Why I Love Trance

Amongst all the types of music I’ve heard, Trance has been one of the biggest influence of my adult life. I got hooked with it in my early twenties – when other trance-lovers have already become club regulars, my activity to engage with the music is often only limited to listening to it. I frequent music stores only to find rare albums which I might take home and listen to whilst lying in bed and closing my eyes peacefully. Being an urban citizen, I find the combination of living, working and breathing (because there is so much pollution in this city) to be quite depressing to cope with, and I need a medium to escape every once in a while, just to bring back my sanity and rearranging my emotion.

When I listened to trance, I feel such bliss that I never experience towards any other types of music. The genre of the music does serve the purpose well – to make the listener get tranced out. Perhaps it has something to do with the harmonization of melodies, the builds up of musical forms and the repetitive beats, that for me, really stimulates my mind and imagination to go wherever I want to, or as described perfectly well in Wikipedia; to induce altered states of consciousness.

Unfortunately most Indonesian people associate trance with images of clubbing scenes where skimpily clothed girls and sweaty guys grinding their bodies together, looking suspectedly high and stoned. This is due to the fact that trance music seems to be associated to serve the enjoyment of a recreational-type drug such as ecstasy that serve the purpose to increase awareness of the senses, feelings of openness, euphoria, empathy, love, happiness, heightened self-awareness, feeling of mental clarity and an increased appreciation of music and movement.

As for me, I don’t consume it because I believe that without the use of drugs, such feelings can be achieved through careful listening since the music itself is basically designed to heighten the hearing senses and engaging the listeners with melodic tones and anthems that provokes the emotional sides of human beings in making them feel more in touch with their own spiritual sides.

Moreover, contrary to what most people might have heard or think, most DJs that are well-known in the clubbing scenes such as Armin van Buuren (DJmag.com dubbed him the No. 1 DJ for 2007) and John Digweed are very clean people who don’t use drugs, drink alcohol or even smoke, as those substances tend to influence their live performances in terms of interacting with the crowds through the selection of the songs being played and how well the change of one song to another can merge seamlessly thus keeping the song continuously enjoyable. Those are some of the requirements that can make or break a DJ.

Perhaps the good news is that rave parties in Indonesia are becoming more strict, as I have experienced it myself when I went to see Tiesto in 2006 as there were guards who perform thorough body checks and even on the tickets we were anticipated to wear comfortable clothes because:

a) you will be dancing, not waltzing, so high heels were a no-no.

b) it will be hot, so tank tops or t-shirts were recommended.

In Indonesia itself, reputation of electronic music in general has been ruined to pieces by cheap, copycats house music remixes, often called House Kota (Kota as in City) or Musik Ajeb-ajeb (I fucking hate that term!) that usually get played in traditional markets and public transports’ dinghy cars, usually blared out loud from a pair deafening speakers in order to attract the crowds.

To define what House Kota simply means, you only have to think of any Top Ten songs (either local or non locally), add some beats to it, increase the pitch and pace, and voila! – House Kota in an instant for you.

Which is why I tend to introduce trance to whomever I meet in order to change the publics’ perception of it, as well as enriching their knowledge of this particular music genres, since nowadays it comes in many different forms; either progressive, hardcore or uplifting, to name a few, and to each different forms they serve a different purpose to suit your moods and feelings. I prefer to listen to uplifting trance music when I’m working because it really gets me going, where as the progressive trance is chosen when I need to lay low and chill out for a while.

Despite its common mis perception, I’d actually think of trance as a peaceful music – when you get into rave parties or festivals, you are with the same people who, just like you, are basically there just to enjoy the music and the feelings that it gives to you, no matter what backgrounds they come from.

There is even a common motto that ravers all over the world hold to, and that is P.L.U.R. which stands for Peace, Love, Unity and Respect. There are many definitions of what those terms actually mean, and here are a couple that I’ve gathered from the net:

Wikipedia describes it as:

Peace – Hostility typically serves no purpose other than to defend an ego that is lacking inner peace.

Love – Acts and feelings of goodwill towards all others are a moral imperative with their own rewards.

Unity – This can mean either that: a) We are all united in the human condition, or b) As social beings, the feeling of connectedness with others is the ultimate end to our efforts.

Respect – A person must show regard for the feelings of others through their actions and inaction.

Where as Mdma.net has a slightly different tweaks of it:

Peace – Letting go of fear and living at peace with oneself, one another, and the planet for a greater good.

Love – As one learns to love oneself, one is able to love everyone else unconditionally.

Unity – A mutual, corporate bond is formed resulting from the love and peace experienced with one another.

Respect – Because of peace love and unity, one can accept others regardless of their beliefs or background.

From what I gather, P.L.U.R. exists because trance music bring the sense of togetherness to the people including in clubs and rave parties where everyone holds this motto as their ways of life. As for me, P.L.U.R. is an exceptionally great philosophy to practice not only in rave scenes but also in everyday life , especially when it comes to our behaviors towards ourselves and other people.

The only way to really know trance is to listen to it straight to your ears, so if you are totally unfamiliar to the sound of trance but would like to listen to it, you can go to Cnet and listen to the samples provided from many well-known DJs who make compilation or singles.

If you are a member of Facebook, (who isn’t?) you can even search for Trance groups that provide samples from upcoming artists who want to get their music recognized in the market. I found this out when I encountered a DJ/Music producer called Chris Dececio from UK whose tracks have been aired on the mainstream radio stations and he’d thoughtfully promoted his music through applications such as iLike, which allows Facebook members to listen to songs, dedicate or add them to their Profile pages.

So the next time you get to listen to trance, instead of thinking about the common negative perception it gets from the media (drugs, nightlife scenes etc.), try to listen to the beautiful sounds it contains and the ideas the music holds within.