Mark Sherry - Mark Sherry presents Outburst 500

Time flies. Especially when you’re doing what you love, and that’s undeniably the case for Mark Sherry and his radio show. Weekly, for nigh on 10 years, his Outburst outreach has done more than any other to develop and advance the nexus between trance and techno. Mark has been assiduous in his calibrations - edging its tonal needle back to emphasize its sometimes-overshadowed techno end. This judicious approach has paid righteous dividends, marking him out and seeing him achieve the type of rebirth only a handful of trance operators have experienced.

To celebrate 500 episodes, Mark has painstakingly selected and mixed a sonic portrait of his last 10 radio years. ‘Outburst 500’ may yet even prove to be the new definitive of what tougher techno x trance means. 

One eye always focussed on its future, the other reverently on the sub-genre’s heritage riches, ‘Outburst 500’ sports both the Future Fire and Tech Gold mixes/discs. Musical contributors to the album naturally include regular Outburst quartermasters, Alex Di Stefano, 2nd Phase, Vlind, Jamie Walker, Stephen Kirkwood and Lostly to mention but a few. There’s also much from tech-trance’s mid-Noughties class too (we’re talking about you Richard Durand, Joy Kitikonti, Igor S, Ricky Fobis, David Forbes and JOOP!). Straight-up legends? Served! Mauro Picotto, Tiësto, Marcel Woods, Ton TB, Marco V… and just for starters. 

Angular sounds, breezeblock beats, sharp waveforms, super-hard claps, acid (oh, so much acid!) and FX that electrifies… charge those shock paddles, here comes ‘Outburst 500’!

Across 80 thermobaric minutes, Future Fire future-proofs tech-trance. ‘Backburn’ - Marco V’s latest Outburst-er gets the disc off the blocks and sprinting. From there, well its one speaker-reaper after another. Mark's rework of Max Graham & Estiva’s ‘Generation’, ‘Bloody Nora’ from Will Atkinson and Lostly gem ‘Nothing Left’ apply the jumper cables. Charging up hard on their heels are ‘Wormhole’ from David Forbes, Indecent Noise’s fearsome ‘War Cry’, ‘Freeeze’ from Richard Durand and Paul Denton’s tech-tribal ‘Curtain Call’. Bringing Future Fire to a head, Mark Sherry drops his and Jamie Walker’s forward thinking 'trance meets drum ‘n’ bass-er ‘The Only One’. 

Not putting the cause on pause for a second, the Tech Gold disc fires a 21-track salute to tech-trance’s foundation years. Bleached distortion heralds Marcel Woods’ ‘Advanced’ and from their you’re headfirst into Johan Gielen’s ‘Flash’, the Richard Durand Remix of Tiësto’s ‘Lethal Industry’ and Mark’s own seminal ‘Vengeance’. There’s a more than healthy nod to ID&T’s formative tech-trance canon too, with Igor S’ ‘Boomerang’, ‘Godd’ from Marco V, Ricky Fobis’ No Regular and JOOP’s ‘The Future’ all lining up to deal. Arterially between are the timeless ‘Joyenergizer’ from Joy Kitikonti, Picotto’s mix of Megamind’s ‘Taub’, Mark’s rewire of Lost Tribe’s ‘Gamemaster’ and Mauro’s stormy ‘Darkroom’.

Whether you’re a decade and a half deep or arriving fresh-faced on tech-trance’s doorstep, what you’re looking at right here is requisite.