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- DJ Promotion
-- ::::::::. **** TA DJ Challenge Series - Theme Mix (completed) **** .::::::::
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I have sent a PM to everyone who has yet to submit a mix. The deadline is next week. However, due to the fact that we have less than 50% of the mixes from the people who have signed up...

I am extending the deadline for one additional week, to February 10th. Please get your mixes in on time.

I will begin listening to mixes for review soon. I expect all participants to listen to all of the other submissions and give a review. No penalty for not listening to a mix, but it would be rather rude.

i listened to half of one mix only... life has been crazy (so glad I got my mix done early). i will shoot to getting reviews posted as soon as i can

#excuses

Zip, that was fucking badass. Definitely the finest mix I've heard from you. The music was relentless and full of twists, turns and ideas flying from all directions, which is exactly why I love this kind of drum 'n bass. Very smooth integration of the harder neuro tracks with the twisted psy stuff as well. The mixing was effective and unobtrusive, and the programming was all about cramming as much action in as possible with the occasional pause for breathe, which is what suits this style. The only black mark was that you had to end with such a cheesy track, which made me feel suddenly a lot less of a bad muthafucka while listening.

Thanks buddy, I'm looking forward to listening to your mix. I agree, I think it's one of the more flawless mixes I've done. Enjoyable, energetic, unique, and interesting. It was difficult to find a closer, because while I wanted to maintain the energy, I couldn't find a way to finish on a memorable note. I liked the melody on that track, so I just stuck with it.

Thanks for listening!

I've listened to two mixes so far, endeavouring to make it through another while I'm housecleaning today. If my timing's good, I may even get mine done sometime this afternoon. Interesting takes on the theme so far!

quote:

Originally posted by Bierheld With the chronology bit I'm alluding to the nature of psychedelic experiences and how they play with your perception of time. How the flow of it gets interrupted and past, present and future events can blend together. Psytrance uses this effect heavily.

Hey, so did 12 Monkeys!

3 out of 4 listened to. I've also been reading some of the analyses, and there's a helluva lot of over-intellectualising going on. They're mixes, not dissertations.

So what? It's fun. Surely the whole point of a themed mix is to start thinking about music in conceptual terms.

quote:

Originally posted by PivotTechno 3 out of 4 listened to. I've also been reading some of the analyses, and there's a helluva lot of over-intellectualising going on. They're mixes, not dissertations.

You're doing a pretty shit job of reviewing the mixes you've listened to.

How can I be doing a shit job if I haven't left any reviews yet?

That's what I'm saying, you haven't left any. Are you going to wait until you've listened to all of them, or what?

That's the plan! That's how contests usually work, right?

There's no prizes or anything, so you don't have to rank or compare. We generally just leave feedback as we go.

Fair enough, I'll still wait until I've heard the present 4.

(and thanks for the extension, btw - I'm an old fart, it's been really cold here, and I haven't been taking my Turntable Viagra For Longer, Harder Mixes)

Psyshell, I finished your mix.

Before I start - I am not very into psytrance. There was a period of time about 2 years long that I was into it and since then not really. I'm going to keep my review short and to the point. I'm not a big fan of writing essays on mixes, nor am I very good at it.


Review of: Dancing is active mediation
Theme
Just sounds like a psytrance mix to me. I don't feel much of a scifi/fantasy theme here at all, but I can see an argument of a futuristic sound kinda thing... I can see better ways to approach a psytrance/scifi/fantasy mix just listening to some of my older psytrance tracks that had very heavy scifi and even fantasy (rarer) themes.

Track Selection
Honestly, the tracks do not vary much. If this is what you were going for, great job - this isn't a bad way to approach a mix at all. It takes skill to choose tracks that match up as well as these do. That said, I personally don't enjoy mixes I dont feel are going anywhere [dont take this the wrong way - there are lots of way to interpret "going anywhere" - this mix was obviously going forward at a high velocity but not much else] or changing much.

I did enjoy the tracks, per se. Just thought it could have used some more variety. Lots of highly similar styles in each of the songs, which allows for much smoother transitions (from a macro-point of view), so again, this isn't necessarily a negative thing, just my take.

Keep in mind, I like to be very eclectic (as you guys saw from my submission). This mix is kinda the flip side from mine, a very specific subgenre of psytrance and you stuck to it throughout.

Mixing
No complaints. It wasnt perfect and if you'd like me to make some more detailed comments here I will, but I'd prefer not to because of the amount of effort it takes to get to that level of detail that it would really help here.

Flow
More or less 140 BPM throughout. Energy felt constant, and (IMO, unfortunately) very high. Was pretty 'full on' the entire mix. I prefer mixes to be up and down, regardless of the genre. I have heard and have mixed plenty of psytrance that isn't as straightforward as this was. With this mix by the second (?) song it was up to 140 BPM. The first track seemed a bit slower and you tempo jumped up quickly and then stayed consistent

This might just be an artifact of the genre and maybe a large reason why I distanced myself many years ago from it.

Summary
I'm not saying the mix is bad, I enjoyed listening to it - I just won't likely be doing so a second time; which is a mixture of the fact I am not a huge psytrance fan and that like I said above and have mentioned before, I need some variety in what I am listening to.

Ending notes
I have some friends I will be sending this to - I think they will enjoy it a lot! (one of them goes to ozora every year so this is right up his alley)


I'll listen to System J's and then zipnif's mixes next; or, in order.

quote:

Originally posted by jonmitz Mixing No complaints. It wasnt perfect and if you'd like me to make some more detailed comments here I will, but I'd prefer not to because of the amount of effort it takes to get to that level of detail that it would really help here.

Thanks for the review overall. I would like some detailed feedback on my mix but I feel like it should come from people who are overall pretty into that style of psytrance (95-97/98 style goa/psy). I feel like what the people who tend to like it say about it is far more important, and there might be something that's concidered unorthadox that may have actually worked which is hard to tell from the perspective of going through the motions rather than enjoying more naturally.

quote:

Originally posted by jonmitz Flow More or less 140 BPM throughout. Energy felt constant, and (IMO, unfortunately) very high. Was pretty 'full on' the entire mix. I prefer mixes to be up and down, regardless of the genre. I have heard and have mixed plenty of psytrance that isn't as straightforward as this was. With this mix by the second (?) song it was up to 140 BPM. The first track seemed a bit slower and you tempo jumped up quickly and then stayed consistent

I paid a lot of attention to the tempo the mix was being played at. I feel like increasing the tempo in certain tracks (or not) can do a lot to the energy and feeling of a mix. I also feel like it makes a big difference depending on whether it's at the start, climax of a track or just before the next one comes in. I probably could've paid more attention to noticeable pitch increases compared to more gradual but that sortof thing is very tricky (like for instance my mouse DPI probably should've been set lower). It's also worth mentioning that a lot of the straightforwardness of the psytrance is because of the era it's from. The fact there's less variety (and therefore it's much easier to pick tracks) certainly makes the psy a lot easier to mix but does prevent some styles or emotions being present that are present in later psy. I don't feel like there was anything wrong with my mix but I fully admit I wasn't taking any risks. It's the second mix I've done after a two year haitus after all and I feel like after listening to my first again recently that this one has shown a big improvement in my abilities.

Here's the [changed] tempos of the tracks for anyone that's interested:
1. 142
2. 142-143
3. 143
4. 143-145
5. 145-146
6. 146-147
7. 147
8. 147-147.5
9. 147.5-148
10. 148-149
11. 149-150
12. 150
13. 96

quote:

Originally posted by jonmitz Ending notes I have some friends I will be sending this to - I think they will enjoy it a lot! (one of them goes to ozora every year so this is right up his alley)

Thanks for that. I like getting feedback on soundcloud as well as on forums.

quote:

Originally posted by PivotTechno 3 out of 4 listened to. I've also been reading some of the analyses, and there's a helluva lot of over-intellectualising going on. They're mixes, not dissertations.

Just as there's different styles of mixes there's different styles of reviews. It's nice getting some more in depth ones as well as more basic ones. Make (or listen to) whatever style(s) of review you feel comfortable with.

quote:

Originally posted by Psyshell Here's the tempos of the tracks for anyone that's interested: 1. 142 2. 142-143 3. 143 4. 143-145 5. 145-146 6. 146-147 7. 147 8. 147-147.5 9. 147.5-148 10. 148-149 11. 149-150 12. 150 13. 96

Lol I wasnt even close. 140 BPM. Shoot me.


Why did you go with such a specific year of psy/goa? You could have broadened your choice by a lot and hit the theme much better. For a challenge like this you shouldnt have limited yourself at all. I pulled from hundreds of tracks ranging from the late 90's/earl 2000's to tracks that were released months ago.

It was essentially because that's the only style that I had a broad enough knowledge of to make a mix of. Sure I can think of 40+ psy or darkpsy albums and their tracks fairly well but they simply aren't similar enough to make a mix together of. Like for instance; XI, Sun Project (later stuff), Penta, Logic Bomb, Midi miliz or Psykovsky in the same mix? Probably wouldn't work. By the time I end up making my next mix I'll have heard a lot more albums and will be able to focus things a lot more. For that time period I had though I wanted to do a mix well and I knew that was a style I know lots about. My future mixes will be a bit more adventurous. Even my previous darkpsy mix was really. I'm pretty happy with how the mix turned out, no doubt if I'd been djing for the past year straight though I would've been able to tailor it a lot more though. I'm still learning and I'll gain that kind've experience and ability with time.

My thoughts on zipntf's mix:

First off, I'm not really a fan of psy breaks or psy dnb. I do like most regular dnb a fair bit though so I'll give this a try. Unfortunately the kind I don't like tends to be the kind that tries to be melodic in a trance or psy trance way (rather than liquid or neurotech dnb)

15 Minutes in, so far seems alright, vaguely interesting; but really not the kind I'm into. I do like the one 20 minutes in though. From there on it's interesting for a bit, but then changes to neurotech which seems completely different and then finishes with a melodic tune. Overall the mix can't really stick to one style and I didn't really like half of the tracks. The neurotech bit was pretty good but that only went for 3-4 tracks :\. Might've been a hard style to work with though if there wasn't many decent tracks in the genre.

Thoughts on System-J's mix:

Well first off I'm pretty sure I've listened to and liked system J's dnb mixes before so I'll probably end up liking this one. The intro is pretty cool and the opening track is very strong. I feel like the music matches the theme and artwork for the mix quite well. Then the mix suddenly changes tempo, I might be some kind've music pleb but this just seems to kill the flow for me. This honestly would've been fine if the mix had already gone for 50-70 minutes by this stage but I feel like it's just too short and flow breaking. The second half of the mix was pretty good though. This mix was interesting, but I think honestly the main effect this is going to have is me finding and listening to your other mixes and asking for you to upload some more somewhere. I wish I could give a more positive review, this has so much potential and it's obvious you have a lot of skill but I can't listen to it repeatedly with the middle section being like that.

Well, it�s a shame that a change of tempo spoiled the mix for you, but I wanted to create a dynamic mix with moments of downtime and changes of direction to create a sense of narrative. There are a couple of big tempo shifts in different directions but I made sure to reset the energy with ambient interludes so the switch isn�t jarring. This really isn�t a dancefloor simulacrum mix, it�s a concept mix. I want your imagination to fire up and fill in the blanks with images, locations and scenarios. The whole �soundtrack to a film that hasn�t been made� spiel, essentially.

Alright. Thanks for the review, Psyshell. Sorry you didn't like it. There aren't that many tracks in the genre but I found some pretty good ones imo. Guess your tastes are just vastly different than mine.

quote:

Originally posted by ziptnf Guess your tastes are just vastly different than mine.

Well I have said this before

Also:

quote:

Originally posted by Psyshell This mix was interesting, but I think honestly the main effect this is going to have is me finding and listening to your other mixes and asking for you to upload some more somewhere.

You can find most of my old mixes archived here: http://old.mixcloud.com/jack-moss/. I've just got a premium Soundcloud account so I'll be uploading my old stuff on there when I can be bothered. Also, if you enjoyed my other drum 'n bass mixes stay tuned for my next mix in a couple of weeks, once this competition is over.

quote:

Originally posted by ziptnf Alright. Thanks for the review, Psyshell.

Psyshell did ya ever get a chance to listen to mine?

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