Ask 20 people what the "first" trance record was, and they will give you 20 different answers. There really was no first one, but here are a few of the possibilities from the late '80s through 1990. Drop me a line if you have any more to suggest!



I'm not including any of the UK/Euro deep and progressive house tracks from this era, even though they're on the monotonous side and could be easily mixed into a trance set... they're just too housey and poppy to be trance. So no Sueño Latino, Morenas, Kate B, Fortran 5, and so on. I also don't know a whole lot about the early goa/psy-trance scene and its influences, so I may be missing some items.



Secret Desire's 1990 bleep techno classic "White Light" almost makes the cut, but would be better suited to a proto-"progressive" list, I think.



Sometimes the word "trance" is used in electronic music to refer to a hypnotic state, yet the music isn't really part of the trance genre at all. For example, there's the "Extended Trance Mix" of Enigma's monk-themed 1990 hit "Sadeness Part I". Musically it is the same as the single & album version, just longer. I say "trance" here was only referring to a monk's state of mind; the music is not trance. However, opinions vary.