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Posted by rubez on Dec-31-2013 10:16:

northern exposure

looks like there are 3 installments of this series.

firmly rooted in the start of my trance career, i didn't experience these first hand, so what are/were they like?

they seem to be important, given it was sasha and diggers in their prime.

also looks like they excised a skydive remix from one version, ?maybe because it became a cheesy anthem, and rejoined the ends. seems weird, like it'd fuck up the flow.

anyway...


Posted by netroM on Dec-31-2013 11:15:

What is the point of this thread?

If you want to check them out, just do so.


Posted by rubez on Dec-31-2013 11:53:

what's the point of this entire board?

fucking retard.


Posted by iTakeBathSalts on Dec-31-2013 12:33:

quote:
Originally posted by netroM
What is the point of this thread?

If you want to check them out, just do so.


+1


Posted by rubez on Dec-31-2013 12:54:

stupid fags. this board is for discussion. you are clearly not familiar with the works, and just like to post pointless shit for the sake of it.

it goes without saying i don't need permission to try it out for myself. if you don't know the subject, fuck off.

you were probably listening to S club 7 at the time.


Posted by The Dark NINJA on Dec-31-2013 12:59:

Jesus Christ, how many northern exposure threads do we need?


Posted by rubez on Dec-31-2013 13:56:

apparently more, since there is fuck all else to comment on, except for paris hilton.


Posted by Floorfiller on Dec-31-2013 14:08:

Favorite disc of the series is Northern Exposure 3 Disc 2. Just love the entire thing. Track selection is gold, flow is out of control.

2nd favorite disc is North Exposure 2 Disc 2. You can't go wrong with Positron and 3.2, timeless.


Posted by SYSTEM-J on Dec-31-2013 15:23:

Okay, I'll try and put this thread to good use...

The first one was released in 1996 as a tie-in with the duo's Northern Exposure night which ran at Heaven in London on a Monday night. The duo wanted to start a regular event which would draw in the music lovers who appreciated long and varied sets and didn't just expect anthem after anthem. As Sasha told Muzik magazine: "If you get a crowd at your club on a Monday night it's because they're into their music. Whereas a Saturday crowd will see something in a magazine and turn up expecting to be entertained."

In keeping with the ethos of the night, the first compilation avoids the obvious anthems of the day. Although modern listeners may believe that the tracks on Northern Exposure were being dropped by Sasha and Diggers in a club, the majority of the first disc was actually headed towards "classic" status even by 1996. "On the Northern Exposure album, there was a lot of tunes we'd maybe listened to when we'd come in from a night out that we wouldn't be able to play in the club because they weren't appropriate. They're great records that we could listen to but we could never play them out" Digweed told Triple J in Australia. "We just wanted to choose stuff from our back catalogues and our record collections," Sasha continued, "They were classic records to us but perhaps forgotten classics".

Consequently the first disc encapsulates the vintage ambient house sounds of the early '90s, ultra-long psychedelic remixes by The Orb meeting the blissed out breakbeat sounds of San Fran's Hardkiss Records, the early progressive house vibes of Guerilla Records and the globe-trotting ethno-dub of Banco De Gaia. Many of the tracks are heavily re-edited in ProTools with additional FX and soundscapes layered into the mix, creating something a million miles away from a live club set but conjuring a delectable head-food global travelogue. It reaches a sublime pinnacle with Spooky's seminal Xylem Flow remix of William Orbit's chill-out classic Water From A Vine Leaf - a truly timeless piece of glistening progressive majesty.

While the second disc contains a few classic cuts of its own, such as Underworld's achingly delicate remix of The Drum Club's Sound System, it's mostly a look forward to what would become the future sound of progressive house. Arranged in a slow-burning and stripped down set, tracks like the pounding Junior Vasquez remix of Pete Lazonby's Wave Speech or Evolution's anthemic The Phoenix sound remarkably like the massing clouds of Twilo.

Northern Exposure 2 followed only a year later and like the original, was published by Ministry Of Sound. "People may think it's weird that we've teamed up with the Ministry," admitted Sasha, "But they were on the ball and were ready to stick their necks out for us." Like the first compilation, NE2 is divided into a home-listening first disc and a more clubbed-up second, but this time round the roles are arguably reversed: by stitching together a disparate array of cutting edge breakbeats, Disc One offers a proleptic glimpse of the breakbeat progressive sound that would inform Sasha's Airdrawndagger album and lead Digweed to found Bedrock Breaks.

The eclecticism of this disc is perhaps even more impressive than the first Northern Exposure. Where else can you hear the sultry tones of Gus Gus' Believe rubbing shoulders with the electro-phunk of Violet, or Australian big beat novelties Frontside next to goa-trance favourites Prana? Once again Sasha and Diggers combed through their collections to showcase records that they would never get chance to drop in a regular club set. Just as the first NE peaks with a Spooky remix, the disc builds to a marvelous mid-set peak where Doi-Oing's shimmering ethereal classic Blue melts drip by synthetic drip into the Live Mix of Spooky's classic Little Bullet, before dropping the emotional intensity down to the bare beats of Uberzone and regrouping for an attempt at the sweeping orchestral summit of Hybrid's Symphony.

Continuing the role reversal, for large parts of its duration Disc Two is a rerun of the glory days of early '90s trance, with "forgotten classics" courtesy of Cygnus X, Speedy J and Sven Vath setting the tone, before Sasha and Digweed move towards a barrage of anthemic up-front progressive trance from LSG, Transa and Armin Van Buuren to end the compilation. Although the cover sleeve warns the listener that tracks were sourced from vinyl and surface noise can still be heard, Northern Exposure is as much a laser-etched studio creation as its older brother. Subtle re-edits and additional FX are audible throughout to those familiar with the originals, and the mixing style is remarkably nuanced. Witness the moment when Humate's 3.2 emerges almost imperceptibly into the mix and you realise that Sasha and Digweed are deliberately constructing the mix with spliff-head studio detail for post-club comedown engrossment. For my money Northern Exposure 2 is without question the high point of the trilogy.

After a two-year hiatus, Northern Exposure Expeditions touched down in 1999 to end the series. The most conventional of the three, Expeditions unfortunately does away with the "post-club disc" concept and instead presents two sets of fairly straight-up progressive house and trance of the variety that was ruling the cooler side of clubland at the turn of the millenium. There's still a sprinkling of classic cuts to be heard, most notably Delta Lady's Renaissance classic Anything You Want, but the concept is less adventurous. The track that was excised was actually the Fade Sanctuary remix of Silence on the US edition, in an echo of how Global Underground 009 emerged Stateside stripped of Der Dritte Raum's Hale Bopp due to licensing issues. The removal of such a skyscraping anthem undoubtedly harms the flow of the first disc, and first-time listeners are advised to seek out the British release for this reason. For me the unadventurous presentation of Expeditions marks it out as the least interesting of the three. That said, the intro gambit of Breeder's Tyrantanic melting like glacier ice into Space Manoeuvres' Stage One is a truly spine-tingling moment and one of the highlights of the whole series.

Hopefully that provides a bit of insight so this isn't just "yet another Northern Exposure thread". And for what it's worth, I wrote all of that myself apart from the quotes. I always had it in my head to write a full article on Northern Exposure one day.


Posted by sex hitcher on Dec-31-2013 16:08:

Re: northern exposure

quote:
Originally posted by rubez

also looks like they excised a skydive remix from one version, ?maybe because it became a cheesy anthem, and rejoined the ends. seems weird, like it'd fuck up the flow.

anyway...


No Skydive was never on any of them, Delirium Silence was on Expeditions and removed from the US version because licensing issues just like hale bopp der dritte raum on GU9 and the versions with them on were far better.


Posted by Sykonee on Dec-31-2013 16:31:

quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
And for what it's worth, I wrote all of that myself apart from the quotes. I always had it in my head to write a full article on Northern Exposure one day.

Guess folks finally got that proper Northern Exposure review from you after all.


Posted by sex hitcher on Dec-31-2013 16:46:

quote:
Originally posted by Sykonee
Guess folks finally got that proper Northern Exposure review from you after all.


Nothing like Sasha & Digweed dissertation even if factually incorrect LOL


Posted by SYSTEM-J on Dec-31-2013 17:12:

Which parts are factually incorrect?


Posted by sex hitcher on Dec-31-2013 17:14:

The Monday Northern Exposure nights at Heaven in London


Posted by SYSTEM-J on Dec-31-2013 17:17:

Was Northern Exposure just a tour then? I know they were Monday night events, I thought they had a residency at Heaven as well, because the Muzik article mentions: "It's this chemistry which makes 1500 people go bonkers at Heaven in London on a Monday night" (from the October 1996 issue).

I'm happy to edit that line if it's wrong!


Posted by iTakeBathSalts on Dec-31-2013 21:25:

Whats with all this sasha fanboyism?


Posted by Sykonee on Dec-31-2013 22:42:

quote:
Originally posted by iTakeBathSalts
Whats with all this sasha fanboyism?

He was Son of God, don't you know.


Posted by iTakeBathSalts on Dec-31-2013 22:55:

quote:
Originally posted by Sykonee
He was Son of God, don't you know.


Yeah, i remember that issue LOL.


Posted by Kilixpree on Dec-31-2013 23:43:

quote:
Originally posted by Sykonee
He was Son of God, don't you know.

lol, you can check this reading the comments on youtube of his set @mixmag this year.


Posted by netroM on Jan-01-2014 17:05:

quote:
Originally posted by rubez
stupid fags. this board is for discussion. you are clearly not familiar with the works, and just like to post pointless shit for the sake of it.

it goes without saying i don't need permission to try it out for myself. if you don't know the subject, fuck off.


Most people would listen to the music before they start a thread discussing it. Exceptions are for future releases and rumours.
I bought the first two compilations on CD about four years ago myself. Had the Expeditions CD a while before that as well.
If I was unfamiliar with the thread topic, I would probably just ignore it, but with such a famous title, I expected a bit more of the OP.

I honestly thought that this was a reply to another thread, I mean what kind of start to a thread is
quote:
looks like there are 3 installments of this series.
?
A quick glance at Discogs or something would confirm that for you.

adding this brilliant statement as well
quote:
firmly rooted in the start of my trance career, i didn't experience these first hand, so what are/were they like?

just made me confused. Are you asking just for the opinions of those who either attended the Northern Exposure events or listened to the compilations around the time they were released?

I'd understand this thread more if it was about some event in the past you were unable to listen to today (due to it not being available for download/rare cd/vinyl releases etc) or if you wanted to know what the atmosphere was like etc during the event.
But with all three compilations being easily found on the likes of youtube, I fail to see anything in your original post but fucking laziness.

And regarding your S Club 7 comment: No, I did not listen to S Club 7. At that time I was into the likes of Absolute Music 25, Bomfunk MC's - In Stereo and Mc Music 5, because I was ten years old.
I fail to see how that's in any way relevant to the thread though.


Posted by Johan (DJ Irish) on Jan-02-2014 16:14:

quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
...
That said, the intro gambit of Breeder's Tyrantanic melting like glacier ice into Space Manoeuvres' Stage One is a truly spine-tingling moment and one of the highlights of the whole series.
...


That's easily the part that made the biggest part on me personally and seems to always get conjured up in my head anytime someone mention the series!


Posted by rubez on Jan-06-2014 12:18:

quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
Okay, I'll try and put this thread to good use...

The first one was released in 1996 as a tie-in with the duo's Northern Exposure night which ran at Heaven in London on a Monday night. The duo wanted to start a regular event which would draw in the music lovers who appreciated long and varied sets and didn't just expect anthem after anthem. As Sasha told Muzik magazine: "If you get a crowd at your club on a Monday night it's because they're into their music. Whereas a Saturday crowd will see something in a magazine and turn up expecting to be entertained."

In keeping with the ethos of the night, the first compilation avoids the obvious anthems of the day. Although modern listeners may believe that the tracks on Northern Exposure were being dropped by Sasha and Diggers in a club, the majority of the first disc was actually headed towards "classic" status even by 1996. "On the Northern Exposure album, there was a lot of tunes we'd maybe listened to when we'd come in from a night out that we wouldn't be able to play in the club because they weren't appropriate. They're great records that we could listen to but we could never play them out" Digweed told Triple J in Australia. "We just wanted to choose stuff from our back catalogues and our record collections," Sasha continued, "They were classic records to us but perhaps forgotten classics".

Consequently the first disc encapsulates the vintage ambient house sounds of the early '90s, ultra-long psychedelic remixes by The Orb meeting the blissed out breakbeat sounds of San Fran's Hardkiss Records, the early progressive house vibes of Guerilla Records and the globe-trotting ethno-dub of Banco De Gaia. Many of the tracks are heavily re-edited in ProTools with additional FX and soundscapes layered into the mix, creating something a million miles away from a live club set but conjuring a delectable head-food global travelogue. It reaches a sublime pinnacle with Spooky's seminal Xylem Flow remix of William Orbit's chill-out classic Water From A Vine Leaf - a truly timeless piece of glistening progressive majesty.

While the second disc contains a few classic cuts of its own, such as Underworld's achingly delicate remix of The Drum Club's Sound System, it's mostly a look forward to what would become the future sound of progressive house. Arranged in a slow-burning and stripped down set, tracks like the pounding Junior Vasquez remix of Pete Lazonby's Wave Speech or Evolution's anthemic The Phoenix sound remarkably like the massing clouds of Twilo.

Northern Exposure 2 followed only a year later and like the original, was published by Ministry Of Sound. "People may think it's weird that we've teamed up with the Ministry," admitted Sasha, "But they were on the ball and were ready to stick their necks out for us." Like the first compilation, NE2 is divided into a home-listening first disc and a more clubbed-up second, but this time round the roles are arguably reversed: by stitching together a disparate array of cutting edge breakbeats, Disc One offers a proleptic glimpse of the breakbeat progressive sound that would inform Sasha's Airdrawndagger album and lead Digweed to found Bedrock Breaks.

The eclecticism of this disc is perhaps even more impressive than the first Northern Exposure. Where else can you hear the sultry tones of Gus Gus' Believe rubbing shoulders with the electro-phunk of Violet, or Australian big beat novelties Frontside next to goa-trance favourites Prana? Once again Sasha and Diggers combed through their collections to showcase records that they would never get chance to drop in a regular club set. Just as the first NE peaks with a Spooky remix, the disc builds to a marvelous mid-set peak where Doi-Oing's shimmering ethereal classic Blue melts drip by synthetic drip into the Live Mix of Spooky's classic Little Bullet, before dropping the emotional intensity down to the bare beats of Uberzone and regrouping for an attempt at the sweeping orchestral summit of Hybrid's Symphony.

Continuing the role reversal, for large parts of its duration Disc Two is a rerun of the glory days of early '90s trance, with "forgotten classics" courtesy of Cygnus X, Speedy J and Sven Vath setting the tone, before Sasha and Digweed move towards a barrage of anthemic up-front progressive trance from LSG, Transa and Armin Van Buuren to end the compilation. Although the cover sleeve warns the listener that tracks were sourced from vinyl and surface noise can still be heard, Northern Exposure is as much a laser-etched studio creation as its older brother. Subtle re-edits and additional FX are audible throughout to those familiar with the originals, and the mixing style is remarkably nuanced. Witness the moment when Humate's 3.2 emerges almost imperceptibly into the mix and you realise that Sasha and Digweed are deliberately constructing the mix with spliff-head studio detail for post-club comedown engrossment. For my money Northern Exposure 2 is without question the high point of the trilogy.

After a two-year hiatus, Northern Exposure Expeditions touched down in 1999 to end the series. The most conventional of the three, Expeditions unfortunately does away with the "post-club disc" concept and instead presents two sets of fairly straight-up progressive house and trance of the variety that was ruling the cooler side of clubland at the turn of the millenium. There's still a sprinkling of classic cuts to be heard, most notably Delta Lady's Renaissance classic Anything You Want, but the concept is less adventurous. The track that was excised was actually the Fade Sanctuary remix of Silence on the US edition, in an echo of how Global Underground 009 emerged Stateside stripped of Der Dritte Raum's Hale Bopp due to licensing issues. The removal of such a skyscraping anthem undoubtedly harms the flow of the first disc, and first-time listeners are advised to seek out the British release for this reason. For me the unadventurous presentation of Expeditions marks it out as the least interesting of the three. That said, the intro gambit of Breeder's Tyrantanic melting like glacier ice into Space Manoeuvres' Stage One is a truly spine-tingling moment and one of the highlights of the whole series.

Hopefully that provides a bit of insight so this isn't just "yet another Northern Exposure thread". And for what it's worth, I wrote all of that myself apart from the quotes. I always had it in my head to write a full article on Northern Exposure one day.


this is what i was looking for - some history and personal reflection. excellent retrospective.

surprised the first one was as far back as 1996 - no wonder they passed me by at the time.

indeed it was silence that was edited out, my bad. surprised dance music runs into licensing issues really, i thought it flowed relatively freely. though i suppose delerium are more of a pop act, probably signed to a big label who actively scan for infringements... then again der dritte raum are a real underground act, so don't know why their track got pulled from GU.

the series sounds like some excellent headphone material, love to hear how the sounds have changed and just how well some of it stands up - even putting newer standards to shame.


Posted by sex hitcher on Jan-06-2014 17:50:

quote:
i suppose delerium are more of a pop act, probably signed to a big label who actively scan for infringements... then again der dritte raum are a real underground act, so don't know why their track got pulled from GU.


They were pulled because the UK releases were released before the US ones, so when they went back for the US license the acts wanted too much money, so they either had to pull the release or remove the track, as with Communicate where Morel - True (The ****** Is You) was replaced with Sven Vath - Barbarella

The US version of Communicate is a far better version by the way.


Posted by Guest on Jan-06-2014 17:58:

"gambit"

lol ^^^


Posted by Mr Game+Watch on Jan-06-2014 20:59:

I was a bit disappointed with Communicate, personally. Though I bought it a few years after its release. What did everyone else think of it?


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