Various – Transient 4

Mastered at The Townhouse

Written on cover:

By the beginning of 1994, one theory in particular had started to gain currency at an alarming rate amongst music journalists. It claimed that trance was on its deathbed and in the final throes of a cliché-ridden TB303 swansong. Finished. For so long the principal driver in the global explosion of hard-edged dance music, trance had, the theorist expounded, choked on the vomit of its own popularity. In any event, they said, its dominance as a musical form had been usurped by innovations in Chicago, Detroit, Bristol and Peckham. A new, intellectual sound had been conceived. The next big thing had finally arrived. The Theorists rejoiced. They returned to their bedrooms, played Derrick May albums and masturbated in unison. On the dancefloor, nobody took much notice. The World of sorry auto-erotic stimulation is, after all, a wormhole away from the exploding universe a face painters, chai stallis, quat leaves, massage tents, palm trees, fluoro pixies, dreadlocks, tye-die nutters and cosmic camaraderie. Of warrior poets, up-for-it ravers, trancers, mystics, indulgent students, travellers, puple ohms, blue Shiva and laughing Buddhas. A revolution had taken place that mirrored the scale, if not the impact, of '88 acid house, you see. People had strated having fun again. The soundtrack to this new hedonism was undeniably trance, but trance taken to a new level. It was energetic and emotional, as ever, but also increasingly psychedelic. Some were quick to label it Goan, and if the 'G word' was a state of mind rather than a state in India, then that was fair enough. Because most quality psychedelic music was being made by people who had never been east of Skegness. People like Transient. Transient were there right at the birth of psychedelic trance. They helped nurture the sound of fin-de-siècle aural spiritualism, and have flourished along with it. Tripped-out pioneers for a truly mental generation, Transient were also insightful enough to recognise from outset the importance of artiste development and cultured production values. Hence a home-grown roster that is London-based but globally focused and includes such critically acclaimed acts as Disco Volante and Cosmosis. Hence this, the label's fourth compilation album. Hence an imprint that is, ironically, anything but transient. Insert disc, release the energy and hear for yourself...

Dave Fowler, Musik magazine / 30 August 1996

This Compilation (P) & (C)1996 Transient Records / Made in The E.C.