Trance Flashbacks - Watkins - Black A.M.

As I'm in my own Trance music release season in the opening few months of 2021, I've been feeling those nostalgic vibes from the tunes I first started listening to some 20 years ago and this time around, I want to share this beautiful number from 2001 called Black A.M. by Watkins. You'd be hard pressed to find much information about this one but the only info I could find was in the description of the video below, thankfully uploaded by Ashku27 on YouTube. From that description, it was released on Shaboom Records and is available only on vinyl these days through discogs although I suspect it's been rinsed many a time in the last 2 decades!

I first heard this one on a Ministry of Sound: The Annual compilation in 2003 and was mesmerised by the opening chords and enchanting female vocals as the track mixed in, it was like nothing else on that compilation and really stood out with its unique simplicity. There wasn't really a bassline at all and just a total absence of any sub but that didn't seem to matter. In fact, I'd say it let the kick drums breathe and made me rewind it so many times, I'm sure the laser in my CD player had burned a hole through that section at the time!

Here we are though, nearly 20 years later after falling in love with the original, I'm now rewinding that YouTube video maniacally, especially after finding the full 8 minute track with the characteristic long intros, outros and filler sections to help DJs mix tunes in and out of their sets. It seems I wasn't the only one tuning in from that Ministry of Sound compilation - always happy to meet fellow old school trance heads in the comments!

Although I'm not really sure the true meaning of the track (not that it matters, it's subjective anyway), I've posted the lyrics below and you can make your own mind up about it. Being the literal person that I am, it seems the lyrics describe a couple of photographers arranging a photoshoot in the rain on a dark morning on the second floor of a building, then comparing notes on what they see in their camera films?! Either way, I love the tune and was contemplating a potential liquid drum & bass remix but I think it would be very difficult to find the original stems but I have sent a message to who I think is the original producer who might now be called King Unique, a long shot but if you don't ask...

Heard your voice through the hissing rain,
Loading film on some Black A.M.,
Take me up to the second floor,
I know you've been there twice before...

Oh to be you to be to me
And to see what you see in this...

How about you? Any house or trance classics that take you back to better days? Did you hear this one? Let me know in the comments below!

Nicky