Madoka
The Second Room

Length: 3 Hours, 8 Minutes
Recorded: October 2, 2007

The Second Room can be divided into three 1-hour chapters and sounds like three independent mixes. The original version of Room aired on Proton Radio’s Serendipity and Sunday Night Sleaze shows. The last song was trimmed to meet the 3-hour time constraint of both broadcasts.

The first hour of Room is deep, focused, and often painted in darker tones with submerged vocal highlights. The mix certainly takes time to get started, but the pace is intentional due to its length. I had the idea for the arrangement of the first hour set in my mind from the minute I picked up all the respective tunes. I committed my concept to a recording and I’m glad I did. The result is awesome!

The second hour of Room morphs into a tougher sound, and the groove around 96 minutes sums up the middle act. Chris Liebing’s tunes are strong, and his track “C” is a stand-out cut. I included some Trevor Rockliffe tracks in this mix because I have a ton of funky techno in my collection, but I rarely explore that sound in a DJ set. Again, I think the songs fit this mix perfectly.

Rounding out the third chapter, some melodic elements begin shining through, helping smooth the journey and end the story tastefully. I love the flow from “Berghain” to the very end with Zoo Brazil. “Shine,” which reminds me of classics such as A Guy Called Gerald’s “Voodoo Ray” or Opus III’s “Fine Day,” brings back a powerful memory for me of when I was dancing at one of my first underground warehouse parties in Philadelphia way back in 1993. I was dancing alone for a moment around 6:00 a.m. in a small, cool, concrete second room with only a single, beautiful blue light shining into the slightly hazy space. The song playing was Transform’s “Transformations” (which took me ages to find the song’s title back then). It was such a peaceful moment as I cooled down from the hard-as-hell German techno, Gabber, and acid tracks annihilating the main room. I was mesmerized by what I still regard as one of the greatest trance songs.

There were so many beautiful Trance records released during that time. To me, those lush and ethereal records will always represent the true fabric of trance music. I should have mixed “Transformations” into the ending now that I think about it. Oh well, that may be a great idea for a future mix. Anyway, enough reminiscing! What are your favorite Trance songs between 1991 and 1993?