Although Freed From Desire is superior instrumentally, Let A Boy Cry beats it in terms of lyrics and melody. And it's one of those songs where I like the verses much more than the chorus.

BT - Flaming June

 

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/tonyttt31/bt.jpg

 

Date 4th Jan 1998

1 Week

Official Chart Run 28-33-47-72 (4 weeks)

*Positions in red are the weeks when the track would be number 1 if just dance music was chart eligible.

 

Eight down, two to go, as we head into 1998 which was another bumper year for dance music.

 

And here we have possibly the lowest selling track in our rundown - although La Tour's People Are Still Having Sex probably runs it close, if not actually underselling it.

As trance becomes more and more the genre of the moment and the many DJs that populate it become more successful, they all develop a taste for remixing each other's tracks or taking a lesser known dance track from earlier in the decade and giving it a trance makeover. This would happen a lot more in 1999.

 

Re-releases were common too, when demand built up for fresh re-workings.

 

This brings us to BT's Flaming June. BT, or Brian Transeau to his mother, is an American music producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist. Following an early start listening to classical music from the age of 4 he was exposed to electronic music via the Bladerunner soundtrack and from there he explored the avatars of electronic music in his teenage years - Afrika Bambaataa, Kraftwerk and New Order. He studied music at school. His first attempt at a career in music began as a singer songwriter but when that came to nothing he turned to making electronic music.

 

Come the early 90s he started mixing the emotional impact of classical music with the more visceral experience of the 4/4 beat. His first dance releases were called A Moment of Truth, and Relativity which became club hits in the UK despite him never doing any promotion this side of the Atlantic.

 

Paul Oakenfold signed him on the strength of these track and BT released his first electronic album IMA in 1995 which spawned the hits Embracing the Sunshine, Loving You More and Blue Skies, featuring one Tori Amos displaying his now exemplary vocal cut up techniques.

 

On his next album ESCM his sound would become clearer and purer. Working with Paul Van Dyke he created Flaming June - by any measure a classic trance track.

The tricks were subtle yet devastating. In its full length version it featured a tantalizing intro building to an almost tear inducing piano motif.

 

Flaming June was released in July 1997 where it only managed to be 5th best selling dance single for a week but in early 1998, with a new remix from like-minded Chicane it would be out again. Due to a complete drought of dance hits BT manages a week as the best selling dance single in the UK.

 

We wont be seeing him again, though he kept having minor hits into the new decade. We will see Paul Van Dyk later, however.

 

Edited April 20, 20169 yr by Colm

So glad this made it.

 

I went to see Paul Van Dyk a few years ago. I fully expected For an Angel to be the highlight of the night. I was very wrong. I was ecstatic and euphoric when he started the intro to this. The anticipation was overwhelming. Sometimes you have to heard trance in a club to get the full effect.

oh wow, wasn't expecting this to make it here :o Ouch at being #28 being high enough to give you a week at #1 in the dance chart though.

 

'Flaming June' is a proper tune and a must have in any classic trance compilation!

Love Flaming June. Such a euphoric track and great it managed to sneak a week! Trance of course to completely dominate over the final 2 years...

It passed me by at the time. Love it so much now.

Ultra Naté - Free

 

http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm82/TheMagicPosition86/rsz_free_zpssm9jeork.png

 

Date 8th June 1997

3 Weeks

Official Chart Run 5-4-7-6-4-8-5-8-11-13-16-19-27-37-47-60-69 (17 weeks)

*Positions in red are the weeks when the track would be number 1 if just dance music was chart eligible.

 

Being the geeky little chart freak I was writing down the top 40 every week I remember almost wetting myself with joy when it had fallen then reclimbed for the third time. A rarity back then. How I would keep up nowadays with how often a big hit falls then reclimbs would be impossible.

1997 at a glance...

 

1997-01-05 Tori Amos - Professional Widow (It’s Got To Be Big) (4 Weeks)

1997-02-02 The Orb - Toxygene (1 week)

1997-02-09 Apollo 440 - Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Dub (1 Week)

1997-02-16 Daft Punk - Da Funk (1 Week)

1997-02-23 Sash! - Encore Une Fois (4 Weeks)

1997-03-23 B.B.E. - Flash (1 Week)

1997-03-30 The Chemical Brothers - Block Rockin' Beats (1 Week)

1997-04-06 DJ Quicksilver - Bellissima (3 Weeks)

1997-04-13 Orbital - The Saint (1 Week)

1997-04-20 DJ Quicksilver - Bellissima (1 Week)

1997-05-11 Olive - You’re Not Alone (3 Weeks)

1997-06-01 Rosie Gaines - Closer Than Close (1 Week)

1997-06-08 Ultra Naté - Free (3 weeks)

1997-06-29 Sash! featuring Rodriguez - Ecuador (2 Weeks)

1997-07-13 Gala - Freed From Desire (5 Weeks)

1997-08-17 Dannii Minogue - All I Wanna Do (1 Week)

1997-08-24 Gala - Freed From Desire (1 Week)

1997-08-31 DJ Quicksilver - Free (1 Week)

1997-09-07 Tina Moore - Never Gonna Let You Go (2 Weeks)

1997-09-21 Dario G - Sunchyme (3 Weeks)

1997-10-12 Sash! ft. La Trec - Stay (4 Weeks)

1997-11-09 PPF Project ft. Ewan McGregor - Choose Life (2 Weeks)

1997-11-23 Prodigy* - Smack My Bitch Up (1 Week)

1997-11-30 Gala - Let A Boy Cry (3 Weeks)

1997-12-21 PPF Project ft. Ewan McGregor - Choose Life (2 Weeks)

 

 

 

 

 

Top 10 Sellers

 

01 Gala - Freed From Desire

02 Dario G - Sunchyme

03 Ultra Naté - Free

04 Sash! - Encore Une Fois

05 DJ Quicksilver - Bellissima

06 Sash! featuring Adrian Rodriguez - Ecuador

07 Sash! featuring La Trec - Stay

08 Olive - You're Not Alone

09 Tina Moore - Never Gonna Let You Go

10 The Blueboy - Remember Me (#2 behind Tori Amos, The Orb, Apollo 440)

Edited April 20, 20169 yr by Colm

Flaming June - along with a July 1998 re-release that reached #12 that might be coming up(?) - feels like a missing link between the early Robert Miles/BBE dream house/trance hits of 1996-7 with the harder, more synthier "epic" trance sound that defined 1999 and the early noughties. Amazing track :)

I really liked BT, especially Loving You More and Blue Skies, I was a big Tori Amos fan in the 90s so maybe a tad biased to like Blue Skies :)

this one to me sounds a bit similar to Children/Fable

It brings so much emotion - so much more so than Children, for me.

Flaming June is OK, sounds indeed more less the same as dream dance from 1996, but I like BT more recent works (especially These Hopeful Machines album)

I listened to a few of his other tracks on youtube last night and they were indeed impressive.

Bamboo - Bamboogie

 

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/tonyttt31/bam.jpg

 

Date 11th Jan 1998

4 Weeks

Official Chart Run 2-3-6-10-14-21-27-40-51-68 (10 weeks)

*Positions in red are the weeks when the track would be number 1 if just dance music was chart eligible.

 

Bamboo was an alias of Andrew Livingstone and Erin Lordan. Erin had worked with Shut Up and Dance. Andrew a much more extensive catalogue and had worked previously with Dave Lee - manager of Rough Trade's dance division Demix, releasing music as Joey Negro in the early 90s and then forming Jakatta in the 00s. The pair's remixes of other artists tracks would often go under the title "Joey Negro Mix"

Along with working together with Dave, Andrew had spent much of the 90s remixing other artists as diverse as Sister Sledge, Hue and Cry, Richard Derbyshire and KWS. He's also co-produced Take That and Lulu's Relight My Fire.

 

Bamboo was his first experience as lead artist. He created Bamboogie from three samples - the most obvious being Get Down Tonight from KC & the Sunshine Band. It also contains excerpts from The Bucketheads' The Bomb and Bad Boy Dance by Bobby Konders.

 

The follow up only managed to make number 36 later in 1998. That was the last we saw of Bamboo.

Quite enjoyed that. I only vaguely remember it being out at the time, but always good when dance acts would piece together a video out of old cartoons or movies with expired copyright.

Not a tremendously interesting song.

I absolutely hate that track. I recall it beating something that was really good to the highest new entry that week but can't remember what it was.

 

 

edit... it was Renegade Master by Wildchild. I possibly overstated its greatness but I do still vastly prefer it to Bamboogie.

Edited April 22, 20169 yr by dandy*

It was prevented from getting to #1 on its first week by All Saints and “Never Ever”, which had been on the chart 9 weeks and climbed from 2-1 after having sold 3/4 million before getting to #1.

 

The difference: just 660 copies!

Edited April 22, 20169 yr by Doctor Blind

Encore - Le Disc Jockey

 

http://i24.photobucket.com/albums/c32/tonyttt31/encore.jpg

 

Date 8th Feb 1998

1 Week

Official Chart Run 12-27-51-75 (4 weeks)

*Positions in red are the weeks when the track would be number 1 if just dance music was chart eligible.

 

Next up a track that was already mentioned by *Ben* earlier after we saw Sash!'s Encore Une Fois.

 

Encore is the stage name of Sabine Ohmes, the vocalist of Sash!'s Encore Une Fois. To say that Le Disc Jockey owes a debt to Encore Une Fois is more of an understatement than saying that Encore Une Fois owes a debt to Faithless' Insomnia.

 

To the non-French speaking audience the lyrics may well have been exactly the same - something about a disc jokey. The music for the track was produced by Ricardo De Tornato which sounds like someone else but according to Discogs.com is an umbrella name for the two guys who were two of the members of Sash! - I think. So far so confusing.

 

Perhaps, surprisingly Sabine is not from a French speaking country - she's German. The follow up, Le Paradis, failed to chart. Sabine worked on Sash!'s third album Trilenium.

 

Edited April 23, 20169 yr by Colm

Lyrics translation

 

Dancing in a club as usual

I saw through the smoke

the stare of the disc-jockey.

Our eyes met for just an instant

but since then, I'm all fire all flame

 

I see the disc-jockey

 

Dancing in a club as usual

I saw through the smoke

the stare of the disc-jockey.

 

I see the disc-jockey

 

All fire, all flame

All fire, all flame

All fire, all flame

 

 

I didn't know Sabine was German. Her French pronounciation is quite accurate.

Edited April 23, 20169 yr by N-S