Trance Nation Anthems (Disc One)

WILLIAM ORBIT – ADAGIO FOR STRINGS

SYSTEM F – OUT OF THE BLUE

ATB – 9PM (TILL I COME)

BINARY FINARY – 1999

PUSH – UNIVERSAL NATION

MATT DAREY – LIBERATION

PULPVICTIM – THE WORLD

ELECTRIQUE BOUTIQUE – REVELATION

DELERIUM – SILENCE

SOLAR STONE – SEVEN CITIES

BOCCACCIO LIFE – THE SECRET WISH

STEVE MORLEY – INCARNATIONS

LOST TRIBE – GAMEMASTER

RALPH FRIDGE – ANGEL

TRAVEL – BULGARIAN

AIRSCAPE – L’ESPERANZA

Ministry of Sound’s Trance Nation compilation series began in 1999 at the height of the popularity of Trance. The release of the Trance Nation Anthems collection in 2003¾essentially a best-of-can be seen to represent the posthumous examination of a scene’s golden age, most tracks originally coming out in the period of 1998-2000.

Towards the end of the 1990’s Trance had grown in popularity, catapulted from its underground roots to become the defining sound of clubbing. Its growth arguably ran co-extensively with the success of the ‘super-club’: high capacity, big-room venues such as Cream in Liverpool and Gatecrasher in Sheffield-where the increase in crowd numbers and venue capacity was reflected in the uplifting, ethereal nature of the Trance sound.

Perhaps more than any other popular dance music sub-genre, this vision of clubbing was inherently representative of the collective expression of an ecstatic experience.

This piece, simply displays the artists and track names in the order they appear on CD one of the aforementioned compilation, using vinyl letters affixed directly to the gallery wall.

I am interested in how the utopian character of the scene is contained in the names of the artists and tracks that shaped it. Of course, some may see the list as an abstract and random collection words; some may recognize one or more of the artists, or simply pick up on the fact that this is some kind of music playlist from the format. Yet for anyone who might have been involved in the scene these names contain a wealth of powerful personal memories and the display is a form of monument to a lost golden era. And yet it is unlikely many (if any) of the viewers of this work will fit into this final category. It is partly this condition I am interested in. When stripped of all contexts, most viewers are indeed presented with an alien list and left to build connections between them. What currency do they have in this new context? How much of the original sense of utopia is crystallised in these words.