Awwwwwwww hell yeahhhhhhhh.

I’ve had lots of fun hosting latenight trancemission for the past couple of months. I’m really in debt to cpy for getting me into the genre, and I can see no more fitting event than taking a look back to the past year and the truly amazing tracks that were released. Monday Night, December 7th, I will be going through 54 of these tracks. 2009 was an amazing year for the electronic genre in general; collaborations by major artists, multiple amazing releases from electronic powerhouses, and the surfacing of some fantastic new producers. Lets take a look at some of these, feel free to join me in the comments.DJ LvL’s 2009 Electronic Highlights.

Trance
Producer of the Year: Gareth Emery
Instrumental Track of the Year (Tie): Be:Gold – Sun Stroke and Gareth Emery – Metropolis
Vocal Track of the Year – John O’Callaghan feat. Sarah Howells – Find Yourself
Album of the Year – OceanLab – Sirens of the Sea Remixed
Bootleg Mention – Thomas Banglater – Together (Mat Zo Bootleg)

I won’t dance around the subject, when I first heard Gareth Emery’s track Exposure on Trance Around the World I was absolutely hooked. This year he started his own label, Garuda, with the release of the Exposure/Metropolis EP, and he’s currently working on a full album set for release sometime 2010. Almost every track he’s produced this year has been outstanding with little exception, including remixes of: Lonely Girl, Vampire, Tuvan, Make This Your Day, and The Deep Devine. By far though the best track he’s released this year is Metropolis, an absolute masterpiece. I was all set to pick this for my instrumental track of the year, but then I was hit by something completely out of right field. Ben Gold released the track Sun Stroke under his Be:Gold alias, and it absolutely blew me away. Absolutely of the highest energy trance tracks of the year.

It has been quite the year for vocal trance as well. Most noteworthy was new music from Tritonal, including Piercing Quiet and Let Solitude. The expected from Matt Cerf, Mitiska and Jaren and  a new album from frequent collaborator Dash Berlin. Rex Mundi’s collaboration with Susana yielded one of the most epic vocal tracks of the year, Nothing at All, which is definitely a close second for my vocal track of the year. But it would be hard to deny that this year was by far the year of Sarah Howells. Working with artists such as Lange and First State she belted out some of the most memorable vocal tracks of the year. The most brilliant of which was her track with John O’Callaghan, Find Yourself, which I still listen to with the same enthusiasm as if it just came out, even though it was released in May.

There were many albums that were long in coming released this year as well. Dash Berlin finally got his first album out, The New Daybreak, which included some absolute brilliance such as Waiting and Never Cry Again, and some absolute meh. Ferry Corsten released a remix compilation of his most recent album, Twice in a Blue Moon.  And there were about a bjillion compilations albums. The album that absolutely blew me away though, was the OceanLab remix album. OceanLab in and of itself is a brilliant collaboration, it is as good as vocal trance gets, however Sirens of the Sea Remixed was just… profound. There were so many ways to interpret the same style of music. Some of the most notable reworkings were the Gareth Emery remix of Lonely Girl, the Andrew Bayer remix of Secret, and the Andy Duguid remix of On the Beach.

Last but not least there is the type of track I have come to hate, the bootleg, and there have been some fantastic ones this year. I nerdgasmed when I first heard the Myon & Shane54 mashup of Metropolis and On a Good Day, and Blake Jarell’s remix of Pink Floyd’s Comfortably Numb is  a stunner. But the bootleg that had me jumpin was Mat Zo’s reimagining of Thomas Banglater’s Together, and I just pray that in the future there will be more French House Trance.

Progressive
Producer of the Year: Oliver Smith
Instrumental Track of the Year: Paul Keeley - Paper Jet (Bart van Wissen Remix)
Vocal Track of the Year: Ismael Rivas (aka Riva) – For How Long
Album of the Year: Marco V – Propaganda

Although Ceppy may protest and say that progressive isn’t in the spirit of Latenight Trancemission, I’ll respectively disagree. Although minimalist progressive artists may have dominated the genre and given it a bad name (or a good name depending on your stance) there is still quite a bit of deep prog out there that is fascinating and absolutely wonderful to lose yourself in, much like one may lose oneself in a deep trance track.

When I think good progressive I go straight to Anjunadeep, home of the better prog house artists. Andrew Bayer has had some fantastic breakout tracks, with his remix of Secret and his collaboration with Boom Jinx for the release To the Six. Oliver Smith though, has produced some of my favorite prog tracks of the year, including Pacific, his remix of Ashes, and his Boom Jinx collaboration Sunrise. That said Boom Jinx has also had a great year, and I am looking forward to more from him. Outside of Anjunadeep, Wippenberg has produced some tasty reworks this year, most  his reworking of For How Long and his own original track Pong. Andy Duguid has also had a good year, with various solid releases.