Who can forget the classic days of trance? When the tunes were quality, melodic and seriously uplifting… I remember buying my first ever Gatecrasher album and falling in love with its sound. Gatecrasher Red is a stable in many older dance music fans, who hold onto it as a true classic album. From humble beginnings to a world-conquering global club brand, UK clubbing phenomenon Gatecrasher has continued to push boundaries and be a dominate force in dance for 16 years. As a long time trance fan, I’ve watched trance progress from its early days to where it is today. I loved all the earlier Gatecrasher compilations but lost interest as they moved away from the quality of the past, to the trance of now. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoy trance now but it just doesn’t seem to touch me in the same way as the tunes of the past did… that leads me into disc one.

Scott Bond, Gatecrasher resident and a name that was for many years synonymous with the brand, mixes up the first disc, which overall is my favourite and much preferred disc of the three. As he starts up with a tune I never hear anymore (but totally love), U2’s Lemon (Perfecto mix), he’s got me hooked in and dreaming of the “good old days”. The mix goes through anthems such as Humate’s Love Stimulation, Armin van Buuren’s Communication, Binary Finary’s 1998 (Paul van Dyk remix), Atlantis vs Avatar’s Fiji (Lange remix), Tiesto’s Traffic, Cygnus X’s The Orange Theme and more. Seriously, a great blast to the past and a well done mix.

Serving it up on disc two is another resident of the Gatecrasher brand, Matt Hardwick. Again he delivers a fantastic mix of trance classics and tunes any trance fan would never get sick of, including Lustral’s Everytime (Way Out West’s Sunrise mix), Chakra’s Home (Tilt Topline mix), Push’s Strange World (Airwave remix), Veracocha’s Carte Blanche, Oakenfold’s Southern Sun (Tiesto remix), Ayla and some great tunes from the last few years. Again, I thoroughly enjoyed this mix and loved how it captured the Gatecrasher sound.

Lastly, well-known and longstanding DJ Judge Jules, takes control of the third disc, bringing us into the present day and the future. This mix definitely is chock-a-block of tracks you’ve sure to have heard out and about at all the big festivals of late, including the massive ones like Wippenberg’s Chakalaka (Tristian D remix), Armin Van Buuren’s Rain (Cosmic Gate remix), Breakfast’s Remember, Art of Trance’s Madagascar (Richard Durand remix), plus more. And of course, he’s included one of the biggest tunes of the last few months, John O’Callaghan’s Find Yourself – huge!

Gatecrasher Trance Anthems is a salute to one of the most iconic clubbing movements in dance music. If you’ve been a trance fan for a long time, you’re sure to enjoy this compilation, as you retrace some great moments in not only the Gatecrasher brand but in trance music iverall. Although I wish the third disc was a little more solid, overall I do think this latest compilation really gives you a great taste of past, present and future. Listen to a piece of history and see where we’re have been and are now headed. Trance-tastic!