[Running Back]

Forget Omar-S’ “Here’s Your Trance, Now Dance!!,” Scuba’s “Adrenalin,” and their oblique associations with that dirtiest of dirty words, trance. Tensnake’s remix of Phillip Lauer’s “Trainmann” busts the gates wide open. With its pounding kicks, soaring pads and “Greece 2000”-inspired bass line, it’s not alluding to trance: it is trance, albeit a little slower than the historical average. And that’s without discussing the main riff. Take the joyous xylophone from “Coma Cat,” spin it into more hypnotic form, and you have the laser-reaching motif of Marco Niemerski’s “Tranceman Remix.” It’s good, there’s no doubt. But are people quite ready to accept this kind of music again?

If not, there’s always the “Franceman Remix.” It’s much more in line with Niemerski’s usual output, set around an easy, hip-shaking groove rather than an amphetamine-charged pump. And though it retains a sense of euphoria, this time it’s much more restrained, losing the xylophone in favor of drawling chords and impassioned Michael Jackson-style yelps. In fact, the resemblance between the two versions is incredibly slight. All they share is Niemerski’s prodigious talent for penning infectious hits. In the case of “Coma Cat,” this skill was able to alter many perceptions of what constitutes “cheese.” Whether it’ll be able to revive the credibility of an entire genre remains to be seen.