Intro to Trance by Ori Uplift: Beautiful Uplifting Trance, Vocal Trance, Progressive, Balearic Trance, & Chill-out




New to Trance?
Check out a couple
of my recs below
to grow acquainted
with the genre:
(All links keep you
within this webpage)

---------------------------------
1. Beautiful,
Energizing, & Repetitive:
Angel (Eteson&Nicky Dub)

---------------------------------
2. Uplifting Symphonic
Trance (Hard,
Repetitive-yet-Beautiful)
Everlasting (Original Mix)

[Skips intro (Skips first 2:32)]

Everlasting (Original Mix)
[Don't Skip Intro (long version)]

---------------------------------
3. Uplifting Symphonic:
Amnesia (SoundLift Remix)

---------------------------------
4. Video of a Concert
(Song is an Electro-y
Hard Electronica Anthem):
Elements of Life

---------------------------------
5. Yet More Anthem Trance:
5a. Old-School Soothing-yet
-Energizing Anthem:
Airwave

5b. Frenzied Euphoric
Fast Old-School (1990s)
Intense Uplifting Anthem:
Walhalla

---------------------------------
6. Uplifting Vocal Trance:
Just Be (Antillas Mix)

---------------------------------
7. Balearic Vocal Trance
(Sad/Reaffirming)
Lost (Original Chill Mix)

---------------------------------
8. Progressive Trance
(Harder, Multi-tempo Chill-Out):
Fake Awake (Blizzard
Remix)

---------------------------------
9. Uplifting Trance
(Electro-y & Latin-y):
Sounds Rushing (David
West Remix)

---------------------------------
10. Vocal Progressive Trance
(Laid-Back):
Punta Del Este (Beach
Mix)

---------------------------------
11. Vocal Trance
(Midtempo Melancholy):
Miracle

---------------------------------
12. Vocal Trance (Harder):
Falling
Everything (Cosmic Gate

Remix) Concert Video

---------------------------------
13. Progressive (fast & uplifting)
: (Wonderful Video of Penguins)
Make This Your Day
(Gareth Emery Dub Rmx)

---------------------------------
14. Vocal Anthem:
Nothing But You

---------------------------------
15. Brief Transitions:
Blossom (Lounge Mix)
In the Past

---------------------------------
16. Chill-Out Balearic Trance:
Sunny Tales (Original)

---------------------------------
17. Trance Downtempo
God Surrounds Us


Welcome to the Intro to Trance Webpage by Ori Uplift

Trance is one of the most popular and beloved forms of music around the world, but it is not well known in the US.

How popular? One weekly trance radio show has 30 million listeners a week (making it the most listened-to radio show in the world), and another I listen to has 21 million listeners a week. It's that popular! Despite the genre's relative obscurity in the US, one originally&still-partly-trance DJ (Tiesto) has over 4.2 million fans on Facebook & there an internet radio station that plays his music 24 hours a day 7 days a week. DJs have had over a million people in attendance at single concerts in such places as Brazil, and the Olympic Committee chose a Tiesto (who then did only trance) to do all the music for the opening ceremonies for the Olympics marking the 100-year anniversary of the Olympics.

To quote a website that's very critical of trance in general, "Trance is the most emotional genre. It can make you cry, make you shout, make you cheer, and make you celebrate absolutely nothing of substance except pure ecstatic bliss."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is what others say about trance (of course, there are many exceptions, for since 2007, trance has been expanding into a very broad range of subgenres): (sources given in the "What is trance music?" link)

  • "you feel the energy and at the same time the peace"
  • "Trance Music is uplifting, inspiring, happy sort of audological anti-depressant."
  • "Beauty, sweetness, & serenity surround... & generate a blissful sense of well-being.... there's no other genre other than trance music that could make you feel like that!"
  • "Trance (trans) n. The most sublime, divine, advanced music genre known to man, representing a quantum leap in artistic creativity analogous to the development of the frontal lobe in the human brain."
  • "Trance music has a special kind of beauty, a wonderful and incredible sensation... We can't define it with words, just with sound"
  • "Trance isn't just a kind of music, like too many others. It's a style of life too. A wonderful, peaceful life. Discovering how our lives can be so beautiful... Understanding that we are just little things in this universe, but big enough to be happy"
  • Trance music is made to Elevate your Mind Automatically, you do not Need drugs to Enjoy!" -UltraTranceParadise
  • "Pulsing beats & euphoric melodies"
  • "Mesmerized by this unique sound which merged beautiful melodies & rhythmic patterns so beautifully" - a top DJ
  • "it's not just 'club music' anymore, it's the soundtrack to many people's lives"
  • "The New Classical Music"
  • "This sound is made by God himself"
  • "Trance is Love & Peace" [actually someone's iTunes username}
  • "trance music is a life style , a passion & an antidote to any bad feeling in the world."
  • [About a song:] "I want this played at my funeral. This song just reminds people of how great our world is, its a song of pure beauty and brilliance"
  • "trance make me feel as though i can do anything if i set my mind to it"
  • "contrast of beauty & emotion"
  • "i believe you can have the most *!?+ up life, but if you listen to pieces like this it makes everything seem O.K. ...rush of energy through body and the HIGH without the drugs"
  • "Trance ... touches you and fills your heart with love and brings tears to your eyes...beautiful"
  • "So beautiful... i feel like flying."
  • "Pure, deep, uplifting, & melodic euphoria"
  • "it calms me down in an excited state of mind"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Most songs linked here are shortened or radio versions, but unlike other genres of music, full-length trance songs (6-9 min), especially in the progressive genre, usually have this structure:
- 0:00-1:00 - Just a basic beat to be mixed w/ end of the previous song to transition into this one
- Next couple of minutes - Buildup, usually with a beat
- Next minute or two - Slow, soft breakdown, at least partly without any beat
- Next 2 or 3 min - Climax
- Last minute or two - Just a basic beat to be mixed with the start of the next song to transition.
But many songs here don't follow this structure.

Trance, by definition, is built around melodies, ones that are usually beautiful & almost always emotional; in dance versions of pieces, these melodies usually but not always float over much faster & harder other musical elements for the first and lasts parts of songs &, in softer & gentler interludes called breakdowns, play without a beat or harder elements but usually with other beautiful gentler harmonies. (It's called a breakdown because the percussion and other elements of the piece are "broken down" and removed, leaving only softer elements, like the melody.)
    Much trance has the above buildup-breakdown-climax structure, but many pieces lack a breakdown or buildup, or have no audible beat and feel extremly slow, or break all sorts of other conventions, as artists are always experimenting. For example, although almost all trance has at least one electronic instrument (usually ~a dozen), there are songs made by top DJs/producers with only traditional non-electronic instruments like piano, voice, guitar, etc.
    The definition of trance requires only that it be built around 1 or more melodies and have a 125-145 bpm, although these two often lead to other characteristics; eg, one reason why any vocals are usual slow & calm, usually soothing, & float over underlying faster music may be that it's quite difficult to sing words in synch with a audible or implicit beat of 135 bpm, so the remaining option is to go much slower.

About a third of trance has vocals. Vocal trance, however, differs from other genres such as rock, pop, hip-hop, country, alt, & others, especially in two ways: 1. When there are words, they are usually not tightly knit, so can be slow, calm, sparse, soothing, or interjectory. 2. In trance, vocals usually are not responsible for carrying the melody; often, little snippets of vocals are used sparingly here and there to enhance the instrumental melody or otherwise enhance the piece. This means there is unlimited freedom to do anything one wants with as much or little vocals as a producer can imagine. This extreme flexibility leads to vocal song structures one won't find in other popular music.

There are many misconceptions about trance inherited from misconceptions about dance music. One singer says, "The past two years have really changed my perspective on dance music because I used to think it was robotic and monotonous, but now I feel like my listening is a method to relaxation and happiness."

In addition, there are a lot of misconceptions about trance in particular. Trance is not the same as techno, and it is not the same as house (although the deep end of progressive trance does merge towards some progressive house). It's not the same as the dark genre of psy-trance that Israel is so prolific at producing. As above, trance has been called "the new classical", but that description applies to only some kinds of trance. For more info, click on the "What is Trance?" section above.

I welcome you to check out my site and try a couple of my recommendations at left. Enjoy!


On Facebook

The left & below links
show 4 trance genres:
- Uplifting/Anthem Tr.
- Progressive Trance
- Vocal Trance
- Balearic Trance
(Within these, trance producers
often merge trance with house,
jazz, ambient, classical, indie,
electro, psy-trance, pop, hip-
hop, techno, alt., Euro/HiNRG,
Latin, chill-out, or downtempo.)
----------------------------
In case you like a
couple of my
recommendations at
left, below (random
order), are more of
my all-time favorites:

----------------------------
Concert Video:
Classical-Based
Distorted-Sounds Anthem:
Adagio For Strings

Beautiful, Sweet, sortof
Sad-yet-Uplifting,
Ardent-yet-Serene, Rush-giving
Vocal Trance:
Angel (Original Mix)

Euphoric Trance:
Suburban Train in concert
  • Abbreviated version vid
  • Clip w Children's Choir in Concert
  • Version w Children's Choir in Concert
Forever Today

Moving yet bright:
Horizonte (Andy Blueman
Intro Mix)


Panic Alleviation:
Deep Breath Contact (Myon
& Shane 54 Mashup)


Breath-taking, Majestic Symphonic Uplifting:
Florescence (Emotional Mix)
Florescence (Epic Mix)
The World To Come (Andy
Blueman Mix)

Florescence (Original Mix)

Chill-Out Anthem:
Driving to Heaven (Matan
Zohar Remix)


Chill-out Downtempo Trance:
Fruits & Passion (Armin's
Downtempo Mix)

A Balearic Dinner (Chill Mix)

Russian, Classical Influenced,
Melodramatic "Epic" Anthem
Trance mixed w/ Techo-Trance:
Invisible Touch (Ferry
Corsten Remix)


Vocal Symphonic Uplifting:
Arctic Kiss (Andy Blueman Remix)

More calming-energizing
Symphonic Uplifting:
L'Acrobat (Andy Blueman Remix)
True Romance (Original Mix)

Introspective Vocal:
Just Listen

Soft Melancholy Vocal:
Breaking Ties (Flow Mix)

Entrancing emotional vocal repetition:
Safe (Wherever You Are) (Rank 1 Remix)

Latin-y:
La Noche
Beyond

Hard Intense Uplifting Anthem:
Destination Sunshine

Lyrical Vocal Progressive:
See The Sun (Aurosonic
Remix)

Sirens of the Sea

Lyrical Vocal Progressive:
Rush (Arty, Dan Stone Remix)
Rush (Mat Zo)

Shamanistic-Ritual-Like:
Zanzibar

Easy Listening-ish Vocal:
Close to You

Hard Techno-y Vocal:
We Belong (Tritonal Air up
There Remix)

Reason to Believe

Hard Background Music-y:
Peace (Breakfast Remix)

Mashup of chill soft Balearic & Epic Uplifting:
Lost Together (Armin van Buuren Mashup)

Deep Progressive, Almost House:
Anjunabeach

Pop-y:
Freefalling

If you're exhausted, calm, &
emotionally drained:
Downtempo Electronic
Melancholy Progressive:
Battleship Grey

Rougher Progressive:
Scrubs (Concert Video)
Reflect

Midspeed Melancholy Vocal:
In My Memory
Ashes

Calming Flowing Uptempo
Progressive:
In Motion (Andy Blueman Remix)

Energizing-yet-Calming
Progressive:
Fever
776 Miles

Chill-Out Jazzy Progressive:
Pacific

Progressive:
Fahrenheit

Energizing Progressive:
Downhill

Opera-ish(?) Vocal Progressive:
Call of Loneliness

Very Traditional "Epic" Anthem:
Healesville Sanctuary
(Roger Shah Mix)

Birth of an Angel

Yet More Self-Affirmational Vocal:
On a Good Day (Original Mix)

More Vocal Effects:
Tuvan

Flamenco Trance:
Flamenco Mediterraneo

Ambient Chill-Out:
Tri-State

Soft Romantic Vocal:
Good for Me
On the Beach

Medium Romantic Vocal:
I Am Strong
You Take My Breath Away (DJ
Tiesto Remix)

Can You Feel It

Balearic Trance:
Body Lotion (Inspirations
Mix)

So Far

Edgy Symphonic Uplifting:
Tuvan (Andy Blueman Remix)

Rough Electro-Housey Vocal:
In And Out Of Love /
Lost Connection (Mashup)


More Vocal Trance:
Right Back
Far Away (Club Mix)
Sanctuary (Club Mix)

Varied Mixes of Same Vocal Trance Song:
Waiting (Original Mix)
Waiting (First State Remix)
Waiting (Sean Tyas Remix)
Waiting (Acoustic Version)

De-Stress/Wind-Down:
As the Rush Comes (Tiesto
Demo Mix)


Danceable Balearic w Spanish Guitar:
A Balearic Breakfast (Dance Mix)

Mix of electroy & symphonic uplifting:
Trapeze (Original)

Uplifting w Electric Guitar:
Time To Rest (Live Guitar By Eller Van Buuren)
Lenda

More Symphonic Uplifting:
Circles (Andy Blueman Remix)
Nyctalopia (Original Mix)

Cheerful Uplifting:
Long Way Back (Six Senses Remix)