Customer Reviews

Ultra Trance 03

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The magic seems to be fading at the house of Ultra. Each of their trance compilations is weaker than the one that preceded it, and the latest of the bunch is not only weak, but also disappointing given that it was mixed by Johnny Vicious. The first disc runs into problems for the simple fact that very little of it is actually trance. I had to do a double-take and re-read the title to make sure I wasn't listening to an "Ultra DANCE" compilation. Oh sure, there are some interesting moments such as the techno reworking of Kelis' radio hit "Milkshake" as well as the seductive "Smooth" by Iio. But the disc seems to lack cohesion, interesting grooves, and not much in the way of trance, which is the whole reason why anybody would bother with this collection in the first place. The second disc is somewhat of an improvement and actually does have trance, therefore living up to its name. I was never a big fan of Paul Van Dyk, but he does serve up an interesting number in "Time of Our Lives," and Armin van Buuren's "Burned With Desire" is just as good as the previous hit "Just Another Day." But after Ashiva's "Sunrise," it's a patchy ride through generic trance that's decent but offers little in the way of new kicks. "Ultra Trance 03" ain't a train wreck, but it comes close. There are better dance compilations both at Ultra and at other labels.

I always look forward to any Johnny Viscious release, but this CD set was a big dissapointment. I purchase CD's and then rip them lossless to J River's Media Center. After listening to both CD's a couple of times, I'm having a hard time wanting to rip a single track... I'm going to try and listen to this several more times and see if any of the songs grow on me. These are definitely Dance tracks, and is simply another Ultra Dance CD... No trance here in my opinion. I love dance music, but these songs are boring: neither satisfying dance or the trance genre... skip it in my opinion.

First off, I'd like to say that I typically purchase Ultra.Dance, and not Trance. When I picked it up, it was pretty much only for the Iio track. I am a big Iio fan and was excited to hear something new from them.

I was very disappointed in not only some of the song choices (In-Grid, Lasgo), but also some of the transitions between songs. Lucas Prata's amazing track ends...it actually ends, with a beat connecting it to the next track. Im not quite sure the purpose behind the way this disc was blended but Im not impressed.

There are some shining tracks on this thought.

The remix of Kelis' Milkshake may be sort of repetitive but the sound of the remix is truly stunning. I love it and get sucked in every time.
Iio's smooth is just about the best song to be labeled trance. The amazing buildup at the end of the track always causes me to close my eyes and let my mind soar.
The remix of Circ's Destroy She Said is dramatically different than the original I first heard on Ministry of Sound's Tech-Pop, and it is amazing how well it was remixed.

Everything else is pretty much straight out dance music, and I am upset that Ultra would try to market this as a Trance disc. If it didn't try to blur the edges between Americand and European Trance so much, Im sure it would be much better.

This compilation should've been named half-trance/half-dance, but the music is still great. Johnny Vicious lays definitely lays down a wicked mix on this; Ultra should never let him get away. CD 1 is good...for a dance mix. The low-end beats are too distracting to be considered trance by anyone with an ear for the genre. Look for iio's smooth and oakenfold's hypnotized on this CD. (Who would even consider putting TCB's 'born too slow' on a trance mix?)

It's a good thing that CD 2 comes after CD 1 b/c CD 2 is ripping. It's far more emotionally dynamic than CD 2, with definitive tracks like time of our lives, traffic, and born slippy nuxx. And the finale is truly a worth the ultimate spot (michael wood's close to the edge.)

CD 2 is worth checkin out if you are new to this world; CD 1 is an ok way to open up to an awesome CD 2.

For Christmas my friend had given me UltraTrance 2 as a gift, and while I admit I was less convinced it was a real trance mix, it eventually grew on me because if its diverse and catchy dance/trance type songs.
So I naturally figured that this newest arrival would really be good with the Johnny Vicious name on it.
Let me repeat the first disk is absolutely horrible. No cohesion, horrible track selection, I could barely find myself walking to the first disk much less raving or trancing out to it in even a minor way.
However the second disk is this compilations saving grace. Its almost impossible to believe both mixes came from the same world famous dj. Who really knows. Either way Disc 2 is a really great mix. One of the best that I swear I have heard in along time. It just captured my minds eye, like I was at a club in the middle of a floor. At least to me, It has a varied enough selection of the type of high energy hard trance that I enjoy. Perhaps my description is mistaken, I don't really know. I guess I would classify most of the second disk as more dance-trance than pure trance, and the mix is pretty much flawless and engaging the whole way through. It starts off a little slow and is a bit awkward for the first 4 tracks or so but once it hits its stride and beat with Armin van Burens "Burned With Desire" I think it takes off and pretty much does'nt let up till Solex at the end.
I felt ripped off by the horrible first disk, but the near perfect second disk saved my opinion of this series and compilation, and compared to the psuedo mix of Ultra Trance 2 its nice to finally have a real trance mix in this collection..

CD 1 is excellent and contained a ton of songs I love. Disc 2 is mainly non vocal and most stuff you've never heard. If you like the songs on disc 1, it's a great compilation. Everything is mixed together as well.

Overall I was pleased with this CD but of course it could've been better. Get rid of some of the songs such as Milkshake by Kelis ect and added a few more better songs. My favorite tracks on this have to be Destroy She Said and Music is Life. Overall, I'm pretty pleased with my buy and at first I wasn't too thrilled with it but after listening to it, the songs grew on me and I truly enjoyed listening to it. Though I definitely wouldn't have put this under the category Trance...more like Dance to me...

the reason i bought this cd was because:1)i had no other choice 2)it was mixed by Johnny Vicious and 3)it was released by the ultra series which (in my opinion) is like the ministry of sound label. to my surprise i enjoyed the cd,however,there were a few songs on disc 1) you'd truly expect on the ultra dance series like:Kelis,In-Grid,Lasgo,Lucas Prata,Nalin ans Kane Vs. Denis The Menace and Crystal Method. Im not saying these are bad songs,im just saying that these songs aren't trance. Disc 2) however is different because it has all the songs you'd expect on a trance nation cd, and that's saying something.
Favorites including:DJ Tiesto,Marco V,Armin,Ashiva,Dirt devils and Michael woods.

This is the 2nd Best CD in the compilation behind Ultra Trance 4.

i agree with a lot of ppl that this is more DANCe than trance but i liked a lot of the songs on this CD such as, Motercyle- As the rush comes, iio-smooth, Close to the Edge,and Burned with Desire...but it would've been better if they got rid of songs such as milkshake, u promised me, etc. The milkshake song especially!its REALLY annoying. Basically, in my opinion, some of the songs are REALLY good and some are REALLY bad.