It's been far too long since I've entered my thoughts here on John's Diary. Life conspired against me time-wise, but I've gained the upper leg ;)

The 2 big pieces of news at the moment are that we are fast approaching Episode 100 of the Official Trance Nation Podcast, and to celebrate this milestone we are holding a Trance Nation Episode 100 Party at club Edelfettwerk in Hamburg!

The event will feature myself spinning trance alongside the legendary Heller & Enkie. Our sets will be recorded to be aired in a future episode of the Official Trance Nation Podcast.

So I hope to many of our listeners, especially from across Europe there that night!!

Music-wise, this week's show will be a masterpiece set of gorgeous and amazing new tech trance. I was up late last night mixing the show, then I listened to it in my iPod as I drifted off to sleep. I was in a trance for sure!!

Peace. Love. Unity. Respect.

-John

December 04, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

Tech trance & euphoria. That's what we serve up in this week's show.

I've admired Darren Tate's work since his track "Destination" many years ago (a track which eventually will be featured in Trance Nation). Many of his productions in recent times begin without beats, making them nice for an intro track. "I Would Die For You" begins in this fashion and has a great tech trance feel.

And what a gorgeous euphoric melody we later experience in this week's episode with Barry Jay - Afterflow. This will sound amazing in your iPod or mp3 player, especially with your eyes closed, especially at night, especially in bed.

Ah Good God! How I love trance!

And Leon Bolier turns in a fantastic tech trance remix this week of "Cicada" from China's Jamaster A. Great stuff indeed.

Looking ahead to next week's show we will be going high energy and power trance with massive new music in store for our listeners.

-John

November 27, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

After originally planning on featuring tech trance this week, there was an onslaught of progressive house and deep trance at the last minute which convinced me to go that direction instead.

And what a killer way to kick off this week's show: Cali Girl - Estrellas (M.I.K.E. Remix). (Estrellas means stars in Spanish) - another track in recent times that has a very old school trance type of feel. It doesn't go with the slick (and sometimes formula) type of trance production sound. Sounds and patterns and sequences come and go, come and go with a fabulous melody and riff to great effect. Fantastic.

Marco V follows Cali Girl with his recent track called "Coma Aid". Another production that shies away from formula, cookie cutter arrangements. Marco V typically produces techno which many (if not most) trance DJ's and shows might pass on, but trance came from techno so it's very nice for me in the Trance Nation Podcast to remember our roots and go with cool electronic sounds without euphoric buildups and breakdowns. "Coma Aid" however is straight up tech trance, and has a breakdown with some of the most beautiful strings we've heard all year.

Later in the show I did not plan to feature a total of 4 vocal tracks but that's the way this episode came together and it worked out great.

Looking ahead to next week's show we'll be moving up in speed to feature some massive new tech trance.

-John

November 20, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

After going high energy and about the fastest speed that Trance Nation goes last week we changed things up and dramatically slowed things down this week as we featured gorgeous new progressive house & deep trance.

We featured gorgeous vocal tracks by Carmen Rizzo ft Jem, Above & Beyond Pres. Oceanlab, and Deadmau5 & Kaskade. Very dreamy tracks.

I've received many requests in recent weeks to play Wippenberg's new track called "Chakalaka" which is certainly a second half highlight in electronic music this year. You asked and Trance Nation delivered.

Looking ahead to next week's show we'll be moving up in speed to feature some massive new tech trance.

-John

November 13, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

After recovering from the flu this past week I jumped into this week's episode with full strength.

I sorted through many promos I had received in recent days and programmed massive new tracks from Duderstadt vs Store N Forward, Michael Splint and Michael Tsukerman.

I rediscovered the Simon Patterson track "Us" in my virtual crate and what an amazing track it is.

The high speed of this week's show is about as fast as Trance Nation usually goes.

Play it loud!

-John

November 6, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

Second looks & second chances. This is what I had in mind for this week's show.

There are only so many tracks that can be played in every episode of Trance Nation. Often it's a difficult decision as to which tracks get played and which tracks will be passed by for the moment. Some tracks remain in my recent memory to be played in an upcoming episode while other tracks are forgotten until I have the opportunity to take stock of my trance library.

Such is the case with many tracks this week: JFK & Genix - Die For You, Avaline ft. Yazmine Vigus - Stay, and Mr. Sam ft. Kirsty Hawkshaw - Insight. All of these tracks I recently rediscovered and made it a mission to program in Trance Nation when the opportunity presented itself. As for Oceanlab - Satellite, this of course as most trance enthusiasts know is one the all time classics of our genre. In the case of this track, I have many times attempted to program it in a high energy set of the Trance Nation Podcast yet it never quite fit perfectly. This week however it fell into place.

I found myself ill with the flu for most of this past week and when it came time to mix, record and edit episode 76 of Trance Nation it was difficult indeed. The chicken soup was flowing in the studio this week!

-John

October 30, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

"For those of you that love trance euphoria as much as we do - this episode's for you".

-John

October 23, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

Electro tech, tech trance & a classic - that's what I put together for this week's show.

Our electro tech track comes courtesy of the fabulous Locarnos from the U.K. They are making big waves at the moment with a very original crossover style. I found their track "Unlucky Strike" (G.e.R.m. Vocal Remix) to be the perfect opening for this week's episode.

Orjan Nilsen, Wezz & Fisher, & Bartless Bros. among other hot new tech trance follows. Massive respect for Gareth Emery for his brilliant remix of "Let It Flow". I was very excited to have learned that the Extravaganza label had made all of it's catalog available in digital form in the last 2 weeks. Afterburn - North Pole is a track on this label that I have respected for many years. It always floored me when I heard it so I was very excited to be able to program it a last in an episode of Trance Nation.

I also have great respect for Agnelli & Nelson, Michael Angelo, and Mirco De Govia in particular. All these very talented artists have featured tracks in this week's show.

-John

October 16, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

A great deal of new tech trance is featured in this week's show, including Push - Trance Indicator (Plastic Boy Remix). I have very fond memories of the Push track "Universal Nation". This track brings me back to glory days of Gatecrasher and the sort of Wild Wild West of trance when it first burst upon the world music scene. This "Trance Indicator" track from Push does itself have a very cool old school type of sound.

Trance as been in existence now for 10 years or so. I've heard that the factor in determining whether a new genre of music will continue to exist is if it lasts for a generation (25 years basically). I'm happy to say that trance is bigger, better and more beautiful than ever before.

Trance itself has multiple sub-genres now, with multitudes of new listeners and producers becoming part of the scene each and every day. I am beyond humbled to be presenting this worldwide show on a weekly basis. Your comments, emails & feedback are valuable.

Thanks for listening!

-John

October 09, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

I decided to program a great mix of progressive house & neo trance for this week's episode of Trance Nation. The response has been mostly positive and we appreciate that!

Lutzenkirchen, Sasha, Zoo Brazil & Bobina (among others) - the work of these very talented producers does not often appear in Trance Nation because of the usual style and speed of their productions, but I aim to paint with a broad palette when it comes to this show that I love and put my heart and soul into.

Not everything that is worth listening to in electronic music is high energy, high speed or euphoric. There is an absolute gold mine of quality music and productions in the progressive house side of things. Trance Nation aims to be unique and introduce great new sounds to our listeners.

Looking ahead to next week's show we will be featuring some hot new tech trance and a much sought-aftered masterpiece.

-John

October 02, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

For this week’s episode I decided to put together a set of tracks I have very much wanted to program in recent weeks but because of the 60 minute time frame of The Trance Nation Podcast these tracks were not included in recent episodes.

We go all high energy and power this week with euphoria along the way. The brilliant producer SHato from Slovakia presented us with a copy of his hot new single called, “Your Heart” which fantastically opens this week’s show. There are several remixes of John Huijber’s track, “The Day Before” and I’ve wished to play a few of them in Trance Nation. For this episode I selected the Icone Remix for it’s immense energy.

One of the top tracks of the second half of 2008 is Airbase featuring the vocals of Floria Ambra – Denial, which I played the original of several episodes back. This week we feature the new Airbase Remix. Very cool indeed. The man that has nailed down the trance buildup and breakdown like almost no other – Daniel Kandi appears in 2 tracks this week. First providing the remix of Amurai vs. Static Blue – After The Sunrise, and later providing the remix for Sunny Lax – Blue Bird. Fantastic work.

And I was deeply excited to feature a track this week by Lost Witness (vs. Pierre Pienaar) – Sanguine (Michael Angelo & Jim Mix). The classic track by Lost Witness called, “Happiness Happening” is one of the all time trance masterpieces, whose lyrics so perfectly sum up and epitomize the trance experience and trance euphoria on the dance floor. I will certainly try to feature this classic in an upcoming episode of Trance Nation.

Until next week,

John

September 25, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

Disillusioned.

That's how I feel when I look at the current state of world affairs: Wars, rumors of wars, starvation, corruption, faux economic distress and depression, greed & selfishness.

Now more than ever I enjoy to lose myself in the beauty that is Trance.

We have some nice euphoria in this week's show from Melodia - Motion Theory (North Star Remix), Static Blue & Fast Distance - Floating World (Saint Rush Mix), Tritonal - Sentient Blue (Original Mix) (this being another track in recent times with little bass - a trend forming perhaps?) and Airbase - Tangerine.

Trance Euphoria is a wondrous thing indeed.

And Bart Claessen & Dave Schiemann deliver a most unusual, tribal trance sounding track this week with "Madness" (I Prefer This Mix).

Next week we'll be going towards the top of the trance BPM ladder with massive energy and power!

Big love and thanks to all of our listeners who voted for myself and the other fantastic Trance Nation DJ's in the 2008 DJ Magazine Top 100 DJ's Poll.

-John

September 18, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

I was able to program many promos that I had received in recent days in this week's episode of Trance Nation.

Joop - 3008, Alan O'Marshall - Time Bandit, Alexander Popov - Awakening and Derelict - Another Day were all hot new tracks that worked extremely well with this show which begins at a nice mid speed and then increases in tempo as time progresses.

We finish this week with Sindre Eide - Only When I Sleep. I programmed the original several weeks back and it was nice to program this Estiva Tech Remix as our closing track.

Looking ahead to next week we continue to up the tempo.

-John

September 11, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

Music.

I listen to it most of the day almost every day. If I am not listening to tracks that I am considering for Trance Nation then I might be checking out some other DJ’s shows and sets. Sometimes I even have drum n bass playing in the background while I am working.

And typically it takes several days of work for each episode to come together. This week however I had almost no time. I was offered to DJ some gigs in suburban Chicago this past Friday & Saturday at the last minute and much time and effort was spent preparing for that.

Fast forward to a hazy, blurry, exhausted Sunday morning awakening.

Each episode of Trance Nation must be completed and uploaded by Sunday evening Chicago time for Monday’s airing on Dance Radio Greece. With no time to spare and with God as my guide and inspiration I sorted through and made sense of an enormous number of tracks for possible inclusion in this week’s show. There was no time to rehearse, backtrack or make corrections. It was time to record, mix and make it all happen. No pressure, right? :D

At the end of the day the 60 minutes of Trance Nation Episode 68 came to be 20 minutes of deep and moving music – deep as the ocean, followed by 20 minutes of banging tech trance, followed by 20 minutes of deep euphoria to close things out.

My voice was shot from screaming for 2 consecutive nights. This is how you speak to others and others speak to you over the loud music in a club or bar. This is why there were no announcements or track ID’s made by me other than the opening and closing greetings in this week’s episode.

Looking ahead to next week – we continue to up the tempo.

-John

September 04, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

I decided this week would be good to present a set of neo trance & progressive house, with some electro elements along the way.

There was much happening in my life behind the scenes of Trance Nation involving a possible move to a new home this past week and weekend. It did not happen but all the time and energy involved in that was draining and it was great to immerse myself in this week’s episode.

I typically have about a dozen or so tracks that I will consider to use every week but I have received an enormous amount of promos in recent weeks at this slower progressive house speed. When I readied myself to program this week’s set I had more than 30 new tracks to consider. It can be a difficult process selecting tracks and eliminating tracks. Even if a track is new or incredibly beautiful or powerful – it must fit in the set and in the mix. I won’t allow myself to program something just because it is great in itself.

So an enormous amount of time and work went into programming this week’s show, much more time and energy than in a typical week.

Standout tracks from Trance Nation Episode 67 include Andy Duguid ft Leah – Wasted (Ilya Malyuev Remix), a very beautiful, tranquil and almost American country music-sounding track in some ways to me; OneWorld – Isla Blanca (Original Mix), which has a very summery, beach kind of feel to it, and Above & Beyond Pres. OceanLab – Miracle (Martin Roth Vocal Remix). I cut over to the Martin Roth Dub Mix at 57:59 of the show and we finish nicely with that.

Looking forward to next week we will be upping the tempo and energy with some gorgeous new productions.

-John

August 28, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

And God said – Let There Be Trance.

And there was trance.

I deeply feel that trance was divinely inspired at a very particular time to counter the widespread popularity of negative hip-hop music.

As hip-hop is negative – trance is positive.

As hip-hop is ugly – trance is beautiful.

As hip-hop is all about “me” – trance is about Peace, Love, Unity & Respect.

No greater example can be given for the positive vibe that is trance than the opening track in this week’s show: Rene Ablaze Pres. Fallen Skies – Stealin' Love (Original Solid Mix). Without a single lyric the majesty and love and positive power is revealed and conveyed. I must have listened to this set at least 20 times by the time of this writing and I am still amazed at the euphoria of this opening track. You feel the reality of this – that you are capable of achieving all that you dream if you only work hard and dismiss all the haters and negative people in your life who try to keep you down and pull you down and make you feel ashamed of your goals and dreams.

All this is felt without a single lyric.

There’s no talk or boasting of money, drugs, sex (mistakenly portrayed as love), violence, murder, etc.

Pure.

Trance is pure.

There is simply nothing else in this world like it.

Long live trance. 

-John

August 21, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

Massive Trance Thunder – this is what I set out to create for our listeners when producing this week’s show.

We reach the higher speeds of trance every few weeks on Trance Nation and I really look forward to it. We have hard trance/borderline techno this week from Reaky, Vortechtral, and Darkrow & C-System. Truly wall-shaking tracks. I think my neighbors below me here at the studio in Chicago can testify to this ;)

We feature a brilliant, uplifting track from A.M.R this week called “Sunset Beach”. I received this track as the B-side of a promo a few weeks back. Now, my close friends and family know that I am not the most organized person in the world. What the original A-side of this promo track was, or where is it and what happened to it I do not know. But some things are just meant to be because “Beach Sunset” is magnificent and truly one of the highlights of this week’s episode.

I was surprised to realize that we’ve never featured a track by Paul van Dyk in Trance Nation thus far so I was really pleased to feature this week the gorgeous Jon O’Bir remix of “Castaway”, Paul’s new track featuring the brilliant vocals of Lo-Fi Sugar. What a vocal performance by her!

We follow that with a dynamic duo as Simon Patterson & Sean Tyas team up for the amazing “Somethin’s Up” – one of many tracks that will fly you through the skies this week if you close your eyes.

- John

August 13, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

The human voice is in fact a musical instrument.

But unlike other musical instruments that sound the same no matter what time of the day or night in which they are played – the human voice sounds best at midday. If it is to be recorded it cannot be recorded in the morning before one’s vocal chords have warmed and before one has eaten food and drink, and it cannot be recorded in the late afternoon or evening because one’s vocal chords have tired and weakened by then. For the truly best vocal recordings the human voice needs to be recorded during midday and only during midday.

In the production of this week’s show I encountered many challenges with the volume and over compression of tracks and this affected the schedule for recording my voice and announcements and I was forced to record them in the very late evening. Therefore if my voice sounds tired – this is the behind the scenes reason of why ;)

Onto the music. 

I’ve been wanting to play Stoneface & Terminal’s track “Endorphine” for a few weeks in Trance Nation but the timing for any track has be right and each track certainly has to fit in each week’s set. I don’t necessarily play a new track simply because it is a new track. And with this week’s show, “Endorphine” was the perfect opening track. I still favor the more laidback and dreamy, “Pictures” from their current album but “Endorphine” rocks as well. I followed that with an extremely hot new promo I received a mere 2 hours before this week’s show went into production: Alex Losy – Mens Rea (Fabio Stein Electric Mix). This track recently caused havoc on the dancefloor when played in Brazil.

The track with no bass – this is essentially what we have at the midpoint of this week’s show with Leon Bolier & Joop ft. Denise Rivera – Hold On (Ali Wilson Tekelec Dub). Ali was one of Judge Jules’ hot tips for 2008 earlier in the year. And I really enjoy his tech sound – a very hot sound at the moment and this summer. But why this track has little to no bass is a mystery. You will notice the bass seemingly disappear when we crossfade into “Hold On” and then reappear when we crossfade out of it and into Sander Van Doorn – Pura Vida. But it’s an excellent production nonetheless.

It’s been a while since we had some techno type productions in Trance Nation so I was very glad to be able to program both Chris De Seed – Menthal Deep and Mac & Taylor – Sub Limit 2, back to back. These certainly sound killer on a loud system! And we closed the show this week with a track I had intentions of using as an opening track a few weeks ago: Andrelli & Blue – Desires. The acoustic-sounding drumbeats at the start of this track are very refreshing to hear, and when the 4/4 dance drum kicks in – bliss.

We’ll be going uplifting and power trance for the next 2 episodes – so stay tuned!

-John

August 07, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

For this week’s show I did not have the intention of creating it to be heavy on tech trance but there is just so much quality tech trance being released this summer. It’s really quite remarkable. There is no escaping it or denying it. This sound is very hot right now.

I received a promo copy of our opening track: Super 8 & Tab – Elektra, both the Bart Claessen & Dave Schiemann Remix as well as the Original Mix. It’s the Claessen & Schiemann Remix that I went with. It really is a gorgeous track filled with beauty & energy. All week I was listening to this episode in my iPod and saying to myself “Wow, this track sounds incredibly similar to Remo-Con’s track “Cold Front”, a track which I played ages ago in Trance Nation. And only today I realized why: Bart Claessen also did a brilliant and dreamy remix of that track as well!! Love it!!

Later in the set we hear Mr. Sam vs. Human Resource – Dominator (Original Mix). This is Mr. Sam’s new remix of a monster techno classic. No doubt the original will forever be played in techno circles. This Mr. Sam remix was played heavily recently at Dance Valley. Awesome indeed.

Dazzle is establishing himself as a major force in trance this year. In episode 61 we featured his track "Chaos Theory". This week we feature his track "Backwards" (Re-Ward Mix). And we’ll be featuring still yet another killer release from Dazzle in the coming weeks. Nice work, Dazzle!!

I decided to close this week by stepping off the tech train and crossing over and finishing on an uplifting note. This is provided by Lemon & Einer K with their impressive remix of Markus Schulz vs Andy Moor – Daydream. All in all I really love this set from start to finish. May it move you!!

-John

July 31st, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

After going high energy for the last 2 shows we went deeper and slower this week to a place where deep and neo trance, progressive house & electro cross paths.

It’s not very often that we feature a breakbeat track in Trance Nation, in fact this week marks only the 3^rd time in 62 episodes that we’ve featured a breakbeat track. The previous 2 times they were tracks by Moby & DJ Remy, so this week Germany’s Blank & Jones find themselves in great company. We began with their track, “Consequences” featuring the vocals of Vanessa Daou and taken from their current album, “The Logic of Pleasure”. This track knowingly or unknowingly pays homage to the Latin Freestyle sound of the 1980’s which was wildly popular in Chicago, New York & Florida at that time and still remains popular on these streets. 

Following this opening track we jumped straight into progressive electro with 4 Clubbers – Try And Try. It was nice to play this super remix by Future Breeze who seemed to have disappeared in recent years. Three Drive’s classic track “Greece 2000” makes an appearance later in the set with Chris Reece providing this brilliant remix from an immensely large remix package from many producers. This track to me will always symbolize summer and therefore we might feature an alternate new remix of  “Greece 2000” in upcoming episode of Trance Nation.

We followed that with Dave Darell – Children. This is the massive new remix/remake of the classic by Roberto Milano, better known as Robert Miles. I would definitely say that Pet Shop Boys laid the foundations for what would later evolve into trance but it was Robert Miles who, with “Children” created the first true trance track.

I mentioned in a past John’s Diary entry that I pay no attention to reviews of tracks. This track is a perfect example of why. When I first heard this track online, the short editorial review of this track from the online shop said, “Zero points for originality”. But to me and my ears this track was brilliant, in a style popularized by Deadmau5 and Glenn Morrison among others. And apparently I wasn’t alone in my enthusiasm over this track as at the moment it is top 5 across the board and blowing up all over Ibiza. There is an alternate Club Mix of this track that has a harder beat but it’s a bit too funky for Trance Nation. The Original Mix hits the mark.

We hit a deeply trippy stretch when we reach the tracks, Marcel Woods – Beautiful Mind 2008 followed by Mr. Pit – Shana. One could very easily call this stretch Music For Making Love. We closed this week’s set with the power and beauty of Sindre Eide – Only When I Sleep.

It has been an exciting few weeks behind the scenes here at Trance Nation as we have been adding new stations to our radio network left and right. I am humbled, honored and privileged to bring you this show every week.

Looking ahead to next week we will up the tempo and kick it up a notch.

-John

July 24th, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

Trance is one of those amazing sub-genres of dance music that has a beautifully wide bpm spectrum. It can go as high as the low to mid 140 bpm range and as deep as the 128-130 bpm range. With the Trance Nation Podcast I aim to cover it all and present the best tracks across this wide spectrum. Trance is also one of those styles of music whose listeners are highly passionate about it. Trance listeners, trance lovers, trance enthusiasts, trance addicts - whatever you want to call us (and I am all of these) we each have our preference of style of trance.

There are those who only like the harder styles that border on techno. Then there are those who shy away from the harder styles and gravitate towards the deeper, more progressive house and neo trance styles. Then there are those who go for the mid-speed tech sounds. Then there are those who mainly go for vocal trance, and there are those who favor the euphoric and uplifting style. For these reasons Trance Nation incorporates all styles of this wonderful music we call trance.

This week's show is a high energy set with much of what I like to call, "Power Trance".

I feel that the 2 most important tracks in a set are always the opening and closing tracks. The opening track sets the mood and the closing track should be extremely beautiful and/or powerful. Nivaya & Gorki's track "Thoughts Washed Away" begins with high energy right at the start and has a brilliant melody and breakdown - 2 very important things I always look for. The 2nd track, Temple One - Aurora, I received recently as part of a 4-track promo package. But in my opinion upon listening to all 4 tracks I noticed what appeared to be large amounts of high volume distortion in these tracks from start to finish. I was puzzled by this.

I instantly liked Aurora and wanted to program it in Trance Nation but the apparent distortion was troubling. When the track was officially released I then purchased it thinking that perhaps the distortion I was hearing on the promo tracks was possibly because these files were not the final mastered tracks. But to my surprise the distortion appears even on the official release. So if you are noticing loud volume distortion on track 2 of this week's episode - that's how this track was released. But even still - the emotion and melody is brilliant!

I do not shy away from more harder-edged tracks or even techno type tracks. When you're jamming to this sound in your car or on your iPod it can be quite a rush. So Paul Webster - Cut Off and Charlie G - Synchronicity both work extremely well in this episode. I also featured the new track, "Lost In London" by the Minneapolis-based duo of David & Carr whose star is quickly rising. And Jon O'Bir turned in a nice remix of Captured Sun's track, "Inherent Condition" to close this week's show. This track is released on Jon's own Conspiracy Recordings label.

Looking ahead to next week we'll be going deep where deep trance, progressive house, minimal & electro all meet and cross paths. It will be great.

- John

July 17th, 2008 - Chicago, U.S.A.

IN THE MIX

After going full-on tech in last week's show I decided to get back to euphoric trance in this week's show.

I often sleep with trance sets playing at a low volume in my home studio. It helps me to dream, it helps to inspire me, and even though I am listening subconsciously at this time - I often awake when there is a beautiful and moving euphoric breakdown playing. I will sometimes spring up in bed in the middle of the night when I hear and feel this rush of euphoria and I will pound my fists in the air and silently shout, "Yes! Yes!".

And even though in Trance Nation I will program trance across the board: euphoric, tech, electro, progressive, progressive house, minimal, even techno at times - I am always most excited to play the euphoric style.

I was fortunate to receive an advance promo copy in my inbox of Above & Beyond's new single called "Miracle" from their forthcoming album. I absolutely knew I wanted to program this track as either the first or last track in this week's show. And after listening to this week's episode when it was completed and hearing how perfect "Miracle" closed this week's set I simply could not imagine it anywhere else in the set - not the beginning, not the center, not along the way. It belongs where it is in this week's episode.

We also featured the brand new Ehren Stowers track called "Icarus" as well as A/B Project's latest release on Mondo Records called "Relentless". Their Myspace headline says, "Uplifting trance as it should be" and certainly the melodic breakdown on this track is one of the most beautiful I have heard all year.

It is always a challenge to edit Trance Nation down to exactly 60 minutes in length so that the end of the last track finishes at precisely the end of the show. It can be a long and painstaking process to edit tracks so that the edits themselves are completely undetectable and unnoticeable. This week's show was no different but we strive for perfection with Trance Nation.

Until next week,

- John