I’ve loved listening to this early Armin Van Buuren set from 2005 (sound/video quality quite interesting). I searched ‘Armin set without talking’ because these days he loves talking through his sets. He’s a lovely positive guy, I love his happy energy, he’s a showman but I’m also there for the music. The build ups, the silences, the moments which only come if you give the music the space to shine and open you up. And this set shows where he came from. Where tunes were played for much longer and there was space to journey through them and literally trance out. I go into other realms when I’ve got the right trance music on. I don’t get there when I have someone going on at me in the foreground taking me out of my zone.

In this set there were none of the usual interruptions (well except the sexy long haired 90s style pianist appearing ¾ of the way through and playing a classical number), no ego, no having to travel a million miles an hour because the tracks are so short. Am I getting old? Definitely. Nowadays in a set MCs shout, demand and talk over the best bits (usually) rather than letting the music speak for itself. There’s too much fast paced ego on the table when really, what’s important is the intimate musical journey between yourself, the crowd, the composer and the DJ taking you to those high realms. It’s sacred.

I love the comments section in this video too. This one got my attention -

“Man, these classic sets were amazing for one single reason for me. They let the tracks drag a lot longer, nowadays the so called “famous” DJ’s only let a track play for up to 2 minutes, some even less than a minute before mixing it up to the next track, it’s like they’re in a rush to go somewhere with all that fucking mixing. Sets like this, where a DJ actually let’s a track flow and play it’s course before mixing it with the next perfect track were so much better to get into that state of trance, to get into the zone. I have hope this “style” returns, not all of us have a 1 minute attention span and actually enjoy music, so let the tracks roll please.” HP