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I don't want to break your balls too much on this, because I'm a harsh critic and I don't believe in just saying "Nice set man, I enjoyed it" if I didn't. I don't settle for less when it comes to judging generic trance, and I believe it's only fair to extend that mindset to these sets.
| quote: | Originally posted by Lews
The concept was simple, a gradual increase in tempo and style as to not be too noticeable, but for the end to be completely different than the beginning. It starts off at 124 BPM with Pollon, but near the end is at 140 with Pablo Gargano. |
For me, this is more of a technical concept than one the listener can really engage with. Most sets have a tempo curve, and 16bpm in 100 minutes is not actually that massive. The shift from prog to trance is also not really distinct enough to give this mix character. I didn't give J00F much credit for it because it's such an easy and well-explored switch. J00F's quality comes from building up a consistent mood that is developed with each track. Here, as I've said, the only mood is one of vague spaciness.
It felt for a while like you were going to start with the lush spacey melody of Pollon, Chakra, Holden and get steadily harder and more minimalist, going through dark prog and then acid trance, but rather than reaching some hard acid techno freakout the later tracks seemed to be in there more for their tempo than their continuation of this aesthetic, and the closing track felt like you'd lost your way.
| quote: | | While it might not be as weird or unusual as Sand Leaper (I'm not sure how anyone could top that), the fact of the matter is that for me this was quite different to what I've played before. |
I wasn't expecting anything as leftfield as Sand Leaper's mix, but I also wasn't using your other mixes as a benchmark. Even though I haven't heard your other mixes I know what kind of music you like because I see you talk about it every day on here and I see what you play on Last.fm every day. So when you said "weird and unusual" and withheld a tracklist, I was expecting to hear a side of your tastes you'd not revealed before, and when it kicked off with spacey electro it temporarily felt like that was happening. But the spacey electro was borrowed from Digweed and everything after that was what I could have predicted - trance or prog. Also, most of these tracks sounded quite old, flavours of trance and progressive that are well established. Ultimately, your withheld tracklist has backfired somewhat.
All of which is not to say the music was bad or the mixing shoddy. With so many free sets available on TA I don't just download things because I like the style. By common consensus, the three best sets from DJ Promotion last year were by J1, nefardec and Ted Promo, and all of them had strong concepts that made them more artistic. Sand Leaper's set this year is the same. I probably have more demanding tastes than someone who just wants 60-120 minutes of dance music to play in the car.
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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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It changes ridiculously from beginning until end, 
