Trance for the summer

it's big it's bold it's brash + u cannot escape it ok

Jul 18, 2025

Belgian trio Lasgo i.e. the trance equivalent of Black Eyed Pheas

It’s summer in Ireland which means Trance Season is in full swing. From the car, from the field, from the JBL speaker. It’s all a-go here once the temperature reaches 22++ degrees. The windows are open and/or rolled down, the factor 30 is not applied, the wafts of weed and strawberry vape(s) are obligatory. On the Dublin coast, the scent of the salty sea air swirls with cider breath, pawn cocktail crisps and car exhaust fumes. After 4pm, splats of vomit decorate the paths and cook under the sun. It’s all very Joycean, tbh.

More importantly, in the past 48 hours, I’ve heard Todd Terry’s remix of Everything But The Girl’s tingly ‘Missing’ and Nalin and Kane’s ‘Beachball’ (the former on the radio, the latter in someone’s car pelting down the road at approx. 100kph towards the Forty Foot).

A heatwave is the only time of year these tunes are unearthed and broadcast on mainstream radio or dug out from the dustiest ends of Spotify or Soundcloud (~~bring back the iPod~~). When the sun comes out to play, trance (and some golden trance-adjacent house) is expected and welcomed by all ages and generations. It’s like hearing ‘Maniac 2000’ at an Irish wedding. It is compulsory, it should not be questioned, and it’s of equal symbolic importance to the goujons wheeled out after midnight.

Sunshine in Ireland also means Eurodance crawls out of the woodwork. Radio DJs select it with extreme care and without a wrinkle of irony. The unspoken brief of sun = trance + Eurodance is carried out with focus and precision. These genres must ripple across the airwaves as the temperature rises. As soon as the weather turns shite again however, it’s back to the usual aggressive pop and gravelly indie bits.

Before the grey skies and spitting rain return once again (and here in Ireland, this is approaching imminently), here’s the last of the trance magic to mark the genre’s annual heat-driven resurgence.

NB I: This list is not for dance music snobs. Or, it can be for snobs but only if you/they come with an open mind and open heart in the ~true spirit~ of trance.

NB II: The tracks are linked in the titles which might come up all gobbledegooked depending on your email/browser xx

~~🌞~~

Lasgo - Something

teary trance. underated + underappreciated except by Courtesy who has brought it back to life in several of her sets 🔮

Chicane - Saltwater

glorious, classy + civilised

Tiësto - Adagio For Strings

summer on steroids, and we’ll take the steroids

Opus III - It’s A Fine Day

woodland creature trance

Binary Finary - 1998

the Honda Civic (4th generation) of trance

Fragma - Toca Me

an example of synths and whispery vocals put to good use

Gigi D’agostino - L’amour Toujours

just accept it

Robert Miles - Children

obligatory

BBE - 7 days and one week

see above

Sunbeam - Outside World

matrix trance, more on the goofy side of the genre

Energy 52: Café Del Mar (Three 'n One Radio Remix)

FM104, Spin1038, 98FM and 2FM have had an absolute field day with this tune over the years, it is the track for the Friday drivetime post-4pm but only if it’s 22++ degrees