You know it is officially summer when Shirtless Ray goes back to actually being, you know, shirtless.

Damn it has been hot out lately. You all feeling the heat too? I’ve got the fan going on in here 24/7. We’ve been having some freak storms too. Apparently, up at the store on my day off a huge thunderstorm came through. There was three inches of standing water in the road. You could see waves. Then a lightning bolt hit so close that, as Jeremy told me, the whole front of the store went white. He thought a power pole had been hit.

Half the power in the store went off and didn’t come back on. Unfortunately the same could be said for our computers. One of our Point of Sale systems got fried as well as the computer behind the cash wrap. Also, two of our internet routers got toasted, so we had to go buy new ones. Craziness.

Some of the staff had started to bitch about how hot it was in the store. It was hot. Basically the only thing that made going outside worse was the direct sunlight. So Rachel fixed that by turning the thermostat down so that now you half expect a penguin to interrupt your conversation. Not that I’m complaining. Better than being in the damned heat.

One other true sign that summer is here is my sudden urge to listen to all things dance music. There is just something so relaxing and transcendent about it. It’s not really summer if you haven’t popped in a good dance mix and just relaxed listening to it on a warm night.

Unfortunately, things have been a bit dry lately. To give you a little history, back in my Sophomore and Junior year in college Trance music was king. I first discovered it in the summer between Freshman year and Sophomore, and it just grew from there. This also corresponded with the real height of Trance in the club world, so the market was just flooded with great places to start and music to listen to.

Senior year my tastes began to shift as Trance sold out and as I left college I also left dance music. The music wasn’t nearly as good and there wasn’t nearly as much of it. The market just dried up. I got my iPod, the New Wave revival started and the rest was history.

There has been some really good stuff out lately though.

First of all Sasha just put out a new mix which is just amazing.

Overall it is not his best mix, but the way he mixes is so revolutionary that I’ll be listening to this one for a long time to come. I think I listened to it straight though three times the first night. You just need to put on some headphones, relax, and listen.

Then I also noticed that DJ Tiesto had put out a new In Search of Sunrise album.

I’ve been a big fan of his, and of the first two volumes of the Sunrise series, but Sunrise 3 sucked, reeking of Tiesto selling out to corporate bangers. Then he put out some solo albums that didn’t impress me enough to actually pick them up. So I approached this new one with hesitation. I haven’t bought a trance album for like, almost three years now. When I popped it in though, man, did it bring back memories. Tiesto is back, dance music back, hell, even trance is back. In Search of Sunrise 4 is such an amazing trance mix that I’m back in the game, baby.