''Euphoria'' is a series of dance music compilations that debuted on the

Telstar Records Telstar Records was a British record label that operated from 1982 to 2004. Background Telstar was founded in 1982 by Sean O'Brien and Neil Palmer with a government loan of £120,00Telstar RecordsIt was launched as a specialist compilation mar ...

label in early 1999. During the first year, ''Euphoria'' focused primarily on

trance music Trance is a genre of electronic dance music that emerged from the British new-age music scene and the early 1990s German techno and hardcore scenes. Trance music is characterized by a tempo generally lying between 135–150 beats per minute ( ...

until mid-2000 when ''Euphoria'' released the first

chill-out Chill-out (shortened as chill; also typeset as chillout or chill out) is a loosely defined form of popular music characterized by slow tempos and relaxed moods. The definition of "chill-out music" has evolved throughout the decades, and generally ...

album in the series and the first

hard house UK hard house or simply hard house is a style of electronic dance music that emerged in the early 1990s and is synonymous with its association to the Trade club and the associated DJs there that created the style. It often features a speedy te ...

album in late 2000. ''Euphoria'' was later spun off into a number of associated club nights around the UK, Ibiza and Cyprus. Over the course of three years, in excess of 500 tour dates were chalked up with tour DJs such as Adam White,

Robert Van Ryn The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of '' Hruod'' ( non, Hróðr) "fame, glory, honou ...

, Simon Webdale and Darren James. The compilations included box sets usually priced at around £20.00. The ''Euphoria'' albums were of high quality and still are highly collectible and the earlier versions are somewhat rare. Frequent DJs and/or producers who have mixed albums include

Dave Pearce David Alistair Pearce (born 14 June 1963) is an English dance DJ, EDM producer and broadcaster, who has performed across the United Kingdom and the world. He previously presented ''Dance Anthems'' on BBC Radio 1 for ten years. He is renowned f ...

Matt Darey Matthew Jonathan Darey (born 29 November 1968) is an English trance music producer and performer. Darey has sold over two million albums and singles with numerous top 10 and top 20 chart hits. Music career Darey was born in Leicester, England. ...

Lisa Lashes Lisa Lashes (born Lisa Dawn Rose-Wyatt on 23 April 1971 in Coventry, England), is an English electronic dance music Disc jockey, DJ and music producer known for mixing numerous Euphoria (compilations), Euphoria albums and for her Lashed dance m ...

John '00' Fleming John Fleming (or John "00" Fleming; born 1 April 1969) is an English trance producer and DJ from Worthing, West Sussex. He has had releases on record labels such as Ministry of Sound, Deconstruction Records, Logic Records, and 3 Beat Music. ...

, Adam White, The Tidy Boys,

Jay Burnett A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For example, the Eurasian ...

, Red Jerry and

Andy Whitby Andy may refer to: People *Andy (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters *Horace Andy (born 1951), Jamaican roots reggae songwriter and singer born Horace Hinds *Katja Andy (1907–2013), German-American pianist and piano ...

. When

folded in 2004, the brand went to

Ministry of Sound Ministry of Sound or Ministry of Sound Group is a multimedia entertainment business based in London with a nightclub, shared workspace and private members' club, worldwide events operation, music publishing business and fitness studio. James ...

recordings. Since the debut release, the ''Euphoria'' brand has showcased other genres in electronic dance music including hard house,

hard dance Hardcore (also known as hardcore techno or hardcore house) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany in the early 1990s. It is distinguished by faster tempos and a distorte ...

progressive Progressive may refer to: Politics * Progressivism, a political philosophy in support of social reform ** Progressivism in the United States, the political philosophy in the American context * Progressive realism, an American foreign policy par ...

and psy-trance as well as releasing some (thus far) "one offs" that cover old skool,

funky house Funky house is a subgenre of house music that uses disco and funk samples, a funk-inspired bass line or a strong soul influence, combined with drum breaks that draw inspiration from 1970s and 1980s funk records. The use of disco strings are als ...

hardcore Hardcore, hard core or hard-core may refer to: Arts and media Film * ''Hardcore'' (1977 film), a British comedy film * ''Hardcore'' (1979 film), an American crime drama film starring George C Scott * ''Hardcore'' (2001 film), a British documen ...

and the ever-popular "mash up". Although focusing mostly on "Best of" compilations in recent years under various guises, the ''Euphoria'' brand went "back to its roots" in mid-2008 with its first release of new (all encompassing) trance music in 3 years as opposed to the subgenre releases. ''Summer Euphoria'' was also the first digital-only release under the ''Euphoria'' brand. With no new releases for nearly 18 months, Ministry of Sound released ''Euphoria 2011'' in September of that year. This was a new direction for the ''Euphoria'' brand in that the album contained the latest dance music including the recent fusion of dance beats with R&B. Telstar also launched the ''Breakdown'' (its full name being ''The Very Best of Euphoric Dance Breakdown'') series in 1999, the same year as the inaugural ''Euphoria'' album, and this brand also went to Ministry of Sound following the folding of Telstar. ''Breakdown'' too focused on electronic dance music, but was never focused on trance music in particular, focusing on a wide range of subgenres of dance music, including non-electronic genres such as a

disco Disco is a genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the 1970s from the United States' urban nightlife scene. Its sound is typified by four-on-the-floor beats, syncopated basslines, string sections, brass and horns, electric pia ...

edition. The series was computer mixed, but did not list a DJ on its cover, but instead in its liner notes. In the book ''The Complete Book of the British Charts: Singles and Albums'', the ''Breakdown'' series is erroneously listed as being part of the ''Euphoria'' series.

List of ''Euphoria'' albums by Telstar Records (Telstar TV) (1999–2004)

Unusually, the last installment of the Telstar years, ''Deeper Shades of Euphoria'' (volume 2) was a co-release with

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldwid ...

EMI EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 201 ...

, who had been rival labels with Telstar in the past. It has been suggested Virgin and EMI helped support the album as Telstar entered closure.

List of ''Euphoria'' albums by Ministry of Sound (2004-2017)

External links

Released ''Euphoria'' albums reference
{{DEFAULTSORT:Euphoria (Compilations) DJ mix album series Electronic compilation albums Electronica compilation albums 1990s compilation albums 2000s compilation albums 2010s compilation albums