TranceFix Award 2021

Congrats to Activa, who really did have a fantastic year, maybe his best ever. We saw him complete the Tri-State Series with 002 and 003, drop his third studio album ‘Origins’ and also notably get Anjunabeats to release their most serious Trance track in 5 years with the Trance Wax Throne Remix. He dominated the voting across a wide range of tracks, which I think shows how well he managed to connect differently with the listeners across the scene, whether that be mainstream or underground. Love his recognisable style and now with Borderline coming back we have more things to look forward to.

Stoneface & Terminal also had a strong year, with lots of votes for them and their productions. They because each release you never knew what you’re going to get, whether that be techy like ‘You Are’, something uplifting like Moonscape, or something more journey driven like with ‘Lose My Need’. A very hardworking duo who appeared in lots of places, and like Activa manage to touch on the essence of great Trance with production style and ideas that resonate across the different levels of the scene.

A special mention has to go to Narel who was awesome this year. His album was a personal favorite from the year and his work with Cosmithex for Endgame was so nice. He also put out an Ambient EP and a few other top tracks on JOOF and Forescape too. Quality producer!

Daniel Lesden (Russia) has continuously shown why he is one of the best DJ’s in the Trance scene right now, competing easily with established greats, and managing to bring high energy performances, both physically and digitally, across a wide range of genres and styles. Technically speaking he is extremely gifted and continues to offer standout performances to a trance scene that has been so desperately in need for uniqueness and forward thinking approaches. Very versatile and look forward to seeing him continue to grow in the scene. Fully deserved winner.

John 00 Fleming (UK), gets our runner up, due to his persistent commitment over the years to bringing his high quality radio show to the trance masses and continuing to evolve the sounds. A true legend of the scene, and master behind the decks. Anyone who see’s him live will know what we are talking about. His show still remains one of the best out there, with thousands of views a month.

Ricky perfected his N3ON formula for what is the best one yet in the trilogy. The monster 15+ minute tracks return for what is a truly epic take off experience that likely must be completed over many days of listening. A special kind of skill is required to produce 17 minute driving Trance tracks without them becoming uninteresting or feeling bloated and he pulls it off easily. Some of the old synth effects used were so nostalgic and powerful, awesome stuff. Nothing really sounds like this album. Shout out to Electronlyman’s album review, which really nailed it.

‘Origins’ could easily have been the no1 record of the year, with barely a few votes off. It had tons of great tracks across many different styles and it all flowed masterfully together to make a really enjoyable listening experience. You could really hear the nod to styles and inspirations of artists from an older time and with great results. Also probably some of the best vocal Trance we have had in ages too!

Special mention to Narel’s album ‘Diary of a Synthy Kid’, which was such a great and individual kind of album, with mixtures of Trance, Progressive, Dub Techno and Ambient styles all coming together in a very unique and memorable way. Coming back to it over and over again was a delight.

Pure Trance had a massive amount of releases to check out all year, not to mention continuing the Electronic Architecture and Pure Trance compilations which were both very enjoyable releases. Rich still manages to keep Pure Trance in a different place from the other labels and still manages to sign lesser known artists and get great tracks out of them.

Forescape Digital takes no2 again, great to have them releasing all the underground Trance sounds, must have had 15 to 20 tracks added to my playlists in the year and Narel’s Album was part of that. We need to support the scene more, we only have a few places left where we can listen to these types of styles. Fair play to Enlusion for his hard work.

Special mention to John Dopping’s & Alan Ruddick’s reborn Research & Development label, which dropped some of the best tracks from this year. Great to see them back.