Progressive trance legends present their long-awaited second double album. From contemporary techno to classic progressive trance and beyond.
A collection of rare and hard-to-find experimental breakbeat and old school rave classics from before most dance genres had even been born.
The sharp new lyrical album from Larry Lush about the many faces of our narcissistic social landscape. Mixing ephemera, electronica and voice.
TECHNO HOUSE ABSTRACT TRANCE
is a collection of diverse styles as the title suggests. Enjoy the eclectic journey from genre to genre.
A big congratulations to legendary 90s producers Quietman, who seemed to reappear on Bandcamp, out of nowhere. On that platform, they've been dropping a fine selection of Trance and Progressive tracks, with a magic feeling that's a step above the rest. Not only is the sound sonically tight, featuring many beautiful synths and sounds, the tracks also deliver memorable journeys filled with many grooves, twists, and turns. Dust2Water, Indian Eel and Under The Gaze were three of my personal favorites, but over eight different tracks were submitted in the top 10s, with five making it to the final list. A real treat to have them back producing.
TRANCEFIX
In 1994 we started our first record label LUSH RECORDS with the
Truelove Label Collective in London.
We released Ambient, Trance, Techno and Experimental Breakbeat from such artists as Friends, Lovers & Family, Quietman and
Mr Oz & Larry Lush to name just a few.
We never stopped making music but we did stop releasing it. Until Now.
Streaming has become dominant in music revenue. Over two-thirds of recorded music revenue now comes from streaming platforms.
Even so, the wealth is extremely unevenly shared.
Platforms typically retain about 30% of revenue (from subscription fees or ads), and the remaining ~70% is redistributed as royalties.
That sounds fair on paper, but once that “royalty pool” is divided among all songs and intermediaries (labels, publishers, distributors), what reaches the artist is often a fraction of a cent per stream.
Critics note that artists are often paid less than one-tenth of a cent for each stream on major services like Spotify.
Let’s take a hypothetical illustration: if an artist gets 0.003 USD per stream (a typical figure for many tracks), they would need:
~333,333 streams to earn $1,000 USD
~3.3 million streams to earn $10,000 USD
That’s an enormous volume, especially when most tracks never reach those numbers. As one article put it, “streaming … has forced the music industry to rethink how artists get paid” because of how slim per-stream returns are.
Royalty Exchange
Independent or small artists are particularly vulnerable. With thousands of tracks competing for attention, most streams are concentrated on top-tier, high-profile artists.
A feature in The Wash puts it bluntly:
“Platforms like Spotify, Apple Music … their payouts per stream vary. According to data … Tidal pays $0.0125, Apple Music about $0.0075, and Spotify a mere $0.003.”
The Wash
Even for mid-tier artists, streaming income often cannot support basic expenses like studio time, promotion, or living costs.
Several systemic problems exacerbate the crisis:
Opaque contracts and unfair splits
Many mainstream artists are tied into record-label deals in which they receive only 10–20% of streaming income.
Pro-rata model favours superstars
The most common revenue model (“pro-rata”) pools all streaming income and distributes it based on share of total streams. This means mega-hits absorb the lion’s share of the payout.
Critics argue a “user-centric” model (where each subscriber’s fee goes only to the artists they personally streamed) would be fairer, especially for niche and independent artists.
Revenue concentration and inequality
A small fraction of artists — the “superstars” — dominate streaming income. Meanwhile, most creators struggle to break even.
The Guardian recently noted even though Spotify claims to pay out $10 billion in royalties, only a very small number of artists see meaningful incomes.
Rising costs, stagnant income
The cost of producing, promoting, and maintaining music has gone up (equipment, marketing, touring logistics, team, etc.). Yet streaming revenue growth doesn’t always keep up for most creators.
Creative incentives distortions
Some artists adapt their music strategy to “game” the streaming system—releasing more tracks, shorter songs, or songs designed for playlists over artistic integrity.
Musicians, especially independent ones, often talk about this problem with frustration and urgency. For example:
Shirley Manson (Garbage) recently blasted the industry, saying the average musician earns only $12/month from streaming revenue.
San Francisco Chronicle
In media coverage and interviews, many artists argue streaming “cheats creatives” by turning their work into background noise.
Campaigns like Broken Record (UK) seek structural reform—pushing for transparency, fairer payout models, and better regulation.
To shift the balance, several reforms and alternatives are emerging:
Switching to user-centric payment models, where each subscriber’s fee is allocated to only the artists they listened to.
Stronger regulation and oversight, requiring platforms to disclose their payout methodology and ensuring fairness in contracts and splits.
Artist-owned platforms or cooperatives, where artists and fans govern revenue flow more directly (e.g. Bandcamp, decentralized or blockchain-based models).
Direct-to-fan strategies: selling music, merch, concert tickets, NFTs, patronage, delivering exclusive content or experiences to fans who want to support artists more directly.
Consumer education and activism: giving listeners information about how little artists often get, and urging them to support alternatives to passive streaming.
Streaming brought incredible convenience—but it's also created a system where the majority of artists struggle to survive. While the industry rakes in billions, creators are often left with dust.
The call now is to rethink it, demand fairness, and bridge the gap between listening and supporting. Because behind every track is a human being trying to create, not just be streamed.
Trancestors by Quietman
Released: July 15, 2025
Quietman’s Trancestors leans into a richly layered trance / progressive-electronic sound. The tracks are expansive, some quite long, exploring ambient textures alongside more driving trance rhythms. There is also a strong sense of continuity and evolution, as though the album weaves between more meditative, atmospheric passages and moments with more energy and momentum.
Titles such as Haley’s Comet, The Peacock, After the Fire, Split Personality give a hint of the mood — cosmic, exploratory, sometimes introspective.
The usage of synths, pads, atmospheric sounds, and that classic trance build-and-release structure are all present. The mix suggests Quietman is balancing nostalgia for old-school trance with more modern production techniques.
Trancestors is a strong, mature album: one that speaks both to fans of classic trance / progressive music and to those open to ambient, exploratory soundscapes. It’s not instantly “pop‐friendly” but it is richly rewarding, especially if you listen in full, as the sequencing seems designed to take you through highs, lows, pauses, and reflections. If you like emotional resonance, cosmic or natural imagery, and evolving textures, this album has a lot to offer.
Along the Dub Path is a meticulously crafted voyage through rhythm, texture, and atmosphere. At its core, it’s a collection of deep breaks and beats that pulse with energy, yet it transcends the ordinary by intertwining old-school drum & bass with a kaleidoscope of influences: the improvisational fluidity of jazz, the meditative expanses of ambient, the infectious grooves of funk, and the daring explorations of spaced-out avant-garde soundscapes.
Every track is a journey. The rhythms anchor you, while swirling layers of melody, texture, and echo pull you into unexpected spaces. You’ll find moments of head-nodding intensity interlaced with passages that invite introspection, floating effortlessly between the physicality of dance and the abstract landscapes of sound.
Larry Lush’s new album is the soundtrack for everyone who’s ever stared into the black mirror of their phone at 2 AM and thought, “Maybe it’s me.”
Written in a feverish three-month sprint (not for a #hustle brag, but because the songs wouldn’t shut up), this collection jumps from sweaty tech house and shimmering disco to hip breakbeat twists and raw singer-songwriter moments, capturing the high-speed car crash of modern living in real time. One weekend alone saw four songs birthed in quick succession, because apparently the social media-fuelled collapse of our collective psyche doesn’t wait for your “creative process.”
It’s got dancefloor heaters for when you want to forget yourself and stark confessions for when you remember. Think LCD Soundsystem if James Murphy scrolled too much before bed, or Eminem if he took a break from beefs to process late capitalism’s spiritual hangover.
Lyrically, it’s a sharp but oddly affectionate poke at the narcissistic patterns we’re all tangled in, from the curated self-mythologies to the quiet disconnections between family, nature, and community we pretend we don’t notice. It’s about unhealthy coping methods dressed up as “wellness,” about the constant urge to perform.
released October 1, 2025
Machine Dreams was born from a moment of rediscovery and inspiration. After having my much-loved and cherished Juno 6 restored, a flood of new ideas emerged — sounds, textures, and melodies that had been waiting silently in the mind finally came to life. This collection is a celebration of analogue synthesis, where each note, patch, and filter movement is steeped in warmth, character, and the unpredictability that only true analogue instruments can deliver.
The music flows like a dreamscape: lush pads ripple through space, arpeggios shimmer with gentle motion, and basslines breathe with organic depth. It’s both nostalgic and forward-looking, capturing the spirit of classic synthesis while exploring new sonic territories inspired by the Juno 6’s revived voice. Every track is a meditation on tone, timbre, and texture — the stuff of pure analogue dreams, inviting the listener to sink into sound and let imagination roam freely.
Machine Dreams is a love letter to analogue synthesis, to the serendipity of restored instruments, and to the creative spark that emerges when technology meets inspiration.
LostHorizons is a captivating collection that unveils the hidden gems of Quietman's early work. Spanning unreleased tracks and studio masters from 1994 to 1999, this album offers a rare glimpse into the artist's creative evolution during a formative period.
The album traverses a rich tapestry of ambient and trance elements, characterized by lush synths, intricate rhythms, and evocative melodies. Tracks like "OuterSpacer" and "Requiem (Original Draft)" showcase the depth and complexity of Quietman's soundscapes, blending ethereal textures with rhythmic drive. The inclusion of demos and alternative mixes provides insight into the artist's creative process, highlighting the evolution of each piece from conception to completion.
Lost Horizons – Rediscovered & Unreleased 1994–1999 is a testament to Quietman's artistic vision and commitment to his craft. For fans of ambient and trance music, this album offers a compelling collection of previously unheard works that enrich the understanding of the artist's musical journey. It's a must-listen for those interested in the nuances of electronic music's evolution during the late 20th century.
To lose yourself into outworldly dimensions.
There are no edges here — only horizons that breathe.
A vast and shimmering silence unfolds, pierced by gentle frequencies that rise like solar winds across a boundless night. The pulse is distant yet familiar, a heartbeat echoing through nebulae, guiding you further from gravity, deeper into the serene immensity of sound.
As the rhythms unfold, time dissolves into vapor — every synth wave a fragment of a forgotten dream, every tone a planet turning slowly beneath a dying sun. The boundaries between body and cosmos blur, until the self becomes an orbiting pulse, drifting weightless through infinite resonance.
Expansive Space Chill Out invites you to let go:
to surrender to the continuum of light and tone, to feel your senses dissolve into stardust and static, to find stillness in the endless drift.
This is sound as atmosphere.
Vibration as voyage.
A map to places where language disappears and only energy remains.
Close your eyes. Inhale the cosmos.
You are not here.
You are everywhere.
Go on an electrosymphonic journey through the imagined inner world of crystal beings.
Enter a realm where light becomes sound — refracted, reframed, reborn.
Within the crystalline labyrinth, every frequency shimmers, every pulse reflects a hidden intelligence. These are the songs of the crystal beings — voices of geometry, emotion encoded in prisms, harmonies carved from the latticework of light itself.
Synths hum like molten quartz.
Beats fracture into rainbow spectra.
Melodies unfold as waves of luminescence, rippling through translucent corridors of vibration.
Here, rhythm is architecture and tone is touch — the tactile resonance of an alien civilization breathing through electricity.
Each movement of this electrosymphony is a journey inward:
from the outer glow of starlit sound to the deep core where silence turns radiant, and thought becomes crystalline. The listener is both observer and participant, dissolving into the refractive dance of tone and texture.
The experience is neither digital nor organic — it is something in between, a fusion of pulse and photon, circuitry and spirit. The crystal beings do not sing in words, but in frequencies that bypass language and enter directly into your nervous system, translating emotion into light, and light into knowing.
As the final chord fades, you emerge changed —
clearer, lighter, suspended between worlds.
This is not just listening.
This is crystalline communion.
World music with a twist.
Step into a global soundscape where continents collide in rhythm.
This is no polite fusion — it’s a collision of beats and backstreets, bhangra and breakbeats, city lights and desert skies. A place where tablas meet turntables, brass horns dance with basslines, and ancient melodies twist through neon streets.
From the pulse of Mumbai nights to the smoky corners of London’s underground, the music moves like migration — restless, rhythmic, and alive.
Each track carries the dust of journeys: echoes of marketplaces, whispers from alleyways, the heartbeat of humanity remixed and reimagined.
Here, you’ll find the syncopated swagger of hip-hop draped in sitar strings; reggae grooves laced with Eastern percussion; soulful vocals rising over deep, cinematic breaks. It’s a worldly blend that doesn’t just borrow from cultures — it celebrates them, remixing tradition into tomorrow.
This is Beats, Breaks & Backstreets:
where rhythm is borderless, sound is identity, and the world dances in one time zone — yours.
Deep, monochromatic, and profoundly meditative, this collection invites you into a world of introspection and sonic stillness. Both tracks unfold slowly, revealing subtle textures, gentle shifts, and hypnotic rhythms that draw the listener into a contemplative state.
Take one and call me in the morning — these sounds are perfect for insomniacs, night owls, or anyone seeking a soundtrack for quiet reflection. The music doesn’t demand attention; it whispers, nudges, and encourages immersion, creating space to drift, dream, and lose track of time.
Minimal, immersive, and hauntingly beautiful.
SacredSines is a transformative sonic journey, meticulously crafted to explore the healing power of sound. Drawing on the precise resonance of vibrational tuning forks, Larry Lush and Tony Locust have composed an immersive experience that engages both mind and body. Each tone, waveform, and harmonic sweep is intentionally designed to align with the listener’s natural rhythms, creating a space of balance, clarity, and introspection.
The album is a meditation in sound: sine waves ripple through lush, evolving textures, subtly interacting with the natural vibrations of the body. Inspired by vibrational therapy, these frequencies are known to promote relaxation, reduce stress, and stimulate physical and emotional well-being. The music flows like a ritual, guiding the listener through deep introspection, restorative soundscapes, and meditative states.
SacredSines is not just an album — it’s an experience, a fusion of art, science, and spirituality. It invites listeners to explore the intersections of tone, frequency, and consciousness, and to discover the profound resonance of sound as a pathway to healing.
Sources on the power of tuning forks and vibrational therapy used in this album:
Sound Healing with Tuning Forks – Sound Medicine Academy
Tuning Fork Therapy for Physical and Emotional Well-being – Radiology Canada
Tuning Fork Sound Therapy – Meinl Sonic Energy
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Bandcamp Links
#StopTheStream | #StartSupporting | #FairPlayMusic | #OwnYourSound
Friends Lovers Family
Quietman
Black Unicorn Records