Customer Reviews

State of Trance 2006 (Rmxs)

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

After both Tiesto and Armin tried to incorporate some progressive house into their mix CD's last year, which I felt didn't quite work (although the all trance disc 1 of State of Trance 2005 was hot), both go back to 2 disc, all trance mixes in 2006. Here, Armin chooses the theme of On the Beach for CD 1, and At the Club for CD 2. Well, he couldn't have picked better titles, as they completely sum up what each mix is about.

CD 1 started off a little sketchy, as I didn't feel tracks 1 and 2 were all that great, however, from track 3 on we get a flawless mix of high quality melodic trance. This disc never reaches ecstatic dance floor status, but that wasn't what it was intended to do. I think this mix takes a second listen to really kick in, due to it's slower pace. It's the perfect "background" trance CD to have on just about anywhere to listen to. Highlights include the Karen Overton vocal track Your Loving Arms, really juicy tracks 8 & 9, and one half of Way Out West (Jody Wisternoff) with a surprisingly good trance effort (he is usually house). The Jose Amnesia vs. Shawn Mitiska track My All is a hot track, and besides the Flashbrothers remix found here, I would also hunt down the even better Markus Schulz mix, which is a top 3 instrumental trance track for me right now. This entire CD seems to ever so slowly build up and put you in a mood, getting you ready of what's to come on Disc 2.

Disc 2 heats up instantly with an opening track by Arksun (who is the male half of Luminary) and only slightly hits a snag with the awkard male vocals of Kyau vs. Albert's Walk Down. They had one of the best male vocal tracks last year in Made of Sun, however this one misses the mark. The mix hits a peak with a blazing hot track by M.I.K.E. and the CD never lets up with track after track of pulsating trance full of deep melodies. The track Venus by Stoneface & Terminal is another highlight until the CD finally comes to an end with an incredible new track by Armin Van Buuren himself, Sail. It's a sweet melodic number that's going to be big this year!

Easily Armin's best mix in a while, and the best State of Trance mix out of these past 3. It's right up there with George Acosta's All Rights Reserved and ATB's DJ in the Mix 3 as tops in 2 disc trance mixes this year. Also recommended is Solarstone's Destinations and Tiesto's In Search of Sunrise 5. It seems everyone is going for two discs now, but you would be serviced well with Ronski Speed's 1 disc mix, Monster Series Volume 1: Live Germany, although it's a hard to find import not available here on US Amazon.

Let's face it, there's heaploads of great trance and great mixes in '06, and this one is near the top! Oh, and in case you missed it, if you want an incredible mix experience by Armin, and one that defies description, check out his State of Trance Year Mix 2005, which is a best of the year mix with a whopping 82 tracks spread out over 2 discs! It's a hard to find import and track times are obviously short, ranging from 28 seconds to 3:14, but it's nuts!

I've had the privilege to listen to this album about a week before its actual release date through a friend of mine. Since then, it's all I ever play and what I like to listen to now and I love it! ASOT 06' is by far Armin's best work. It's an album that can move every bone in your body and it's one with balance, beautiful vocals, and new mixture of string and electro vibe elements added that's makes this album so unique and inspiring. You won't be disappointed. What I enjoy listening the most from this album is the harmonic mixing key each song transitions into the next, especially at the release of bass synths. This is the driving force in Armin's work and he really knows how to draw out those sounds to their fullest extents leaving a trancy layer of melodies and killer bass lines with an uplifting force behind it. It's simply beautiful and exciting. I love all the tracks, especially "Whitesand". Don't ask me why. Just listen to it. Most of the tracks in the first cd are at a moderate 132bpm. With perfect pitch speed sets this as the mood. As for the second cd has bit more uplift at 138bpm. It's hard hitting and energizing. I love them both and I give this album my highest grade, 5 stars!

Armin van Buuren's style, from the countless mixes/broadcasts I have heard him put out, tends to waver with inconsistency. I think A State of Trance 2006 is where Armin finally hits his stride and is able to keep up with his own work.

Disc 1 (On The Beach) is a really great opening disc. Whether you find yourself rocking to and fro in a hammock or grooving enthusiastically in the sand & summer sun, this CD acts as a nice soundtrack. More atmospheric and spacey, Armin illustrates his grasp of the wheel when he proves himself able to incorporate some type of a pulse - sometimes surprisingly quick and hard - into this kind of "spaced" motif. In other words, On The Beach is not by any stretch of the imagination something ambient, and yet it is. The unobtrusive bpm simply propels the music, which takes the forefront, onward.

Disc 2 (At The Club) is where Armin has been known to shine; crazy, pulsating dance-floor-destroyer melodic trance comes pumping out of the speakers the minute the laser hits the disc. It doesn't become boring, and thankfully the vocals were really kept to a tolerable minimum in this mix. At The Club reminds me a lot of the frenetic, almost breakbeat melodic trance Armin dished out with his ASoT:2004, only this flows much better, linearly instead of jagged peaks and valleys. I loved ASoT:2004, but sometimes the lack of careful mixing or track placement makes it too hectic too enjoy - even on the dance floor, if you can believe that one.

I feel like Armin's been tinkering with stylistic techniques during the previous State of Trance mixes - 2004 & 2005. I loved both, but each went off in some undesirable direction at some point and never quite seemed able to return to base. Armin seems to have taken the warmer from 2004 and the cooler from 2005 and rightly combined them to produce 2006; highlighting his electronica capabilities with flying colors and putting forth a set in which BOTH discs are equally as desirable.

....No doubt this puts Armin back on the maps, even after releases like '76' temporarily took him off of my own. A great all-around CD to own, especially for Armin fans but also those of The Thrillseekers, Tiesto and Solarstone.

~Lex

If you like anything resembling electronic music, you'll likely LOVE this! I have all his stuff...he's amazing, especially with a hi-fi system or earphones that really cover full frequency (flatly): 5-25K Hz.

I won't go into a lot of detail here, but both of these disks are pretty amazing. The first one starts out somewhat slow, but then it builds into quite an energetic masterpiece. The second disk is pretty mind blowing throughout. I listened to the second disk first because the sub-title (In the club) drew my attention more. After listening to that disk about 25 times, I finally listened to the first disk, subtitled (At the beach) and to my surprise, after listening to it one or two times, I found myself liking it even more than the first. No way around it, if you like Trance, you have to buy this two disk set, it's as simple as that.

I am not a vocal fan at all, leave them out for me. Fortunately there are only about 3 of them all together. I was amazed at how good these mixes were. Some people are turned off by the lack of vocals and the lack of that umph! for those dance beats. I hated state of trance 2004 mainly because of lack of flow. It was all about beats that had no distinction, no emotion. State of trance 2006 is more mellow, more variety of sounds like pianos and guitars, yet still has your basic dance beat to it. Out of the 26 total songs, i love like 21 of them, ones being the vocal songs which i dont care for and "control freak" which is just not me but thats just my taste. The songs flow gracefully, they have meaning, on the mellow side yet it keeps itself away from being too mellow. Fantastic mix of sounds create emotion in the music...the way real dance music should. You would be crazy not to get this CD, one of my best buys ever!

Armin Van Buuren is the best thing I am listening too right now this spring 2006, still yet not finishing coming to grips with all the mixes on 2005's State of Trance, 2006 is absolutely more of the same - and this is a very good thing... again. While trance is certainly moving towards domestic radio and home culture entertainment, break beats now the new outdoor exercise activity of the disco halls, Van Buuren mixes like a radio DJ (and hah, he is a very good one!) to the long distance lorry driver or the security guard who has just come home from work, or the mini group of friends that are looking for the kind of trance that might give them another two hours of life before it is all over, Van Buuren has a nice balance of stuff that will impress the more you listen to it, and this requires you to play the thing even if you do not like it the first time round (and believe me, trance would not be so good if it was not for this effort we make), Van Buuren is really a DJ to behold, much like James Holden or Ferry Corsten, these three names are the new Paul Van Dyk, Paul Oakenfold or DJ Tiesto. State of Trance gets better by every progressive year and is something to look forward too. DJ Tiesto really is responsible for this direction, but Van Buuren does it so well. While CD2 of 2005 maybe did not live up to CD2 of 2004, CD2 here could well be one of his best works, if not his best work to date. It is really punchy trance that peaks early around track #5! and pushes it right to the end track #16, so you can only imagine that this is up there already with the all time best of trance. This is the most anticapted trance album next to when PVD delivered Politics of Dancing II, and it is here. Feels like the summer already.

even though this is so cliche... DON'T HESITATE TO BUY...I haven't heard a trance compilation this well compiled since Tiesto's "In Search of Sunrise 3". In my opinion AVB is at THE TOP of his game right now and he understands what people are searching for in a double disc album. As 2 disc albums are becoming the norm for trance artists, too many filler tracks are being thrown in to give the appealing concept of "more bang for your buck"(AVB has done this with the previous ASOT 2005). But WOW has he learned...

Each disc has it's own creative theme:
Disc 1 - On the Beach (More ambient, chill type of trance)
Disc 2 - In the Club (Banging but still classy trance that makes you get hype)

I could go into a ridiculous amount of detail but I won't. This will please your ear on the first, second, third, and 1,000th listen. BUY IT while it's still new and experience AVB's recently found "#1 DJ" status vibe. Definitely the best mix of the summer!!!

His mixing is near flawless, his track selection is good, but theres a lack of progression and style in this release. It sounds good, but it feels "put together". it sounds like he took alot of great sounding tracks and mixed them in such a way that it sounds more like a compilation than a record. CD 1 is better in this respect. it tells more of a "story" than cd 2. cd 2 is more upbeat, but the progression just isnt that great. great tracks though. overall, it is a good album, and i do recomend it. look into sander kleinenberg, ferry corsten, Deep Dish, paul van dyk, sasha, digweed, tiesto, or hernan catteneo. All Masters of the art

AVB has never let us down. This is a true "trancy" cd - no nonsense here. If you haven't purchased this one, do yourself a favor and pull out your credit card now. This cd is HOT!