ATB
Andre Tanneberger, recording as ATB, turned a single synthesized guitar-like riff into one of the biggest trance records of the decade with 1998's '9 PM (Till I Come),' a UK number one that helped push trance out of the clubs and onto pop radio. Where a lot of 1990s dance music chased maximalist noise, Tanneberger built his tracks around long, patient melodic builds — a sound that made trance's poppier cousins, hands up and Eurodance, feel like they had somewhere emotional to go. He's remained one of German electronic music's most consistent hitmakers for over two decades since.
Kraftwerk's insistence, back in the 1970s, that a synthesizer sequence alone could hold a listener's attention for minutes at a stretch is the same patient, hypnotic logic Tanneberger leans on across his long trance builds.
listen forSit with the steady, unhurried pulse of Autobahn, then play 9 PM (Till I Come) — ATB is running the same trick of letting one melodic idea breathe and evolve slowly, just dressed for a 1990s club instead of a highway.
Moroder's arpeggiated, sequencer-driven disco proved a synthesizer line could be the emotional center of a dance record — that principle of one melodic hook, endlessly cycling and building tension, is central to how ATB structures a trance track.
listen forPlay I Feel Love and lock onto that endlessly cycling, tension-building synth pattern, then put on Killer — ATB rebuilds a menacing, looped synth-bass hook into that same one-riff-forever architecture, just pushed to trance tempo.
The uptempo, euphoric Hi-NRG disco Sylvester helped popularize in the late 1970s laid down the propulsive, high-BPM dance-floor template that trance producers like Tanneberger inherited and pushed further into pure melodic momentum.
listen forPlay You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) and feel that driving, euphoric uptempo pulse, then put on Ecstasy — the tempo and euphoria carry straight through, just rebuilt around synths and a soaring trance lead instead of strings and falsetto.