One producer signs two cuts on this volume without repeating his name: Darren Tate turns up as Jurgen Vries on 'The Opera Song (Brave New World)' — where CMC was Charlotte Church, credited by initials because her label feared the press reaction to her electronic detour — and under his own name alongside Jono Grant on 'Let The Light Shine In'. That Church single climbed to number 3 on the UK chart in January 2003; here it plays as an 8:37 Extended Mix, pop and trance shaking hands.
The volume belongs to the series celebrating 25 years of the radio show Armin van Buuren launched in 2001, and the Dutchman keeps both ends for himself: he opens with the Rising Star Vocal Mix of 'Burned With Desire' alongside Justine Suissa and closes with 'Blue Fear 2003', a rework of the instrumental Cyber Records put out in 1997 under the Armin alias, the track that gave him his first notable UK chart entry. That closer sinks to 102 BPM: more epilogue than grand finale.
Between those poles, 2003 reads like a year of lift-offs. 'Eye Of Horus', Aly & Fila's debut single — championed back then by Van Buuren, Van Dyk and Tiësto — arrives in Ronski Speed's remix: 9:12 of melody in G-flat minor. Lange doubles up, remixed by Pulser on 'Sincere' with Firewall and as author on 'Don't Think It (Feel It)' with Leah's vocal; Pulser, in fact, also repeats with 'My Religion' under his own name. And 'Dogzilla' gets a rework from Simon Patterson and Richie Kayvan.
Signum, Three Drives, Solarstone with Scott Bond, M.I.K.E. and Nu NRG — whose 'Supersonic' sets the tempo ceiling at 142 BPM — round out the cast. Twenty cuts with no filler names: seen from here, 2003 was less a transition year than a waiting room full of future headliners.
Sources: Wikipedia · Wikipedia · DJ Mag · Apple Music
