Tranceport, Vol. 3

AMG Review of Tranceport, Vol. 3

Jason Birchmeier
All Music Guide

Sandra Collins' set of melancholy yet colorful progressive trance starts slowly and steadily builds towards a fiery, climatic conclusion. The journey seems almost linear as she keeps pushing the mood further and further towards emotional extremity, beginning energetically with the up-tempo sounds of Cass & Slide. These beginning few songs feature small teasing melodies and riffs that allude to what lies ahead but never crosses the line into the realm of hands-in-the-air anthem status. By the sixth song, the music has crept forward to near explosive levels; it is at this moment that Collins drops Chris Zippel's remix of Ultra Violet's "Heaven (Feel and Extremity)." The soft-spoken female vocals of this song soothe the listener and bring a lulling humanity to the set's steaming levels of heat. From this relaxing moment of rest and revelry, the remainder of Collins' set is uphill, first beginning slowly but steadily with the steamy salaciousness of Deep Cover's near-decadent "Deeper Inside" and its downright erotic allusions to euphoric excess. The soft and subtle sounds of the staccato synth melody that introduces L.S.G.'s "I'm Not Existing (O. Lieb Main Mix 2)" soon eclipses the eroticism of "Deeper Inside" and again takes the set to even further heights. The final three songs of this album form a climatic finale characterized by the emotive ups and downs liable to tantalize the listener until the final few explosive peaks of Rank One's "Airwave" conclude Collins' set as well as any song could. The initial journey through Collins' set can be described as nothing less than seductive. Her subtle climb to euphoric excess works brilliantly with its short moment of tranquil foreplay halfway through, showcasing exactly how a DJ constructs a progressive set sure to satisfy the insatiable with its varying degrees of intensity and rich textures. More importantly, Collins never goes overboard on Tranceport, Vol. 3, instead choosing to save the climatic anthems only for the final moments of her set rather than take the listener to summits prematurely, a problem plaguing too many trance DJs.