WARMER MIXTAPES #1622 | by George Dervenagas [VHS Dreams]

1. Push | Universal Nation (Original 12" Mix) 
This is the track that made me wanna make Music for the first time in my life. I didn't listen to any Music at all until I reached 13 years of age, when this track came to my hands on a compilation CD of Trance Classics and to my young ears sounded like a signal from Space! I remember lying on my bed listening to it everyday, conjuring images of nebulas and cosmic rays in my head, and letting that feeling of Universality flow through me. Spending time also trying to understand what kind of instrument could ever make these sounds, it was right there and then that I had my first urge of becoming a Music artist. The extended original mix is 10 minutes long, and it's the version that I highly recommend.

2. The Age Of Love | The Age Of Love (Watch Out For Stella Club Mix)
This remix of The Age Of Love by Jam & Spoon (commonly falsely referred to as the original artists) needs no introduction to an Electronic Dance Music fan. Also commonly referred to as the first example of a Trance track reaching the masses, and a genre anthem, I had this on the same compilation CD that included Universal Nation and the pair were played back and forth for hours upon hours on my Sony Diskman. The break with the swelling pads and the angelic synthesized stuttering voice is still one of the best moments I've come across in Electronic Music.

3. The KLF | What Time Is Love? (Pure Trance Original)
If all the essence of what Trance Music used to be in the early 90's could be condensed into one single song then it has to be the Pure Trance Original version of What Time Is Love?. Released in 1988 and widely considered the harbinger of a genre yet to come, the track was way ahead of its time. Hypnotic is probably the best way to describe it in a single word. Growing up in the 90's and 00's in rural Greece came with some disadvantages such as not having Internet access 'til the late 00's and thus no way to discover new Music except from whatever you could get from friends. While most of Europe had entered the Internet Age for good, Music on the Greek countryside was still circulating from hand to hand. I discovered this track very late after being a fan of The KLF for so long and knowing little about them or their work beyond their Stadium House trilogy. And yet, when I did, I was instantly transported back to that feeling.

4. Beloved | The Sun Rising (Adam & Eve's House Of The Rising Sun)
I first found out about this track quite late compared to most others on this list, on a documentary about the Second Summer Of Love. I knew The Beloved from other major hits they had, but this track is definitely their finest hour in my book. It encapsulates all that was great about Comedown Music, and the feeling of sunrise washing you down after a long night's party outdoors. It also leaves me with a wanderlust feeling to travel through not Space, but Time, and experience the Second Summer Of Love. Those times are gone now, and for us, younger ones, all we're left with is nothing but our imagination, and tracks like this one to offer solace.

5. Jean-Michel Jarre | Oxygene (Part II)
Oxygene (Part II) is my favorite track from Jarre's seminal album Oxygene. Overshadowed by the catchier Oxygene (Part IV), which is probably his signature track to this day, Part II is more introspective, longer and better. I first heard of it after years of coming across the album's name being mentioned here and there, and decided to have a listen. I was instantly hooked. Up to that point I only thought of Electronic Music as synonymous to Dance and Oxygene opened a whole new horizon! Whenever I hear it's pads, wind howls and effects, I get transported over cold winter seas back home. Its influence on me was massive, and can be heard on my latest album Lost World and especially on my track Shores Of Euboea.

6. The KLF | Madrugada Eterna
Only The KLF could have a second track on this top list. Madrugada Eterna appeared on their first LP, Chill Out, which helped popularize Ambient and, well, Chillout Music as well as establishing the term Ambient House. This particular track evokes Pink Floyd-esque vibes throughout. It is long and beautiful and everytime I hear it I get transported back to my family house at the balcony, overlooking the shores of Euboea on a warm summer night's dawn, drowsiness crawling in and letting the vista give way to dreams as I fall asleep with this track playing in the background. Madrugada Eterna means Eternal Dawn and I think the name says it all.

7. SNAP! | Rhythm Is A Dancer (7" Edit) 
I mentioned before that I grew up in rural Greece in the 90s. Life for kids there is sometimes difficult for foreigners to grasp. In summertime we used to stay out till 3 AM, laughing and chasing each other around like kids do, with our parents and family friends always at a close distance enjoying some fine wine and Music. Occasionally this same scene would end up at one of the outdoors lounge bars in the area. As a 6 year old I spent nights upon nights falling asleep on my mother's lap as my family and their friends were chilling, Music eminating from the indoors dancefloor nearby. That's where, I suspect, I heard this song for the first time and it gives me an almost womb-like feeling everytime I listen to it. It feels like a memory from another life, a life where Unity was felt and expressed though Music. The music video and the track's sonic aesthetics are so on point. Smoky colors reveal Space rockets, juxtaposed with the earthly vibe of black vocals. It is Nostalgia in its purest and most true form.

8. Global Communication | 5 23 
The Sun is rising, and you've finally found inner peace and felt whole again. Beyond these simple words there are no other to describe why I love this track and how it makes me feel.

9. Binary Finary | 1999 (Kaycee Remix)
Picture this: It is a bright day, The Sun is shining and The Horizon is filled with great fluffy white clouds. You're standing on top of a miles high cliff, overlooking the endless sea and the carpet of clouds in the distance. You take a free fall, and keep falling for minutes, great thoughts and feelings fill your mind. Just as you're getting closer and closer to hitting water, you land on a gigantic mythical bird which then takes you on a ride over the sea and the clouds at tremendous speeds. All that while this track's chorus is playing on the background. For me, this track and 90s Trance Music epitomizes the feeling of Freedom.

10. Dance 2 Trance | We Came In Peace (Original '90 Mix) 
This composition has a central role in my work as a Music producer, having interpolated it so many times in various tracks of mine. I get feelings of distant, elusive memories everytime the original version of We Came In Peace reaches its main riff. Images of a club in the earliest of the 90's, its dance space quite dark, yet of gigantic dimensions and with a massive PA system emanating this track. And I was there among people dancing in unison, becoming one with each other. I know this never happened in real life. It is what I imagined every time I sat in my bedroom and repeatedly played this song loudly on my headphones, for a period sometime in the late 90s. What I recall, what I am so nostalgic about, is nothing but a memory of a fantasy.