I alluded to this last fall that I would make the 40th Chasing The Vibe special, and I’ve followed through with an all-vinyl mix! It’s a collection of tracks I purchased from 2003 to 2006 when I first started DJ’ing in April 2003. So it’s a celebration of doing this for 20 years. I haven’t been active in 20 years but I have always listened to some form of 4 X 4 House or Trance.

Let’s go back to the summer of 2000 and how this journey started. During my teenage years, I only listened to rap and hip-hop. There were some grunge years in there, but I mostly listened to rap. I mainly listened to the beats and wanted to switch it up, so I asked my friend James if he had any rave music to share. That’s what I called it then, as I had yet to learn what genre was played at raves. But James had been, and he gave me a couple CD’s.

I loved tracks like Push – Universal Nation and ATB – Till I Come. Right around this time, Darude – Sandstorm came out too! I was hooked quickly. My brain didn’t have to try and process lyrics and could focus on the beats.

I went to Napstar and Limewire to find more Trance. It was there I was introduced to Tiesto and his many mixes. There was his Magik and In Search Of Sunrise mixes which I listened to consistently. Then some live sets flooded the music-sharing sites, and I had to see them live!

I joined a website called TranceAddict.com and found out Tiesto and Armin were playing in Vancouver. I saw them and even met them occasionally in 2002 and 2003. Back then, they weren’t mainstream, and you could get access to them.

In April of 2003, I was listening to an Armin Van Buuren Essential Mix from a couple of months earlier. I told myself I wanted to do what he and Tiesto were doing, travelling the world and sharing uplifting music with people. Previously I tried to do the same thing but playing golf. Those dreams had washed away, so I needed another one.

Although I did it for ego purposes, I was still glad I started. The first few months were bogged down with beat matching. But with practice, I become pretty good. I needed to get out and share my music with the local community, and I met a guy named Chewy a little while later. He loved Trance and had put on a few shows. Sometime in the Spring of 2004, I secured my first gig, but only a few gigs came my way as Trance wasn’t the most popular music in Victoria. Soon I realized that I needed to add some slower-paced stuff. I started listening to progressive house and entered the scene playing stuff around the 124-128 BPM range.

I played a few Full Spectrum parties put on by James Fry. It was an interesting time for me. I was just a kid in my early 20s who worked as a Golf Professional at a prestigious private golf course, then DJ’d parties late into the night and morning for people on all sorts of psychedelic drugs.

In 2009 I stepped away as I needed to get my life in order. I still put together a few mixes here and there, but only actively once I started Chasing The Vibe in 2017. Although I am making my way to playing in front of people again, I enjoy putting these mixes together and sharing the music I love.

This mix brought up all sorts of emotions. In late 2002 I lost my middle brother, and our relationship flowed through years of love and hate. Before he passed, I remember him showing interest when I ordered Armin’s 004 Transparance mix CD, and Trance music might have brought us closer together. A couple of years later, my father passed away. He made me a table to put my turntables and mixer on and enjoyed listening to the Trance I was playing upstairs.

I don’t think about them often, and spinning these vinyl brought me back to those years when I was lost, hurt and needed some positivity. The track Morpheus – Signs brought up some heavy tears for its uplifting melody. Crying for me hasn’t been easy over the years since they have passed, as I had been numbing myself with alcohol, gambling and pornography. Bit by bit, my heart continues to open. The process of making this mix was what I needed for more emotional release.

Initially, I thought this would be a dauting task, as I had to learn to beatmatch again and remember what many of these tracks sounded like. Thankfully, it didn’t take long for both! Within a few hours, I mapped out 40 tracks that flowed well together.

I didn’t miss many of my favourite tracks or artists. I have a bunch of tracks from 2002 and earlier, but I didn’t put them on this mix. I’m sure I’ll do another one of these again!

Regardless, this mix is melodic and flows between some bright, uplifting moments and deeper and darker ones. It starts with progressive house and progressive Trance around the 126-130 BPM range and then gets into some full-on uplifting 134+ BPM trance a little after 2 hours! Some transitions get off-beat for a few seconds, but I managed to recover and avoid some serious disasters. When I first started, I expected perfection; it would sometime take me 10-15 takes to record a mix. Thankfully I have shed my need for perfection.

If you enjoyed it, please share the mix.

Much love,

Jordan J. Caron aka Joca

PS. Thanks to Julien Loreto for lending me his turntables to record this mix!

The Artists

Cover Image courtesy Gary Bending @ Unsplash

Tracklisting

Bart Van Wissen – Space Tourist
Fitalic – E Motion (Luke Chable Remix)
Matthew Dekay – Space Mountain Tablet
Benz & MD – Sound 84 (Subsky Remix)
Tilt – 12 (Dousk Remix)
Bluefish ft Anita Kelsey – Been Too Long (Kasey Taylor & Chris Meehan Remix)
Michael Burns present Blue Haze – Into Nothing (Hamel’s Last Time For 9 Vox Mix)
Andre Absolut – Digital Suspense
Christian Cambas – Flight 403
Matthew Dekay & Proluctors – Behind Secret Borders
Parham & Jokke Ilsoe – Raw Sequence
Ridgewalkers Featuring El – Find (Andy Moor Remix)
Benz & MD ‎– Mar Del Plata (Dousk Elaborate Mix)
Matthew Dekay – If I Could Fly
Subsky – At Night
James Benitez – Not Over Yet (Parham & Dominic Plaza Remix) – 16
MOS – Bogatell (Gene Carbonell Mix)
Alex Stealthy – Being
Perry O’Neil – Kubik
Distantly Viewed – Xenoficated
Veit – Sky (Magic Muzik Remix)
Vercetti – Skimmer
Rusch & Murray  – Epic
Kansai – Roccoo
Dréas – Sonic Rush
Armin Van Buuren – 24 Longest Day
AR52 – Hibernation
Morpheus – Signs
Solid Globe – North Pole
LNG – Inter City
Fictivision Vs. Phynn – Escape (Phynn Remix)
Scott Bond + Solarstone – 3rd Earth
Outback – Minds In Motion
Midway – Inca
8 Wonders – The Morning After (Thrillseekers Mix)
Altitude – Sunray (Airwave Remix)
Whirlpool & Octagen – Alaska (Octagen Remix)
Empyreal Sun – Twisted Reality
Active Sight – Out Of Lives
Firewall – Sincere