Solarstone & Stoneface & Terminal presents Pure Trance Vol. 9

Over the last decade, the albums’ make-up has crystallised around several core paradigms. Feeding into the genre’s future, the discovery and elevation of new talents (of which the ninth volume features many) remains central. As does Richard’s mission to return some much-missed names to its fore, ensuring that the classic feel of genre is baked in. It also affords Rich the opportunity to – where innate – introduce and trancify some music from outside electronic music’s sphere. Further, both Richard and Stoneface & Terminal (Henri Nix & Matthi Gierth) have taken the opportunity to (exclusively for the album) remix some tracks from the genre’s dawn.

Featuring music from everyone from M.I.K.E. Push, Lost Witness, Basil O’Glue, Robert NIckson & Lostly (V6 & V7’s co-mixers incidentally), to Lustral, Cosmic Baby, Sunscreem and beyond, that arch defender of the Pure returns, November 12 (https://blackhole.lnk.to/pt9).

If you’re seeing even more of Solarstone’s own on his latest Pure Trance testament, it’s not hard to imagine why. With double the prep-time to hand, it’s allowed Rich to inject even more of that Solar essence into his mix. Adding the most personal of touches, ‘V9’ is the first in the series where every track featured has either been co-produced, engineered, remixed or Retouched by the man himself.

Through Foxhill’s balm-some ‘Beach’ and Misja Helsloot’s ‘Bashed’ (via his new Hel:sløwed alias), Rich’s introductory minutes bring the album cruise appeal. Holding its own memorable moment for Solarstone this summer (having opened his first post-lockdown set with it), Akkima’s 'Moments' follows. One of his “all-time top 5 tracks” meanwhile, Sunscreem’s 'Love U More' has been on his remix wish list for over twenty years. In a rework that may yet prove to be his finest, through studio mastery he manages to add yet greater emotional weight to ‘Love U More’s song. At the culmination of his mix - through Robert Nickson’s latest, Solarstone goes all-in on the galactic. A reinterpretation of the Bulgarian folk song that featured on The Golden Record, sent on the 1977 Voyager space missions), ‘Delyo's Voyage’ delivers an (inter!) stellar end to the mix.