Daybreak [Orchestral/Ambient/Breaks...]

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-- Daybreak [Orchestral/Ambient/Breaks...]

Posted by Armitage on Apr-25-2008 23:07:

Daybreak [Orchestral/Ambient/Breaks...]

... and some other stuff, too.

Chicane - Overture
BT - 1.618
Clint Mansell - Stay With Me
Clint Mansell - Xibalba
Rob Dougand - Born Yesterday [instrumental]
Burial - Ghost Hardware
Asura - Back to Light
John Powell - Goa
John Powell - Atonement (excerpt)
BT - "Call Me Daddy" Killing
Hybrid - Finished Symphony
Future Sound of London - Everyone in the World Is Doing Something Without Me
Paul Leonard-Morgan - Seen From the Outside

63:57 - 192 kbps MP3 - 90 MB

http://www.sendspace.com/file/gekts0 - dead
http://www.sendspace.com/file/ygmn1e
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9HSH9PW8

Your first thought looking at that tracklist is probably "what the fuck?". It didn't end up in the way I imagined when I started, either. Give it a shot though, there's a wide range of music here and I'd loooove to hear any comments you guys have.

The idea for this mix popped into my head way back in December, when I was thinking about how mixes these days are kinda boring. When tracks have these massively overblown breakdowns and buildups, the peaks and valleys of a mix become so predictable that they might as well not be there. Obviously the parallels between a dance mix and something like this aren't totally solid... but whatever.

Anyways, please give it a listen, at the very least it's probably not what you expect.

Posted by Pepi on Apr-28-2008 15:09:

this is definitely a unique mix. I'm currently 20 minutes in....Chicane's first 2 cd's are still my two most favourite albums...so starting your set with overture is brilliant and sets the tone for what is to come.

I'm a huge fan of guitar, piano, etc....ah ok,...so at 22 minutes a nice beat kicks in...maybe the second track by BT could be a nice prelude to this one....and use the Mansell tracks to follow chicane..

just my thoughts....

aside from all that, this is a very unique set...I like that fact that its not too ambient and definitely appreciate the inclusion of the various instruments. This is what I don't like about ambient sets....they are far too melloooowwwwww for my taste...

a bit of spanish guitar, piano, some nice break beats, strings...and compliment it with some ocean sounds of chicane...and viola..and non boring ambient set with a nice kick to it.

prog a la chill

P.S. ok more feedback....hybrid - symphony, is brilliant...., what I think would have sounded better is swaping the last track for the second last, following hybrid that way you're bringing the set from hybrid to, paul leonard, and the maybe, FSOL....or maybe even finish the set with another chicane ocean sound...

I just read your blurb again on the intent of this set....seems you wanted the inconsistencies in progressions from one track to the next...so all the power to you..for making it work the way it has...

anyway, loved listening to this set, looking forward to hearing it again.

Posted by micko on May-08-2008 20:18:

Could you repost this? I'd love to give it a blast.

Cheers

Posted by Armitage on May-12-2008 20:34:

Thanks for the comments pepi. I know the structure is weird, it was kind of an experiment for me. Here's new link:

http://www.sendspace.com/file/ygmn1e
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9HSH9PW8

Posted by pozz on May-15-2008 16:29:

i gave this mix a listen mainly because of the way you described it, but really i didn't expect anything amazing when once i saw "[Orchestral/Ambient/Breaks...]". i knew you were going to use artists like Rob Dougand, Clint Mansell, BT and Hybrid (although i was hoping you wouldn't). predictability is a relative measure, but if you listen to a wide range of music then you quickly begin to see the similarities in the way people build "emotion" and "feeling". so a lot of what is well-known and popular becomes very predictable .

the way you describe the music you dislike, namely that "...mixes these days are so goddamn boring. When tracks have these massively overblown breakdowns and buildups, the peaks and valleys of a mix become so predictable that they might as well not be there..." is precisely the description for the songs in your mix. its movie/cinematic cheese music. you know why people don't like "trance" or "mcprog" that is produced anymore? because its obvious. its very simple music with very obvious themes that try to take you in obvious directions.

a word to describe the mixing in this mix - nonexistent. your transitions aren't really transitions, a quick fade or a cut to the next track doesn't cut it - but only because the track selection is erratic. none of the them match or flow, or have a feeling of progression (except for the transition from Chicane's track to BT's, which was very damn good). the reason i mention this is because any particular kind of energy a track had is quashed by the following one and the listener has to go into a whole different "groove" to get into the mix.

besides all this negative shit i just mentioned, what i really like is that you did try something new. you stepped outside the boundaries you saw and tried to create something more. i respect this kind of effort, and if you ever post another mix, i'll make sure to give it a listen .

Posted by Armitage on May-20-2008 09:16:

Thanks for the feedback, this is the first mix I've done so I appreciate negative feedback much more than positive

I disagree with you mostly about the tune quality but that's obviously just my opinion.

I was a bit clumsy when I wrote the blurb up top so I should maybe clear it up a little. When I'm talking about predictability, I'm not talking about the tracks themselves, I'm talking about the mix as a whole. When you listen to a random trance dj (for example), you can basically plot out the second half by listening to the first. You know what the tempo is going to be (generally), you know there's going to be a steady 4/4 beat, you know the tracks are going to build up to a climax and you could probably guess where that climax is going to be. I tried to avoid that by the tracklist varied. Sure you can tell where an individual track is going to be in 5 minutes, but I doubt you'd be able to guess where the mix is going to be in 20. This whole thing was just an experiment for me though so maybe it didn't work It's not a dance set at all, and I didn't try to make it structured like one.

Transitions, well, I didn't just use 4/4 music, the tempos vary greatly so standard beatmatching would not have worked very well. I thought it was funny that you thought the first transition was great though, because literally all I did was pitch correct the Chicane track! Didn't even have to cross fade.

Posted by pozz on May-24-2008 05:49:

ah, i see what you were saying about predictability. if you ever listen to a lot of genre-crossover mixes (ambient to more beaty stuff and the like) then you find people generally try the same stuff. it's not dance music, but patterns show up everywhere. you're right when you say i won't know where the mix will be after 20 minutes from just one track, but listening to 2 or 3 and how you transition between them will give me a very good idea.

i don't know how to accurately describe this, but music has to "flow". i wasn't critiquing from a dance music point of view, but i still expect some transitions. imagine you were at a concert and the venue is your house. the audience: you. a synthesized symphony is rocking your speakers, preparing you for what will follow. from that track there is a guitar-solo oriented performance thats untraditional and interestingly worked in. and now, epicness ensues. a full orchestra with a chorus comes out and performs 3 tracks. the conductor kind of loses his place between them and the result is not so smooth, but passable. you could still have a great night at this point. the orchestra and drum machine that is playing suddenly loses steam at this point and a junglist influenced by hip-hop waltzes in and connects the speaker system to his mp3 player. a raucous beat comes out (only raucous because the contrast is so severe). after the track, the perpetrator is kicked off to cries of "...bumbaclott! that was a sick tune!". the next performer recovers, and things continue more or less traditionally - although going from song to song is a problem. this would at least feel weird, no?

sorry for making your mix look so absurd with my description, but i think this will illustrate my point most interestingly. if a song doesn't fit nicely, and after many attempts, still doesn't fit, then you put in another song or just take that one out - especially if you had as much time as you wanted .

and about that first transition, sometimes all you need to do is cut it. if it works, it just works.

Posted by micko on May-25-2008 22:17:

Thanks for the new links. Will give it a whirl.

Posted by Pepi on Jun-23-2008 01:10:

just read all the reviews.....bar none this set is really interesting and unique...flow may not be the best, but I don't mind the story changing every 2 tracks, or the feel...it's just nice to have something different to listen to once in a while and this set will stay in my collection permanently.