Trancendance

Vancouver Snow Storm Bad for Trance

dj Smiley Mike — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:33:21 +0000

Well, after I suggested that I wouldn’t be missing any shows over the Christmas Holidays - here we are with a three week gap. I tried to get out to the studio last night but there’s just too much snow here in Vancouver and we’re not equipped to handle it.

I have a bag full of new trance records after finding a crazy sale with Trance Records going for $1 each! I have new AKG K181 headphones which I absolutely love - they sound so much better than my old Sony 600 headphones. I have a new iPod full of fresh content for the overnight mix. Now all I need to do is get to the studio! Hopefully next week the weather will be milder.

This week’s show was planned as a tribute to my good friend Steve Clark. Steve died in the avalanche on Blackcomb mountain on New Years Eve. Steve’s tribute show will air next Sunday Jan 5th provided I can get to the studio. We miss you brother.

Trance Classics and Epic Trance Anthems

dj Smiley Mike — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:48:38 +0000

Wow, I’m super behind again this week. Sorry - and thanks for putting up with my sometimes slow updates. Hopefully this will help you make it through the next week too since neither myself nor Caddyshack will be able to host the show this Sunday.

This week’s podcast features several of the same classic trance records as last week but I’ve tried to mix it up and play some b-sides to keep it interesting. At the very end of the second half there’s a trance anthem mega-mix featuring 5 remixes of the trance classic Greece 2000 by Three Drives - or Thee Drives on Vinyl as I’ve always known them by.

Download this week’s Trance Anthem Podcast

Playlist for the First Half of the Show

Dastrix - In the Blue Sky
Forcefield - Visions of Eden (Mea Culpa Remix)
Koglin & Dewar - Pushed On (Stephen K Kroos Remix)
Transa - Enervate
Blue Amazon - No Other Love (Deniro Mix 1)
Breeder - Twilo Thunder (Stoked Up Mix)
Chac - 7 Years (Grinder Vox for the Box Remix)
Miss Shiva - Dreams (Humate Remix)
Paul Oakenfold - A Lively Mind - Faster Kill (Roman Hunter)

Playlist for the Second Half of the Show

Polar - Polar Soul (Kobyashi Remix)
Mike Hiratzka & Justin Scott Dixon - Two Worlds
Seafield - Feel Free
Blue Amazon - No Other Love (Blue Amazon’s New Phase Funk Mix)
Three Drives - Greece 2000 (Farmatronic Genetic Mix)
Three Drives - Greece 2000 (Muskat Nuss Mix)
Three Drives - Greece 2000 (DeNiro Remix)
Three Drives - Greece 2000 (Leama & James Davis Mix)
Three Drives - Greece 2000 (Man With No Name Remix)

Classic Epic Trance Anthems

dj Smiley Mike — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:28:12 +0000

Sorry I missed last week’s show. This week was going to be a remix of three weeks ago but at the 11th hour I started pulling out records and the set seemed to be taking a more classic trance anthem feel. I’ve always had a handful of records that are brilliant but seemingly impossible to mix. This week I brought 5 or 6 of them and overall things didn’t go to badly. The first mix was a little forced but then things smooth out a little better.

Download this week’s Classic Trance Anthem Podcast

First Half

prism - innerscape (limbo records)
natious - sonic sunrise
mike hiratzka & justin scott dixon - two worlds (original mix)
seafield - feel free (white label promo)
opus 808 - don’t turn away (e.f.o. remix)
dj eyal - xtacy 1999 (phatt phunk records)
blue amazon - no other love (blue amazon’s new phase funk mix)
polar - polar south (koncept records)
dastrix - raw (red parrot recordings)
tomcraft - lonliness (club mix)

Second Half

dumonde - god music (euphonic mix)
three drives - greece 2000 (deniro remix)
talla 2xlc - love’s coming down (dumonde remix)
miss shiva - dreams (humate remix)
three drives - greece 2000 (farmatronic genetic mix)
transa - carla’s theme (hook recordings)
transa - enervate (hook recordings)
three drives - greece 2000 (leama & james davis remix)
transa - perpetua (hook recordings)
chac - 7 years (grinder vox for the box remix)

Funding Drive - Part 1

dj Smiley Mike — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 04:31:42 +0000

This week’s show is part one of two annual funding drive shows to help support CiTR. CiTR is a campus radio station run by voulanteer DJs and supported by the students at UBC and our listeners. We feature diverse programming that you just don’t hear on commercial radio stations and the station needs your support to help it run smoothly. Funds go to things like bigger better podcasting servers and studio equipment. The station is even talking about investing in Serato which would let me bring tons of new music to the show in MP3 format and mix it like vinyl. Please take a few minutes to donate to CiTR. If you donate $30 or more I will offer up a mix CD as a prize (complete with cover art!). Click here to Donate to CiTR.

Download this week’s Trancendance Podcast.

Electro Trance Electro Breaks Set

dj Smiley Mike — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 20:22:24 +0000

We’re back on track and this week’s trance podcast even comes with a playlist - in order. Dj Smiley Mike plays B-Sides of last week’s hard electro trance records. Caddshack drops electro breaks.

Check out the Calendar page for upcoming Trance Djs in Vancouver.

Next week - CiTR Fundraising Show!

Download this week’s Electro Trance Electro Breaks Podcast

Smiley Mike Hard Electro Trance Set

marco v - indicator (big fat remix)
white label - core adaptor (base grafitti remix)
nick sentience - bring it on
monsoon - carlottas day
interflow #4 - area 51 (groom lake mix)
eufex - find me
spider vs marc van bekkum - one (tribe tech mix)
digital masters - star wars (death star mix)
miss shiva - dreams (humate remix)
smudge & smith - near me (lange Remix)

Caddyshack Electro Breaks Set

the dream traveller - time
louis q - bind your love in heaven (natious remix)
first life - be one of us (nick hook mix)
i spy - the looking glass
dj scott project - y
uberzone - botz (android mix)
josh wink - higher state of consciousness (dirty south & tv rock club mix)
humanoid - stakker humanoid (krafty kuts mix)
White Label - DJ’s on X
scanners - prayer (d:fuse remix)

Last Weeks Hard Trance Mix

dj Smiley Mike — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 07:31:55 +0000

We’re still catching up after falling a little behind. Here is last week’s set. First hour is hard electro trance by dj Smiley Mike and in the second half dj Caddyshack goes K2 trance. At least that’s how I describe it? Have you ever listened to the soundtrack to the mountain climbing movie K2? It’s epic!

Download this (last) week’s Hard Trance Podcast

Stale Hard Trance

dj Smiley Mike — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 20:46:39 +0000

I’m way behind in posting the podcasts but I have a great reason. I made a girl! No.. not met.. I made a new tiny little girl named Skylar! She was born on Oct 20, in fact Barbalicious told me she was in labour as soon as I got back from doing the show. Can you believe it? She waited until I finished the show!

It was a hard trance week and Caddyshack showed up unexpectedly (at least I think I have my weeks right) so enough already…

Download this week’s Trancendance Podcast

DJ Carl Cox Vancouver 2008 at Plush Nightclub

dj Smiley Mike — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 06:03:14 +0000

Carl Cox has been my top influence since the first time I saw him play at Subconsious - an all night rave event that took place in the UBC hockey rinks before they stopped hosting such events. As a producer I’m not a huge fan of Carl and even his mixed CDs seem more Chicago House than I would ever listen to. But in the 3 times I’ve seen Carl Cox play on the West Coast his sets have been uber-brilliant - maybe best described as Tribal Trance. His live DJ sets - at least the one’s I’ve heard - are nothing like his house CDs.

The biggest reason I have such high respect for Carl Cox is his mixing style. When I have seen him, Carl Cox has always played on 3 turntables. His mixes are almost constant - that is - he almost always has more than one record playing. After watching and listening over the years I picked up a technique that Carl seems to employ. I swear I see Carl play in ‘tripples’ - that is 3 records that fit well together. He will mix back and forth until the first 2 records are properly lined up to peak together - then he will prep the third record to peak at the same time, but waiting until the other two peak before slamming in the third record so all three records peak at the same time and the new sound of the third record adds intensity to the peak.

Carl Cox doesn’t line up beats - he lines up entire records to fit together.

After the three records peak together there’s not much left and so a short mix leads into the beginning of the next ‘tripple’. I remember hearing these short mixes every now and then when Carl was playing and thinking how wimpy it sounded after such colossal intensity of his previous mixing. It was only when I stopped to pay attention closely that I could see why the need (and the justification) for such a short mix.

My other memories of Carl Cox are that he always played late for a headliner. He might not even start until 4 or 5am - and rumours would start that he wasn’t even going to show - but he seemed to prefer to play long sets for the die hard fans that were still going strong at 8am. I remember seeing Carl play for about 50 dancers that were left on the floor (after 1000s of others had dispersed). Another 50 people stood around the dance floor in a semi-circle just watching.

I’ve never seen a group of ravers stand and watch a DJ with such a respect as that.

Those of us still on the dance floor where absolutely exhausted - but every time it seemed like a lull to take a break, Carl would bring it up again and we were held hostage on the dance floor. Ever since that night (morning) I’ve known Carl Cox affectionately as ‘The Puppetmaster’ - his ability to keep people moving on the dance floor is second to none.

DJ Carl Cox Vancouver 2008 with Jon Rundell

Tue Oct 21, 2008 @ Plush Nightclub, Downtown, Vancouver
Cost: $35
By: Twisted Productions, Trust & Cargo

Turkey Tag Team Trance Set

dj Smiley Mike — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:39:03 +0000

Here’s this weeks Trancendance podcast. Smiley Mike starts off the night for the first hour and Caddyshack takes the second hour with several tracks and remixes by Blue Amazon. Then in our usual long-weekend fashion we extend the show with a two hour tag-team set.

Thanks to Edward, Andrew and the other people that called in. Edward requested Children by Robert Miles and I just happened to have Tilt’s version of Children and played it - third track into the set.

Download this week’s Trance Podcast

Armin van Buuren in Vancouver 2008 at Plush

dj Smiley Mike — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:39:42 +0000

Trance legend, DJ Armin van Buuren will be at Plush Nightclub this week for two nights.

DJ Armin van Buuren with Guest Glenn Morrison
Oct 9, 2008 & Oct 10, 2008
Plush Nightclub
$60 in advance

Presented by: Twisted Productions, Solid Entertainment & Pure Image Entertainment