What do you think?
Rate this book
Hypnotised: A Journey Through Trance Music 1990-2005
Trance has been the flagship for electronic music across the globe during the nineties and early zeroes. The sound's trademark optimistic and euphoric aspects has brought some of the most compelling musical pieces of its time, and undoubtly has a significant influence on future electronic music to come. Hypnotised spans a near-complete discography of essential trance releases, albums and labels during its most prolific years, alongside stories of influential artists and label owners.
- GenresMusicArtNonfiction
332 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2021
7 people are currently reading
213 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
April 9, 2022
This is a fun collection of viewpoints of many folks who were involved or behind key tracks and releases in the trance scene back in its perceived heyday — more on that below. This book has quite a nostalgic gaze — almost every voice in this (including the author's) is very invested in the trance scene that was present in its title's time period, and is wary or disdainful of what came after (including a closing quote that I found utterly shocking and off-putting by Red Jerry that shifted my sense of the book's attitude).
Trance is cliche. Mark Reeder: "It was a much yearned-for counterbalance to the techno movement and the cheesier and cheaper trance became, the more intellectual it made techno appear." This is a great quote that appears here only briefly — I would have really liked it if this book dove a bit deeper into the cultural movements at the time — more than just its brief examination of why the Dutch lead this movement, what does trance have to do with EDM? Are there parallels there? Is trance actually bad now, or did the microcommunities around it just all fracture when internet sales broke down all their business models? I'd have loved to have heard a whole lot more from Solarstone, who's at the helm of Pure Trance which seems to be thriving and producing awesome music to some degree of commercial success without being too "overground". (I'm definitely a fan, at least!)
I grew up and developed a ton of my musical tastes on the late '90s progressive trance movement and I'm odd in that I see its progression to the present day as continuous, a long string of developments, changes neither for good nor bad, just an evolution. I think I was hoping this book would be less nostalgic and more sociologically critical. That being said, as a series of interviews with folks from the scene at the time, it's a great quick read. There are a couple typos and it can read a bit like a rather straightforward writing style, but the formatting is delightfully postmodern and beautiful, with a fitting glimmer of glitter on its pullquotes — perfect for this scene, at least as it's remembered.
Trance is cliche. Mark Reeder: "It was a much yearned-for counterbalance to the techno movement and the cheesier and cheaper trance became, the more intellectual it made techno appear." This is a great quote that appears here only briefly — I would have really liked it if this book dove a bit deeper into the cultural movements at the time — more than just its brief examination of why the Dutch lead this movement, what does trance have to do with EDM? Are there parallels there? Is trance actually bad now, or did the microcommunities around it just all fracture when internet sales broke down all their business models? I'd have loved to have heard a whole lot more from Solarstone, who's at the helm of Pure Trance which seems to be thriving and producing awesome music to some degree of commercial success without being too "overground". (I'm definitely a fan, at least!)
I grew up and developed a ton of my musical tastes on the late '90s progressive trance movement and I'm odd in that I see its progression to the present day as continuous, a long string of developments, changes neither for good nor bad, just an evolution. I think I was hoping this book would be less nostalgic and more sociologically critical. That being said, as a series of interviews with folks from the scene at the time, it's a great quick read. There are a couple typos and it can read a bit like a rather straightforward writing style, but the formatting is delightfully postmodern and beautiful, with a fitting glimmer of glitter on its pullquotes — perfect for this scene, at least as it's remembered.
November 21, 2021
This “encyclopedia” is a beautiful totem/love letter to trance. I grew up listening to trance and it can be hard to remember how good the music was and that the scene wasn’t trash at one point. It fell apart bang on about 2005 (Anjunabeats vol. 3 by Above & Beyond and Oakenfold’s Creamfields mix being my personal marks for the ending of trance’s golden era) and this book covers a large portion of its history prior to that. I can see myself digging in and out of this book randomly whenever I get in the mood to turn on old progressive trance compilations - which as I get older seems to happen with about as much frequency as I did back in the day. Which is to say a lot. It’s cool to read the anecdotes and stories about the labels like Lost Language and Hooj Choons or artists like Banco de Gaia, Airwave, and Solarstone. It gets the spirit of the music exactly right including the aesthetic of the type and layout. It’s a really cool book about a genre that’s been unfairly maligned in recent years. I wouldn’t say I have finished it or read the entire thing but it’s not that kind of book anyway.
February 9, 2022
A book elaborating on the favourite genre of my favourite music type, an encyclopedia that will expand the view on music of every trance/electronic music fan and anyone who has yet to discover the universe within the 4/4 rhythm beat. A collection of stories and songs that will bring back lots of memories to those who witnessed the growth of a whole culture and share them with the people born after the 90's like myself and with everyone who will someday be in the moment.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews