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-- Jack Moss - Somnamdublism [Dub Techno]
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Will definitely listen to this! works out perfectly as I have been on a dub techno mood the last couple of weeks.

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Originally posted by samuellamont Enjoyed this mate. Don't listen to too much dub techno so was a nice change and perfect to zone out to whilst driving at night. Particularly liked the middle section where it got a little brighter. Excellent mixing throughout.

Cheers Sam. I did try to start out with more conventionally "cold" dub techno and bring in the warmer, brighter sounds steadily towards the middle of the mix. Glad you enjoyed it.

Quality set, was really nice to veg out to. For some odd reason I have never really dug into dub techno at all for some silly preconceptions I had about it. This set blew those out of the water.

Great work.

this was nice.

i find dub techno to be quite interesting as a genre, but have never really dug into it. out of curiosity - how much time did you spend on track selection & compiling?

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Originally posted by djnitride Quality set, was really nice to veg out to. For some odd reason I have never really dug into dub techno at all for some silly preconceptions I had about it. This set blew those out of the water. Great work.

Excellent, exactly the kind of response I wanted. Thanks!

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Originally posted by Unique2701 this was nice. i find dub techno to be quite interesting as a genre, but have never really dug into it. out of curiosity - how much time did you spend on track selection & compiling?

This came together quite fast, actually. I'd say it took me about a week in total. The main trawling took a couple of evenings and I put everything into a massive playlist which I jigged around a few times to get the rough structure of the mix together. I did a few draft mixes which I put on the MP3 player and listened to on the way to work. This is always where I spend the longest, because when I listen back there's always one or two moments where I mentally note "There needs to be another track between these two" to improve the flow, and I have to go back to find a track in the right key, at the right tempo, that fits in that specific part of the mix. It can take a few days just to find that one track. But this is the challenge when you're working in a new genre, because you only have the tracks you've just bought.

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Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Interesting contrast between Sykonee saying some tracks don't sound "like anything techno" and you saying it's all very standard material. I personally think the truth lies somewhere in the middle!

Listening to it now and I think what Sykonee is referring to is around the 26 minute mark it does have an almost prog feel to it as opposed to basic channel like dub techno. it actually caught me off guard and i had to make sure it was the same mix as around the 33 minute mark once again it almost felt like i was about to get a buildup. Great mix btw almost done with it.

Ok finished listening to this, so here are my thoughts:

Great mix as usual. I love dub techno so this was right up my alley. Mixing and overall design had your signature all over it.

I think the prog comment by Sykonee has merit. For one thing, a lot of that has to do with the fact that I firmly believe progressive isnt just a genre but an approach to mixing as well. An approach you strongly adhere to, harmonic mixing, building sets, long transitions for head space, etc. and those things, in addition to some tracks in the middle that seemed to have some small prog components made the dub techno mix slightly progish in nature. Once again, no complaints from me on that.

only real criticism from my end is that i think one of your strongest skills is in being a "taste selector". I think you have a real great ear for great tracks, and for finding great tracks that other people have not picked up and showing how nice they are in one of your mixes. This is the first time i have listened to a set of yours in which i didnt mark one track for purchase. This goes along with Woony's comment that he probably wouldnt listen to many of these songs individually. That being said, i am not sure just how many phenomenal dub tracks are currently being released that i would run and purchase myself. In general, for a genre which i love so much, i have noticed that i havent made many must have purchases of new songs.

Yes, I completely agree about the mixing style. There was actually a moment while I was mixing from Dublicator into Anton Zap where I even thought to myself "This is basically a Sasha transition from 1995". And I'm really pleased you thought this mix had "my signature", because I aspire to be able to make a mix in various styles - drum 'n bass, progressive, dub techno - and still have my sound shine through. So thanks a lot!

Listened to this a few times and really rather like it. Like others I'm not much a dub techno guy but given your previous I figured it's worth a shot...

I like the way that you manage to find a few tunes to lift the mix from time to time, they're certainly not out of context with the rest of the feeling though (Thinking of Dios, Water, and Captain Storm here) and Drofn made for a lovely ending....

Last night I had a perfect little setting for this mix, was flying and listening to this as the sun was setting, very nearly dark and skipping across the clouds at around 9000', caught the runway lights in view ahead of me descending to Drofn and the mix ended just about the second we hit the deck. Perfect! I've listened to this mix a couple of times since and I'll always associate Drofn with that experience for now...

Really cool mix, Jack. I find that a lot of dub techno sounds extremely samey, but you've avoided falling into that trap - the songs are diverse yet still have the atmospherics associated with the genre. There are also peaks and valleys, another thing I find the majority of dub techno sets lacking.

Finally got around to listening to this... I'm not going to comment on the mixing because as usual it's great.

I will mention though that I appreciated the highs and lows this mix brought. I tend to get bored of dub techno pretty fast, but that didn't happen here. I'm pretty sure it was because you chose tracks with alot of melodic backbone.

Track at 27:00 is godly btw.

I swear I'm gonna get to this soon

I've had some god-awful commutes deserving of this, but my fucking iPod has been refusing to update lately =/

I listened to this today whilst squirrelled away in a dark office franticly writing someones review. Perfect soundtrack for writing actually, I got a hell of a lot done with it on.

Obviously I didnt give it 100% attention but all of the mixing sounded pretty seamless to me, creating one continuous groove. Some very enjoyable tunes on there too.

Sorry I cant give you more of an in depth review, I might try to give it another listen at some point and concentrate more on it, but yeah, really good stuff man

Well, that's an avalanche of praise from some people I respect massively. Thanks a lot, guys.

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Originally posted by fbgdavidson I like the way that you manage to find a few tunes to lift the mix from time to time, they're certainly not out of context with the rest of the feeling though (Thinking of Dios, Water, and Captain Storm here) and Drofn made for a lovely ending....

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Originally posted by Mr Game+Watch Really cool mix, Jack. I find that a lot of dub techno sounds extremely samey, but you've avoided falling into that trap - the songs are diverse yet still have the atmospherics associated with the genre. There are also peaks and valleys, another thing I find the majority of dub techno sets lacking.

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Originally posted by chris1011 I will mention though that I appreciated the highs and lows this mix brought. I tend to get bored of dub techno pretty fast, but that didn't happen here. I'm pretty sure it was because you chose tracks with alot of melodic backbone.

Comments like these are especially gratifying, because I always work hard to create specific effects in a mix, and when it comes together people complement exactly the things you tried to do. I know a mix hasn't really hit the spot when people aren't really "getting" my intention. I wanted to fashion a dub techno mix with highs and lows here, and I think I succeeded.

Chris: the track at 27 minutes is Nitrogen Music. Seems to be getting quite a lot of love.

Dave: I'm sure I'll get a fuller, more inebriated review from you next weekend.

As apologies for being shitty with responses lately, I sat down and wrote a somewhat serious review to this this morning, after I woke up, but before I went back to sleep. It�s a bit out there, it�s very rambly, and it�s rather long, but oh well. Thought I might as well post it, for some reason. At the end is a MUCH more coherent response.



Well, I�m hungover, possibly/probably still drunk, and my thermometer says it�s 25farenheit outside, so this seems a perfect time to listen to this. Can�t update my iPod for some stupid reason, hence my late response, but I�m hooking up my laptop to some rather decent headphones as I drink electrolyte-infused water.

�Deep Inside Mind� is an excellent opener. Dreamy as fuck. Rolling waves of dubby-sounds. I like.

Love that drum that comes in at 8:22. Hypnotic bassline. Someone walked by my windows in shorts. The hell is wrong with them? They�re going to freeze to death.

Cymbal at 11:05 is beautiful. Whatever is playing at 12:45 is fantastic. Seems like the speed or at least the intensity has picked up slightly. More rolling waves of dubby sounds.

Stabby sounds at 14:20. Was this a transition? Faint vocals teasing. Beautiful melody there at 15:15. Is that called an arpeggio? I have no idea how to describe music.

Ooh, breakdown at 18:00. Beautiful melody and vocal still twisting around each other. For some reason makes me think of outer space. Maybe it�s the faintness of the vocal. Is this one track or two? Fantastic, whatever it is.

Another breakdown. I�m totally lost on what track is playing, now. Groovy bassline at 19:50, yet more relaxed than the previous song. The melody at 21:30 isn�t as fast as the one previous, makes this a nice valley. Picks up a bit at 22:30 when that hi-hat comes in. Dubbing along.

Faint static at 25:00 reminds me of a desolate nuclear fallout zone.
Looking at comments you say 27 is Nitrogen Music, which shocks me. I would have thought I had heard five or six songs already, not just four. Great track selection, very multi-faceted songs. This bassline for Nitrogen Music is fantastic.

Another melody coming in at 29:40ish, faint. Is this Nitrogen Music still, or Dublight? I have no clue. The melody seems to be dancing around my ears, while the guitar and synths build up and up. Beautiful.

Love those drums (congos?) at 34:00. One of the best things about this set is that you go through so many different moods and sounds. Even though everything has the same hypnotic dubby sounds and it all mixes together so well, there is a clear progression going on, which keeps my not-sober attention and doesn�t blur together in a monotonous way.

Whatever this track is, it�s great. Feels like a wave building and building, about to crash. Reminds me of many progressive tracks, getting bigger and bigger, like Bedrock�s remix of Cowgirl or Intoxication.

Slight moment of relaxation, before we move on (new track?). This bassline at 39:30 doesn�t seem like dub-techno, it straight up feels proggy. Hypnotic, but proggy. Not sure if that makes sense, but seeing other people talk about the progressive feel of this set, hopefully it makes some sense. It makes me want to dance, which is not something I often feel listening to dub-techno.

The breakdown at 43 reminds me of Reykjavik. No idea why � I�ve never been there.

Is this a transition at 45, or the same song? Your mixing skills and track selection have totally left me behind. This is either an insanely long transition or a new song or something. Well, obviously it�s something. Logical necessity, that. Beautiful, too. Nice long valley after the peak at 40ish.

Sounds building up at 48. Excellent, whatever is playing. I�m going to assume this is �Water�, because I feel like I�m at the beach during the dead of winter, bundled up, probably drinking from a flask, and watching the waves come in and out.

50 is definitely �Trajectory�, so that must have been �Water�. �Trajectory� is a fantastic track, and that whole �Stories� album was great. Can�t believe he just gave it away for free. Thanks for recommending that, a few weeks ago. Have given it multiple listens since then. So good.

Again, really not what I think of when I think of dub-techno. The �soundscapes� you go for tend to be similar, no matter the genre, which is what I think people are getting at when they say it has your sound. That�s a good thing, from my view, since I tend to love similar sounds.

�High Speed Travel� is a fucking groover. Nothing else to write.
�Theta� is such an excellent track. It�s a shame DSO put out so little. Everything they did was fantastic.

Interesting drum pattern on �Cortinaz�. Took a bit for me to like it, but then started to really enjoy it.

Bassline coming in at 1:09:15. �Captain Storm� is groovy as fuck. Is this even dub-techno? Feels like deep house. [I see Adam wrote that, too]. What is a genre, anyways? Can a song be in two? Serious question, there.

�Drofn #2� is just plain beautiful. I�m jealous of the guy who said he landed a plane listening to this. Epic way to end this mix, imo. Feel like I�m on top of a Table Mountain, with this one, watching the sun set on the ocean.




Absolutely excellent mix, here. I really hope I can fix my iPod, as this will definitely make for a fantastic morning commute mix, or ideally a skiing mix.

What makes this so good is not just the mixing, which was sublime, but the programming and track selection. The move from lethargic, hypnotic, beautiful but rather standard dubby stuff at the beginning to the melodic, groovy stuff at the end was done fantastically. Not just one linear upward slopping line, but peaks and valleys along the way. The tracks were all beautiful. Contra to some who have posted, I�m definitely going to look into some of these songs, to try to find more albums to listen to like �Stories.� Throughout the mix, as you can see if you care to read my long spiel, I found myself in many different moods and locations.

With a lot of dub-techno sets (sorry, other people who do dub-techno sets) I tend to lose focus and get kind of bored, no matter how hard I�m trying to focus entirely on the music, which does end up making fantastic background study music, but no more. This was the opposite. When I tried to do some reading I was unsuccessful, as I found myself drawn back to the music, and had to just go back to listening and looking out the window.

It definitely had your sound to it, I agree with whomever wrote that. On the topic of dub-techno or not, I'm really unsure. I don't listen to too much of it, but this felt very different to what I normally hear. Would it be fair to say the stuff at the beginning was more dub-techno and the latter stuff wasn't? But what was it then? Deep house? Again, can a track be in two genres at once? Perhaps, since genres are sort of arbitrary marketing titles to help us distinguish and categorize. Anyways...

Outstanding stuff, Jack. Job well done.

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Originally posted by Lews Someone walked by my windows in shorts. The hell is wrong with them? They�re going to freeze to death.

Wow. Now there's a review that proves you were listening closely. Thanks a lot for that, mate. You actually kept up with the mixing pretty well. It is the start of a transition at 14 minutes, at 29.40 I'm starting to mix in Dublight, and 45 minutes comes just after a pretty long transition into Water.

Your interpretation of the programming is pretty perceptive too. I deliberately started with more conventional material and moved away from that as the mix goes on. Also, in the last year or two I have tried to structure mixes with more peaks and valleys. I used to do the standard "upward curve" structure in every mix, but I was getting boxed into a corner where once I played a big record I had to keep topping it and topping it. I had to change mentality and try to build it right up, play a couple of peak records and then take it back down, whether that means playing something stripped down and hard (like on Distant Places going from Timewave to Humate) or just dropping it right down and building in a new direction. When I'm mixing more ambient/downtempo stuff I still try to utilise that approach but with emotional or atmospheric intensity rather than energy levels or dancefloor dynamics. I tried to put those principals into play here.

As for "Is it dub techno or not?" I think the amount of discussion about genres in this thread shows a lot of these tracks are definitely blurring the lines. I really don't agree with Woony at all when he says it's all standard dub techno, but I do think all of these tracks have at least one foot in the genre. The whole point was to try and make a mix using tracks that push the definition to breaking point, because my frustration with the style is how narrow its parameters can be. Hence "my interpretation". I honestly think it's becoming impossible to classify modern dance music, because nobody is coining any new terms to encapsulate the shifting sounds.

Anyway, extremely happy with the responses, because I'm very proud of this mix. Thanks a lot.

So yeah, I've been listing to this a lot, and I'm really enjoying it as afternoon chillout music.

I can't really add much to this thread that hasn't been said already. Like quite a few people here, it would seem, I find dub techno mixes to be a little dull, because most of the tracks end up sounding so similar. As a result, I tend not to listen to many dub techno mixes, lol. This one definitely held my interest though, because it's pretty clear that you made an effort to keep things... well, interesting, for use of a better word. You already know how I feel about mixes having peaks/troughs, and why those are my favourite mixes to listen to, and you've managed to do this well, once again. I feel like a constant, gradual build, like what you were referring to (albeit for older mixes you did), would not lend itself well to a genre like this. By the end I would be bored, just a slightly more energetic bored.

For what it's worth, my fiancee quite liked this too, and she's not into this kind of music AT ALL

Good job, Jack.

Should be getting my headphones tomorrow and will finally give this a listen...plus I went on a Dub Techno binge earlier in the year kinda got burnt out.

Enjoying the Dublicator tune in this - bit of a trancey feel.

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Originally posted by Lews �Drofn #2� is just plain beautiful. I�m jealous of the guy who said he landed a plane listening to this. Epic way to end this mix, imo. Feel like I�m on top of a Table Mountain, with this one, watching the sun set on the ocean.

Since this thread has been bumped, wth, this holds up really well. I know it's only what 8 months old? I still think of landing on that aircraft and skipping across the clouds every time I listen to this mix and it winds its way towards the last few tracks. Magic.

I'm jealous of that story, it sounds perfect. I definitely think this mix is one of my finest. I don't always get it right but it felt like I nailed it at the time and I still enjoy listening to it.

Liking the track at 56 mins just wanted to know is it 10. Textural Being - High Speed Travel (Part 3) [ZeECc] or 11. Deep Space Organisms - Theta [Within] I can't check it here because Youtube and beatport are banned from work :/

At 56 it's High Speed Travel.

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