Frank-E & Mars-L – World Of Pagan...

Frank-E & Mars-L have long been two of my favourite producers, thanks to several fantastic releases on Charly Lownoise & Mental Theo's labels, all of them full of energy and with a great melodic touch. Most were hardcore, but there were also two hard trance EPs on Master Maximum Trance Traxx.

With this EP, they kick off their own label in the same vein, with no let up in quality. On the B side, "Can You Dig It" starts out with a piano refrain (with more than a hint of BBE - Seven Days & One Week), over the usual hard trancey sounds - before taking an abrupt turn into something much more ravey. Next, "Hear No Evil, See No Evll" cranks up the rave with more hoovers, a light dusting of breakbeats and a trancey riff with some nicely surprising twists - then they really start to show off, changing up the main riff slightly and adding an entirely new layer of melody with some rushy flute sounds (as I can best describe them).

However my favourite has to be the A side, "World Of Pagan". Faster than both B side tunes, it kicks off with a great DJ friendly intro full of hectic 303s that's great for mixing, before a solid dark-tinged trancey riff cranks up the energy further. And just as you think that's all, it breaks down into full hard trance mayhem with another, much more anthemic break, backing up the rushy synths with plenty of hoover. All of it topped off with an appropriately epic sample from the game Ultima VI, also sampled by Zenith the previous year for "Black Alienation" on IST.

i think what I love about these tunes the most is - they start out with excellent ideas that would be enough for less interesting producers - but in each case, they develop into something so much more.

Sadly by 1998, the classic uptempo hard trance style found here was falling out of fashion, in favour of the slower big room sound that would dominate Europe by the end of the 90s. But this still remains one of my favourites (and quite a bit cheaper than anything on Master Maximum Trance these days too!)