Above & Beyond – Anjunabeats Volume 8

Let's make it clear: Volume 8 is a compilation of quality and emotions, but I really feel the miss point of the whole release is the forward thinking attitude, which just couldn't be done the way it was intened to. It wanted to be that, but as the mixes progress, it becomes more and more average, which is sad.
CD1 starts with the beautiful heavenly "Alquimia" by the very unique Parker & Hanso duo. Shamefully, we can only hear 3 minutes of this gem, could be extened just a little bit more. Then, Duderstadt's "Stranded In NYC" comes in - or just wanted to come in. As you may know the original, the bell melodies of the song really makes the atmosphere, but here, a poorly dubbed version has been chosen without it. The whole character is missing from the track this way, absolutely sad. Maybe the final version arrived at the label later than the compilation's pressing, I can imagine no other reason. Aruna & Mark Eteson's "Let Go" has good vibes, but this original is just not that powerful as it should be, hence the istrumental part of the song is... almost under average, the way to put. Ollie's "Chordplay" luckily saves the trust of the uniform and uses bell melodies in a fantastic cheerful way. Superb prog trancer! Arty's "Rush" is a surprising move from him. Instead of his trademark trance-house hybrid, the bass almost brings tech vibes, until the festival vibes arrive with these spacey strings. The standout point later is absolutely Maor Levi and Ashley's "Chasing Love". Paying a huge respect to the classic Andy Moor sound, this comeback by Maor sets the line very high. Super8 & Tab and Sonin's "Black Is The New Yellow" works with a good melody, but the sound design is just too weak to enhance the energy. This energy luckily reaches us with Breakfast's version of Andrew Bayer's "From The Earth". A farewell track that just can't be handled without tears... Later, Bart Claessen comes up with an exceptionally solid track in the form of "90 Nights Of Summer". Beachy, sunny atmosphere, very good - following the starigth line after the "2001 Returning Mix" of "Elf". However, the rest of the mix is still great, but the flow just being stuck to a level and doesn't move anywhere. The close of Daniel Kandi is not bad at all, but neither much good as a reward.
CD2 claims and foreshadows that why Andrew Bayer is THE key figure at the label. His forward thinking sound design really shines in the intro and "The Taxi Driver" as well - mimicing the sound of his "It's Artificial" album, which is still his best work EVER. But again, flowers are missing water, as Arty's "The Wonder" is a good one, but compared to Zara, Rush, Twilight Tonight and so on, it's not a big rocket science. Mat Zo's remix of Lange's "Live Forever" was a choon around that time, but here, it's really out of context to me. As a reward, Bart strikes again, this time with his friend Raz Nitzan, to form the excellent Who.Is amalgamation. "We.Are" is one evergreen anthem of Anjunabeats, without having further debates. "Thing Called Love" by Above & Beyond, featuring the ear-candy voice of Richard Bedford brings a really-really important message, which we could think about as a good advice - this world would be a much better place then.
And this is the point after every excitement permanently ends here. These reinterpretations of "Larry Mountains 54" and "Alt+F4" are just horrifying average, these monumental evergreens could deserve a much more better remixing quality. The rest of the mix also pretty much summarizes what was the problem already with uplifting trance: it became stuck within its boundaries and so much outdated. I'm not saying it should disappear completely, but really believe it could be merged with something new, by the point of sound design (for example using different drum kicks than those 3 which every uplifting producer knows, lol), arrangment (one buildup, drop, breakdown and the same drop again, just with supersaws - giving a tasteless recipe) and melodies (going further than these 4 accord changes maybe?).
Summary, it's not a bad mix compilation... but could be much-much more better.

Anjunabeats Volume 8 is a good outing from the Anjuna lads, but it becomes relatively clear the lack of identity in trance around this period, where a lot of labels struggled with the next step from late 00s euphoric uplifting, and we begin the transition into the proglifting/trouse/trance2.0 sound. That being said, the quality of tracks on the compilation is still relatively high, a nice mix showcasing the changing sound of the label and not a lot of filler still. But After the superb run of form of the previous 7 compilations, this one seems to pale slightly in comparison. For reference, Aanyone confused by the term "proglifting" need only listen to Anjunabeats Worldwide Volume 3 for a succinct example.

Disc 1:

With the advent of the Anjuandeep Volume series the previous year, Disc 1 moves away from the Anjunadeep label and firmly stays in beats. A nice opening with a few prog releases, notably Oliver Lieb and DJ Sammy (yes) in their Parker & Hanson alias. All tracks are decent, although not easy to discern from eachother at times. However it is an enjoyable journey through late-night progressive, with A&B v KvA, Maor Levi, S8&T and Andrew Bayer providing the highlights, Breakfast smashing "From The Earth" out of the park. The disc hits a crescendo with the M&S54 mashup of On A Good Day with Metropolis, before closing out with some clean proglifters in Thomas Datt and Daniel Kandi. 4/5

Disc 2:

Disc 2 starts off with -- what will turn out to be a huge producer for the label -- Andrew Bayer, before picking up some steam with classic Arty and 7Skies. The mix continues to pick up pace with not really a weak track, and refreshingly even the updates of classics are "not bad". Hitting a euphoric peak with Nitrous Oxide, the compilation finishes on a lovely note with the Sky Falls Down mashup, which I personally thought was very enjoyable, good old school trance vibes. A nice mix, builds nicely and much more coherent than disc 1. Sadly this is the last time banging trance would be heard on an Anjuna compilation for a long while (maybe Vol 14 or 15), so enjoy it while you can. 4.5/5

Top tracks:

Who.Is. – We.Are.
Andrew Bayer – From The Earth (Breakfast Remix)
Above & Beyond Feat. Richard Bedford – Thing Called Love (Club Mix)
Nitrous Oxide – Dreamcatcher (Club Mix)

With the amount of sterile and uninspiring uplifting trance music around these days, it’s sometimes hard to get excited by a release that nearly entirely consists of this trance sub genre. However, one to still get excited about is Above & Beyond's Anjunabeats compilation pulling together the best of the labels releases of recent months. As with the last 3 releases, it’s a double disc release presented in a classy matt style digi-pack with a space theme to celebrate A&B sound tracking the launch of “Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo”.

Disc 1 takes a more trancey and up-tempo approach than in volumes 5-7, presumably leaving the houseier and proggy tracks to the recently started Anjunadeep series. The disc starts with a couple of light progressive trance tracks easing you into the CD. Let Go (track 3) is pretty cheesy stuff, with that bouncy thumping commercial progressive house beat with off-beat stabs the likes of which have been used over by Deau5, Adam K etc. However the track is able and is followed by Oliver Smith who never fails to deliver and Chordplay has a lovely organic sound and feel along with Smith’s usual style and sound. Some bassy electro(y) tracks drive the mix forward before Arty’s Rush delivers the first big breakdown and the mix follows with a selection of similarly paced uplifting moments. Bart Claessen delivers a mellower and chilled “90 Nights of Summer” compared with his usual tougher, techy Anjunabeats offerings from previous CD’s. Following is the mash-up of Gareth Emery’s Metropolis and Oceanlab’s On a Good Day which blends the uplifting vocals of On a Good Day with the more intelligent and progressive Metropolis. Personally I feel here would have been a good place to end the mix, but two more tracks follow which aren’t necessarily bad tracks, but rather wallpaper trance that I could give or take.

Disc 2 starts with a progressive trance edge, but as soon as Taxi Driver kicks in you can straight away that this is a more up tempo affair that Disc1. The first few tracks nicely follow on from the end of the first disc and build you up for what’s to come later on. Live Forever is the first real peak in the mix and Matt Zo delivers a fine remix chopping the vocals in and out and putting his big rolling bass and glitchy sounds in that makes the track a bit different from your usual vocal trance affair. From here on in, the energy rarely drops and its big breakdowns and climaxes till the end. Thing Called Love feels like a sister track to Alone Tonight featuring Richard Bedford on the vocals again and sure to turn into a classic for A&B fans. The Juventa remix of Larry Mountains 54 is one of the most fresh sounding uplifting trance tracks I have heard in a while, and that’s not the only classic to have been revived for 2010. Dan Stone gives a strong remix of Alt+F4’s self titled track and Oceanlab / ive Progressive collaboration using Oceanlab’s Sky Falls Down is, as written in the credits, a great set ender. Of course, no Anjunabeats CD would be complete with the labels biggest artists and Super8 & Tab, Daniel Kandi, Nitrous Oxide and Adam Nicky all make an appearance.

All in all, this is another fantastic release from the Anjunabeats stable and goes to show that quality trance does still exist. Disc 1 shows A&B skills as DJ’s, working the mix, while Disc 2 shows they can deliver an almighty punch on the dance floor.

However, I can help but feel that this style of uplifting, “hands in the air” trance has really been exhausted over the 12 years from its initial explosion in 1998. A few sound similar to other tracks around. 7 Skies “Sushi” sounds very similar to Firewall’s Sincere and Chasing Love has similarities to the Martin Roth Remix of Starchaser's “So High”. Furthermore, some of the stronger tracks on the album are the remixes of the Anjunabeats back catalogue. But that would be my only slight negativity to this, and Adam Beyer, Oliver Smith, Super8 & Tab more than make up for it.