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.

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J After two retro mixes of basically playing just well known classics,

Something OOT, but do you have them?

The breakdown in "Set in Stone" is my ideal of how breakdowns should work -- a short and ecstatic interlude in a track, no silly beatless buildup, and then the kick comes slamming back in.

I'm quite glad you're back into making sets on the regular - will be checking this one out this week.

I still need to post my thoughts on the '93 mix too - but will still briefly state how awesomely brooding and deep it was.



Keep up the good work - will be back to you on this one in a few days.

___________________
last minute disco dot net

quote:

Originally posted by Plastick Something OOT, but do you have them?

Check my sig, my man. The links still work, although you'll have to use the Perma-link for the '95 one.

quote:

Originally posted by RJT I still need to post my thoughts on the '93 mix too - but will still briefly state how awesomely brooding and deep it was.

Thanks a lot. I always assume that people who download it and then don't report back basically thought it was shite. Hope you enjoy this one too.

___________________
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/

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J I always assume that people who download it and then don't report back basically thought it was shite.

nope, we're just too lazy or don't know how to review the mix beyond "i like it" or "it sux dogs balls"

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Thanks a lot. I always assume that people who download it and then don't report back basically thought it was shite. Hope you enjoy this one too.

Nah, that's not it at all - just an incredibly busy semester at Uni with a trip to Europe plopped right in the middle, so I have far less time to write as many in depth reviews as I'd like.

I'll definitely get back to you on both - though I'm sure they'll both have proven to be quality.

___________________
last minute disco dot net

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles 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.

You sum up pretty well my feeling toward current released music: most of it is generic, forgettable, soulless, goes nowhere as it lacks good composition. But it' super glossy according to today "is well produced" standard, which means it will probably sound bad tomorrow anyway. And this "well produced" is totally subjective as it depends of the epoch and there's some older music (listen to some biosphere from 1992 and be amazed) that sound wonderful even if not using today's so called fucking standard that makes every tune sound the same.

Anyway I'll take a well composed tune badly mastered over a bland shiny glossy tunes any day...I even bought a few obscure amazing tracks that are not super well mastered, but so great it has zero importance....

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles 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."

I do agree with that. Another difference is that composers of this era were mostly using lovely warm analogue desks and synthesizers to generate sounds and master. Today you have all of these soft synths and effects overload and programs like buzz and reason etc etc that just dont sound as good as the older style of production IMO.

Another contentious point I will make is there is not the quality of artist in these genres that there was 10 years ago. They have moved into different styles of music now .

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Check my sig, my man. The links still work, although you'll have to use the Perma-link for the '95 one.

quote:

Mixes: >Progressive '93 [Prog House] >Spirit of '95 [Epic House]

You're saying this?

quote:

Originally posted by Plastick You're saying this?

Yeah, those are the links to the threads. Each thread has a link for the mix within, below the tracklist.

___________________
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/

I've finally had a chance to give this one a few proper listens now and have to say that much like both of your other efforts, this is the kind of evidence that people with mindsets like you should be doing these kinds of compilations for release - not the mindless fucks at Positivia, MoS, or whichever other label du jour is going to license a bunch of similar (or worse) tunes for a "classic" comp.

Of the three from you this one I probably knew about as many of the tunes going in as in the '93 (so a fair bit more than the '95 one), but it really brought back some fond memories of fairly old sets. The section running 9 through 13 is without a doubt the most soundly put together section of this set, though that isn't to say I didn't enjoy the beginning - the mixes/flow just got a bit disjointed for me after the first mix (which was impeccable), but this isn't to say the mix felt without flow, because it did - I just thought it came across better in the end.

Keep up the good work.

___________________
last minute disco dot net