A classic pounding trancer is 'Tranzania - Hunting Left and Right' by Acid Queen. Its a Norwegian composition featuring the powerful Tanzanian vocals 'Twende mbele senaba, Rudi nyuma seneba, Kushoto, Kulia, Huyo huyo...'

Silence (on X-Gate Records) was a fairly storming number in the old progressive house style with a nice uplifting vibe and a piano break in the middle. Don't think MP played this one for more than a few of months though. Thanks to Jonathan Edwards for this information.

More recently Monket Pilot has been playing drum 'n bass and breakbeat tracks. Circles, by Adam F, is one of them.

'In Zaire' by African Business was a Shoreditch classic from the early 90's, featuring heavy guitar riffs and repetative spoken samples/raps of the words 'In Zaire'.

The Afro Celt Sound System deftly illustrate how to mix African and European music without destroying their essence. Its instruments may belong to history but its music sits proudly at the forefront of club culture. Its beats and rhythms have resonance today: jungle nestles next to jigs and reels; African jazz flows into Gaelic eulogies. Producer Simon Emmerson, aided by visualiser and co-conspirator Jamie Reid, maintains it was always thus.

The Age of Love are Bruno Sanchioni and Guieppe Cherchia. Jam and Spoon's Watch out for the Stella remix of this trance anthem (of the same name) has been played at Whirl-Y-Gig since it was first released in the early 90's. Since then, this track has been remixed and re-released countless times, so you shouldn't have any problems finding it. Recently Monkey Pilot has been playing the Johnny Vicious remix.

'Royal Dream' was a tribal Balearic housey number (on Hot Records) in the same vein as Mediterranea by La Banderita but more on the african vibe with chanting and a cool groovy baseline. Another fave of mine. Thanks to Jonathan Edwards for this information.

Another Fine Day composer Tom Green works with the sounds of nature, sampled, modified, synthesised and combined with more traditional 'live' instrumentation and musical structures. His first album titled 'Life Before Land' on Beyond Records (1994) was Earthy-Funky, with some pretty impressive sterephonic sound processing and a lot of water - hence the title. In 2000 he released his second Another Fine Day album, 'Salvage', an album which Tom describes as "Genre-popping 21st century eclecticism…". In 2004 Tom set up his own label (Another Fine Label) which features his latest EP, 'Chasing Tornados' (Dec 2004) and a re-issue of his debut album 'Life Before Land', eleven years after its first release. 'Scarborough Fair' features on the ambient disc of the Whirly Waves compilation.

Another oldie from the Shoreditch days was 'We Need Freedom'. Described as a "big shouty techno number".

Simon Berry, better known as one half of the Union Jack duo, runs his solo trance project Art of Trance on the Platipus record label. 12" releases of classics such as Cambodia, Gloria and Octopus have already been hits with DJ's and feature as strong points on the AoT debut album 'Wildlife on One' and the Platipus Compilations. The Whirl-Y-Gig favourites are the Sunday Clubs Lens of Atlantic remix of Kaleidoscope and the Cygnus X remix of Madagascar.

A top psychedelic trance group from Israel, currently on the Transient record label. Keep an eye out for the 12" of Mahadeva - this track is scorching and has had a lot of airplay at Whirl-Y-Gig.

Back in the Shoreditch days 'Eldorado' was a lightweight Euro/Ethno track with a Spanish vocal and pan pipes. Usually played early in the evening.

Aura is definitely ambient electronica at its finest. Currently they have one album to their name, Oranges are Blue, and a couple of singles, butterflychrysalis-caterpillar and Puffdub. The excellent Starseed, which is the lovely (long) parachute track at the end of the second disc of the Whirly Waves compilation, is a version of the track of the same name that features on the Oranges are Blue album. Another Whirly track is Puff, also from this album.

Ayla are combined talents of the German duo DJ Tandu and DJ Taucher. Apparently the name Ayla is Turkish and is inspired by a girl who was in the studio at the time of the first production. A current Whirly fave is 'Liebe', released on the German Unsubmissive Records / Maddog / Blow Up print. Other releases include the singles 'Ayla' and 'Ayla Part2', whilst in the UK the storming Mo and Skinny remix of 'Ayla' was released on the Additive label. This latter track is also currently being played at Whirl-Y-Gig.

Adiemus are one of those musical projects like Enigma and Deep Forest, who combine ethnic harmonies and chants with elements of world music, resulting in original and inspiring music that appeals across the board. Adiemus is composed and conducted by Karl Jenkins, and played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with vocals by Miriam Stockley and Mary Carewe. The lyrics are an invented language, with "the text written phonetically with the words viewed as instrumental sound". Their music has been used for a variety of musical scores for films and shows and probably is most widely recognised by the track Adiemus from the Songs of Sanctuary album which featured both in the '95 Delta Airlines and Ansett Australia Airlines TV adverts. At Whirl-Y-Gig, watch out for the amazing trance remix of Kayama - very euphoric, very powerful and a darn good track!

Over the course of four albums for Mango Records, the vocalist from Benin, West Africa, has single-mindedly created a bridge that unites the rhythms and spirits of Africa with the grooves and vibes of the New World's African Diaspora, masterfully taking it to places where few world music artist have gone before. With the release of her new album Oremi, recorded in New York and South Africa, Kidjo climbs to an even higher level of global pop. A golden oldie at Whirl-Y-Gig is the Shamen 12" mix of Adouma, which features on the album Ayé in its original format.

Since I discovered a couple of their vinyls in HMV the tracks 'Phoenix City', 'Funky Clav' and 'Disco Call' have become regular tunes on the Whirly playlist. The bad tempered Hispanics serve up a mad combo of funky bigbeat, breakbeat, scar and Hammond organs.

A big peak time trance anthem for 2001 is the 'Above & Beyond' remix of 'Volume One' by London based Anjunabeats.

Another Green World are the ultimate chill out act and ethereal keyboard wizard Paul Chousmer and dare devil saxophonist Dan 'Spannerman' Carpenter. In the years since their formation they have witnessed the birth of Club Dog, played live parachute sets at Whirl-Y-Gig, appeared at Megadog, The Big Chill, Return To The Source and the Whirl-Y-Gig stage at the WOMAD festival, and have contributed to a variety of compilation albums including the recent RTTS and Whirl-Y-Gig releases. In 1996, Another Green World joined Magick Eye Records and released their first CD entitled 'Invisible Landscapes' which has been compiled from the spacey explorative recordings from their cassette releases. 'Stream Of Consciousness', a wonderful chilled epic taken from the forthcoming album, features on the Return To The Source album 'Ambient Meditations'.

Asian Dub Foundation are 21st century MIDI warriors. Their distinctive sound is a combination of hard ragga-jungle rhythms, indo-dub basslines, searing sitar- inspired guitars and 'traditional' sounds gleaned from their parents' record collections, shot through with fast-chat conscious lyrics. Whirly classics include 'The Riddim I Like' from the album Community Music and 'Culture Move' from the album Rafi's Revenge.

Astralasia are one of the leading artists on the global trance scene. Founded by Marc Swordfish, Astralasia's style of trance music has changed over the years, from the early days where rock, folk and ambient dance fused to give the Whirly anthem Hashishin and other favourites such as Sul-E-Stomp and Realise Your Purpose, through to the full on stomping, near-pychedelic trance that features on their more recent E.P's and album The Seven Pointed Star. Their latest album, White Bird, moves into new territory with a much greater vocal content in much of the material.

AZukx - five letters chosen to put a name to this music, which was made from lots of experiences and emotions felt for the first time between February and December '94. It was born in Whirl-Y-Gig, where it has continued to grow, inspired by the unity and fundamental energy found there by so many. Their debut album, Everything is Everything, features many Whirly faves, such as Lift, 1-2-4-Stomp and One Tribe. The second album, 'Mind Nature', was released on the Whirl-Y-Music record label in July '99 to coincide with a live performance at the Reading WOMAD Festival. It features the hard trance classics Madcow and Templeboy, along with the classic AZukx sounding Spiral Song. The new remix of Lift by Natious features on the new Whirl-Y-Waves Vol2 Global Grooves compilation.