A State of Trance

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Any of you into Armin van Buren, trance, electronica? This stuff is my guilty musical pleasure lately. I find the instrumental (if it can be called that), non-vocal portions to be kind of interesting, hypnotic, and even relaxing--particularly good while driving. More often than not, the vocals sound like the inane pop crap one is exposed to in so many places. Last time I was driving to the center of the universe (i.e., Berkeley, CA), I had the Sirius satellite radio on to channel 38, and they were playing some of Armin van Buren's mixes, which I really enjoyed. I've noticed that he has "A State of Trance" albums for several recent years. Can anyone suggest some that are particularly good, without too many crappy vocals?

I've also been listening to Chemical Brothers lately with mixed results.

[petrarch]

I don't particularly follow the genre and therefore can't really suggest particular compilations or even artists. However, I do have a good library of individual tracks, built by weeding out anything I didn't like. Off the top of my head, are you familiar with Cosmosis? Howling at the moon and Doors of perception are favourites of mine. But, come to think of it, maybe they aren't considered strictly trance and are more on the goa/whatever subgenre...

[XB-70 Valkyrie]

Just curious .. have you checked out any of the electronica from a real master composer? Like Stockhausen for instance? It's well worth it .. try Stockhausen-Edition 41, 49, 55 or 66 .. any one of those may be to your liking. Pure large scale electricity.

Levels down from that ..  there is Squarepusher .. who's alright.

I haven't checked out Stockhausen yet, but thanks for the tip. Does Berio count?

[bwv 1080]

I have found that Bill Laswell is about all I need

http://www.youtube.com/v/bu_AXTcxOKI