Sounds of the Last Century

The world today is full of the most varied music. Energetic and melancholic, clever and mediocre, it pierces our ears, sounding out from cars, flats, kiosks and music players. But amid all this abundance, sometimes suddenly, quite by chance, you manage to make out something familiar — once played to death, and now perhaps undeservedly forgotten, or perhaps, on the contrary, deservedly resting on the shelf of favourite discs.
Probably each of us has our own melody that makes the heart beat faster and the brain gush with memories. A melody that opened up something new for us, or maybe within ourselves, and even helped to shape our musical tastes.
About the most cherished thing of all — about the tracks that touched the soul and settled deep and lasting in the mind — 44100Hz asked the DJs:

It was 1991. At that moment this track became the most vivid impression for me. The whole point was that I not only heard it, but was also able to watch the video, to match the audio image with the visual one. At the time I was hosting discos in Petrodvorets, and when I put on "James Brown Is Dead", people simply fell into euphoria. The effect of what they heard was like a bright flash of the sun.

Jaydee — Plastic Dreams (1992, R & S Records)

1994. I bought the record with this track in Moscow, in the Discoxide shop. It was probably the first record with trance sounds, and it was with this very track that my acquaintance with progressive house began. At the time there was a fairly clear division into styles. Though all the tracks back then were innovative, computers were only just appearing and possibilities were gradually expanding. But Plastic Dreams was the first composition that stood on the edge, combining elements of techno and trance music. It was something new, something special.

If we're talking about tracks I'd enter into the encyclopaedia of electronic music, then it would more likely be a whole album. I heard this brilliant record around '91–92; at the time I was of a not entirely conscious age, but even then I was taken with this band and came to love it. Ever since, for more than 10 years now, I've kept coming back to it. For instance, this year a remastered version of the album came out, and of course I bought it right away, listened to it, and the old emotions came flooding back. That's if we're talking not about favourite compositions but about music in general. Tracks from this record often play in my sets, but I always put them on at special parties. For example, I often played them at the club Mix.

The first time I heard this track was at 16. Where and how it happened I unfortunately can't recall now, but at the time it was a real high. Now I can safely say that this is music for all time. "Go" was played on dance floors and is still played today. The crowd always reacts superbly.