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So, as you know, I listened to this on the trip back from Barcelona last weekend. I had my doubts whether you could genuinely keep a 7 hour set building upwards but you answered those doubts by moving through just about every strain of credible trancey music being made. I've also said before that it's impossible to maintain tight sequencing for more than a couple of hours, but you also smashed that claim out of the window. The first half was brilliantly sequenced with excellent flow from start to finish, and taken on its own is a brilliant set.
The second half didn't go down so well, for a few reasons. I'm really not into the Ovnimoon, E Clip et al school of psy, and I think tracks like Dune and Love Is The Key with their monotone faux-profound spiritual female blatherings are just as cheesy as anything with a supersaw in it. Opening with a barrage of that kind of stuff may have been the next logical step after the anthemic prog trance that capped the first half, but I guess this is the old problem: it's very tough to take it up a gear from progressive trance without becoming cheesy.
Then, to be perfectly honest, I fell asleep on some seats in Zurich airport during the full-on section, waking up again with the first Kinesis track. You can either take that as the mix losing my attention or as me having been awake for 24 hours straight after numerous nights on the smash. And a we've discussed, I think the goa section at the end is a bit wobbly in terms of flow, and probably betrays your inexperience in mixing that style.
Tune-wise, I already know a good chunk of these from hearing you play over the last few years but at least 50% I had never heard before. My favourite section was definitely the melodic but energetic prog trance of the second half of the first half (!?), my preferred flavour of trance and the hardest stuff to find. The mixing was very tight for the most part and while none of the transitions were particularly audacious, the flow and programming were generally top notch, even during the sections where I didn't like the music. You deserve particular credit for keeping things interesting right from the start - it's easier to build up momentum if you deliberate start out playing extremely deep and tracky, but you went for big tracks right from the start.
Should have had some classics, though!
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Mixes:
> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24
Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/
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