Part 2 off the crew's retrospective... Read on to find out which producers did it for us, and what we think of 2003...

First up we have Sygnus:

His top 5 looks a bit like this:
Ferry Corsten
M.I.K.E
Marco V
Katana
Andy Perring

And his opinions?
Best thing in 2003?
There seemed to be a lot of new amateur artists getting releases which was good for the music!!

Where should 2004 be heading?
More amateur artists to be signed to labels... There’s a lot of talent out there who will help to naturally evolve the type of sound that trance is developing into. Mp3 maybe becoming more acceptable and potential perhaps more understood by the industry?

What don’t you want to see in 2004?
Less commercial stuff!!! So much trancy commerial shit been released nowadays helping to give 'trance' a bad reputation. Don’t want to see RIAA successful in any of its attempts... music deserves to be heard and people shouldn't be fined or whatever for checking out some music that they might have downloaded.

Oren's top 5 is very interesting!
1. Subsky
2. L-Vee aka Lolo aka Airwave
3. Andy Prinz
4. Andy Moor
5. Steve Porter

What was the best thing in 2003?
The talented producers this year revealed... to mention a few: Envio, M.I.D.O.R. & Six4Eight, Paul Moelands (Re:Locate), Liquid Life...

Where should 2004 be heading?
Another big exposure of new talented and young producers!

What don't you want to see in 2004?
Quality music gets commercial.


Next crew member has only been with us for a week or so… DJLife&Death
Armin Van Buuren
Jelle Faber (Every alias)
Above & Beyond
Ronski Speed
Jesper Soderland (Every alias)
Is his top 5 producers of 2003.

The best thing for me this year was all the new versions of all the old classics.
Bootlegs and official remixes. The new versions of Veracocha's Carte Blanche (RVG and
Kenny Hayes), Binary Finary's 1998(Ronski Speed), BBE's Seven days and One Week (Ferry Corsten and Tomcraft), Goldenscan's Sunrise(Pulsar and Ronski Speed) and may more included the mighty Airwave from the Rank 1 boys. Then there was the bootlegs, the Digital Delinquents version of Carte Blanche (again), United Nation's Version of Ralph Fridge's masterclass Angel and Opal Fruits' version of Bedrock - Heaven Scent and of course the K series. (Papa New Guinea, Binary Finary, Go!) It was just so nice to hear old and loved tunes getting reworked for the future clubber. And again, for me one of the most interesting things of this year as been Ferry Corsten's change in style. Something so new and different if a little strange. He's got some balls man!!

2004?? Well, I'd like to see more artists. I think at the moment the market is too hard to get into. Full credit this year to Armind for putting out so many new artists on their many labels. But it really is about time that recognised artists stop using alias to help fill labels and started looking for new producers. All these fresh sounding bootlegs and one off promos are testament to that.

I think for 2004 what we don't want to see funny enough are more re-harshs of old tunes. I mean once we start getting 2 Unlimited- Tribal Dance 2004 it's time to say NOOOOOOOOOO! DAMN IT!
2003 saw The Outhere Brothers getting remixed, as well as Culture Beat, Snap and
Haddaway!!!(?)
That's enough please. But other than that I'm just looking forward to all the new news going our way. Who know's what's in store, Gizeh could release a new song, PVD could maybe use more than the same three drum loops or Tiesto could become the next big Drum n Bass dj based in Hackney!!

On to big man Stream, the driving force behind i:Vibes
Gabriel & Dresden (especially Motorcycle)
DJ Tiesto
Paul Van Dyk
Jon 'OO' Fleming
Goldenscan

What was the best thing in 2003?
A general improvement of the trance-productions from 2002. Both well-known artists like Tiesto and PvD worked hard to come up with something new this year, and we saw many new names in the scene making a good impact on the overall music-quality throughout the year.

Where should 2004 be heading!?

Hopefully 2004 will build upon the improvements from 2003. New artists will get their breakthrough and other less-known ones will get a good reputation from several quality productions picked up and played by the top-dj's.

What don't you want to see in 2004?
Nightmare for me would be if the productions go back to or below the mediocre quality I think we had in 2002.

Let’s find out what Kevin C thinks about it all…?
1. Paul van Dyk
2. Nu Nrg
3. Agnelli & Nelson
4. Leama & Moor
5. Gabriel & Dresden

What was the best thing in 2003?
There was some sign of the late 90's trance massive seeping through the cracks and some euphoric, melodic productions being put together. Producers such as Agnelli & Nelson and West Coggle (Olmecheads) have been putting together some fine work bringing back some memories of top quality music.

Where should 2004 be heading!?
I think that there is too much of similar stuff out there at the moment and hopefully there are going to be tracks which bring together elements across various genres whilst keeping it real. I know a lot of people don't like vocal tracks, but to me, you gotta have em' every year! A bit more progressive breaks, electro-glittering psy-trance and even some chilled beats would be superb.

What don't you want to see in 2004?
As good as some tracks may be, I do not want to see anymore remixes of age-old songs. Remixes of commercial tracks should also be kept in the corner! I am also tired of seeing tracklists with tracks churned and rechurned in various assorted orders and artists should not keep picking up the tracks which everyone seems to know. Other than that, everything goes!

On to our Norwegian friend Jan:
1. Bart van Wissen
2. Miika Kuisma
3. Thomas P.Heckmann
4. Harry Lemon
5. John Askew

Best thing of 2003:
The various directions that trance took this year. From the techy sounds of Marcel Woods, Igor S and Detox Recs. over the dark, menacing vibes of the productions from F&W and Choose & F to the shimmering FX trickery of Outback, 2003 was a delightful middle finger to those who wrote trance off as nothing but half-assed floaty crap.

2004 should be:
The year where dance music heads even further underground. Dance music is slowly losing its mainstream popularity, which is the perfect opportunity for it to shake off some of the worst effects of commercialism. Hopefully this event will have an impact on the music itself as well, so that dance music fans won't have to suffer through as many half-assed, cheap and lazily produced productions as they have to now.

In 2004 I do not want to see:
First off, enough with the damn rehashings of old tracks. I think I lost count of the total amount of new remixes of Jay Dee - Plastic Dreams and Energy 52 - Cafe Del Mar. Go make some new, creative tracks instead.

Secondly, less of the uninspired and half-assed things that tend to flood the record market. Be it half-assed techno loops that consist of the same half dozen perc loops we've heard a million times before, progressive tribal blah blah which does nothing but dig an even deeper tuneless, dull hole, house that beats the usual "one catchy hook repeated for 6 minutes"-horse yet again or another half-hearted and dull uplifting trance tune: I've had it. Be original please!

Also, a lot of people could stop being such whining, pompous arses and do something creative to remedy the problems they moan so much about instead.

And last but not least, trigaX our residential proghead:
His top 5 looks a lot different than the others:
1. Sultan & Tonedepth
2. Bedrock
3. UNKLE (James Lavelle & Richard File)
4. Hybrid
5. Pako & Frederik

2003 was the year where every style had their share of great tunes!! A lot of progressive, breakbeat, uplifting & hard trance! Just how it should be…

2004 should be the same of it, but with less facelifts, less songs getting the new look… We need more original songs & artists to emerge from their bedrooms, just look at Sultan & Tonedepth. 2003 was the year for them, with a lot of their songs getting plays from all the top jocks. And another duo that made it big this year was Josh Gabriel & Dave Dresden. I lost count how many remixes they did this year. Keep it up guys!!

And 2004 should have less bankrupts, RIP Bonzai & Hooj. Let’s just hope that all the labels are able to embrace the mp3’s in an original way, so they don’t have to shut their books…