Categories
Mixes

Pearsall presents Eurotrash 9 [Old Skool Hard Trance Mix]

Pearsall drops the ninth edition of his long-running series of old skool European hard trance mixes

Pearsall presents Eurotrash 9

right-click, save as to download

Pearsall · Eurotrash 9 [Old Skool Hard Trance Vinyl Mix]

Mixed in Berlin, July 2023
100% Vinyl
(87:00, 199 MB, 320 KBPS MP3)

Big cover
Cue file

Direct link to the mix:
http://sonicrampage.org/mixes/et9/Pearsall-Eurotrash9.mp3

Tracklisting:

  1. Earthquake – Noxious Guy [Red Alert]
  2. Slot Machine – Flashback [Slot Machine]
  3. D-Factor – The Collective [Tri-Lamb]
  4. Pro-Active – Dominator (Talla 2XLC Remix) [Suck Me Plasma]
  5. Acid Phase – Cadence [XYZ]
  6. Nuclear Hyde – Persuader [Noom]
  7. Flux – Strange Feelings [Tetsuo]
  8. Panama – Logical Device [Red Alert]
  9. The Power Glove – Morphing [Nitric]
  10. Troop – Homecoming [Noom]
  11. Zone One – Eye Believe Do You? [Forever Forward]
  12. Aeroplane – Amplitude [Sub Records]
  13. Pearsall – Undertow [Sonicrampage]
  14. JFS – Praxis [Tunnel]
  15. Olmec Heads – Lift Off [Time Unlimited]
  16. Code 26 – Alarm (Cyborg Mix) [United Ravers]
  17. Master Density – Give Me A Base [Pirate]
  18. Sound Structure – Reality [DJs Present]
  19. DJ Energy – Believer [Energetic]
  20. X-Ite – Cyberworld [Spaceflower]
  21. Planet Fuse – Innocent Game (Egoist Mix) [Fuse]
  22. Lab 4 – Liquid Space [Fragile]
  23. M-Zone – On The Spot [UK44]
  24. Dual Mount – Magma [Tesseract]
  25. Ray & G.O.D. – Target Planet [Time Unlimited]

This train just keeps rolling and rolling …

I did my first Eurotrash mix in the spring of 2006; I’d recently returned to London after several years in New York and I was just getting to grips with mixing again after a long break (I never brought my decks and records to New York), and I wanted to put a mix together of some cool older European hard trance tunes to listen to.

So, without much planning or forethought, I made Eurotrash 1. I can’t really remember what I thought, but I guess I wouldn’t have imagined that the series would still be trundling on 17 years later.

Me, spring 2007

17 years! It seems like an eternity ago – it was before I met my wife (I met her in 2007), before I grew a beard (I grew it late 2006), before I started this blog (I kicked it off in 2008). I was still five years away from being a dad, and career-wise I was doing something completely different from what I am doing today. I was still a smoker, still a binge drinker, and a fair bit thinner than I am today (my hair didn’t change too much fortunately!); it was just a very different life stage.

What isn’t so different, however, is my passion for this music. The first mix established what I’ve always wanted this series to be about: delving into the incredibly fertile territory of (mostly) 90’s European hard trance and (to a lesser degree) hard and acid techno, in order to build up a catalogue of mixes that illuminates the best of this era. In some cases that has meant mixes that are a bit slower (like Eurotrash 8), mixes that are very fast (like Eurotrash 5 and Eurotrash 6), mixes that take the listener on a long journey (like volumes two, three and four), as well as a mix that was more strictly acid techno, Eurotrash 7.

The series has aways been about showcasing the highlights of this particular era; and part of the reason for that is that there was a lot of terrible music released during this time! It’s not like 94/95 jungle, where overall standards were very high … the German labels in particular released a huge amount of music, just an avalanche of stuff, much of which is frankly better off not being spoken of. However, the good stuff is, well, incredible, and that’s what Eurotrash is about: that particular combination of energy, intensity, and melody. Is it cheesy sometimes? Sure, I can agree to that, but it’s a good cheese! An honest, wholesome, mature cheese; a cheese appropriate for all ravers!

So what’s up with this mix, then? The 9th in the series, 17 years after the first one, it’s a typical builder of mine, kicking off at around 140 bpm before ratcheting up over time to a nicely energetic 160 bpm. I’m not breaking any new conceptual ground with this one, but is that necessary? If it works, it works.

And what about the tunes? What do I mean by ‘European’ hard trance, anyways? I’ve always defined ‘European’ in this series as meaning records released on labels based on the European mainland, although that’s more of a guide than a hard rule. Honestly, I’ve always been flexible about including UK tracks if I felt they fit the vibe that I wanted to achieve. And so on this mix that means that I’ve included two tracks from British hard trance master M-Zone as well as a track by the legendary live act Lab 4 … all of which fit perfectly! Oh yeah, and I also included my own track Undertow, self-released two years ago.

What else is on here? Well, to be honest most of the tracks on here are from German labels such as Noom, Time Unlimited, United Ravers, Tunnel, etc but I’ve also included a track from Spain (the Master Density track), a few Italian tracks (from the Red Alert label), a Dutch track (the Dual Mount track on Tesseract), and a track from the Belgian label Nitric. Pan-European vibes in effect!

I recently moved and am not set up to record yet in my new flat, but I’m hoping that I can record a Eurotrash 10 some time before the end of the year. Until then, enjoy this mix!

If you liked this …

Well, I’ve linked the other Eurotrash mixes above, but here are a few other mixes that you might enjoy if you like this one:

News update

We moved last month from Wilmersdorf to Schoeneberg, and my home office / mancave / music room isn’t set up yet in the new place, so before we moved I recorded a bunch of mixes so that I would have a selection of stuff ready to release over the few months where I wouldn’t be mixing (I will probably be back up in mid-October).

That means that I still have some unreleased mixes to come!

  • I’ve done my first ever trip-hop / downtempo mix, which I plan to drop in about two weeks
  • I’ve done a tribute to my favorite artist o the last 10 years: Om Unit
  • I’ve done a guest mix for The Worx podcast series
  • It’s already been premiered on Sub FM, but I’ve done Half Shelf Dubby Dip 2 for Begrime and will put it up … some time

Besides those unreleased mixes, there’s also the two guest mixes I’ve done recently:

More music soon, then!