Jaydee – Plastic Dreams

A crossover track which appealed to both the house & techno crowds, and probably few people realized it was another Belgian record when heard.

Awesome tune from the time when many were so. Made all the better by the enhancements of the evening that could be had back then :-) What a time and what a tune.

Summer 1992. My first encounter with "Plastic Dreams" was on a compilation album named Various - Natural Elements 2. Natural was one of my favourite labels, and upon listening to this CD, I heard this track. There was something strange about it, because the track was not mixed to the others. It was a stand-alone track, and I wished it were a bit longer. At that time, there was no full release of "Plastic Dreams", and I did not know who made the tune. I could have known this if I were listening to For Those Who Like To Groove, but that was not the case. I had other things to do at that time.

When Various - For Those Who Like To Groove Vol. 2 was in our shops, I found the entire track, plus "Single Minded People". At that time, still no full release! With what we know now, because no Dutch record company was willing to release it! Not even the distributor of Robin's own First Impressions label saw any perspective! t wasn't a hit, it was too long, it was too hard to mix.
So Robin had to cross the border, and R&S was willing to release it, including "Try To Find A Rhythm', a third track Robin recorded. A new radio edit was made, different from the one on the Natural CD.
This was the version that was hitting the clubs and the radio all over the world. "For Those Who Like To Groove" was the end of one chapter in Robin's life, and "Plastic Dreams" the beginning of another. After pushing the careers of other DJ/producers for two years, Robin became a DJ/producer himself.

In an interview with Dutch magazine Disco Dance, I soon learned that Robin Albers was behind the tune. I knew Robin as a radio DJ, from shows like AVRO's 3x Doordraai (mixing three records live without overdubs within ten minutes). Robin said that he preferred to release "Single Minded People", a sort of criticism against those who were not open to other styles of music. "Plastic Dreams" was only meant as a B-side. And it took a lot of effort to convince him to make "Plastic Dreams" the lead track. That track was also a sort of criticism; it was named after a scene in the US where rich people seemed to find their only joy in spending money to stuff they do not need, using their credit cards.

Over the years that followed, lots of remixes were made; at a certain moment, the track got an annual release with new mixes. Not that I cared much about those remixes; I still stick to the original, even if this were only a three-minute radio edit. The only longer version I had was on a Belgian comp that had a 7-minute edit of the David Morales remix.

Strangely enough, it took me more than 25 years before I finally got my hands on the full ten minutes. Until then, I used my radio version on Turn Up The Bass 23 or the David Morales remix on Dance Train 1997 vol. 3. Now with Ben Liebrand - Grand House Classics 2, one of the biggest gaps in my collection is filled.

In my smallish-city college town environment back then, the radio mix always seemed to be used rather than the full version. It got played out. A few years later, long after it fizzled out as a hit, I found a copy with the original and remixes just to have for the odd wedding or mainstream gig. As some of other commenters here have mentioned though, recently, picking up some of his more obscure stuff I missed the first time around and actually listening to the whole 10 minute version made me curious. I've learned about his importance to dance music culture, esp. the genre of progressive house and the Dutch progressive sound, taking influences from NY and NJ house. The soaring melodies of Sterac owe a lot, directly or indirectly, to Jaydee!

I found an interview with Jaydee himself about the story of "Plastic Dreams"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joWvFnv_Uwg

Why is this listed as 'trance'? It's just classic house/techno with varying levels of 'tribal' elements depending on the mix. Even the 'trance mix' is obviously not referring to the genre of music, but the headspace it evokes images of. No shitty supersaw arpeggiations or corny uplifting breakdown anywhere to be found on this record.

edit: Please see follow-up comment. I have revised my stance in light of new information.

Fun fact:

the name of this song refers to Donald Trump I read in the book 'Dutch Dance 1988-2018 How the Netherlands Took the Lead in Electronic Music Culture by Mark van Bergen. According to Robin Albers (Jaydee): "I owe the title to my then girlfriend. She was a stewardess and encountered Donald Trump on board of a flight. Trump paid, she recalls, with a platinum credit card, or in any case the most expensive card tere was, which was really something in those days. She showed it to the pilots, who were very impresses with it. A plastic card which let you realise your dreams."

Going through my old crates as I've been doing the past few months and when I lay this down, I have to sit down and really enjoy the place I journey to in time with this track. Insane organ and synth so, much has been said already. Well, I had too add my change as well. Long version is what it is "Greatness".......

To paraphrase the Spatula City sketch in the movie UHF, ".......I loved this record so much....... I bought the T-shirt"

Not much more can be said other then this record crosses over so many genres (House, Techno, and U.K. Ardkore) that it can be used in a variety of DJ sets which is really nice. However I will specifically say that my favorite aspect of this record is that it uses the amen breakbeat from World Dominance "Compression" with a phaser effect over top. I've pointed this out to friends but it's so well hidden that very few pick up on this. I would like to hear a slight remix of this that adds a louder non phased version of said breakbeat to drive home the point better. Never the less, what a brilliant track and I really did buy the T-shirt in 1993 at the local record shop. I still have it, it's pretty yellowed from use, but I'm not throwing it out.

I was fortunate enough to pick up on this tune really early on and playing this to a few friends who weren't that impressed, but it was a very different story when those first few notes dropped in a middle of set on a big sound system !
There's plenty of mixes to chose from, especially with all the remixes over the years, but for me its all about the Long Mix. With its synth / organ intro that instantly has your attention followed by the simplistic percussive loop with the organ and synth riffs building and morphing throughout the track keeping you interest all the way through.
One of the seminal house tracks that seemed to crossover all genres.