Mike Quintor's “TRANCE” - ports us into a state of “TRANCE”-formation!
- Esther
- 30 minutes ago
- 4 min read
California based Mexican/Yemeni artist, Mike Quintor’s latest project "TRANCE" arrives in neon glow and private thoughts, in a record that feels less manufactured than lived in, like a diary with a beat. The album creates a vibe that slips in through an open window at 2 a.m., sits on the edge of the bed, and starts telling you personal secrets. Reportedly recorded in parked cars and solitary rooms, it carries a scent of late nights and unanswered texts. Quintor invites listeners into a world that hums with vulnerability, dance-floor dreams, and restless introspection. This isn’t just music but a mood to inhabit!
"TRANCE" feels less like a record and more like a late-night room you accidentally wander into and decide to stay awhile. Curtains half drawn, streetlights bleeding through the window, phone buzzing on silent somewhere in the corner. It is intimate, restless, a little messy, and completely alive. Little details like those matters, because it carries the atmosphere of enclosed spaces, private thoughts and doesn’t shout for attention. Instead, it hums, sways, and slowly wraps itself around you.
From the start, “GOOD TIME,” Quintor establishes his emotional language. Glittering synths flicker like neon signs reflected on wet pavement, while his airy, elastic voice drifts through the production with effortless calm. The track feels optimistic, but cautiously so, like joy viewed through the memory of harder days. It’s pop music that knows what heartbreak smells like. The album quickly proves unwilling to sit in one lane. “PARTY” slides in with a looser, cooler energy, more late-night text message than club anthem. It captures that universal craving to be wanted without needing to beg for it. The hook asks simply for a little love, but the space around the lyrics tells the deeper story: the desire for closeness without complication. By the time “CLUB” arrives, Quintor shows his real trick. Rather than going for obvious high-octane euphoria, the track settles into the comedown hours after the peak. It’s hazy, reflective, and strangely tender, like standing outside a venue at 3 a.m. deciding whether to go home or start another conversation you might regret. Throughout TRANCE, the mood is more important than genre. Hip-hop rhythms melt into R&B textures, which dissolve into dream-pop shimmer and electronic pulse. Instead of sounding confused, the record feels honest, like a diary that refuses to censor itself. “LONELY NIGHTS” leans into vulnerability without melodrama, admitting insecurity and hesitation with disarming directness. “SPACE MOUNTAIN” uses rollercoaster metaphors to describe emotional highs and lows, playful on the surface but anxious underneath. Then comes the glorious pressure release of “WE DON’T GIVE A FUCK!” a track that feels like ripping open windows in a stuffy apartment. Chaotic, loud, and liberating, it provides the necessary exhale before the album dives back into introspection. One of the strongest emotional cores arrives with “ALL I NEED,” where Quintor balances devotion with self-respect. The lyrics reject games and chase, speaking from a place of hard-earned maturity. It’s confident without posturing, heartfelt without begging.
The middle stretch of the album plays like a long, thoughtful walk home. “OCEAN” drifts through watery isolation, “SOMETHING” finds brief comfort in mutual connection, and “Ü” injects a jolt of UK-garage flavor that refreshes the palette. It’s a clever sequencing move, reminding listeners that this album can still dance even while carrying emotional weight.
“BEAUTIFUL THING” stands out as one of the record’s purest moments. Warm and sincere, it celebrates a calm, stable love without needing grand gestures. Lines like “Every second with you feels rare...” float gently over spacious production, creating a pocket of peace inside an otherwise restless project. It feels like sunrise after a long drive. But Quintor never lets the comfort last too long. “DARKNESS” and “2NITE” return to the familiar push and pull between escape and memory. “FABRICATED FICTION” blurs imagination and reality, while “NIGHTMARE (CAN’T WAKE UP)” explores attraction laced with unease. The emotional honesty here is striking. Quintor isn’t pretending to have everything figured out. He’s simply documenting the search. Late-album highlights like “ETHEREAL SKY” and “NOTHING FEELS REAL” showcase his ability to build immersive atmospheres without losing melodic clarity. The former glows with West Coast warmth, the latter sinks into reflective distance. Both feel like snapshots of specific nights you never quite forget. Hope flickers again in “FIND SOMEONE LIKE YOU,” a cautious step toward believing in love after disappointment. And then the album closes with “THE LOST ONE,” an exhausted but sincere finale that refuses tidy resolution. It ends not with answers, but with honesty. That, ultimately, is what makes TRANCE so compelling. It doesn’t chase perfection. It chases truth. Quintor has crafted an album that moves like memory itself: fragmented, emotional, occasionally contradictory, but deeply human. The production is polished enough to shine, yet raw enough to breathe. His voice, often gentle and slightly fragile, acts as a constant thread tying everything together. In an era of algorithm-engineered playlists and trend-driven releases, "TRANCE" feels refreshingly personal. It trusts listeners to sit with complexity, to ride out the emotional waves instead of skipping to the hook. This is pop music with fingerprints on it, club music with a heartbeat, late-night reflection dressed in neon. Mike Quintor didn’t just make a record. He built a small universe and invited us inside. And once you step into "TRANCE", you may not want to leave. Some worlds are worth getting "lost" in, and this is absolutely one of them. Listen below!
You can check out and follow Mike Quintor's musical journey on his website here: https://mikequintor.com
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