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Unforeseen Consequences (pg. 2)
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| EddieZilker |
| I'm so checking this out, Lews. Love the concept. Thanks for putting it up. |
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| david.michael |
Thanks, Stu! Much obliged as always. :) |
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| pozz |
| quote: | Originally posted by Lews
I'm having a hard time seeing how it "plods" along :( It changes ridiculously from beginning until end, |
i liked your digweed tribute much more, that set had direction. this one was exactly what you said, changing gradually all the time, the preceding and following tracks similar to each other over the course of the set. i think there's just too much of that, i cant recall a moment when a track _dropped_ instead of sliding in quietly. even though the middle and ending parts of the set were very different, and had more energy, i still think set flow, or progression, or direction, is not only about smooth mixing or picking tracks with similar elements.
check out this set by Kundabuffer - Vapourware (December 2001)
http://kundabuffer.org/mixes/vapourware.mp3
edit: lonely planet is fookin amazing:D |
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| netroM |
| Loading down the necessary bits of information needed :) |
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| SYSTEM-J |
| I'll download this one. I haven't downloaded your other mixes because you've mainly played late-90s prog using well known tracks, but if this one is off the beaten track I'll be interested. |
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| SYSTEM-J |
Eh... I wasn't massively enthused by this. It didn't ever seem to catch fire, and while it covered a lot of BPM territory the progression from dark prog to old-school acidic trance was nowhere near as weird and unusual as I was expecting. Even Pollon comes straight off a Digweed compilation. I think what it lacks is any clear concept or mood apart from being vaguely spacey, which you get that almost by default with prog and trance.
I have to ask - why did you want people to go in without expectations? |
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| Lews |
Hmm. Well, first off, thanks for checking it out. I know you hadn't checked out any of my other mixes before, so I am glad you decided to give this one a go, I'm just sorry it failed to do anything for you.
While Pollon is from a Digweed comp, with this mix I was trying not to pay homage or anything to anyone, but instead to just make a mix. I wanted it to go from Point A to Point B, from the ethereal spaciness at the beginning to the acid trance at the end. This was much more of a personal mix for me, but since I've been highly influenced by Digweed and others, some of that influence was bound to be evident in it.
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. 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. It wasn't staying in one style or genre, it wasn't staying in one BMP range, it wasn't trying to copy the sound of another DJ or producer. It was just me playing records, a lot of which (near the end especially) I did a whole lot of digging to find. I felt that the mix progressed nicely and stayed nice and dark, just how I like it.
I think I wanted people to go in with no expectations for two reasons: 1) as you said, my other mixes have been rather cookie cutter. I didn't want people to really be thinking of those when they listened to this. 2) I was hoping people would be slightly surprised when they got to the acid trance at the end, considering it started off so mellow.
Meh. Sorry that this didn't do anything for you, Jack. Thanks for giving it a listen all the same thing, though. |
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| Ted Promo |
| INCEST TAKES A BACK SEAT TO BEATS ON THIS NIGHT |
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| Lews |
| quote: | Originally posted by Ted Promo
INCEST TAKES A BACK SEAT TO BEATS ON THIS NIGHT |
TED I'M GOING TO BE HONEST I DON'T KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS |
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| Sushipunk |
| quote: | Originally posted by Ted Promo
INCEST TAKES A BACK SEAT TO BEATS ON THIS NIGHT |
:haha: |
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| SYSTEM-J |
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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| Lews |
Well, while in all honesty obviously I would have preferred for you to say you loved it, what I prefer over feeling good is actual critical advice, and I can't think of anyone here better than you to give it.
Sadly and ironically, this was actually designed originally as two different sets. The first one had those first three tracks and then did indeed get darker and more stripped down as it went on. The second set was more of the darker trance songs I had at the end. I felt that I wasn't going to be able to pull off the first set as well as I'd like to and I had done sets like the second before, so I decided it would be more interesting to try to blend the two of them together. I stripped away the middle and last part of the first set and went digging for some stuff to try to bridge the way to the acid trance at the end. I hadn't done anything like that before, so it seemed quite different to me.
Sounds like I did exactly the wrong thing, which is actually kind of depressing, but it is good to know for the future. Should have gone with my first instinct and taken the chance. Maybe I'll do something like that in the future, and actually post a tracklist next time. I do apologize for that, I guess I just felt I wanted people to be surprised when they got to the end, since this set was a lot different than any set I've done before. Just not different enough.
Ah well. Still have lots to learn about making a good set.
Really, jack, thanks for the honest feedback. I'd way rather have something that will help me get better at this than a short, glib comment. Sorry if you felt your time got wasted or I tricked you somehow with the tracklist. Thanks for taking the chance and giving it a listen. Hopefully sometime later this year I'll have something better that you'll enjoy. |
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