BT – 今 Ima

I'm amazed I still haven't heard any contemporary DJ's dig into BT's early discography. His "IMA-sound" is the hyped sound of 2022. Classy, trippy trance-house is all I hear these days, whether it's the dutch Dekmantel-network, North American Planet Euphorique-sound or Australians like Roza Terenzi, Fantastic Man and Tornado Wallace. This was my favorite album when I was a teenager 20 years ago, and I had to re-discover it once I noticed that contemporary tastemakers were flirting with this sound.

Many things can be said about Brian Transeau. Undoubtely a musical and technical genius, from these early days up to today. A true pioneer, marching to beat of his own drum. I haven't really caught up with his more recent music, I'm contempt with his IMA- and Deep Dish-sound. It's all I need. Let's call it "Paradise Techno" from now on...

Pure and simply the greatest progressive house/classy trance album by the bed epic progressive house producer. He was years ahead of his time, nuff said.

One of the few albums where the "hype", the legend, the reputation is justified. No one, and I mean no one, was doing this in 1995. BT was the pioneer. It has stood the test of time and is still very playable today. The music is happy, upbeat, and life-affirming, but never cheesy.

The heart of this album is Sasha's Voyage of IMA, and during this time Sasha was arguably at the height of his DJ prowess. A fluid and powerful journey. At one point, he strings together multiple versions of "Loving You More", turning an otherwise simple progressive house track from BT into a 20+ minute epic. Thanks to Sasha's contribution, this great release becomes an undeniable classic.

It's quite amazing that BT, one of our times absolute musical geniouses (not only in electronica)was at his absolutely best when no one knew this guy !! Back in 1995, Brian Transeau was a newbie in the trance-house scene, only known by the real trance-heads...
He released this album, his true masterpiece, and he got some attention, but definately not as much as he should have gotten...It was two or three years later normal people could see the greatness of BT, and by that time the music from IMA was to dated... That's so sad because music doesn't get better than IMA...It is so colourful and happy, yet hypnotic and deep, and the quality is out of this world !! I've thought about perhaps fix a really big party and then just put on Sasha's voyage of IMA in the player so I at least once in my lifetime can be a part of the IMA-experience where you should experience it: in the club !!

Embrace the sunshine, Embrace the future, Embrace IMA and the spirit of old-school progressive house !!

If your looking for a text book definition of what quality, uplifting, melodic trance sounds like, look no further. Classics like "Embracing the Sunshine", "Embracing the Future", "Quark", and "Loving You More" are effortlessly upbeat and happy, where "Tripping the Light Fantastic" (a personal favorite) and "Deeper Sunshine" keep the album honest (and out of the Robert Miles' realm of uber sap). Even though IMA was released in '96, the sound is still relevant and certainly worth checking out. CD2 is interesting, if somewhat pointless. "Blue Skies", while certainly an interesting listen, never did much but annoy me. Tori Amos' agitating voice is probably the reason. Sasha's remix of the whole album really doesn't sound much different from the original mix (making you question the point other than adding star power to track listing). The rest of the songs are mainly just remixes of sounds from CD1. Not bad music though, just kind of pointless. Although ESCM and Movement In Still Life (the UK version) may be better overall, IMA is still definitely worth checking out.