Hard trance
Hard trance is a trance subgenre born in the early 1990s in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, influenced by »hard« electronic music genres like Belgian new beat, breakbeat hardcore, happy hardcore, hardcore techno or acid techno.
Despite being a »harder« version of trance, it still belongs to the genre’s melodic forms. Melodies and hooks are often positive or even childlike yet are frequently played by aggressive sounds like the iconic Hoover sound known from hardcore techno. Beats often feature strong, sometimes down pitched kick drums and a high amount of reverb as well as bubbling Roland TB-303 »acid« basslines. Hence, there’s a strong relationship to acid trance and it’s sometimes not easy to differ one from the other.
In the early days hard trance tracks also had a faster tempo of 150 bpm and more. Good examples of »first wave« hard trance are Paraglider’s (Oliver Lieb and Torsten Stenzel) »Paraglide« (1993) or genre classic »The Meltdown« (1993) by French dj/ producer Guillaume Leroux aka Lunatic Asylum. Besides »Sound of Frankfurt« label Eye Q Records – known e.g. for »Firedance« (1994) by Odyssee Of Noises (Ralf Hildenbeutel, Steffen Britzke and Matthias Hoffmann) – hard trance labels include Bonzai Records from Belgium with e.g. Belgian duo Jones & Stephenson’s »The First Rebirth« (1993) as well as German Fog Area Records by DJ Jo, known e.g. for his 1995 track »Space Harmony« or the label of Tunnel Club in Hamburg, Tunnel Records, founded in 1993 by its resident dj DJ Dean. Another resident at Tunnel Club was Gerald Malke aka Gary D., known for tracks like »Die Herdplatte (100°)« (1995, with Timo Maas), »Kinetic Pressure« and »Overload« (both 1996). In 1995, Gary D. started the CD series »D.Trance« which had reached the 76th issue by his death in 2016. He also also compiled the first seven issues of »Tunnel Trance Force«, a compilation of music that was played at Tunnel Club. Other notable (German) artists include duo Sunbeam and their biggest hit »Outside World«(1994) as well as trio Raver’s Nature whose tracks »Take Off!« and »Stop Scratchin’« (both 1995) found their way into mainstream.
In the late 1990s, a new style of hard trance emerged. The tempo slowed down to 140 bpm and tracks kind of combined aggressive kick drums and basslines with the big sound of Dutch euphoric trance. Examples are German dj/producer Frank Zenker aka Scot Project, known for tracks like »U (I Got a Feeling)« (1995), »Y (How Deep Is Your Love)« (1998) or »O (Overdrive)« (2001), as well as fellow German dj/ producer Kai Franz aka Kai Tracid known for tracks like »Your Own Reality« (1997), »Liquid Skies« (1998) or his biggest hits »TooMany Times« and »Life Is Too Short« (both 2001). Tracid was also part of duo A*S*Y*S (Acid Save Your Soul, with Frank Ellrich) and founded his own label Tracid Traxxx in 1998. Other notable »2nd wave« artists include German duo Cosmic Gate, known for tracks like their first single »The Drums« (1999) or »Human Beings« (2003), and Dutch dj Bart Claessen aka Barthezz whose track »On The Move« (2000) became a worldwide summer anthem in 2001.
After some genre tracks even being licensed by major record labels, the popularity of hard trance declined in the mid-2000s and eventually developed into hardstyle.
