- The first Trance Wax, an anonymous vinyl-only release, quickly burrowed its way into record bags. It had a simple but effective concept: take a rinsed-out trance anthem from the '90s or early '00s, slow it down and slap a breakbeat on it. You get trance's epic euphoria without the dated qualities that turn modern listeners off. Somewhere between Shed and Evian Christ, that first Trance Wax EP had a slow-burning rise to fame, culminating in a new live set from Ejeca, the producer behind it. The second EP shows that there's life left in the formula, even if it doesn't reach the dizzying heights of its predecessor.
An intense track like Mauro Picotto's "Lizard"—which Ejeca edits on the A1—could be hard to swallow. But he wisely homes in on its feel-good breakdown while slipping in a Shed-style breakbeat. On "Trance 6," a rework of Freefall's "Skydive (I Feel Wonderful)," Ejeca tiptoes around the cheesy vocal, instead fixing on a buoyant arpeggio. It turns the original on its head while keeping its bubbly disposition intact, and the heart-in-mouth breakdown is the icing on the cake.
Ejeca's version of Yves Deruyter's "Back To Earth" is the most radical Trance Wax transformation yet. He splits the difference between trance and contemporary techno, shifting the original's throbbing drive into a droning, bass-heavy stomper. That leaves "Trance 8," taking on Moby's "Go"—which, strictly speaking, isn't even trance—for the record's least imaginative effort. But throughout the rest of Trance Wax, Ejeca makes an odd side project feel like much more than the sum of its parts.
TracklistA1 Trance 5
A2 Trance 6
B1 Trance 7
B2 Trance 8