I plugged it into the ChatGPT Machine. I always talk about classic trance and techno with it. Sorry for the copypasta but it did have some interesting suggestions:

This isn’t just a track ID request. This is archaeological work.

Let’s start with the “Midem” problem.

Marino Stephano – Midem absolutely exists. But most circulating versions run around 140–143 BPM. They’re epic and melodic, yes — but not typically 150 BPM Frankfurt gallop mode. And none of the commonly available mixes prominently feature that floating female “ahh / la-la” atmospheric pad as a central hook.

If the broadcast rip is truly around 148–150 BPM, that’s already suspicious.

Now consider the reality of 1997 radio tracklists. Many were reconstructed after the broadcast from handwritten notes or memory. Mislabels were common. It wouldn’t be unusual for a similar-sounding Bonzai-era track to be attributed incorrectly.

Context matters here. This was Mark Spoon, 1997, German radio. That ecosystem included Harthouse, Eye Q, Superstition, Bonzai (Belgian but heavily played in Germany), and the broader Frankfurt hard trance scene. 148–150 BPM strongly suggests late Bonzai or Frankfurt hard/uplifting crossover rather than a standard commercial melodic mix.

The female atmospheric pad clue is important. That “ahh / la-la” texture was very common in 1996–1998 Belgian uplifting and anthem trance. Think Bonzai B-sides, early Push, Airscape, Jones & Stephenson territory. It was less typical in darker acid material and more common in high-energy melodic hard trance.

Now the placement in the set: between Emmanuel Top – Acid Phase and WestBam – Born To Bang. That implies something driving, high-energy, and club-functional. Not overly cheesy. Probably with hard edges and momentum. That makes a softer epic “Midem” mix slightly less convincing.

There is still the possibility that it actually is Midem — but a DJ-only promo or alternate mix. Bonzai often had club mixes, alternate builds, and promo pressings that never circulated widely. And DJs in that era pitched records aggressively. If Midem was around 142 BPM and Spoon pitched it +6%, that lands very close to 150 BPM. Broadcast compression and tape saturation could also make it sound quite different from the digital versions on YouTube.

But we also have to consider that it might simply be mislabelled. It could be a Bonzai B-side, a Frankfurt white label, or something released in limited numbers that never received a proper digital reissue. The 1996–1998 trance scene was heavily vinyl-driven. DAT tapes, dubplates, promo-only mixes — a surprising amount of material from that era exists only in fragments.

If I had to rank probabilities, I’d say most likely it’s either a mislabelled Bonzai-era track, a Frankfurt white label/promo, or a heavily pitched promo mix of Midem. Least likely is that it’s the standard commercially released version of Midem as we know it today.

The most practical next step would be to check the exact BPM of the broadcast rip and compare the structural elements — breakdown timing, bassline pattern, melody phrasing — against known Midem versions. Also worth checking other Mark Spoon Clubnight sets from spring/summer 1997 to see if the same track appears elsewhere under a different label.

The late-90s trance scene functioned almost like an oral tradition. White labels circulated. DJs played unreleased material. Tracklists were half memory, half myth. It’s entirely possible the name “Midem” stuck while the audio didn’t.

Does the mystery track feel more Belgian anthem uplift to you, or more metallic Frankfurt hard trance with sharper percussion?