Trance

n.-a genre of electronic dance music that developed in the 1990s in Germany. It is characterized by a tempo of between 125 to mid 140 beats per minute (BPM), repeating melodic phrases,and a musical form that distinctly builds up and down throughout a track. A trance refers to a state of hypnotism and heightened consciousness. This is portrayed in trance music by the mixing of layers with distinctly foreshadowed build-up and release. A characteristic of virtually all trance music is a mid-song climax followed by a soft breakdown disposing of beats and percussion entirely, and leaving the melody and/or atmospherics to stand alone for an extended period before gradually building up again.

There have been many times where I've tried to explain to others just exactly what trance music is and why it means so much to me. The soaring melodies, the driving beats, the incredible breakdowns...impossible to put into words. When I've tried to pick a particular song to show what trance is, one after another comes to mind for all sorts of reasons. How can you pick one song to display the music that's created for anything and everything? 

Trance is the ultimate form of what music can be. It has the power to fit any and every situation and is perfect for whatever you're doing. It can take you to all new emotional heights and bring you up out of your lows. It is by carefully crafted design and namesake meant to put the listener into a hypnotic trance like state where everything is better because of the music. This kind of music and the feelings associated with it can become addicting, where you simply cannot feed the craving enough and more is always better. 

To take this up a notch, one of the sub-genres within trance is called uplifting trance which is on the higher end of the trance BPM range, usually at around 138-142 BPM. When done properly, it takes the listener to a higher state of euphoria, where the intense excitement and happiness can be so strong that you simply don't know what to do with it. Having experienced this countless times myself, I can't tell you enough how amazing of a feeling it is. Being lifted off your feet emotionally because of the music is like a high that you never want to come down from. I've tried to explain it to others before as a sweet drink that you just keep drinking in but never get sick of and never has to run out.

The king of trance, Armin Van Buuren

For me, trance is a life force that I rely on to keep me going and keep me positive. Be it at work, in the car, or hanging out with friends, trance is the musical blood that flows through my veins and fills my head from my alarm in the morning to guiding me to sleep at night. The strong impact trance has on me has lead me to needing an outward expression, where I'm not just taking in the music but doing something with it. To that end, I've created my own monthly radio show/podcast called For The Soul, where I mix about an hour's worth of tracks together as a DJ set and publish it under the moniker DJ Adaman (https://www.facebook.com/ForTheSoul.DJAdaman). If you haven't checked it out yet, now is the perfect time to do so as the current episode, number 18, is my finest work yet and is on display at the top of this post.

I'm often asked when I try to describe what trance is, "oh you mean techno?" or "isn't that what a lot of pop artists are doing now, that edm stuff?" In responding to this, I try to clarify the differences. EDM is the over arching genre, the broadest label, similar to calling a song Rock music. While that does categorize it, that's a huge category and isn't very clearly descriptive. With Rock, do you mean it's alternative rock, classic rock, heavy metal, indie rock, punk rock, etc.? All of those are very different genres, but they all fall under the label of rock. Now, looking at EDM, you have techno, house, progressive, dubstep, and others including my main favorite, trance.  Within each of those genres, you have sub-genres such as uplifting trance, progressive house, progressive trance, and so on. Imagine it like a tree, where EDM is the trunk and everything branches out from there. There are differences between each, hence their existence, but the lines between each often become blurred.

The many sub-genres of EDM

One of the most fascinating parts of trance music is how it has lead to the creation of "trance families" worldwide. I've seen the music bring people together, with fans flying in from around the globe to attend landmark events hosted by the world's top artists. I've also heard shout outs and voice messages, including my own several times, from listeners around the world on those artists weekly radio shows. It's fascinating to hear the voice of someone from Kenya or South Korea, knowing that you're on opposite sides of the globe but are still listening to the same show. There are communities, such as Trance Family DC, that pop up in response to the music and come together to attend shows, share music, and spread the love of trance. A phrase that's often used to describe this outpouring of community is PLUR which stands for Peace Love Unity Respect. While this phrase has gotten beaten down in recent years as EDM has gone more mainstream, the music still creates a feeling of joy that you want to share with others while allowing them to share it with you. The music is powerful because it brings out the good part of our humanity that we don't often display in our daily lives.

Above & Beyond at ABGT100 at Madison Square Garden (I'm in the upper left of this picture)

Overall, trance is a key part of my life and I hope it remains that way. As I've described above, it has given me the most incredible emotional rides I've ever experienced and it keeps me going day after day. The concerts I've been to range from the smallest of nightclubs to a sold out Madison Square Garden. I even experienced both of these within a 24 hour period one weekend last year. I wrote this post to finally put into written form what I've tried to say to so many before, similar to how I wrote about my love for winter in a previous post. If you haven't heard trance before, I hope this post inspires you to click play on the video above and check out the other links I often share on Facebook. If you want to know or hear more, please let me know as part of my love for this music comes from getting to watch it grow as I share its incredible power with others. Thank you for taking the time to read this post, listen to the music, look at my pictures, and hopefully understand what I've shared here. Euphoria is a breath taking emotion and it can be achieved any time day or night through the wonder that is trance.

2014: The Year of Evolution

   

My favorite track of 2014, New Life (Cold Rush Remix) by Rambacy featuring Danny Claire, an incredibly uplifting song that packs a positive punch. Listen along as you read and feel the moving power of uplifting trance!

     Once again, here we are. Standing at the beginning of a new year with some thoughts and plans of what we want to do this year, but with no real knowledge of what's to come. All that we do know is what lays behind us in the year that we just closed the book on, 2014. Whether the year went as expected or if we were taken for a wild and unexpected ride, 2014 is the past and there's no changing it now. But before we launch our way fully into 2015, I think it's important to reflect back on the past year and remember all that we've gone through. For now I'm going to share some of the highlights of my year, the first full year for me in the "real world".

     While 2013 was easily named the year of change, I had a bit of a harder time coming up with the name for 2014. I couldn't figure out a way to sum it up nicely until I reflected on the year and realized I had gone from just changing to evolving, and thus 2014 had it's name. First off, the start of 2015 marks the second birthday of this blog, Just a Thought. This past year was different from the first in that I felt there were topics I wanted to write about but never got around to, which is why I haven't posted anything since this past May. This is something I hope to change in 2015 and get back to writing as my posts are always therapeutic for me and I enjoy seeing what others have to say in response to my posts. I have a few posts in mind and one I have to finish that I started last summer. I guess the reason this blog has taken a back seat is because of how much focus I've put into my monthly radio show in 2014. If you haven't checked it out yet, please give it a listen and let me know what you think as I'm always looking for listener input (http://forthesoul.podomatic.com/ https://soundcloud.com/djadaman/for-the-soul-episode-11). This radio show is one of the highlights of every month for me as it gives me a creative outlet while knowing that I'm exposing my listeners to great songs they probably haven't heard yet. I hope to keep it going strong in 2015 as my love for trance continues to grow.

     Now to focus on what actually happened in 2014 and see if I can make sense of it all. At the start of the year, I went from living solo in a big empty house to having my brother, his wife, and their little 3 month old move in. This was quite the change as I hadn't lived with my brother since he left for college, which was when I was starting middle school. It took some time for the four of us to adjust to living together, but things are pretty good for now and I keep learning through observation what married life with a kid is like.

     The first third of the year was spent the same way I spent the end of 2013, day after day at home job searching, trying to find something that would fit me well. Things finally changed in March when I got an e-mail from Coastal Sunbelt Produce. I had interviewed with them back in November of 2013 and they wanted to offer me a position as an entry level produce buyer. I had been considering alternatives such as a service program before I got this offer and I had to think about what I wanted to do. I decided that I was being given a chance to explore the position I had been trying to get and I took the job, starting in late April. Since then I've spent my working hours buying tens of thousands of dollars of produce, mostly mushrooms, which we distribute to restaurants, hotels, resorts, and other stores across the mid-atlantic. If you've been to places such as Olive Garden, Outback Steakhouse, Red Lobster, Applebees, Longhorn Steakhouse, or even the diners at UMD, and had anything with mushrooms, sprouts, or tofu, I most likely bought and handled part of your meal a couple days before you did.

     One benefit of being a salaried worker is having vacation time to spend visiting new places and doing new things. This year, that meant travelling out to see my Seester and Mr. Greggles and spending a week exploring Seattle. Seattle was a fun place to visit, as everything felt much calmer compared to the DC area. I spent the week checking out the tourist attractions, such as the Space Needle, riding a ferry across the Puget Sound, and even getting pushed to my hiking limits climbing Bandera Mountain. It was fun to hang out with my Kaitlin again and see her in her element, both at work making tasty pastries and drinks and at home making crazy vegetarian dishes (beet tacos anyone?). She and I spent time together checking out some of downtown Seattle and going Kayaking on Lake Union, seeing house boats and sea planes along the way. Overall, this was an awesome trip and was a great way to see what the west coast is like.

     If you know me well, then you know that I have a love for music, but not just any kind of music. Trance music is a part of my everyday life, from being my alarm in the morning, to playing in my head as I fall asleep. This past year I went to new lengths acting on my love for this kind of music. I started things off in March by celebrating my golden birthday with the German duo Stoneface & Terminal, getting to eat cake with them and chat about our love for trance. In October I attended another Stoneface & Terminal concert at a small DC night club, but this was just the warm-up for the day ahead. I woke up the next morning and got on a bus to NYC where I attended the biggest concert of my life at Madison Square Garden. Above & Beyond was celebrating the 100th episode of their revamped weekly radio show and I was one of 15,000 who danced the night away in the same arena that has hosted many others such as Elvis and Billy Joel. The event was broadcast live around the globe and it was the first time I've felt like I was right in the middle of such a big landmark event. In the past couple months of the year, I've started working with a friend of mine, learning how to do live DJing which is something I hope to focus more on in 2015.

     Having spent the entire year living in Greenbelt, I worked towards building a variety of different friendship groups in the area. Just about once a week I headed back on campus to spend time with Navs playing frisbee, joining game nights, and getting to know the new incoming freshmen. I also bounced between 2 churches before landing at MCF Community Church, which is the community version of the church I attended while attending UMD. The friends I've made from both churches are great and making plans with them has given me something to look forward to after work and on the weekends. I've also had a couple of mentors who helped me through the year as I started figuring out how to balance work and the rest of life while keeping my focus on God and my future. Through all of this I've also stayed connected with old friends, keeping in touch and enjoying time together regardless of where our lives have taken us.

     The holiday season this year was a bit strange as it was the first time that I've worked on the days surrounding the holidays. The holidays are usually my favorite time of year but some of the old magic that I used to feel was missing this year. Having numerous families to accommodate made this year different but it worked out well. I spent the final few days of the year with my former college roomie Tyler and we were able to catch up, play games, and discuss life as he prepared to start his first real job. New years eve was a blast as always as I took Tyler down to the same party I've been going to for over 15 years. Having won the annual spoons tournament last year, I worried heading into the night that I wouldn't be able to retain my crown but after taking on many worthy opponents, I once again came out with the winning spoon in hand.

     That's just about it for 2014. As I look towards the year ahead, I'm excited for what it may hold. I've got some big plans and a lot I would like to learn more about. It's strange being at this point, thinking not only of the year that just ended, but also about where I'll be and what I'll be reflecting on when 2016 rolls around. One thing is for sure, as it is every year, I certainly won't be the same as I am now. I tend to think of myself as someone who does things differently and thinks differently than most, especially since that seems to make itself apparent when I interact with most others that I know.

     One of the biggest understandings that has been at the forefront of my mind throughout 2014 is that humans are truly unreasonable creatures, and to think that we will act reasonably is in fact itself unreasonable. What I mean by this is that although we may know the best or right thing to do or say, it doesn't mean we're going to do it. No one has to teach us to do the wrong thing or to look out for just our own interests, but we have to fight a daily struggle to consider others. I believe this will continue to affect our daily lives, regardless of what happens big or small.

     A recent sermon at the church I attend was on wisdom and how you only need to focus on one question when making decisions. The question is, is what I'm doing or planning on doing wise in light of past experiences, current circumstances, and future hope and dreams? The pastor explained how no one plans on having regrets or ending up in a place they don't want to be in, we just fail to plan not to have these things happen to us. If you just float along and allow the trends of society to carry you, you'll end up in a place you most likely don't want to be.
   
     As for me, I plan on continuing to evolve and do what I believe is best while doing what I want to do. Just because my year of change and now my year of evolution have passed, doesn't mean I am done doing these things. In truth, I am just beginning and the year ahead will be full of unexpected events, hard decisions, and opportunities to make a difference. For now, it's time to look ahead and dive into 2015, for which the title of Year of.....is still waiting to be discovered.



Just a Thought