Kai Tracid

Dutch DJ Kai Tracid salutes several different eras of trance on his first major-label mix album. Admittedly, it must be difficult to stray long from the crowd-pleasing, commercialistic progressive trance so popular around the turn of the century. Tracid solves the problem by choosing some of the movement's best tracks: "1999" by Binary Finary, "Out of the Blue" by Ferry Corsten's System F project, and "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" by Jam & Spoon. But even considering the near-glut of heavily melodic trance here, Tracid also spends plenty of time on hard, old-school European producers like Thomas P. Heckmann (a production partner), Westbam, Cosmic Baby, Der Dritte Raum, Hardfloor, and Thomas Schumacher. And several of the best tracks are Tracid's own productions: his solid acid-trance workout "Waveshaper," "Skywalker," "I Can Read Your Mind," and "Liquid Skies." In the end, Kai Tracid's DJ Mix, Vol. 1 is a worthy compromise between two very different versions of trance: the hard underground of the early '90s and the much softer mainstream during the end of the decade. ~ John Bush, All Music Guide