New releases this week: Uplifting Trance

Review: Poet, librarian, Mancunian, father, husband, uncle, brother. Mike Garry is many things to many people, but tonight, Matthew, his voices guides our eyes upwards, inviting us to stargaze to one of Orbital's most emotionally resonant and timeless pieces of rave noise. Belfast Revisited would be one way to describe it, taking some of the classic and unmistakable elements of that anthem and turning it into something new. First and foremost freshness comes with the spoken word addition - a thoroughly positive, passionate and amorous declaration of unending love that could feel jarring depending on whether you always felt 'Belfast' was reflective and slightly melancholy, or not. Gone too are the breaks, replaced now by stadium-sized four-to-the-floor turning what was once the end of the night walking home at dawn into something that sounds way more 11PM at the concert.

Review: The history of 'Toca's Miracle' underscores how transformative the mashup era could be. By merging Coco Star's impassioned vocal from 'I Need a Miracle' with Fragma's 'Toca Me', a simple experiment became a phenomenon. This vinyl reissue foregrounds its dramatic tension: the interplay of shimmering synths and the vocal's raw emotional pull still feels electrifying. While the original captured a late-90s wave of clubbing euphoria, its carefully crafted layersian evocative bassline, cascading melody, and dynamic buildihave aged with grace. More than nostalgia, it's a reminder of dance music's power to reinvent itself and connect deeply with listeners.

Review: This compilation celebrates the label's influential role in shaping uplifting trance, gathering four of its most iconic tracks. On Side-1, LSG's 'Hidden Sun of Venus' stands out as one of Oliver Lieb's seminal pieces, drawn from his highly regarded album and filled with atmospheric depth and emotional resonance. Following that, Moogwai's 'The Labyrinth (Part One)' takes center stageia 2001 classic that seamlessly blends progressive house and trance, maintaining a perfect balance that dominated dancefloors that year. Side-2 kicks off with Terra Firma's 'Lunar Sunrise (Real Oboe Film Mix)', a track known for its sublime orchestral elements mixed with a driving trance backbone, providing a moment of expansive beauty. For all we know though, this remix is a new version. The compilation concludes with Adam Dived's 'Headfirst', a highly underrated 2002 gem that builds tension with incredible precision, culminating in an epic release. There aren't many labels who can rival Platipus for the amount of classic material coming from their label.