Matt Northam

n-trance – set you free (1993)

Featuring the vocal talents of the ubiquitous Kelly Llorena, this song is quite simply a classic. Brilliant brilliant brilliant. And the video is great too. Dancing and singing out of the sunroof of a limo would get health and safety all over you nowadays, but N-Trance shirk those worries by getting Kelly and her mate to pop their heads out and dance like mentals.

In fact, the awesome examples of dancing can be found all over this video, not least in the club scenes where glow stick toting gents do crazy things with their feet (in white jeans). I still try to dance like this when I’m out, and in my head, I look great.

There is a hint of the sex (it was the mid-nineties after all.. perilously close to the modern era), with Kelly in a bra but somehow, it’s just not at all the same. There’s nothing sexual about it, it just looks good. And that’s the crucial difference between then and now. Showing girls that looking good in dance videos doesn’t mean lingering close-ups of heaving chests. It means people enjoying themselves. Dancing.

in a nutshell…

Got any salmon?
High. Dance dance dance. Bucket hats, white jeans, glowsticks, hands in the air, that amazing feet thing. Everything.

de l’Épée factor
Medium-high. No reference to the track subject material because it’s not necessary. Just hire a limo and get people to dance on camera.

Dworkin-ism
Medium-high. I’ve covered this already, but there really is no attempt to make this sexy. Nonetheless, it’s not hideously unattractive, and I’d be doing Kelly a disservice if I claimed that she wasn’t at least part of the appeal of this video.

You’re not alone..
Medium-high. Placing people on moving vehicles and getting them to dance like Da Hool and Bjork (even though that was 2 years earlier, but I couldn’t find anything else ).

Watch the video here or on YouTube.

One click away from the number 1, best dance music video of the 90’s.. EVER!