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The Epic Mix [Epic House]

After two retro mixes of basically playing just well known classics, I really got my head down and did some hunting for some lesser known tunes for a second homage to the epic house sub-genre of the mid-90s. The tracks are all from the 1994-1996 period, but there's some lesser known ones in here. I'm quite pleased with the end result: it feels like an actual set, both because I've put it together myself and because it's less anthemic and more about an energy level and a groove. I was also much happier with my mixing this time round: it seemed to be one of those sets where every transition you envisage actually comes together (more or less) when you try it out. I even managed a spot of mixing breaks: I was expecting the result to sound like a bag of clocks falling down a staircase but it actually worked.

The other thing is that it runs at the very strange time of 1:43:26, which is neither a CD mix nor a two hour club mix. I was considering adding a couple more tunes to reach the two hour mark and then I thought: fuck it. It's too long to fit on a CD and why should a set have to work around the club-imposed two hour slot if it isn't being played in a club? The musical narrative I had in my head turned out to be 1:43:26, and I think it'd be harmful to alter it to meet an arbitrary length.

Anyway, enjoy:


The Epic Mix [Vintage Epic House]
Tracklist:

1. Sasha & Marie - Be As One
2. Seal - I'm Alive (BT & Sasha's Atraxion Future Mix)
3. Judy Cheeks - Reach (Quivver Vocal Remix)
4. Blue Amazon - Four Seasons
5. Big C - Daylight (Infallible Clank Mix)
6. Wild Colour - Dreams (BT's Circadian Dream Mix)
7. Bubble - The Bubble (Temple Of Doom Mix)
8. Mozaic - Sing It (The Hallelujah Song) (Quivver's Dirty Dub)
9. Bedrock - Set In Stone
10. Chakra - I Am (Digweed & Muir's Bedrock Mix)
11. Minds of Men - Brand New Day (Dekkard & Dane Meltdown Dub)
12. BT & Tori Amos - Blue Skies (BT's Liquid Oxygen Dub)
13. BT & Tori Amos - Blue Skies (BT's Delphinium Days Mix)

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Positive, negative and indifferent feedback welcomed.

Loooooooove "Set in Stone" and haven't heard it in years. Downloading this.

Definitely gonna check this out.

One thing that strikes me about older stuff like this is that for the most part the percussion is all so simple -- the focus is put almost entirely on the awesome synth sounds. It's great.

Grabbing this right now. Will report back once I'm done.

Forgot to report back: this mix is awesome. Great work.

Keeping it on my hard drive and putting it on a CD to play in my car.

Thanks a lot.

I hear you about the percussion and the synths. Another thing that strikes me is that these tracks, even the most complex, BT-produced ones, never sound shiny and soulless in their production. There's lots of awesome production here, but it all goes into making elements that complement and elevate the melodies. A lot of tracks today that are extremely well produced seem to take predictable sounds, often presets, and then gloss the hell out of them. It's like comparing unpolished diamond to ultra-polished shit.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Another thing that strikes me is that these tracks, even the most complex, BT-produced ones, never sound shiny and soulless in their production. There's lots of awesome production here, but it all goes into making elements that complement and elevate the melodies. A lot of tracks today that are extremely well produced seem to take predictable sounds, often presets, and then gloss the hell out of them. It's like comparing unpolished diamond to ultra-polished shit.

Yeah.

As far as dance music, I've been listening mostly to early and mid '90s stuff lately, and it seems to have an energy and freshness that most of today's stuff can't touch. I'm not sure what exactly it is. Maybe the fact that people had far fewer fancy tools and glossy effects forced them to focus more on creativity with music and synthesis rather than on giving everything the right sheen to make it sound "release-worthy."

Which leads me to think that if producers were somehow forced to leave all percussion and all special effects (reverb, delay, etc.) until the very last stage of production -- if everyone dealt with just raw synths and a kick until they had all the melodic parts of the track ready -- we'd see a lot more creativity.

I think I might try to do that with the next track I make...

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Which leads me to think that if producers were somehow forced to leave all percussion and all special effects (reverb, delay, etc.) until the very last stage of production -- if everyone dealt with just raw synths and a kick until they had all the melodic parts of the track ready -- we'd see a lot more creativity. I think I might try to do that with the next track I make...

I read a quote by Tod Terry (I think) and he said that when he wrote a track, he'd do all the melodies with just plain pianos, and then later he'd replace them with synths. You can't tart up a crap melody if it's just in piano- it has to sound good. That's the key- taking a good melody and then putting it into a good synth. It's easy to take a crap melody and then put it in a really interesting synth and it sounds quite good- but it isn't really.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I read a quote by Tod Terry (I think) and he said that when he wrote a track, he'd do all the melodies with just plain pianos, and then later he'd replace them with synths. You can't tart up a crap melody if it's just in piano- it has to sound good. That's the key- taking a good melody and then putting it into a good synth. It's easy to take a crap melody and then put it in a really interesting synth and it sounds quite good- but it isn't really.

Yeah, I've thought of that before.

I think I might try that: have just a kick going, then lay down pianos for all the melodic parts and strings for all the "pad" parts.

Then the next stage would be turning the piano melodies and string "pads" into synth parts -- but just using raw synths, getting them to do interesting stuff without the crutch of fancy delays and reverbs.

Then finally add percussion and effects.

Mm.. vintage.. i can almost smell the worn out leather sofa in the lounge and oak barrels in the wine cellar.

Brilliant showcase what today's music is missing for the most part: soul and effort which are strongly present here. This was the first one of your sets i downloaded as it has some tracks i couldn't remember. Great that i did, enjoyed it throughout.

Re: The Epic Mix [Epic House]

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J 10. Chakra - I Am (Digweed & Muir's Bedrock Mix)

This track fucking rules.

quote:

Originally posted by GrimReaper Brilliant showcase what today's music is missing for the most part: soul and effort which are strongly present here. This was the first one of your sets i downloaded as it has some tracks i couldn't remember. Great that i did, enjoyed it throughout.

Thanks Grim. I don't know whether to be more pleased that you liked it or that I found some tracks you didn't remember.

omg you made another mix... insta-grabbing. will give thoughts on it when i give it a full listen

Bout time "Mozaic - Sing It (The Hallelujah Song) (Quivver's Dirty Dub)" gets an included in your mixes. Monster remix, man Quivver was untouchable during the mid 90s.

There seems to be so so much more melody, heart and soul in the older house music. 'Bedrock' could make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck . A pleasure from start to finish .Many thanks.

This looks fucking stellar. Can't wait to listen.

Really liked your other 2 mixes, I'll def. give this one a go.

Christ, I know nostalgic has beaten me to it, but our musical tastes really could not be closer - I "grew up" in this music and feel so unbelievably lucky to have danced in clubs to what was IMHO the best period to date for electronic music.

I knew this as uplifting house and a little (only a little) later as epic house. This set absolutely tipifies the period, with the mixing not just being reminiscent, but actually in respect of it - strangely as if it were a mix recorded then.

I will put up a load of mixes from this period, and the great thing is there seem to be a lot of people responding to your thread loving this - surely demand = supply? so, when is the renaissance going to begin?

quote:

Originally posted by DJ RANN Christ, I know nostalgic has beaten me to it, but our musical tastes really could not be closer - I "grew up" in this music and feel so unbelievably lucky to have danced in clubs to what was IMHO the best period to date for electronic music. I knew this as uplifting house and a little (only a little) later as epic house. This set absolutely tipifies the period, with the mixing not just being reminiscent, but actually in respect of it - strangely as if it were a mix recorded then. I will put up a load of mixes from this period, and the great thing is there seem to be a lot of people responding to your thread loving this - surely demand = supply? so, when is the renaissance going to begin?

You are lucky mate- I'm too young to have heard any of this when it was new, and the only time I've ever danced to it has been at the occasional retro night when I was probably the youngest person on the dancefloor who actually recognised the music. And if people my age can encounter this music for the first time and love it far more than 90% of the shite being played today, it proves there's more than simple nostalgia behind this music's appeal.

I hope there is a renaissance soon (very apt wording). My whole aim with making these mixes and changing my avatar and custom status is to raise the profile of this style, because it's really been forgotten by the history books. I think the trouble is that writing music like this requires a lot of talent. Blue Amazon were writing 16 minute tracks 13 years ago and yet none of those 16 minutes were spent on DJ-friendly stretches of percussion or looped techno repetition. To write such long tracks that are so full of musical richness takes real talent, and not enough musicians have that talent. It's going to take a movement of really good producers to get us back to this level.

Thought this was great. That diva(I think) vocal style is really starting to grow on me.

quote:

Originally posted by enydo Thought this was great. That diva(I think) vocal style is really starting to grow on me.

Thanks. I used to think a lot of vocals from 90s house were quite cheesy, but they really grow on you. They'll probably be back in fashion in a couple of years.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I think the trouble is that writing music like this requires a lot of talent. Blue Amazon were writing 16 minute tracks 13 years ago and yet none of those 16 minutes were spent on DJ-friendly stretches of percussion or looped techno repetition. To write such long tracks that are so full of musical richness takes real talent, and not enough musicians have that talent. It's going to take a movement of really good producers to get us back to this level.

Yeah, that's what I was getting at with my remarks about percussion. It feels like a lot of producers today try to compensate for a lack of musical ideas by making their percussion really complex and full and / or putting tons of effects on whatever music they do have. The reason for that is plain to see: it's a hell of a lot of easier for most people to generate five or ten cool-sounding percussion loops and apply nifty effects than it is for them to (1) come up with memorable melodies like the ones in the tracks in your mix and (2) put them together in a track such that it actually feels like it has a logical *direction.*

A lot of modern productions feel kind of random to me, in that it doesn't really seem like the producer had any sense of how one part should lead to the next, but tried stuff pretty much at random until something felt right.

It's the same idea I've expressed in other threads: What the "musician" side of an electronic musician lacks, the "electronic" side of him tries desperately to supply.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J You are lucky mate- I'm too young to have heard any of this when it was new, and the only time I've ever danced to it has been at the occasional retro night when I was probably the youngest person on the dancefloor who actually recognised the music. And if people my age can encounter this music for the first time and love it far more than 90% of the shite being played today, it proves there's more than simple nostalgia behind this music's appeal. I hope there is a renaissance soon (very apt wording). My whole aim with making these mixes and changing my avatar and custom status is to raise the profile of this style, because it's really been forgotten by the history books. I think the trouble is that writing music like this requires a lot of talent. Blue Amazon were writing 16 minute tracks 13 years ago and yet none of those 16 minutes were spent on DJ-friendly stretches of percussion or looped techno repetition. To write such long tracks that are so full of musical richness takes real talent, and not enough musicians have that talent. It's going to take a movement of really good producers to get us back to this level.

Couldn't agree more. Artists/groups such as Blue Amazon (etc)really put art and emphasis in to song writing, for both lyrics and (especially) melodies. It's when dance music was closer to the definition of (good) "songs" rather than "tracks" - if you get what I mean.


I think MrJBJ has also touched on this in his thread (electronic vs Musician) - for instance the amount of build ups that I hear in trance tracks now that are simply made up nothing more than automated effects really makes think the producers have no talent and are just relying on technology to fill the gap.

The thing is, a lot of people LOVE this music that has been forgotten. I think DJ's out there should try dropping some of this in sets and watch the reaction - the people who are old enough to remember it will go apeshit, and those who don't will feel like...well, like we did the first time we heard it.

Bring it on.

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