Sneaking in just before the door closes on 2019, Joris Voorn lands one of the best Essential Mixes of the decade. I saw him at Fabric last summer and was a bit disappointed - boring mixing and outright cheesy in places - but this set is completely different. The tracklist alone should give you an idea of the ambition that's gone in here.
Tracklist:
J Colleran S-Flood
Lone Boketto
Peter Van Hoesen Portable Solution
Peter Van Hoesen Ang Session
Ivys Hands Final Act & Denouncement
Four Tet Breath
Bluematter Remorseless
The Cinematic Orchestra Wait For Now (Pepe Bradock Just A Word To Say Mix)
(feat. Tawiah & Pιpι Bradock)
Aphex Twin Heliosphan
Fred again.. Octavian (MyOwnWorld)
Source Direct Vigilante
Special Request Phosphorescence
Four Tet Anna Painting
Lapalux Earth
Barney Lister Matchu
Sebastian Mullaert Dancing With Mr. K
B.B.E. Cosmos
Plant43 Neon Vista
Jackmate Rerun (Jackmates Special Interest Dub)
(feat. Nik Reiff)
Jbel Ayachi Tatry
Carl Craig Science Fiction
Special Request 237,0000 Miles
Vyvyan Voices in Time
Nicco ND House Riff
Claro Intelecto Chadderton
Blue Veil We Live Inside A Dream
Joris Voorn Never (Colyn Remix)
Joris Voorn Mano
Nocow S. on
Nick Devon & Darko Milosevic Corpus Hermeticus
Sasha Carassi Elethnic
Fideles Brain Machine
Because Of Art The Warehouse
Joris Voorn DTRT
Johannes Brecht Endangered Audio Research
8Kays Apus
Gardenstate Rabbit Hole
Tantum Into Yam (Super Flu RMX)
Markus Suckut Prism Part Two
Radio Slave Shelter You
Matador Dynamite
Jeff Mills Growth
Joris Voorn Acid April
Jeroen Search Escape Velocity
Unknown Unknown
The Source Experience Point Zero
NATE Paimon
Oner Budassi (Mert A Club Tool)
The Mod Wheel Moroccan Jack (Joris Voorn Remix)
Monkey Safari Safe
Santos Fragment 006
Shanti Celeste Infinitas
Yamaneko Fall Control
J Colleran Bene
Joris Voorn Planet Nine
Biosphere Phantasm
Orbital Out There Somewhere (Part One)
Orbital Are We Here?
planetaryplayer
luke slaters' a few weeks ago though
SYSTEM-J
Hey man, if it's that good, go make your own thread about it.
Paradox Lost
Ohhhhh, didnt know he was up for yet another. Fell in love with the downtempo/midtempo weave of his 2009 edition- definitely one of the most memorable mixes Id heard from the late oughts.
Got a long drive ahead of me so Ill be firing this one up momentarily.
So behind on my mixes, though. Hot take to round out 2019: theres just too much music in the world.
Sykonee
Looks like another one of those "EVERYBODY IN THE POOL!" ultra-mixes he did for Balance all those years ago. Except with memorable, non-minimal techno.
Edit: skipped around a bit and, wow, Serious DJs really aren't afraid of playing trance anymore, are they?
Tracklist looks promising. Voorn can still be good if he wants to. I quite liked this oldschool set he did two years ago. Pretty impressive vinyl mixing, especially for someone that's been on Traktor for over ten years.
quote:
Originally posted by Sykonee
Edit: skipped around a bit and, wow, Serious DJs really aren't afraid of playing trance anymore, are they?
I think we might have reached peak trance a while ago, it's getting to the point where it's become a bit of a meme. "Big festival DJ plays trance hit as a last track" has become a running joke on DJ Twitter. I've seen posts on Reddit where 19 year old techno DJs are asking for the hottest hardtrance from 1994. I wouldn't be surprised if playing trance becomes uncool again in the next couple of years, at least among those that consider themselves techno & house DJs above all.
I mean, stuff as cheesy and over-the-top as this passes as "techno" now - there has to be some kind of pushback coming eventually.
SYSTEM-J
quote:
Originally posted by Woony
I think we might have reached peak trance a while ago, it's getting to the point where it's become a bit of a meme. "Big festival DJ plays trance hit as a last track" has become a running joke on DJ Twitter. I've seen posts on Reddit where 19 year old techno DJs are asking for the hottest hardtrance from 1994. I wouldn't be surprised if playing trance becomes uncool again in the next couple of years, at least among those that consider themselves techno & house DJs above all.
This, and also Joris Voorn has lost some of his "serious techno DJ" credence in recent years. A lot of his recent productions have been quite poppy, and when I saw him at Fabric his last tune was an edit of U2 - With Or Without You, fer chrissake.
That said, the only moment in this set that had me rolling my eyes was the climactic moment at the end just before Orbital comes in. Just a wee bit too "epic", Joris.
Woony
Took a listen, I dig it. Also appreciate all the effort that must have gone into it. It actually go me thinking - I don't remember the last time I heard a mix that someone obviously spent months slaving over. is it just me or do we live in an age where very few people still put great effort into bedroom / studio mixes? There don't seem to be a lot of meticously constructed "statement mixes" anymore. I suppose with the mix CD being long dead and the age of social media and video content, traditional mixes just don't have the promotional value they once had but it's still sad. I remember even a decade ago, people were still eagerly awaiting and discussing every new RA podcast and most of them felt like real musical statements. And not just among professionals, there were vivid communities on TA and other sites where people poured incredible amounts of effort into bedroom mixes. There doesn't seem to be anything like that for young DJs today. Now there's just tons of live recordings and broadcasts and random off-the-cuff one hour radio mixes. Most A and B list DJs seem to barely put out any studio mixes at all anymore.
Paradox Lost
quote:
Originally posted by Woony
is it just me or do we live in an age where very few people still put great effort into bedroom / studio mixes? There don't seem to be a lot of meticously constructed "statement mixes" anymore. I suppose with the mix CD being long dead and the age of social media and video content, traditional mixes just don't have the promotional value they once had but it's still sad.
I might draw a distinction between 'statement' and 'concept' mixes, the latter of which Voorn has been studio assembling since at least 2005, but, in general, seems more a product of the technology that made it much more accessible toward the end of the last decade- where you'd have tracklistings consisting of numbers and letters.
But the statement mix seems more prevalent than ever, and is what so many RA podcasts basically amount to these days, saying loud and clear: this is my diverse musical history, these are my diverse musical interests, so watch me transition from Motown to Detroit Techno to R&B with all all the seams perfectly visible. I also get the impression that the cruder these mixes, the better, as it delivers a more 'real n raw' feel as it moves from one block of music to the next, incompatible block, like you're scanning through a personal CD the DJ burned in their teenage years. The tracklistings are sometimes nearly as large, but, in general, the statement mix seems in many ways the opposite of the concept mix.
What doesn't fly these days, as you mentioned, is the traditional 'GU' mix- 90 minutes of cuts that you've likely already heard over several different podcasts. It's still where bedroom DJ's start, and where professional DJ's connect with their audiences week after week, but when it comes time to deliver a commercial mix (and they still gotta do em), the need to release something extra unique is greater than ever.
Woony
quote:
Originally posted by Paradox Lost
but when it comes time to deliver a commercial mix (and they still gotta do em), the need to release something extra unique is greater than ever.
Commercial mixes? Where? The only halfway relevant commercial mix series left is Fabric.
Paradox Lost
The top tier players from ten years ago are still around and have done what that can to adapt. Global Underground is back under original ownership and have basically re-launched the City Series with Patrice Baumel, and he continues to sit in anyone's 'most relevant' top 5. Balance remains active, issuing numbers 29 and 30 last year alone, not to mention the spinoff 'Sudbeats' release Cattaneo did on the label a couple years back. Digweed hasn't skipped a beat with his "Live At.." series under Bedrock, and Fabric, as you pointed out, continues to do what it does.
The only major mix series I can think of that seems to have gone silent is the Renaissance: Masters series, and while commercial mixes are definitely less frequent than they used to be, clearly artists and labels still see value in ensuring they continue to release them.
