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-- ::::::::. **** TA DJ Challenge Series - Theme Mix (completed) **** .::::::::
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Time to cover System-J's mix. I've listened to it a number of times now but I still don't have too much of an idea on what to write about it as it seems to be one of his more straight-forward and spontaneous mixes. I can't remember much of the details either, as I've just not been very clear-minded these past few weeks. Even so, I generally like the darker DB mixes he's done more so then the atmospheric ones and this was no exception. Wicked tunes throughout and the structure was almost relentlessly functional, which worked extremely well for the most part although I had some problems with keeping my attention for some of the later parts, can't really pinpoint why that is at the moment.

As for the narrative, I've always found the popular dystopian view on future societies a bit ridiculous making it hard for me to really get into it, but I found the tunes to be tasty nonetheless. Not much else to say about it at the moment, my head hurts too much. Might come back to this later.

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Familiar labels but I just hadn't heard these tracks before. I liked the narrative you wrote and I can clearly hear what you were after with this mix. I also liked the way you combined some tracks at the beginning (tracks 1-5). This kind of IDM and ambient I'm usually after but I find it hard to discover any good tunes. Good effort I'd say. I discovered a few good new tracks from this mix and it follows the 'storyline'. Scifi theme was present here and therefore it makes it a good submission after all, despite your own hate of this mix' existence.

Good on you for listening to these. But yeah, I was probably overreacting a little bit, but then again I was just really disappointed. The way the first few tracks were mixed is basically how I planned for the entire mix to be like, with lot's of samples and atmospherics binding everything together, but as mentioned it just didn't happen. I feel the majority of this mix is just a bunch of tracks seamed together at arbitrary cue points, which ironically holds pretty close to what I criticized jonmitz for even though he did a much better job at it.

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Originally posted by Lews Considering a Science Fiction themed mix, I wanted to go the "Soundtrack to an Imaginary Film" route. While I initially wanted to go in a distinctive dystopian direction, I found myself pushed more and more toward Outer Space. Yep, it's pretty much the basic go-to for Science Fiction, but what can I say? Anyways, I still wanted to go the soundtrack route, telling some type of story. I ended up actually writing a few paragraphs of a plot outline to keep my mix focused, and I'm rather pleased with how it (the mix) turned out.

I had a listen to this yesterday and while it was enjoyable, I didn't really get much of an outer space vibe from it. There's a vaguely spacey semantic thread to the track titles, granted, but as you recommended to listen before reading the titles that didn't really translate through musically for me. You picked out a lot of prog tracks that were quite percussive and almost tribally, and ultimately I was thinking more of Twilo than deep space. The mixing was somewhat rough... There were no real disasters but it sounded like a few transitions needed a nudge that never came. I actually think this set is comparable to Psyshell's in many respects, although I, of course, much prefer vintage prog over vintage goa.

Also, thanks for the review. I kept the implied storyline vague enough for different interpretations, whilst trying to create the classic plot moments: the moody intro, the moment of crisis before a final climactic encounter, and so on.

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Originally posted by Euforix Jack Moss - Human Revolution This mix surely has the scifi theme in it deeply. The kill of flow in the middle is unfortunate of course but since this mix introduced me to a lot of new tracks I won't complain. Great effort Jack!

Thanks a lot. Credit due for listening to every mix and giving thoughtful feedback, and I'm glad you enjoyed it despite my disregard for flow.

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Originally posted by Bierheld Wicked tunes throughout and the structure was almost relentlessly functional, which worked extremely well for the most part

Glad you enjoyed it despite finding the cyberpunk thing daft, but as a point of interest I'm slightly surprised you aren't echoing the complaints of loss of energy, since the change in tempo from 170s to low 120s halfway through this mix is exactly the same as the one you pulled on my (much more chilled) Time & Space mix a year or so back.

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Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Glad you enjoyed it despite finding the cyberpunk thing daft, but as a point of interest I'm slightly surprised you aren't echoing the complaints of loss of energy, since the change in tempo from 170s to low 120s halfway through this mix is exactly the same as the one you pulled on my (much more chilled) Time & Space mix a year or so back.

Well, I didn't touch on it then in part because I was kind off trying to get the review out of the way without really having a great recollection of the actual mix itself. I wasn't doing very well at writing things down either, I seriously think I may have permanently damaged my brain last weekend.
The main reason however is that I didn't even understand what they were on about.

Fact is that it just didn't bother me. Like, at all. I just don't feel anything was lost because of it.
The thing with time and space is that - from what I remember - you had a long sequence of breakbeats going on which were then carefully build down to introduce house rhythms, you then had a bunch of fluffy proghouse music and then went into outro-ambient. Making me go "Pleasant and all, but was that it?".
We then got into an argument, and the root cause was that we just didn't agree on what makes music "chill". For me it was never a chill mix and the beginning section felt more like a build up, leaving a sense of disappointment when the highs were never reached. You then countered by saying this wasn't true, there was no build down and the proghouse section would have people raving their asses off at a party making me gasp in disbelief.

In retrospect it was a bit of a pointless argument, often when I make these comments I just haven't quite figured out what to think of something and I do like to poke and prod the mixer a little to get some views out of them, which you seemed very reluctant to do. This is something some of the other mixers in this topic need to keep in mind as well. Other then that I don't care whether a mix goes up or down or in circles, and I enjoyed T&S regardless.

Now, the way I feel about music is not dictated by what sort of tempo it runs in or even how it is presented, which my views regarding the music in Psyshell's mix in this thread should make abundantly clear.
For me it's all about associations. Human Revolution kind of made it's intent to fuck with your head pretty clear from the start, and from that point I just don't expect anything else.
What we're talking about here is a momentary excursion from D&B to acid-house, with a pretty long beatless section in between as well, so it's not like it was spontaneous either. It then rumbles around in abstractness and occasional elongated rave beats, yanking you around not knowing what to expect. I don't know about these guys but that's like musical heaven to me. And it's not like it ends there either as it does eventually head back towards darkside D&B, and my only complaint is that it wasn't like industrial terrorcore or something. That's how it should have gone down IMO.

That said, going back to the associations thing. The theme here is clearly scifi, not arguing that, but the whole cyberpunk thing always feels a bit off to me regardless. I just don't understand why it's so popular to think of the future as some sort of chaotic industrialized hell-hole with class societies, rampant corruption, secret NWO organizations and whatever the hell else they can think of.
If you look at how our societies have evolved over the course of history it doesn't strike me as a likely scenario for the future to be a cumulation of all the worst elements of the industrialization and laissez-fair capitalism. Aren't we past that point already?

That's also why I frown on deus ex, considering it to be a rough diamond more then anything else. I like the gameplay and the story, but I just don't find the setting to be believable. Hurts the sci-fi appeal for me. I don't even know why as the alternate reality thing is indeed the whole point of fiction, but once it's based in the future it just limits my suspension of disbelief a wee bit. I should really work on changing that.

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Originally posted by Bierheld We then got into an argument, and the root cause was that we just didn't agree on what makes music "chill". For me it was never a chill mix and the beginning section felt more like a build up, leaving a sense of disappointment when the highs were never reached. You then countered by saying this wasn't true, there was no build down and the proghouse section would have people raving their asses off at a party making me gasp in disbelief.

I've no intention of going back through that argument here, but suffice to say this is absolutely not what was being argued at any point. It was a question of "rhythmic intensity" and how going from 80/160 jungle to 125-ish house felt like an intensity drop to you. Which is funny, because here a similar thing happens (the drop is actually about 10bpm more) and some people are complaining it kills the flow. The reason I have no problem making that shift is that the half-time elements which are usually at the core of these DB records - the sub-bass pulse, chords and so on, so to me it's very much a step up from the 80bpm range.

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That said, going back to the associations thing. The theme here is clearly scifi, not arguing that, but the whole cyberpunk thing always feels a bit off to me regardless. I just don't understand why it's so popular to think of the future as some sort of chaotic industrialized hell-hole with class societies, rampant corruption, secret NWO organizations and whatever the hell else they can think of. If you look at how our societies have evolved over the course of history it doesn't strike me as a likely scenario for the future to be a cumulation of all the worst elements of the industrialization and laissez-fair capitalism. Aren't we past that point already.

All that sounds only a step beyond what we've got right now, to be honest. Dystopias tend to be warning shots of what could feasibly go wrong with current society, and the rampant, uneven advancement of technology while social inequality, wealth gaps and class divides widen is hardly science fiction. Although the whole cyberpunk thing basically stems from two texts - Neuromancer and Bladerunner - both from the dawn of the 1980s, and the appeal is really the look and feel of the universe, the gritty tech-noir atmosphere. That's what I wanted to capture, because it so happened I'd got a nice little collection of suitably evocative music. All that jazz about bio-technological sublimation came in when I found that Central Industrial track with the cyborg monologue which gave a framing device to build some sort of narrative around.

OK next up is djdk's mix. I'm actually violently ill atm so I skipped ziptnf's more bass-heavy mix for now.

The first 30 or so minutes were definitely consistent of some finely crafted material. Starting out with heavy duty dark-ambient going in to typically disorienting ambient-dub. Not the most musical of directions but it really captured that sense of desolation and agoraphobia.
After a while however I felt like it lost it's structure a bit, it stumbles around some more in various forms of breakbeats, which honestly felt a bit lacklustre to me although they're fine pieces on their own. It sort of sounds to me like you blew your load a bit too early, it started with a very rich sonic environment which was never really recaptured nor was it taken in a different but equally captivating direction. I also didn't feel the drum & bassy part had much to do with the blurb about hypersleep and all that.

Still an interesting listen though, although not something I'm likely to repeat any time soon.

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Originally posted by SYSTEM-J All that sounds only a step beyond what we've got right now, to be honest. Dystopias tend to be warning shots of what could feasibly go wrong with current society, and the rampant, uneven advancement of technology while social inequality, wealth gaps and class divides widen is hardly science fiction. Although the whole cyberpunk thing basically stems from two texts - Neuromancer and Bladerunner - both from the dawn of the 1980s, and the appeal is really the look and feel of the universe, the gritty tech-noir atmosphere.

Just to conclude this, I can see why this was a popular and relevant viewpoint for people the 80's, but only because our collective memory is so short. Anything the likes of Reagan and Thatcher managed to pull off pales in comparison to the good old days of 19'th century liberalism. Similar things can be said of the industrialisation period, which compared to now seems like a humanitarian disaster, but we were coming from centuries worth of feudalism for pete's sake. If you look at the big picture things are always improving, minor setbacks aside. It's always good to warn for excesses but a realistic world view for the future it isn't.

Cheers for the comments people, I think the criticisms levelled at my mix are pretty much the same as my own thoughts. I might try to expand on this idea in the future when I have some more time to crate dig.

I'm slowly working my way through the mixes, theres some really good music going on in this challenge. Will post some reviews when I have a bit more time!

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Originally posted by Bierheld If you look at the big picture things are always improving, minor setbacks aside. It's always good to warn for excesses but a realistic world view for the future it isn't.

A temporary setback in the big picture can still last centuries (see: the Dark Ages). Even a decade is enough to fill your boots with cyberpunk trappings.

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Originally posted by SYSTEM-J A temporary setback in the big picture can still last centuries (see: the Dark Ages). Even a decade is enough to fill your boots with cyberpunk trappings.

The dark ages weren't necessarily actually all that dark in the scheme of things. The roman empire encouraged economic stagnation especially towards the end and new technology wise the dark ages was actually better than the late empire.

PivotTechno's mix: This mix feels a bit too ecletic for my tastes. Some parts would work well live but I don't this'll stand up to repeated listening. I find it hard to listen to this type of techno without a set having strong flow. The second half changes the style of music entirely as well. I'm not really understanding it.

Mr Game's mix: Well first of all, I'm really not a big fan of the style, but I like the mix a fair bit anyway. The flow is pretty good and the progression of moods is nice.

^There's a lot of things left to be said about the argument he's making, but this is getting wildly off-topic even for my standards so I'll leave it at that.

Anyway, I've done lews' and sandleaper's mix last night. So let start with the former:

It was a cool little mix, I liked it. I was particularly fond of the first half hour, which offered what to me at least sounded like various interpretations of future night-life. I also like the initial development towards more clubby material, although I think it could have done with another change of pace somewhere near the latter parts of the mix as that seemed to be all that really happened in the mix narrative-wise. I guess I was expecting a little more considering the introduction you gave it, but otherwise I don't have any issues with it.

Sandleaper's mix was a different beast altogether. You really seem to have taken the effort to adopt some proper conceptual mixing for this challenge, and seeing all the work and ambition that went into this thing makes me mourn profusely when thinking about what I could have done with my submission if I could have set my mind straight, but that's neither here nor there.

There's really too much content for me to go over completely here, but overall it was a good listen, and although long it had a pretty solid structure with clearly defined sections keeping things going.
I guess it was sort of carried by it's own novelty.
The only part that made me raise my eyebrows was the part were we suddenly warped to 1950's America.
I actually wanted to include something similar in my mix with a more distorted version of such music. Hinting at the idea of some little kid finding an old tape in a cassette player somewhere in the basement and playing it, thereby exposing the massive contrast of were we are now and were we've come from.
What your idea behind this was I'm not quite sure, which is partly why I think this section isn't particularly convincingly executed. Having said that though, the tracks had an interesting synergy with the Stellar OM Source track and after the initial shock it stumbled along smoothly. Other then that there was really nothing that didn't make sense or felt like it wasn't supposed to be there.
The mix carries a lot of intrigue and rewards a good listen, and although it does sound like it lacks polish here and there which is to be expected considering the short time-frame in which this was done, it is still my favourite entry in the competition so far.
Hat's off to you.

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Originally posted by Bierheld Sandleaper's mix was a different beast altogether. You really seem to have taken the effort to adopt some proper conceptual mixing for this challenge, and seeing all the work and ambition that went into this thing makes me mourn profusely when thinking about what I could have done with my submission if I could have set my mind straight, but that's neither here nor there. There's really too much content for me to go over completely here, but overall it was a good listen, and although long it had a pretty solid structure with clearly defined sections keeping things going. I guess it was sort of carried by it's own novelty. The only part that made me raise my eyebrows was the part were we suddenly warped to 1950's America. I actually wanted to include something similar in my mix with a more distorted version of such music. Hinting at the idea of some little kid finding an old tape in a cassette player somewhere in the basement and playing it, thereby exposing the massive contrast of were we are now and were we've come from. What your idea behind this was I'm not quite sure, which is partly why I think this section isn't particularly convincingly executed. Having said that though, the tracks had an interesting synergy with the Stellar OM Source track and after the initial shock it stumbled along smoothly. Other then that there was really nothing that didn't make sense or felt like it wasn't supposed to be there. The mix carries a lot of intrigue and rewards a good listen, and although it does sound like it lacks polish here and there which is to be expected considering the short time-frame in which this was done, it is still my favourite entry in the competition so far. Hat's off to you.

Thanks, much appreciate the listen. I had a specific idea in mind when I came up with the bit with Stellar OM Source, but I'm not gonna go into what it was in detail, because it's more fun if people let their imaginations run with it unrestrained (even if it won't make sense to some people). It IS a flashy and ambitious bit, and perhaps a bit too flashy and ambitious for a mix I just threw together on my laptop. Maybe it would've slotted in better in the mix if I had an actual studio to tinker with it in (a la FSOL's Essential Mixes), but I still like the way it turned out, and how it breaks with the overall atmosphere and undertone the set has otherwise.

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Originally posted by Mr Game+Watch

Finally got 'round to listening to this, Luke. This is a tough one because I can certainly understand the particular sci-fi universe you're trying to evoke, but for me this whole style has other connotations. Simply put, it's almost impossible not to think of Drive, Miami Vice and the '80s. To me this music sounds more concerned with recreating a specific era of the past than it does of any future Neo-Tokyo. And I totally understand the sci-fi universe you describe is the sci-fi style of the '80s, but I can't escape the throwback feel. There were some cool tracks on here, quite a lot of staccato basslines I enjoyed, but I'm not hugely into the neon-glo '80s aesthetic.

On a technical level, some of the mixing was obviously pretty basic because you don't have much to work with. I didn't particularly get the feeling of any structure to the mix, and I think most of these tracks are so "songy" it's difficult to use them as DJ tools.

This also reminds me that I never gave you any feedback on your One Night Disco mix from about a year ago, which I did enjoy a lot.

^ I just did that as well. And like the man above me here I didn't really buy into the neo-tokyo vibe. But alas, it's the route you chose and what came out was still a good listen. Though structurally not much more then song after song of relentless synthesizer music, I find it hard to dislike it for that. It was quaint and dreamy.

Aand I thought what the heck and listened to ziptnf's entry as well last night.

It was indeed a great mix. I do echo some of mr game+watch's sentiments in that the mixing is probably a bit too ad rem for my tastes, would have loved some more breathers here and there to give a momentary escape from the percussion as well as some more room for atmosphere. On the other hand the tracks were full of all sorts of twists and turns by themselves which was enough to keep me interested for the hour.

Right so only one more to go now for me. It's been a blast listening to these so far, good job people.

Hey, thanks so much for the comments, guys! I did take a listen to PivotTechno's, Bierheld's and Sand Leaper's, and will write extended reviews of them...

but for now - PivotTechno's wasn't really my particular taste in music, Sand Leaper's is a very challenging mix that I want to explore further and talk about my own interpretation of the part where the appergiated ambient part fading in and out to the standards music. Bierheld's mix, for someone who said he didn't put much effort into, I ended up loving (apart from one annoying IDM track).

Right, Pivotechno's mix. It's slightly surprising this is the only person that went along the millssian techno path, as it's such an obvious one. In fact I think it's the only techno I've heard this entire challenge barring some more industrial offerings in sand leaper's mix. So there ya go.

It was a good mix as well. Very dancefloor-ish, which is fair enough. It is dance music after all. Initially though I felt there were a few too many moments that were just dry percussion with little in the way of sci-fi atmosphere, doing well at keeping the groove going but lessening the thematic impact of the whole thing. It wasn't crazy enough if you will. Having listened to it again now though I find I've grown to appreciate it more. It's definitely not as in your face as some of the other mixes we've seen throughout this challenge, but it still works really well when you allow for some more abstract displays of atmosphere.

The mixing itself was handled confidently and done well. I like the structure too, starting off with plenty of high paced spacey groovers which over time develop into more indulgent pieces. It was an eventful mix that always had something interesting going on, and I enjoyed it for that. Good entry I say.

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Originally posted by Mr Game+Watch

Really, really, really enjoyed this mix man, as I said on your FB haha. Honestly, I think I might have been the only one here who was feeling the sci-fi vibe from this mix. I definitely thought I was racing through some sort of advanced city on a pod-racer type of vehicle or whatever.

Personally, it reminded me ALOT of the F-Zero series. So, I think you pretty much nailed it in terms of the theme you were going for.

P.S. Mixing this genre is really difficult... In fact it was what I used to DJ back when I first started, like 6 years ago. The Kavinsky et al. stuff. That being said, nothing that could be done with a few of the transitions imo. I feel the overall flow kinda dipped a bit at the end of the track at 32:00, but maybe that was by intention? Kinda like taking the off-ramp on the futuristic speedway into a dark and abandoned part of the Neo-city.

I want to apologize for taking so long to review everyone's mix. Work has been pretty hectic lately and it's been quite a task to check all of these out in my busy schedule. However, I got through them all and wrote reviews. Thank you all so much for participating, and I can't wait to get cracking on the next challenge mixes!

Dave King - Hypersleep Dreams

So this was a much different mix than what I'm used to from you. Perfectly executed, I can really tell you took the theme of this challenge seriously. The name is very apt to the mood of the mix, it's spacey, trippy, and definitely fits the theme of a suspended sleep in the deep reaches of space. I like how you programmed the mix to build up to a brief series of beats, before toning it back down and calling upon the hugely epic Alien track. You built back up to some more breaks and finaly ended with a flavor of DNB complete with vocals that fit the subject exactly. Excellent work, and probably one of the most science fictiony of the current submissions.

Jack Moss - Human Revolution

I listened to this a couple weeks ago when I was driving to Tennessee and I didn't get to review it properly, so I'm going back through it. I loved some of the storytelling you did here, where the first half seemed to be some kind of trippy psybreak-ish insight into futuristic human/robot life. Some of the tracks were fun and fantastic until the energy drops off and it starts getting really serious about halfway through. The first time I listened to this mix, this part caught me by surprise as I couldn't quite tell what you were doing when you dropped Orbital - Know Where To Run, but it made so much sense as you were building up the energy to a final showdown with some drum n bass. I loved this mix when I heard it, really interesting and exciting.

Lews - Journey Through the Wormhole

I put this on while I was cleaning my house last Friday. I appreciated the science fiction style prog that you had going, and I'm definitely going to cherry pick this set for some tunes of my own! Some people are pointing out rough transitions but I guess I just didn't notice any really bad ones. The only criticism I have is that I feel that you were very much in your comfort zone and I wish you would have broken outside of that boundary a little more. Other than that I enjoyed it and it helped me clean my house at lightning speed.

Sand Leaper - Erutufon

This was an extremely interesting set. You have a very artistic viewpoint on the theme at hand. This set goes through a lot of moods and feelings, time periods, and energy levels. I'm not gonna lie, the first 30 minutes nearly made my ears bleed and actually gave me a headache. That's the type of shit nightmares are made of. Making this mix the length you made it was a trademark of your attention to detail and storytelling. It was interesting how this was broken up: first 30 minutes was malfunctioning space equipment, second 30 minutes marked the arrival at some sort of intergalactic dance club, third 30 minutes you leave the club and pick up strange radio signals from songs that could be centuries old, and the last 30 minutes you're drifting into space. Nice way to finish the set btw, on somewhat of an epic orchestral track. Overall extremely eclectic and fantastically weird, even if the music didn't agree with my eardrums the whole time.

Bierheld - Science Dysfunction

I'm gonna kinda ramble here... there's not much I can really say about this set. I enjoyed it. It was trippy and weird. You clearly know what you're doing, especially since I've listened to your mixes before. I guess I just didn't really fully grasp what you were trying to do. Like the ideas were a little too farfetched and over my head. I liked the set, the mixing was perfect and there were some pretty cool tunes. But other than that it just left me utterly confused. It was a little too unfocused. Maybe I need a little more structure in my mixes to fully appreciate them. You kept the theme pretty decently, but sometimes the connection to science fiction was hazy. Maybe a few too many bird and water noises. Great effort though.

Mr. Game+Watch (aka Luke Drelick) - Neo-Tokyo Outrun

Despite most people's comments, I really enjoyed this, and I feel like it definitely falls into a more obscure realm of science fiction, but I can definitely see why people think it's not quite futuristic enough. Transitions were mixtape style, and while some mixing was a little rough some was great! This mix has a vintage 80's, almost video game feel and I really dig that, but a futuristic setting might not be suited to this mix. Maybe if this mix was released in 1980 you'd have the futuristic vibe nailed down. So that's the way I'm gonna view it... vintage science fiction

Psyshell - Dancing is Active Meditation

I dunno. This mix was a lot better than your last one, despite a couple bad transitions. But I didn't get the science fiction connection. At all. Goa has always been a much more organic form of electronic music to me, drawing heavily from cultural and ethnic influences, and this was no different. To me it seems like you were going to do a Goa mix no matter what the theme was. I'm also not sure why you chose one time period to choose your tracks. Next time, I'd prefer you expand your genre options, but hey it's your choice.

Mitztronic - Fluctuations

Like the others who have posted about this mix before me, I found these tracks to be fine on their own but way too cluttered and unfocused in such a long mix. I really couldn't tell what you were trying to do. It seems like you just found some tracks that sorta fit the theme of science fiction and jumbled them together in kind of a half attempt to be pseudo-avant-garde. I really just didn't get it, at all. Like I said, the tracks were nice, but the mix itself made absolutely no sense to me. Sorry man! I really wanna listen to your latest mix tho, so I'll post feedback as soon as I can.

PivotTechno (aka Westside Wax) - Last Night Marty McFly Showed Up At My Place In A Hazmat Suit

This was pretty cool. And yeah, I definitely appreciate you showing up in the clutch before the deadline so you could get your mix in on time. It would have been unfortunate if you were the only one left out. The content of this mix was great, worked perfectly for your particular style. I could definitely get the Weird Science type of vibe you had going on here with kind of a spacey and strange techno flow. I wasn't a fan of the last couple of tracks, but I will mark that to you semi-rushing this. Beside that, this mix was a fine submission. Thanks for participating!

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Originally posted by ziptnf To me it seems like you were going to do a Goa mix no matter what the theme was. I'm also not sure why you chose one time period to choose your tracks.

I originally suggested the theme because I thought it was something I could do well with there being lots of tracks I know that strongly evoke it. After I chose goa I decided upon a specific time period because practically anything made before or after that period would've sounded extremely out of place. I've noticed a few goa mixes that were posted here in the past couple of months include newschool goa with a majority of old and it tends to sound very out of place IMO. Newer stuff is either psy focused (more bass focused, focused on fx, less melody overload, differeny dynamics etc) or newschool goa style (more fluffy, far less dark, different style of melody, different dynamics etc).

Okay, that's fine, but I don't think your mix accomplished what the theme challenge implied. That was my point.

Fair enough, well there's always the next one.

i feel like such a dick for not posting any reviews yet, but i've had two deaths in my family in the past couple weeks and it's taken up all my time.... i'll try to get to posting them later this month

e: cheers guys, i didnt want to be *that guy*, i'll make sure to get my reviews in before the next mix

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Originally posted by ziptnf Bierheld - Science Dysfunction I'm gonna kinda ramble here... there's not much I can really say about this set. I enjoyed it. It was trippy and weird. You clearly know what you're doing, especially since I've listened to your mixes before. I guess I just didn't really fully grasp what you were trying to do. Like the ideas were a little too farfetched and over my head. I liked the set, the mixing was perfect and there were some pretty cool tunes. But other than that it just left me utterly confused. It was a little too unfocused. Maybe I need a little more structure in my mixes to fully appreciate them. You kept the theme pretty decently, but sometimes the connection to science fiction was hazy. Maybe a few too many bird and water noises. Great effort though.

Thanks for the review and as always I'm glad you enjoyed it. I am going to ramble back now, so I hope you don't mind.

Firstly I urge you not to overestimate how much this set was thought through or worked out. There are some major problems with the structure, although I don't think it was far off either.
To sketch my case here, at the start of the day where this mix was posted only the first twenty minutes of this mix were set in place, it's all I had to work with. I had music prepared and some loose ideas that were faintly worked out, but that was it. No idea what to do with the structure.

This is very much a work in progress in that sense. I had to instinctively find some resemblance of structure, like doing a live mix without actually being in there enough to get a feel for the flow. This is very much in line with how I usually work on my mixes, I try to actively pull the mix in different directions so that when I listen to it I get a feel for how to structure the mix by identifying areas that are worth expanding on as well as finding the things that need to either be relocated somewhere else or ejected from the mix entirely. I really didn't spend much time or effort in the transitions themselves, functional is good enough for this purpose. It's something I only work on after I have the basic structure in place, as I can then construct them to help with continuity and improving the timing as well as create moments and layers that help crystallize the theme and narrative.

In this case I just ran out of time for that, and had to just go with whatever came out.
When I posted this I had absolutely no idea what it was going to be like, which is why I just assumed the worst given how painfully rushed this was. Having listened to it now though, it turns out that it actually sounds like a real mix, and I am clueless as to how some of the transitions turned out so well. There's some ghastly errors as well although chances are most folk won't really notice em that much unless they really look for them or have some very sensitive equipment.

The direction and structure however never turned into what they were supposed to be.
What was it supposed to be then? Well, when the theme was decided upon I was juggling the thought for a while. I didn't feel like doing any of the deeper spacier type mixes, nor did I want to sketch any sort of fictional socio-political portrait. This was just supposed to be about life, humanity and the desire to explore and satisfy our curiosity. We have proven to be absolutely terrible at predicting the way our societies develop, but what we can do is look and build upon the things that define us in the first place.
This was why I wanted to go for familiar musical concepts that were just a bit queer and out of our grasp. In other words: It's life Jim but not as we know it!

This justifies some of the content in this mix, as there is no reason for the sci-fi world to be devoid of birds or running water. But there was just no time for me to create the whole thing with any coherence. I had to fall back on what I knew, rather then exploring something different altogether which would have clearly been more appropriate.

As for the confusion, I have no clue man. It's true that my mixes generally don't follow rigid structures, I like to find a balance. I don't want to steer the music were it doesn't want to go, preferring to have the tracks carry themselves wherever they want to go. It's really the only thing I can do with music like this, many of the tracks are not really made to be in a DJ-mix, so I try to play to their strengths by properly contextualizing them and looking elsewhere for continuity.

The result is always a very personal interpretation, so much so that I often wonder what other people are supposed to see in it. Some people will have no trouble instinctively finding their way through them, others will be left confused. I am actually trying to work on that problem, but I often find myself guessing as to what works for people or not as it's hard for people to really pinpoint what it is that confuses them or makes them loose touch.
In any case, a major part of my resentment towards this mix has little to do with the actual product itself, which I actually find quite enjoyable apart from having to hear how seriously botched up the ending and some other crucial areas in the mix are.
It's just that I didn't get to settle my urge to create things. It's a massive drain on my enjoyment and creativity which will always hurt the result in some way.

edit - My utmost condolences Jonmitz. Don't worry about us, you can take as long as you want for this.

Psyshell - There's always the next one, and hey not everyone loved everyone else's mix with a 100% rate either. Especially mine. This challenge is all about interpretation.

Jonmitz - Please don't feel obligated to review all of these mixes. Not just one death in the family, but two, absolutely and positively absolves you from all responsibility to need to review these mixes in a timely manner. My sincere condolences.

Bierheld - You definitely did a fantastic job of showcasing your creativity skills, and I totally see what you're saying about how this music doesn't exactly contain the structure necessary for a DJ mix. I think that's why I was able to appreciate the music itself but not understand quite what your approach was or what "story" you were trying to tell, per-se. I think Sand Leaper was relatively successful in creating more obvious atmospheres and environments with his mix structure, even when he wasn't playing dance music. I think this mix could have certainly done something similar, but if you spent a little more time constructing a story like this music is itching to do, you would have made a little more sense to me Excellent work either way though.

I think sand leaper really nailed that journey concept by taking rigid control of the direction in all the sections and shaping a more slow moving, roomier structure with easily interpretable music.
I don't know if I could skip over so many hurdles in a challenge-length of time, it really depends on my mindset.

Thing is I'm always a bit split on how I want my mixes to be.
I really like a more directed artistic approach such as sand leaper's mix, It's basically to what I was trying to do in my AOTSE mix, and there's another project I've been working on for a while now that is shaping up to carry that stick as well. It takes me a long time to accomplish that though.
Other times I also have a thing for just putting things together and letting the music run loose a bit. The daftness will amuse me for a while but I always feel guilty afterwards because I'm wasting musical potential. My entry here falls under this category, although not voluntarily, but I've made mixes like that before as well.
In my last mix before this, ala�, I tried to marry both concepts which is why it turned into a personal favourite for me.

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