Only one of the twelve cuts on 'Waking Up in a Northern Town' carries a trance tag: 'Brave', the one Christian Burns signs with Cosmic Gate. To see why that detail matters, it helps to remember where Black Hole Recordings comes from: the Dutch label Tijs Verwest —Tiësto— founded with Arny Bink in 1997, launched on the strength of the DJ's own productions and mixes, home to sublabels like In Trance We Trust and SongBird, and publisher of the early mix compilations of names such as Ferry Corsten and Armin van Buuren. Tiësto walked away in 2009 to set up Musical Freedom, and the catalogue had to learn to stand without its founder.
This album shows how it has. Eleven of the twelve tracks are vocal progressive house, packed into a remarkably narrow 119-128 BPM band, and the two formats that define the label's current line sit side by side: the compact song —'Undiscovered' at 3:57, 'Diamond Dreams' at 4:11— and the extended club cut, with 'The Two of Us' alongside Paul Thomas and 'Brave' tied as the longest, both at 7:24. According to the artist's page, this is his most personal project yet: a record about waking up in the town you once called home and have since outgrown.
The arc from 'Won't You Hurry' to 'Darker Days'
That sense of farewell also shows in the keys. The record opens in C major at 128 and, from 'Fall To You' with Pretty Pink onward, the second half tips into minor territory: 'Strangers', 'Embers' with Banaati —the slowest pulse of the set at 119—, 'Let Me Love You' with Mark Novas and a D minor close with 'Darker Days'. Half the tracklist is collaborations, and that is where Black Hole plays its old role as a scene connector. 'Brave' stands as the nod to the label's trance past; the rest of the record is a precise snapshot of its present.
Sources: Wikipedia · Bandcamp